Esmeralda: Birgitta Festival

Over het evenement

Cesare Pugni’s ballet, Esmeralda, based on “Notre Dame de Paris” by Victor Hugo will be performed by the Erik Sapaev Mari State Opera and Ballet Theater with an original choreography by Perrot and Petipa at the Birgitta Festival.

Esmeralda makes many fall in love with her due to her beautiful looks, unsurpassed dancing skills and noble spirit. The Archdeacon Frollo also desires her secretly…

Ballet master and director Konstantin Ivanov: “[Compared to many others], our production is closer to Hugo’s novel and actual human emotions. We have stripped much of the excessive material, including romantic clichés… Our libretto shows Esmeralda, the gypsy girl, and the people around her in the complex situation. The people who represent the medieval spirit, faith and power – the poet Gringoire, the Archdeacon Frodo and the guard captain Phoebus are wretched people with their major flaws. Even the hunchbacked bell‐ringer Quasimodo does not reach Esmeralda’s level in term of spiritual beauty and cannot help her – and thus the girl who merely tried too eagerly to find her happiness will find herself face‐to‐face with cruel fate."

The Birgitta Festival of the Tallinn Philharmonic Society combines the dark charm of a medieval convent in Tallinn, Estonia with the latest in modern musical theatre in all its variety and richness.

Production
Erik Sapaev Mari State Opera and Ballet Theater
Original choreography: Jules Perrot/Marius Petipa
Ballet master and director: Konstantin Ivanov
Libretto : Konstantin Ivanov on the basis of Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Stage design : Konstantin Ivanov, Tatjana Giljazova
Costumes: Tatjana Izytsheva
Lighting : Anatoli Nikolajev

Main Cast
Olga Tshelpanova, Konstantin Korotkov, Dmitri Kogan, Kirill Parshin, Jekaterina Baibajeva or Marina Maksimova, Stanislav Aleksandrov.

Gates open two hours before the scheduled starting time of a performance. The Ribe Summer Terrace and Altia wine cellar also open at that time.