Name: Festival Finale
Start: 2025-08-01T20:00:00
Location: Forum at the Castle Park

Michael Brandstätter

Jeroen Verbruggen

Marco Goecke

Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele

Paris has seen several World's Fairs. In addition to the one in 1889, where Debussy found groundbreaking inspiration through gamelan music, the 1900 Exposition literally ushered in a new century: the Métro was opened. Life now moved at a new pace to the rattling rhythm of subways, engines, and machines. It was to this Paris that Igor Stravinsky presented his ballet music "The Rite of Spring" in 1913, overwhelming and outraged the premiere audience with the archaic and percussive power of his composition. While the "Jazz Age" was in full swing in the USA, George Gershwin experienced its French counterpart around fifteen years later – a bustling, golden Paris in his "Années folles," whose impression he set to music in "An American in Paris." Gershwin's playful, "symphonic jazz" and Stravinsky's energizing beacon meet as electrifying poles in the two choreographies by Jeroen Verbruggen and Marco Goecke.