United Kingdom A Tchaikovsky Trilogy – Swan Lake | Sleeping Beauty | Nutcracker at the London Coliseum 23-28 July 2012
For nearly two hundred years Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker have thrilled audiences around the globe. Now Danish dance legend Peter Schaufuss presents The Tchaikovsky Trilogy, his own take on three of the world’s best loved ballets, and writes a whole new page in the UK’s theatrical history.
Rivalling Wagner’s operatic Ring Cycle, Schaufuss brings his Award winning dance epic for the first time to the London Coliseum this summer from 23-28 July. For the first time ever, in the London, all three great ballets will be performed in one day.
This very special new production will star the critically acclaimed Alban Lendorf, the sensational new discovery of the Royal Danish Ballet who starred last year in the revival of Sir Frederick Ashton’s production of Romeo and Juliet when The Guardian wrote this; “…emerging star….is an insouciant, scintillating Mercutio…”
Peter Schaufuss danced each of Tchaikovsky’s great works many times during his career. He starred with international ballerinas like Natalia Makarova and Gelsey Kirkland all over the world with companies such as Russia’s Maryinsky, New York City and London’s Royal Ballets as well as his native Royal Danish Ballet. And not only did he love Tchaikovsky the composer but felt he understood Tchaikovsky the man and how precisely the music for each ballet reflects the battle with his ambivalent sexuality.
In Swan Lake the hero, Siegfried, makes a huge commitment to the Swan Queen then runs away; Tchaikovsky married, soon to be parted. His sexuality then lay dormant like the Princess sleeping for a hundred years in The Sleeping Beauty but The Nutcracker is the most poignant. Tchaikovsky, waiting to board an America bound liner, picked up a discarded newspaper only to read of the death of his sister Alexandra. Memories of many happy Christmases crowded into his brain and just before boarding the liner, he picked up as a memento a nutcracker from a street trader. Many people call The Nutcracker the most perfect piece of music he ever wrote. A few months later he was dead.
For this season, the prolific Tartar, Irek Mukhamedov, once entitled “best dancer in the world”, will be performing alongside the sensational 22-year-old Danish superstar, Alan Lendorf.
With two such top line talents sharing a stage, Peter Schaufuss’s version of the Tchaikovsky classics will be a spectacular feat.
Former Bolshoi and Royal Ballet superstar, Mukhamedov, whose electrifying repertoire has long captivated London audiences under MacMillan’s tutelage, will return once more since his riveting final appearance in Mayerling, in 2004.
Irek, who was decorated with the Order of the British Empire in 2000 says, “London is the place that has had the most profound effect on my life and I am delighted to perform again, in the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and Olympics.”
He will be playing the roles of Rothbart in Swan Lake, the Queen’s husband and Aurora’s and Carabosse’s father in Sleeping Beauty, Clara’s Father and Sugar Plum Fairy’s Cavalier in The Nutcracker, in all performances of all three ballets.
Royal Danish Ballet Principal, Lendorf, who made his UK debut as ‘an elegant, fleet footed Mercutio’ (The Independent) and was hailed a ‘superb actor and gyroscopic turner’ (The Daily Telegraph), in the Schaufuss Ballet’s staging of Romeo & Juliet last summer, dances the lead in every performance of Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty during the week long run. This ground breaking season will run at the London Coliseum for a week from Monday 23 July to Saturday 28 July 2012 with a different ballet each night. While the entire Tchaikovsky Trilogy will be performed from 1pm on Saturday 28 July 2012.
Jim Pritchard
Swan Lake: Mon and Wed at 7.30pm, Sat at 1pm
Sleeping Beauty: Tue and Thu at 7.30pm, Sat at 4.30pm
The Nutcracker: Wed at 3pm Fri at 7.30pm and Sat at 8pm
For tickets please contact the London Coliseum – visit the website: www.eno.org or phone: 020 7845 9300
Tickets from £15 – £55 or VIP £85 and £75. Premium packages available please call and ask for more details.