Four contemporary choreographers come together for a programme that leads the Opera’s dancers to a new form of modernity where bodies vibrate with intensity.To open the evening, James Thierrée takes over the public areas of the Palais Garnier and introduces us to his dream-like world. Canada’s Crystal Pite returns with The Seasons’ Canon, a dazzling creation that thrilled audiences at the Palais Garnier last season. Spain’s Iván Pérez occupies the stage of the Opera for the first time with a creation for ten male dancers. To conclude the evening, Israel’s Hofesh Shechter, often lauded for his telluric, trance-evoking dances, offers a new version of his piece The Art of Not Looking Back.

 Les Étoiles, les Premiers Danseurs et le Corps de Ballet

A co-production of the Paris Opera, BEL AIR MEDIA and ARTE France With the support of the Orange Foundation, patron of the Paris Opera's audiovisual broadcasts, and the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animéeDirectors: Cédric Klapisch, Miguel Octave © Opéra national de Paris – Bel Air Media / France 2018Picture: © Agathe Poupeney / OnP

Soirée Thierrée / Shechter / Pérez / Pite

garnier-opa60 2

Performance of The Seasons' Canon by Noureyev at the Palais Garnier, from 23 September to 12 October 2023

Four contemporary choreographers come together for a programme that leads the Opera’s dancers to a new form of modernity where bodies vibrate with intensity. To open the evening, James Thierrée takes over the public areas of the Palais Garnier and in

Thierrée / Shechter / Pérez / Pite

Thierrée / Shechter / Pérez / Pite Evening

In homage to Patrick Dupond, who passed away in 2021, the Paris Opera Ballet celebrates the artist who, throughout a dazzling and luminous career, embodied the face of the Company on every continent. Internationally renowned, trained at the Opera’s Ballet School, dancer Étoile in 1980, then Director of Dance at the Paris Opera from 1990 to 1995, Patrick Dupond danced and shone for the major choreographers of his time. Études is a virtuoso synthesis of classical technique: with this ballet, dear to his heart, and which he often programmed as the Company’s director, the Paris Opera pays tribute to this immense figure of dance.Béjart’s Le Chant du compagnon errant (Song of the Wandering Companion) is a moving “pas de deux” that Patrick Dupond danced with his great friend Jean‑Marie Didière as well as with Nureyev. Neumeier’s Vaslaw, a work constructed around Patrick Dupond, celebrates the memory of another great dancer, Nijinsky.  With the Paris Opera Étoiles, Premières Danseuses, Premiers Danseurs and Corps de BalletDirector: Isabelle Julien © Opéra national de Paris - Bel Air Media - 2023

DUPOND2223_GALA_0221_1033_ETUDES_Harald Lander_Guillaume Diop (c) Yonathan Kellerman OnP

Tribute to Patrick Dupond_trailer

Tribute to Patrick Dupond

In homage to Patrick Dupond, who passed away in 2021, the Paris Opera Ballet celebrates the artist who, throughout a dazzling and luminous career, embodied the face of the Company on every continent.  Internationally renowned, trained at the Opera’s 

Études / Le Chant du compagnon errant / Vaslaw

Long reputed difficult – if not impossible- to dance, Gustav Mahler’s music has inspired many artists since the 1960s. Kenneth MacMillan, Maurice Béjart, Pina Bausch, Jiří Kylián and Maguy Marin have successfully tackled this challenge. But one name will undoubtedly remain attached to the musician’s: John Neumeier, who explored about ten of Mahler’s works.Created in 1975 in Hamburg, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 entered the Paris Opera’s repertoire in 2009.What seems today obvious was, back then, perceived as an audacious, even bold choice, a crazy and disturbing ambition: few were the choreographers, apart from Maurice Béjart with the Symphony No. 9, who dared to create a choreography on symphonic music.And choosing Mahler’s work, considered to be even harder to apprehend than Beethoven’s, could imply an unusual attraction for complexity. But the result belied the ominous critics, and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 was an immediate (and lasting) success. The Etoiles, the Premiers Danseurs and the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet The Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine / Chœur d’enfants de l’Opéra national de ParisA co-production Paris Opera Production and CLC Productions With the participation of France Télévisions, the support of the Orange Foundation, patron of the Paris Opera's audiovisual broadcasts, and the assistance of the Centre National du Cinéma et de l'image animéeDirector: Thomas Grimm © Opéra de Paris Production - CLC Productions 2013 Picture: © Christian Leiber / OnP

La Troisième Symphonie de Gustav Mahler

La Troisième Symphonie De Gustav Mahler

Long reputed difficult – if not impossible- to dance, Gustav Mahler’s music has inspired many artists since the 1960s. Kenneth MacMillan, Maurice Béjart, Pina Bausch, Jiří Kylián and Maguy Marin have successfully tackled this challenge. But one name 

John Neumeier

A comic yet tragic universal figure lost in his own world and out of place in the world of his contemporaries, ridiculous yet imposing, admirable yet pitiful, Don Quixote knows neither deceitfulness, abnegation, nor betrayal. The loss of his ideals and the surrender of principles: this was the death of Don Quixote.From the 17th century onwards, the character has inspired numerous avatars, not just literary ones, but in the fields of music and dance too. Their authors only had to draw from the abundance of episodes in the Cervantes novel—a veritable catalogue of adventures and anecdotes—which never fails to provide subject matter for artists short on inspiration.During the 19th century, all of Spain became a source of artistic creativity, almost to the point of cliché. Harsh, noble or picturesque, the work offers the best of itself through Mérimée’s pen, Bizet’s baton or Edouard Manet’s brush.With Marius Petipa, it gave rise to several ballets, including the famous Don Quixote. In Moscow and then Saint Petersburg, it was the same resounding success in successive adaptations by Petipa himself or by Alexander Gorski.The episode from the novel retained by the choreographer, the wedding of Kitri and Basil, paints the happiest aspect of the story. The shimmering colours and the character dances, together with the whirlwind of gypsies and beautiful Andalusian girls, were a huge success with audiences, won over as much by the new choreographic style as by the Iberian exoticism.In the following century, a young dancer by the name of Rudolf Nureyev would himself triumph in the very ballet that made the the Russian School famous. His memories of the work would accompany him to France where he revived it. In 1966, Nureyev staged his version of Don Quixote for the Vienna Opera Ballet, before revising it for its entry into the repertoire of the Paris Opera in 1981.Since then, the Knight of the sad face has never really left the stage of the Opera. Presented since 2002 with new sets and costumes inspired by the paintings of Goya, each of its appearances enjoys the same endlessly renewed triumph. The Etoiles, the Premiers Danseurs and the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet The Paris Opera OrchestraA co-production of Opéra de Paris Production, ARTE France and François Roussillon et Associés with the support of the Orange Foundation, patron of the Paris Opera's audiovisual broadcasts, and the assistance of the Centre National du Cinéma et de l'Image Animée.Director: François Roussillon © 2012 – Opéra national de Paris production – ARTE France – François Roussillon et AssociésPicture: © Julien Benhamou / OnP

<ul><li>Kitri: Lorenzo’s daughter, in love with Basilio but betrothed to Gamache</li><li>Basilio: Penniless barber, in love with Kitri</li><li>Don Quixote: Knight errant who sets out to conquer the world</li><li>Camacho: Rich peasant, betrothed to Kitri</li><li>Lorenzo: Innkeeper, Kitri’s father</li><li>Sancho Panza: Don Quichotte’s loyal squire</li><li>The Queen of the Dryads: Nymph and guardian of the forests</li></ul>

Don Quichotte

A comic yet tragic universal figure lost in his own world and out of place in the world of his contemporaries, ridiculous yet imposing, admirable yet pitiful, Don Quixote knows neither deceitfulness, abnegation, nor betrayal. The loss of his ideals a

Rudolf Nureyev

Don Quixote (2012)

In celebration of her farewell to the stage on Thursday 10 October at the Palais Garnier, relive four ballet performances with the Étoile dancer on POP, featuring both classical and contemporary works.

Thématique POP - 8

In celebration of her farewell to the stage on Thursday 10 October at the Palais Garnier, relive four ballet performances with the Étoile dancer on PO