Léo Delibes - Coppélia at The Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre 2011
Léo Delibes - Coppélia at The Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre September 21, Wednesday 2011, 6:30 PM
Léo Delibes - Coppélia
A ballet in 3 acts
Libretto by Mihail Chemiakin after E. Th. A. Hoffmann's tale “The Sandman“
Music Director and Conductor: Robertas Šervenikas
Conductor: Alvydas Šulčys
Choreographer: Kirill Simonov (Russia)
Set and Costume Designer: Mihail Chemiakin (USA)
Lighting Designer: Levas Kleinas
Premiere: 21 May, 2011
Running time: 3 hrs
Three acts of magic, comical confusion and mistaken identity, also filled with the turmoil of Romanticism and spectacular visuals - all of this enchants the audiences for over 140 years. Coppélia, just as a number of other popular works, is produced by many choreographers around the world, who never fail to introduce innovative individual versions and editions. Floating from comedy to tragedy, coming closer or running away from E. T. A. Hoffman‘s Der Sandmann, it is still one of the most often produced ballets. Most of the ballet's drama centers on the character of Doctor Coppélius. Over the many decades his portrayal has ranged from a dark sorcerer to an eccentric, and somewhat ridiculous, old man. He's been seen as lonely, a man of science who has, perhaps, a warped idea of reality. Paradoxically, while this character is willing to remove the life from a young man in order to instill life in a doll, he's generally seen as a comic figure.
Many of contemporary productions of Coppélia are based on Petipa’s version that followed Saint-Léon’s original edition with great respect and was introduced in Saint Petersburg in 1884. In 1894 Enrico Cecchetti and Lev Ivanov edited this production - the elements of their version are still very much alive even in our days.
This newest production of Coppélia probably will not remind us of any other Lithuanian versions of this ballet. The libretto was newly rewritten by choreographer Kirill Simonov (Russia) and designer Mihail Chemiakin (USA), who is also a passionate researched of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s works. According to the will of these two artists, the ballet turns into the story of Sandman, told in tune with L. Délibes’ score which is enhanced with excerpts from Sylvia - this additional music is used to bring forth the dramatic characters of the story. Seeing naïve romantic jokes is unlikely in this production. This ballet, just as Hoffmann’s legacy, invites us to step into the world of mysticism, suspicion, surrealism and fantasy.
About the opera
The Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre is a national budgetary institution committed to organising the creation and production of scenic works for musical theatre and assuring their public performance on the highest artistic level. The theatre operates as an institution founded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.
Opera in Lithuania goes back to the early 17th century. In 36 years after the genre had originated in Florence, an opera, Il ratto di Helena, written by an anonymous composer and set to a libretto by the then famous Italian librettist and musician, Virgilio Puccitelli, was first performed in Lithuania on 4 September 1636, at the court theatre of the grand duke in the Lower Castle in Vilnius.
From the second half of the 18th century to the early 19th century music and the arts, including opera and ballet, were taken under the patronage of influential noblemen from the stocks of Oginskis, Radvila, Tyzenhauzas, and others, who also held companies in their country mansions and city residencies.
In 1785 first public city theatres were opened in Vilnius and Klaipeda. From 1795 to the early 20th century Lithuania was under the domination of foreign powers - first, Poland and Germany, then Russia - which led to severe oppression of Lithuanian national culture. At that time Lithuanian theatres were run by Polish, German, Italian and Russian companies.
After the ban on Lithuanian press was lifted in 1904, the first Lithuanian opera Birute, co-authored by composer Mikas Petrauskas and playwright Gabrielius Lansbergis-Zemkalnis, was staged in Vilnius in 1906.
In 1918 Lithuania was proclaimed an independent state. However, Vilnius and its surrounding region were soon annexed to Poland. Thus Kaunas became Lithuania's provisional capital where the foremost energies of Lithuanian art, culture and sciences were consolidated for more than two decades. It was in Kaunas where the nation's first musical theatre - the Opera and Drama Playhouse - opened in 1920. With the addition of a resident ballet company in 1925, this theatre formed the basis for an institution presently known as the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre - an all-time largest and most influential establishment promoting opera and ballet in Lithuania.
To legitimate its national status, the LNOBT has always had national productions on its repertoire (over 20 in total). Among the most outstanding ones are Vytautas Klova's opera Pilenai (1956), Julius Juzeliunas' ballet On the Seashore (1953) and opera Insurgents (1957), Eduardas Balsys' ballet Egle, Queen of Grass-snakes (1960) and opera Journey to Tilsit (1980), Vytautas Barkauskas' opera The Legend about Love (1975), Antanas Rekasius' ballets (The Fading Cross, 1963; Passions, 1968; Alive Forever, 1982, Medea, 1996), Mindaugas Urbaitis' ballet Acid City (2002), and Bronius Kutavicius' recent stageworks, opera The Bear (2000) and stage diptych Ignis et fides (2003).
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