Date: 15 – 17 March 2024
Time: 2:30pm ;7:30pm
Venue: Grand Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre
Price: $1180, $980, $800, $640, $480, $340
Click here for more information and ticketing.
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Pirates, pirouettes and pashas—spectacular dance and thrilling adventure in this world-class production from a legendary ballet company
Le Corsaire is truly a ballet with something for everyone, a delight for dance lovers and family audiences alike. This 19th-century classical masterpiece is best known through Marius Petipa’s 1863 version created in St Petersburg. It offers an irresistible mix of adventure, romance and comedy, a splendidly exotic setting, lively music and, above all, spectacular dancing which includes one of ballet’s most famous pas de deux—a dazzling virtuoso piece frequently performed at galas and in ballet competitions.
The beautiful Medora has been abducted by slave trader Lankedem, but Conrad, the dashing corsaire of the title, sees her in the slave market and they fall in love. When Medora is sold to the lecherous Pasha Seyd, Conrad rescues her and they embark on a series of exciting adventures. Pirates, storms and shipwrecks, daring rescues, despicable betrayals and a pair of lovers who brave every danger and triumph over adversity—Le Corsaire has it all.
The outlandish, far-fetched plot serves as an excuse for lavish spectacle and a feast of dancing which covers the full spectrum of classical ballet, from the ferocious leaping and stamping of the pirates and their women to the exquisite garden of human flowers formed by the beauties of the Pasha’s harem and the thrilling feats of virtuosity from the principal dancers.
La Scala Ballet returns to the Hong Kong Arts Festival with this production by the legendary company’s own director, Manuel Legris, created in Vienna in 2016 and re-staged for La Scala in 2023. It boasts a delightful score by Adolphe Adam, composer of Giselle, and others, plus gorgeous sets and costumes by world-renowned designer Luisa Spinatelli. Featuring some of Petipa’s most iconic choreography, with additional original sections by Legris, notably for the female corps de ballet, Le Corsaire showcases the La Scala Ballet’s superb classical dancing, along with its typically Italian brio and bravura.
La Scala Ballet
One of the world’s most prestigious ballet companies, with a history dating back more than 240 years, Milan’s La Scala Ballet has played a key role in the development of ballet itself. Generations of celebrated dancers have graced its stage, from Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev and Vladimir Vassiliev to Svetlana Zakharova and Natalia Osipova. Among the company’s own stars are such legendary names as Carla Fracci, Alessandra Ferri and Roberto Bolle. Today, La Scala boasts a rich and varied repertoire and a fine ensemble of young, mostly Italian, dancers, forged by the vision of artistic directors such as the late Elisabetta Terabust, Makhar Vaziev and the current director, Paris-born Manuel Legris.