Fantasque is an ebullient and magical pageant created by two brilliant artists. Choreographer John Heginbotham teams up with puppeteer Amy Trompetter to craft a new ballet for audiences of all ages. Giant puppets and human dancers join forces to create a fable of a battle of light and darkness, with a fantastical cast of characters featuring giant babies, blue angels, devils, rats, and a restaurant where the customers are tuxedo-wearing fish.
Ottorino Respighi, a contemporary of Giacomo Puccini, adapted a suite of piano works by Giaochino Rossini to create the ballet score La Boutique fantasque. Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes mounted the first production in 1919 with choreography by Léonide Massine and designs by the Fauvist painter André Derain. Now Heginbotham, formerly of the Mark Morris Dance Group and choreographer of SummerScape 2015’s Oklahoma!, and Trompetter, of Bread and Puppet Theater and founder of the Hudson Valley’s Redwing Blackbird Theater, create an entirely new work to Respighi and Rossini’s beloved music.
