Prelude
In April Rosie and British Ballet Now & Then friend Rebecca took a trip to Zürich to see Cathy Marston’s 2024 Clara at the Zürich Opera House. Clara is a portrait of Clara Schumann (1819-1896), child prodigy, composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher, who was celebrated during her lifetime, but somewhat neglected by history in favour of her husband Robert Schuhmann and friend Johannes Brahms. And this despite the fact that she contributed so much to their fame by programming their music as part of her concert tours around Europe, including Switzerland and Britain.
Performance
It is the Claras who haunt us, the seven Claras. We knew there would be seven, but we did not know exactly who they would be.
Clara the Wunderkind, Artist, Wife, Mother, Caregiver, Manager, Muse.
Like the piano keys that were her life, the Claras are dressed in black and white. Each dress has a black bodice and white skirt, the black melting softly down into the white, like a descending arpeggio, the white swirling, billowing and falling like the shape of the music. Each dress is distinguished by a specific neckline, cut of the bodice, length and detail in the sleeve, and by the shape, pleat, texture of the skirt. The Claras are seven individuals: the seven individuals are one.
The Seven Claras are the seven keys of a piano scale that move up and down to create music. When Robert struggles to compose he moves them around to find the melody.
The Claras are seven individuals: the seven are one. From the sidelines six bask in the beauty of Robert and Clara-the-Wife dancing together. All seven dance around Robert as he dreams of music.
Tension emerges in a pas de trois as Robert dances with Clara-the-Wife and Clara-the-Caregiver, or as the Wunderkind looks on at the troubled marriage of Clara and Robert. As if drawn by a magnetic force, all seven converge downstage left to where Robert lies after his attempted suicide. Towards the close of the ballet, now clothed in their individual black dresses, they hold hands firmly, facing outwards to the world, determined and renewed.
It often seemed to me – and still does – that when I played, my overburdened soul was relieved, as if I had truly cried myself out. (Clara Schumann)
In Clara’s / Claras’ signature port de bras her arms are held at right angles in front of her body, as if she were seated at the piano. Her fingers, long and taut, even make her forearms resemble the piano keys themselves. We see Clara the Wunderkind learning to play the piano from her Father Friedrich Wieck; the Wunderkind and then the Artist playing the piano with Robert Schumann; the Mother teaching her five children to play the piano; finally the Artist inspiring all the Claras to continue playing after the death of Robert into her future life.
The Clara port de bras appears in a multitude of guises. The arms can be raised above her head, pushed back or brought close in to her body to express mood and situation; Clara’s body can fold over to resemble a shut, soundless piano; or each Clara can press one arm down in canon with the other Claras to create a cascading melody.
Postlude
The curtain now down, the ovation starts slowly, and then builds. It’s as if we need a moment to hold on to Clara the story … a story we would readily watch and listen to all over again.
Cathy Marston has said:
One of the things that seemed important to me was to find a way to express how much music was her, and she is music. I decided to use seven Claras to create a piano—physically. There are seven white notes in an octave, and it occurred to me that I could break Clara’s personality down into seven faces. And so all of those sides of her character combine to make one person … It’s not a tragedy, it’s the making of a woman that I’m interested in in the story.
And this is exactly what we have seen.
© British Ballet Now & Then
References
“Cathy Marston about ‘Clara’”. [balletzuerich]. Instagram, 20 Nov. 2025, https://www.instagram.com/p/DRRVRTdjimf/.
Schumann, Clara. [balletzuerich]. Instagram, 18 Apr. 2026, https://www.instagram.com/p/DXHjWEkiI5M/?img_index=6.
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