Ballet NdB invited the prominent Croatian choreographer Valentina Turcu to create the original ballet. Turcu’s masterfully crafted choreography to several reworked Schubert’s scores provides a unique experience of a truly heart-rendering ballet spectacle that is imbued with many contrasting themes, with many of them still considered as morally dubious, such as the question of free love, especially through a woman’s perspective. A unique and thought-provoking viewpoint of a female choreographer provides us not only with a new “reading” of the novel, but rather gives us a more authentic, believable, yet seductive and rather intense »original« – a multi-layered drama ballet that features strong and energized, as well as highly aestheticized movement, which is accentuated by a personal signature and remarkable expressivity of ballet dancers from Brno. Turcu’s brilliant, yet delicate choreographic manuscript The Lady of the Camellias – along with the unsurpassed Schubertian melody, full of beauty, longing and anguish – will undoubtedly render you speechless, but will still leave you questioning about true nature of love, its enigmatic beauty, as well of devastating impact it often has on our lives.
The Lady of the Camellias
Vice, love, sacrifice…
Creators:
Valentina Turcu,
Franz Schubert,
Andrei Pushkarev
Production team:
Valentina Turcu
Choreography, Direction and Dramaturgy – Franz Schubert
Music – Andrei Pushkarev
Musical Adaptation – Robert Kružík
Conductor, Musical Direction – Marko Japelj
Set Design – Alan Hranitelj
Costume Design – Aleksandar Čavlek
Light Design – Martin Svobodník
Video Projection – Arthur Abram
Nude Photography – Anton Bogov
Assistant Choreographer – Markéta Pimek Habalová
Assistant Choreographer – Gustavo Beserra Quintans
Stage Manager – Luděk Mrkos
The Lady of the Camellias, undoubtedly one of the most famous love stories in modern literature, inspired the creation of other adaptations in many artistic genres, including Verdi’s opera La Traviata and many film adaptations. The famous romantic novel by Alexandre Dumas fils is a semi‑autobiographical story of an unhappy love in which the author speaks of his passionate and painful relationship with the famous Parisian courtesan, Marie Duplessis. The story of Marguerite and Armand, a beautiful courtesan and a young man from a bourgeois family, initially takes place in Paris high society and then in the countryside, where they both leave for a new and better life. Unfortunately, their deep and passionate relationship does not last long. Pressured by Armand’s father, Marguerite leaves her beloved and pretends that she no longer cares for him. She returns to her former way of life and dies alone. Armand thinks she has betrayed him, and only after her death does he learn the truth about the strength of her self‑sacrificing love.
Ballet NdB invited the prominent Croatian choreographer Valentina Turcu to create the original ballet. She studied and danced under the famous Maurice Béjart in Lausanne, where she acquired her unique dance skills and distinctive style. She now works as a choreographer of a wide range of productions – from classical ballet to avant‑garde, from grand productions to individual choreographic miniatures.
Musical adaptation of Franz Schubert scores was done by Andrei Pushkarev. Musical director working with the Orchestra of Janáček Opera is Conductor, Robert Kružík. Creative team working with the choreographer Valentina Turcu consists of prominent Slovenian designer. Set designer is Marko Japelj, who has worked with Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and costume designer is Alan Hranitelj, who has designed costumes for the famous Cirque du Soleil.