Cairo Opera Ballet will stage the classic ballet Le Corsaire for the first time in nine years, bringing the tale of a pirate captain and his beloved back to the Main Hall.
The production will feature the Cairo Opera Orchestra conducted by Mohamed Saad Pasha. Four performances are scheduled for 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, October 14, 15, 16 and 18.
Inspired by Lord Byron’s poem of the same name, the ballet unfolds in three acts. After a storm wrecks their ship off a port in the Levant, pirate captain Nour El-Din, his servant Ali and several of their companions survive. Nour El-Din falls in love with Yasmin, who helped save him.
But the slave trader Ahmed captures Yasmin and other women, intending to sell them to the wealthy Said Pasha. After a prolonged struggle, Nour El-Din frees his beloved and her companions, and they escape from the pasha’s palace.
The score combines music by Léo Delibes, Adolphe Adam and Riccardo Drigo. Choreography is by Marius Petipa, Vladimir Vladimirov and the late Egyptian choreographer Abdel Moneim Kamel.
A staple of the Cairo Opera Ballet’s repertoire, Le Corsaire blends Eastern settings with Western classical ballet. First staged with choreography by Ferdinand Albert Decombe and music by Robert Bousquet, the story was later adapted by choreographer Joseph Mazilier to a score by Adam. Petipa’s 1899 version became one of the best-known interpretations and served as the basis for Kamel’s production.
