TAMPA — Ballet’s greatest comedy comes alive when Next Generation Ballet performs the funny and romantic “Coppélia,” a madcap tale of mistaken desires and identities. “Coppélia” will be presented on Saturday, May 9, 2 and 7 p.m.; and Sunday, May 10, 2 p.m., in Ferguson Hall at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, 1010 N. W.C. MacInnes Place, Tampa.
Tickets start at $42. Visit strazcenter.org.
“Coppélia” tells the story of Swanhilde and her fiancé, Franz, whom she catches flirting with a beautiful woman who sits on a balcony all day and reads. When Swanhilde discovers the woman is only a doll, she trades places with the fake and convinces the doll’s inventor, and her beloved, that the doll has come to life. And it’s all played out in delightful dances, beautiful pas de deux and stunning solos by NGB’s talented young dancers.
“Coppélia,” created in 1870, was originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon to the music of Léo Delibes, with libretto by Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter.