Ballet by John Neumeier | The Nutcracker
Wed, Dec. 20, 2023, 7.30 pm - 10.00 pm
Marie
Alina Cojocaru
Guest Dancer
Born in Bucharest , Alina Cojocaru trained in Kiev for seven years before joining the Royal Ballet School in 1997. Upon completion of her training, six monts later, she returned to Kiev, to join the Company as a principal dancer. A year later, she joined the Royal Ballet Company (November 1999) and, at the end of the season, was promoted to Soloist. On 17 April 2001 Royal Ballet Artistic Director Sir Anthony Dowell promoted Ms. Cojocaru to the rank of principal dancer after her performance of "Giselle".
Ms. Cojocaru joined the English National Ballet (ENB) in September 2013, as a Leading Principal Dancer. While a member of ENB she continues to perform as a regular guest artist with the Hamburg Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and with companies worldwide.
Ms. Cojocaru has Organized Gala's in Romania and in London for the Romanian charity Hospice of Hope over the last few years. In February 2012 Ms. Cojocaru premiered her Alina Cojocaru - Dream Project, in Tokyo, Japan, which she directed and staged, while performing with friends and colleagues from the Tokyo Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, ENB and Royal Ballet.
As a Guest Artist, Ms. Cojocaru appears with the Kirov Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Hamburg Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Hungarian National Ballet, Vienna State Opera Ballet, Zurich Ballet, National Ballet of Portugal, La Scala Ballet, Nacional Ballet Of Cuba, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, National Ballet of Romania, South African Ballet Theater, Kremlin Ballet, Sarasota Ballet, Zagreb Ballet. Galas with the Hamburg Ballet, La Scala Ballet, National Ballet Of China, Ballet Basel, National Ballet of Latvia, Munich Ballet, Dortmund Ballet, National Ballet of Finland, Morphoses Company, The 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th World Ballet Festival (Tokyo) as well as galas in South Korea, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, USA and Denmark.
Repertory includes: Odette/Odile in "Swan Lake", Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet", "Giselle", Princess Aurora and Princess Florine in "The Sleeping Beauty", Julie in "Liliom", Marguerite Gautier in "Lady of the Camellias", Vera and Natalya in "A Month in the Country", Kitri in "Don Quixote", Olga and Tatiana in "Onegin", "Cinderella", The Sugar Plum Fairy and Clara in "The Nutcracker", Titania in "The Dream", Titania and Hippolyta in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Ballerina in "Etudes", Nikiya in "La Bayadere", Diamonds in "Jewels", Medora in "Le Corsaire", "Symphonic Variations", Mary Vetsera in "Mayerling", "Manon", "La Sylphide"," In the Night", "Las Hermanas", Swanilda in "Coppelia", "Scènes de Ballet", "Gong", "Masquerade", "Polyphonia", "Symphony in C", Chloe in "Daphnis and Chloe", Lise in "La Fille mal gardée", Student in "The Lesson", "Duo Concertant", "The Leaves are Fading", "Other Dances", "Voices of Spring", "Beyond Bach", "Tombeaux", "Ondine", "The Virtiginous Thrill of Exatitude", Fête Polonaise, "Stars and Stripes", "Raymonda" – Act 3, "Flames of Paris", "Flower Festival", "Napoli" – Act 3, "Grand Pas Classique", "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux", "Mussorgsky Waltz", "Dances at a Gathering", "The Dying Swan", "Rushes", "Two Footnotes", "Chroma", "Bird as a Prophet" and many more.
Creations includes: "Musketeer" and "Valse" (Rubina Alla Davidovna), Swanilda in "Coppelia" (Anatolyi Shekera), "Ad infinitium" (Vanessa Fenton), "There Where She Loved" (Christopher Wheeldon), "This House will Burn" (Ashley Page), "Les Saisons" (David Bintley), "Two Footnotes", "Bird as a Prophet", "Rushes" (Kim Brandstrup), "Engram and Chroma" (Wayne McGregor), "Les Lutins" and "La Sylphide" (Johan Kobborg), Julie in "Liliom" (John Neumeier), "24 Préludes" (Alexei Ratmansky) and others.
Prizes and Awards includes: "Dancer of the Year" – German Dance Critics Award (2012), Benois de la Danse – Best female dancer – "Liliom" (2012), "Ballerina of the Decade" Award (Moscow 2010), VIP Romanian Music and Performing Arts Award (2010), The Nijinsky Award – Best Female Dancer (2004), Benois de la Danse – Best Female Dancer – "Giselle" (2004), Internationaler Movimentos Tanz Preis – Best Female Dancer (2004), Critics' Circle Dance Award – Best female dancer (2002), Nagoya International Ballet Competition – Gold Medal and Prix de Lausanne (1997), in April 2002 The president of Romania Ion Iliescu presented Ms. Cojocaru with the medal of Cavaler of Romania (Ordinul National "Pentru Merit" in gradul de cavaler).
Video, TV and live relays include: Kennedy Center Honors 2012, Swan Lake, Cinderella, Nutcracker, Onegin, Daphnis and Chloe, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, The South Bank Show, The Dream, Mime Matters, Don Quixote and pas de deux in various galas.
Drosselmeier
Alessandro Frola
Principal
BORN
3.9.2000 in Parma, Italy. Italian
EDUCATION
Profession Dance Parma
Fomento Artístico Cordobés, Córdoba, Veracruz/Mexico
The School of the Hamburg Ballet
MAIN TEACHERS
Lucia Giuffrida, Francesco Frola, Adria Velásquez, Kevin Haigen, Janusz Mazon, Gigi Hyatt
ENGAGEMENT
Hamburg Ballet since 2019, Soloist in 2022, Principal since 2023
CREATIONS
The Shadow in "Dona Nobis Pacem"
and solo in
Peter and Igor
REPERTORY
Lysander in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Endymion in "Sylvia"
Prince Désiré, Catalabutte and Cupid's Blessing in "The Sleeping Beauty" (new version 2021)
Wolf Beifeld in "Liliom"
Frederick the Great in "Death in Venice"
Pas de deux in "A Cinderella Story"
The Man in the Shadow, Prince Siegfried and Prince Alexander in "Illusions – like Swan Lake"
Love in "Bernstein Dances"
Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet"
Allan Gray in "A Streetcar Named Desire"
Arlequin in ‘Carnaval' and The Spirit of the rose in 'Le Spectre de la rose' in "Nijinsky"
Drosselmeier in "The Nutcracker"
Armand in "Lady of the Camellias"
A Suitor / The War in "Odyssey"
Mr Brocklehurst in "Jane Eyre" (Cathy Marston)
and solos in
Saint Matthew Passion
Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Préludes CV
AWARD
Dr. Wilhelm Oberdörffer-Prize 2023
Find further information about Alessandro Frola here.
Louise
Madoka Sugai
Principal
BORN
12.7.94 in Atsugi City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Japanese
EDUCATION
Sasaki Mika Ballet Academy (Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture)
MAIN TEACHERS
Mika Sasaki, Mikio Ikehata
ENGAGEMENTS
National Youth Ballet in 2012
Hamburg Ballet since 2014. Soloist in 2017, Principal since 2019
CREATIONS
A Mystic and A young Woman in "Dona Nobis Pacem"
and solos in
Beethoven Project
Ghost Light
Beethoven Project II
Solo for Two (Konstantin Tselikov)
Little Requiem (Aleix Martínez)
Götterboten (Aljoscha Lenz)
REPERTORY
Peasant Pas de deux in "Giselle"
Cinderella in "A Cinderella Story"
Marguerite Gautier and Prudence Duvernoy in "Lady of the Camellias"
Princess Natalia in "Illusions – like Swan Lake"
Woman III in "Bernstein Dances"
Hermia in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Ophelia in "Hamlet 21"
Sylvia in "Sylvia"
Princess Aurora, Princess Florine, Mercury and Aurora, the Dawn in "The Sleeping Beauty" (new version 2021)
Louise and The Beautiful Girl from Granada in "The Nutcracker"
Bronislava Nijinsky in "Nijinsky"
Circe in "Odyssey"
Dolly in "Anna Karenina"
Woman in Apricot in "Dances at a Gathering" (Jerome Robbins)
Kitri/Dulcinea in "Don Quixote" (Rudolf Nurejev after Marius Petipa)
Princess Perdita in "The Winter's Tale" (Christopher Wheeldon)
Jane Eyre in "Jane Eyre" (Cathy Marston)
and solos in
Soldier Songs (Des Knaben Wunderhorn)
The Fifth Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Vaslav
Broadway's Pavlova
Saint Matthew Passion
Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Préludes CV
Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet (George Balanchine)
AWARDS
Prix de Lausanne 2012
Dr.-Wilhelm-Oberdörffer-Prize 2018
Find further information about Madoka Sugai here.
Günter
Christopher Evans
Principal
BORN
2.11.94 in Loveland, CO. American
EDUCATION
BalletMet Dance Academy
Canada's National Ballet School
The School of the Hamburg Ballet
MAIN TEACHERS
Susan Dromisky, Alexander Gorbatsevich, Kevin Haigen
ENGAGEMENT
Hamburg Ballet since 2012, Soloist 2015, Principal since 2018
CREATIONS
Jim O'Connor in "The Glass Menagerie"
A Mystic in "Dona Nobis Pacem"
and solos in
Turangalîla
Beethoven Project I
Ghost Light
Beethoven Project II
Aether (Luca Andrea Tessarini)
Metamorphosis (Marc Jubete)
Beautiful Soul (Marcelino Libao)
REPERTORY
The King, Count Alexander and Quadrille in "Illusions - like Swan Lake"
Benvolio and Antonio in "Romeo and Juliet"
Fabian in "VIVALDI or What you will"
Albrecht in "Giselle"
Günther in "The Nutcracker"
Vladimir Lensky in "Tatjana"
The Prince and A Bird in "A Cinderella Story"
Theseus/Oberon and Lysander in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Arlequin in ‘Carnaval' and The Spirit of the rose in 'Le Spectre de la rose' in "Nijinsky"
Konstantin (Kostya) Gavrilovich Triplev in "The Seagull"
Armand Duval and Des Grieux in "Lady of the Camellias"
Man I in "Bernstein Dances"
Gustav von Aeschenbach in "Death in Venice"
Koll/Fortinbras in "Hamlet 21"
Love/Thyrsis/Orion in "Sylvia"
Catalabutte in "The Sleeping Beauty" (Neufassung 2021)
Harold Mitchell (Mitch) in "Endstation Sehnsucht"
Odysseus in *Odyssey"
Levin in "Anna Karenina"
Mann in Green in "Dances at a Gathering" (Jerome Robbins)
Basil in "Don Quixote" (Rudolf Nurejev after Marius Petipa)
Prince Florizel in "The Winter's Tale" (Christopher Wheeldon)
St John Rivers in "Jane Eyre" (Cathy Marston)
and solos in
Préludes CV
Petrushka-Variations
Christmas Oratorio I-VI
The Song of the Earth
Soldier Songs (Des Knaben Wunderhorn)
The Fifth Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Nocturnes
At Midnight
Saint Matthew Passion
Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet (George Balanchine)
HE CHOREOGRAPHED
"Soul Sketch"
Premiere: Young Choreographers, Hamburg, 2016
"A Cosmic Second"
Premiere: Young Choreographers, Hamburg, 2017
AWARDS
Prix de Lausanne 2010
Dr. Wilhelm Oberdörffer-Prize 2015
Find further information about Christopher Evans here.
Fritz
Louis Musin
Soloist
BORN
20.4.2002 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Belgian/Brazilian
EDUCATION
Dance Area (Geneva)
The School of the Hamburg Ballet
MAIN TEACHERS
Fernanda Diniz, Nicolas Musin, Gigi Hyatt, Kevin Haigen, Janusz Mazon, Christian Schön, Konstantin Tselikov
ENGAGEMENT
Hamburg Ballet since 2021, Soloist since 2023
CREATION
A young Soldier in "Dona Nobis Pacem"
REPERTORY
A young Aschenbach in "Death in Venice"
Louis in "Liliom"
Fritz in "The Nutcracker"
A Manon Lescaut's Admirer in "Lady of the Camellias"
Count Alexander and The Speaker in "Illusions - like Swan Lake"
Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet"
A Thorn Creature in "The Sleeping Beauty" (new version 2021)
Stanislav Nijinsky in "Nijinsky"
Telemachos in "Odyssey"
and solos in
Saint Matthew Passion
Ghost Light
Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Conductor
Simon Hewett
Conductor
Simon Hewett is the Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Opera, and Principal Conductor of the Hamburg Ballet. In addition to his commitments with these two companies, he has performed regularly in recent seasons with Opera Australia in Sydney and Melbourne, the Komische Oper in Berlin, and the Paris Opera Ballet. His performances are frequently praised for their stylistic fluency, emotional intensity and technical precision.
Simon Hewett studied clarinet and conducting at the University of Queensland, graduating with First Class Honours and a University Medal. At 19 he was the youngest ever finalist in the ABC Young Conductor of the Year Award, and conducted the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Hindemith's "Symphonische Metamorphosen". In 1998 he was awarded a German Government Scholarship and studied operatic and symphonic conducting for 3 years at the Franz Liszt Hochschule für Musik in Weimar, Germany.
From 2002-03 Simon Hewett was a member of Opera Australia's Young Artists' Programme, and made his debut at the Sydney Opera house in October 2003, conducting Bizet's "Les Pêcheurs du perles". He was immediately reengaged for performances of "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" in 2004. He has since returned regularly to Opera Australia as a guest conductor, for "Tosca" (2005), "Turandot" (2006), and to lead the revival of Harry Kupfer's critically acclaimed production of "Otello" (2008). He returned to Sydney in 2009 for "Aida" and a new production of "Così fan tutte" with director Jim Sharman. In 2011 he conducted "Macbeth" for Opera Australia and "Falstaff" for the West Australian Opera. In 2012 he led critically acclaimed new productions of "Le Nozze di Figaro" and "Salome" for Opera Australia.
In 2005 Simone Young invited Simon Hewett to join the Hamburg State Opera as Resident Conductor and Assistant Music Director. Since his debut with "La Traviata" in 2005, he has conducted over 200 performances in Hamburg of a large repertoire of opera and ballet. In 2008 he debuted at the Komische Oper with "Il Barbiere di Siviglia", returning in 2010 for "Die Entführung aus dem Serail".
Following successful performances of "Der Fliegende Holländer" for the Stuttgart Opera in 2010, Simon Hewett was invited to become Principal Conductor. In 2012/13 he led revivals of "Die Fledermaus" and "Tosca". He has since conducted new productions of "La Bohème" and "Khovanshchina", and a wide range of other repertoire in Stuttgart including "Die Fledermaus", "Nabucco", "Tosca", "Madama Butterfly", "Eugene Onegin" and "Der Freischütz".
As a symphonic conductor Simon Hewett has appeared with the Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. His interest in contemporary music is documented through his long relationship with the Elision Contemporary Music Ensemble, with whom he has performed frequently since 1996, touring with them to Korea in 1997 and Europe in 1998. He has performed with Elision at all of Australia's major festivals, conducting the world premieres of Richard Barrett's "Opening of the Mouth", and Liza Lim's opera "Moon Spirit Feasting". His CD of Richard Barrett's "Opening of the Mouth" with the Elision Ensemble was reviewed by the BBC Music Magazine upon its release as "Pick of the Month".
Since conducting the premiere of John Neumeier's "Parzival" at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in 2006, Simon Hewett has enjoyed a close and productive collaboration with the Hamburg Ballet. He has toured with the Hamburg Ballet to the Salzburg Festival, Australia, the United States of America and Japan. His performances of John Neumeier's production of Mahler's 3rd Symphony at the Paris Opera were broadcast in cinemas worldwide and recorded for DVD release. He led the world premiere of John Neumeier's ballet "Tatiana" (2014), also recorded for DVD release, and the premiere of a new ballet based on the life of the celebrated Italian actress Eleonora Duse (2015). In December 2016 he will lead the German Premiere of "The Song of the Earth", a ballet by John Neumeier to music by Gustav Mahler.
Orchestra
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg
Orchestra
The Philharmonic State Orchestra is Hamburg’s largest and oldest orchestra, looking back on many years of musical history. When the “Philharmonic Orchestra” and the “Orchestra of the Hamburg Municipal Theatre” merged in 1934, two tradition-steeped orchestras combined. Philharmonic concerts have been performed in Hamburg since 1828, artists such as Clara Schumann, Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms being regular guests of the Philharmonic Society. The history of the opera company goes back even further: Hamburg has been home to musical theatre since 1678, even if a regular opera or theatre orchestra was only formed later. To this day, the Philharmonic State Orchestra has embodied the sound of the Hansa City, a concert and opera orchestra in one.
During its long history, the orchestra encountered great artist personalities. Apart from composers of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, such as Telemann, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Mahler, Prokofiev and Stravinsky, since the 20th century chief conductors such as Karl Muck, Joseph Keilberth, Eugen Jochum, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Horst Stein, Aldo Ceccato, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gerd Albrecht, Ingo Metzmacher and Simone Young have shaped the orchestra’s sound. Renowned conductors of the pre-war era such as Otto Klemperer, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Karl Böhm and Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt gave brilliant performances, as did outstanding conductors of our times: suffice it to mention Christian Thielemann, Semyon Bychkov, Kirill Petrenko, Adam Fischer and Sir Roger Norrington.
Starting with the 2015/2016 season, Kent Nagano has taken on the position of Hamburg’s General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic State Orchestra and the Hamburg State Opera and since June 2023 also its honorary conductor. In his first season Kent Nagano initiated a new project, the Philharmonic Academy, focusing on experimentation and chamber music. In 2016, Nagano and the Philharmonic toured South America, followed by concert tours to Spain and Japan in 2019, and in the spring of 2023, the Philharmonic State Orchestra made its debut at New York's Carnegie Hall under his direction, which was acclaimed by audiences and the press. Since 2017 Kent Nagano and the Philharmonic State Orchestra have continued the traditional Philharmonic Concerts at the new Elbphilharmonie, for which they commissioned Jörg Widmann to compose the oratorio ARCHE, which was given its world premiere during the hall’s opening festivities. The concert recording has been released by ECM, for which Widmann received the OPUS KLASSIK as Composer of the Year 2019, and ARCHE was performed again in 2023 to great acclaim.
The Philharmonic State Orchestra offers approximately 35 concerts per season and performs more than 240 performances per year at the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier, making it Hamburg’s busiest orchestra. The stylistic bandwidth covered by the 140 musicians, ranging from historically informed performance practice to contemporary works and including concert, opera and ballet repertoire, is unique throughout Germany. Chamber Music has a long tradition at the Philharmonic State Orchestra: what began in 1929 with a concert series for chamber orchestra has been continued since 1968 by a series of chamber music only.
In 2008 Simone Young and the Philharmonic State Orchestra won the Brahms Award of the Schleswig-Holstein Brahms Society. The orchestra has recorded the complete Ring by Wagner as well as the complete symphonies of Johannes Brahms and Anton Bruckner – the latter in the rarely-performed original versions – as well as works by Mahler, Hindemith and Berg, and has released DVDs of opera and ballet productions by Hosokawa, Offenbach, Reimann, Auerbach, J.S. Bach, Puccini, Poulenc and Weber.
The members of the Philharmonic State Orchestra feel equally beholden to Hamburg’s musical tradition and responsible for the city’s artistic future. Since 1978 the musicians have been participating in education programmes in Hamburg’s schools. Today, the orchestra maintains a broad education programme, including school and kindergarten visits, patronage for music projects, introductory events for children and family concerts. The orchestra’s own academy prepares young musicians for their professional careers. The Philharmonic’s musicians thereby make an equally enjoyable and valuable contribution to tomorrow’s music education in the music metropolis of Hamburg.
photo: Foto: Felix Broede
