(Paquita Grand Pas)
Drama, romance and
passion will unite when the Royal Moscow Ballet comes to Durban for two shows on
April 16 with a programme of three classical ballet masterpieces. These
performances mark the final leg of the company’s tour of South Africa.
The company, which
consists of principal dancers from leading Russian choreography schools, will
perform the dreamy Chopiniana (Les
Sylphides), the fiery Carmen and
the dazzling Paquita Grand Pas.
Founded by
principal dancer and choreographer Anatoly Emelianov and creative director Anna
Alexidze in 2002, the Royal Moscow Ballet has given more than 1000 performances
in countries around the globe, including Spain, Portugal, Greece, France,
Austria, Sweden, the USA, Great Britain, Germany, India, China and Mexico.
The programme opens
with Chopiniana, which had its first
performance in St Petersburg, Russia, in 1907 with music by Frederic Chopin and
choreography by Mikhail Fokine, who said the ballet was his “favourite child”
representing his dream of romantic ballet “with all its mood, poetry and
sadness”.
Renamed Les Sylphides in 1909, it featured the
great Anna Pavlova and introduced Russian ballet to the Western world. It is
still among the repertoires of major ballet companies throughout the world.
Carmen was first set as a one-act ballet by the famed Russian choreographer
Marius Pepita in 1845, some 30 years before George Bizet’s celebrated opera was
first heard. Several versions followed, including that by choreographer Alberto
Alonso working with renowned Russian ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, whose husband
Rodion Shehedrin created the Carmen Suite,
based on Bizet’s music scored only for strings and percussion instruments.
The programme
culminates with the Paquita Grand Pas,
first presented by the Paris Opera Ballet in 1846. After several revivals, it
is still a major cornerstone of traditional classical ballet repertory. The
title role of the Spanish gypsy girl who saves the life of a French officer has
been performed by the world’s leading ballerinas, including Pavlova, who
included it in her company’s repertory.
The ballet was also
staged in the 1970s by Rudolf Nureyev for La Scala, the Vienna State Opera
Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre.
The Royal Moscow
Ballet gives two performances on April 16 at 15h00 and 19h30 in the Playhouse
Opera. Tickets priced at R200, R250 and R300, are available at Computicket.
The Royal Moscow Ballet is presented in
South Africa by Edouard Miasnikov Agency, whose objective is to widen cultural
exchange and sharing between Russia and South Africa.
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