Hamburg Ballett postpones Volpi's world premiere

The crisis-hit Hamburg Ballett announced that it has postponed Artistic Director Demis Volpi's world premiere of Demian from July 2025 to December 2025 because he has to prioritise fire-fighting and cannot create.

Damian was, or is, supposed to be Volpi's first full-length narrative ballet since he succeeded John Neumeier as Artistic Director of the renowned German company in August last year. It was due to open the 50th Hamburg Ballet Days.

Hamburg Ballett will instead bring forward Surrogate Cities to July from the originally scheduled showtime in December practically in a time swap with Demian. Surrogate Cities was created by Volpi in April 2024 for Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf when he was Artistic Director there.

Hamburg Ballett's announcement does not have a date stamp but it followed an open workshop on 25th May 2025. German TV station NDR reported about the announcement on 29th May.

In the announcement, Volpi said that showing an existing work instead of creating a new piece would free up his capacity and would allow him deal with the current crisis situation, and that the decision was made despite "the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the audience at last Sunday's Ballet Workshop."

NDR, however, said on 29th May that the excerpts shown at the workshop were immature. The TV station said on 26th May that Volpi stepped out on stage at the workshop, visibly shaken, and said it was not easy for him to stand there. He was apparently heckled by some audience members while others described them inappropriate.

Volpi has been under fire for past several weeks. More than half of the Hamburg Ballett's dancers wrote a letter to Senator for Culture Carsten Brosda, accusing Volpi of a lack of artistic quality and appreciation and for creating toxic work environment. Five soloist and principal level dancers will leave the company at the end of the current season.

Furthermore, Die Spiegel reported that 17 year-old ballet student Azul Ardizzone, who was discovered by Neumeier, collapsed during a rehearsal of Juliet's solo because of Volpi's presence. He also allegedly abused her verbally.

Dancers of Balletts am Rhein Düsseldorf publicly expressed supports for Hamburg Ballett dancers.

Currently, anonymous survey is being conducted with Hamburg Ballett dancers. NDR said as of 23rd May that the result would be out "next week".

-- Following is a copy and paste from Hamburg Ballett's web page for ticket holders --

Ticket holders who have already purchased tickets for "Demian" or "Surrogate Cities" will be contacted shortly by the Hamburg State Opera's ticket service and do not need to take any action at this time. Despite the program change, tickets remain valid for the originally booked performance date. The ticket hotline of the Hamburg State Opera can be reached at +49 (0)40 35 68 68.

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Updated on 1st June 2025 with the notice for ticket holders and a additional link to German media reports.