The HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will restage the classical ballet Cinderella by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev at the city’s Opera House on April 7 and 8.

Japanese dancer Nobu Fujino and HBSO dancer Tran Hoang Yen in the Cinderella ballet. — Photo courtesy of HBSO

The ballet, composed between 1940 and 1944, has inspired an estimated 1,500 ballet versions around the world.

Its premiere was choreographed by Rostislav Zakharov and conducted by Yuri Fayer in 1945 at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre.

In 2013, Cinderella premiered at the city’s Opera House and has become an annual performance for city audiences, especially young people.

The ballet is choreographed by Johanne Jakhelln Constant of Norway, who has worked with HBSO to stage ballets The Nutcracker and Coppélia as part of an agreement between the troupe and Norway’s Transposition Programme.  

Constant is also in charge of costume and stage design.

The show will feature young dancer Tran Hoang Yen as Cinderella and Japanese dancer Nobuo Fujino as the Prince.

Fujino was nominated for the Prix Benois de la Danse, one of the most prestigious ballet competitions founded in 1991 by the International Dance Association in Moscow, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Russia in 2005.

He won the Rising Artist award from the Hong Kong Arts Development Board in 2003.

He has played leading roles in several famous ballets, including Quixote, Giselle and Anna Karenina.

He began working with HBSO last year as a guest dancer.

The performance will also include Dang Minh Hien as the stepmother, French dancer Chloe Glemot as the fairy godmother, and dancers from the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO).

The ballet will begin at 8pm at 7 Lam Son Square in District 1. Tickets can be purchased at the venue or via www.ticketbox.vn. — VNS