St Petersburg Ballet to debut here with Swan Lake

St Petersburg Ballet to debut here with Swan Lake

The St Petersburg Ballet Theatre will make its debut here in May, with a performance of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake at Marina Bay Sands' MasterCard Theatres.

It joins other major Russian ballet companies which have performed here in recent years.

The Bolshoi Ballet performed the same work in 2013, while the Mariinsky Ballet staged Don Quixote here in 2011.

The 55-member St Petersburg Ballet Theatre company, set up by Russian entrepreneur Konstantin Tachkin in 1994, will tell the classic tale of love overcoming all odds.

Prince Siegfried falls in love with the beautiful Odette, who is under the curse of an evil sorcerer and doomed to turn into a swan by night. The spell can be broken only by a pledge of true love.

Although the sorcerer fools the prince into swearing his undying love to someone else, the couple's love prevails.

While many versions of the ballet have been performed by companies around the world, most base their stagings on the 1895 production by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.

Tour producer Andrew Guild says: "The St Petersburg Ballet is truly traditional Russian classical ballet at its very best. Not only does it bring its troupe of Vaganova-trained dancers, it also brings its magnificent scenery - scenery that has audiences applauding even as the curtain rises, along with sumptuous costumes, dozens of dazzling white tutus and hundreds of pink pointe shoes."

Most of the company's dancers are graduates from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, a 277-year-old classical ballet school whose alumni includes prolific choreographer George Balanchine and renowned ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Swan Lake has been part of the company's repertoire since 1996, and its run here is part of an eight-week international tour to countries including South Africa and Australia.

After its performance in South Africa, the country's Sunday Times wrote that it was "a vision to behold, (with) exquisite sets and costumes".

Book it

SWAN LAKE

Where: Sands Theatre, MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands

When: May 28 to 31. Thursday and Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2 and 7.30pm; Sunday, 1pm

Admission: $55, $95, $135 and $175 from Sistic (call 6348-5555 or go towww.sistic.com.sg)


This article was first published on Jan 29, 2015.
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