Premiere of Olivier Truan's contemporary ballet "Tevye" at the National Opera Bucharest

The contemporary dance performance “Tevye” by Olivier Truan, staged by the renowned theater director and chief choreographer of modern ballet, Richard Wherlock, is scheduled, for the first time in Romania, on Thursday (March 21) and Friday (March 22), starting at 6:30 PM, on the stage of the National Opera Bucharest, under the baton of conductor Daniel Jinga.

The symphonic opera by Swiss pianist and composer Olivier Truan (world premiere – November 20, 2015, at the Basel Theater, in the homonymous Swiss city) is based on the novel “Tevye the Milkman” by Sholem Aleichem, which inspired one of Broadway’s most beloved musicals, “Fiddler on the Roof,” awarded nine Tony Awards.

From its New York premiere in 1964 to its 1971 adaptation to film, directed by Norman Jewison, which brought the title universal fame and cinematic success (three Oscars and two Golden Globes), was just a step.

“Similar to the volume, the musical, and the film, the ballet ‘Tevye’ presents, with much (self) irony, the endless Jewish joy of living life, despite all social and political vicissitudes. (…) Of all the dramatic characters of Jewish tradition, the most beloved and the only one who has transcended the Jewish cultural space is Tevye from Anatevka. Therefore, through the performance ‘Tevye’ – staged in a contemporary dance version, with the original music composed by Olivier Truan – Richard Wherlock (the director and chief choreographer of the Basel Ballet for a long period) has expressed ’emotion in motion,’ in a modern reinterpreted sense, which makes accessible to all the Jewish treasure of wisdom and highlights the lust for life of the Jewish people,” ONB specifies in a press release.

The technical and musical team ensuring the staging of this opera in Bucharest also includes – alongside conductor Daniel Jinga (the general director of the National Opera Bucharest) – composer Olivier Truan (piano), Veit Hubner (bass), Simon Girard (trombone), Christoph Staudenmann (drums), Slava Cernavca (clarinet), Bruce French (set designer), Catherine Voeffray (costume designer), Ayako Nakano (choreography assistant), Gaia Mentoglio (choreography assistant), Jordan Tuinman (lighting designer).