Ugly? Hunchbacked? Deformed? Not at all. Quasimodo is a lovable, straight-legged, strong fellow, dressed in simple burlap, a belt around his waist. It is his psyche that makes him an outsider in Der Glöckner von Notre-Dame: childlike, playful, exuberant. And when the beautiful Esmeralda, as a Roma on the margins of society herself, puts her arms around his neck, and he lifts her, she swings like his famous bell in the tower.
A wonderful image. It was conceived by Armen Hakobyan, the new co-director of ballet and choreographer of the Aalto Theatre, for his first full-length work: an opulently staged dance version of Victor Hugo's novel (1831).
Hakobyan remembered at some point the little boy who, with his grandfather in his hometown of Yerevan, Armenia, watched the film The Hunchback of ...
