New National Theatre Ballet, Tokyo
2007/2008 Season
10th Anniversary Festival
[New Production]

Maki Asami’s LA DAME AUX CAMÉLIAS

OPERA HOUSE

Marguerite	:	Svetlana Zakharova (4th, 6th)
	:	Sakai Hana (7th)
	:	Motojima Miwa (10th)
	:	Tanaka Yuko (11th)
Armand	:	Denys Matviyenko (4th, 6th)
	:	Yamamoto Ryuji (7th)
	:	Kikuchi Ken (10th)
	:	Robert Tewsley (11th)
Armand's Father	:	Guennadi Iline (4th, 6th, 10th)
	:	Morita Kentaro (7th, 11th)
Monsieur le Comte	:	Robert Tewsley (4th, 6th)
	:	Tomikawa Yuki (7th)
	:	Ilgiz Galimullin (10th, 11th)
Prudence	:	Nishikawa Takako (4th, 6th)
	:	Yukawa Mamiko (7th, 10th)
	:	Atsugi Mia (11th)
and the artists of the New National Theatre Ballet, Tokyo

November 2007	4	6	7	10	11
	Sun	Tue	Wed	Sat	Sun
2:00	X			X	X
7:00		X	X

Doors will open 45 minutes before the opening of the performance.

	S	A	B	C	D	Z
Price(yen)	12,600	10,500	7,350	4,200	3,150	1,500

This production of La Dame Aux Camélias is a summation of ten years of activity on the part of the New National Theatre Ballet Tokyo, which was founded at the same time as the Theatre itself, in 1997. For this tenth anniversary, and the curtain-raiser on a season that will mark the conclusion of Maki Asami’s third term as artistic director this famous tale of tragic love set in 1840s Paris has been realized as a ballet.

La Dame Aux Camélias is perhaps best known in the form of Verdi’s opera La Traviata, but this production returns to the original Alexandre Dumas fils’s novel, and for its musical accompaniment relies not on Verdi, but the works of Hector Berlioz, a contemporary of Dumas in Paris. The name of the protagonist Marguerite means “daisy” in French, and in the language of flowers, “I need only you,” while the camellia says, “I will die for you.” There is intense interest in seeing what Maki Asami—who has achieved such great success with productions such as La Bayadère and Raymonda in bringing a uniquely delicate feminine sensibility to the staging of love scenes—will do in depicting this genuinely epic tale of love and death. With beautiful scenery and costumes by Luisa Spinatelli, who unfolded the gorgeous world of Raymonda; lighting by the preeminent Sawada Yuji, whose work on Romeo and Juliet won gasps of approval from Lady MacMillan (widow of Sir Kenneth MacMillan, the choreographer); and the music arranged by Ermanno Florio, who has taken up the baton on many occasions at the New National Theatre Tokyo to weave performances of consummately artistic music, Maki has assembled a staff for this production whom she deeply trusts. The cast is equally impressive, headed by Svetlana Zakharova, who has served as Maki’s muse for a number of years and who always delivers an emotionally rich and impeccably executed performance. In the autumn of 2007, a tragically beautiful work which can be seen nowhere other than the world-renowned Opera House of NNTT will grace its stage.

There was a beautiful woman with whom the novelist Dumas was deeply, mutually in love but never married. La Dame Aux Camélias is her story. — Marguerite is a flower of Parisian society. Her beauty holds every man in thrall to it; men for whom money is no object vie for her affections. Yet her life is changed completely when she meets the young and idealistic poet Armand at a soiree. Vowing to devote her life to true love, Marguerite is ready to give up everything to make a life together with Armand, but is persuaded by Armand’s father to abandon the young man. Her tuberculosis takes a turn for the worse, and she is nearing death when Armand appears, learns the truth, and begs her forgiveness. But it is too late…