The Teatr Wielki ? Polish National Opera has unveiled its repertoire for the new artistic season (2015/2016), including ballet premieres and other dance events.
The Polish National Ballet will debut two Shakespeare productions: The Tempest choreographed by Krzysztof Pastor and The Taming of the Shrew by John Cranko. The pieces are of different character: The Taming? is a light-hearted, intelligible ballet, while The Tempest has a more complex narration and dramaturgy. Pastor’s piece is a co-production with the Het Nationale Ballet and originally premiered in June 2014. Among the choreographer’s collaborators are his permanent partners (e.g. dramaturge Willem Bruls) as well as two Iranian-born visual artists based in New York, Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari. The pair created all but one of the visualisations especially for the production of The Tempest. The set was designed by Jean Kalman, known for many opera engagements around the world. The music is a collage. The Tempest is going to debut in Warsaw on 9 April 2016, opening the PNB’s Shakespeare Festival, to last until 28 April. Marking the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death, the festival includes Pastor’s Romeo and Juliet, Tyski’s Hamlet, and Neumeier’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Traditionally, the PNB will be hosting a showcase of choreographies created by the company’s dancers as part of the choreographic workshop Creations. Apart from that the repertoire abounds in universal, canonical pieces, such as La Bayad?re, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote. On a more contemporary note, the company will perform
Obsessions (Pastor, Wesołowski) and Pupa (Anna Hop). The Teatr Wielki offers a choice of subscription packages for the 2015/16 season covering different selections of ballets, operas, the Shakespeare Festival, and Ballet: The Great Classics.
In the autumn (18?25 October 2015), the Teatr Wielki and Krzysztof Pastor will be presenting the next, seventh already, edition of the Days of Dance. Apart from Pastor’s latest ballet Casanova in Warsaw, the festival will feature the company of Paul Taylor, renowned representative of American modern dance, alongside the outstanding Company Wayne McGregor from London. The presentation of their Far is held in association with Crossroads ? International Festival of Live Arts. The new season press conference was told the PNB is in talks with Wayne McGregor on a collaboration and that the Teatr Wielki wants to turn the Days of Dance into a larger-scale, international dance festival in the future. This year’s edition will also welcome the Baltic Dance Theatre with Izadora Weiss’s triple bill developed as part of the Niderlandy (Netherlands) project.
Singe tickets for the new season go on sale on 29 June 2015.