SF Ballet Brings Swan Lake Encore with Added Star Power
No sooner had San Francisco Ballet concluded their last performance of Swan Lake this season when they announced its return with Swan Lake Encore from April 30–May 5. SF Ballet's Swan Lake is worth seeing again in and of itself, but the spring performances will have the bonus of international guest stars Natalia Osipova, Daniel Carmago, and Jacobo Tissi. "I am thrilled to welcome these Stars to San Francisco, a city that loves ballet," said Artistic Director Tamara Rojo, "and I can't wait for them to share our stage and their world renown artistry with our wonderful company and audience."
It's a move that will draw audiences, appealing to ballet fans and newbies alike. The only thing that could top the iconic ballet is to add even more talent to the already talented cast.
Russian-born Natalia Osipova is currently a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet. She completed her training with the Moscow State Academy of Choreography. In her career she has been principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet, the Mikhailovsky Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. In addition to Odette/Odile (Swan Lake), her roles with the Royal Ballet include Giselle, Cinderella, Kitri (Don Quixote), Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker), Princess Aurora (The Sleeping Beauty), Lise (La Fille mal gardée), Titania (The Dream), Marguerite (Marguerite and Armand), Juliet, Tatiana (Onegin), Manon, Sylvia, Mary Vetsera (Mayerling), Natalia Petrovna (A Month in the Country), Anastasia and Anna Anderson, Gamzatti and Nikiya (La Bayadère) and roles in Rhapsody, Serenade, Raymonda Act III, DGV: Danse à grande vitesse, woman with water and Tchaikovsky Pas de deux. Osipova has been a guest artist worldwide.
A principal with American Ballet Theatre, Daniel Carmago is a native of Brazil. He trained at the John Cranko School in Germany and has been a member of the Stuttgart Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, and has also performed with with The Australian Ballet, Opera di Roma, Czech National Ballet, the Finnish National Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, The Tokyo Ballet, The Kremlin Ballet, the Mariinsky Theatre, and The Royal Ballet. His roles with American Ballet Theater include Basilio in Don Quixote (Act III), Oberon in The Dream, Albrecht in Giselle, Pedro in Like Water for Chocolate, the Nutcracker Prince in Ratmansky's The Nutcracker, Dionysius in Of Love and Rage, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, and a leading role in Songs of Bukovina.
Jacopo Tissi is a principal dancer with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. He trained at the Scala Theatre Academy in Milan. Formerly, Tissi was principal dancer at Bolshoi Theatre, guest artist at Teatro alla Scala Milan and Teatro dell'Opera of Roma, and was the first Italian dancer to join the Bolshoi Ballet. He has performed lead roles in Lander's Études; Balanchine's Jewels; Grigorovich's Swan Lake (Siegfried), The Nutcracker, and La Bayadère (Solor); Raymonda (Jean de Brienne); and Burlaka and Ratmansky after Petipa's Le Corsaire - Grand pas des éventails. In 2018, Tissi returned to La Scala Theatre with the Bolshoi Ballet to perform Solor in La Bayadère.
San Francisco Ballet will announce casting details for each performance in the coming weeks. For more information about Swan Lake Encore, see https://www.sfballet.org/productions/swan-lake-encore/.