The evil Redbeard turns Princess Odette into a swan, and only true love can free her. The Moravian Theater Olomouc will present a new production of the classical ballet Swan Lake with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky this Friday. The story of romantic love and betrayal was staged by Canadian choreographer Paul Chalmer.
The production will be accompanied by the theater orchestra led by conductor Tomáš Hanák. The stage, costumes and projections were designed by the Italian artist and scenographer Domenico Franchi, the author of the lighting design is Tomáš Příkrý. Starring prima ballerina Sawa Shiratsuki and Sergio Méndez Romero. The Friday and Saturday premieres are followed by the nearest reruns on October 22 and 29.
Swan Lake became the first premiere of the Olomouc ballet in the 2024/2025 season. “It’s a big challenge, Chalmer is a very experienced choreographer with incredible knowledge. The collaboration between him and the ensemble works very well, that’s why I chose him for this production,” says the head of the ensemble, Jan Fousek.
One of the most performed classical ballets is often performed in the version created in 1895 by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. The Canadian director is also based on this choreography. Since then, however, Swan Lake has gone through a lot of modifications and the individual versions differ in many ways. Every production is so different. “Dancers as individuals always bring something new to the stage,” adds Fousek. He tried the file for more than two months.
Paul Chalmer, 62, says he has seen Swan Lake countless times and has also danced the role of Prince Siegfried several times. “A unique opportunity to intensively study the structure, detail and meaning of ballet came to me in 1988 when I danced alongside one of the greatest exponents of the iconic 20th-century role of Odette/Odilia, Natalie Makarova,” mentions Chalmer. As a choreographer, he is now meeting the work for the third time.
Both leads, Sawa Shiratsuki and Sergio Méndez Romero, have already met Paul Chalmer. First, thanks to a previous engagement in Ostrava and again the year before last, when they performed the ballet The Picture of Dorian Gray with him at the Moravian Theater in Olomouc. “He’s an incredible choreographer with a great sense of style and an amazing talent for storytelling. The moment we were told he was choreographing our Swan Lake, I knew it was going to be something big that everyone wanted to be a part of,” says Romero.
It will be the sixth performance at the Moravian Theater. Swan Lake appeared in the repertoire for the first time on January 24, 1948. The choreographer was Bohumil Relský, a native of Brno. The last time people could see it was in 2012 under the direction of choreographer and former soloist of the National Theater Hana Vláčilová.