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Culture news, 09.07.2003 12:41

John Neumeier's Hamburg Ballet in Mariinsky theatre

John Neumeier's Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier is bringing to Saint-Petersburg his three ballets: "Nijinski", "Seagull" and "La Dame aux Camelias". A long awaited visit will make happy all true ballet fans, since John Neumeier is one of the most prominent modern choreographers and his ballets contribute to the treasury of the ballet stagings.

Neumeier's flair for the dramatic and the original clearly shows in his unconventional stagings of some of the classics. His "Swan Lake", for example, is set in the court of the mad King Ludwig II of Baveria, and his "Sleeping Beauty" is dreamed by a boy in blue jeans. The panoramic view of his Mahler cycle and the thematic groupings of his mixed programs also reflect an original vision.

Many of John Neumeier works for the Hamburg Ballet have been large-scale undertakings. His staging of Bach's complete "Saint Matthew Passion" started its life in one of Hamburg's parish churches but is now performed in the opera house, and his ballet inspired by the plays of Shakespeare form a major group of works in the Hamburg repertory, these include "Romeo and Juliet", set to the Prokofiev score; "Hamlet - Connotations", set to music by Aaron Copland; "West Side Story", the musical based on the story of Romeo and Juliet, with a score by Leonard Bernstein; "Othello", set to music by Arvo Pärt and Alfred Schnittke and "As You Like It". Other ambitious projects have been "Peer Gynt", set to music by Schnittke, and "Odyssey", to music by George Couroupos. The solidly Neumeier-based repertory is supplemented by a selection of ballets by John Cranko, Balanchine, Mats Ek (who staged his sensational modern production of "The Sleeping Beauty" in 1996) and a few others.

Do not hesitate to see the ballets: "Nijinski" on 9th of July, "Seagull" on 11th, 12th and 13th and "La Dame aux Camelias" on 15th.



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