Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake makes comeback in ‘50s New York setting

Tirana Times
By Tirana Times April 14, 2017 09:53

Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake makes comeback in ‘50s New York setting

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  • "It will be a ballet show, a ballet movie and musical which approaches spectators through a special dimension," says Hoxha, who will be performing with her husband Gerd Vaso in the opening performance on Friday, April 14

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TIRANA, April 13 - Tchaikovsky's famous Swan Lake will be making its premiere this weekend in Tirana in an adapted version by Enada Hoxha, the prima ballerina of the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet who along with her husband, principal dancer Gerd Vaso will be the ballet's choreographers and key performers in the opening night.

Enada Hoxha, who has been dominating Albania's classical ballet stage for about two decades, says she has decided to set the ballet from its original Russia to the New York of the 1940s, but preserving the gist of one of the most popular of all ballets.

"This work has been staged by different choreographers in different ways, from the classical to modern genres and crazy phantasy. This will be our 'lake,'" says 40-year-old Enada Hoxha.

"It will be a ballet show, a ballet movie and musical which approaches spectators through a special dimension," says Hoxha, who will be performing with her husband Gerd Vaso in the opening performance on Friday, April 14.

"I have always been a fan of the 1940s dancer Fred Astaire and our work will be an 'Americana' conveying the American spirit of that time," she added.

The New York of the 1940s and '50s will replace Russia while a water fountain has been set instead of the lake waters. The evil sorcerer has been replaced by a gangster. The stage and costume designs also bring a different approach but always adapting to Tchaikovsky's music which in this work comes through an elite dancing style of the 1950s but preserving the basic swan moves.

Spanish conductor Ricardo Casero is back in Tirana to conduct the orchestra after the 2016 Nutcracker experience with Albania's National Theatre of Opera and Ballet.

Composed by Russia’s Tchaikovsky and debuted by the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow in 1877, “Swan Lake,” tells the tale of a princess turned into a swan by an evil curse, having become a tradition in ballet stages around the world.

With the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet under reconstruction, the ballet will stage at the Palace of Congresses, another landmark building in downtown Tirana. The piece which is making its comeback in Tirana after 13 years will show for three consecutive evenings from April 14 to 16 at 19:00.

Fifty years after its construction under Albania’s communist regime, the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet, Albania’s solo performing arts institution of its kind, is set to be renovated under a €8.6 million government funded project.

The 30-month reconstruction, already underway, is set to finish by June 2019 in a project that will make a thorough renovation that involves architecture, stage design, acoustic and air-conditioning systems.

While the National Theater will be under reconstruction, its artists will be performing in other stages in Tirana and outside the capital.

Tirana Times
By Tirana Times April 14, 2017 09:53