PREMIERES IN THE 2009/2010 SEASON
20 November 2009 (Polish premiere)
Next performances: 21, 22 November; 3, 4 December 2009
KURT WEILL
Ballet in two acts by Krzysztof Pastor (2001)
Libretto, musical script, staging, and choreography: Krzysztof Pastor
Conductor: Pacien Mazzagatti
Design and visual concept: Krzysztof Pastor, Bert Dalhuysen
Costumes: Maciej Zień
Chorus Master: Bogdan Gola
Projections and lights: Bert Dalhuysen
Assistant choreographers: Charlotte Chapelier, Steven Etienne, Natalia Hoffmann
Weill composed The Threepenny Opera and The Seven Deadly Sins. After Hitler’s rise to power he emigrated to the United States. He composed symphony, film and theatre music, songs. He drew on jazz and cabaret, and was not averse to the foxtrot, shimmy, waltz, and tango. Krzysztof Pastor came up with an unusual idea. With Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam, he produced a multimedia show in the form of a collage of dance images. Taking the music of Kurt Weill, he created a vibrant ballet fresco, inspiring in its dance expressiveness, diversity of music forms and vocal hits, encouraging reflection on the social experience of the composer’s times, the changeable fate of artists, symptoms of intolerance, and constant longing for love. British critic Maggie Foyer agreed this was a great work by Pastor, demonstrating choreographic and staging talent. The dance and music setting, she added, was extensive, stretching from a Berlin bar to Broadway; a gigantic project by the young choreographer. In the Netherlands this production was hailed as the event of the season and nominated for the prestigious Benois de la Danse Award.
Poster designed by: Magda Wunsche & Samsel / Adam Żebrowski
19 March 2010 (Premiere)
Next performances: 20, 21 March 2010
CREATIONS 2
2nd Choreography Workshop
Young choreographers ballet evening
Chamber Stage
Choreographers:
Eduard Bablidze, Robert Bondara, Michał Chróścielewski, Anna Hop,
Jacek Tyski, Karol Urbański, Natalia Wojciechowska
The idea of holding choreography workshops has been brought to the Teatr Wielki by Krzysztof Pastor, the new director of the Polish National Ballet. The guiding principle is to give dancers the opportunity for a choreographic debut as well as releasing the creative and organizational initiative of ballet artists. They have been given free rein regarding the concept, preparation, organization, and promotion of this ballet evening using their own resources, with the possibility of taking advantage of the theatre’s organizational and technical assistance. Similar workshops are held at Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam, where Krzysztof Pastor is a resident choreographer, and have revealed many new choreographic talents. This opportunity for young Polish choreographers is compatible with the Teatr Wielki’s new image which is being developed by two great figures of theatre: director Mariusz Treliński and choreographer Krzysztof Pastor. Both of them do not just propose their own productions for our theatre’s repertoire, but also do their best to stimulate young Polish opera and ballet creativity.
Poster designed by Łukasz Murgrabia / Adam Żebrowski
Creations on You Tube
23 April 2010 (World premiere)
Next performance: 24 April 2010
IN SEARCH OF COLOURS
Part of the ballet evening ALPHA AND MORE
Chamber Stage
Choreographer: Jacek Tyski (2010)
Music: Grażyna Bacewicz
Costume Designer: Tijana Tyski
Light: Maciej Igielski
A new choreography by a soloist of the Polish National Ballet who was a successful participant in the recent 1st Choreography Workshop. Jacek Tyski has already designed a number of choreographies outside the Teatr Wielki. Now he has received a proposal to create a new one-act ballet to the music of his choice by a Polish composer. Together with revivals of small-scale choreographies by Robert Bondara and Jacek Przybyłowicz, his new piece will be part of the ballet evening Alpha and More, where young Polish choreography meets contemporary Polish music.
ALPHA AND MORE on You Tube
Photo: Ewa Krasucka
9 May 2010 (World premiere)
Next performances: 11, 12, 15, 22 May; 5, 6 June 2010
CHOPIN, THE ROMANTIC ARTIST
Ballet in two acts (2010)
Libretto: Antoni Libera
Musical Concept: Stanisław Leszczyński
Production and Choreography: Patrice Bart
Music by Hector Berlioz, Fryderyk Chopin, Manuel de Falla, Franz Liszt, Sergei Lyapunov, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann
Conductor: Tadeusz Kozłowski
Set and Costume Designer: Luisa Spinatelli
Choreographer's Assistants: Anna Grabka, Claude de Vulpian
Chorus Master: Bogdan Gola
Lights: Marion Hewlett
Without question, this will be the most important ballet event of the Year of Chopin. At the initiative of Waldemar Dąbrowski, director of the Teatr Wielki and coordinator of the Chopin celebrations, a new ballet will be designed in Warsaw, invoking the great Polish Romantic’s life and history. The script is the work of writer Antoni Libera, while the music will include not only pieces by Fryderyk Chopin but also composers who were influenced by his work: Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Sergei Lyapunov, Franz Schubert, and Robert Schumann. The production will be choreographed by Patrice Bart, the well-known French ballet master from the Paris Opera, one of few contemporary choreographers specializing in producing new full-length ballets, a form greatly appreciated by the audiences of great opera houses. This looks set to be a truly European choreographic world premiere. The inspiration comes from Warsaw, but the ballet will look at the legend of the great Polish composer from the point of view of Paris with which Chopin had such close ties.
Poster designed by: Magda Wunsche & Samsel / Adam Żebrowski
25 June 2010 (Polish premieres & world premiere)
Next performance: 27 June 2010
BACH DANCES
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach
Choreographers :
Ballet evening in four movements
Conductor: Modestas Pitrė nas
THE KISSES (World premiere)
Choreographer: Emil Wesołowski (2010)
Music: Concerto for harpsichord in F major (BWV 1052)
Costume Designer: Magdalena Tesławska
Lights: Tomasz Mierzwa
CONCERTO BAROCCO (Polish premiere)
Choreographer: George Balanchine (1941)
Staged by Adam Lüders
Music: Concerto in D minor for Two Violins (BWV 1043)
Lights: Tomasz Mierzwa
Soloists: Stanisław Tomanek (1st violin), Łukasz Błaszczyk (2nd violin)
THE GREEN (Polish premiere)
Choreographer: Ed Wubbe (2006)
Music: Introduction to the St. John Passion (BWV 245)
Set and Lighting Designer: Ed Wubbe
Costume Designer: Pamela Homoet
Chorus Master: Bogdan Gola
IN LIGHT AND SHADOW (Polish premiere)
Choreographer: Krzysztof Pastor (2000)
Music: Aria from the Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) & Orchestral Suite in D Major No. 3 (BWV 1068)
Designer: Tatyana van Walsum
Lights: Bert Dalhuysen
Maciej Grzybowski (piano), Małgorzata Sarbak (harpsichord/basso continuo)
Polish ballet has seldom turned to the music of Bach which has inspired so many choreographers. This inexhaustible resource has been used by Balanchine, Lifar, Petit, Cranko, Béjart, Robbins, van Manen, and Neumeier, to mention only the greatest names of the 20th century. Now the time has come for us – thanks to Krzysztof Pastor, who has planned an entire ballet evening to the music of Bach. It will begin with A new work The Kisses by Emil Wesołowski to Bach’s Concerto for harpsichord in D minor. Concerto Barocco by the legendary George Balanchine, an abstract ballet typical of his work, perfectly coordinated with the Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins will also be featured. The great Dutch choreographer Ed Wubbe will present his original male ballet The Green, set to the choral introduction to the St. John Passion. To conclude, Krzysztof Pastor will show his own ballet hit In Light and Shadow to the music of the Aria from Goldberg Variations and Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, which has already won loud applause in Amsterdam, Stockholm, Ankara, Glasgow, and Hong Kong, as well toured with the Dutch National Ballet in Holland, France, Canada, and presented by the Scottish Ballet at the Edinburgh Festival and in London. This promises to be an evening of choreographic surprises.
Photos: Ewa Krasucka, Paweł Rosłon and Archive
Poster for the production, designed by Adam Żebrowski , picture: Ewa Krasucka
REVIVALS IN THE 2009/2010 SEASON
11 December 2009 (part of a opera and ballet evening)
Next performances: 12, 13 December 2009
and 23, 24 April 2010 (part of the ballet evening ALPHA AND MORE)
ALPHA KRYONIA XE
Choreographer: Jacek Przybyłowicz (2006)
Music: Aleksandra Gryka
Set and Costume Designer: Paweł Grabarczyk
Lights: Putto
Chamber Stage
The ballet Alpha Kryonia Xe is a choreography by Jacek Przybyłowicz, since recently the director of the ballet company at Poznań’s Teatr Wielki. It returns to our repertoire on 11 December 2009, after which it will be shown as part of the ballet evening Alpha and More, where young Polish choreography meets contemporary Polish music. The futuristic vision of the world set down in Aleksandra Gryka's music can be translated in many different ways into the language of movement and visual arts. Jacek Przybyłowicz has found in it a story of the creation. A group of beings is building something from scratch. Maybe this is the history of a civilization which is long dead, or maybe this story will happen in future. Perhaps on the distant Kryonia?
Photo from the ballet "Alpha Kryonia Xe" by Stefan Okołowicz
23 April 2010 (part of the ballet evening ALPHA AND MORE)
Next performance: 24 April 2010
WHEN YOU END AND I BEGIN
Choreographer: Robert Bondara (2009)
Music: Paweł Szymański
Chamber Stage
The ballet When You End and I Begin to music by Paweł Szymański is, in our view, the most interesting project of the 1st Choreography Workshop (2009) during which - at the invitation of director Krzysztof Pastor - dancers from the Polish National Ballet could produce their own choreographies. That’s why we have decided to include this piece in our small-scale repertoire. The choreographer is Robert Bondara, whose choreographic debut Andante Con Moto to music from Wojciech Kilar’s piano concerto won a prize in the 2008 Choreography Competition held at our theatre.
Photo: Ewa Krasucka
ALSO IN THE 2009/2010 SEASON’S REPERTOIRE
LA BAYADÈRE
Choreographer: Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa
Music: Ludwig A. Minkus / John Lanchbery
Conductor: Tadeusz Kozłowski
Performances: 16, 18 October 2009; 30, 31 January; 4 February 2010
THE NUTCRACKER
Choreographer: Andrzej Glegolski
Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Conductor: Marcin Nałęcz-Niesiołowski
Performances: 17, 19, 22 (x 2), 23 (x 2), 27 (x 2) December 2009
ONEGIN
Choreographer: John Cranko
Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Kurt-Heinz Stolze
Conductor: Vello Pähn
Performances: 4, 30 March; 7 April 2010
ROMEO AND JULIET
Choreographer: Emil Wesołowski
Music: Sergei Prokofiev
Conductor: Tadeusz Wojciechowski
Performances: 7, 14 January; 6, 7 February 2010
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY
Choreographer: Yuri Grigorovich after Marius Petipa
Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Conductor: Tadeusz Wojciechowski
Performances: 30 (x 2) May; 1 (x 2), 2 June 2010
SWAN LAKE
Choreografia: Irek Mukhamedov after Lev Ivanov
Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Conductor: Evgeny Volynsky
Performances: 25 March; 10, 18, 28, 30 April 2010
TRISTAN
Choreographer: Krzysztof Pastor
Music: Richard Wagner / Henk de Vlieger
Conductor: Tadeusz Kozłowski
Performances: 26, 27, 30 September; 11 October 2009; 9, 10 January 2010
