This month, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo celebrates the 60th birthday of Choreographer-Director Jean-Christophe Maillot with a festival of works by the Company’s Choreographer-Director.
All four Maillot programmes will initially be performed at the Grimaldi Forum in Monte-Carlo, but the first – a double bill comprising his Dov’è la Luna and Core Meu – which was going to be streamed online for world audiences from 15th December, will now be streamed as of 5th January 2021.
Dov’è la Luna is a solemn yet fascinating piece. Simple and stark in presentation, almost athletic in execution, it’s a neo-classical work in which the seven dancers – pushed to their ultimate limits – move between light and shadow, exploring the space between life and death. “This ballet has neither beginning nor end. It is in transit,” says Jean-Christophe Maillot. “In some mythologies, the moon is this place of passage, between life and death – between death and life, that place where a second birth is being prepared.”
Decor and costumes are by internationally renowned designer Jérôme Kaplan who has designed sets and costumes for a number of productions for the Company since his first collaboration on L’Enfant et les Sortilèges in 1992.
Lighting is by Dominique Drillot, who is also associated with an impressive line-up of international productions, and is a regular member of the Company’s creative team.
The music is by Alexander Scriabin, played by French pianist Hervé Billaut.
Dov’è la luna was created in 1994, and premiered at the Salle Garnier Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 25th December of that year.
In complete contrast, Maillot’s Core Meu is energetic, sparkling and highly charged. Inspired by Maurice Béjart, the ballet combines the traditional dancing of the Puglia region of Southern Italy with classical ballet, culminating in the dancers performing a frenzied Tarantella.
The compelling accompaniment is led by tambourine player and singer Antonio Castrignano – a central figure in the revival of the centuries-old musical culture of the Salento region of Italy (Apulia). In this production, Castrignagno and his Regional Apulian Orchestra perform onstage with the dancers.
Costumes are by the international designer Salvador Mateu Andujar who has created for film, fashion and the stage.
Lighting is by the Company’s Lighting Director Samuel Thery.
Core Meu premiered at the Grimaldi Forum Monaco on 25th April 2019.
This double bill by Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo takes place in the Salle des Princes at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on 11th,12th and 13th December, and will be streamed online for an international audience on the video platform on BMC Stream as of 15th December. BMC Stream is a new on-demand video platform offering both subscription membership and pay-per-view options with unique interactive multi-camera viewing.
For further information and tickets, visit the Ballets de Monte-Carlo website.
Information sourced from:
Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo programme notes
Artists’ websites