To the question of choreographic interpretation of male images of W. Shakespeare’s drama of the later period “The Winter's Tale” in the eponymous ballet of C. Wheeldon

Abstract

The subject of this article is the interpretation of male images from W. Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” by the choreographer C. Wheeldon in the context of its conceptual commonality with the literary original. The goal of this research is to determine the stage means and elements of choreographic language used by the choreographer for creation of male roles, as well as to draw ideological-imagery parallels with the original text. Methodological foundation of this study features the principles of critical analysis of text of the play along with the semantic analysis of choreography, developed in the scientific works of such theoreticians of ballet art as Lopukhov, Dobrovolskaya, Krasovskaya, Surits, Slonimsky. Comprehensive approach towards interpretation of the literary original on the modern ballet stage required  the analysis of such sources, as the English-language peer reviews of the world premiere of the ballet and video materials from the archives of the Royal Opera House in London and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. The author also applied the method of overt observation based on the personal experience of working with Wheeldon in Bolshoi Theatre, and accompanied by the analysis of rehearsals from the author's archive (over the period from March to April 2019). The author carried out a detailed semantic analysis of the stage interpretation and choreographic language of the male images of W. Shakespeare's play of the later period “The Winter's Tale” in the eponymous ballet of C. Wheeldon (which served as the key instrument for this research). The conclusion is made that the conceptual ground of Wheeldon’s interpretation of the male images is based on the Shakespeare’s text adapted to the realities of a stage performance.  He employs a wide array of plasticity and other innovative means of expression, applying an individual approach towards staging each male role.