A lovely surprise awaited the guests at the unveiling of the 2026-2027 season of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens yesterday in Montreal : the Quebec composer Airat Ichmouratov will write the music for a new creation, Alice in Wonderland, with choreography by André Santos. We will certainly have the opportunity to talk about it again in due time, I have already booked Airat for an interview! The composer was present at the meeting with the media and the public. He revealed that his inspiration will largely come from Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev. For him, they are the best in the genre. In any case, we are well aware of Ichmouratov’s neo-romantic affinities. It should be noted that this will be the first time under the leadership of Ivan Cavallari that the Grands Ballets will commission new music for a choreographic creation. Ichmouratov acknowledged being “extremely honoured and excited,” and particularly inspired by all the musical possibilities offered by the story full of oddities written by Lewis Carroll. The premiere will take place in June 2027.
If this news has made an impression, certainly on those attuned to music (PanM360), we have still taken note of other proposals that will align dance with beautiful scores during this upcoming 26-27 season.
La Dame aux Camelias by Peter Quantz (based on Alexandre Dumas Jr’s novel) makes a return in September, with music drawn from von Weber and creative women like Lili Boulanger, Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Grazyna Bacewicz, Louise Farrenc, and Kaija Saariaho. No Traviata, the lyrical incarnation of La Dame.
In October, a good friend of Les Grands Ballets is back : Guillaume Côté at the helm of a remake of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, conjugated in the plural! Les songes d’une nuit d’été (Midsummer Night’s Dreams) multiplies the romantic, even erotic, cross-purposes, with the addition of a couple to the two present in the original version, in addition to transposing the action to the 21st century. It will explore the various polyamorous possibilities, from an unconfined perspective of the classic cis-gendered framework. Côté has chosen (inevitably) excerpts from Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, apparently in a remixed electro/orchestral version. There will also be scores by his sister Fanny Mendelssohn, Johann Strauss, and minimalist and very popular contemporaries like Steve Reich and Max Richter.
In February 2027 (no need to talk about the Nutcracker in December, it’s a given), it will be Cinderella, in an aptly magical version by Jayne Smeulders, taking the stage, with the Orchestre des Grands Ballets playing Prokofiev’s score.
Lady Chatterley, in April, makes a return after a production in 2018. The play by Cathy Marston features the characters from the famous novel by DH Lawrence, long censored for offending public morals. The eroticism and sensuality of this story, as we remember, were carried by the expressive, almost carnal music of Scriabin.
A season focused on the theme of storytelling, you may have already guessed, thanks to these incarnations of existing literary or dramatic works, to which will be added the narrative exuberance of Alice, mentioned earlier.
