Prague State Opera Ballet premieres a new production of Don Quixote tonight. This ballet production, inspired by Cervantes’ novel of the same name and based on lively music by Ludwig Minkus has been an inherent part of the repertoire of ballet companies worldwide over the past hundred years. The production at the State Opera has been mounted by former ballet dancer, teacher, choreographer and director of the Prague Dance Conservatory Jaroslav Slavický.In the course of your career as a choreographer you have mounted Don Quixote at several Czech stages. I imagine that over the years you have developed a somewhat personal attitude towards the production – what does this ballet mean to you?
Indeed, as an artist I have been dealing with Ludwig Minkus’ Don Quixote several times. First as a performer at the National Theatre in Prague in 1985, when I danced the role of bullfighter Espada and later the roles of Don Quixote and Camache in the production staged by Boris Bregvadze. I was also in charge as a ballet master. In 1996 I was asked to stage the ballet at the National Theatre in Brno and in 2004 at Baden State Theatre in Karlsruhe. There is no doubt Don Quixote ranks among the legendary pieces of the 19th century classical ballet. The credit for the fact that since its premiere in 1869 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow it has been staged all around the world, passing literally from one generation of dancers to another, goes to choreographer Marius Petipa. What is particularly brilliant about his work is the way he transformed classical dance techniques into typically Spanish ones, which can be seen particularly in his work with arms, in his choice of poses and "epaulements". His choreographic concept, beautiful dance scenes, duets, variations and the world-famous pas de deux in the 4th act have secured Don Quixote its place in history. In 1900 Petipa’s student and expert on his oeuvre Alexander Gorsky staged Don Quixote at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. He added several dances to the production, such as fandango with the music by Eduard Nápravník – this is retained in the current Prague State Opera version too - but most of all he strived to bring forward the message of the piece and the plot lines, to harmonize dance and pantomime and make corps de ballet scenes an inherent part of the production. Don Quixote is perhaps the only surviving 19th century ballet that is full of humour, comic situations, flamboyant nature and the audiences really enjoy it.
So you chose to present a more or less Russian version of the classical ballet, which refers to choreographers M. Petipa and A. Gorsky and that is abundant with challenging variations. Are there any major modifications in your production? What makes it an original piece?
The choreography of Don Quixote is, of course, based on Petipa and Gorsky - no one has done it better than them so far and as I have already mentioned, it is their concept and famous dance scenes that have made it an inherent part of ballet repertoire all over the world for over 150 years now. Of course, I have reworked some original parts, some of them are completely omitted or shortened, so that production keeps the right drive, right temporhythm. I tried to make the plot as clear and logic as possible, as a director I focused on acting and convincing depiction of all the characters, not just the major ones. In addition to the protagonists - Kitri and Basil - I created another prominent couple in the story by combining the roles of a "street dancer", a "dryad" and Mercedes together with bullfighter Espada, I also made the comic character of Camache dance so that he could express himself not just through acting, but also through dancing. By adding the "dream" adagio of Kitri and Don Quixote I also tried to highlight Don Quixote's vision of Kitri as Dulcinea.
The are countless versions of Don Quixote all around the world and each of them is more or less based on the concept of Petipa and Gorsky. Basically, I did not strive to create an original version of my own. Every time I am to stage a classical ballet, I always respect its long-standing values, its choreographic concept, I pay attention especially to the clarity of storytelling through both dance and acting and to the overall vividness of the whole piece.
And how do the Prague State Opera ballet dancers cope with the rather exotic Spanish settings of the production?
Well, there are several great dancers in the ensemble. In the first place I should mention both Kitris – the mature, technically and dramatically masterful Miho Ogimoto and young, very talented Alina Nanu. The role of Basil is performed by Ulvi Aziz, a dancer with international experience and by Ondřej Vinklát, a graduate of Prague Dance Conservatory and current member of Bohemia Ballet, for whom it is a big opening. Zuzana Hvízdalová, a prominent soloist of the company is scheduled to appear as Mercedes alongside young French dancer Phillipinne de Sevin. Viktor Kocian and Filip Janda are cast as Espada. I should not omit Vyaceslav Burlac, performing the role of Camache either; there are many other dancers in seemingly minor roles - but there are no small roles! So yes, dancers are doing their job well, even though it is not easy at all – both the dancing and acting roles in Don Quixote are very demanding and put any ballet company in the world to the test. I believe that we pass it with flying colours!
Josef Bartos
Thank you for your thoughts. One got stuck in my mind – that passion makes us different from AI. Just yesterday I read…I am a dance critic. I am a member of an endangered species