One-act ballet
Music - Charles Gounod
Choreography and lighting design - Honored figure of Russia Georgy Kovtun
Scenography - Irina Dolgova
Costumes - Irina Safronova
Video installation - Dmitry Shamov
Ballet mistress - Evgenia Kostyleva
Originally "Walpurgis Night" is a ballet scene, which Charles Gounod completed for the second edition of his Faust opera, based on the homonymous tragedy by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. The episode was first shown on the stage of the Paris Opera in 1869 and since that gained an independent life as a one-act ballet.
"Walpurgis Night" on the stage of "Astana Ballet" Theater is a new reading of the famous ballet staged by Georgy Kovtun, based on traditions of classical Russian ballet. Myths and legends of Ancient Greece come to life in the play. The earth comes to life with the awakening of nature. The goddess Demeter, embodying agriculture and patronizing corn ears, arranges a feast in honor of the winemaking god Dionysus. It is a feast of dances singing love, sparkling with a face of violent passion, then with shimmering chaste lovesickness.
Premiered on March 20, 2017, «Astana Ballet» Theater, Nur-Sultan
Duration 38 minutes