Tangled
“Tales of Perrault”
Ural Opera Ballet
Ekaterinburg State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre
Ekaterinburg, Russia
April/September 2024 (video)
by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2024 by Ilona Landgraf
Last week, the Ural Opera Ballet’s joint production, Tales of Perrault, returned to the stage. It combines four fairy tales by Perrault—Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, and Little Thumb—that are newly interpreted by three choreographers. Two of them, Konstantin Khlebnikov and Alexandr Merkushev, are junior choreographers from the company’s ranks of dancers; the third, Maksim Petrov, choreographed for the Mariinsky Ballet before succeeding the Ural Opera Ballet’s then-artistic director, Vyacheslav Samodurov, in August 2023.
Perrault’s fairy tales are often dark and scary (which is why Tales of Perrault is reserved for an adult audience and children aged twelve and older) but with a poetic note. From their wide range of meanings, the choreographers distilled a core message that combines all four fairy tales: regardless of one’s physicality, conduct, and wit, everyone deserves love and sympathy. (more…)
