Oregon Ballet Theater gave the premiere performances of Emery LeCrone's DIVERGENCE for which the choreographer has reaped another positive review in her ongoing success story. Here are two photographs from the performance taken by Blaine Truitt Covert: at the top, dancer Kathi Martuza on the ramp...
...and above, Ms. Martuza and Adrian Fry.
While Emery was in Portland for her ballet's performances there, another new work by her premiered here in New York City: CHAMBER DANCES for Miro Magloire's New Chamber Ballet. This work will be repeated at New Chamber Ballet's upcoming performances June 11th and 12th. Emery also recently created a ballet to Mendelssohn (FIVE SONGS FOR PIANO) for Columbia Ballet Collaborative.
North Carolina Dance Theatre have nominated Emery for a Princess Grace Award.
My thanks to the folks at New York City Ballet for promptly sending me these Paul Kolnik photographs from the new ballets by Benjamin Millepied and Alexei Ratmansky which premiered at the Spring Gala on April 29, 2010. Above, from Benjamin's WHY AM I NOT WHERE YOU ARE, showing the Santiago Calatrava setting. Kathryn Morgan in the white dress, at left.
Another look at Ben's newest creation; costumes by Marc Happel.
NAMOUNA, A Grand Divertissement is the full title of the new Ratmansky ballet set to the Lalo score. In the above photo: Sara Mearns, Robert Fairchild and Wendy Whelan.
From NAMOUNA: front left are Robbie Fairchild, Wendy Whelan, Sara Mearns, Abi Stafford and Megan Fairchild.
Click on each image to enhance. These photos are copyright Paul Kolnik/New York City Ballet.
Thursday April 29, 2010 - The 2010 Spring season at New York City Ballet has opened with the premieres of new ballets by Benjamin Millepied and Alexei Ratmansky, inaugurating a festival of new choreography and music entitled Architecture of Dance and featuring the debut of architect Santiago Calatrava as scenic designer for the Millepied work. Mr. Calatrava's creations will be seen frequently throughout the Festival as he has designed the settings for five of the new works we shall be seeing. Above: a pencil-and-wine sketch by the architect from the season brochure.
One of Kristin Sloan's great short films introduced us to Santiago Calatrava. Peter Martins recalled the Balanchine/Philip Johnson 'season' when Mr. Johnson's glass-like set pieces provided the decor for several ballets; but the notion of great contemporary artists and designers creating dance settings goes back to Diaghilev. Perry Silvey spoke of the excitement of watching the Calatrava designs become realities. Peter then stepped before the curtain and offered a vodka toast to the architect and his wife. Then Faycal Karoui took the podium and the dancing began: we have two new ballets - as different as night and day in every respect - both of which call for additional viewings as they are visually (and musically) rich and complex.
Benjamin (above) has set his new work to music by Thierry Escaich (brief sample here); the ballet arrived on stage with a late-in-the-day cast change when Kathryn Morgan took over for an injured Janie Taylor.
Entitled WHY AM I NOT WHERE YOU ARE, Benjamin's ballet provides the first look at Mr. Calatrava's work (model above): a fan-like arch which is beautifully lit throughout...
...in colours echoed from Marc Happel's costume designs (above). The work is mysterious and rather sinister, and there is never a wasted moment musically or choreographically.
The curtain rises on Sean Suozzi alone onstage clad all in white in what seems to be a futuristic ballroom. The corps of sixteen dancers sweep on, the girls in dark tulle skirts a laLA VALSE and the boys in colorful, fitted tuxedos. Kathryn Morgan appears and it soon becomes evident that Sean is a ghost or spirit who cannot be seen by the others. A second couple, Sara Mearns and Amar Ramasar, act as catalysts and leaders of the various groups of dancers who swirl on and off to the turbulent, hallucinatory Escaich score. As the ballet evolves, Sean slowly adds pieces of costuming over his whites; he now becomes visible to Kathryn and they dance together - passionate yet fleeting. Then suddenly the dancers begin to tear Katie's costume off leaving her all in white - and invisible. Sean seeks her madly as the ballet careens to its dramatic close.
Benjamin's choreography visualizes the dark density of the music, which is both other-worldly and relentless. The dancing is grand: Sara Mearns gives a striking performance of lyrical abandon and Amar Ramasar looks fantastic and tosses off a couple of fanciful, fluttering aerial combinations that defy analysis. Kathryn Morgan looks beautifully lost and mystified as she seeks her ghostly lover - her dancing plush and velvety but with a steely, nightmarish edge. Her vulnerability after being attacked and de-frocked was lovely. How wonderful to see Sean Suozzi deliver such a spectacular performance - technically vivid and emotionally intense - in a big role crafted just for him. Sean, the man who created MOPEY, was rightly cheered in his solo bow.
The corps play a large part in this ballet and Benjamin chose some of the Company's best and most committed dancers who created an ominous atmosphere while in the meantime dancing superbly. I'll want to see WHY AM I NOT WHERE YOU ARE again (and again) as its drama, choreography and visual setting invite further delving. Bravo Benjamin!
Alexei Ratmansky (above) looked to the past for his music: Edouard Lalo's nearly forgotten exotic ballet score entitled NAMOUNA. I wondered if he would follow the original libretto (detailed somewhat in the linked article) and in fact he has in a way, but it is more a provocative allusion to the story than a literal telling of a tale.
Danced against a bare back-panel illuminated in muted shades from copper to slate-blue, the ballet opens with a striking entree for sixteen corps girls, each clad in a creamy diaphanous pleated skirt and a black bobbed-wig (or helmet-like cap - I couldn't tell, having left my opera glasses at home). Their opening set piece was reminiscent of the BAYADERE Shades though totally different in mood. Later in the same costuming they played small hand-cymbals during Robert Fairchild's solo, one of the work's highlights.
Robert was in fact the central character; clad in a sailor suit he danced handsomely and with technical aplomb. Here is a man with a harem, or at least a liberal list of girlfriends, of which three in particular claim our interest: Sara Mearns, Jenifer Ringer and Wendy Whelan. They arrive in pretty 'petal' tutus and beach turbans and each stakes a claim on Robbie's attentions.
Jenifer Ringer, in the languid Valse de la cigarette, was spellbinding: a peerless dance-actress, she created a complete character and looked superb doing so. When her choreography turned more technical, she responded with wit and finesse. A perfect and delightful performance.
Sara Mearns was splendid in her solo which was danced with grand amplitude and Hollywood glamour, with the excellent NYCB corps men giving her strong support. Both here and in the Millepied Sara seemed to be having a fabulous time and her dancing was on peak form, which is saying a lot.
Meanwhile a trio of the Company's top technicians (Megan Fairchild, Abi Stafford and Daniel Ulbricht) interjected sprightly combinations and mischievous personalities into the proceedings: each of them had moments in which to shine as individuals, and Daniel was a willing sidekick to Robbie as their beach adventure went on.
Costumes (by Marc Happel and Ruslam Khamdamov, sketch above) enhance the Ratmansky ballet while also making the corps dancers anonymous. Visually, NAMOUNA is a constant pleasure. And the music is enchanting. Despite feeling that Wendy had been seriously under-utilized, I thought when the ballet ended with Rob, Daniel and the boys rushing off (to find more women?) that we had a masterpiece on our hands, something to savour repeatedly. Except: it wasn't over.
Now Wendy's role became clear as she and Robert embarked on a beautifully atmospheric and romantic pas de deux marked by stunning partnering sequences and Wendy's perfection - all in white - as Muse and Siren. The other dancers and the ensemble had still more to do but the ballet does end with just Rob and Wendy alone onstage in a passionate, prolonged kiss.
And so, like DANCES AT A GATHERING, Ratmansky's NAMOUNA is simply too long. But - as with the Robbins - it begs the question: what should be cut? And the answer is: none of it! Monica told me that at a seminar Ratmansky said he felt compelled by the beauty of the music to use all of it and he was right. The ballet runs nearly an hour and though here and there one could see passages that might be compressed I would not want to see any of the individual movements cut.
One thing that could be deleted is the prelude which is lovely in itself but which - being played with the curtain down - seemed to merely provide the audience with background music for continuing their intermission conversations. It's atmospheric but with the undercurrent of chatter it really did not draw us into the work; our attention is only seized when the dancing starts.
So, it's a long piece but beautiful and unusual and - like the Millepied - it invites repeated viewings.
Poster for the Festival...
...and here is the Promenade being decked out for the Gala party. So nice to see all the off-duty and after-performance dancers in party attire; I wish I was more confident in asking to photograph them - several stunning ballerinas (Savannah, Ashley Bouder, Jenifer Ringer and Elysia Dawn) should have been immortalized. Perhaps some party pictures will turn up on Facebook.
Set and costumes design images from the Company's Architecture of Dance website. The Festival is off to a fine start and we've much to anticipate.
Two world premieres were given. My initial ratings are:
Benjamin Millepied's WHY AM I NOT WHERE YOU ARE = A+
Alexei Ratmansky's NAMOUNA, A GRAND DIVERTISSEMENT = A-
Benjamin's ballet reminded me in a way of LA VALSE and featured a spectacular performance by Sean Suozzi. The set by architect Santiago Calatrava was magical.
The Ratmansky is gorgeous - but almost too much of a good thing - with a marvelous opening corps sequence and incredible dancing all round (a special bouquet to Jenifer Ringer for her Oscar-worthy Valse de la cigarette).
Star-studded audience: I was seated next to Jennie Somogyi and two seats away from Damian Woetzel. Most of the NYC Ballet dancers who were not performing were in the audience, the girls all in party frocks. So nice to see my divine Pauline Golbin again. Albert Evans looked beyond sexy in a white sport coat, and Alexandra Ansanelli and Suki Schorer both looking lovelier than ever.
At Avery Fisher Hall, the New York Philharmonic are in the midst of a Stravinsky Festival entitled The Russian Stravinsky.Conducted by
Valery Gergiev, the series explores how the composer's Russian roots have informed
his works. The Orchestra's performances of Stravinsky pieces will
include his ballets The Firebird,Petrushka, Jeu de cartes,
Orpheus, and The Rite of Spring; the choral masterwork Symphony
of Psalms; the dance cantata, Les Noces, based on a Russian
folk wedding; the opera Oedipus Rex; and L'Histoire du soldat.
The schedule further includes chamber music concerts, an a cappella choral
performance by the Mariinsky Theatre Chorus, and a symposium. The Festival runs thru May 8, 2010. Photo of the composer, above.
OEDIPUS REX is a work that I love but have previously seen performed only once: at Tanglewood where we went especially to hear Jessye Norman as Jocasta and then she canceled (but Kenneth Riegel was a superb Oedipus and Seiji Ozawa led a magnificent performance).
With two singers I greatly admire in the principal roles - Anthony Dean Griffey as Oedipus and Waltraud Meier as Jocasta - the current performances seemed like must-see events. Both of these singers have utterly distinctive voices and in recent seasons each has given memorable performances at the Met as Peter Grimes and Isolde respectively. Tony's voice is ample and warm and he uses the streak of vulnerability that runs thru it to telling expressive effect. The role of Jocasta lies a bit low for Ms. Meier but her signature intense delivery was most welcome and her one sustained top note was a sonic thrill. I was wishing she and Tony had sung the Liebesnacht from TRISTAN as an encore!
Mikhail Petrenko ended up with a triple assignment, performing the roles of Creon, Tiresias and the Messenger. His voice is clear and steady; even though Gergiev sometimes allowed the orchestra to nearly cover him, Petrenko didn't force his tone. Tenor Alexander Timchenko sang pleasingly as the Shepherd at whose utterance the fate of Oedipus is sealed.
In the role of The Speaker, actor Jeremy Irons (yet another truly distinctive voice) brought just the right combination of hauteur and irony to his narration. His is the kind of speaking voice you want to listen to so that his speeches never seemed like interruptions to the music but became part of it.
The performance reached its apex with the arrival of Jocasta where Valery Gergiev unleashed the orchestra in a grandiose clamor of fanfares which resonated thru the hall to splendid effect.
To open the evening a rarity: Le Roi des Etoiles was performed. Taking advantage of the presence of the chorus for the OEDIPUS, Maestro Gergiev (above) presented this mini-cantata which was composed in 1911-12 to a text by the Russian poet Konstantin Balmont.
The poem is translated as
"The King of the Stars". Scored for large orchestra and six-part men's
chorus, the cantata lasts only about five minutes (54
measures of music, we are told). The work is dedicated to Claude Debussy who told Stravinsky it was "extraordinary" but felt that its combination of the massive forces required with its short duration would limit performance possibilities. Le Roi
des étoiles was first performed in public in 1939.
Stravinsky had stated
that he used the text not for its meaning but instead for the sound of
the language. The piece, though short, is rich in harmonics and was sung with spiritual intensity by a contingent of the Mariinsky's male chorus. Both here and in the OEDIPUS the choral sound had richness, depth and emotional vitality.
Leonidas Kavakos (above) was the soloist in the Stravinsky Violin Concerto which I believe was my first live hearing of this piece in a concert context (I've heard it often while watching the Balanchine ballet). For all the excellence of the two vocal works, it was the concerto that I found most thrilling tonight. Played with keen rhythmic vitality by the New York Philharmonic - with many very fine highlighted bits from the various players - the concerto's solo line was rendered with dazzling virtuosity, sweet or edgy tone as needed and pinpoint dynamic control by Mr. Kavakos. At times nearly dancing to the music, the violinist was in full command of this very demanding score. Gergiev was at his thrilling best here, clearly relishing the tapestry of sound he was weaving from Stravinsky's intricate pattern. Called back twice by clamorous applause, Leonidas obliged with a solo Bach encore which held the House in attentive silence.
Thursday August 29, 2010 - It's International Dance Day 2010...hug a dancer and kiss a choreographer! (Personally, I'd like to kiss Chris Wheeldon or Eddie Liang...) Send flowers to your favorite ballerina. Celebrate by attending a dance performance: I will be at New York City Ballet's opening gala. I love Renata Schussheim's fantasy artwork, above.
Here is a press release about this day of celebrating dance:
In
1982 the International Dance Committee of the International Theatre
Institute (ITI/UNESCO) founded International Dance Day, to be celebrated
every year on April 29th (the birth date of Jean-Georges Noverre, who was
born in
1727 and was a great reformer of dance).
Every year a message from a well-known dance personality is
circulated
throughout the world for the purpose of bringing together all dance on
this day
- to celebrate this art form and revel in its universality, to cross all
political, cultural and ethnic barriers, and to bring people together in
peace
and friendship with a common language: Dance.
In 1995, in an effort to unite dance, the International Dance
Committee
entered into a collaborative effort for the celebration of International
Dance
Day with World Dance Alliance, their only official partner. WDA
Europe, in collaboration with PAC Proietti Art Creations since 2007, are
sponsors and creators of the message:
FROM INTERNATIONALLYRENOWNED DANCER JULIOBOCCA:
"Dance is discipline, work, teaching, communication. With it we
save words that perhaps others would not understand and, instead, we
establish a
universal language familiar to everyone. It gives us pleasure, it makes
us
free, and it comforts us from the impossibility. We humans have to fly
like birds, bringing us closer to heaven, to the sacred, to the
infinite. It is a sublime art, different each time, so much like
making love that at the end of each performance it leaves our heart
beating very
hard and looking forward to the next time."
Here are some photographs by Kristin Lodoen Linder from the recent New Chamber Ballet evening at City Center Studio. Read about the performance here. Above: Lauren Toole, Madeleine Deavenport and Victoria North in Miro Magloire's ALLEGRETTO, INNOCENTE.
Maddie Deavenport and Victoria North.
Victoria North.
Elizabeth Brown in Miro Magloire's MONOLOGUE.
Emily SoRelle Adams in Miro Magloire's A SIMPLE BLACK DRESS.
Emily SoRelle Adams.
Lauren Toole, Victoria North and Maddie Deavenport in Emery LeCrone's CHAMBER DANCES.
Madeleine Deavenport. Lauren Toole and Victoria North.
Tenor Jason Ferrante (above) is at the new opera house in Guangzhou (Wei's hometown) preparing to sing the role of Pong in the House's opening production of Puccini's TURANDOT.
Jason, who I met when he was at Juilliard, posted the above photo of the new theater's interior on Facebook. Jason reports that Lorin Maazel will be conducting and there are three sopranos alternating in the title-role: Sylvie Valayre, Irene Theorin and Anna Shafajinskaya, Cristina Gallardo-Domas sings Liu and Richard Margison is Calaf.
Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky has chosen Edouard Lalo's NAMOUNA for his latest New York City Ballet creation which opens Thursday April 29th as part of the Company's Architecture of Dance festival-season. Portrait of the composer, above.
As a rule I don't like to 'lift' articles from other sources - normally I would just create a link - but this item about Lalo's NAMOUNA fascinated me and I thought more people would read it if I posted it here rather than as a link:
"In 1879, perhaps as a consideration for having refused his opera, LE ROI D'YS, the newly appointed director of the Paris Opéra, Auguste
Vaucorbeil, commissioned a ballet from Lalo for production in November,
1881. The fashioning of a scenario led to delays, with the chore being
passed between the critic Henri Blaze de Bury, the librettist Charles
Nuitter, and the choreographer Lucien Petipa. Not until July, 1881, did
Lalo have something in hand to compose to.
Set on Corfu, the slender
story of a slave girl passed between two wealthy playboys on the turn of
a bet took on, chez Lalo, not only exotic color, but character and
depth of feeling. The strain of rushing led to his hemiplegic stroke on
December 10. The unrelenting Vaucorbeil moved to have the work completed
by another hand, but Lalo rallied and, after an appeal to the Minister
of the Interior, and with Gounod's help filling in the orchestration, he
completed NAMOUNA. Meanwhile, a hostile press had already set about
denouncing the unheard NAMOUNA as 'Wagnerian' - an absurd charge
routinely leveled at any music of symphonic scope. NAMOUNA's premiere on
March 6, 1882, was unsympathetically received, very likely because,
striving for antiphonal effects, Lalo had groups of instruments not only
in the pit but on stage and in the front boxes. When these were placed
together in the pit after the third performance, audience objections
thinned, but NAMOUNA was allowed a disappointing run of 15 performances.
The Valse de la cigarette, in which Namouna rolls a cigarette for her
lover, provoked a sensation. And several Moroccan melodies, heard at the
1878 World Exhibition, were employed to piquant effect. Sensing that
he'd given some of his best inspiration to Namouna, Lalo salvaged a
great deal of it in two suites, recomposing and re-orchestrating much of
the music. Individual numbers were also exquisitely arranged - the Andantino for violin and orchestra, and the Sérénade for strings -
while some of the score's most winning melodic materials were worked
into a ravishing Fantaisie-ballet for violin and orchestra." ~ Adrian
Corleonis/All Music Guide
Above, Henri Regnault's 1870 canvas Hassan et Namouna.
On Thursday, we shall see if Alexei Ratmansky follows the original libretto or creates something quite different to the music. My curiosity is most definitely piqued, both by the music and the choreographic possibilities - to say nothing of the scheduled line-up of dancers:
New Ballet by Alexei Ratmansky World
Premiere Score by
Edouard Lalo: *Wendy Whelan,
*Jenifer Ringer, *Sara Mearns, *Robert
Fairchild, *Megan Fairchild, *Abi Stafford, *Daniel Ulbricht
The suites from the ballet have been recorded, available here.
When I lived in Hartford, I had the pleasure of seeing Julius LeBlanc Stewart's 1890 painting On The Yacht Namouna (above) on a regular basis at the Wadsworth Atheneum. It has nothing to do with the ballet except for the title, but it's gorgeous.
Scroll down the blog to the next entry for more about the NYC Ballet season.
New York City Ballet are about to launch an ambitious season which will include seven new ballets (four of them to commissioned scores) and features the participation of architect Santiago Calatrava in his debut as a theatrical scenic designer. Above: Wendy Whelan in rehearsal for the new Ratmansky ballet. Photo from the NYCB website.
Above: Sean Suozzi rehearsing the new Millepied ballet, photo by Andrea Mohin. Teaser video from an orchestral rehearsal here.
Casting for the opening night gala has been announced:
SPRING GALA 2010 THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 7 PM (Conductor: Fayçal Karoui)
New Ballet by Benjamin Millepied World Premiere Score by Thierry Escaich (Commissioned for NYCB) *Kathryn Morgan (replacing Janie Taylor), *Sara Mearns, *Sean Suozzi, *Amar
Ramasar New Ballet by Alexei Ratmansky World Premiere Score by Edouard Lalo *Wendy Whelan, *Jenifer Ringer, *Sara Mearns, *Robert
Fairchild, *Megan Fairchild, *Abi Stafford, *Daniel Ulbricht
Kokyat's photo above. The Company have created a mini-site dedicated to the current season.
Above, the NYCB stage crew readying a set piece by Santiago Calatrava for the new Millepied ballet.
Among revivals, SERENADE tops the Balanchine list along with AGON, BRAHMS-SCHOENBERG,DIVERTIMENTO #15 and LA SOURCE. One of the few Robbins works I really love, OPUS 19/THE DREAMER returns. Two of the best ballets Peter Martins has made will be presented: BARBER VIOLINCONCERTO and MORGEN, the latter being my favorite among Peter's works. And I for one will be pleased to see THE LADY WITH THE LITTLE DOG again.
Once June arrives, waves of nostalgia will sweep thru the theatre as four of our principal dancers bid farewell to the Company: Yvonne Borree (June 6), Philip Neal (June 13), Albert Evans (June 20) and Darci Kistler (June 27). And on June 24, the beloved maestro Maurice Kaplow will preside from the podium over his own farewell. All five of these artists have played major roles in my super-intense phase of NYCB-going over the past twelve years and in fact the six of us go way back: I remember Yvonne, Philip and Albert when they were just kids, and the great flurry of excitement surrounding Darci Kistler's 'birth' - with Balanchine's blessing. And how many evenings had Maestro Kaplow had his hand on the rudder, taking the NYCB musicians thru the wide range of musical styles with which their seasons are filled? It's going to be a big change not having these folks right where I know I can always find them.