It seems that the Saturday night Swan Lake performance in Wellington by Gillian Murphy and PNB's Karel Cruz coinciding with that evening's world premiere of RNZB's movie Giselle in Auckland where artistic director Ethan Stiefel and movie director Toa Frasier were taking bows may have been a little too much excitement for the Petipa gods. Shortly thereafter, Wellington got a good shake from a 6.5 earthquake whose epicenter was only about 35 miles off shore. Thankfully there were only a few injuries but there was significant busted glass and possible damage to infrastructure. The area has experienced a flurry of small quakes in recent days.
A quick survey of online performance reports indicates that both Swan Lake and the new movie Giselle are megahits. Tickets for RNZB's visit to the Joyce Theater February 12-16 are on sale now.
I have just seen Giselle, the movie, directed by Toa Fraser. Wow! Beautifully filmed (cinematography by Leon Narbey who has always had a fine eye for dance) and seamlessly edited (by Dan Kircher), and superbly danced all round by the Royal NZ Ballet but very especially Qui Huan (Albrecht) and Gillian Murphy (Giselle), Jacob Chown (as Hilarion) and Abigail Boyle (Myrtha, Queen of the Willis). It gives everyone the same "best seats" ... probably the best seats you will ever have for Giselle.
The movie will tour on the NZ International Film Festival circuit for the next month before "international" release and/or DVDs are decided on. [And yes, Ethan Stiefel appears in the film amongst the nobles, briefly].
-Raewyn Whyte
Posted by: Raewyn Whyte | July 23, 2013 at 01:11 AM
Hi Raewyn! Thanks so much for the report. We've been hoping that the movie would appear at one of the several film festivals here in the States, but so far, there's been no sign of that happening. I hope they put together a trailer soon.
Are you going to be reporting on any part of RNZB's U.S. tour next February? The Joyce Theater dates are Feb 12-16.
Posted by: Haglund | July 23, 2013 at 08:27 AM