Two New Ballet Productions of Libor Vaculík

Two New Ballet Productions of Libor Vaculík - Roman Vašek

After a long silence, leading Czech choreographer Libor Vaculík returned to the ballet stages with two new pieces. The premiere of The Bloody Lady of Čachtice (Čachtická paní) took place on March 15^th at the J.K. Tyl Theatre in Pilsen. The second premiere of the ballet adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera (Fantom opery) took place at the States Opera in Prague on April 10^th.

Bloody Lady from Cachtice.jpg Over the past few years, Vaculík has gravitated towards famous controversial characters and it´s not unusual for him to present violence and provocation. In this particular spirit we can find his latest character of The Bloody Lady of Čachtice (Čachtická paní), partly a true story and in part fiction from a historical event that took place in the former state of Hungary at the end of the 16^th century. The story is about Countess Elisabeth Bathory (Alžběta Báthory) who settled in Čachtice, a town located in the region that is now Slovakia. Here, she “celebrated” her mental disorder – tyrannizing her subordinates and in her outbreaks of rage she tortured and killed her victims. The lines of sadistic acts - beating, torture and murder – are apparent throughout Vaculík´s entire production. This belongs to the circle of his works, perhaps calling a dance musical. Here, like he created in his earlier works Edith – The Sparrow from the Suburb and Lucrezia Borgia, Vaculík retains the central characters of singers and the others he entrusts to the ballet company.

The Bloody Lady of Čachtice is created by a truly competent team: Vaculík (as librettist, choreographer and director), Petr Malásek (composer), Václav Kopta (lyricist), Martin Černý (stage designer) and Roman Šolc (costume designer). The production alone is perhaps not the best work of this team but what is perhaps more of interest in the entire production is the performance of the dancers from Pilsen.

The team, with only a slight altercation (the costumes were designed by Phantom of the Opera.jpg Ľudmila Várossová), was also signed to created the feature length performance of Phantom of the Opera. Here, Vaculík sidetracks without the combination with musical vocals and adapted the famous story by Gaston Leroux for the ballet company. Phantom of the Opera also does not reach Vaculík´s above-standard qualities. Notwithstanding, again through his competent dance signature, he recapitulates the story, this time assisted by more fierce strokes. It is clear in this premiere that the main devices were the dance performances, primarily the new talents of the company – Zuzana Hvízdalová and Richard Hlinka.