The Stage Director The Choreographer (‘Creator and Destroyer’ The Principal Dancer ‘Adam Zero’ The Designer, Wardrobe Mistress, Dresser (‘His fates’) The Ballerina (‘His first love, wife and mistress’) The Understudies (‘His son and daughter’) The Character Dancers (‘His cat and dog’) The Mime (‘His spiritual adviser’)
Bliss considered Adam Zero his "most varied and exciting ballet score; the music is instinctively theatrical and strongly characterized."[4] The orchestra is augmented by cor anglais, saxophone, tuba, two standard percussionists and two dance band percussionists, plus celesta and harp.
It was revived as a ballet with choreography by Sergei Vanaev and conducted by Marc Niemann at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven in 2016.[5]
The ballet is an allegory of the cycle of man’s life; the world in which he lives is represented by a stage on which a ballet is being created: Adam is cast as the principal dancer, Omnipotence is represented by the Stage Director and Adam’s Fates by the Designer, Wardrobe Mistress and Dresser.
Adam falls in love, marries, and achieves power, but his triumph is brief; his world crumbles about him, he is stripped of his glory, and a new generation (Understudy) takes his place. He seeks distraction in dissipation but everyone deserts him and he is left alone to face Death.[2]
^When the curtain rises and again at the very end, the stage is completely bare with a view of the back stage wall. Bliss A. Adam Zero – A Ballet. Piano Score. Novello, London, 1946.
^This section is prefaced by a quote from Shakespeare:『All the world’s a stage...』from As You Like It.
