"Carmen Suite"
Ballet in one act to music by Georges Bizet and Rodion Shchedrin
Libretto Alberto Alonso based on the story Carmen by Prospero Merime
Choreographer: Alberto Alonso
Designer: Boris Messerer
Music Director: Pavel Sorokin
Assistant to Choreographer: Sonia Calero Alonso
Lighting designer: Alexander Rubtsov
Age category 16+
"Petrushka"
Ballet in one act to music by Igor Stravinsky
Libretto by Alexandre Benois, Igor Stravinsky
Choreographer: Edward Clug
Set Designer: Marko Japelj
Costume Designer: Leo Kulaš
Music Director: Pavel Klinichev
Lighting Designer: Martin Gebhardt
"Petrushka" Synopsis
Scene One: Butter Week (Shrovetide) Carnival
Scene Two: Petrouchka’s Cell
Scene Three: The Moor’s Room
Scene Four: Butter Week Carnival (towards evening)
Original authorial version
During the Butter Week (Shrovetide) revelry an old Charlatan, of Eastern mien, displays his puppets who have come to life: Petrushka, the Ballerina and the Moor, who are performing a furious dance amidst an astonished crowd. Via his magic gift, the Charlatan has invested his puppets with the feelings and passions of real people. Petrushka has been given more feelings than the others, and he suffers more than the Ballerina and the Moor.
He is bitterly aware of the Charlatan’s cruelty, his own lack of freedom, his isolation from the rest of the world, his ugly, comical appearance. He seeks consolation in the love of the Ballerina and it seems to him that she reciprocates his feelings when, in fact, she is only frightened of his eccentricities and she tries to avoid him.
The life of the stupid, bad-tempered, but well-turned out Moor is the total opposite of that of Petrushka. The Ballerina finds him attractive and goes out of her way to charm him. Eventually, of course, she succeeds but Petrushka, mad with jealousy, bursts into the room and puts an end to the love-making. The Moor loses his temper and turnsPetrushka out.
The Butter Week revelry reaches an all-time high. A merchant’s son, making merry with some gypsy girls, throws stacks of notes to the crowd, courtcoachmen dance with nurses in holiday attire; a group of mummers involves everyone in a wild knees-up. When the carousing is at its height, sobs from the Charlatan’s theatre are heard. Them is understanding between the Moor and Petrushka has taken a turn for the worse. The live dolls run out into the street. With a blow of his sabre, the Moor fells Petrushka to the ground, and poor Petrushka lies dying in the snow, surrounded by a crowd of drunken idlers. The Charlatan, escorted to the scene by the Policeman on duty, hastens to calm everyone down. In his hands, Petrushka regains his original doll-like appearance and the crowd, having seen that his shattered head is made of wood, and his body filled with sawdust, disperse. But there is a nasty surprise in store for the cunning Charlatan, who remains alone, with his puppet; to his horror Petrushka’s ghost appears above the theatre: he threatens his tormentor and mocks all those who had believed in his death.
