2022年9月アーカイブ

Photo: Kiran West

The Hamburg Ballet returns to Japan in March 2023 for the first time since 2018, after an unfortunately postponed tour due to COVID-19 originally scheduled for 2020. It will be the Company's ninth Japan tour, and the performances will be given as part of the Company's special 2023 season ― Mr. John Neumeier's 50th anniversary and final season as Artistic Director and Chief Choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet*. Mr. Neumeier assumed the post of Director in 1973. Considering the long-time friendship between Mr. Neumeier, the Hamburg Ballet, and the Japanese audiences, the upcoming tour will be all-the-more special and significant.

The Company will bring two exuberant pieces. One is The World of John Neumeier, the much-anticipated gala that created a huge sensation on the last two Japanese tours. On the 2023 Japan tour, the Hamburg Ballet will perform an updated version.

The other one is Sylvia, a masterpiece on a mystic theme, originally created for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1997 and performed by Étoiles including Monique Loudières, Manuel Legris and Elisabeth Platel. In the same year, the ballet entered the Hamburg Ballet's repertoire. During the upcoming Japanese tour, it will be presented by the best possible cast including Madoka Sugai and Alexandr Trusch.

Join us for a precious opportunity to witness the art of John Neumeier, arguably one of the last great masters of contemporary ballet, presented by his dear dancers.

* The Hamburg Ballet announced in October 2022 that Mr. John Neumeier had agreed to prolong his contract as Artistic Director for a year to ensure a smooth transition to Mr. Demis Volpi and to step down in the summer of 2024.

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Choreographer John Neumeier narrates his life charmed by ballet, and the dancers of the Hamburg Ballet under his tutelage perform his masterpieces. In the end, a magnificent, miraculous world emerges―this is The World of John Neumeier.

The gala opens with Bernstein Dances, Shall We Dance?, and The Nutcracker symbolizing John Neumeier's joyous meeting with the world of dance in his childhood. Among the highlights of his masterpieces, Nijinsky, Lady of the Camellias, Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler, are newly added the excerpts from Sylvia, another masterpiece created in 1997, and Ghost Light which was choreographed soon after the outbreak of COVID-19.

This gala is literally a showcase of Mr. John Neumeier's ballet highlights which cannot be missed.

TO BE READ BEFORE THE PERFORMANCE by John Neumeier

Synopsis
by John Neumeier

PART I
Diana's Sacred Wood

The god of Love descends into the wood and takes on the appearance of Thyrsis a mere shepherd.

Aminta, a real shepherd, enters the sacred wood secretly hoping to find Sylvia, Diana's nymph.

Diana and the nymph-huntresses appear in the wood to take a rest from hunting and to bathe. Sylvia and Aminta meet. Diana and the huntresses discover the tender exchanges between the shepherd and the nymph.

Taken by surprise, Sylvia betrays Aminta.

Left alone, Diana remembers handsome Endymion, doomed to eternal sleep.

At daybreak, the shepherds, their curiosity fired, enter the sacred wood and find Endymion asleep. Love/Thyrsis is with them.

Aminta's heart is broken. He is obsessed by the vision of Sylvia.

Love feels sorry for Aminta. But he takes on the form of handsome Orion in order to seduce Sylvia. She lets herself be led on by him.

PART II
Love/Orion's Party

Sylvia becomes aware of her femininity. She discovers pleasure.

Her sensuality aflame, Sylvia is overwhelmed by the memory of Diana and Aminta.

PART III
Winter

Many years later, Aminta returns to the sacred wood. Sylvia too returns to the sacred wood. They meet. Their love seems to live again for an instant.

Diana observes them. She is tempted to separate them but Love disarms her.

In the end it is life itself that steals Sylvia away from Aminta.

As for Diana, she remains alone, the eternal huntress.

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Story

Don Quixote sets out on a journey with his squire Sancho Panza to find his dream girl, Dulcinea. In a market place in Barcelona where he notices Kitri, he believes she is Dulcinea. Meanwhile, Kitri wants to marry her longtime love Basile, but her father Lorenzo would have his daughter marry a rich nobleman Gamache. The whole town is now in upheaval over Kitri's marriage!

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Akira Akiyama

Ryunosuke Ubukata

Miki Wakuta

Shoma Ikemoto

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