Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, France has been the site of consequential performances since its opening in 1913, when it hosted the infamous world premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.
The National Ballet of Canada will revisit this legendary stage following the successful tour of Nijinsky in 2017, this time with an all-Canadian programme of newly acquired work and pieces created specifically for the National Ballet: Crystal Pite’s Angels’ Atlas, James Kudelka’s Passion and William Yong’s UtopiVerse (with music by Benjamin Britten and Constantine Caravassilis).
— national ballet of Canada on tour:
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées Paris,France - Oct. 12-15, 2024
— national ballet of canada premiere
Join us on March 20-24 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts for the world premiere of acclaimed Canadian choreographer William Yong’s futuristic UtopiVerse.
Commissioned and produced by the National Ballet of Canada, UtopiVerse is a multidisciplinary exploration of the concepts of “utopia” and “paradise lost” with music by Benjamin Britten and Constantine Caravassilis.
utopiverse
— new album release
This double-album project is the result of a multi-year collaboration between Caravassilis and American classicist, author, and poet Jeffrey Duban.
The project’s focus is the poetry of and inspired by the ancient Greek poetess Sappho of Lesbos (7th and 6th centuries BC), in the words of famed British poet Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909), “simply nothing less—as she is certainly nothing more—than the greatest poet who ever was at all.”
from Sappho’s Lyre
“…a genuine, prodigious
contemporary master.
I am stunned, amazed.”
— David Dalle, CKCU Radio, Ottawa
Driven by beauty and spirituality; inspired by literature, nature, the music of the spheres and imagined workings of the cosmos; reflecting a deep humanitarianism and modern findings on the faculties of the human brain, Constantine Caravassilis’ work is yet intimately connected to his Hellenic roots.
Caravassilis draws inspiration from the prodigious past and supreme wisdom of his ancestors, as he reflects on Greek mythology and epic themes and on Byzantine chant and the times it reflects. And yet, he often finds himself re-imagining Eastern modality and the folksongs of the Aegean as sung to him by his grandmothers.
— Featured Video
Ill Nome Della Rosa