Ballet in two acts
Choreography: KRZYSZTOF PASTOR
Music: RICHARD WAGNER / HENK DE VLIEGER
Consuctor: MARTA KLUCZYŃSKA
Set design: KATARZYNA NESTERUK
Costumes: MACIEJ ZIEŃ
Video projections: PLATIGE IMAGE
Lighting: BOGUMIŁ PALEWICZ
World premiere: 31 March 2006, Royal Swedish Ballet, Stockholm
Polish premiere: 29 March 2009, Polish National Ballet, Warsaw
With this ballet, Krzysztof Pastor has won the hearts of Polish audiences and critics. 'A phenomenal Tristan at the Polish National Opera'. 'A ballet revelation at the Teatr Wielki'. 'Beautiful passions'. 'An enchanting Tristan'. 'The premiere of the season'. 'The most beautiful death from love'. 'Absolute praise'. 'A breakthrough at the Warsaw ballet'. 'Polish ballet shines!' These are just some of the headlines with which critics greeted the first production by Krzysztof Pastor as the director of the Polish National Ballet. 'With its theme of death-defying love, Wagner's intoxicating music and the largest stage in Europe – the premiere of Tristan at Warsaw's Teatr Wielki was a grand occasion,' wrote Maggie Foyer in magazine Dance Europe.
Pastor took on the most famous love story of our tradition and gave it a contemporary ballet form. He originally created the production for the Royal Swedish Ballet, and later put it on with the Polish National Ballet in Warsaw. It is a wonderful, original ballet about love's passions inspired by medieval chivalric romance. A story of unfulfilled love and death, and being torn between Christian morality and desire. The subject matter seems as up-to-date as ever, with the conflict between morality and passion engaging us today the same as it enganged our ancestors a thousand of years ago. The music of Richard Wagner plays a very important role in the production – with its spaciousness, limitlessness and passion. It uses two pieces: the opera Tristan und Isolde and the song cycle Wesendonk Lieder. The great music and the great choreography are complemented by great interpretations by the soloists of the Polish National Ballet.
Running time: 2 hrs 15 min.