What: Dances with Wolfgang
Where: Royal Theatre
When: March 10 and 11, 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $30 and up; 250-386-6121
Rock singer Freddie Mercury and Mozart may seem unlikely bedfellows.
Yet the two are paired in Ballet Victoria’s Dances with Wolfgang, a two-act dance for 12 performers.
The score features pop and classical music, including Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D Minor, Queen’s Who Wants to Live Forever and Dollie de Luxe’s Queen of the Night. Matthew Cluff dances the lead role of Mozart with Andrea Bayne co-starring as his muse.
Ballet Victoria artistic director Paul Destrooper sees parallels between the life of Mozart, who died young, and Queen’s lead singer Mercury, who died in 1991 at age 45.
“Both Freddie Mercury and Amadeus [Mozart] knew their deaths were imminent. Nevertheless, they created and performed to the end,” he said.
Ballet Victoria performed an early version of Dances with Wolfgang in 2013. For this latest incarnation, Destrooper has re-choreographed half of the ballet.
“The technical demands are higher and I am using more dancers in several sections. The dramatic thread has been strengthened as well,” he said.
While incorporating many styles — including elements of hip-hop — the choreography is rooted in classical ballet, with an emphasis on pointe work.
Dances with Wolfgang will also be performed in North Vancouver March 14, Courtenay on March 27 and Duncan on April 10.
