 |
REPERTOIRE Hevel
|
Choreography:
Nacho Duato
Music:
Pedro Alcalde / Sergio Caballero
(original music)
Sets: Jaffar
Chalabi
Costume:
Nacho Duato
Lighting
design: Brad Fields
Premiere
by the National Dance
Company at the Sant
Cugat Theatre-Auditorium
(Barcelona), on 30 November
2007.
In the ancient
Hebrew poetry, the word “hevel” formed
part of the repertory
of images which, like “water”, “shade” or “smoke” were
used to describe fragility
and the ephemeral nature
of the human condition.
Perhaps its most notable
use is to be found at
the beginning of the book
of the Bible usually called Ecclesiastes (Qohelet
I, 2). “Hevel” became
embodied in the translation
of the Vulgatate as “vanitas”,
and thus “vanity”.
Hevel Hevelym … hakol
Hevel: Vanitas vanitatum,
omnia vanitas. In modern
translations of the text,
we find such proposals
as “vacuum”, “vapour” or
even “waste” (Erri
De Luca: “sprecco”).
From the Hebrew tradition,
the Ferrara Bible (1553)
translates concisely: “void
of voids, absolute nothing”.
Likewise, Hevel (Abel)
is the second son of Adam
and Eve, murdered by his
brother Cain. According
to the biblical story,
his was the first death
of a human being. The
meaning of the word is
expressed symbolically
but clearly in his name. It is in its use as vanitas, as void, lapse or emptiness, that “hevel” has its meaning here.
