Christian Spuck is from Marburg and was trained at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart. He began his dance career with Jan Lauwers’ Needcompany and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s ensemble "Rosas". In 1995 he joined the Stuttgart Ballet and served as the company’s resident choreographer from 2001 to 2012. In Stuttgart, he created fifteen world premieres, including the narrative ballets "Lulu. Eine Monstretragödie" after Frank Wedekind, "Der Sandmann", and "Das Fräulein von S." after E.T.A. Hoffmann. In addition, Christian Spuck has worked with numerous prominent ballet companies across Europe and the USA. For the Royal Ballet of Flanders, he created "The Return of Ulysses" in 2006, and at the Norwegian National Ballet in Oslo, "Woyzeck" after Georg Büchner was premiered. His ballet "Die Kinder" at Aalto Ballett Essen was nominated for the Prix Benois de la Danse; the ballet "Leonce und Lena", also premiered in Essen and based on Georg Büchner, was taken up by the Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Charlotte Ballet, USA, the Czech National Ballet in Prague, and the Stuttgart Ballet. The premiere of "Poppea//Poppea" for Gauthier Dance at Theaterhaus Stuttgart in 2010 was selected by Dance Europe magazine as one of the ten most successful dance productions worldwide and was awarded the German theater prize Der Faust 2011 as well as the Italian "Danza/Danza Award." Christian Spuck has also directed operas: following Gluck’s "Orphée et Euridice" at the Stuttgart State Opera, he staged Verdi’s "Falstaff" at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, as well as Berlioz’ "La damnation de Faust" and Wagner’s "The Flying Dutchman" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. From 2012 to 2023, Christian Spuck was director of the Zürich Ballet. There he created choreographies for "Romeo and Juliet", "Leonce und Lena", "Woyzeck", "Der Sandmann", "Messa da Requiem", "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Monteverdi". The ballet "Anna Karenina", premiered in Zurich in 2014 and based on Leo Tolstoy, was added to the repertoire in Oslo, at the Moscow Stanislavski Theatre, by the Korean National Ballet, and the Bavarian State Ballet. In 2018, Spuck’s ballet "Winterreise" premiered in Zurich, earning him the Prix Benois de la Danse in 2019. In 2019, the Zürich Ballet staged Helmut Lachenmann’s "Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern", recognized as "Production of the Year" and "Company of the Year" by tanz magazine. For the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre, he created the ballet "Orlando" after Virginia Woolf in 2021. His "Messa da Requiem" was not only invited to the Adelaide Festival in Australia but also adopted by Het Nationale Oper & Ballet Amsterdam and the Finnish National Ballet. Since the beginning of the 2023/24 season, Christian Spuck has been the artistic director of the Staatsballett Berlin.
Ballet by Christian Spuck
In three acts after the tragedy by William Shakespeare
Music von Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
From 28. May 2015 until 31. May 2015
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Duration :
2 H. 30 Min. Inkl. Pause after 2nd act after approx. 1 H. 20 Min. -
More information:
Introduction 45 min before the performance.
Christian Spuck
Michail Jurowski
Michail Jurowski studierte am Moskauer Konservatorium bei Leo Ginsburg und Alexej Kandinsky und wurde im Alter von 25 Jahren Assistent von Gennadi Roshdestwensky beim Grossen Symphonieorchester des Staatlichen Rundfunks und Fernsehens in Moskau. 1989 übersiedelte er aufgrund einer Einladung der Semperoper Dresden nach Deutschland und wurde 1990 Musikdirektor und ständiger Gastdirigent der Nordwestdeutschen Philharmonie Herford. Von 1999 bis 2001 war er Chefdirigent an der Oper Leipzig. Er ist ständiger Gastdirigent des Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchesters Berlin, der Deutschen Oper Berlin, des Tonkünstlerorchesters Wien, des Odense Symphony Orchestra und des Norrköping Symphony Orchestra. Von 2006 bis 2008 war er Chefdirigent des WDR-Rundfunkorchesters Köln. Höhepunkte seiner Operntätigkeit waren Sir Peter Ustinovs Produktion «Iolanthe» und Rachmaninows Francesca da Rimini bei den Dresdner Musikfestspielen, Boris Godunow an der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Schostakowitschs Nase an der Oper Leipzig und Prokofjews Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen an der Komischen Oper Berlin, Parsifal am Teatro Carlo Felice in Genua, Tosca, La traviata und Die Zarenbraut an der Oper Frankfurt, Götterdämmerung in Dortmund, Tschaikowskis Dornröschen in Oslo sowie Respighis Marie Victoire, Un ballo in maschera und Rienzi an der Deutschen Oper Berlin. Am Opernhaus Zürich dirigierte er Glasunows Raymonda.
Christian Schmidt
Christian Schmidt studied stage design with Erich Wonder at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In 1992, he collaborated for the first time with Claus Guth, leading to an intensive artistic partnership. He has since designed sets and costumes for numerous Guth productions, including "Iphigénie en Tauride" and "Le nozze di Figaro" at the Salzburg Festival, "The Flying Dutchman" at the Bayreuth Festival, "Fierrabras", "Radamisto", "Ariane et Barbe-Bleue", "Tristan und Isolde", and "Parsifal" at the Zurich Opera House, as well as Mozart’s "Lucio Silla" at the Vienna Festival Weeks. The team has also gained recognition for world premieres, including Czernowin’s "Pnima" and Staud’s "Berenice" at the Munich Biennale, Ruzicka’s "Celan" in Dresden, Oehring’s "Unsichtbar Land" in Basel, and Czernowin’s "Heart Chamber" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. For Hans Neuenfels’ productions of Zemlinsky’s "Der König Kandaules" at the Vienna Volksoper (1997) and "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" in Stuttgart (1998), Schmidt created the award-winning designs. In 2003, Opernwelt named him "Set Designer of the Year" and in 2005 "Costume Designer of the Year". He received the Rolf-Mares-Preis in 2006 for the set of "Simon Boccanegra" in Hamburg. In 2010, he worked for the first time with Christof Loy ("Die lustige Witwe" in Geneva). For Christian Spuck, he created the sets for Gluck’s "Orphée et Eurydice" in Stuttgart and for "Romeo and Juliet" and "Messa da Requiem" in Zurich. Since 2011, he has also collaborated with Andreas Homoki and, together with him, directed the Zurich "Ring of the Nibelung" from 2022 to 2024.
Emma Ryott
Emma Ryott is from England and works internationally as a costume and set designer. Since 2003, she has collaborated with Christian Spuck in ballet and opera. Their joint ballet projects include "The Little Match Girl", "Winterreise", "Messa da Requiem", "Anna Karenina", and "Romeo and Juliet" in Zurich; "Lulu. Eine Monstretragödie" and "Das Fräulein von S." in Stuttgart; "Woyzeck" in Oslo and Zurich; "Leonce und Lena" in Montreal, Stuttgart, Zurich, and Prague; "Der Sandmann" in Stuttgart and Zurich; and "The Return of Ulysses" in Antwerp. In opera, they have worked on "The Flying Dutchman" and "La damnation de Faust" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, "Falstaff" in Wiesbaden, and "Orfeo ed Euridice" in Stuttgart. Other opera productions include "Mathis der Maler" at the Theater an der Wien, "Manon Lescaut" at the English National Opera, "Otello" at the Salzburg Festival, "La damnation de Faust" and "The Great Gatsby" at the Semperoper Dresden, "Marco Polo" at the Guangzhou Opera, "Das Rheingold" and "Die Walküre" at the Longborough Festival, "La bohème" at the Copenhagen Opera Festival, "Roméo et Juliette" in Malmö and at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, and "Orfeo" at the Opéra du Rhin. Their theater work has taken them from the Royal Shakespeare Company through Toronto and the National Theatre London to London’s West End and the New York Broadway. For the globally broadcast 2020 New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, Emma Ryott designed the ballet costumes. Additional ballet projects include "Cinderella" at the Finnish National Ballet, as well as Christian Spuck’s "Orlando" and Yuri Possokhov’s "The Seagull" at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre.
Reinhard Traub
Reinhard Traub absolvierte eine Ausbildung als Grafikdesigner und Berufspilot. Von 1980 bis 1985 war er Assistent bei Chenault Spence und gestaltete anschliessend u. a. zwei Welttourneen mit den Produktionen Sophisticated Ladies und Carmen Jones als Lichtdesigner. Seit 1992/93 war er bei den Bühnen Graz tätig und konzipierte Lichtdesigns für Produktionen an den Opernhäusern von Amsterdam, Zürich, Brüssel, Hamburg, Helsinki, Hongkong, Kopenhagen, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Montreal, Moskau, München, Oslo, für die Salzburger Festspiele, das Glyndebourne Festival sowie für das Hamburger Thalia Theater, die Volksbühne Berlin und das Burgtheater in Wien. Reinhard Traub arbeitet regelmässig mit Regisseuren wie Johann Kresnik, Martin Kušej und Christof Loy zusammen. Seit 2006/07 ist Reinhard Traub Leiter der Beleuchtungsabteilung der Staatsoper Stuttgart. Dort ist er Lichtdesigner für Produktionen wie Jenůfa, Der Schaum der Tage, Ariadne auf Naxos, Nabucco sowie Die Nachtwandlerin, Platée, Der fliegende Holländer, Parsifal und La Bohème. 2017 war Reinhard Traub für das Lichtdesign der Produktion Aida bei den Salzburger Festspielen verantwortlich, ausserdem für Tristan und Isolde (2015), Parsifal (2016) und Lohengrin (2018) bei den Bayreuther Festspielen, denen er zukünftig bei Tannhäuser und Der Ring des Nibelungen verbunden sein wird. Darüber hinaus unterrichtet Reinhard Traub seit 2001 an der Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart.
Michael Küster
Michael Küster is from Germany. After studying German studies, art, and speech science at the University of Halle, he worked as a presenter, author, and speaker at various broadcasting stations in Germany. There, he hosted numerous classical music programs and live broadcasts of major concert events, including those from the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Semperoper Dresden, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
Since 2002, he has been a dramaturg at the Zurich Opera House, working with directors such as Matthias Hartmann, David Alden, Robert Carsen, Moshe Leiser/Patrice Caurier, Damiano Michieletto, David Pountney, Johannes Schaaf, and Graham Vick.
As dramaturg of Ballett Zürich, Michael Küster has collaborated since 2012 with Cathy Marston, Marco Goecke, Marcos Morau, Kim Brandstrup, Edward Clug, Alexei Ratmansky, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, and Hans van Manen. Together with Christian Spuck, he worked on productions including «Winterreise» («Prix Benois de la Danse»), «Romeo and Juliet», «Messa da Requiem», and «The Sleeping Beauty».
At La Scala in Milan, Michael Küster was dramaturg for Matthias Hartmann’s opera productions of «Der Freischütz», «Idomeneo», and «The Queen of Spades».
Cast
Eva Dewaele
Eva Dewaele is from Belgium. After completing training at the Royal Ballet School in Antwerp, she was engaged by the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, the Theater Luzern, the Opera Göteborg, the Opéra de Lyon, the Cullberg Ballet and the Royal Ballet of Flanders. She has danced in choreographies by William Forsythe, Mats Ek and Jiří Kylián as well as in world premieres by Jacopo Godani, Douglas Lee, David Dawson and Christian Spuck. Eva Dewaele has also appeared in several feature films. With the start of the 2012/13 season she became a member of Ballett Zürich and was also ballet master of the Junior Ballett. She danced Lady Capulet in Christian Spuck’s Romeo und Julia, Rosetta in Leonce und Lena and the Dark Lady in Spuck’s Sonett. As a choreographer, Eva Dewaele created the piece Mit Blick auf for the Hodler retrospective of the Fondation Beyeler and presented the piece Miss(es) as a part of the «Junge Choreografen» series. Her choreography Passing by was created for the Junior Ballett. She has been a ballet master of Ballett Zürich since the 2014/15 season. She staged the production of Christian Spuck’s Anna Karenina at the Stanislavski Theatre in Moscow, the Korean National Ballet, and the Bayerisches Staatsballett.
Yen Han a.G.
Chinese-American dancer Yen Han studied with Stefan Mucsi and Paul Maure in Los Angeles, at the Hartford Ballet School, at the San Francisco Ballet, and at the Beijing Dance Academy. After engagements with the Jeune Ballet de France and the Ballet de Nice, she was engaged as a principal dancer in the Ballett Zürich in 1994, where she has proven to be one of the most versatile and charismatic dancers in a variety of leading roles. Heinz Spoerli choreographed Le Sacre du printemps, Peer Gynt, Daphnis et Chloé, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for her. She worked with Mats Ek on Sleeping Beauty (Aurora), and at the Royal Swedish Opera on Romeo and Juliet (Juliet). Other important choreographers she has worked with include Nicholas Beriozoff, Hans van Manen, Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Mauro Bigonzetti, Twyla Tharp, Christopher Wheeldon, Patrice Bart, Lin Hwai Min, Sol León/Paul Lightfoot, Martin Schläpfer, and Filipe Portugal. She has been seen in works by Christian Spuck, as Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), Court Master (Leonce and Lena), Kitty (Anna Karenina), in Messa da Requiem and as the Clown (Nutcracker and Mouse King). In 2013 she was honored with the Dance Prize of the Friends of Ballett Zürich and the Outstanding Female Dancer prize at the Swiss Dance Awards.
Cristian Alex Assis
Cristian Alex Assis is a native of Brazil. He studied at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts, on a scholarship awarded by the Brasilia International Dance Seminar. He was a member of the Munich-based Bavarian State Ballet from 2010 to 2012, and came to Ballett Zürich for the 2012/13 season. Since then he has been seen in various roles including Wronski in Christian Spuck’s Anna Karenina, Tybalt in Spuck’s Romeo and Juliet and the drum major and the captain in Spuck’s Woyzeck, in further choreographies by William Forsythe andEdward Clug and in Martin Schläpfer’s Forellenquintett. In the reconstruction of Swan Lake by Alexei Ratmansky he was seen as Rotbart.
Denis Vieira
Denis Vieira is from Brazil. A graduate of his home country’s Bolshoi Theatre School, he danced various roles for the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro including Onegin/Lensky in John Cranko’s Onegin, Romeo in Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet, Adam in Uwe Scholz’s Adam and Eve, Albrecht in Peter Wright’s Giselle and Prince Siegfried in Yelena Pankova’s Swan Lake. He joined Ballett Zürich in 2014, since when he has been seen in Schläpfer’s Forellenquintett, Kylián’s Wings of Wax, Kairos by Wayne McGregor and Sonett by Christian Spuck. He has also danced Tybalt and Romeo in Spuck’s Romeo and Juliet, Vronsky in his Anna Karenina, Leonce in his Leonce und Lena and Albrecht in Patrice Bart’s Giselle. He was also the recipient of the Friends of Ballett Zürich’s Dance Prize for 2015.
Daniel Mulligan
Daniel Mulligan comes from Great Britain and studied at the Royal Ballet School in London. After two seasons with the Junior Ballett, he joined Ballett Zürich in the 2009/10 season. He has appeared as a soloist in many of Heinz Spoerli’s choreographies. He danced Mercutio/Benvolio in Christian Spuck’s Romeo und Julia as well as in ballets by Mats Ek (Dornröschen), Hans van Manen (Solo, Kammerballett), Edward Clug (Chamber Minds, Le Sacre du printemps), Sol León/Paul Lightfoot (Skew-Whiff, Speak for Yourself), William Forsythe (Quintett), Jiří Kylián (Gods and Dogs, Stepping Stones, Sweet Dreams), Ohad Naharin (Minus 16), Marco Goecke (Petruschka), Filipe Portugal (Corpus), Douglas Lee, and Crystal Pite. Recent leading roles have included Mephisto in Faust by Edward Clug, Fritz and the Clown in Spuck’s Nussknacker und Mausekönig, as well as Stiva in Spuck’s Anna Karenina.
Christopher Parker
Christopher Parker is from the United Kingdom. He trained at the Royal Ballet School in London and subsequently performed with Scottish Ballet, Junior Ballet Zürich, Aalto Ballett Essen, Ballett Dortmund, and Ballett Zürich (2012–2019). During his time on stage, he danced in productions by Christian Spuck, Marco Goecke, George Balanchine, and William Forsythe. Alongside his career as a dancer, he began designing costumes for stage productions and continues to develop his work. Costumes have been created for choreographies by Craig Davidson, Filipe Portugal, and David Farias. He maintains a close collaboration with Lucas Valente ("All the Things That Might Kill Me," "Scent of Her Gardenias," "Umbra," "Le Sacre du printemps," "Cain," and "Fast Nacht").
Eric Christison
Eric Christison was born in Canada, and trained at Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto and the English National Ballet School in London. He was with the Finnish National Ballet from 2010 to 2013, where his performances included John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet. His touring activities also took him to the Bolshoi Theatre, where he danced in Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps. He joined Ballett Zürich for the 2013/14 season, and his performances to date have included Marco Goecke’s Deer Vision, the role of Paris in Christian Spuck’s Romeo and Juliet and in Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments (Melancholic).
Viktorina Kapitonova
Viktorina Kapitonova, who is a native of Russia, studied at the Kazan Ballet School and Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre Academy. The winner of both the Young Ballet of Russia competition and the Arabesque contest of 2008, from 2005 onwards she danced at the Jalil Opera House in Kazan, performing solo roles in Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Coppélia and The Nutcracker. She was a member of the Stanislavsky Ballet for the 2008/09 season; and she joined Ballett Zürich in 2010, since when her performances have included Odette/Odile in Heinz Spoerli’s Swan Lake, solos in Spoerli’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Wäre heute morgen und gestern jetzt, ...und mied den Wind and Goldberg Variations, Rosetta in Christian Spuck’s Leonce and Lena, the nurse in Spuck’s Romeo and Juliet and the leading role in Spuck’s Anna Karenina. She has also been seen in choreographies by Balanchine, Ek, Forsythe, Kylián, Lee, McGregor and Schläpfer. She presented her choreography Two Bodies – One Soul as part of the company’s Young Choreographers programme. As Giselle/Myrtha she was seen in Patrice Bart’s Giselle, alongside Roberto Bolle and Friedemann Vogel. She was also the recipient of the Friends of Ballett Zürich’s Dance Prize for 2015. Last season her roles included Odette/Odile in the reconstruction of Swan Lake by Alexei Ratmansky as well as Olimpia in Christian Spuck’s Der Sandmann.
Photos «Romeo und Julia»
