American Ballet Theatre.
American Ballet TheatreMetropolitan Opera House, NYC * May 18-July 11, 2009
With two repertory programs, six full-length ballets, and wildly cheering crowds, the eight-week American Ballet Theatre season at the Metropolitan Opera was in many ways business as usual. However, with Nina Ananiashvili's farewell performance, the presence of exciting newcomers, and the appointment of Alexei Ratmansky as ABT's artist in residence, the season marked both the passing of a torch and a welcome shift in artistic direction.
To honor this year's Ballets Russes centenary, ABT mounted an All-Prokofiev Celebration. Only one of the three ballets, Balanchine's 1929 Prodigal Son, was actually created for the Ballets Russes, and musically, it was the strongest of the three. It was also the tightest dramatically. Filling in for an injured Ethan Stiefel, Herman Cornejo danced the lead role magnificently. He made it a piece of living theater, conveying the heat of the Son's desire, his vulnerability, and in the scene of his despoiling, the tortured beauty of a Catholic saint. The very young Daniil Simkin gave a thrilling performance that time will certainly deepen.
Like Prodigal, Ratmansky's On the Dnieper, his first ballet for ABT, is a dramatic work grounded in music, in this case Prokofiev's last ballet score before returning to the Soviet Union. Like a number of Ratmansky works, Dnieper takes place in a Soviet world innocent of politics and hunger. A young soldier, Sergei (Marcelo Gomes) returns to his village in the Ukraine, but instead of marrying his loyal sweetheart, Natalia (Veronika Part), he falls in love with Olga (Paloma Herrera). Her fiance (David Hallberg) challenges Sergei; a brawl ensues; and the lovers ultimately flee, with the help of a heartbroken Natalia. It's an old story, and Ratmansky tells it well, revealing his ability to give gestural meaning to dance movement and create both sympathetic characters and wonderful choreography for his dancers. In the case of Herrera, he has tapped a reservoir of banked passion that transforms this sometimes reticent dancer into a ballerina of great emotional depth.
Nevertheless, the first half of Dnieper comes alive only intermittently. The stage is often busy, and the music divorced from the action. But once everything drops away, leaving only the members of the love triangle, the ballet quickens, registering the emotions of the protagonists in a passionate duet for the lovers, fated, like Romeo and Juliet, to love, and a lament for the woman they salute and then abandon. Simon Pastukh's minimalist setting contributes to the mood of sensuous possibility, although his fence-like components restrict the space for dancing.
James Kudelka's Desir, to excerpts from Prokofiev's Cinderella and Waltz Suite, Op. 110, was thin stuff, by contrast, despite the composer's modernist textured waltzes and a lyrical pas de deux that capitalized on Isabella Boylston's glamorous extensions. With Prodigal the only first-rate score, this Prokofiev evening fell musically flat.
Natalia Osipova paid a flying visit from the Bolshoi Ballet. In Giselle she left an indelible impression, with her astonishing lightness and elevation, huge leaps and back-traveling cabrioles. She was less impressive in La Sylphide, although this partly reflects the eccentricities of Erik Bruhn's staging, with its coquettish sylph, overbearing James, and comic Madge. Diana Vishneva danced another spellbinding Giselle and a wonderful Sylvia--by turns a warrior Amazon, seductive mistress, and love-struck maiden. Yuriko Kajiya, a soloist, made a charming Gulnare (although Le Corsaire is looking tired). Hee Seo, a corps de ballet member, made her debut in La Sylphide and danced her first Juliet with Cory Stearns, debuting as Romeo (a performance I did not see). Tall, good-looking, but emotionally stolid, Roberto Bolle (new principal from La Scala via the Royal Ballet) danced Swan Lake with Veronika Part, who gave one of the great performances of her career. How different from Marcelo Gomes, who partners all his ballerinas with gallantry, and David Hallberg, who seems to "swing" with the music, no matter what he dances. As for Nina Ananiashvili, the first of the glasnost ballerinas, she cast a glow of autumnal pleasure over this farewell season, performing as always with beauty and artistry.
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Author: | Garafola, Lynn |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Dance Magazine |
| Geographic Code: | 1USA |
| Date: | Oct 1, 2009 |
| Words: | 679 |
| Previous Article: | A magical role: Finian casts its spell on an ex-ballerina. |
| Next Article: | Montpellier Dance Festival. |
| Topics: | |
| The Nutcracker ballet curls up with a book. |
| American Ballet Theatre Studio Company. |