The title derives from Schönberg’s music Verklärte Nacht (1909) which in turn is based on a poem by Richard Dehmel. The music for the piece is from the orchestra arrangement dated 1945.
The story is that of a woman who must tell her lover that she is expecting a child with her husband, whom she no longer loves. Her lover’s comfort and understanding of her difficult situation makes her see the future with newfound hope. They regard the unborn child as the result of their mutual love.
Jiří Kylián, choreographer of Transfigured Night, is regarded as one of the world’s most renowned and sought after choreographers. Born and raised in former Czechoslovakia he fled 1968, eventually ending up in the ranks of the famous Stuttgart Ballet during its golden era in the 1960s, presided over by John Cranko. He began as a dancer but soon afterward began to display his talents as a choreographer. In 1973 he choreographed his first work for the Nederlands Dans Theater where he went on to became artistic director from 1975-1999 and its main choreographer until 2009. Nederlands Dans Theater is to this day still considered one of the most prominent dance companies in the world, in large part due to Kylián’s long artistic leadership and immense choreographic output.
Transfigured Night is characteristic of Jiří Kylián’s choreographic language, containing as it does a wealth of emotions, beautiful and refined movements, and a unique form of evocative abstraction, all set to the music of Arnold Schönberg.