30.07.2012
First Premieres of the New Season
Even in summer, when the theatre’s company is on holiday, the preparations for new premieres never cease. Two are planned for the first half of next season, the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s 180th. On 26 October the opera company will present a new production of Eugene Onegin, and on 13 December the ballet company will perform Romeo and Juliet. The Musical Director of both productions is Mikhail Tatarnikov.
Director Andriy Zholdak is also working on the production of Tchaikovsky’s famous opera based on Pushkin’s novel in verse. Zholdak, a native of Kiev and someone firmly rooted in the European theatrical context, stages productions featuring shocking dream sequences and expressive mirages, but as yet prefers not to divulge any details about his latest work. “I have set myself the task of obtaining sympathy and empathy among the audience”, says the director about his concept. “I wish to give the viewer an opportunity to follow the secret life of a human soul. There are two principal words which I use to define the upcoming production: sensuality and beauty”.
The set design for the opera has been entrusted to professionals who work in leading European theatres and are always capable of coming up with the unexpected. The scenery for Eugene Onegin is being created by Monika Pormale, who has designed most of the productions for the legendary New Riga Theatre and has staged many exhibitions and art projects in Latvia and other European countries. Her most recent work has been seen on the stages of the Munich Kammerspiele, the Cologne Schauspielhaus and the Vienna Burgtheater. The lighting for the production will be the work of A.J. Weissbard, who has collaborated with some of the great masters of contemporary theatre, including Robert Wilson, Peter Stein, William Kentridge, and Luca Ronconi, and has also worked with the leading film directors Peter Greenaway and David Cronenberg. The well-known design duo Mareunrol’s are responsible for the costumes, and rather than try to reconstruct in detail the fashion of a specific period, they shall attempt to bring a modern impression of historical costume onto the stage.
Nacho Duato is staging Romeo and Juliet to Prokofiev’s music in a production promising to give one of the most popular ballets in the world repertoire a new stage incarnation. The tragic story of the young lovers belonging to two warring families shows the world that man was created for love, not for enmity and malice. The Artistic Director’s regular collaborators are helping him to prepare the première. Jaafar Chalabi is working on the set design; his 3D scenery, consisting of numerous movable units, will be able to transform the stage in a matter of moments, turning a palace interior into the vaulted nave of a church, or a bedchamber into a market square. The persuasiveness and emotional effect of these spatial metamorphoses is in large part dependent on the lighting, which is being devised by Brad Fields. Costume designer Angelina Atlagić seeks inspiration in the works of the Quattrocento masters. Her costumes are typically delicately traced silhouettes, with a complex colour range in which warm tones are gradually supplanted by darker, more aggressive shades, and a combination of delicate natural fabrics with rough leather details. This style perfectly complements the general concept of the production as expressed in the choreographic language of Nacho Duato.
Director Andriy Zholdak is also working on the production of Tchaikovsky’s famous opera based on Pushkin’s novel in verse. Zholdak, a native of Kiev and someone firmly rooted in the European theatrical context, stages productions featuring shocking dream sequences and expressive mirages, but as yet prefers not to divulge any details about his latest work. “I have set myself the task of obtaining sympathy and empathy among the audience”, says the director about his concept. “I wish to give the viewer an opportunity to follow the secret life of a human soul. There are two principal words which I use to define the upcoming production: sensuality and beauty”.
The set design for the opera has been entrusted to professionals who work in leading European theatres and are always capable of coming up with the unexpected. The scenery for Eugene Onegin is being created by Monika Pormale, who has designed most of the productions for the legendary New Riga Theatre and has staged many exhibitions and art projects in Latvia and other European countries. Her most recent work has been seen on the stages of the Munich Kammerspiele, the Cologne Schauspielhaus and the Vienna Burgtheater. The lighting for the production will be the work of A.J. Weissbard, who has collaborated with some of the great masters of contemporary theatre, including Robert Wilson, Peter Stein, William Kentridge, and Luca Ronconi, and has also worked with the leading film directors Peter Greenaway and David Cronenberg. The well-known design duo Mareunrol’s are responsible for the costumes, and rather than try to reconstruct in detail the fashion of a specific period, they shall attempt to bring a modern impression of historical costume onto the stage.
Nacho Duato is staging Romeo and Juliet to Prokofiev’s music in a production promising to give one of the most popular ballets in the world repertoire a new stage incarnation. The tragic story of the young lovers belonging to two warring families shows the world that man was created for love, not for enmity and malice. The Artistic Director’s regular collaborators are helping him to prepare the première. Jaafar Chalabi is working on the set design; his 3D scenery, consisting of numerous movable units, will be able to transform the stage in a matter of moments, turning a palace interior into the vaulted nave of a church, or a bedchamber into a market square. The persuasiveness and emotional effect of these spatial metamorphoses is in large part dependent on the lighting, which is being devised by Brad Fields. Costume designer Angelina Atlagić seeks inspiration in the works of the Quattrocento masters. Her costumes are typically delicately traced silhouettes, with a complex colour range in which warm tones are gradually supplanted by darker, more aggressive shades, and a combination of delicate natural fabrics with rough leather details. This style perfectly complements the general concept of the production as expressed in the choreographic language of Nacho Duato.
