The Stuttgart Ballet performed at the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei in 1984, and in the audience was a young ballet dancer from Kaohsiung, who was studying in Taipei.
Flash forward 35 years, and Art Wave, the company founded by Wang Tzer-shing (王澤馨) and her husband, Chat Tzongue (謝宗益), are bringing the Stuttgart back to Taiwan for two performances of John Cranko’s renowned interpretation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) next weekend.
“I was so thrilled and touched,” Wang said about the first time she saw the company, “even now when I think about it, all the great memories come back.”
Photo courtesy of Stuttgart Ballet
Wang and Chat produce the annual International Ballet Stars galas in Taipei, which bring top principals and soloists from the world’s best ballet companies, including the Stuttgart’s Friedemann Vogel and Alicia Amatriain, who both have made frequent appearances.
They have also brought the Universal Ballet (2011 and 2012), the American Ballet Theater (2012), the Staatsballett Berlin (2013) and three Sylvie Guillem shows to the National Theater in Taipei.
So while they know all about the logistics of bringing a major ballet company to Taiwan, arranging two shows in Kaohsiung from their home in Taipei is daunting even with their years of experience.
The Stuttgart is bringing 125 people, including crew; there are 22 Taiwanese to organize for non-dancing roles, rehearsals have to be coordinated for the Kaohsiung City Symphony Orchestra's (高雄市交響樂團) 74 musicians and a master class for local ballet students with Stuttgart members has been arranged, not to mention clearing through customs the three 40-foot containers of sets and costumes for the show that arrived at Port of Kaohsiung at the beginning of the week.
One thing that Wang has learned to cope with in the years of producing galas in Taipei, Taichung and Singapore is that there are almost always last-minute hiccups and casting changes. That has proved true again on Tuesday, but for the best of all reasons.
Stuttgart announced on its Web site that Amatriain and her American partner, soloist Alexander McGowan, are expecting their first baby, and Wang was notified that the Spanish-born ballerina would not be making the trip to Kaohsiung, although McGowan would.
Amatriain and Vogel had been scheduled dance the lead roles on Saturday next week, but now he is to partner the company’s other Spanish principal, Elisa Badenes.
On Sunday, Romeo will be danced by David Moore and Juliet by Anna Osadcenko.
South Africa-born Cranko, who was both choregrapher and artistic director for the company for 12 years, put the troupe on world map with his elaborate story ballets, including another of Shakespeare’s works, The Taming of the Shrew, along with Oneign, Carmen, Poeme de l’Extase and Traces.
He created Romeo and Juliet, set to Serge Prokofiev’s wonderful score, in 1962 for Brazilian ballerina Marcia Haydee, who had joined the company the previous year and soon became his muse, and Ray Barra.
While Cranko choreographed several memorable variations and duets for his two leads, the ballet is packed with star turns — and swordfights — for those dancing the roles of Mercutio and Tybalt, as well as beautiful ensemble scenes that really demonstrate the depth of the company.
Like Cranko’s choreography, the lush costumes and sets by Jurgen Rose have stood the test of time.
Romeo and Juliet is two hours and 40 minutes, including two 20-minute intermissions, so Saturday’s show has an earlier-than-usual start time of 7pm to allow those coming from other parts of Taiwan to make the last Taiwan High Speed Rail trains headed north after the show — and there are many, as the Stuttgart’s production is one not to be missed.
This story has been updated since it was first published to correct the characters for the name of the orchestra.
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
When 17-year-old Lin Shih (林石) crossed the Taiwan Strait in 1746 with a group of settlers, he could hardly have known the magnitude of wealth and influence his family would later amass on the island, or that one day tourists would be walking through the home of his descendants in central Taiwan. He might also have been surprised to see the family home located in Wufeng District (霧峰) of Taichung, as Lin initially settled further north in what is now Dali District (大里). However, after the Qing executed him for his alleged participation in the Lin Shuang-Wen Rebellion (林爽文事件), his grandsons were
I am kneeling quite awkwardly on a cushion in a yoga studio in London’s Shoreditch on an unseasonably chilly Wednesday and wondering when exactly will be the optimum time to rearrange my legs. I have an ice-cold mango and passion fruit kombucha beside me and an agonising case of pins and needles. The solution to pins and needles, I learned a few years ago, is to directly confront the agony: pull your legs out from underneath you, bend your toes up as high as they can reach, and yes, it will hurt far more initially, but then the pain subsides.
A jumbo operation is moving 20 elephants across the breadth of India to the mammoth private zoo set up by the son of Asia’s richest man, adjoining a sprawling oil refinery. The elephants have been “freed from the exploitative logging industry,” according to the Vantara Animal Rescue Centre, run by Anant Ambani, son of the billionaire head of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The sheer scale of the self-declared “world’s biggest wild animal rescue center” has raised eyebrows — including more than 50 bears, 160 tigers, 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, according to
RSS