Entitled Roots, this programme explores those of George Balanchine who, in Theme and Variations, created in 1947 in New York, adopted Tchaikovsky’s music to pay homage to the Russian academic tradition that nurtured him. Christopher Wheeldon, for his part, draws on the heritage of ancient Greece for his ballet Corybantic Games, making its repertoire debut at the Opera. The title refers as much to the frenzy that characterised the conducting style of Leonard Bernstein – whose music informs the piece – as it does to the Corybantes, the priests of the goddess Cybele with their martial dances. Finally, Rhapsodies enters the repertoire to George Gershwin’s score. In his piece, Cape Town-born choreographer Mthuthuzeli November evokes both urban energy and his African origins.

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2018-19-DELAG-084 - Opéra Bastille

Roots, from 6 October to 10 November 2025 at the Opéra Bastille

Entitled Roots, this programme explores those of George Balanchine who, in Theme and Variations, created in 1947 in New York, adopted Tchaikovsky’s music to pay homage to the Russian academic tradition that nurtured him.Christopher Wheeldon, for his 

George Balanchine / Mthuthuzeli‎ November / Christopher‎ Wheeldon

Roots

Born in 1904 in St. Petersburg to Georgian parents, Georgi Balanchivadze was trained at the Imperial Ballet School, and joined the Imperial Dance Company Corps de Ballet eight years later, in 1921. He also studied piano at the St. Petersburg Music Conservatory.&nbsp;When he joined Diaghilev’s Russian Ballets, Balanchine met Stravinsky and opened his mind to modern arts. His first choreographies (Apollo, 1928) are a testimony of his desire to change ballet into an illustration of music, to “transform sound into movement”. In 1934, Lincoln Kirstein invited this “Russian-European” artist in America to found the School of American Ballet that would lead to the creation of the New York City Ballet, headed by Balanchine from 1948 to his death, in 1983.&nbsp;The Paris Opera always maintained close ties with Balanchine. As early as 1929, Jacques Rouché, manager of the Palais Garnier, invited him to stage a ballet. But Balanchine was ill and asked Serge Lifar to replace him. In 1947, the choreographer was asked to come and revive three of his ballets (Apollo, Serenade, and The Fairy’s Kiss); an occasion for which he also created Le Palais de Cristal.&nbsp;Balanchine became a regular guess, teaching his works when they entered the Paris Opera repertoire, such as in 1974 for a Stravinsky programme (Agon, Capriccio, Orpheus) and in 1975 for a Ravel Festival (La Valse, Le Tombeau de Couperin, Tzigane, Sonatine).&nbsp;Since then, many of his works entered the Institution’s repertoire, including Divertimento n° 15, Violin Concerto, Symphony in Three Movements, Themes and Variations, Allegro brillante, Jewels, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Brahms-Schonberg Quartet and Mozartiana.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in 1840 in Votkinsk, a small town in the Urals. While studying law in Saint Petersburg, he took music classes at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory under composer and pianist Anton Rubinstein. In 1866, pianist Nikolaï Rubinstein, Anton’s brother, offered him a position as harmony teacher at the Moscow Conservatory. There, he met playwright Ostrovski who wrote his first opera libretto, The Voyevoda, and composed his first symphony. In 1876, Tchaikovsky initiated a sustained correspondence with Nadejda von Meck, a wealthy widow and great admirer of his music. Though they only wrote to each other and never met, she became his patroness for the next 13 years, which allowed him to focus exclusively on composition. In 1877, hoping to ease the inner conflicts caused by his homosexuality, he married Antonina Miliukova, one of his former students at the Moscow Conservatory, but the marriage was a disaster and left the composer on the verge of suicide. By 1880, Tchaikovsky had become famous: regarded as the ultimate nationalist musician, Tchaikosky spent his time between composition, numerous travels and a small estate he bought in the countryside. In 1891, he traveled to the United States and conducted several of his works at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall. He died in 1893 in Saint Petersburg. Although the official cause was cholera, many speculations were made about his death and some even thought of suicide. Tchaikovsky was an eclectic composer. A brilliant orchestrator, with a fine sense of melody, he composed in every musical genre, though he was particularly acknowledged for his symphonic works (the First Piano Concerto is one of the most played concertos in the world). He changed the way musicians regarded ballet by bringing a symphonic touch to a genre before seen as “inferior”. Mostly known in France for his ballets (Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker) and symphonies, Tchaikovsky composed a dozen operas (The Voyevoda, Iolanta, The Oprichnik, Vakula the Smith…). Among them, only Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades made their marks as long-lasted successes in Europe.

1998 : Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2006 : Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.2010 : Promoted to « Coryphée ».2011 : Promoted to « Sujet ».2013 : Promoted to « Première danseuse ».Valentine Colasante is made an "Étoile" on January 5th 2018, following the performance of Don Quixote (Rudolf Nureyev), a ballet in which she performed the role of Kitri.As part of the Paris Opera Ballet’s official tours, she has performed in Australia (Sydney, 2007), China (Beijing, 2008), Russia (Novosibirsk, 2010), Malaysia (Singapore, 2011), the United States (New York, 2017) and Spain (Madrid, 2019).

Valentine Colasante

2008 : Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2014 : Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.2016 : Promoted to « Coryphée ». Gold medalist at the Varna International Ballet Competition.2017 : Promoted to « Sujet ». AROP Prize.2018 : Promoted to « Premier Danseur ».Paul Marque was named “Danseur Étoile” on December 13th 2020 on the Opéra Bastille stage, following a live performance of La Bayadère (Rudolf Nureyev) on the streaming platform “<a href="https://chezsoi.operadeparis.fr/">l'Opéra chez soi</a>”, in which he performed the Golden Idol.As part of the Paris Opera Ballet’s official tours, he has performed in Spain (Madrid, 2019), the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, 2019), Asia (Singapore, Shanghai, 2019) and Japan (Tokyo, 2020).

ETOILE_Paul-Marque (c) James Bort OnP_2-NB

Born in 1958 in Tallinn, Estonia, Vello Pähn began his studies at the Tallinn Conservatory. He started to work as a conductor in 1981 at the Estonia Theater in Tallinn where he conducted operas of Mozart, Weber, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Prokofiev, but also works of the symphonic repertoire. He then studied at the Leningrad/St. Petersburg Conservatory under Maris Janson to perfect his technique and returned to the Estonia Theater as a permanent conductor. He is also the Tallinn Ballet's conductor and conducts performances and concerts in Europe, Russia, USA and Japan.



Since 1988, he has been a regular guest at the Paris Opera, invited first by Rudolf Nureyev, then by Brigitte Lefèvre, to conduct Ballet performances and tours (Raymonda, Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, La Bayadère, Romeo and Juliet – Prokofiev and Berlioz versions – Coppelia, Sylvia, Giselle, Ivan the Terrible, but also various ballet performances dedicated to Stravinsky, Béjart and to the Russian Ballets, as well as the Balanchine / Nureyev / Forsythe and Balanchine / Brown / Bausch programmes). He is in demand as an opera and ballet conductor in houses such as La Scala in Milan, Vienna Staatsoper, or in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, Stuttgart and Leipzig.

Thème et variations

Christopher Wheeldon trained at the Royal Ballet School in London before joining the Royal Ballet in 1991. In 1993, he moved to the New York City Ballet, where he was promoted to soloist in 1998. He became the first choreographer to be appointed as the NYCB's resident choreographer in July 2001. Since then, Christopher Wheeldon has created and staged productions for most of the world's major ballet companies. He now holds dual American and British citizenship and resides in New York.

He is an artistic associate of the Royal Ballet, where he created Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter's Tale in co-production with the National Ballet of Canada. In 2012, his ballet Cinderella premiered at the Dutch National Ballet. He has also choreographed for the Metropolitan Opera, the film Center Stage (2000), the Broadway musical Sweet Smell of Success (2002), and the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In 2016, he served as the artistic director of the Fashion Forward exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

Other career highlights include reimagined versions of The Nutcracker for the Joffrey Ballet and Cinderella for the English National Ballet, Corybantic Games for the Royal Ballet, and Like Water for Chocolate for both the Royal Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre. His latest full-length ballet, Oscar©, premiered at the Australian Ballet in 2024.

In 2014, Christopher Wheeldon directed and choreographed the musical An American in Paris, which was staged in Paris, New York, Hamburg, Sydney, and London. More recently, he directed and choreographed MJ The Musical in 2022. Each of these productions won four Tony Awards, including two for Best Choreography.

Among his many accolades are two Tony Award nominations for Best Director, an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Choreography and Best Direction, the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, the American Choreography Award, the Dance Magazine Award, the Léonide Massine Prize, the Benois de la Danse, and the Olivier Awards for his ballets Aeternum and Polyphonia.

Christopher Wheeldon has been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Composer, conductor, pianist, teacher, thinker, Leonard Bernstein has transformed the way spectators from the entire world hear and understand music. His successes as composer are numerous and various, from Broadway - West Side Story, On the Town, Wonderful Town and Candide – to worldwide concert halls that keep on staging his orchestral and choir music. His main concert works comprises three symphonies untitled Jeremiah (1944), The Age of Anxiety (1949) and Kaddish (1963), but also Prelude, Fugue and Riffs (1949); Serenade for violins, strings and percussions (1954); Symphonic Dances - West Side Story (1960); Chichester Psalms (1965); Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers (1971); Songfest (1977); Divertimento for orchestra (1980); Halil for solo flute solo and small orchestra (1981); Touches (1981) and Thirteen Anniversaries (1988) for solo piano; Missa Brevis for singers and percussions (1988); Concerto for orchestra: Jubilee Games (1989); and Arias and Barcarolles (1988). Leonard Bernstein also wrote the one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti in 1952, and then its sequel in three acts A Quiet Place, in 1983. He worked with the choreographer Jerome Robbins on three major ballets: Fancy Free (1944), Facsimile (1946) and Dybbuk (1975). He was an Oscar nominee in the music category for On the Waterfront (1954). As a conductor, he was famous for his dynamic presence on the greatest orchestral stages worldwide for over a half-century, building a lasting heritage with a catalog counting more than 500 recordings and filmed performances. He was Musical Director of the New York philharmonic Orchestra from 1958 to 1969. Then, after he became a resident conductor, he frequently performed with the formation. He was also a regular guest for concerts and recordings at the Vienna philharmonic Orchestra and in Israel. He won 11 Emmy Awards for his TV work, including for the series Young People's Concerts with the New-York philharmonic Orchestra. As a teacher and interpret he also played a major role with the Tanglewood Festival from its creation in 1940 until his death, but also with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute and the Pacific Music Festival (which co-founded) and the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival. Leonard Bernstein died on October 14, 1990.

Jean-Marc is a set and costume designer, researcher and artistic consultant. He creates for the performing arts and exhibitions. His approach celebrates each art form's unique identity, history and collaboration, with the aim of communicating with an inclusive, contemporary audience.Whether narrative or abstract, storytelling is at the heart of his practice. He collaborates internationally with renowned directors, choreographers, curators and brands, at major opera houses, theaters and museums in the U.S. (Metropolitan Opera House; Lincoln Center; operas in Santa Fe, Chicago Lyric, Los Angeles, St Louis; Brooklyn Museum: Valentino Retrospective), the UK (Royal Opera House; Scottish Opera &amp; Ballet; Sadler's Wells), Europe (Vienna Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet, Venice Biennale), Japan (New National; Bunkamura) and Australia (Australian Ballet).Recent commissions include sets and costumes for Oscar (Wheeldon), Callirhoe (Ratmansky / Gallienne), Tchaikovsky Overtures (Ratmansky), Ballet Impérial (Balanchine), La Boutique (Bond), Soirée Ravel (Breiner / Siegal). Future commissions include Paquita (Legris), Petrushka / Pulcinella (Siegal), Madame Butterfly (Santa Fe, revival). His work has been awarded several Laurence Olivier, South Bank Show and Critics' Circle National Dance Awards, a 2013 World Stage Design finalist and nominated for the 2016 Benois de la Danse.In 2018, he is a research resident at New York University, developing a multidisciplinary project entitled Kingdom of Shadows - Dance beyond its choreographic identity. In 2019, he programmed an evening of dance acclaimed by the New York Times for New York's Joyce Theater Festival. In the UK, he is a member of the jury and committee for the Linbury Prize For Stage Design, and a board member of the Dancers' Career Development Trust, having previously been on the steering committee of Dance Umbrella, London's contemporary dance festival.Jean-Marc studied art history at the Sorbonne and trained at the Motley Theatre Design Course in London. His career began as a dancer with the Stuttgart Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, interpreting and creating roles in the classical and contemporary repertoires. He studied at the Paris Opera Ballet School and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris.

Born in Montreal to a Turkish father and British mother, Erdem Moralıoğlu graduated with an M.A from London’s Royal College of Art in 2003. His first womenswear collection debuted in 2005 and quickly gained recognition with its language of poetic and modern femininity. ERDEM has forged its own path in the industry, centering each collection around a forensically researched narrative and a belief in the power of craftsmanship. Collections are formed with a muse in mind, depicting previously untold stories of heroic women. ERDEM has received global recognition and industry accolades, including the 2010 inaugural British Fashion Council / Vogue Designer Fashion Fund Award and the 2014 BFC Womenswear Designer of the Year Award. The brand opened its flagship store in Mayfair in 2015. In 2020, Erdem was honoured with an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his contribution to the fashion industry. A passionate supporter of the arts, Erdem has shown his collections in a series of historically and culturally significant London locations, including The British Museum, The National Portrait Gallery, Sadler’s Wells, White Cube and The V&A. In 2024, Erdem opened Imaginary Conversation at Chatsworth, an exhibition dedicated to the process of creating the Spring Summer 24 collection and its muse, Duchess Deborah. Erdem collaborated with The Royal Ballet, designing costumes for Christopher Wheeldon’s piece, Corybantic Games, the ballet debuted at The Royal Opera House in 2018 and returned to the stage in 2023. Pieces from Erdem’s collections have been exhibited globally, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and The Palais Galliera and The Louvre Museum in Paris. For two decades, Erdem has established an exuberant language of femininity that transcends fashion to inspire strength and confidence in the women for whom he designs. It is a passionate language that is evocative and eccentric in character, fluently spoken with a beauty that is intense and romantic.

Peter Mumford studied at the Central School of Art and Design in London. Among other works, he designed the lighting for Romeo and Juliet (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), Peter Grimes (Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro Real Madrid), Within The Golden Hour, Carmen, Corybantic Games (Royal Ballet London), Don Quixote, The King Dances, Edward II, E=mc2, Faster (Birmingham Royal Ballet), Carmen (Miami City Ballet), Beauty and Sadness (Hong Kong), The Queen of Spade (Vilnius Opera), Manon Lescaut and Werther (Metropolitan Opera New York), La Traviata, Fidelio (Glyndebourne), The Mask of Orpheus and Madama Butterfly (English National Opera), Belshazzar, Falstaff, Le Nozze di Figaro (The Grange Festival). He also designed sets and lighting for the concert version of the Ring (Opera North), Otello (Bergen National Opera) and Fidelio (Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Garsington Opera).In the world of theatre, he designed the lighting for A Number (Bridge Theatre), Far Away (Donmar Warehouse), Three Sisters (National Theatre), My Name is Lucy Barton (New York), 8 Hotels (Chichester Festival Theatre), Jude (Hampstead) and Refugees of 1922 in Kefalonia & Ithaka (St George's Castle, Céphalonie). Peter Mumford won two Olivier Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Dance and Best Lighting Design, and the South Bank Sky Arts Opera Award and the Helpmann and Green Room Award (Best Lighting Design). He was twice nominated for a 2019 Tony Award for lighting for his plays The Ferryman and King Kong.

Corybantic Games

South African choreographer Mthuthuzeli November began dancing at the age of 15 and graduated in 2014. He won the award for Best Contemporary Work at the South African International Ballet Competition in both 2012 and 2014 and made his choreographic debut with the Cape Dance Company in 2014. It was there that he also created the works Visceral and SUN - The Rite of Passage. He performed with the Cape Dance Company and in a South African production of West Side Story before joining Ballet Black in September 2015.

Since then, Mthuthuzeli November has created several award-nominated or award-winning works for stage and film with Ballet Black, including the Laurence Olivier Award-winning INGOMA in 2016. For his solo work, he received the Emerging Artist Award from the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK).

Mthuthuzeli November choreographed short pieces for the English National Ballet Emerging Dancer competitions in 2018 and 2020 and created and performed for British artist Stormzy at the Glastonbury Festival in 2019. He was also commissioned by Cape Town Opera and Cape Town City Ballet to choreograph a film production of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. The Grange Festival invited him to create a piece for the production of Precipice (2020). Fall For Dance North commissioned him and his brother, Siphesihle November, to create My Mother’s Son, which premiered in November 2023.

Mthuthuzeli November has continued to create works worldwide, collaborating with the Washington Ballet (USA), the Royal Ballet (UK), Northern Ballet (UK), TanzLuzern (Switzerland), Cape Town City Ballet (SA), Ballett Zürich (Switzerland), and Charlotte Ballet (USA).

In 2022, he was nominated for Best Soloist in a Production at the Black British Theatre Awards and for Best Classical Choreography at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards for his piece The Waiting Game. Most recently, he won Best Choreography at the Black British Theatre Awards 2023 for his piece Nina: By Whatever Means, created for Ballet Black.

Creatives

Cast

Creatives

Creatives

Roots, from 6 October to 10 November 2025 at the Opéra Bastille

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Thème et variations

Creatives

Corybantic Games

Creatives

Rhapsodies

Creatives

Roots, from 6 October to 10 November 2025 at the Opéra Bastille