Anna Karenina

About

Christian Spuck’s Anna Karenina is a character-driven ballet distilling Tolstoy’s monumental novel into dance. Created in 2014 as a co-production with Ballet Zürich and the Norwegian National Ballet, it was named Best Premiere of the Year by Dance Europe. Spuck’s vision captures both the intimate family drama and the broader social fabric, with hints of the coming Russian Revolution and the strict codes of the upper class. The choreography unfolds to a sweeping, multi-composer sound world with music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Witold Lutosławski, Sulkhan Tsintsadze, and Josef Bardanashvili. Performances feature the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra, pianist Håvard Gimse, and mezzo-soprano Cecilia Yufan Zhang. A free introduction in Norwegian is offered one hour before the performance.