Camille at the Artscape

Dumas’s tragic love story played out with powerful choreography and meaningful music

Veronica Paeper’s beautiful and tragic ballet, Camille, comes to the Artscape Opera House from Thursday, 2 May to Sunday, 12 May 2013, with one of Cape Town’s most beloved ballerinas, Tracy Li, in the lead role.

The ballet is an interpretation of “The Lady of the Camellias”, a 19^th-century French novel based on author Alexandre Dumas’s real-life lover, Marie Duplessis. The story tells of a young courtesan who falls in love with a provincial bourgeois, Armand Duval. Their relationship is doomed not only because she suffers from tuberculosis (which was fatal at the time), but also because Duval’s father is determined to keep them apart – he’s concerned the scandal will prevent his own daughter from marrying.

Tracy Li leaps right back into the role of Camille after a six year hiatus, with her partner, Jesse Milligan, making his debut as the dashing young Frenchman at performances on 4 (evening) and 11 (matinee) May. The roles of Camille and Duval will be taken up by multi-award winning Laura Bosenberg and partner Thomas Thorne on 2, 8 and 11 (evening) May, and Kim Vieira and Daniel Szybkowski will bring the lovers to life on 4 (matinee), 10 and 12 May.  

Paeper’s dramatic choreography was inspired by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, ‘La Traviata’, which is also based on Dumas’s novel. This year is Verdi’s bicentenary, and his 200^th birthday is being marked worldwide with an array of performances, like this one, to celebrate his work. The Cape Philharmonic Orchestra will accompany the Cape Town City Ballet at selected performances to provide the heartbreaking soundtrack.  

About Tracy Li

Tracy Li was born in Hong Kong, where she trained at the Christine Liao School of Ballet until she received a scholarship to study at The Australian Ballet School in Melbourne when she was 15. In 1988, she began her career as a professional dancer with Hong Kong Ballet, and then went on to dance at NAPAC Dance Company in Durban in 1992, making her debut as Juliet at the age of 19. A year later, she moved to CAPAB Ballet in Cape Town, adding roles like Aurora from Sleeping Beauty and Camille to her repertoire. Today she is a part time lecturer at UCT’s School of Dance and a regular guest teacher, coach and producer for Cape Town City Ballet. With Li’s return to the stage as the lovelorn French heroine, audiences will get to experience breathtaking, graceful movements that beautifully demonstrate a mastery of the art of ballet.

Tickets for Camille at the Artscape

Tickets for the ballet are available at the Artscape Box Office by calling +27 (0) 21 410 9838 or emailing jenny@artscape.co.za. Tickets are also available via Computicket.com and at Computicket outlets. Shows on 2, 4, 8 and 11 May will feature the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, and tickets cost R140p/p, R200p/p, R240p/p or R280p/p, depending on where you’re seated. Tickets for the ballet with recorded music on 10 and 12 May cost R100p/p, R120p/p, R140p/p/ or R180p/p, depending on seats. 

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Not really into ballet? Love the theatre? Take a look at these theatres in Cape Town to find something to suit your taste.

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