Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo 2013
Tue 29 Jan - Wed 27 Feb 2013
Programme A
Alhambra Theatre Bradford / Birmingham Hippodrome / Brighton Dome / Festival Theatre Edinburgh / The Lowry Salford Quays / Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Nottingham with Dance 4

Les Sylphides
Lighting Designer: Kip MarshCostume Designer: Mike Gonzales after BenoisMusic: Frederic ChopinRunning time: 30 MinutesSet Design: John ClaassenFurther Info: Les Sylphides is an "abstract" classical ballet, without narrative structure or defined characters. Although it atmospherically suggests Giselle, and La Sylphide, the sentiments aroused spring from the sublime music of Chopin--the evanescence of dreams, desire, and melancholy.

La Vivandière
Choreography: Arthur Saint LeonLighting Designer: Tricia ToliverCostume Designer: Mike GonzalesMusic: Cesare PugniRunning time: 15 MinutesFurther Info: La Vivandière, a ballet in one act with a libretto and choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon, was first presented in May, 1844, at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, starring the celebrated Italian ballerina, Fanny Cerrito. The ballet is set in a little village in Hungary, where Kathi, a camp follower, dances with Hans, the son of a tavern keeper, with whom she is in love. This ballet became famous as it introduced the Redowa, the original Polka of Bohemia, to 19th century London.

Walpurgis Night
Choreography: Elena Kunikova After Leonid LavrovskyLighting Designer: Jax MessengerCostume Designer: Christopher Anthony VergaraMusic: Charles GounodRunning time: 17 MinutesFurther Info: This ballet is inspired by the Bolshoi Ballet’s Valpurgeyeva Noch, which Russians have long respected as a specimen of Soviet balletic camp.

Pas de Deux – To be announced
Running time: 10 Minutes
Programme B
Marlowe Theatre Canterbury

Swan Lake Act II
Choreography: LevIvanovich IvanovLighting Designer: Kip MarshCostume Designer: Mike GonzalesMusic: Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyRunning time: 37 MinutesSet Design: Truitti Gasparinetti after Ivanov
Decor by Clio YoungFurther Info: Swept up into the magical realm of swans (and birds), this elegiac phantasmagoria of variations and ensembles in line and music is the signature work of Les Ballets Trockadero.
The story of Odette, the beautiful princess turned into a swan by the evil sorcerer, and how she is nearly saved by the love of Prince Siegfried, was not so unusual a theme when Tchaikovsky first wrote his ballet in 1877 -- the metamorphosis of mortals to birds and vice versa occurs frequently in Russian folklore. The original Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow was treated unsuccessfully; a year after Tchaikovsky's death in 1893, the St. Petersburg Maryinsky Ballet produced the version we know today. Perhaps the world's best known ballet, its appeal seems to stem from the mysterious and pathetic qualities of the heroine juxtaposed with the canonized glamour of 19th century Russian ballet.

La Vivandière
Choreography: Arthur Saint LeonLighting Designer: Tricia ToliverCostume Designer: Mike GonzalesMusic: Cesare PugniRunning time: 15 MinutesFurther Info: La Vivandière, a ballet in one act with a libretto and choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon, was first presented in May, 1844, at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, starring the celebrated Italian ballerina, Fanny Cerrito. The ballet is set in a little village in Hungary, where Kathi, a camp follower, dances with Hans, the son of a tavern keeper, with whom she is in love. This ballet became famous as it introduced the Redowa, the original Polka of Bohemia, to 19th century London.

Walpurgis Night
Choreography: Elena Kunikova After Leonid LavrovskyLighting Designer: Jax MessengerCostume Designer: Christopher Anthony VergaraMusic: Charles GounodRunning time: 17 MinutesFurther Info: This ballet is inspired by the Bolshoi Ballet’s Valpurgeyeva Noch, which Russians have long respected as a specimen of Soviet balletic camp.

Pas de Deux – To be announced
Running time: 10 Minutes
Programme C
Theatre Royal Newcastle

Les Sylphides
Lighting Designer: Kip MarshCostume Designer: Mike Gonzales after BenoisMusic: Frederic ChopinRunning time: 30 MinutesSet Design: John ClaassenFurther Info: Les Sylphides is an "abstract" classical ballet, without narrative structure or defined characters. Although it atmospherically suggests Giselle, and La Sylphide, the sentiments aroused spring from the sublime music of Chopin--the evanescence of dreams, desire, and melancholy.

Pas de Quatre
Choreography: Anton DolinCostume Designer: Mike GonzalesMusic: Cesare PugniRunning time: 15 MinutesFurther Info: It was the idea of Mr. Benjamin Lumley, manager of Her Majesty's Theatre in London, to stage a grand divertissement, bringing together the four greatest ballerinas of the romantic age. Through the most delicate diplomacy, he managed to call the celebrated ladies to London, but not, however, without several artistic misunderstandings. One of these was the choice of who was to receive the favored last variation, each lady certain of her own supremacy.
Tactfully, Mr. Lumley offered it to the oldest among them; it is said Madame Taglioni stood quite still while the younger women demurely stepped back. The Gala Divertissement finally took place on June 26, 1845. The choreography was fashioned by Jules Perrot--one English wag likened his task to teaching lions and tigers to waltz in a cage. Mr. Perrot sought to exploit the signature qualities of each danseuse: Grahn's vivaciousness, Grisi's lyrical expressiveness, Cerrito's coquetry, and Taglioni's ethereal mystery. The original Pas de Quatre was danced only four times (Queen Victoria and Prince Albert attended the third performance), but it has served as a model for the ritualistic celebrations of academic dance we now call abstract ballet. It survives today as one of the most charming (and silly) evocations of Romantic Ballet in the 1840s.

Walpurgis Night
Choreography: Elena Kunikova After Leonid LavrovskyLighting Designer: Jax MessengerCostume Designer: Christopher Anthony VergaraMusic: Charles GounodRunning time: 17 MinutesFurther Info: This ballet is inspired by the Bolshoi Ballet’s Valpurgeyeva Noch, which Russians have long respected as a specimen of Soviet balletic camp.

Pas de Deux – To be announced
Running time: 10 Minutes
Programme D
Grand Opera House Belfast

Swan Lake Act II
Choreography: LevIvanovich IvanovLighting Designer: Kip MarshCostume Designer: Mike GonzalesMusic: Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyRunning time: 37 MinutesSet Design: Truitti Gasparinetti after Ivanov
Decor by Clio YoungFurther Info: Swept up into the magical realm of swans (and birds), this elegiac phantasmagoria of variations and ensembles in line and music is the signature work of Les Ballets Trockadero.
The story of Odette, the beautiful princess turned into a swan by the evil sorcerer, and how she is nearly saved by the love of Prince Siegfried, was not so unusual a theme when Tchaikovsky first wrote his ballet in 1877 -- the metamorphosis of mortals to birds and vice versa occurs frequently in Russian folklore. The original Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow was treated unsuccessfully; a year after Tchaikovsky's death in 1893, the St. Petersburg Maryinsky Ballet produced the version we know today. Perhaps the world's best known ballet, its appeal seems to stem from the mysterious and pathetic qualities of the heroine juxtaposed with the canonized glamour of 19th century Russian ballet.

Pas de Quatre
Choreography: Anton DolinCostume Designer: Mike GonzalesMusic: Cesare PugniRunning time: 15 MinutesFurther Info: It was the idea of Mr. Benjamin Lumley, manager of Her Majesty's Theatre in London, to stage a grand divertissement, bringing together the four greatest ballerinas of the romantic age. Through the most delicate diplomacy, he managed to call the celebrated ladies to London, but not, however, without several artistic misunderstandings. One of these was the choice of who was to receive the favored last variation, each lady certain of her own supremacy.
Tactfully, Mr. Lumley offered it to the oldest among them; it is said Madame Taglioni stood quite still while the younger women demurely stepped back. The Gala Divertissement finally took place on June 26, 1845. The choreography was fashioned by Jules Perrot--one English wag likened his task to teaching lions and tigers to waltz in a cage. Mr. Perrot sought to exploit the signature qualities of each danseuse: Grahn's vivaciousness, Grisi's lyrical expressiveness, Cerrito's coquetry, and Taglioni's ethereal mystery. The original Pas de Quatre was danced only four times (Queen Victoria and Prince Albert attended the third performance), but it has served as a model for the ritualistic celebrations of academic dance we now call abstract ballet. It survives today as one of the most charming (and silly) evocations of Romantic Ballet in the 1840s.

Walpurgis Night
Choreography: Elena Kunikova After Leonid LavrovskyLighting Designer: Jax MessengerCostume Designer: Christopher Anthony VergaraMusic: Charles GounodRunning time: 17 MinutesFurther Info: This ballet is inspired by the Bolshoi Ballet’s Valpurgeyeva Noch, which Russians have long respected as a specimen of Soviet balletic camp.

Pas de Deux – To be announced
Running time: 10 Minutes