Coppelia

Jacaranda Ballet is delighted to bring to you the light hearted love story of Coppelia. It's going to be a fun and beautiful production.

The Story of Coppelia – our up and coming performance. Coppelia is a light hearted love story. There are 3 main characters, a young man called Franz who is engaged to a young lady called Swanhilda. The 3rd character is Coppelia, she is a beautiful clockwork doll created by a toy maker, Dr Coppelia.The story becomes complicated when Swanhilda catches sight of Franz paying a lot of attention to Coppelia as she sits reading a book in the window of the toy workshop. Swanhilda is furious with Franz and nearly calls off the engagement.Act 2 of our version starts with Swanhilda and her friends creeping into the toy workshop while Dr Coppelius is out for the evening. She is determined to find the beautiful woman who has caught the eye of Franz. She has stolen the key to the workshop. No one ever goes in the workshop, Dr Coppelius is a grumpy character and doesn’t welcome visitors. When Swanhilda and her friends enter the workshop they find all kinds of strange people and they are frightened. Little do they know that what they have discovered is a selection of toys and dolls. Swanhilda and her friends get very naughty and set all the toys dancing, Dr Coppelius returns and chases them out, they run off but Swanhilda, who realises that the beautiful woman is only a doll decides to play a game with both Dr Coppelius and Franz. She swaps places with Coppelia and pretends to be Coppelia. Dr Coppelius is very excited, thinking that she has created a real live doll and makes Coppelia dance. Meanwhile Franz has also crept into the workshop. Dr Coppelius decides to invite Franz to join her for a drink, though unknown to Franz, the drink contains a sleeping draught and Franz falls asleep, Dr Coppelius thinks that if she can take the soul out of Franz and give it to Coppelia then Coppelia will become a daughter to her. Coppelia (who of course is Swanhilda dressed as Coppelia) takes pity on Franz and drags him out of the workshop leaving a very cross Dr Coppelius to clear up the mess. Anyway, the ending is a happy one with all being forgiven and we celebrate a wedding!