Ural Opera Ballet – Paquita

A breath of fresh air blows over the Ural Opera Ballet with this new version of Paquita, halfway between traditional and modern! The festive ballet Paquita, which tells of the thwarted love between a gypsy woman and an officer, was Marius Petipa’s debut in St. Petersburg. However, only the last scene of the ballet, the famous Grand pas Classique, remained in the repertoire of the companies. Thanks to a careful reconstruction, the Ural Opera Ballet finally revives the original version in three acts.

The choreography is the result of methodical research by expert Sergei Vikharev and former ballet director Vyacheslav Samodurov, who meticulously reconstruct Petipa’s 1881 version using notes from the Harvard Theatre Collection. The original score was rearranged by the famous Petersburg composer Yuri Krasavin.

The new production uses the original libretto of the ballet, but transposes it in time. The result is a production of great topicality, illustrating the strong political and social substrate of the original plot with artistic references from the 20th century. A powerful theatrical experience that will be crowned in 2019 with the jury’s special prize, the “Golden Mask”.