Shéhérazade

The renowned Italian choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti created Scheherazade for the Czech National Ballet, in tandem with Carlo Cerri, his long-term collaborator. Based on the famous Middle Eastern story, the full-length ballet features a mesmerising, diverse dance idiom, and overwhelming visual dimensions. Mauro Bigonzetti, long-standing artistic director of the Aterballetto, Reggio Emilia, is a great modern dance innovator, one of the world’s most feted ballet creators and a sensitive storyteller. Blending contemporary and classical elements, he reveals and depicts the beauty of the human body almost like a sculptor, yet his works are far from academic. Bigonzetti has previously worked with the Czech National Ballet on three occasions. In 2016, Prague staged to great acclaim his Vertigo; in 2019, the Estates Theatre hosted the world premiere of Kafka: The Trial; and in the 2023/24 season, the State Opera presented his choreography to Franz Schubert’s Death and the Maiden within the unique project Holo Harmonies.

Scheherazade, a major character in the famous collection of Middle Eastern folk tales The One Thousand and One Nights, has inspired artists worldwide as a great archetype. Nikolai RimskyKorsakov did not compose the symphonic suite Scheherazade with a view to having it set to dance. In 1910, his wonderful piece of music was first adapted as a ballet by Michel Fokine. The story of Scheherazade, her beauty and wisdom, also bewitched Mauro Bigonzetti. In his production for the Czech National Ballet he primarily focuses on two main protagonists, King Shahryar and Scheherazade, representing the masculine and feminine principles, the conflict and mistrust between them, as well as the attainment of balance and establishment of an authentic relationship. The story of Scheherazade dates back from Ancient Persia, yet its message is meta-temporal and meta-spatial. The themes, deeply internalised, have been passed down through the generations, always finding a new, updated form in the culture of the time in which they emerge.