For Guillaume Côté, the road to his ballet Crypto runs right through Alma

Guillaume Côté had this idea see.

“For a long time I have wanted to do something that is narrative, something that is new and fiction,” the principal dancer and associate choreographer of the National Ballet of Canada.

“About two years I had this dinner with (the filmmaker and opera director) Atom Egoyan and I asked if he would be willing to do something like this with me.”

Egoyan said he’d like to collaborate but he also said that there was another Canadian who might be better suited to work on a ballet libretto.

“He said ‘He’s Canadian and he lives in New York and he is a star in the opera world.”

Egoyan was speaking of Alberta native Royce Vavrek.

“I called Royce,” Côté said.

“He’s worked with opera his whole life.” Adding to his lustre, Vavrek’s opera, Angel’s Bone, with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

The phone call led to a dinner in New York where Vavrek delved into the story of Angel’s Bone, which is a one act opera. It follows the plight of two angels discovered on earth who are forced into spiritual and sexual slavery at the hands of a financially troubled couple. The work is a parable about human trafficking.

“This was something interesting. I thought that it was very beautiful. It was original and creative. It was fictional and narrative.”

Source: Artsfile