Ballet: Tchaikovsky

Monday, October 16, 2000 20:00     Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium     200

Cast
Tchaikovsky-----Andrejs Rumjancevs
The Double-----Aleksejs Oveckins
Counress von Meck-----Viktorija Izotova
Tchaikovsky's wife-----Incse Dumpe
Girl-----Viktorija Jansonej
Prince-----Pavels Vasijcenko

Technical List
Choreographer and Lirettist Boris Eifman (Ballet S. Petersburgo)

Musical Director and Principal Conductor Gintaras Rinkevicius

Conductor Viesturs Gailis

Set Designer Aigars Ozolins

Costume Designer Kristine Pastcrnaka

Lighting Designer Janis Valle

Choreographer's Assistants Olga Kalmikova (S. Petersburgo), Igors Markovs (S. Petersburgo)

Ballet Consultants Modris Cers, Zita Errs, Vladimirs Ponomarjovs, Regina Kaupuza, Gunta Balina

Ballet Company Manager Aldis Apse

Technical Director Vilmars Sadris

Ballet Administrator Elita Bukovska

Ballet Director Aivars Leimanis

General Manager of the Latvian National Opera Andrejs Zagars

Latvian National Opera & Ballet


Ballet: Tchaikovsky Tangled between the creation and desire
The tragedy of the composer is disclosed to us. It is a story of the price he has to pay for his rights to create. Temptations of the body and everyday happiness, frenzy and infatuation with fame – all this becomes a kind of a diguise that alienates the composer from his dream about the harmonious world of music, the world that is pure and beautiful. It is only suffering and fighting the temptations that permits the composer to enter the heights of the world dear to him.

The frist scene
The spirit is languishing. The despairing Tchaikovsky is writhing like in the spasms of childbirth. The burning incompatibility of pain and flight, existing side by side.
There appears Tchaikovsky's double accompanied by a crowd of demons and in a frenzied zeal tempts the composer to surrender to lust. The hero's despair grows into yearning for the dream, for purity, for the perfect world of art. And the swan girls emerge and by giving a kiss awaken the enchanted Prince Tchaikovsky.
At the most agonizing moments von Meck appears and the baton of Tchaikovsky leads him to success. The bride is there ... She tempts Tchaikovsky with mundane love that he neither wants nor that is attainable for him, therefore the bride's persistence makes Tchaikovsky sad. The double strives to overcome sorrow by praying. Nevertheless, Tchaikovsky is carried away on the wings of success and fame. He is crowned with a golden wreath though it does not help to escape the pain. The crowd cheers the genius, but the next moment condemns him in perplexity. The double continuously finds new ways how to escape the pain. However, the glass he offers is rejected, and the veil of the bride resembling the scarf in which Isadora Duncan got strangled, trails Tchaikovsky into marriage.

The second scene
Intoxicated from the intimacy with the youths the abandoned wife of Tchaikovsky enjoys herself in bed. In a torn veil and in a state of madness she pursues Tchaikovsky. The Prince disappears together with his girl; the inviting rhythms of "The Italian Capriccio" lure him to the gambling house where the wager, namely, the life. Everybody is involved in the orgy of gambling and Tchaikovsky, following suit of the double, does the same. Inevitable is retaliation, as the wish of the artist to create, to embody the spirit, cannot be eradicated. It is the double who perishes the first, like a played card thrown down the gambling table; Tchaikovsky is the next. The friends become stunned motionless in groups, reminding of the late mourning sculptures by Michelangelo ...
Music
P. Tchailovsky
Symphony 5
Symphony 6, part 4
String Serenade in C Major. part 2, 3

The Italian Capriccio