Five Facts about Alexei Ratmansky’s New Ballet ‘Tchaikovsky Overtures’

Alexei Ratmansky, Tchaikovsky Overtures. Hamlet. Bayerisches Staatsballett. Osiel Gouneo, ensemble. © Carlos Quezada

On 23 December 2022, Alexei Ratmansky’s latest ballet Tchaikovsky Overtures premiered at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. The ballet is Ratmansky’s first original creation for the Bayerisches Staatsballett.

1. Alexei Ratmansky: Ballet’s Future, Past and Present

Alexei Ratmansky is one of the most important classical choreographers working today. He is unrivalled in bringing together the past, present and future in his highly musical choreography. Choreographic allusions to ballet history go hand in hand with innovative steps that push the boundaries of what ballet is able to express today. And: he is not just able to translate the deepest human and musical emotions into classical choreography - he also has a witty sense of humour.

2. Tchaikovsky’s Shakespearean Overtures

Ratmansky’s new ballet uses Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s three overtures inspired by William Shakespeare’s plays Hamlet, The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet. Tchaikovsky called all three overtures “fantasies” and Ratmansky followed the composers cue: he is using themes and emotions present in the three plays, but without re-telling their story, leaving a lot of room for the audience to interpret what they see in their own way. As always, Tchaikovsky’s music is full of the deepest emotions, drama, melodies and rhythms, making it the perfect starting point for Ratmansky’s multi-layered choreography.

Alexei Ratmansky, Tchaikovsky Overtures. The Tempest. Bayerisches Staatsballett. Ensemble. © Carlos Quezada

3. Food for Thought

The result are three distinctly different acts representing three completely different worlds. The ballet takes the audience through the full spectrum of human emotions, from happiness, love, and joy, to terror, despair, and death. The first part, Hamlet, feels the most abstract, and the most threatening. There is a brooding young man, but also a community of distraught people who seem to be facing a terrible experience together. The atmosphere of the second act, The Tempest, is completely different: it’s enchanting, grand, but also funny. The third act, Romeo and Juliet, pulls the audience straight to the tragic emotional core of Romeo and Juliet. Each act is so condensed that you feel like you have watched three full-length ballets in one go.

4. Dancer Turned Set Designer

Costume and set designs are by Jean-Marc Puissant. Puissant created very different, but equally beautiful sets and costumes for each act. His abstract set designs help to structure the empty stage without limiting it. His costumes create an atmosphere without confining the dancers’ characters. Puissant used to be a dancer himself: he trained at the ballet school of the Paris Opera and at the Conservatoire National Supèrieure de Musique de Paris and danced with Stuttgart Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet.

5. Highlight

There are so many highlights in this production that it is difficult to pick one. But there is one particularly magical moment: in addition to Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture, Ratmansky also uses Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” duet for a soprano and a tenor in the ballet’s third act. The two singers shared the stage with dancer Shale Wagman, whose delicate solo seemed to embody the soul of the music, making sound visible.

Alexei Ratmansky, Tchaikovsky Overtures. Romeo and Juliet. Bayerisches Staatsballett. Ensemble. © Wilfried Hösl