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"Everything is clear again, so everything is clear, everything, love and grief, the world and the dream Amongst the numerous lieder cycles composed by Gustav Mahler, the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) stand apart from the rest. This is mainly due to the fact that we find in them the musical themes that serve as the basis for later Symphonies, but moreover because Mahler wrote the lyrics himself (unlike for other lieder). More than in any other work, we discover a confessional, autobiographical aspect. The hero is a wandering companion, like the young apprentices in the Middle Ages who traveled from city to city in search of their destiny and their master. A romantic student followed by his destiny and who suffers -- in the words of Mahler -- from "this knife in the chest", which represents self-combat and solitude." Maurice Béjart For an interview in the Documentary DANCER Bejart says "..a pas de deux for two boys -but it doesn't mean its two boys -- its one person - its not two boys fighting - its not two boys having a love affaire - its the alter ego - you and yourself" After the deaths of Bortoluzzi, Donn and Nureyev .. all three of the same ilness .. Maurice Bejart did not want "Songs of a Wayfarer" to be danced anymore. He only permitted it on the occassion of a galaorganized at the Palais Garnier to commerate the tenth anniversary of Nureyevs death on jan 20th 2003. Laurent Hilaire and Manuel Legris both promoted to "principsal" dancer by Nureyev .. were splendid and inspiring (from the Rudolf Mureyev Foundation) The juxtaposition of the two versions of chant du champagnon errant is particularly interesting because of the differences in age and experience of the dancers. Steven Heathcote and Adam Marchant are 24 and 26 respectively, Laurent Hilaire and Manuel Legris 43 and 45 -- one set at the beginning of their careers the other at or nearing the end. Hilaire and Legris represent the top of ballet royalty from a company extant since the late 1600's the Australian Ballet since 1962. Yet the performances of these young dancers should not be diminished, they are different in interesting ways. In a very real way these differences mirror the themes running through the ballet, age and experience, beginnings and endings and the accompanying romance, longing and lonliness. A wanderer who suffers lonliness hurt yet longing for love and companionship meets his fate. The dancers, one impassioned and inwardly absorbed the other cool and detached; one light and brilliant the other doomed and tormented. For Laurent Hilaire the ending of this ballet (which he chose to dance with Manuel Legris) must have seemed particularly pertinent and poignant. This was his final performance as a etoile with the Opera National de Paris. As an addendum but not an afterthought this ballet, one of Bejart's finest, was choreographed for Rudolph Nureyev (the wanderer) and Paulo Bortoluzzi (fate) in 1971. Nureyev later became director of the Paris Opera Ballet. He died soon after Hilaire danced the role of Solor in the first production of Nureyev's La Bayadere. This was the last ballet staged by Nureyev and HIS leave taking from the stage that night of the opening made it a particularly heart rending moment. In 2004 Laurent Hilaire won the Benois de la dance for chant du compagnon errant at present he is ballet master at the POB Manuel Legris is retired from the POB and is the artistic director for theVienna State Opera Ballet After a long and successful career with the Australian ballet Steven Heathcote is now back with that company teaching and doing character roles -- after dancing Des Grieux in 1995 he is now dancing MM GM.