Premiere TCHAIKOVSKY
In co-production with the Ballet of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb
As part of the program of the K-HNK: Consortium of Croatian National Theatres (Konzorcij hrvatskih narodnih kazališta)
In the words of the choreographer: “We associate Tchaikovsky with magnificent scenes from the most famous ballet blancs such as Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. “Tchaikovsky,” which I am creating for the Rijeka Ballet, will depict a journey guided by the facts and mysteries that shaped his unique artistic soul and mind. They also shaped his extraordinary gift of melodiousness, which is still irresistible and stimulating to rising generations of artists.”
As in Pedro Almodóvar’s films, choreographer Cayetano Soto undermines beauty in order to convey what lies beneath it. Soto’s choreography requires exceptional, precisely imaginative technical readiness and creativity. It is subtle and assertive. His dance vocabulary is expressive, consisting of nuanced details and grotesque adaptations of traditional movements. Expressive hands and fingers and complex, acrobatic duets are characteristic. Soto has received numerous awards and recognitions for his creative work. The “Tchaikovsky” ballet will be his first collaboration with the Rijeka Ballet.
Cayetano Soto unfolds a portrait of one of the best composers of the romantic era. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is considered to be one of Russia’s national cultural treasures.
Soto’s full evening ballet „Tchaikovsky“ requires technical attitude, imagination and abandon. With his distinct dance vocabulary, comprised of nuanced detail and grotesque adaptations of traditional movements, Soto with his own signature creates a ballet that is influenced by the unreleased letters and other archival documents from the Tchaikovsky state house – museum published in Moscow in 2009.
Tchaikovsky was torn between the ordinary world of society and his dark side. He overcomes the opposites and accepts his nature in order to find to himself. Unfortunately, the pressure of society was dominating his entire life until his own tragic death.
Public discussion of his personal life has been taboo in his home country for almost a hundred years.
His entire life was a battle, for instance, in early Soviet publications from the archive of the Tchaikovsky House-Museum in Klin, the editors regarded the composer’s sexuality as a matter that should not be excluded from scholarly study of his life.
On the other hand, Tchaikovsky’s intimate life was zealously concealed by his family members, by au courant music scholars, and by the officials of the Romanov empire and Stalin’s Soviet Union. In the eyes of the authorities, it would have been unthinkable to accept the idea that Pyotr lyich Tchaikovsky, Russia’s national treasure, was a homosexual.
General sponsor of the Ballet
