Whitaker Center

Tickets:
$20 Adult | $15 Child

Special Offer! One free child admission with two adult ticket purchases. Email ticketing@cpyb.org to claim offer. 

When:
Saturday, April 5, 2025 | 1:00 PM & 6:00 PM
Sunday, April 6, 2025| 2:00 PM

Where:
Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts, Harrisburg, PA

An Evening of Timeless Beauty and Modern Creativity

Unlike most 19th-century ballets, the classic comic Coppélia has been called one of the happiest ballets in existence. The evening-length work is not about princesses, beguiling ghosts or tragic love, but a spunky peasant girl, Swanilda, who loves a guy who can’t seem to commit to her. It’s not that he doesn’t like her. He is just very infatuated with the beautiful girl who sits on her balcony, reading a book, and ignoring his attentions. Naturally, Swanilda is jealous and not the kind of girl who suffers in silence. Based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffman’s 1815 tale Der Sandmann — and often referred to as “the girl with enamel eyes” — the ballet takes its name from a life-size doll created by the myserious inventor Dr. Coppélius.

 Coppélia was met with great enthusiasm at its premiere at the Theatre Imperial de l’Opéra in Paris on May 25, 1870. It was first choreographed by Arthur Saint-Leon with Léo Delibes’ infectious musical score. The ballet was later restaged by Marius Petipa and again by Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti. Often citing Giselle as the great tragic ballet of the 19th-century, dance historians call Coppélia the century’s standout comedy. Both works take place in a peasant village. Both have roots in real life as well as fantasy. Both are love stories — albeit with different endings. Coppélia went on to premiere in Russia in 1894 with Delibes’ original composition and new steps by Russian choreographer Marius Petipa, known for his stagings of The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty  and Swan Lake.

 Tinged with backstage sadness, Saint-Leon died four months after the ballet’s debut of a heart attack. The 16-year-old Guiseppina Bozzacchi, the ballet student who originated the role of Swanilda, died of smallpox on her 17th birthday just two months later.

 Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet last performed Alan Hineline’s Coppélia in 2009. It is a ballet about youth, innocence, playfulness and joy; and fits perfectly, with its exuberance and vitality, into the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet repertoire. The plot — about the lifelike doll who prompts a spat between young lovers Swanilda and Franz, both reconciled thanks to the lady’s curiosity and pluck — remains untarnished. Coppélia requires the dancers, including more than 75 roles, to tell a great deal of the story in gesture and expression. For choreographer Alan Hineline, that libretto serves as the pretext for a staging intricate in design and impeccable in musicality and that brings out the best in each dancer’s skill and acting.