Three well-loved classics in 'The Swan, The Fairy and The Princess'
Ballet Manila presents three beloved tales in one enchanting production in its second offering for its 21st performance season dubbed The Revenge of the Classics.
The Swan, The Fairy and The Princess showcases excerpts from three of the most celebrated works of master composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty.
It will go onstage for one weekend only – on October 14 and 15 at 8 p.m. and on October 16 at 3 p.m., at the Aliw Theater in CCP Complex, Pasay City.
“Tchaikovsky is a ballerina’s composer,” describes Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde. “His musical phrases, haunting romantic melodies and powerful rhythms, crescendos and and decrescendos inspire your limbs to soar or float gracefully as needed. It’s music that dictates the attack of the movement – and Tchaikovsky has composed some of the most musical of ballets, where the movement and the music match perfectly.”
The Swan, The Fairy and The Princess is headlined by Ballet Manila's finest artists. Abigail Oliveiro's is the White Swan, Dawna Reign Mangahas is the Sugar Plum Fairy while Katherine Barkman is Princess Aurora. They will be partnered, respectively, by soloist Mark Sumaylo, guest artist Mikhail Martynyuk of Kremlin Ballet and principal artist Rudy De Dios.
The show also features stage actor Miguel Faustmann as Tchaikovsky and the Manila Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Alexander Vikulov. It is directed by Roxanne Lapus, with a script by Angela Blardony Ureta.
Ballet Manila first presented The Swan, The Fairy and The Princess in 2009, with Macuja-Elizalde among its lead performers. It was conceived as an “all-Tchaikovsky challenge" focusing on the composer's most well-known works.
“A ballerina who has not danced to the music of Russian musical icon Peter Tchaikovsky cannot call herself a classical ballerina,” declares Macuja-Elizalde. “His scores have filled
concert halls and theaters for over a century, bringing life to some of the most unforgettable choreographic pieces of our time. Tchaikovsky’s music truly personifies classical ballet.”
Macuja-Elizalde admits she feels a certain affinity with the composer not just because she danced to his music many times before. More importantly, she had the opportunity to live in the same same city where Tchaikovsky lived and worked for most of his life.
“Walking those streets along the canals of Saint Petersburg, I can just imagine Peter Tchaikovsky himself taking those same walks while humming the melodies inside his head. I even lived for two years just across Nievsky Prospekt and just around the corner from the building where his apartment still stands."
She believes The Swan, The Fairy and The Princess is a fitting tribute to the great composer “because the man, his music and his ballets will live forever.”
Tickets to The Swan, The Fairy and The Princess are available through all Ticketworld outlets. For more information, please call Ticketworld at 891-9999 or visit www.ticketworld.com.ph or contact Ballet Manila at 400-0292 or 525-5967 or email info@balletmanila.com.ph.
