Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts - Opera House
Dates: September 15-16, 2017
Duration: Approximate 105 mins (Intermission Included)
About
Boris Eifman’s ballet Rodin tells about the life and work of two great sculptors: Auguste Rodin and his disciple, mistress and Muse–Camille Claudel.
The story of their love is truly a tragic one. For over 15 years Rodin and Claudel were one integral whole, both sensuously and creatively. The breakup of the lovers that ensued eventually was a fatal blow to the mental health of Camille leading to her tragic end. Half-forgotten, hardened, hopelessly impecunious, Camille goes mad. A paranoiac idea of a conspiracy against her being lead and inspired by Rodin himself incessantly torments the already weakened mind of the wretched woman. When she died, she was completely forgotten by all and everybody.
Eifman’s Rodin is a comprehensively creative study of such a subject as how tragic genius’ lives may be. By resorting to the uniquely plastique of the modern psychological ballet, which was so brilliantly mastered by the choreographer in his other productions (Onegin, The Seagull, Anna Karenina, Russian Hamlet, etc.), Boris Eifman not only offers a new interpretation to the world of human passions studied masterfully by Rodin and Claudel, but creates a picture of the insoluble mystery of the creative process.
Credits
A ballet by Boris Eifman
Composers: Maurice Ravel, Camille Saint-Saens, Jules Massenet
Set Designer: Zinovy Margolin
Costume Designer: Olga Shaishmelashvili
Lighting Designers: Gleb Filshtinsky, Boris Eifman
Premiere: November 22, 2011
Synopsis
The story of life and love of Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel is an amazing tale about an incredibly dramatic alliance of two artists where everything is entwined: passion, hatred and artistic jealousy. Spiritual and energy exchange between the two sculptors is an outstanding phenomenon: Being so close to Rodin, Camille is not only an inspiration for his work helping him find a new style and create masterpieces, she also impetuously goes through the development of her own talent becoming a great master of sculpture herself. Her beauty, her youth and her genius—all this is sacrificed to her beloved man.
After breaking up with Claudel the artist stays with devoted but unloved Rose Beuret. Camille tries to find her escape in work, but art critics do not accept her sculptures. In despair, Claudel destroys most of her works and plunges into the darkness of insanity. The wretched woman’s soul is being incinerated by pathological hatred towards her former teacher and lover, who, as Camille believes, has stolen her life and talent.
This new ballet reflects Rodin’s longing for his Muse, torments of his conscience, as well as Camille's delirium caused by the mental illness and saturated with painful obsessions—or rather that of the insane Erinys that the ruthless fate has turned her into.
Presenter
Saint Petersburg Eifman Ballet, established by Boris Eifman in 1977, was from day one recognized for its new and innovative concept of ballet. The company’s first performances already stirred the interest of the audiences and ballet critics who argued about new tendencies in Russian ballet.
In the 1980’s the choreographer and his company, characterized by an outstanding dance intellect, continued to explore new genres and develop new repertoires which are all distinguished for their strikingly sharp choreographies, intended to express the fiery passion of the ballet characters.
Today St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet is renowned among ballet lovers in Asia, Europe, the Americas and in Australia for such ballets as I, Don Quixote; Red Giselle, Russian Hamlet, Anna Karenina, The Seagull, Eugene Onegin, Rodin, Beyond Sin, Requiem, Up & Down, Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA. These works not only represent the highest artistic level of achievements of contemporary Russian ballet, but also welcome the spectators into the immortal spiritual heritage of Russian and world culture that inspired the choreographer and his dancers. The creativity and innovation of Eifman Ballet and their new interpretations of cultural masterpieces carry a huge educational potential to involve a wide audience into the world of high arts.
Boris Eifman’s endeavor to engage his spectators in the infinite world of human passions, to form a spiritual liaison with the audience, to amaze viewers by the brilliance and dynamism of his plastique—all this has ensured a decades-long success of Eifman Ballet’s performances at leading venues around the globe.
