Tag Archive: Peter Wright

Comforting

December 18, 2024

“The Nutcracker”
The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House/Joan Sutherland Theatre
Sydney, Australia
December 12, 2024 (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2024 by Ilona Landgraf

1. C.Linnane (Drosselmeyer) and ensemble, “The Nutcracker” by P.Wright, The Australian Ballet 2024 © D.Boud This year, getting in a happy Christmas mood isn’t easy in my home country, Germany. We’re in troubled waters, and prospects for the new year are dismal. Even our major ballet stages abandoned a festive program. The State Ballet Berlin scheduled Christian Spuck’s Bovary and Swan Lake for the holiday season; the Bavarian State Ballet is presenting a mixed bill (Duato/Skeels/Eyal) and Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet. At least audiences in Stuttgart, Hamburg, and Dresden can attend performances of The Nutcracker, but Stuttgart’s rendering is screwed up, and Dresden’s is saccharine. The bright spot is Hamburg Ballet, which kept Neumeier’s much-lauded version in its repertory.

The Australian Ballet’s live stream of The Nutcracker was therefore a welcome addition, especially as the company presented Peter Wright’s traditional version, which was staged for the Royal Ballet in 1984 and later adapted for Birmingham Royal Ballet. (more…)

The Prince Awakens His Beauty

December 24, 2017

“The Sleeping Beauty”
Dutch National Ballet
Dutch National Opera & Ballet
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
December 17, 2017

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2017 by Ilona Landgraf

1. M.Makhateli and D.Camargo, “The Sleeping Beauty” by P.Wright after M.Petipa, Dutch National Ballet 2017 © A.KaftiraThis Christmas Season Dutch National Ballet revived Peter Wright’s version of Marius Petipa’s “The Sleeping Beauty”, presenting no less than seven different leading couples in seventeen performances. Actually, one should see each cast. Alas – I could only travel once to Amsterdam and saw the matinée on December 17th led by Maia Makhateli as Princess Aurora alongside Daniel Camargo’s Prince Florimund.

Many young children attended the performance, all of them in festive clothing, and it was a pleasure to watch them hop around and imitate the dance steps during the breaks. One little girl in a golden skirt even turned cartwheels in the foyer. (more…)

The First Run of “Giselle” in Munich

October 5, 2016

“Giselle”
Bavarian State Ballet
National Theater
Munich, Germany
October 02, 2016

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2016 by Ilona Landgraf

1. Ensemble, “Giselle” by P.Wright after M.Petipa, J.Coralli and J.Perrot, Bavarian State Ballet © W.Hösl 2016The Bavarian State Ballet opened its first season under Igor Zelensky with the revival of Peter Wright’s “Giselle”. Each of the six performances was led by a different couple. Of the guest dancers Natalia Osipova and Sergei Polunin created major excitement on opening night. Further guests included the Bolshoi’s Svetlana Zakharova and Vadim Muntagirov from the Royal Ballet London. Both were paired with Munich principals. Of the four ballerinas cast as Giselle, Osipova and Maria Shirinkina danced twice, Zakharova and Ksenia Ryzkhova once. Albrechts coming from within the ranks of the Bavarian State Ballet were Osiel Gouneo and Vladimir Shklyarov. (more…)