Thur
7:00pm		 September 17, 2009
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EIFMAN BALLET OF ST. PETERSBURG - ONEGIN
PYOTR TCHAIKOVSKY, ALEKSANDR SITKOWIECKI / BORIS EIFMAN

Guest performance

 

 

 1st Days of Dance at the Teatr Wielki  

 

Many leading ballet companies have performed at the Teatr Wielki in the past. They include the New York City Ballet, Royal Ballet, Rambert Ballet, Ballet of the Twentieth Century, Bolshoi Ballet, Mariinsky Theatre Ballet, Het Nationale Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, Hamburg Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Bavarian Ballet, Australian Ballet, Teatro alla Scala Ballet, right up to small contemporary dance groups and dance theatres. We have decided to make these visits a cyclic event by organizing annual Days of Dance at the Teatr Wielki. These will always be held before the official opening of the season at the Polish National Opera, and will be hosted by the Polish National Ballet under Krzysztof Pastor's management.

cast:

 

Onegin | Alexei Turko

Tatiana | Nina Zmiievets

Lensky | Nikolai Radziush

Olga | Zlata Yalinich

General | Oleg Markov

and Ballet Ensemble of the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg

European premiere

Sponsor of the European premiere


 

Production and Choreography: Boris Eifman

Music by: Pyotr Tchaikovsky,  Aleksandr Sitkowiecki

Set Designer: Zinowij Margolin

Costume Designer: Olga Szajszmełaszwili, Piotr Okuniew

Lighting: Gleb Filsztynski, Boris Eifman

Video-art: Władimir Bystrow

 

From the choreographer


Turning to great literature in my productions, I always try to use the art of choreography to express the emotional shock I feel when I come in contact with the wisdom and creative force of our brilliant predecessors. The word is an instrument which can both build and destroy; it can animate and it can annihilate.
The language of the body, as an even older form of self-expression, is a carrier of universally understood emotional and spiritual values. This is why, when I draw from a literary source, I make it my aim to extract from the work anything which can move contemporary audiences, seeking everything which can be expressed only through the great art of dance.
Why did I take my theme from Alexander Pushkin's novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, why does it move and inspire me today? This work is often called "an encyclopaedia of Russian life", in it Pushkin saw and created an extremely faithful archetype of Russian character in his times, presenting a poetic portrait of the Russian soul - mysterious, inexpressible, extraordinarily sensitive.
In all my ballets, I try to solve the puzzle of the Russian soul. My turning to Eugene Onegin is yet another attempt by a choreographer to express the mystery of the spirit through dance.
I have transferred Pushkin's characters into our times, into new circumstances, more dramatic and even extreme, when the old world is collapsing and life dictates new laws. I needed this experiment to find the answer to a question which has troubled me - what is the Russian soul like today? Has it preserved its uniqueness, its mystery, its power of attraction? How would the characters in the novel run their lives today? What in the "encyclopaedia of Russian life" was a mark of the times and what remains a sign of the fate of many generations of my compatriots?
Choreography as an art is unable to answer current questions on contemporary society. However, taking part in building its artistic image, analysis, and individual evaluation, we are taking part in the process of society's improvement.


 Boris Eifman 

  

 Photo: A.  Kuryashova,  V. Baranovsky

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