The Polish National Ballet is opening its 2013/14 season on the Chamber Stage. This is where Jacek Tyski is producing his Hamlet to music from a selection of works by Ludwig van Beethoven. After John Neumeier’sA Midsummer Night’s Dream, this is the second production in the planned series of Shakespeare ballets which we are preparing for the approaching 400th anniversary of the great English playwright’s death. The next one, later on in the season, will be a new production of Romeo and Juliet choreographed by Krzysztof Pastor.
Hamlet was one of the first Shakespeare ballets in history. A ballet version appeared as early as 1788, staged by Italian ballet master Francesco Clerico (to his own music!) at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice. The story was later presented as a ballet by many other choreographers, including Louis Henry, Bronislava Nijinska, Robert Helpmann, Victor Gsovsky, Konstantin Sergeyev, Wachtang Czabukiani, John Neumeier, Kenneth MacMillan, and Peter Schaufuss, each of them choosing different music. In Poland, Conrad Drzewiecki was the first to work on this motif, in his balletShakespeare Improvisations at the Poznań Opera (1966) with himself as Hamlet opposite Olga Sawicka’s Ophelia.
Jacek Tyski is working on our ballet version of Hamlettogether with script writer Kordian Piwowarski, stage designer Robert Majkut, costume designer Tijana Jovanović, and lighting designer Olga Skumiał. The part of Hamlet is being prepared by Sergey Popov, Paweł Koncewoj, and Patryk Walczak. The ballet’s cast also includes Magdalena Ciechowicz, Yuka Ebihara, Marta Fiedler, Aleksandra Liashenko, Anna Lorenc, Maria Żuk, Carlos Martín Pérez, and Vladimir Yaroshenko. The world premiere of Jacek Tyski’s new choreography will take place on 3 October, followed by performances on 5, 15, 16 and 17 October, and 7 and 8 December 2013.
Pictured: Hamlet in rehearsal – Jacek Tyski (1), Aleksandra Liashenko, Sergey Popov, and Jacek Tyski (2), Patryk Walczak, Vladimir Yaroshenko, Carlos Martín Pérez, Kenneth Dwigans, and Vadzim Kezik (3)
Photos by Ewa Krasucka