Anna Karenina

Thomas Mann once described Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" as the most important novel of social life in world literature. Choreographer John Neumeier was also deeply impressed by Tolstoy's work, not only by the main characters and the plot, but above all by the extraordinary variety of thematic connections. The long-time director of the Hamburg Ballet explained that his challenge had been to breathe real life into the story and bring out its significance by selecting the most important characters and the most expressive emotional situations, so that the elements would fit chronologically and performatively into the structure of a ballet.