07-28 Winter's Tale_Gp 3.qxt 7/11/16 9:01 AM Page 1 July 13 –31, 2 016 Lincoln Center Festival lead support is provided by American Express July 28–31 David H. Koch Theater The National Ballet of Canada Karen Kain, Artistic Director The Winter’s Tale The National Ballet of Canada Orchestra Music Director and Principal Conductor David Briskin Approximate running time: 2 hours and 35 minutes, with two intermissions This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center. The Lincoln Center Festival 2016 presentation of The Winter’s Tale is made possible in part by generous support from The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust and Jennie and Richard DeScherer. Additional support is provided by The Joelson Foundation. Endowment support for the Lincoln Center Festival 2016 presentation of The Winter’s Tale is provided by Blavatnik Family Foundation Fund for Dance. Public support for Festival 2016 is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts. The National Ballet of Canada’s lead philanthropic support for The Winter’s Tale is provided by The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation, Richard M. Ivey, C.C., an anonymous friend of the National Ballet, and The Producers’ Circle. The National Ballet of Canada gratefully acknowledges the generous support of The Honourable Margaret Norrie McCain, C.C. A co-production of The National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Ballet 07-28 Winter's Tale_Gp 3.qxt 7/11/16 9:01 AM Page 2 LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL 2016 THE WINTER’S TALE Choreography Christopher Wheeldon Music Joby Talbot Staging Jacquelin Barrett and Anna Délicia Trévien Scenario Christopher Wheeldon and Joby Talbot Set and Costume Design Bob Crowley Lighting Design Natasha Katz Projection Design Daniel Brodie Silk Effects Design Basil Twist Repetiteurs Mandy-Jayne Richardson and Lindsay Fischer Cast Leontes, King of Sicilia Florizel, Prince of Bohemia Piotr Stanczyk (July 28, 30 evening), Naoya Ebe (July 28, 30 evening), Evan McKie (July 29), Guillaume Côté + Francesco Gabriele Frola (July 29, 31), (July 30 matinee), McGee Maddox (July 31) Skylar Campbell (July 30 matinee) Hermione, Queen of Sicilia Steward, Head of King Polixenes’ Household Hannah Fischer (July 28, 30 evening), Giorgio Galli or Donald Thom Jurgita Dronina (July 29), Sonia Rodriguez + (July 30 matinee), Heather Father Shepherd Ogden (July 31) Donald Thom or Jonathan Renna Perdita, Princess of Sicilia Brother Clown, Shepherd’s Son Jillian Vanstone (July 28, 30 evening), Dylan Tedaldi or Robert Stephen or Elena Lobsanova (July 29, 31), Rui Huang Jack Bertinshaw (July 30 matinee) Young Shepherdess Mamillius, Prince of Sicilia Jordana Daumec or Tina Pereira or Simon Adamson-de Luca * or Meghan Pugh Antony Tcherny * Ladies, Lords, Maidens, Shepherds, Paulina, Head of Queen Hermione’s Shepherdesses Artists of the Ballet Household Xiao Nan Yu (July 28, 30 evening), Banda Svetlana Lunkina (July 29, 30 matinee), Bansuri Leslie J. Allt Tanya Howard (July 31) Dulcimer Richard Moore Antigonus, Head of King Leontes’ Household Accordion Branko Džinovic Jonathan Renna (July 28, 30 evening), Percussion Kristofer Maddigan, Peter Ottmann (July 29, 30 matinee, 31) Mark Mazur + Polixenes, King of Bohemia Debut Harrison James (July 28, 30 evening), *Junior Associates of Canada’s National Ballet Brendan Saye (July 29, 31), Félix Paquet School appear by kind permission of Artistic (July 30 matinee) Director Mavis Staines, C.M. Cast subject to change 07-28 Winter's Tale_Gp 3.qxt 7/11/16 9:01 AM Page 3 LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL 2016 THE WINTER’S TALE Synopsis The shores of Bohemia Antigonus struggles ashore to abandon the Prologue baby princess, and is pursued and killed by Two kings separated as children are reunited a bear. His ship is smashed to pieces on the in adulthood. One king, Leontes of Sicilia, rocks. A shepherd and his son Clown discover marries Hermione, giving her a beautiful the baby girl and the treasure. emerald. They have a son, Mamillius, and Act II: A hillside in Bohemia. Sixteen are blissfully happy. The other king, Polixenes years later. of Bohemia, visits the court of Leontes. He Perdita, abandoned daughter of King is delighted to be reunited with his old Leontes and Queen Hermione, has been friend and stays for nine months. By the raised by the shepherd who found her. She time of his departure, Hermione is about to dances beneath the great tree with her give birth to her second child. love, Prince Florizel, son of Polixenes, whom the other villagers know as a shepherd boy. Act I: The Court of Sicilia Villagers arrive for the annual springtime On the day of Polixenes’ departure, the festival. King Polixenes, who has heard that Bohemian court says goodbye to Sicilian his son is cavorting with a shepherdess, friends. At Hermione’s request, Polixenes sends his steward to spy on him. When the agrees to stay another week. In a flash of steward confirms his suspicions, an enraged jealousy, Leontes becomes convinced that Polixenes demands to see for himself. At his wife has been unfaithful and is carrying the festival, Perdita is to be crowned May Polixenes’ child. Jealousy turns to rage and Queen. In honor of the occasion, Father he attacks Polixenes, who flees to Bohemia. Shepherd presents her with the emerald Leontes publicly accuses Hermione of necklace he found with her on the beach. adultery and treason, then has her arrested. Polixenes and his steward arrive in disguise This so distresses Mamillius that he falls to see what Florizel is up to. On witnessing seriously ill. In prison, Hermione gives birth Florizel’s engagement to a shepherdess, to a daughter. The head of her household Polixenes reveals himself; furious with Paulina brings the newborn to Leontes, Florizel, he condemns Perdita and her family hoping to convince him that the baby is his. to death. They flee by boat to Sicilia, pursued Instead, he violently rejects the child and by Polixenes. orders Paulina’s husband Antigonus to abandon the baby in a remote place. Act III: A clifftop in Sicilia Antigonus sets sail into a storm with the King Leontes mourns by the clifftop graves baby and treasure, including the emerald of his wife and son, watched over by Paulina. once given to Hermione by Leontes. Perdita and Florizel’s ship approaches Sicilia. Hermione, brought to trial, pleads her innocence. Leontes, now quite mad, The palace in Sicilia refuses to believe her. Dazed and feverish, Perdita and Florizel appeal to Leontes to allow Mamillius enters the courtroom and, upon their union and to intercede with Polixenes witnessing the unfolding tragedy, collapses on their behalf. Leontes is taken with the and dies from distress. Seeing the death of likeness of Florizel to Polixenes and agrees her child, Hermione too collapses dead and to help the couple, who remind him of his lost is taken away. Only now does Leontes children. Polixenes arrives and Leontes tries realize the disastrous consequences of his to reason with him, but he violently handles terrible mistake. Perdita, revealing the emerald. The long-lost 07-28 Winter's Tale_Gp 3.qxt 7/11/16 9:01 AM Page 4 LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL 2016 THE WINTER’S TALE princess is miraculously alive, the two kings looked at various sources, and no—no one are reunited, and the palace celebrates wants to do the bear, I think…. Florizel and Perdita’s wedding. During the festivities, Leontes is led by Paulina to a new MM: So how are you tackling Shakespeare’s statue of Hermione. Deeply remorseful, he most famous stage direction—”Exit pur - kneels at its base. Suddenly, it comes to sued by a bear”—referring to the hapless, life—Hermione is alive and has been kept in about-to-be-eaten Antigonus? hiding by Paulina for 16 years. She embraces Leontes, and the family is reunited. CW: I can’t give that away! MM: But why do you really think no one has previously attempted to turn this play The Winter’s Tale: into dance? A Tale of Two Kingdoms Mark Monahan talked to Christopher CW: It’s often called a “problem play,” and, Wheeldon about the creation of his second although I could be shooting myself in the foot full-length narrative ballet. by saying this, it’s actually easier to watch the story unfold than to explain it. Of course, I’ve Mark Monahan: It could be argued that worked a lot on the synopsis of the actual taking the framework of a Shakespeare play show, and have thinned out the secondary but ditching the words—as choreographers characters and some side plots. Also, this was inevitably must—is like buying a 1945 one of Shakespeare’s last plays, and according Mouton-Rothschild, tipping the contents to Nick Hytner [former director of the National down the sink, and keeping the bottle. Theatre], the writing is fairly jumbled. Nick What, then, is the irresistible lure of believes that Shakespeare had got a little bit Shakespeare for creators of dance? lazy by the time he wrote The Winter’s Tale ; it’s not as well-constructed as many of his Christopher Wheeldon: (laughs) He wrote other plays, which makes it quite complex good stories! Of course, the beauty of the to read. But Nick told me not to get caught language is what draws people to stage up in the minutiae of trying to understand them and read them, but he also wrote every word. terrific plot lines—that’s why I chose The Winter’s Tale . There are some really strong MM: That sounds like good advice. characters, and the situations are operatic in scale.