"Ballet Russes" season for the Lyon Orchestra

[Estelle]

The main theme of the next season of the Orchestre National de Lyon will be the Ballets Russes. The opening concert, in September, will include Debussy's "Afternoon of a faun" and Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring"- it will also be the closing performance of the Biennale de la Danse (which unfortunately shows almost only modern dance works) and so the works will be danced by the company Marie Chouinard.

The other Ballets Russes works of the season will be (if I'm not mistaken, as they're not clearly listed)-

I added in bold the name of the programs, which also contain other works:

-Rimsky-Korsakov's "Le Coq d'Or" (suite) and Stravinsky's "Firebird" (the whole ballet) in October (Contes de Russie)

-Stravinsky's "Pétrouchka" (in October too) (Le sourire de Mozart)

-Borodin's "Polovtsian dances from Prince Igor" in November (Danses symphoniques)

-Stravinsky's "Apollo" in December (Atout alto)

-Ravel's "La Valse" in January (another "dance-related" work in the same program will be his "Valses nobles et sentimentales") (Printemps et maturité)

-Debussy's "Jeux" in January (Jeux sonores)

-Ravel's "Daphnis and Chloe, suite n.2" in March (Oiseaux du paradis)

-Prokofiev's "Le fils prodigue, suite op. 46b" and Stravinsky's "Les Noces" in March (Eloge du rythme)

-Stravinsky's "Pulcinella, suite de ballet, version de 1949" in May (Combat de classiques)

-Rimsky-Korsakov's "Schéhérazade" in June (Rêves d'Orient)

-R. Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel" in June (L'âme de Salomé)

Some other dance related works of the season will be Debussy's "La boîte à joujoux" (composed at first for a "ballet pour marionnettes") in November (program Boîte à joujoux) and Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" (excerpts from suites 1 and 2) in February (program Schiff, chef et soliste). Also, the four "musical Wednesdays" wor children will be Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" in November, Debussy's "Jeux" and L. Mozart's "Symphonie des jouets" in January, Prokofiev's "Le fild prodigue" and "Romeo and Juliet" in March and Gershwin's "Cuban ouverture" and "An American in Paris" in May.

That definitely sounds like an exciting season for ballet lovers, and I regret not knowing my schedule early enough to take a subscription...

[dirac]

That definitely sounds like an exciting season for ballet lovers, and I regret not knowing my schedule early enough to take a subscription...

Indeed it does. I hope someone is able to attend and report back.

[bart]

Thanks, Estelle. Here's a Link to the Marie Chouinard Company website:

http://www.mariechouinard.com/flash.html

The site refers to performances of Seven Deadly Sins this summer with Opera de Lyon -- and later at Edinburgh. Did anyone get a chance to see it?

The Orchestra program has much wonderful ballet music -- but it must be frustrating to know that most of it will be performed without the participation of actual dancers.

[Estelle]

The Orchestra program has much wonderful ballet music -- but it must be frustrating to know that most of it will be performed without the participation of actual dancers.

Yes indeed, that was one of my first thoughts when seeing the season schedule !

[Estelle]

I've had a more detailed brochure of their season, and there are some other interesting things, for example a cycle of 6 conferences about the Ballets Russes given by a music professor of the Paris IV University (I suspect it will probably focus more on music than on ballet, but it could be interesting nonetheless). Actually the Lyon Orchestra and Lyon Auditorium have an interesting policy of having either conferences or short concerts (1 hour) every Friday between 12:30 and 13:30 at a low price (either free or at 6 euros), so that's a nice opportunity to have a musical lunch break (and this will be the first year I will actually be be free on that time of the week).

One could find some links between this year's "Concert Expressos", as their main focus this years will be Mendelssohn, so there will be among other things "Scotch Symphony" and "A midsummer night's dream".

More generally, I find the policy of the Lyon Orchestra and Auditorium quite "welcoming", with a lot of activities, and also for example on some concerts they have a program of 4 concerts especially for kids (from 5 years old) and some unexpensive "musical child care" for kids between 5 and 8 during the Saturday evening concerts. They also do a free concert for students at the beginning of every schoolyear.

[bart]

More generally, I find the policy of the Lyon Orchestra and Auditorium quite "welcoming", with a lot of activities, and also for example on some concerts they have a program of 4 concerts especially for kids (from 5 years old) and some unexpensive "musical child care" for kids between 5 and 8 during the Saturday evening concerts. They also do a free concert for students at the beginning of every schoolyear.

These are great ideas! I especially like the child care -- with a musiscal component, so it's not just baby-sitting -- on Saturday nights. I wonder how many other places do something similar? I was wondering, Estelle, what is considered "inexpensive" in that setting.

[Estelle]

I checked the price, it is 6 euros per child. I'm not a specialist of babysitting, but that doesn't seem expensive, considering that it's not only baby-sitting but some music-related activities (the actual name is "jardin musicaux").