BALLET des arts

“Recently, Kraków has been all about early music – we’d like to show its beauty in a modern way,” says Zygmunt Magiera, artistic director of the multimedia music and dance spectacle BALLET des arts. It is based on the composition by Jean-Baptiste Lully penned for Louis XIV and his court, comprising a series of sketches representing early crafts and professions such as farming, hunting, jewellery, surgery and navigation. Classical ingredients of music, song and dance are complemented by contemporary accents: the art of warfare is illustrated by a laser display, while the sound of graffiti being sprayed on a wall provides a prologue to the sketch on painting. The spectacle, coming to the Variété Theatre on 27 September, is presented by Joanna Radziszewska (soprano), the early music ensemble Estravaganza and the “Cracovia Danza” Court Ballet, with the laser displays and juggling provided by Krystian Minda, contestant in a TV talent show. The Sun King, connoisseur of all sensuous pleasure and the fine arts, would be delighted! (Barbara Skowrońska)