- 1 - presents GRAEME MURPHY’S 2008 SEASON MELBOURNE 14 – 26 March the Arts Centre, State Theatre with Orchestra Victoria SYDNEY 4 – 24 April Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House with Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra Cover: Amber Scott as Odette and Adam Bull as Prince Siegfried. This page: Lucinda Dunn as Baroness von Rothbart, Robert Curran as Prince Siegfried and Amber Scott as Odette Photography – Liz Ham Production Sponsor Media Sponsor - 2 - - 3 - STSSP0016_FPC_SL.indd 1 30/1/08 4:10:08 PM Y8\y }8Zy| 1PJTF&MFHBODF%SBNB Note from the "OETPNFCFBVUJGVMMZTDVMQUFECPEJFT Artistic Director .FSDFEFT#FO[JTQSPVEUPCFBMFBETQPOTPSPG5IF"VTUSBMJBO#BMMFUBOEQSPEVDUJPOTQPOTPSPG4XBO-BLF F }{}|}Ez}F{ Fy I remember thinking as a child that the dancer could hope to play. They allow year would never end, that Christmas each dancer the scope to interpret the always seemed like it was so far away and lives of these complex characters in a the summer holidays would last forever. totally unique and personal way. Over Now as an adult, the pace of life feels the past six years there have been many more like a Formula 1 race. It seems like benchmark performances, none more so only yesterday that I sat as a fresh Artistic than Steven Heathcote, who created the Director nervously watching the world role of the Prince. Steven is now sharing premiere of Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake. his knowledge and insight into this work And what a night it was. It turned out to be by coaching a new generation of dancers the beginning of an extraordinary journey whose performances will carry this ballet for the company with a ballet that has into the future. inspired standing ovations in cities across Australia as well as Tokyo and London. As always Janet and Graeme have brought This production of Swan Lake has featured their special magic to this staging, making consistently in our repertoire since 2002 sure the heart and soul of the work is and still remains our most requested true to their original concept. The dancers work. I am thrilled to present it once always eagerly anticipate their visits as again in Melbourne and Sydney before they bring equal parts of joy and rigour it premieres in Paris later this year. to the rehearsal room and are loved and respected by the whole company. Interestingly, the first production of Swan Lake in 1877 was not a huge My sincere thanks go to our corporate success. However when Marius Petipa sponsors who have supported the return and Lev Ivanov brought the magnificent of Swan Lake – Media Sponsor Madison Tchaikovsky score to life again in 1895, and our brand-new Lead Sponsor and they created a production that would Production Sponsor for Swan Lake, go on to inspire generations of dancers Mercedes-Benz. May they be with us as and balletomanes in companies and long as our wonderful Principal Sponsor audiences around the world for years to Telstra, which has supported our artistic come. The title of Swan Lake alone seems growth for the past twenty-four years. enough to guarantee a sold out season. Maybe one day I should name one of our It is a pleasure to have you with us for mixed bills Swan Lake to test this theory! the first programme of the year. I hope you can join us for the rest of our 2008 This production is more than just season and share in the company’s popular, it is a work that delves deeply wealth of talent, which comes together into the heart of the original fairytale nearly every night on stages across the and examines the humanity and frailty country and around the world. of royal duty and the quest for true love. Graeme Murphy, Janet Vernon and Kristian Fredrikson created a glorious work that grows with each season. The roles of Prince Siegfried, Odette and Baroness von Rothbart are three David McAllister AM of the most captivating characters a Artistic Director - 4 - - 5 - UBU1213 Ballet Ad 4.indd 1 30/1/08 6:46:10 PM Swan Lake Choreography Graeme Murphy for a brief time, it seemed as if Siegfried Music Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky loved her alone. Concept Graeme Murphy, Janet Vernon Some months later, Odette left the white and Kristian Fredrikson loneliness of the sanatorium to seek and Set & costume design Kristian Fredrikson reclaim her husband, now fully under the MC Escher’s Rippled Surface © 2002 Cordon Art sway of the Baroness. Having appeared BV – Baarn – Holland. All rights reserved uninvited at an evening party given by Lighting design Damien Cooper the Baroness, Odette’s calm beauty and confident purity of spirit caused Siegfried Act One to fall deeply in love with her. The jealous Scene I Prince Siegfried’s quarters Baroness attempted to have Odette Scene II Wedding festivities returned to the sanatorium, but before she could be seized, Odette fled into the night. Act Two Scene I The sanatorium Siegfried then discovered the terrified Scene II The lake Odette near the lake and for a short Act Three time the couple were united in ecstatic An evening with the Baroness embrace. But even as she lay in the arms of her husband, Odette knew there would Act Four be no peace for her ever-troubled mind The lake and she was only to find ultimate release Cast of Characters in the depths of the dark lake of swans. Odette Prince Siegfried For the rest of his life, Prince Siegfried Baroness von Rothbart never loved again, but mourned ever his The Queen lost Odette. Prince Consort Princess Royal NOTE frOM thE CHOREOgrAphER Princess Royal’s Husband If no man is an island then surely a Duke choreographer is a continent of inter- Young Duchess-to-be dependence. Janet Vernon, Kristian Earl Fredrikson and I had a dream. This Earl’s Equerry dream was reliant on a commission and Lord Admiral commitment (thank you, David McAllister), Marquis an inspiring score (Tchaikovsky), a Baroness’ Husband design to house and adorn this dream Royal Physician (Kristian Fredrikson) and a lighting design Guests, Hungarians, Servants, Orderlies, to illuminate it (Damien Cooper), and Nuns, Cygnets, Guardian Swans & Children of course an enormous and dedicated dream team behind the scenes. Then, SyNOPSIS above all, the bodies; beautiful and On the evening before her wedding, the articulate, who inhabit the dream, share apprehensive young maiden, Odette, the choreographer’s imaginings and give wandered the palace and became doubtful flesh to his feeble spectres. I’d like to of her betrothed Prince Siegfried’s love. thank every Australian Ballet dancer, be they footman or aristocrat, corps de ballet After the wedding Odette, so very much or principal, for crowding the continent of in love with her new husband, realised it Swan Lake with so much loving artistry. was a certain Baroness who really owned But as we all know busy crowded places his heart. Already fragile, Odette became can become lonely islands without a so distressed that by royal command she partner/guide/mentor/companion/ was committed to a sanatorium. decision maker and friend (enter Janet With her spirit broken, Odette could only Vernon), whose talent and love have made find escape in a frozen dream where this dream of Swan Lake a reality. swan-like maidens, much like herself, Graeme Murphy Amber Scott as Odette and Adam Bull as Prince Siegfried•Photography – Liz Ham would calm her fevered mind and where, - 6 - - 7 - An Australian classic It is a brave choreographer that tackles Swan Lake but Graeme Murphy’s powerful version has become a classic in its own right. By Jane Albert. It was many decades ago that Graeme gave Murphy an open slate, presuming national dance awards; and four Helpmann the production at least a dozen times, Murphy first began toying with the idea of he would simply play around with the awards. Writing in The Australian, critic including performances in London, recreating the century-old classic Swan staging of the Ivanov-Petipa production Lee Cristofis noted: “Just minutes after Cardiff and Tokyo. “In a traditional Swan Lake. One of the most oft-reworked ballets which premiered in St Petersburg in 1895. the curtain went up on The Australian Lake one has to buy into a fairytale and in the classical canon, Murphy felt there After conceiving and discarding many Ballet’s new Swan Lake we knew we were be swept away by the magic of being was room for an intelligent production ideas – including setting the production witnessing the birth of a classic. Three taken to another world,” Jones says. that spoke clearly of human emotions, in pre-Revolution Russia and having hours later the house went wild, wilder “In Graeme’s Swan Lake you’re taken one that could touch an audience’s heart Rasputin as the Rothbart character – than any ballet audience in town for years, into a story that’s of our world, and without asking them to suspend belief. Murphy pared back the story to its basic in a nearly ten-minute standing ovation.” people can relate very directly to such Says Murphy: “I always wanted to give elements: royalty, love and betrayal. His The Age’s Neil Jillett, witnessing the a story of passion and illicit love and The Australian Ballet a unique Swan Lake. Swan Lake became loosely based on the production in its return 2004 Melbourne broken hearts.” One of the main reasons Every company would love to have one, yet love triangle that was Princess Diana, season, declared it: “the greatest work to for the success of this production, of not many companies do.” Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles be created for The Australian Ballet”.