Tag Archives: Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona

The Nutcracker at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu

The Toulouse Ballet du Théâtre du Capitole presents The Nutcracker at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu with the support of the LOEWE FOUNDATION. This traditional holiday-season ballet narrates the adventures of little Marie and is performed to Tchaikovsky’s score.

Inspired by his own childhood and experience as an étoile at the Paris National Opera Ballet, Kader Belarbi, the company’s director, has choreographed his own version of this classical masterpiece that premiered in 1892 at the St Petersburg’s Imperial Ballets. Act One takes place at a children’s boarding school where a handful of orphans spend Christmas with their headmaster, a character by the name of Drosselmeyer. Belarbi grants him magical powers that will allow Marie to dive into a dream-like world filled with adventures.

In complete juxtaposition with the sombre opening act, Act Two is a magical display of music boxes, folding paper fans, and colourful cut-outs designed by Antoine Fontaine with lighting by Hervé Gary. Carefully designed costumes by Philippe Guillotel blend-in seamlessly with Kader Belarbi’s choreography, which includes on pointe, but no pink tutus. Under his able direction, academic ballet becomes an artistic medium that frees dancers from the heaviness of virtuosity. Marie, the lead character, who reminds us of Pippi Longstocking –fun red wig included– surrounds herself with a group of five “toy” friends reminiscent of the famous children’s saga that Enid Blyton penned. It would appear that Belarbi’s own childhood merges into the character development to surprise us with paradoxical familiarity and transgression. This is especially true during the second act: the Spanish dancers are frogs, the Arabian scene features a Michelin Man lookalike, and the Russian dance takes us back to a soviet factory where the mysterious Drosselmeyer manipulates mechanical toys and inventions at will.

For this choreography, Kader Belarbi turned to the play that inspired the original Nutcracker ballet: Alexandre Dumas’ The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. He also tapped into the fascinating aesthetics of film director Georges Méliès to ensure the ballet would captivate the attention of both children and adults. Under the direction of Marius Stieghorst, the Gran Teatre del Liceu orchestra accompanies the Théatre du Capitol ballet company interpreting Tchaikovsky’s score, with arrangements by Anthony Rouchier. Watch The Nutcracker in Barcelona from 28^th December to 4^th January.

Photography: The Nutcracker © David Herrero for The Ballet du Théatre du Capitole.

One more year of dance at Madrid’s Teatro Real and Barcelona’s Liceu

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Dance returns to the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona for a season that will have the public enjoying the performances of some of the world’s most prestigious dance companies. Thanks to the support of the LOEWE FOUNDATION, Spain’s National Ballet, London’s Royal Ballet and the Ballet at the Great Theatre of Geneva will be performing in these two cities.

In November, the Teatro Real will be hosting the National Ballet of Spain that Antonio Najarro directs with Sorolla, a choreography rooted in Spain’s folklore and inspired by Visión de España, the famous collection of works by this renowned Spanish painter that the Hispanic Society commissioned; a most colourful piece during which the company’s corps de ballet assumes the spotlight. In April, it will be the Dresden-Frankfurt Dance Company that Jacopo Godani directs that will be visiting Spain’s capital. Four pieces created by Godani himself that showcase the personal and demanding language of his choreographies; Metamorphers, Echoes from a Restless Soul, Postgenoma and Moto Perpetuo feature a Godani who is not only a choreographer but also a stage and costume designer as well as a lighting master. Finally, in July, London’s Royal Ballet will present its new Swan Lake. Based on Marius Petipa’s and Lev Ivanoc timeless masterpiece with score by Piotr I. Tchaikovksy, the choreographers Frederick Ashton first and Liam Scarlett later, have incorporated some additional dance sections throughout the piece.

Another well-known piece opens up the Dance Season of Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu: Roméo & Juliette will be performed by the ballet of Le Grand Théâtre de Genève in its Joëlle Bouvier version, which transforms Prokofiev’s celebrated music into a contemporary piece. The Orquesta Sinfónica del Liceu, under the direction of Manuel Coves, will accompany the dance. In December, the Eifmann Ballet will be staging Anna Karenina, a piece by Boris Eifmann -one of the most acclaimed choreographers in Russia today- who, using Tchaikovsky’s and Tolstoi’s work as his starting point, has created what many consider his masterpiece; Conrad van Alphen will direct the Teatre’s resident orchestra. To end the season, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo will return in May to Barcelona with Le Songe, a choreography by the company’s director Jean-Christophe Maillot based on William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, whose score is a musical collage by various composers.

More information at, teatro-real.com and liceubarcelona.cat

Photo Captions: Sorolla by the National Ballet of Spain © Stanislav Belyaevsky, Dresden-Frankfurt Dance Company © Paolo Porto. Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo in Le Songe © Alice Blangero.

Dance returns to the Teatro Real and the Gran Teatre del Liceu

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The support that the LOEWE FOUNDATION gives dance has crystallised, once again, in the ballets that will be performed next season at Madrid’s Teatro Real and Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu. Two opera houses that have made space for a number of companies from all over the world so that they may showcase the best of their repertoires.

In December, the ballet Coppélia, performed by the National Ballet of Uruguay (Ballet Nacional SODRE), will occupy the Barcelona stage with an emblematic Enrique Martínez version that is respectful of the choreographic tradition and the E.T.A. Hoffman original story it is based on. This dance company, under the direction of Argentinian dancer Julio Bocca will perform accompanied by the Liceu’s Resident Orchestra under the direction of conductor Martín García. Starting in January 2017, the Jove Companya de L’institut del Teatre will provide the counterpoint by putting its dancers to the test in a contemporary programme that includes Wad Ras by Montse Sánchez and Ramón Baeza, Un Ballo by Jiří Kylián, and Minus 16 by Ohad Naharin.

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Shortly after, in February, the Prejocaj Ballet that the French choreographer by the same name directs, will visit the Barcelona stage for the first time and perform two ballets that are representative of the most committed and brave of their pieces. Spectral Evidence, with score by John Cage, envelops the stage in a ghost-like atmosphere while La Stravaganza, alternating between Vivaldi and contemporary composers, creates a mosaic of transitions on stage inspired by US immigration.

In January, Le Corsair, choreographed by Frenchman Manuel Legris and based on Petipa’s original, will open the 2016-17 season at Madrid’s Teatro Real. The Wiener Staatsballett that Legris directs revisits this classic inspired by the famous Lord Byron poem with an almost traditional Russian vision that combines men’s virtuosity and strong feminine performances together with a dose of adventure and action. The costume designs and sets are by Luis Spinatelli and the Teatro Real Resident Orchestra will be led by Valery Ovsyanikov.

Moving into April, Spain’s Compañía Nacional de Danza (CND) will dedicate an entire evening to American choreographer William Forsythe. José Carlos Martínez, the CND’s director, has chosen three pieces that showcase Forsythe’s modern and eclectic vision as well as the profound respect Martínez has for the artistic roots of this American artist: The Vertiginous Thrill of the Exactitud, Artifact Suite and Enemy in the Figure. In June, the Martha Graham Dance Company will celebrate its 90^th anniversary with two programmes that include not only some of the most representative pieces of this American choreographer –such as Deaths & Entrances, Cave of the Heart or Maple Leaf Rag– but also a piece by Nacho Duato titled Rust.

Together, these companies will provide a wide range of options to captivate the audience with first class performances throughout the season.

For more information, teatro-real.com and liceubarcelona.cat.

Photographs: Coppélia by the National Ballet of Uruguay/SODER ©Santiago Barreiro. Spectral Evidence by the Prejocaj Ballet ©JCCarbone. Le Corsair ©by the Wiener Staatsballett.

The CND Returns to Barcelona

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With the support of the LOEWE Foundation, the 2015-2016 dance season of Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu closed with “Homenaje a Granados”, the latest work by the Compañía Nacional de Danza (CND) under the direction of José Carlos Martínez. The presence of the dance company in the city last week also brought about a most unique event: the performance of I want in LOEWE’s Paseo de Gracia store, which gave the general public the chance to experience and admire the piece and the dancers in a most intimate of settings, just a few centimetres from the performers.

At the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the company paid homage to composer Enrique Granados in celebration of the 100th anniversary of his death. Accompanied by pianist Rosa Torres-Pardo, the CND staged a world premiere choreographed by Dimo Kirilov, a former dancer of the company. Anhelos y tormentos accompanies the public on a romantic journey and quest which concludes with a powerful climax that then brings about the inclusion of three other pieces, some of which the CND performs for the first time ever.

William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of the Exactitude, set to music by Schubert, together with the ballet In the Night, by Jerome Robbins, set to Chopin’s noctures –played live by pianist Carlos Faxas- were chosen by José Carlos Martínez as part of his vision to widen the CND’s repertoire. A Martínez version of Glazunov’s Raymonda, based on Pepita’s and Nureyev’s choreography and staging, was the last performance of the evening, enveloping all the musical pieces into a capsule of the time in history when Enrique Granados lived.

In addition, with their appearance at the LOEWE store, the CND dancers once again showed off their unorthodox capabilities, playing with the different spaces the location offers while mixing with the guests who stood in awe and admiration. As has happened on other occasions, no one was left feeling indifferent.

Photo Captions: I want. Agnes López-Río, Mar Aguiló and Elisabet Biosca © Poncho Paradela for the LOEWE FOUNDATION, 2016. Raymonda by the CND © Jesús Vallinas for the CND, 2015. I want. Mattia Russo, Isaac Montllor and Mar Aguiló © Poncho Paradela for the LOEWE FOUNDATION, 2016.

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