Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts will host "Coppélia," a full-length sentimental comic ballet in three acts performed by the Moscow Festival Ballet, on Friday, March 19 at 8 p.m. An "Art to Heart" Q&A with the company will follow the performance. Tickets for this Arts & Minds presentation are $45, $40, and $35.

With music by Leo Delibes, libretto by Charles Nuitter and Arthur Saint-Leon, and Aleksandr Alexeyevich Gorsky's original choreography, Yuri Vetrov stages this classic that opened at the Paris Opera in 1870.

The master toymaker Coppelius, dreams of perfecting his art and craft by one day giving his life-like mechanical dolls real life. His crowning achievement is Coppélia, a doll so life-like he passes her off as his daughter. Through the toymaker's deception, Coppélia appears to respond to a young man, Franz, who is passing by the shop and is intrigued with Coppélia's beauty. Franz's fiancée Swanilda sees the interaction and becomes jealous. When Swanilda confronts her rival and discovers she is only a doll, she sets out to teach her fiancé Franz a lesson.  Another deception ensues and Franz nearly succumbs to Coppelius' treachery but, in the end, is saved by Swanilda.

As founder and artistic director of the Moscow Festival Ballet, legendary dancer Sergei Radchenko has made his overarching philosophy - the performance feeds the body and soul through classical ballet and dramatic expression - the cornerstone of this world-renowned company. Radchenko, a graduate from the Moscow School of Dance, joined the Bolshoi Ballet in the 1960s and worked there for 25 years until leaving to start his own company. He danced the entire repertoire at the Bolshoi but built a special reputation for Spanish dance by captivating audiences in the role of the bullfighter in the Bizet-Shchedrin "Carmen Suite."

Radchenko founded the Moscow Festival Ballet in 1989. Since then the company has had two European tours and has travelled to Asia to perform in Japan, Korea, and Singapore.

In the last eight years, the company has also been a frequent visitor to the United States and in a past season dazzled Quick Center audiences with a traditional performance of "Cinderella."

Tickets are available online at fairfield.edu/quick or by calling the Box Office at (203) 254-4010. The toll free number is 1-877-ARTS-396. Special offers and discounts are available through the Quick Center's e-mail list. Join, by contacting boxoffice@quickcenter.com . And become a fan of the Quick Center for the Arts on Facebook! Keep up-to-date with the latest performance news, plus special offers and discounts! Find the Quick Center at www.facebook.com/FairfieldQuickCenter.

Directions: Fairfield University is located off I-95, exit 22 at 1073 North Benson Road, Fairfield, CT 06824.

Posted On: 03-04-2010 10:03 AM

Volume: 42 Number: 219