Natalia Osipova and Sergei Polunin will dance the principal roles in the first movement of composer Adam Donen’s Symphony to a Lost Generation—described as "the world’s first feature-length fully holographic dramatic production"—at LSO St Luke’s from 28 to 31 May.
Polunin and Osipova play doomed lovers in the first movement of Donen's symphony, a traditional 19th century sonata which is "drowned out in a landscape of horror".
The dance begins with a balletic idyll before making use of butoh, a Japanese “dance of death-in-life”, to depict the lives of those caught in No Man’s Land.
Donen said, "Sergei and Natalia’s portrayal of tender and innocent lovers has a purity and honesty that could only be achieved by the greatest couple ballet has produced in a century, which they are, dancing with one another. This tenderness makes Sergei’s doomed and heroic descent all the grander, and makes the transition from ballet to button all the more brutal.
"In other times, I might have dreamed of being able to harness Kurt Cobain’s intensity, or Rembrandt’s perfection of form. Sergei and Natalia, within the balletic form, surpass both."
As well as Polunin and Osipova, the 400-strong cast includes Bollywood superstar Shekhar Ravjiani, who plays an Indian soldier, as well as the Vienna Philharmonic Choir, Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, the New London Children’s Choir, Russian soprano Yana Ivanilova, conductor Martynas Staškus, Ernesto Tomasini and butoh choreographer Minako Seki.
Visual director Mikael Jaeger Jensen's credits include effects coordinator on Avatar and Gravity. Music producer Robert Harder has worked with David Byrne, Brian Eno, Kylie Minogue and Herbie Hancock.
South African-born Adam Donen is a self-taught composer whose recent major works include The Bernhard Suite (a 1-hour suite for string orchestra and piano premièred by Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn) and Dorian (a libretto for Russian State Ballet).