Gerard Mortier, General Director of the Opéra National de Paris, and Brigitte Lefèvre, Dance Director of the Opéra National de Paris, announced today at a press conference hosted by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York City, that the Opéra National de Paris will present New York City Ballet for a two-week season, September 9 through 21, 2008, at Paris’ Opera Bastille.
The engagement, NYCB’s first visit to Paris since 1995, marks the first time that NYCB has been presented by the Opéra National de Paris since 1965. The season will also mark the first time that a non-French dance company has been invited to perform at the Opera Bastille, the modern opera house that opened in 1989 that, with the Palais Garnier, is one of two principal venues that is home to the Opéra National de Paris.
In making the announcement Lefèvre said, “It is a great honor for the Paris Opera Ballet to invite New York City Ballet, one of the most prestigious companies in the world. George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are among the 20th century’s greatest choreographers and have both given so much to the Paris Opera Ballet, and it is a great pleasure to present these works that show the vitality of dance. The season also provides a wonderful opportunity to discover new choreographies by Christopher Wheeldon, and especially Peter Martins, who, as the Company’s Ballet Master in Chief, has kept the spirit of New York City Ballet so wonderfully alive.”
The season will open on Tuesday, September 9 with an evening of three works by George Balanchine – Divertimento No. 15, Episodes, and Vienna Waltzes – and will continue with 11 performances through Sunday, September 21.
In announcing the programming for the season, Peter Martins, Ballet Master in Chief of New York City Ballet, said that the 18 ballets being performed during the engagement will illustrate the extraordinary range and diversity of NYCB’s repertory, as well as pay tribute to George Balanchine’s and Jerome Robbins’ long associations with Paris.
“Both Mr. Balanchine and Jerry Robbins worked in Paris at different points during their careers, and they both loved the city a great deal,” said Martins. “I am thrilled that the Opéra has invited the Company to return to this wonderful city, which is so important in the history of ballet, and I am honored that we are the first international company ever invited to perform on the stage of the Opera Bastille.”
In addition to works by Balanchine and Robbins, NYCB’s co-founding choreographers, the season will also include ballets by Martins and Christopher Wheeldon, who served as NYCB’s first-ever Resident Choreographer from 2001 until February 2008.
New York City Ballet’s engagement in Paris has been made possible through an extraordinary joint financing effort that has been undertaken by the Opéra National de Paris, New York City Ballet, and the American Friends of the Paris Opera & Ballet, and the highlight of the season will be a special gala performance at the Palais Garnier on Thursday, September 18, that will feature dancers from both New York City Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet.
“It has been a long-time dream to have New York City Ballet dance at the Paris Opera where George Balanchine created Le Palais de Cristal, and to have this ballet performed at the gala on September 18 by both NYCB and Paris Opera Ballet dancers in the American version known as Symphony in C, will be especially exciting and meaningful,” said Marina de Brantes, Chairman of the American Friends of the Paris Opera & Ballet.
The mission of the American Friends of the Paris Opera & Ballet is to share the many treasures of the Paris Opera with the American public and to foster artistic cooperation between the Paris Opera and the creative community of the United States. Since its inception in 1984 the organization has helped to underwrite numerous U.S. tours by the Paris Opera and the Paris Opera Ballet and School, as well as traveling exhibitions from the Paris Opera Museum and appearances by guest artists with many U.S. companies.
Leading sponsors for the engagement include The Annenberg Foundation and Merrill Lynch and Co., Inc. “Merrill Lynch is proud of our longstanding relationship with NYCB, one of New York City’s premier cultural institutions, and we are excited to be a part of this international exchange,” said Gregory Flemming, President and Chief Operating Office of Merrill Lynch and Co., Inc.,
Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, Trustee of the Annenberg Foundation commented, “We are delighted to support this historic performance and strongly believe in global artistic cooperation.”
Established in 1989 by Walter H. Annenberg, the Annenberg Foundation provides funding and support to nonprofit organizations in the United States and globally through its headquarters in Radnor, Pennsylvania and offices in Los Angeles, California and Washington, D.C. The Annenberg Foundation exists to advance the public well-being through improved communication.
The lead sponsor for the historic joint gala performance on September 18 is Tiffany & Co, and in announcing their sponsorship, Detra Segar, vice president and general manager of Tiffany & Co, New York, said, “We are pleased to support this wonderful celebration of dance uniting the best of New York and Paris.”
Featured on the gala program will be Balanchine’s Apollo, which premiered in Paris in 1928, and Symphony in C, which was originally titled Le Palais de Cristal, and was created at the Palais Garnier in 1947. One of the architectural masterpieces of its time, the Palais Garnier opened its doors in 1875 and is a landmark in the Neo-Baroque style.
Other Balanchine ballets featured in the season will include Serenade, Symphony in Three Movements, Duo Concertant, Sonatine, and Tarantella, with Robbins represented by Dances at a Gathering, A Suite of Dances, West Side Story Suite, and Brahms/Handel, his 1984 collaboration with the choreographer Twyla Tharp. The season will also include Martins’ Hallelujah Junction and Barber Violin Concerto, as well as Wheeldon’s Carousel (A Dance) and the pas de deux from After the Rain.
The engagement will feature four different programs, three featuring the Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris, led by NYCB’s French-born Music Director Fayçal Karoui, performing scores by such composers as Mozart, Webern, Strauss, Lehár, Tschaikovsky, Stravinsky, Rodgers, Barber, and Bernstein. A fourth program will feature four ballets to piano music and chamber works by Stravinsky, Adams, Pärt, and Chopin. (Complete program information follows this release.)
Other sponsors for the engagement include the Florence Gould Foundation, Geoffrey C. Hughes Foundation, and Jerome Robbins Foundation.
Tickets for the performances at the Opera Bastille range in price from 5 to 80 euros, and are available through www.operadeparis.fr. Tickets are also available by phone in France at 08 92 89 90 90, and from abroad at 33 1 72 92 35 35.
Information and bookings for the gala performance on September 18 are available through Arop at 33 1 58 18 65 10, or at galanycb@arop-opera.com
The Opera Bastille is located at the Place de la Bastille in the 12th arrondissement and opened on July 13, 1989, the 200th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, and the Palais Garnier is located at the Place de l’Opéra in the 9th arrondissement.
