Paquita

Paquita

A breath of fresh air is blowing over the Ural Opera Ballet with this new version of Paquita, halfway between tradition and modernity!

A festive ballet recounting the thwarted loves of a gypsy and an officer, Paquita marked the debut of Marius Petipa in Saint Petersburg. But only the last scene of the ballet, the famous Grand pas Classique, remained in the companies’ repertoire. Thanks to a careful reconstruction, the Ural Opera Ballet finally revives the original version in three acts.

The product of methodical research by expert Sergei Vikharev and former Principal Vyacheslav Samodurov, the choreography scrupulously recreates Petipa’s 1881 version, according to notes kept at the Harvard Theater Collection. The original score has been rearranged by the famous Saint Petersburg composer, Yuri Krasavin.

But if this new production uses the original libretto of the ballet, it nonetheless transposes it in time. The result is a show of great relevance, which brings up to date the strong political and social substrate of the original plot by illustrating it with artistic references gleaned throughout the 20th century. A powerful theatrical experience, crowned with the jury’s special award of the ‘‘Golden Masks’’ in 2019.

Paquita [DVD & Blu-ray]

Ballet in three acts (1881)

Music: Édouard Deldevez (1846) and Ludwig Minkus (1881)
Recomposed by Yuri Krasavin (2018)
Libretto : Paul Fouché and Joseph Mazilier (1846)

Paquita Ekaterina Malkovich
Lucien d’Hervilly Arsenti Lazarev
Iñigo Maxim Klekovkin
Don Lopez de Mendoza Victor Mekhanoshin
Serafina Kamila Beknazarova
Count d’Hervilly Anton Guzeev
Countess Nadezhda Shamshurina

Ural Opera Ballet Orchestra – Ekaterinburg
Conductor : Fyodor Lednyov

Choreography: Marius Petipa
Revival: Sergei Vikharev et Slava Samodurov
Stage direction: Slava Samodurov

Sets : Alyona Pikalova
Costumes : Elena Zaytseva
Lighting design: Aleksander Naumov
Choreographer’s assistant: Klara Dovzhik