Premiere PULCINELLA & APOLLO

Igor Stravinsky

It is after too long a time, we admit, that the Rijeka CNT Ballet dances again to the Rijeka Opera Orchestra. The occasion for this are two works by Igor Stravinsky, leader among the front-runners of modern tendencies in the classical music of the twentieth century, next to Tchaikovsky the most prominent composer of the ballet music. The Rijeka Ballet has invited the great Italian choreographer Giovanni di Palma, who choreographed the premiere of Pulcinella in 2017 in São Paulo, actually, hundred years after the eminent ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev had ordered the musical score from Igor Stravinsky and direction from Léonide Massine for his famous ballet ensemble Ballets Russes. Just as the original version, so does Di Palma’s neoclassical choreography tell the story of Pulcinella, the character that emerges from the Italian Commedia dell’Arte, his girlfriend Pimpinella and four friends. It is the excellent French choreographer Martin Chaix who will choreograph in the neoclassical style Apollo by Stravinsky, following thus the tradition of the famous choreographer George Balanchin, who had established the foundations of the neoclassical style with this very ballet work. The Rijeka CNT Ballet has chosen these two choreographers to revive the art of dancing in pointe shoes, presenting the always challenging neoclassical ballet style.