Oberon's Grove

Balanchine in Paris

BALANCHINE IN PARIS, a film by Dominique Delouche, was shown at the Walter Reade Theater on Monday afternoon, January 30th. In the movie, we see footage of Ghislaine Thesmar (above), Alicia Markova, Nina Vyroubova and Violette Verdy coaching dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet and the Bayerische Staatsballett in Balanchine repertoire:

• Le Palais de Cristal/Symphony in C
  Musique de Georges Bizet, chorégraphie Balanchine (1947/1949)
  Ghislaine Thesmar coaching Isabelle Ciaravola et Hervé Moreau, étoiles de l’Opéra de Paris
• Le Rossignol
  Musique Igor Stravinsky, chorégraphie Balanchine (1929)
  Dame Alicia Markova coaching Myriam Ould Braham, première danseuse de l’Opéra de Paris
• La Somnambula
  Musique Rieti, chorégraphie Balanchine (1960)
  Nina Vyroubova et Milorad Miskovitch coaching Muriel Hallé et Valery Colin, sujets à l’Opéra de Paris
• Liebeslieder Walzer
  Musique Brahms, chorégraphie Balanchine (1960)
  Violette Verdy coaching Lucia Lacarra et Cyrille Pierre, étoiles au Bayerisches Staatsballett
• Sonatine
  Musique Ravel, chorégraphie Balanchine (1975)
  Violette Verdy coaching Monique Loudières, étoile de l’Opéra de Paris

The entire film is a delight for ballet fans, and for Balanchine's admirers in particular. The most moving segment for me was Thesmar coaching Palais de Cristal. And the refinements of Liebeslieder Walzer as coached by Violette Verdy make me more appreciative than ever of that perfumed masterpiece. I certainly hope this film will be released on DVD in the USA.

The showing was prefaced two films by Gabrielle Lamb:  En Dedans is a ten-minute reverie on dancers' dreams which she created for Philaelphia's Ballet X and which I like especially because my friend Colby Damon is in it. Gabrielle showed me a raw copy of this film on her computer one day last year down at Gibney Dance Center. The finished work is truly dreamlike, the dancers moving in a studio that seems to be drifting through the clouds.

The jewel-like miniature Figment may be viewed on Gabrielle's website here. Evolving from a dream that she had about a woman with a sword dancing in a tall, slender space this movie has an eerie charm. I also enjoyed hearing Gabrielle, a dancer with a powerful dramatic resonance, speaking about her filmworks.

From Figment
Gabrielle Lamb (2010)

Unenchanted Evening

Monday January 30, 2012 - The Met's Baroque pastiche ENCHANTED ISLAND made for a dismal night at the opera. Placido Domingo as Neptune, in a Ken Howard production photo above, gave the performance one of its few perk-up moments. His voice, though aged, remains a distinctive instrument and he brought a real personality to his relatively brief appearance, something no other singer in the cast was able to do.

The Playbill featured a two-page synopsis. Drawing on two complex and brilliant Shakespeare masterpieces, THE TEMPEST and MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, the plot is a mishmash of characters and situations that do not engage us emotionally, and rarely even theatrically. The libretto is cheesy and stilted; avoiding Shakesperian style, it has a contemporary feel at odds with the setting and the music. Forced humour abounds, and the characters are made to sing uncomfortably-structured sentences. Unable to understand much of the diction, I flipped on my Met Titles and regretted it because reading the script added to a sense of deflation as the first act progressed.

The opera is much too long. The 90-minute first act seemed to have reached a pleasant climax with the Neptune scene, but then there was another prolonged slow aria for Prospero. Oddly, the house lights suddenly came on at full brightness during the postlude of this aria, then were dimmed and turned off again.

Slow arias in fact abound; but that proved as well since none of the singers had the needed vocal facility to astonish us with their coloratura. The annoying voice of Danielle DeNiese as Ariel went in one ear and out the other; she made no vocal impression at all. Anthony Roth Costanzo, replacing David Daniels as Prospero, seemed over-parted in the big house; pushing for volume, his sustained notes sometimes took on a steady beat. At other times the voice vanished behind the orchestra. Joyce Di Donato was announced as indisposed but she had "graciously consented...blah, blah, blah." Please singers: if you are unwell enough to need an announcement, don't sing. We don't pay Met prices to hear sick singers. At any rate, Di Donato only had one bad low note, but her voice - even in full health - lacks a distinctive colour, the sort of personal timbre that made singers like Teresa Berganza, Dame Janet Baker and Frederica von Stade so instantly identifiable. Luca Pisaroni tended to be over-emphatic in his fiorature which verged on barking at times. Lisette Oropesa sang attractively as Miranda as did Paul Appleby as as Demetrius. The libretto did them no favors, but they - and in fact everyone onstage - went at the words gamely enough, even if they felt foolish doing so.

The idea of doing a Baroque pastische is not a bad one but it seemed to me that between the tedious libretto, too many 'laments', and the too-busy plot, ENCHANTED ISLAND was going nowhere. Two 45-minute acts with a 20-minute intermission should have sufficed; instead there were expendable arias, unnecessary da capos, and overdrawn recits as the first act stretched onward. We left at half-time and so, it seems, did lots of other people.

Images from Wheeldon's LES CARILLONS

These photographs by New York City Ballet's Paul Kolnik are from the new Christopher Wheeldon ballet LES CARILLONS which premiered on January 28th, 2012. Above: Wendy Whelan and Robert Fairchild. Click on each image to enlarge.

Ensemble of stars: Tyler Angle. Maria Kowroski, Amar Ramasar, Sara Mearns, Robert Fairchild, Wendy Whelan, Daniel Ulbricht.

Above: Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia. Tiler had a heroic evening, dancing superbly in both LES CARILLONS and DANSE A GRANDE VITESSE as well as stepping in mid-ballet in POLYPHONIA for her injured colleague, Jennie Somogyi. 

Read about this all-Wheeldon evening here. My thanks to the NYC Ballet press office for providing these photographs.

Rehearsal: Lydia Johnson's FALLING OUT

Friday January 27, 2012 - Today at the Battery Dance studio, Lydia Johnson's dancers were rehearsing her 2006 dancework FALLING OUT. Set to music of Philip Glass (his 3rd Symphony) FALLING OUT will be performed at a special matinee at Peridance on Sunday February 26th. In Kokyat's image at the top, Max van der Sterre and Kerry Shea.

The work is essentially plotless but the theme of a romantic triangle is clearly established: the relationship between Kerry and Max is a tempestuous one in which moments of harmony (above) alternate with fiery outbursts. The 'other' woman, danced by Jessica Sand (seated at right in the photo above) remains an enigmatic figure in the piece. Jessica and Max never dance together; we can never be sure if Jessica is real or an idealized vision in Max's mind that lures his attentions away from Kerry.

Meanwhile a female chorus, at first indifferent to the central conflict but later drawn into it, dance in stylized a commentary on the action. The dancers are Lisa Iannacito McBride, Kaitlin Accetta, Sarah Pon and Laura Di Orio. 

It was an overcast day, but from time to time the sun broke thru the clouds and the studio was illuminated. Above: Laura and Kaitlin.

Dramatic structure: the elements of FALLING OUT are brilliantly sorted in Lydia's choreography which seems like a play without words. She uses the Glass score with deft imagination, balancing speed and stillness, contemplation and action.

Max and Kerry have developed an impressive partnership in which Max's strength and skill allows Kerry complete freedom to simply be her beautiful self. They have all the moves down pat and spent the rehearsal mainly working on exploring nuances of gesture and expression. Lydia's style of encouraging her dancers to paticipate in the process of refining the movement makes her rehearsals unusually satisfying to watch.

 

Star power: Max's t-shirt says it all. Great presence, and a real force in the studio.

Max and Kerry

Mood swings: the couple go from tender...

...to turbulent in a flash.

Mysterious force: Jessica Sand keeps us wondering exactly who this woman is, interloper or silent muse? The questions that FALLING OUT raises about the idea of devotion vs desire give us pause to contemplate the realties and illusions of romantic relationships.

Sleeping beauties 

FALLING OUT, along with Lydia's as-yet-untitled new Golijov piece, will be shown at Peridance on Sunday February 26th at 2:30 PM. $10.00 donation-based admission.

All photos by Kokyat. His Leica images from this rehearsal are here.

All-Wheeldon @ New York City Ballet

Saturday January 28, 2012 evening - I've waited a long time for this: the first programme at New York City Ballet devoted entirely to works of Christopher Wheeldon. Christopher, who danced with the Company and attained the rank of soloist before resigning the position to devote all his energies to choreography, eventually served a stint as NYCB's first resident choreographer. He then spent three seasons running his own company, MORPHOSES. Now he is one of the most sought-after creators of new ballets in the world. Meanwhile his established works increasingly crop up in the repertoire of top international companies.

Tonight we saw the world premiere of LES CARILLONS, set to music from Bizet's L'Arlesienne suites; POLYPHONIA which I tend to think is Wheeldon's greatest masterpiece to date; and the New York City Ballet premiere of DANSE A GRANDE VITESSE, originally created for the Royal Ballet in 2006. The evening was a huge personal triumph for Christopher and for the individual dancers.

An unfortunate injury to Jennie Somogyi during her valse in POLYPHONIA was unsettling and surely affected her colleagues in the ballet, though they danced on with poise. After a few minutes, Tiler Peck - who was dancing in the other two ballets tonight - stepped onto the stage and finished the ballet in Somogyi's place.

LES CARILLONS is the most purely appealing new ballet I've seen at New York City Ballet since Melissa Barak's SIMPLE SYMPHONY. CARILLONS shares with with the Barak gem its use of familiar and ear-pleasing music, excellent structuring, and striking passages of dance where the classical movement vocabulary gets stretched but never breaks, giving an overall impression of freshness. Andrews Sill, on the podium, mined the Bizet score to perfection, displaying the melodic and rhythmic variety of the music while providing solid support for the dancers.

CARILLONS begins with ten men onstage; they wear dark fitted costumes with one arm bare; semi-see-thru tops are accented with panels of deep reds or blues. They dance to one of Bizet's most familiar tunes, soon joined by the women whose wine-toned skirts give the piece an aspect of visual richness. (There is a backdrop but it's not visible from the 5th Ring). 

The ten magnificent principals (yes, I include Ana Sophia Scheller since she should be) then embark on a series of vivid solos, duets and ensembles in which Christopher gives them complex and varied things to do, most especially in the partnering aspects and in the use of hands and arms. Meanwhile the corps of ten, equally handsome dancers all, swirl on and off, enriching the visual textures.

There is a lush saxophone melody to which Sara Mearns and Amar Ramasar dance a spacious pas de deux; there is a vivacious pas de quatre for Ms. Scheller, Tiler Peck, Gonzalo Garcia and Daniel Ulbricht. Wendy Whelan and Robert Fairchild dance a lovely nocturnal duet; then Wendy remains onstage, wandering among the corps dancers as they weave intricate patterns. Wendy's solo shows her at her radiant best. Wendy and Maria Kowroski (who looked particularly sumptuous in her scarlet gown) dance in beautiful snyc to yet another familiar Bizet melody, and Maria has a gorgeous saxophone adagio with Tyler Angle. In a passage of pure seduction, Sara Mearns displays incredible star power, later joined by the men. The harp lends lyric mystery to a solo impressively danced by Tiler Peck which later extends into a pas de trois for her, Gonzalo and Daniel. Amar Ramasar races around the stage in a series of brilliant leaps. The eye is constantly drawn to one and then another of these charismatic dancers.

Joshua Thew from the corps de ballet joins the principal men in certain passages; Joshua looked totally at home in this stellar ensemble and with his tall, handsome presence he seems like a dancer deserving of greater opportunities to shine.

As the ballet's original musical theme returns, the cast unite for a richly-wrought finale. The crowd let loose with uninhibited shouts of approval as the dancers came forward to bow; flowers for the ladies and lots of screaming when Christopher appeared onstage. After two high-profile strikeouts with new ballets (SEVEN DEADLY SINS and OCEAN'S KINGDOM - failures to be blamed on bad narratives and uninteresting music) I think the public felt they were entitled to express their unbridled enthusiasm. In CARILLONS, Christopher Wheeldon takes music we want to hear and dancers we love to watch and produces structure and movement that does ballet proud.

POLYPHONIA is always a mesmerizing ballet but it seemed even more so tonight; premiered on January 4th, 2001, this Ligeti-inspired work has always been for me the first dance masterpiece of the 21st century. It continues to fascinate and - like all great danceworks - has passages that we wait for with keen anticipation. Cameron Grant and Alan Moverman at the keyboard made Ligeti's quirky, nuanced music tingle the ear.

Jennie Somogyi's injury, coming during one of my favorite parts of the ballet, placed the performance in a darkish aspect. The other dancers were surely affected by the incident but managed to forge onward with some intriguing dancing.

The duet for Gonzalo Garcia and Adrian Danchig-Waring, Sara Mearns' quiet radiance in her mysterious solo, Craig Hall's godlike presence, the lively pairing of Sterling Hyltin and Adrian Danchig-Waring (can't wait to see them together in IN G MAJOR coming up), and Tiler Peck's cool and collected artistry as she unexpectedly added to her already-busy evening by taking over here - all these made strong impressions.

Central to POLYPHONIA are the two superb duets for Wendy Whelan and Jared Angle. Wendy's suppleness and the way she turns the angular shapings of her body into poetic statements keep the viewer riveted, while Jared brings an unexpected quality of nobility to the partnering. As Wendy backbends over Jared's knee and snakes herself into her final kneeling pose, her enigmatic beauty is distilled into a single unforgettable image.

I really wish I could come to appreciate DANSE A GRAND VITESSE but, seeing it tonight for the second time (the first was danced by Angel Corella's company at City Center) I found it overly-long, with the athletic partnering tending to lose impact as we see more and more of it. The City Ballet dancers - led by Teresa Reichlen/Craig Hall, Ashley Bouder/Joaquin de Luz, Maria Kowroski/Tyler Angle and Tiler Peck/Andrew Veyette - were nothing short of spectacular, and the corps excelled. But I found my attention wandering as the piece progressed, despite Clothilde Otranto's dynamic reading of the Michael Nyman score. The best passages seem to me to be for the corps where, in spacious patterns, they and their shadows filled the space. The audience loved it, so clearly I'm in the minority here. I found myself wishing that instead of DGV we could have had a revival of either EVENFALL or KLAVIER, or even of Christopher's misunderstood and magnificent SHAMBARDS. 

What mattered though was that Christopher Wheeldon has brought us a new Bizet ballet to admire and - hopefully - to see again, although ticket pricing now at NYCB makes seeing things twice something to ponder deeply before heading to the box office. 

The big ovation Christopher received as he came out for a solo bow at the end of the evening was so thoroughly well-deserved.

Three Robbins Ballets @ NYCB

Tuesday January 24, 2012 - Three works by Jerome Robbins, each featuring an ideal ballerina in its central role, were performed tonight at New York City Ballet. The music? Ravel, Berg, Chopin. What a great way to spend a cold Winter's evening! In the Paul Kolnik photo at the top, Wendy Whelan borne aloft by Jared Angle and Ask LaCour at the end of IN MEMORY OF...

The evening opened on a beach where the dancers, in pastel 1920s beachwear, cavorted to the Ravel piano concerto IN G MAJOR. Maria Kowroski (above in a Paul Kolnik) gave a radiant performance and Tyler Angle was a frisky young god in his solo. In the ballet's central adagio, the two dancers found a fine rapport and a sense of freshness that kept the audience spellbound as they shaped their long limbs into a series of beautiful snapshots. The final lift, as Maria's leg sweeps heavenward and her pointed foot seems to brush the sky, was thrilling. Excellent corps dancing: a neat moment when Maria is partnered by the tall and slender Austin Laurent made me wish that principals and corpsmen could dance together more extensively. IN G MAJOR has a striking backdrop by Erté, a designer perhaps forgotten nowadays but whose work resonates with Art Deco elegance. His set features a fanciful sunburst and dark outlines suggesting clouds and waves: a remarkably classy beachscape.

With George Manahan (of New York City Opera) as a guest conductor bringing out some lovely nuances in the score and pianist Susan Walters giving a polished performance at the keyboard, the musicians and dancers conspired to make this a wonderfully gratifying performance in every regard.

Mr. Manahan also took up the baton for IN MEMORY OF..., the poignantly dramatic work that Robbins set to the violin concerto of Alban Berg. The composer crafted this, his only concerto for solo instrument, in reaction to the death from polio of Manon Gropius (daughter of Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius) at the age of 22. Berg was deeply shaken by the girl's demise and wrote "To the Memory of an Angel" on the score's title-page. Tonight the City Ballet's concertmaster Kurt Nikkanen gave the work a lustrous performance.

Robbins sets the ballet in a three-part narrative where we first see the young woman dancing with her beau, later joined by friends. Signs of the girl's illness begin to manifest and as the corps stride in unison across the stage, the figure of Death appears.

In a long and intense pas de deux, Death stalks the girl (Ask LaCour and Wendy Whelan, above). She puts up a mighty struggle but in the end she is bested by his implacable strength. Her crumpled body is borne away as the stage fills with the corps, now white-clad angels, who eventually welcome the young woman to the celestial realm.

Of the many and varied roles in Wendy Whelan's repertory, the central character in Robbins' dramatic IN MEMORY OF... suits her most particularly well. Here she is able to convey the girl's passionate love of life, her confused state as Death begins to attack her, her frantic attempts to stave off the inevitable, and her luminous vulnerability as she succumbs. In the ballet's final moments, Wendy re-appears, now in virginal white with her hair down, moving among the spirits. Every element of technique, dramatic instinct and expression that Wendy embodies are filtered into this character and her performance is a complete marvel in every sense.

Ask LaCour, towering over the ballerina, brings an interesting sense of nobility to the Death figure. As he gains control over the girl's soul, Ask uses his long arms and expressive hands to keep her in his thrall even as she tries to escape. An excellent portrait. Jared Angle was handsome and gently ardent as Wendy's mortal lover, and I was especially happy to see Faye Arthurs back onstage - after a long hiatus - dancing with the very attractive corps ensemble.   

Sterling Hyltin talks about her role in THE CONCERT here.

No performance at the ballet or opera these days can ever be free of audience distractions. I had such a nice seat for the evening but on returning from the intermission two idiot girls sitting a couple of seats away had brought in snacks and a bottle of water which they decided to enjoy during IN MEMORY OF... they were just far enough away so that shushing them was to no avail.

I therefore decided to move for the closing ballet; but having heard that the ushers now don't allow people to move to another part of the house (even if you've paid $100 and want to sit in an unused $29 seat), I decided to try watching THE CONCERT on the screen on the Promende. This did not work out too well, but at least got to watch Sterling and Joaquin de Luz for a while. 

The saddest aspect of the evening was seeing the vast emptiness of the 4th Ring which was open but occupied by only 2 or 3 spectators. I'm simply at a loss to comprehend what the administration is doing to my favorite dance company. It's disheartening and alienating. They can spin it however they want, but empty seats are empty seats. It's especially depressing because the Company are dancing so well. 

Dance from the Heart 2012

Tuesday January 24, 2012 - "The best-laid plans..." I was planning to attend both nights of the annual Dance from the Heart programmes at Cedar Lake Theater but the ominous message "...due to a police investigation" came over the loudspeaker as the train I was on sat in the tunnel just south of 181st Street. Twenty minutes later we pulled into 168th; I should have switched to the #1 there but we quickly proceeded...into the tunnel where we sat for another ten minutes. By the time we reached 145th it was clear I'd never get down to Chelsea by curtain time. Trying to get home then was equally frustrating, due to a "sick passenger".  Not a good night for the MTA.

But I did get to Cedar Lake for the second night. Mixed-bag dance evenings are not really my cup of tea; there was exciting dancing all evening but from a musical and choreographic standpoint only about half the works on offer were of interest to me.

The opening VIDA from Cecilia Marta Dance Company was jazzy, nicely lit and danced with a suggestive sway. In the duet Falling, of course Misty Copeland and Matthew Prescott looked great dancing together, but the schlocky arrangement of an Elvis Presley classic was not very inspiring. Why not use The King's own version?

It wasn't til Clifton Brown and Kana Kimura stepped onstage to dance a duet from Jessica Lang's i.n.k. that the evening really perked up for me: Clifton and Kana (Kokyat's studio photo above) look wonderful together and their dancing is compelling and poetic. The Jakub Ciupinski score and the Shinichi Maruyama filmed projection enhanced the choreography and the dancing, making this all of a piece.

Sustaining the high level set by the Lang, four dancers from Paul Taylor Dance Company performed an excerpt from Paul Taylor's PIAZZOLLA CALDERA: a pair of torridly expressive duets, the first for two men (Jeffrey Smith and Michael Apuzzo) and the second for Michelle Fleet and Michael Trusnovec. This quartet of dance royalty whetted the appetite for the upcoming Taylor season at Lincoln Center, as if further whetting was needed. Bravi!

The evening ended on a festive note with Jeremy McQueen's CONCERTO NUOVO, a setting of Bach's music most familiar in its Balanchine incarnation as CONCERTO BAROCCO. The all-women ensemble seemed like vivacious contemporary cygnets in their short ruffled white frocks, and each brought a distinctive personality to Jeremy's visual polyphony. As this lively finale drew to an end, champagne was served.

Lovely to see Arlene Cooper, Rachel Berman, Jessica Lane, Kanji Segawa, Jeremy McQueen, Lynda Senisi and Caleb Custer among the crowd. How fine it is that Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet put their superb venue and their staff at the disposal of the Dancers Responding to AIDS team for this annual event. One more reason to love Cedar Lake!

Rita Gorr Has Passed Away

Another colossal figure from my early days as an opera lover has passed away: the Belgian mezzo-soprano Rita Gorr died on January 22, 2012 at the age of 85. The great singer had a relatively brief but busy career at the Metropolitan Opera; from 1962 thru 1966 she sang 42 performances in New York City and on tour, including Amneris, Eboli, Dalila, Santuzza, Waltraute in GOTTERDAMMERUNG and Azucena. It was in the last-named role that I heard her live for the only time, at the Old Met:

Metropolitan Opera House
November 25, 1965

IL TROVATORE {350}
Giuseppe Verdi

Manrico.................Bruno Prevedi
Leonora.................Gabriella Tucci
Count Di Luna...........Robert Merrill
Azucena.................Rita Gorr
Ferrando................Bonaldo Giaiotti
Ines....................Lynn Owen
Ruiz....................Charles Anthony
Messenger...............Hal Roberts
Gypsy...................Luis Forero

Conductor...............Georges Pretre


Her singing was powerful and intense, and all evening long she and her colleagues received vociferous applause and bravos. What a great evening for a young opera buff!

Rita Gorr extended her career into the 21st century; her final stage performances were in 2007 as the Old Countess in Tchaikovsky's QUEEN OF SPADES at Ghent and Antwerp.

Only recently I acquired a copy of the Leinsdorf recording of Wagner's LOHENGRIN and have been listening to it over the past few days. It now takes on greater significance since Ms. Gorr is the majestic Ortrud, singing in the grand manner. In the great duet for husband and wife which open Act II, William Dooley as Telramund expresses his fear that his defeat by Lohengrin in Act I was a sign from God. "Gott????!!" Gorr/Ortrud responds ironically, then lets out a daemonic laugh. Brilliant!

Rita Gorr's classic EMI solo disc of arias seems to be unavailable now; I owned it on LP as a young man and literally wore out the grooves. But several tracks can be found on YouTube. Here is her Liebestod from TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, sung with an Old World grandeur that seems to have vanished as opera moves away from its voice-centric uniqueness into a more generalized feeling of being mere entertainment.

Year of the Dragon

Happy New Year, everyone!

Riot at The Rite

In 2005, the BBC produced a TV film entitled RIOT AT THE RITE about the 1913 premiere of the Stravinsky/Nijinsky ballet THE RITE OF SPRING. Given its first performance by the Ballets Russes on May 29, 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris (above), the ballet caused one of the great scandals in the history of the performing arts as the audience, failing to grasp it either musically or choreographically, erupted in catcalls and boos which later descended into fistfights and shouting matches. The musicians and dancers managed to finish the performance before complete madness seized the crowd.

From time to time I've done web searches to see if this film has become available on DVD; having recently re-watched the 2009 film COCO CHANEL AND IGOR STRAVINSKY, I commenced another search today and - while no DVD seems to have been released - I did find that RIOT AT THE RITE has appeared on YouTube in six installments, starting here. From that starting point you will see the remaining segments listed in the right-hand column of the YouTube page.

If I were you, I'd watch it now since you never know when things might disappear from YouTube.

The film is of particular interest in that it includes virtually a complete performance of the the ballet, featuring the Royal Ballet's Zenaida Yanowsky as the Chosen One. Not that we actually see all of it: much of the time the camera is panning the audience or following the developing drama backstage. But if I'm not mistaken, the music is all there.

The actors chosen to play Nijinsky (Adam Garcia) and Diaghilev (Alex Jennings) don't look much like their historical counterparts. Aidan McArdle comes within hailing distance visually as Stravinsky, and you could believe that Christian McKay is Pierre Monteux (Monteux conducted the premiere and managed to finish the ballet against nearly insurmoutable odds). Rachael Stirling is a very attractive Marie Rambert. There's an odd scene where Nijinsky whisks Romola de Pulszky into a backstage closet, but nothing really happens; surely no such tete-a-tete ever occurred. The entire cast speaks the King's English without the various accents that the characters would have had in reality.

The most interesting scenes are those of rehearsals, both orchestral and choreographic. The musicians are dumbstruck by what they are asked to play. The dancers have never danced anything remotely like this, so the first studio sessions are chaotic. Tempers erupt as composer and choreographer face off; it's Mimi Rambert who keeps the peace (as she was - in reality - assigned to do by Diaghilev). A later rehearsal shows the dancers almost in harmony with the difficult score; even Stravinsky thinks it's starting to look good. 

The great night arrives; the audience cannot grasp this new language of music and dance, and the rest is history. It's sometimes been thought that the uproar was pre-arranged; why else would people have brought whistles to the theatre? But the furore was surely more widespread than anything that a few troublemakers could have devised. I seem to recall reading that a dog was somehow smuggled into the auditorium and started barking and racing about, trying to escape.

RITE received only a few more Parisian performances and then was taken to London for a few more, following which it vanished from the Ballets Russes repertoire. By marrying Romola, Nijinsky lost his place in Diaghilev's company and in the impresario's private life as well. Soon madness took Nijinsky away from the mainstream of life.

It wasn't until the 1980s that reconstruction of Nijinsky's RITE was carried out by the Joffrey Ballet, drawing on such sources as Marie Rambert's notes from the time of the work's creation. It also entered the repertory of the Mariinsky.

Oringinal RITE OF SPRING costume design by Nicholas Roerich.

Many choreographers have made settings of the Stravinsky score which - as Diaghilev predicted - became recognized as a masterpiece. Among those that I have seen are those by Shen Wei; Paul Taylor's whimsical take on the score; a fresh and colorful version by Stijn Celis for Cedar Lake; and a thrilling rendering of the music as a solo by choreographer Andonis Foniadakis and danced by Ioanna Toumpakari in a veritable tour de force, one of the great, singular dance performances I have ever witnessed.

Above: a Paul B Goode production photo from Cedar Lake's RITE, choreographed by Stijn Celis.

In 2009, Louisville Ballet presented choreographer Adam Hougland's RITE OF SPRING, created especially for New York City Ballet's Wendy Whelan. Wendy generously contributed to my blog article about this RITE.

In 2013, the RITE OF SPRING will celebrate its 100th birthday. Wouldn't it be grand if one of our New York City-based dance companies would offer a new (or reconstructed!) setting of the ballet?