Ballet

The Ninth Symphony by Maurice Béjart, music by Beethoven

With the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and the Tokyo Ballet

Live
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Cast

Maurice Béjart — Choreographer

Gil Roman — Narrator, artistic director

Joëlle Roustan — Stage sets and costumes

Roger Bernard — Lighting, stage sets and costumes

Henri Davila — Stage sets and costumes

Dominique Roman — Lighting

Tom Skelton — Lighting

Béjart Ballet Lausanne

Tokyo Ballet

Kristin Lewis — Soprano

Mihoko Fujimura — Mezzo-soprano

Kei Fukui — Tenor

Alexander Vinogradov — Bass

Jean-Bruno Meier — Percussionist

Thierry Hochstätter — Percussionist

Program notes

The first-ever recording on film of Maurice Béjart's Ninth Symphony! Fifty years after its premiere, the Tokyo Ballet and Béjart Ballet Lausanne present Maurice Béjart’s groundbreaking choreography to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in Tokyo's NHK Hall. With nearly 200 artists on one stage, Beethoven’s score was performed by the Ritsuyu-kai Choir, the soloists Kristin Lewis, Mihoko Fujimura, Kei Fukui, and Alexander Vinogradov, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta.

The Ninth Symphony is truly one-of-a-kind, a work of ballet choreographed to the music from Beethoven's Ninth and poetic texts by Nietzsche, read here by Gil Roman (Artistic Director of Béjart Ballet Lausanne since 2007) with the accompaniment of percussionists Jean-Bruno Meier and Thierry Hochstätter. Piotr Nardelli, veteran dancer and longtime friend of Béjart Ballet Lausanne, worked closely with the two companies’ dancers, teaching them the choreography as the great Maurice Béjart envisioned it.

Photo: © Kiyonori Hasegawa

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