2024年5月アーカイブ

2024年5月29日

Performance Dates & Tickets

Béjart Ballet Lausanne returns to Japan following the glorious tour in 2021

Ballet for Life
photo: BBL - Guillermo Mendo Murillo

Since the first Japan tour in 1967 with his company, Ballet du XXe Siècle, Maurice Béjart caused a huge sensation, and his ballets continue to arouse great enthusiasm from the Japanese audiences. He washed away old convention and brought about revolution in choreography. His deep insight into not only ballet but also into dramatic art, movies, literature, philosophy and religions kept him creating on the cutting edge of performing arts throughout his life.

After Béjart's sad passing in 2007, Gil Roman succeeded him as Artistic Director of the Béjart Ballet Lausanne. In March 2024, Julien Favreau succeeded Roman as Interim Artistic Director and will lead the Company to Japan for the first time in September 2024.

On their 19th Japan tour, two amazing programs will be presented. Ballet for Life, an evergreen masterpiece created by Maurice Béjart to the music of Queen and Mozart with costumes by Gianni Versace, will be revived in Tokyo, Nishinomiya and Sapporo, following the triumphant performances in Tokyo in 2021. The other is a mixed program with a Gil Roman's new ballet created during the pandemic to the music of John Zorn, Citypercussion and Bob Dylan, Alors on danse...!, and three Béjart's works, Adage pour deux, Concerto en ré and Boléro.

Message from Brian May, Queen guitarist

"I hope all our fans and friends will take advantage of this wonderful opportunity once again to see the most incredible and original ballet built around the music of Mozart and Queen, by ballet's most audacious creator, our sadly missed great friend Maurice Béjart."

Maurice Béjart, Queen members John Deacon, Roger Taylor, Brian May and Elton John at Ballet for Life premiere in 1997 in Paris
Photo: BBL - Philippe Pache

Maurice Béjart(1927-2007)

Photo: BBL - Jean-Guy Python

Programs and Performance Dates

Program A

Ballet for Life
Choreography Maurice Béjart
Music Queen, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Costume design Gianni Versace
Lighting design Clément Caryol
Video editing Germaine Cohen

Running Time About 1 hour and 45 minutes without intermission.
Recorded music will be used.

Performance Dates and Venues
Saturday 21 September 2024, 13:30 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan
Sunday 22 September 2024, 13:30 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan
Sunday 22 September 2024, 18:00 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan
Monday 23 September 2024, 13:30 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan
Wednesday 2 October 2024, 17:00 @Hyogo Performing Arts Center (Nishinomiya, Hyogo)
Sunday 6 October 2024, 14:00 @Sapporo Cultural Arts Theater hitaru (Sapporo, Hokkaido)

Program B

Alors on danse... !
Choreography Gil Roman
Music John Zorn, Citypercussion, Bob Dylan
Costume design Henri Davila
Lighting design Dominique Roman

Adage pour deux (extract from Malraux ou la métamorphose des dieux)
Choreography Maurice Béjart
Music Ludwig van Beethoven
Costume design Henri Davila
Lighti Lucas Borgeaud

Concerto en ré
Choreography Maurice Béjart
Music Igor Stravinsky
Costume design Henri Davila

Boléro
Choreography Maurice Béjart
Music Maurice Ravel
Cast for Mélodie: Julien Favreau (27 Sept.) | Mari Ohashi (28 Sept. matinée) | Elisabet Ros (28 Sept. soirée) | Kathleen Thielhelm (29 Sept.)

Running Time About 1 hour and 55 minutes with an intermission.
Recorded music will be used.

Performance Dates and Venues
Friday 27 September 2024, 19:00 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan
Saturday 28 September 2024, 13:30 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan
Saturday 28 September 2024, 18:00 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan
Sunday 29 September 2024, 13:30 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan

Boléro
photos: BBL - Gregory Batardon

Venues

Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo)
http://www.t-bunka.jp/access/index.html

Hyogo Performing Arts Center (Nishinomiya, Hyogo)
https://www1.gcenter-hyogo.jp/english/access/

Sapporo Cultural Arts Theater hitaru (Sapporo, Hokkaido)
https://www.sapporo-community-plaza.jp/theater.html

Tickets (tax included)
Category
S ¥23,000
A ¥16,000
B ¥14,000
C ¥11,000
D ¥7,000
E ¥6,000
SP* ¥21,000
25 and Under ¥3,000

●Category SP is an area on the ground floor close to the stage, on the left or right side, but with partially obstructed views.
●Children under 6 years old are not admitted to the auditorium.
●Programs and casting as of 24 May 2024 are subject to change. Changes in the programs or the cast do not entitle holders to return or exchange tickets.

Ticket Sale Dates

General Ticket Sales for Tokyo and Sapporo performances begin on
Saturday 15 June 2024 at 10:00a.m.
Buy Ticket

For Nishinomiya performance tickets, please contact Hyogo Performing Arts Center

Presales at NBS WEB Ticket (for Tokyo performances)
●For two-program tickets, Categories S, A and B
Monday 10 June 2024 at 21:00--Wednesday 12 June 2024 at 23:59
●For single-program tickets, Categories S, A, B, C, D and E
Wednesday 12 June 2024 at 21:00--Friday 14 June 2024 at 18:00

Discount Tickets at NBS WEB Ticket and NBS Ticket Center

To purchase discount tickets at NBS WEB Ticket, you will need to register for a free membership of Japan Performing Arts Foundation (NBS) from here. (We regret that the form is only in Japanese.)
After registration, click here to buy tickets.

1. Presales for two-program tickets (Categories S, A and B)

Enjoy a discount of 2,000 yen/set (one ticket for each program), by purchasing the same number of tickets for both programs. Two-program tickets will be on sale from Monday 10 June 2024, 21:00 until Wednesday 12 June 2024, 23:59 at NBS WEB Ticket.

2. Presales for single-program tickets (Categories S, A, B, C, and D)

Presales for single-program tickets will begin on Wednesay 12 June 2024, 21:00 at NBS WEB Ticket and will close on Friday 14 June 2024, 18:00.

3. Discount for two persons (Categories S, A & B)

Enjoy a discount of ¥1,000 for two persons. Tickets will be on sale from during the presale period at NBS WEB Ticket.

4. 25 and Under Tickets

¥3,000 tickets for those aged 6 to 25 years go on sale from Thursday 15 August 2024 at 21:00 at NBS WEB Ticket. You must bring identity documents with proof of age to pick up your tickets at the venue on the performance day.

For more information, please contact us at +81-(0)3-3791-8888 (phone) or english@nbs.or.jp.

Tokyo Performances
Presented by Japan Performing Arts Foundation

Supported by Embassy of Switzerland in Japan | TOKYO FM

Nishinomiya Performance
Presented by Hyogo Prefecture | Hyogo Performing Arts Center

Sapporo Performance
Presented by The Hokkaido Shimbun Press | FM Hokkaido | Doshin Bunka Jigyosha
Co-presented by Sapporo Cultural Arts Theater hitaru (Sapporo Cultural Arts Foundation)

2024年5月28日

Programs A and B

Program A

Ballet for Life

Choreography Maurice Béjart
Music Queen, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Costume design Gianni Versace
Lighting design Clément Cayrol
Video editing Germaine Cohen
photos: BBL-Guillermo Mendo Murillo, Ilia Chkolnik

Ballet for Life, created by the late visionary choreographer Maurice Béjart, returns to Japan following the triumphant tour by the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in 2021. Béjart choreographed the ballet to the music of Queen and Mozart, with costumes by Gianni Versace to celebrate the lives and talents of legendary performers Freddie Mercury and Maurice Béjart's former principal dancer, Jorge Donn, both of whom died of AIDS at the age of 45. The ballet was first performed in 1997 in Paris, in the presence of Madame Chirac, Elton John and the three surviving members of Queen, John Deacon, Brian May and Roger Taylor.

Ballet for Life has long been loved by the fans in Japan since its Japan premiere by the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in 1998, and it will be the ballet's sixth tour to the country. Fans in Japan and beyond simply cannot miss this great opportunity!

Music by Queen

It's a Beautiful Day
Time
Let Me Live
Brighton Rock
Heaven for Everyone
I Was Born to Love You
A Kind of Magic
Get Down, Make Love
Seaside Rendezvous
The Prophet's Song
You Take My Breath Away
Radio Ga Ga
A Winter's Tale
The Great Pretender
The Millionaire Waltz
Love of My Life
Bohemian Rhapsody
I Want to Break Free
The Show Must Go On

Music by Mozart

Così fan tutte
Thamos, King of Egypt
Piano Concerto No. 21
Masonic Funeral Music, K. 477
Sinfonia concertante K.364

Album Made in Heaven

Sketch by Gianni Versace

Freddie Mercury

Jorge Donn

Program B

Alors on danse... !

Choreography Gil Roman
Music John Zorn, Citypercussion, Bob Dylan
Costume design Henri Davila
Lighting design Dominique Roman
Photos: BBL - Gregory Batardon

"We wanted lightness during these troubled times. I composed a sequence of choreographies centered around the classical technique, which had no other purpose than pleasure of dancing. I dedicate it to Patrick Dupond, who represented it for me!" - Gil Roman

Adage pour deux (extract from Malraux ou la métamorphose des dieux)

Choreography Maurice Béjart
Music Ludwig van Beethoven
Costume design Henri Davila
Light Lucas Borgeaud
Photos: BBL - Gregory Batardon

Concerto en ré

Choreography Maurice Béjart
Music Igor Stravinsky
Costume design Henri Davila
Photos: BBL - Gregory Batardon

"There are no anecdotes or messages in Concerto in D for violin, but rather a harmonious relationship between time and space: shapes that never remain static, as they wrap and unwrap around subtle melodies and rhythmic constructions, and in the middle of this "game", lies an instrument that is both gentle and masterful, technically brilliant and sensual; a woman: a dancer" - Maurice Béjart

Boléro

Choreography Maurice Béjart
Music Maurice Ravel
Stage design and costumes Maurice Béjart
Lighting Dominique Roman
Photos: BBL - Gregory Batardon, Clarissa Lapolla

"My Boléro," commented Ravel, "has to stick in one's head!"
More seriously, he explained:
"In 1928, upon request by Madame Rubinstein (Ida Rubinstein, the famous Russian actress and dancer), I composed a Bolero for an orchestra. This is a dance with a very moderate and continuously even movement, both due to its melody and to its harmony and rhythm. The rhythm is continuously marked by the drum. The element of diversity is added by the orchestral crescendo."

Maurice Béjart describes the creation of Ravel's work in these terms, "music that is too well-known and yet still fresh due to its simplicity. A melody (originally oriental and not Spanish) that winds slowly around itself, increasing in volume and intensity, devours the sound space and swallows it up at the end of the melody."

Without further describing a ballet that needs no introduction, let us simply point out that Maurice Béjart returns to the spirit of The Rite of Spring in a very different style. In this sense, unlike most artists who have illustrated Boléro choreographically before him, he spurns the easy choices of a picturesque exterior to simply - but so forcefully - express the essential.

Maurice Béjart gives the central role (La Mélodie) sometimes to a female dancer and other times to a male dancer. The rhythm is interpreted by a group of male dancers.

2024年5月27日

The Company

Julien Favreau
Interim Artistic Director

Elisabet Ros
Kathleen Thielhelm
Masayoshi Onuki
Jasmine Cammarota
Kwinten Guilliams
Denovane Victoire
Mari Ohashi
Oana Cojocaru
Vito Pansini
Angelo Perfido
Valerija Frank
Federico Matetich
Chiara Posca
Dorian Browne
Solène Burel
Bianca Stoicheciu
Floriane Bigeon
Antoine Le Moal
Clara Boitet
Hideo Kishimoto
Min Kyung Lee
Cyprien Bouvier
Alessandro Cavallo
Daniel Aguado Ramsay
Oscar Eduardo Chacón
Liam Morris
Konosuke Takeoka
Edoardo Boriani
Jule Deutschmann
Andrea Luzi
Kateryna Chebykina
Oscar Frame
Zsolt Kovacs
Jeronimas Krivickas
Gohar Mkrtchyan
Emma Foucher
Carolina Fregnan

photos: BBL-Anoush Abrar

*Casting as of 24 May 2024 is subject to change.

2024年5月17日

The Stuttgart Ballet 2024 Japan Tour

We are more than delighted to announce that The Stuttgart Ballet returns to Japan for the first time since 2018, after an unfortunate postponement of the full Company's tour due to the pandemic. The tour opens on Saturday 2 November 2024 at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan.

The Stuttgart Ballet will bring two evergreen masterpieces of narrative ballets: Onegin by John Cranko based on the verse-novel by Alexander Pushkin, and Lady of the Camellias by John Neumeier based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas fils, both with exuberant set and costumes by Jürgen Rose.

More details will be announced at a later date.

Onegin
Ballet by John Cranko based on the verse-novel by Alexander Pushkin

Onegin_15.JPG
photo: Stuttgarter Ballett

Choreography John Cranko
Music Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Arranged and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze
Set and Costumes Jürgen Rose

Performance Dates and Venue
Saturday 2 November 2024 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo)
Sunday 3 November 2024 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo)
Monday 4 November 2024 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo)

Lady of the Camellias
Ballet by John Neumeier based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas fils

_RN12644.jpg
photo: Roman Novitzky / Stuttgart Ballet 

Choreography John Neumeier
Music Frédéric Chopin
Set and Costumes Jürgen Rose

Performance Dates and Venues
Friday 8 November 2024 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo)
Saturday 9 November 2024 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo)
Sunday 10 November 2024 @Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo)


Japan Performing Arts Foundation (NBS)

Tour information as of 17 May 2024 is subject to change.