Not just another 'Swan Lake'

Over the past 11 years, the Zurich Ballet has performed three works at Bangkok's International Festivals of Dance and Music. Not that I'm complaining or even wondering if there are other equally renowned ballet companies from Europe that can be presented here.

All three works  "Goldberg Varia-tions", "A Midsummer's Night Dream" and "Winds in the Void"  have been truly memorable. In fact, "Dream" is more than memorable: an astounding blend of dance and theatre, it's still the best work I've seen in this Festival.

And so when I was informed months ago that Zurich Ballet would be part of the 12th Festival this year, I was more than excited. Admittedly, I was less thrilled when I found out that it was "Swan Lake" that was coming to Bangkok, as I'd been rooting for "Peer Gynt", another spellbinding production that I'd watched in its premiere season in Zurich. But then, having seen what Zurich Ballet's artistic director Heinz Spoerli has done to the classics like "Dream", I knew that it wouldn't be simply another "Swan Lake".

In our interview at Dusit Thani Hotel where he's staying, the man whose immense efforts and unique creativity have put Zurich Ballet among Europe's forerunners explains. "It's [Bangkok Festival's committee member] JS Uberoi who picked 'Swan Lake' this time he likes the classics."

Spoerli started working on "Swan Lake" back in 1986 when he was in Basel, and later on came back to it in Dusseldorf, and so this Zurich version that premiered in 2002 and has since been staged in many European cities, is his third production of the Russian classic.

"This is closer to the Basel version. In Dusseldorf, I did a completely different version, setting it in a ballet studio where two dancers fell in love with each other and the teacher was [the character of] Rotbart.

"To me, it's always a challenge to put 'Swan Lake' on in a fashion that's not too Russian not too much decoration, for example. I focus on the story as well as the emotions and my decoration is very simple," he says.

As we've witnessed in his past three works here, simplicity can be striking. Spoerli and his stage designer Erich Wonder have designed a set piece which, in Spoerli's words, "you won't notice at the beginning, then moves around the stage, creating different images and moods, throughout the performance and, surprisingly, opens up at the end."

Comparing his version of "Swan Lake" to others', Spoerli says, "My version is compact I put the first two acts together and the third and fourth acts are also combined. It's shorter and it also goes on continuously there are no pauses [in-between]. But you can see the whole story."

His choreography for "Swan Lake" is based on the definitive version by Marius Petipa, but Spoerli says, "I clean it out. It's not so melodramatic but the story is very clear. Also, there's no pantomime. I don't like it that much when it gets to storytelling. I also take out some dances in the third act.

"The highly dramatic ending is also special as it is open-ended allowing the audience to interpret any which way they want."

Although Spoerli says, "Today you don't want to have large productions like the Russian ones because we don't have that many people in the company," this "Swan Lake" is indeed grand, with 82 members of cast and crew combined.

Russian dancer, and a long-time member of Zurich Ballet, Stanislav Jermakov performs Prince Siegfried, and in the role of Odette/Odile is Viktorina Kapitonova, of whom Spoerli speaks highly. "She's a new member of the company from Moscow. In Russia, you have to wait in line for a long time to be cast in a principal role, then she came to me and she's really wonderful. She may be a bit on the cold side, but she's technically wonderful the feet, the legs, and everything you'll be surprised."

Another reason to watch Zurich Ballet is the company's Thai member Pornpim "Noon" Karchai. Although she has a small role, as one of the Four Princesses here, Spoerli says, "She has solo parts in other works. She's very nice and growing."

At the end of the 2011-2 season, the Swiss maestro is leaving his artistic director post at the Zurich Ballet. German Christian Spuck, who's replacing him, now resident choreographer of Stuttgart Ballet, has different visions. "He's more modern [than me]," Spoerli says, "and his works are not so classical-oriented like mine but he'll keep my repertoire."

Before that, Spoerli is creating a few more new works for Zurich Ballet.    And even after 2012, he won't be retiring but will work as a freelance choreographer for companies in Europe and Asia. One project he mentions is a grand-scale Chinese musical theatre on Marco Polo to be premiered in Hong Kong.

In the meantime, if you think you've had enough of "Swan Lake", you haven't seen Heinz Spoerli's. And he writes in the programme notes that "I am staging a 'Swan Lake' for the 21st century."

Tonight's  the  night

- Your last chance to watch Zurich Ballet's "Swan Lake" at Thailand Cultural Centre's Main Hall is tonight at 7:30pm.

- Tickets are from Bt 1,000 to        Bt 4,000, available at ThaiTicketMajor and at the door.

- For more details, www.Opernhaus.ch and www.BangkokFestivals.com.