Festival Ballet Providence

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 4, 2008

Festival Ballet Providence, 401.353.1129

Swan Lake closes the 30th Season
Festival Ballet Providence 30th season Grand Finale: Swan Lake!
April 25-27, 2008

Providence, RI -

Program:	Swan Lake, program II performances
Date:	April 25-27, 2008
Time:	Friday April 25, 2008 at 7:30 pm Saturday April 26, 2008 at 7:30 pm Sunday April 27, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Place:	VMA Arts & Cultural Center, 1 Avenue of the Arts
Cost:	$17 to $62 with group, child and senior discounts, family 4-packs for $40, and student rush pricing
Information	Vist www.festivalballet.com , write info@festivalballet.com or call 401.353.1129.

Festival Ballet Providence closes its 30th Anniversary season with one of the most revered of all the classics, Swan Lake, April 25-27, 2008, at the VMA Arts and Cultural Center. The production will be staged by Festival Ballet Providence Artistic Director Mihailo Djuric and Ballet Mistress Milica Bijelic after the original by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Stunning sets & costumes for Swan Lake will be rented from Pittsburg Ballet Theatre.

The decision to close the season with Swan Lake goes back to March 1998. Mr. Djuric had just been notified by the Festival Ballet Providence Board of Trustees that he had been chosen as the company’s next Artistic Director. He came to witness a performance by the company whose leadership he was about to take for the first time: a production of Swan Lake.

“I was so excited to see a performance by the company I was coming to direct. What I saw was a beautiful production staged by Winthrop Corey, a co-founder of the company. But I learned the lead roles were danced by guest artists, Alexandra Koltun (then at Boston Ballet, later a company member of Festival Ballet Providence) and Gennadi Saveliev (from American Ballet Theater), and only half the dancers were local; the rest had been hired in from the Joffrey Ballet School.”

From that point, Djuric has been determined that the company stand on its own, and 10 years later, Festival Ballet Providence dancers will dominate the stage.

He and Ms. Bijelic are staging the production based on the successful version of Swan Lake, by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Djuric and Bijelic point out, “Swan Lake represents the preeminent ballet of the classical repertory. There are some great roles, the most difficult being the lead role of Odette/Odile, which embodies both immense technical challenges (including the famous 32 fouetté turns) and a full range of human emotions - from hope to despair, from terror to tenderness, from melancholy to ecstasy. Productions of Swan Lakeare distinguished from each other in part by the ending; in the original, the story ended in tragedy. We created this version to end on a happy note. We are excited to work on this ballet with the Company, and have great faith in their technical and artistic strengths to ensure a successful production. It will be a memorable finale to our 30th season.”

This ballet incorporates the centuries-old legend of the Swan Maiden, wherein young women turned to swans by the evil character are transformed to women at night, and swim as Swans by day in a lake made by their tears. The score by Tchaikovsky was originally commissioned in 1875 in Moscow, but the version we know today did not reach the stage until after his death. The score and the staging changed in many ways over the first 20 years, with productions by several choreographers, before finally being staged at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1895 with what is considered to be the “standard version” of the ballet with Petipa choreographing Acts I & III and Ivanov Acts II and IV.

Swan Lake tells the story of young Prince Siegfried, who falls in love with the Swan Queen Odette, a woman transformed into a bird by an evil sorcerer. Odette explains to him that she is destined to remain a Swan Maiden until rescued by a man's undying love.

Enthralled by her beauty, Prince Siegfried pledges his eternal love - but later, at a party in honor of his 21st birthday, he is tricked by the sorcerer, Von Rotbart, into declaring his love for Von Rotbart’s daughter Odile. Realizing his unintentional betrayal, Prince Siegfried rushes back to the lake. There, he battles Von Rotbart, and destroys Von Rotbart’s power. Odette and Prince Siegfried are reunited.

Djuric and Bijelic anticipate there will be two casts for this production, with a corps de ballet of 16 swans and an entire cast of over 50. The signature dual role of Odette/Odile will be performed by Leticia Guerreo and Vilia Putrius.

The Swan Lake performances will take place April 25-27, 2009 at the VMA Arts & Cultural Center. Performance times are at 7:30 pm Friday and Saturday, and 2:30 pm on Sunday.

Pre-performance chats with dancers, the Artistic Director and production staff take place Saturday and Sunday in the theater, 45 minutes before curtain.

VMA reserved tickets (priced from $17 to $62, with group, child and senior discounts, family 4-packs for $40, and student rush pricing) information is available by contacting www.tickets.com (800.919.6272), VMA Arts & Cultural Center, 401.272.4862, Festival Ballet Providence, 401.353.1129, by sending email inquiries to info@festivalballet.com or visiting www.festivalballet.com .

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Festival Ballet Providence and the Festival Ballet Providence Center for Dance Education are together a not-for-profit arts organization whose EIN is 05-0377245 and whose Rhode Island Corporate ID number is ND-27-137. All venues are handicapped-accessible.

To schedule interviews, to attend rehearsal (or dress rehearsal April 24), or for additional photographs, contact Mark Fleisher, 401.353.1129 or mfleisher@festivalballet.com.

The Swan Lake Gala will be held Sunday April 27th at the Renaissance Providence Hotel following the matinee performances. The event starts with a cocktail hour beginning at 5:30 pm followed by dinner and dancing at 7:00 pm. Individual tickets are $250 per person. Patron tickets $500 per ticket. Sponsor tables of 10 available at $3,000. Prices do not include performance tickets. For more information contact Paula Antonelli at 401.353.1129 or paula@festivalballet.com.

Synopsis (tentative)

ACT I
In the castle, Prince Siegfried’s 21st birthday is being celebrated. The Queen presents her son with the gift of a crossbow, and asks him to choose a bride from among the invited princesses the following day. When the guests have gone, a flock of white swans pass by. Bewitched by the beauty of these proud birds, the Prince decides to go hunting.

ACT II
The lake and its surrounding shores are under the control of the magician, Von Rotbart. In the form of a bird of prey, he rules over Princess Odette and her followers. Odette and the maidens have been turned by Rotbart’s dark magic into swans; only at night can they take human form. The Princess can be freed only by a man who loves none but her. Siegfried falls passionately in love with the Swan Princess Odette, and swears to be this man and break the spell.

ACT III
At the court of the Queen the next day, none of the princesses are able to captivate the Prince during the celebration, until a mysterious nobleman appears with his daughter Odile. The Prince believes that he recognizes in Odile his beloved Odette. In reality, it is Von Rotbart and his supernatural daughter who have come disguised as the nobleman and the black Swan. The Prince’s dance with Odile seals the fate of the Prince and his beloved Odette: he is completely bewitched by Odile’s magic. The Prince announces to the guests that he has chosen the beautiful stranger to be his bride. The Prince then realizes he has been fooled and that he has broken the oath he had sworn to Odette. In his utter remorse, he runs to the lake to find Odette.

ACT IV
In vain the white swans on the lake shore try to console their mistress, Odette. Shattered by the fact that the Prince has broken his promise, she has resigned herself to her fate. The Prince appears so that he can explain how Von Rotbart and Odile deceived him. Odette forgives the Prince, and again they declare their love for each other. Von Rotbart, who is powerless against this love, seeks his revenge through a duel with Siegfried. After the fight, the evil Von Rotbart dies, and love prevails.