Alice In Wonderland

A Mythical Story Ballet in Two Acts

This magical ballet permeated with powerful choreographic expression, enchanting theatrical scenography and colourful costumes, will take our visitors on an exciting journey to a fairy-tale world.   

Alice takes a walk in the park with her sister. As she reads a book to her, Alice becomes bored and drifts off into a daydream. Suddenly, a rabbit appears in front of her and takes her to his hole, where her journey begins.  On her way, she meets many imaginative characters – a caterpillar, a frog and a fish, a Duchess, a cat, the Mad Hatter, The Queen of Hearts…   Each of them has their own story and character.

The music for the ballet is a selection of works from the treasure trove of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, rounded off with a choice of compositions by other composers.

Plot

Act 1

Alice's parents are holding a garden party. She is very upset to see her friend Jack, the gardener's boy, dismissed by her mother on a false charge of stealing a jam tart. Lewis Carroll, a friend of the family, is present and to console her he offers to take her photograph. Alice is surprised to see him emerge from his camera cloth as a White Rabbit and when he disappears into his camera bag she follows him and falls down into Wonderland. She sees a magical garden which she cannot enter because all the doors are locked. Jack appears, transformed into the Knave of Hearts, and accused by the Queen of Hearts of stealing a tray of tarts. He is fleeing from her, her guards and the White Rabbit. Alice tries to follow but the door closes before her. She is too big to get through the only unlocked door. She is given a bottle and when she drinks from it she becomes too small to reach the door handle. She then successively becomes very large and so small that she can swim, together with various animals, in a lake formed by her tears. After this, she arranges a race to dry them off. The White Rabbit then leads her further into Wonderland, where she is given a piece of paper inviting a Duchess to attend the Queen of Hearts' croquet party. Alice carries the invitation into a cottage, where she finds the Duchess nursing a baby while a cook makes sausages. The duchess is delighted at the invitation, while the cook is resentful, and the atmosphere becomes violent apart from an interval when a mysterious Cheshire Cat appears. Alice tries to protect the baby, but it turns into a pig and the Duchess takes it to be turned into sausages. The White Rabbit reappears, and then the Knave, who is carrying the tarts and pursued by the Queen's guards. The White Rabbit conceals them and then has to go to the garden party. Alice wants to go with him but the White Rabbit and Knave agree that it is too dangerous for her to be in the presence of the bad-tempered Queen and blindfold her to stop her.

Act 2

Alice asks the Cheshire Cat for directions where to go, but his instructions are vague and confusing. She then finds herself at the tea party of a Mad Hatter, a March Hare and a Dormouse. She escapes and then finds herself alone and lost, but her spirits are lifted by a caterpillar perched on a mushroom, who gives her a piece of mushroom. She eats the mushroom and the doors and walls disappear so that at last she is able to enter the magic garden. The Knave appears, still pursued by the Queen and her guards, and he escapes, followed by the White Rabbit and Alice.

Act 3

Alice is in the Queen's garden, and she finds the gardeners painting the roses red, as they have mistakenly planted white ones even though the Queen detests them. The Queen arrives, together with the King, the Duchess and the cook. The gardeners have not finished painting the roses and the Queen orders their execution. Alice and the White Rabbit smuggle the gardeners away while the executioner is distracted by the seductive cook. The Queen shows off her skill at dancing, after which she plays croquet with the Duchess. Flamingos are the mallets and hedgehogs the balls. The knave has taken a great risk to be with Alice and they are reunited. The Duchess is much better than the Queen at croquet, who resorts to cheating. The Duchess challenges the Queen, who orders her execution, but Alice helps the Duchess to escape while the King calms the Queen down. The Knave is again reunited with Alice but he is caught and the Queen orders him to be taken to the castle to stand trial. The Cheshire Cat reappears and Alice follows the Knave to the castle. At the trial, the witnesses accuse the Knave. The King insists that the Knave is heard in his own defence, but this produces little effect and so Alice intervenes, and together they win over everyone but the Queen, who seizes an axe to carry out the execution herself. The knave and Alice try to escape with the help of the White Rabbit and the witnesses, but the Queen finds them. Unable to escape, Alice pushes over a witness, who falls on someone else and starts a chain reaction of all the court falling over. They are only playing cards. Alice wakes up.

Program and cast

Conductor: Simon Dvoršak

Choreographer: Howard Quintero Lopez