American Ballet Theatres Spring Season
WHAT: American Ballet Theatre
WHERE: Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center
WHEN: May 24 to July 16, 2005
Spectacular productions defined the spring season of American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House, the perfect theater for its large scale classical repertoire. Opening with a spectacular display of stars and new works, ABT, under the artistic direction of Kevin McKenzie, remains America's premier classical ballet company.
The Spring gala on May 23, gave a whiff of productions to be presented during the spring season and introduced some past, returning and leaving stars. Savion Glover (yes, the tap dance miracle) tapped to Smetana's "Dance of the Comedians;" Alessandra Ferri (at the top of her artistry) performed with Julio Bocca (who leaves the company to continue to develop his own group in Argentina) performed a sizzling pas de deux from Roland Petit's "Carmen"; Herman Cornejo and Amanda McKerrow performed "Le Spectre de la Rose"; Julie Kent and Vladimir Malakhov (who becomes artistic director of the Berlin State Ballet) danced the Act II pas de deux from "Swan Lake." Other performing artists, in a potpourri of excerpts from "Don Quixote," included Diana Vishneva, José Manuel Carreño, Maria Riccetto, Maxim Beloserkovsky, Gilliam Murphy, Paloma Herrera, Carlos Acosta, Xiomara Reyes, Michele Wiles and Angel Corella. Erica Corñejo, Marcelo Gomes and Veronika Part were replaced until their injuries healed. Fokine's "Polovtsian Dances" were staged by Frederic Franklin, not a former ABT member, but now at 91, a major contributor to it onstage and off. It was all dazzling.
The company, celebrating its 65th year, also mounted a Tchaikovsky evening with excerpts from Petipa and Balanchine works; a Fokine celebration; "Raymonda;" "Don Quixote;" and a U.S. premiere of Sir Frederick Ashton's "Sylvia." "Le Corsaire" and "Giselle" were included along with "Swan Lake."
The U.S. premiere of "Sylvia," in the 1952 Sir Frederick Ashton three act version, staged by Christopher Newton, is a sweet story that speeds along. In brief, the nymph, Sylvia, whose allegiance is to the goddess Diana, has sworn off love despite the attentions offered by a gentle shepherd, Aminta. Eros, the god of love sends off an arrow that sparks Sylvia's change of heart. An evil hunter, Orion, (not the one in the sky), who also desires Sylvia, kidnaps her as Aminta, struck by an arrow, falls dead. But Diana, reminded that she once loved a shepherd and with the help of Eros, returns Aminta to life and is reunited with Sylvia. If you can't tell a Naiad from a Dryad in this production you could be in big trouble. But never mind, its' the music and the dancing that count.
As a ballet, "Sylvia" has been resuscitated several times since its Paris debut in 1876 by Louis Mérante. Léo Staats (1919), Serge Lifar (1941) and others gave it unsuccessful attempts until Ashton revived it for Sadler's Wells Ballet with Margot Fonteyn, Michael Somes and Alexander Grant and made it a success. Ashton's choreography is an acquired taste, full of tiny beats, a flutter of steps, elegance and restraint, but with little tour de force steps for male dancers. Aminta spends a lot of time sleeping on stage or playing dead. Neither Michele Wiles, Gillian Murphy, Julie Kent and even Paloma Herrera in the title role of Sylvia, despite their technical sufficiency, could bring enough charm to the role to be remembered. The last minute, Diana, played by Carmen Corella in this mini-role, took command of the stage and projected life into the production, if only at the end, and for a moment.
But the music, by Léo Delibes, who also composed "Coppélia" and "La Source," along with other danceable tunes, is a delight. Balanchine chose the pas de deux from the work for Maria Tallchief and Andre Eglevsky in the 1950s. But the score was not enough to inspire characterizations in this year's group of Sylvias to grow from petulance and defiance into a loving woman.
Another challenge to ABT dancers came in the form of the staging by Kevin McKenzie and Susan Jones of the Petipa-Gorsky version of "Don Quixote." The three-act classic ballet is based upon the novella from the second volume of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. It was written 400 years ago and has been known in many forms including the musical "The Man From La Mancha;" a Moscow ballet version in 1869; a St. Petersburg version in 1871; versions by Noverre, D'Auberval, Didelot, Bournonville and Filippo Taglione. A good story is hard to let go by. Basically, it is about the young lovers Kitri and Basil, opposed by Kitri's father, a tavern owner in Seville, who plans for his daughter to marry a foppish local nobleman, Gamache. Two unknowns wander into their town, Don Quixote, a knight errant and his bumbling servant, Sancho Panza. Quixote is seeking his ideal love, Dulcinea, and thinks she is Kitri. The lovers escape the pressures of the moment by running off to a gypsy camp, followed by the Don and Panza. At the gypsy camp, the Don attacks a windmill thinking it a giant threatening Dulcinea, but he fails to stop the wind. Exhausted, he falls asleep, allowing Petipa to insert the 19th century's beloved dream sequence of a stage full of dancers and soloists to perform his masterful corps and solo sequences. Petipa's through knowledge of Spanish dance forms delights throughout the production.
The Don's dream is interrupted by Kitri's father and Gamache. The Don leads them astray, now in favor of the lovers and knowing that Kitri is not his ideal love, Dulcinea. The comedy continues with a fake suicide, and an inevitable wedding scene with pas de deux and coda now danced by more performers the world over in competitions and in shortened version than any other work. The finale and variations end in a spirited finale.
Paloma Herrera and Julio Bocca have performed the leading roles, as they did this season at ABT, since 1995. Bocca retains his energy and boyish enthusiasm for the role, while Herrera's interpretation has flattened out. Past ABT dancers Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov performed the work in 1978. Who could forget them. They remain in the mind's eye. Here, again, characterization is the weakest link in the interpretations by the female dancers with the exception of Diana Vishneva, Alessandra Ferri and Nina Ananiashvili. Given time, a promising dancer has to learn not only technique, but that she must be a believable person on stage.
The deeper meanings of Cervantes, who was himself buffeted by fate but lived to tell the tale, has induced many interpretations of the Don and his mission. In 1965, Balanchine, at age 61, produced a version of the story and himself danced the role with Suzanne Farrell as his Dulcinea. The work has not been seen on the New York City Ballet stage since 1978, but is now being exhumed by Farrell for the National Ballet of Canada. At the time, it was viewed as a reflection of Balanchine's own personal pursuit of the divine dancer/muse after his years of striving disappointments. Farrell, in his personal life, was deemed his Dulcinea.
Summing up the season, the dancers in large and small roles that stand out in addition to ABT's superb roster, all of whom are remarkable, are: veteran Carlos Acosta (Cuba); Danny Tidwell (Virginia Springs); newcomer Tomás Solymosi (Hungary); Maria Riccetto (Uruguay); Kristi Boone (Rochester, NY) and Monique Meunier (California). Director McKenzie faced a huge task in casting the roles between box-office choices and the mentoring of members of his company. Foreign comp-anies have the advantage of producing dancers with accumulative training in a particular style that can be adapted to various choreographies. It is hoped that soon, ABT's new school will produce a similar advantage. Standbys, substitutes and covers for injuries complicated the task of casting. Costumes and sets this year were lavish and visually harmonious. All in all, audiences were not disappointed.