The Marriage of Figaro Ballet

The Ukrainian National Ballet brings its version of The Marriage of Figaro to Dubai as a two-act comic ballet with a libretto by Yaremenko and Yuri Stanishevsky, choreography and staging by Viktor Yaremenko, and musical adaptation and additional composition by Oleksiy Baklan.

It’s based on Mozart’s opera, but is a fully danced work with no singing; one review says it emphasises “hijinks rather than heartache,” so we’re expecting something lighter and more overtly playful than the original. But the story is broadly retained, the major dances and duets deploy the classical ballet vocabulary, and the production uses lavish eighteenth-century costumes and palace settings; the music generally avoids the opera’s familiar arias and ensembles in favour of some of Mozart’s less-famous instrumental music, supplemented by Baklan’s own composition.

There are further performances at 2pm and 8pm on 20 September.