ON THIS DAY 42 years ago Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet about siblings living in claustrophobic isolation premiered in Stuttgart. “Isolated by their environment and living conditions, a family is left alone to rely solely on their intelligence and their passions. With only themselves as playmates, their childhood fantasies become their real world,” wrote MacMillan about My Brother, My Sisters in the cast sheet for the world premiere. The Scottish choreographer was inspired by the biography of the literary Brontë family as well as a story of suffering in a sanatorium. To orchestral works by Arnold Schönberg and Anton von Webern intense relationships unfolded on stage. While Richard Cragun danced the role of the brother, Birgit Keil, Lucia Isenring, Jean Allenby, Sylviane Bayard and Hilde Koch portrayed the sisters. Reid Anderson took on the mysterious role of HE. MacMillan revealed the secret of this ambiguous character only years later in an interview, stating that he regarded the role as his alter ego.
The former Artistic Director Reid Anderson and Lucia Isenring (Photo: Leslie Spatt)
The Stuttgart Ballet blog 