Moulin Rouge Adds Performance

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                                 January 25, 2013

Contact: 

Meghan McNamara

Marketing Coordinator

412-454-9117

mmcnamara@pittsburghballet.org

PBT ADDS EXTRA PERFORMANCE OF MOULIN ROUGE®—THE BALLET

Pittsburgh Premiere of Moulin Rouge® — The Ballet  Opens Valentine’s Day

PITTSBURGH, PA –  Due to popular demand, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre announces the addition of a fifth performance of Moulin Rouge® — The Ballet, which makes its Pittsburgh premiere this Valentine’s Day at the Benedum Center.

Onstage Feb. 14-17, PBT has added a 2 p.m. matinee performance on Saturday, Feb. 16, to accommodate demand  throughout Valentine’s Day weekend for the most-talked-about show of the PBT season. PBT will perform Moulin Rouge® — The Ballet at the following times:

· Thursday, February 14, at 7:30 p.m.

· Friday, February 15, at 8 p.m.

· New! Saturday, February 16, at 2 p.m.

· Saturday, February 16, at 8 p.m.

· Sunday, February 17, at 2 p.m.

Experienced by more than 100,000 people across North America, Moulin Rouge®—The Ballet had its world premiere in 2009 at Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet. At the time of its premiere,  additional performances were required due to box office demand and the ballet soon became the RWB’s biggest box office success to date.

The iconic cabaret, high-kicking cancan and extravagant excesses of  turn-of-the-century Paris set the scene for a story of love, ambition and heartbreak in Moulin Rouge®—The Ballet. Drawn to Paris by the city’s passion, struggling artist Matthew and launderette-turned-performer Nathalie find themselves swept into a passionate romance and the intoxicating nightlife of the Moulin Rouge®.

Choreographer Jorden Morris, the creator behind PBT’s 2011 production of Peter Pan, laces contemporary and classical ballet with international influences from the vivacious French cancan to the fiery partnering of the Tango Café. The passion peaks with an intimate pas de deux set to  Debussy’s Claire de Lune on a bridge by the Eiffel Tower. The cabaret’s possessive proprietor Zidler, however, casts a shadow over their romance as he ensnares his newly-discovered performer and her lover in a dangerous love triangle.

A number of historic figures from the origins of the Moulin Rouge® also find roles in the ballet. French painter HenriToulouse-Lautrec, who immortalized the Moulin Rouge® with depictions of its performers, takes the role of Matthew’s mentor, and the cabaret’s co-founder Charles Zidler becomes Matthew’s adversary. 

With a score spanning 27 different works by 14 different composers — including some well-known titles such asClair de Lune, La Vie en Rose, or the Can-Can — Morris selected the majority of music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries during the rise of the Moulin Rouge®. 

Moulin Rouge® — The Ballet features more than 70 vibrantly-colored costumes, created by Anne Armit, Head of Wardrobe at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Shannon Lovelace, a freelance designer, who drew inspiration from the fashions of the era and from Toulouse-Lautrec’s paintings of the Moulin Rouge®. A luminous red windmill and Eiffel Tower  top the onstage scenery, designed by Andrew Beck. 

The Moulin Rouge® was co-founded  in 1889 — the same year the Eiffel Tower was constructed —by builder Joseph Oller and manager Charles Zidler in the Monmartre district of Paris. The cabaret’s iconic red windmill, and namesake, became a symbol of the city’s thriving nightlife. Today, among other performance requirements, all of the Moulin Rouge’s performers must possess a solid base in classical ballet training.

This  production of Moulin Rouge® — The Ballet is generously sponsored by UPMC and PPG Industries Foundation.In the spirit of the Moulin Rouge of Paris, Moulin Rouge® is a registered trademark of Moulin Rouge S.A. 

Tickets

Tickets range in price from $25.75 to $95.75, and are available online at www.pbt.org, by calling 412-456-6666 or visiting The Box Office at Theater Square.

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