Romantic intrigues at the Mariinsky
The sensuous modern ballet ‘Le Parc’ will open this year’s International Mariinsky Ballet Festival.
By Galina Stolyarova
Published: April 13, 2011 (Issue # 1651)
“Le Parc,” an iconic ballet by the legendary French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj that became an instant hit when it was unveiled by the Paris Opera Ballet in 1994, enjoys its Russian premiere at the Mariinsky Theater on April 14, 15 and 22.
The premiere of “Le Parc” opens this year’s International Mariinsky Ballet Festival that runs through April 24. The festival came into being in 2001 thanks to the Mariinsky’s artistic director, the indefatigable maestro Valery Gergiev. The event’s aim is to enable Russian audiences to see Western ballet stars, but in addition, it showcases the best of the theater’s own considerable talent. It also provides a counterweight to Gergiev’s other brainchild, the “Stars of the White Nights” festival, which takes place every June and is almost entirely devoted to opera and instrumental music.
While the choreography in the first few festivals highlighted the glories of the imperial ballet and was heavily dominated by the venerable Marius Petipa, eventually the festival evolved into a stylistically diverse event, with the work of Michel Fokine, George Balanchine, Leonid Lavrovsky, Kenneth MacMillan, John Neumeier and William Forsythe featuring on its programs. Furthermore, the festival swiftly developed a tradition of presenting a full-scale premiere of either a work by an eminent living choreographer, or a scrupulous reconstruction of a classical masterpiece.
This time, the festival’s main dish is “Le Parc,” a romantic creation inspired by 17th and 18th-century French art and literature and set to some of Mozart’s most beautiful adagios from the composer’s piano concertos, blended with the sounds of electronic music.
Exploring the quest for the art of loving and sensuality, the choreographer — who is renowned as one of Europe’s most provocative and intriguing ballet masters — took inspiration from Madame de La Fayette’s novel “La Princesse de Cleves,” published in 1678, and Laclos’ epistolary novel “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” published in 1782, to concoct a three-act ballet drama of amorous intrigues.
Faithful to its name, the action takes place in a park. The story begins with a light-hearted, flirtatious game, before Preljocaj takes the audience on a thrilling journey through episodes of seduction, resistance, consummation, conquest, manipulation and surrenders that at some stage miraculously transform into what seems to the characters to be true love. The scene depicting the culmination of love in this very refined ballet has become known as one of the most emotionally overwhelming pas de deux in the history of neo-classical ballet.
Rehearsing the roles are three pairs of soloists — Diana Vishneva and Konstantin Zverev; Yekaterina Kondaurova and Yury Smekalov; and Viktoria Teryeshkina and Alexander Sergeyev.
http://www.times.spb.ru/index.php?actio ... y_id=33855
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