THE SEASONS

MALANDAIN BALLET BIARRITZ

ORCHESTRE DE L'OPÉRA ROYAL DE VERSAILLES

ANDRÉS GABETTA conductor, concertmaestro

THIERRY MALANDAIN choreographer

Music: ANTONIO VIVALDI, GIOVANNI ANTONIO GUIDO

Set and costume designer: JORGE GALLARDO

Lighting: FRANÇOIS MENOU

Costume production: VÉRONIQUE MURAT, CHARLOTTE MARGNOUX

Costume production assistant: ANAÏS ABEL

Set production: FRÉDÉRIC VADÉ

Accessories production: ANNIE ONCHALO

Set and props assistants: NICOLAS ROCHAIS, GORKA ARPAJOU, FÉLIX VERMANDÉ, RAPHAËL JEANNERET, CHRISTOF T’SIOLLE, TXOMIN LABORDE-PEYRE, MARUSCHKA MIRAMON, KARINE PRINS, SANDRINE MESTAS GLEIZES, FANNY SUDRES ET FANTINE GOULOT

Ballet masters: RICHARD COUDRAY, GIUSEPPE CHIAVARO, FREDERIK DEBERDT

Proposed by the Royal Opera of Versailles

Principal co-producer: Château de Versailles Spectacles – Royal Opera of Versailles, Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles

Co-producers: Festival de Danse de Cannes, Teatro Victoria Eugenia – Ballet T San Sebastián, Opéra de Saint-Etienne, Theater Bonn, Teatro la Fenice, CCN Malandain Ballet Biarritz

Partners: Opéra de Reims, Espace Jéliote Oloron Sainte-Marie, Théâtre Olympia Arcachon

Sponsorships: Fonds de dotation Malandain pour la Danse Suez, Association Amis du Malandain Ballet Biarritz, Carré des Mécènes du Malandain Ballet Biarritz

Concept:

Based on an idea by Laurent Brunner, Director of Château de Versailles Spectacles, and Stefan Plewniak, violinist and first conductor of the Royal Opera of Versailles, this ballet intertwines Antonio Vivaldi’s famous Four Seasons with several pages of Le Quattro Stagioni dell’anno (The Four Seasons of the Year), a little-known work by Giovanni Antonio Guido, contemporary and compatriot of the „red priest”.

As for its accomplishment, beginning with arithmetic, under the influence of the number four, closely linked to creation, balance, and harmony, we can first say that Guido’s Seasons awake memories of „belle danse” (baroque dance), which emerged in the seventeenth century from the ideal of governing one’s body and mind, and moving with grace, accuracy and lightness. The number four is also associated with the Earth and the wheel of life, which does not always turn round smoothly, if not completely askew, given the ugliness, stupidity, and inhumanity that proliferate. With Vivaldi’s Seasons, we are moved by a more natural, more human form of dance.

Finally, we spice things up with some poetic fantasy, and with these two words, you’ve got the basics. Against a backdrop of black petals spread across the horizon, winged beings mourn the loss of spirit and clarity. Why? Because the Seasons is only a ballet and there is nothing more serious than unbelievable things. (Thierry Malandain)