The beautiful ‘Giselle' ballet will be in Hong Kong for just nine performances
Some of the famous guest artists for this production include the étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet Hugo Marchand – who was a torch bearer at last year's Paris Olympic Games – in his Hong Kong debut, while The Royal Ballet's principal dancer Marianela Nuñez returns to dance with HKB for her third consecutive year. Giselle also marks the return of another principal dancer of The Royal Ballet, Matthew Ball, whom we last saw as Prince Siegfried in last year's production of Swan Lake. Ball had great chemistry with HKB's principal dancer Ye Feifei, and we're excited to see them reunite on stage. Lastly, the international star Victor Caixeta, who was formerly the principal dancer of the Dutch National Ballet will also be returning to collaborate with HKB.
For the uninitiated, this ballet follows the kind-hearted peasant girl Giselle who meets and falls in love with the handsome Albrecht, only to discover later that the flirtatious man has lied to her about his background and is also engaged to someone else. The deceit and grief drives her mad and the vengeful spirits of women who died before their weddings try to take revenge on Albrecht for Giselle, but her unwavering love protects him from the supernatural forces. The ballet blanc in the second act, when the wilis spirits rise from their graves is definitely one to keep an eye out for.
HKB's new Giselle will feature beautiful costumes and sets by the designer Jérôme Kaplan, including a castle inspired by the Château de Pierrefond and cottages modeled after Marie Antoinette's Hameau de la Reine hamlet at Versailles. This tragic, poignant ballet is to be staged on Fridays to Sundays from May 30 to June 8 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Telegraph
Who needs the Russians when the Japanese can dance like this?
Three years ago, not long after Russia (re-)invaded Ukraine, I wrote: 'The effective home arrest of Russia's (often touring) Big Two' dance companies – ie the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky – 'has now left a fascinating power vacuum on the international stage, not least in Covent Garden's summer schedules. Who will fill it?' The root cause is miserably ongoing, of course, and yet we do have three very definite answers to date. In 2023, the Australian Ballet visited the Royal Opera House for the first time in 35 years; last August, a few streets away at the Coliseum, the State Ballet of Georgia made its charming UK debut. Now, at Covent Garden, the National Ballet of Japan is here for the very first time. And you know what? They may well be the pick of the visitors so far. The company's Giselle is a complete and particularly beautiful success. On one hand, this perhaps shouldn't come as a complete surprise: western classical ballet has existed in Japan for at least a century, and a great many Japanese-born dancers go on to have illustrious careers in the West. But fair's fair: given that this troupe was founded as recently as 1997, the polish, professionalism and assurance of the production and performance alike are astonishing. So, what is this Giselle actually like? In the extensive programme notes, Miyako Yoshida – a Royal Ballet star from 1995-2010, NBJ's director since 2020, and the show's producer – says: 'I felt drawn to a more traditional approach, but infused it with a sense of Japanese spirit'. Frustratingly, she doesn't elaborate on what the last part means. (An enhanced sense of the proximity between the 'real' and spirit worlds, conceivably?) But traditional, it certainly is. Back in the day, Yoshida danced in Peter Wright's pitch-perfect staging for the Royal Ballet, and that version's heightened aesthetics and complete respect for the 1841 source material clearly got under her skin. Opulently and painstakingly designed by Dick Bird, and with unobtrusive embellishments to the Petipa/Coralli/Perrot choreography by Alastair Marriott – Britons both – this is in fact as 'western' a Giselle as you may ever see, a heartbreaking, almost immersively atmospheric Rhineland ghost story – from Tokyo. Full marks, too for the dancing, across the ranks. Giselle – the dance-obsessed peasant girl in love with Albrecht, an already-betrothed count masquerading as a fellow commoner – is one of the great ballerina roles, and on the opening night Yui Yonezawa made it fly. Intensely musical, and almost impossibly light on her feet, she lends Giselle just the right dash of intensity and fragility, the sense of there being a vulnerable thread just waiting to be fatally unpicked by a lover's betrayal. Her handling of the 'mad scene', in which her jealous would-be paramour Hilarion (Masahiro Nakaya, excellent) unmasks Albrecht and her heart gives out, is marvellously original; her Giselle seems to turn into a wraith before our very eyes, even before the moonlit, magical Act II has begun. She and Shun Izawa's Albrecht – not in quite the same league, but a gutsy, full-blooded interpretation nonetheless – make a convincingly smitten couple in the earthbound Act I. And together they considerably swell the pathos in Act II, when Giselle's ghost, putting love over retribution, sets out to defend her errant ex from an army of 'Wilis', the vengeful spirits of women who were jilted on their wedding days. And what an eye-widening army they are. In the Act I ensembles, on Thursday night, the corps were already displaying a rare cohesiveness; in Act II, they were positively unheimlich. I'm not sure I've ever seen such an utterly uniform, eerily hall-of-mirrors clutch of spectres in any Giselle, such a potent illusion of physical ethereality and subtly martial malevolence. (Incidentally, these oh-so-western wraiths make a beautiful contrast with those of Wimbledon-born Akram Khan's 2016 version for English National Ballet, which he effectively recast as ' yurei ', the lank-haired Japanese phantoms that have haunted many a terrifying movie.) I suppose a cynic might argue that while Wright's Giselle remains a cornerstone of the Royal Ballet's repertory, this is all a bit coals-to-Newcastle. But when those coals are burning this very brightly, you won't hear me complaining.
Daily Record
7 hours ago
- Daily Record
'Cowardly and big headed' A dart storm brews over savage claims aimed at Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney
South African star Devon Petersen rifles back at World Cup winners after comments of disrespect at World Cup Devon Petersen has fired back at Josh Rock and colleague Daryl Gurney and hammered out accusations of cowardice and big headedness. The South African star has spoken out strongly in the wake of a feisty World Cup of Darts clash against eventual-winners Northern Ireland last month. Rock called Petersen 'disrespectful' for pouring water over his partner's darts case and also had a pop at his rival's chatting on stage. Gurney piped in saying Petersen would be a 'millionaire' if he was paid for speaking. However, the Petersen has rifled back with his response and told Online Darts: 'I feel as though, because I'm off the tour, they felt as though they could say what they wanted to because there was not going to be any kind of backlash or talkback or whatever. I think the crazy part is, we celebrated them on the stage, when they came off the stage. 'We saw them at the hotel. We had jokes with them, spoke about the event, spoke about the game, said, listen, the possibilities of you winning is real. So understand that the next steps, make it count. Make it your World Cup, is what we said. Josh and Daryl was celebratory towards us, we miss you on tour and all of that stuff. You get back home to the hotel, you see these headlines. 'And I was almost like, number one, cowardly. I felt like it was a coward move because I was stood right in front of you, could have said it to my face. Number two is, there should be a player etiquette. When you talk nonsense on stage and you're speaking to a global audience, and it's the World Cup, so it is the global audience. What Josh Rock was saying about being disrespectful. 'I've only been respectful to everybody that I've played against and played with and competed against, even Josh Rock. And it feels as though there's a slight big headedness that came through at that point. And I don't know if it's emotion because we've seen a lot of players go through that and stress and, obviously, things placed on them and pressure. 'I wanted to win for South Africa. There was no way that I wasn't going to give it my all, right? And there was comments made by Daryl Gurney saying: He spoke all the time on the stage. It's a pairs game, there's four people on the stage. The only way that I'm going to make the player that is partnered with me comfortable, I told him, listen to my voice. 'I didn't speak to Daryl Gurney or to Josh Rock and say you're going to play bad or kind of disrupt their game. If you listen to me as well, that's on you, you got your team. And they were also doing the exact same. 'So I don't know how they went: Oh, we won, but he was so disrespectful. If I was on the stage and they said it, I would have said some stuff. 'In the end, Josh Rock came with the attitude he wanted to win. He came with that almost, I'm going to say arrogance, but not in a bad way. He came with that confidence. Let me call it that, the confidence because he's been playing well. Daryl said that he told Josh Rock, this is Devon's game to play. So I think that he built Josh Rock up with this kind of almost aggression and all of that stuff, where it wasn't my fault. 'And then when they were talking about throwing water on their darts. To understand, to throw water three metres away from where I'm stood? Listen, if I was throwing water that good, I wish it was my darts so that I would have been in the final and not them. 'So, yes, I think that there was a lot that went wrong. I messaged Daryl, I called him a few names, but I congratulated him as well because we have a relationship like that. I felt it was a silly moment for them to do it. If they worded it differently and they said we wanted to win for Northern Ireland, that would have been a lot more tasteful than Devon was disrespectful because there's no reason for me to be respecting you on a stage if you're my opponent. 'I respect the game rules, I respect everything else, but we are opponents, I'm there to rip your head off. I didn't do anything to impede your game. your name or reputation. You did all of that. So it showed a bit of the level or the lack of class from Team Northern Ireland.' Petersen says saying the right things is important in the modern-darts world as he added: 'I think that the one thing that players must be reminded, right, is that you come from nothing and then you elevate it to this level of stardom and celebrity. Not everybody can cope with that. Some people get big heads, some people remain the same. Some people just change attitudes. Just understand that there's a level of respect that's needed, understanding what you say goes out to the world and darts is on a platform now where anything said or done, I mean, we've seen Michael Van Gerwen playing Padel the other day. It made news. Like he's playing Padel. That the level that the sport is on now. 'So what you say, what you do in front of the stage, just premeditate it, at least. I know not a lot of players think that far, but do it because the sport is at the point because it can almost hinder your future and you don't want that to happen.'
Time Out
a day ago
- Time Out
Matthew Mole returns from Europe tour, brings the heat to Johannesburg
Internationally celebrated star, Matthew Mole, is bringing the heat to Johannesburg this winter. Experience him live in Midrand this coming weekend at the Bailey's Live in Bedfordview. The South African singer and songwriter has been on tour in Europe for the past months and is finally back home, ready to give his South African fans a night to remember. " I've been on tour in europe a lot this year and i'm going back again in a few weeks, so come to the SA WINTER TOUR so that i can see you while i'm home?" he wrote on Instagram on Wednesday. View this post on Instagram A post shared by matthew mole (@matthewjmole) He will be performing at Bedfordview as part of his SA Winter Tour. The tour started on 4 July in Ballito and will end in Pretoria on the 16th of this month. This weekend's show is scheduled to take place on Sunday evening. The singer will be joined by local star, Josh Klynsmith. Get ready to dance to hits such as 'Running After You', 'Run' and 'Take Yours, I'll Take Mine'.
