‘La Traviata’ makes Malaysian premiere in ‘Ballet Manila’s Greatest Hits’
The Fortune Teller (Judith Po, center) reads a grim fortune for Violetta. Looking on are the Traviatas (from left, Elyssabeth Apilado, Jessa Balote, Jessica Pearl Dames, Jasmine Pia Dames, Shaira Comeros and Ainslea Esplana. Photo by Erica Marquez-Jacinto
Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja Elizalde’s La Traviata will make its Malaysian premiere as DanceLink Performing Arts presents Ballet Manila’s Greatest Hits at the Stage 1 Theatre of the Petaling Jaya Performing Arts Centre in Selangor on September 6, 8:30 p.m.; September 7, 3 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.; and September 8, 3 p.m.
Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa brings her own dance adaptation of La Traviata to Malaysia in a program that also includes classical and contemporary pieces. Photo by MarBi Photography
Based on Giuseppe Verdi’s opera of the same title, La Traviata is the story of the courtesan Violetta and Alfredo, the man who falls for her and whom she loves in return. Though Alfredo can’t offer her the same material comforts she has been enjoying as the partner of Barone, Violetta chooses him. But circumstances force her to go back to the Barone, driving Alfredo to despair. Violetta falls ill; Alfredo goes to her but it’s already too late and she dies in his arms.
Getting to do a ballet adaptation of La Traviata is a dream-come-true for Lisa. “It’s my favorite opera,” she says. “It’s so romantic and every aria is just so beautiful and moving.”
Exposed to the emotional music of Verdi when she was just a teenager, Lisa first saw La Traviata on film while a student at the then Leningrad Choreographic Institute (now the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet). The film, which had Russian subtitles, starred Placido Domingo and Teresa Stratas.
“I was already comfortable reading, writing and speaking Russian then. I was very, very moved by it and found myself crying at the end,” shares Lisa who secretly wished even then that she could turn it into a ballet.
In Lisa Macuja Elizalde’s La Traviata, the courtesan Violetta (Abigail Oliveiro) is torn between two men – Alfredo (Mark Sumaylo) and Barone (Joshua Enciso). Photo by Erica Marquez-Jacinto
The opportunity presented itself decades later when she had already established Ballet Manila, a company she co-founded with the late Osias Barroso Jr. Having already completed her Princess Trilogy (Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty), Lisa decided to take on a ballet with a more mature theme for her next choreography.
She thus created La Traviata as half of a double-bill to close Ballet Manila’s 24th performance, the other half being Rudy De Dios’ Carmina Burana.
Among the challenges she faced was to select the music that would go into the ballet, considering the opera was all of three hours. “I had to carefully choose the arias the dancers will perform to. The choreography had to tell a story in the shortest time possible.”
After the ballet’s premiere in 2020, La Traviata would again go onstage as the anchor piece in Ballet Manila’s comeback production after the pandemic, Rise!, at Aliw Theater in October 2022. It was also performed at the Far Eastern University in Manila in October 2023, shortly followed by another staging in Baguio City.
Bastion (Romeo Peralta Jr.) is set to wed Honoree (Rissa May Camaclang) but grows wary when he learns that her brother Alfredo has a relationship with a courtesan. Photo by Erica Marquez-Jacinto
A send-off show of Ballet Manila’s Greatest Hits in Malaysia was performed last August 24 at Aliw Theater.
For the Malaysia performance series, Ballet Manila principal dancers Abigail Oliveiro, Mark Sumaylo and Joshua Encisco once again step into the three key roles as Violetta, Alfredo and Barone. In a nod to La Traviata’s opera roots, classical singers Anna Migallos (soprano), Nohmer Nival (tenor) and Roby Malubay (baritone) will be performing live.
The second half of Ballet Manila’s Greatest Hits will be comprised of: Augustus Damian III’s Reconfigured, an all-male modern dance piece highlighting the intensity and power of the company’s danseurs; Sotto Voce, a piece performed practically in full on pointes; Alexander Gorsky’s Don Quixote Grand Pas de Deux, the wedding dance of Kitri and Basilio from the full-length Russian classic; National Artist for Dance Agnes Locsin’s Sayao sa Pamlang, a suite of dances inspired by the culture of the Philippine South; Arachnida, a pas de deux about spiders mating; and Tony Fabella’s Dancing to Verdi, focusing on the technical and artistic proficiencies of the dancers.
