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SFB 2015 Shostakovich Trilogy


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Initial casts.

Shostakovich Trilogy

Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky

Music: Dmitri Shostakovich

Wednesday, April 08, 2015 - 7:30pm

Conductor: Martin West

Symphony #9

Sarah Van Patten, Carlos Quenedit

Vanessa Zahorian*, James Sofranko

Taras Domitro

INTERMISSION

Chamber Symphony

Davit Karapetyan

Dores Andre, Mathilde Froustey, Sarah Van Patten

INTERMISSION

Piano Concerto #1

Sofiane Sylve, Tiit Helimets

Frances Chung, Joan Boada

Thursday, April 09, 2015 - 8pm

Conductor: Martin West

Symphony #9

Sarah Van Patten, Carlos Quenedit

Vanessa Zahorian, James Sofranko

Taras Domitro

INTERMISSION

Chamber Symphony

Davit Karapetyan

Dores Andre, Mathilde Froustey, Sarah Van Patten

INTERMISSION

Piano Concerto #1

Sofiane Sylve, Tiit Helimets

Frances Chung, Joan Boada

ETA link to casting.

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Initial casts.

Shostakovich Trilogy

Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky

Music: Dmitri Shostakovich

Wednesday, April 08, 2015 - 7:30pm

Conductor: Martin West

Symphony #9

Sarah Van Patten, Carlos Quenedit

Vanessa Zahorian*, James Sofranko

Taras Domitro

INTERMISSION

Chamber Symphony

Davit Karapetyan

Dores Andre, Mathilde Froustey, Sarah Van Patten

INTERMISSION

Piano Concerto #1

Sofiane Sylve, Tiit Helimets

Frances Chung, Joan Boada

Thursday, April 09, 2015 - 8pm

Conductor: Martin West

Symphony #9

Sarah Van Patten, Carlos Quenedit

Vanessa Zahorian, James Sofranko

Taras Domitro

INTERMISSION

Chamber Symphony

Davit Karapetyan

Dores Andre, Mathilde Froustey, Sarah Van Patten

INTERMISSION

Piano Concerto #1

Sofiane Sylve, Tiit Helimets

Frances Chung, Joan Boada

Great casts! I saw them perform this when it was first premiered at SFB. So exciting! How wonderful that SFB is doing the entire Trilogy! I doubt that ABT will do it in it's entirety again.

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Query: Symphony #9 and Piano Concerto #1 were critical and popular hits in NYC, but Chamber Symphony didn't really cohere (except for a few nice moments at the end). Did Chamber Symphony fare any better in SFB's performances? Did Ratmansky rework it?

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choriamb,

I don't remember the Chamber Symphony not cohering as much as the last two parts being especially strong and memorable. Maybe that's saying the same thing, but I don't remember being bored or impatient at any point. Simone Messmer was in one of the Chamber casts, though more often she was in Symphony #9, in the role I assume that was set on her at ABT. She will be missed in this year's run.

Already there are some casting changes – Carlos Quenedit who perfectly shadowed Sarah Van Patten's movements last year in Symphony #9 (or perhaps she prefectly shadowed his) is no longer listed for the first two performances.

Also there is a premiere of a ballet version of John Cheever's The Swimmer (!) on the concurrent Program #7 which also includes The Four Temperaments. Along with the demands of Shostakovitch Trilogy, especially for corps members, I imagine resources will be stretched.

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At tonight's performance, Taras Domitro started off as the solo figure in Symphony #9 and was brilliant, but halfway through the ballet Francisco Mungamba, who had been one of the eight ensemble men, took over the role to the end and was equally brilliant and charismatic. Mungamba was cast to dance it in another performance.

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I noticed Francisco Mungamba at the Saturday matinee. He danced the part where he keeps jumping forever (all sixes I believe) and jumps off stage right. It looked so effortless.

On Saturday the two ladies in Piano Concerto #1 were quite different in height - matinee (Sylve/Chung) and evening (Tan/Kochetkova). I'm wondering if this was purposeful or if that was just a fallout of casting who was best for the individual roles? When I saw it at ABT it was Osipova/Vishneva, who from a distance look somewhat similar.

Davit Karapetyan was spectacular in Chamber Symphony!

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Still no editing or quoting, but in reply to both Josette and seattle_dancer:

I really hope Domitro is OK; he was superb in that role when I saw him last year. It's been wonderful watching Domitro the dancer develop into Domitro the artist over the past few years. This time around I saw Mungamba on Saturday matinee and I agree, he was equally superb. He's definitely one I've got my eye on. I'd like to see him cast as, e.g., Hilarion to see if he can create and sustain a character and not just rely on his beautiful dancing.

seattle_dancer: I wondered about the height difference too. I've seen it with 3 different casts and the taller dancer has alwsays been the protective one; I just assumed it was deliberate, but from what you saw at ABT, maybe not.

Re Karapetyan in Chamber Symphony: At the Saturday matinee, Ruben Martin Cintas danced that role, and in all honesty, he was barely adequate compared to DK. (Interestingly, I has the same reaction to the two of them dancing Onegin.) Aside from being a superb technician, Karapetyan can act, I mean really act, not just do the 'Oh, I'm unhappy' or whatever gestures. He brings those emotions up from inside and it makes all the difference. His interactions with the three women in his life were filled with humor, affection, frustration, agony, you name it. Martin Cintas just danced with three other female dancers. (I don't mean to be hard on Martin Cintas; I like him and have seen him give many fine performances, but this just isn't his role.)

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I agree with you, PeggyR, about Davit Karapetyan in Chamber Symphony – it's his heaviness and the way he breaks his phrases and how he's pulled forward by some saturn-like mood. I imagine Alexei Ratmansky thinking of Denis Savin when he created it – who played the spoiler "Denis"in The Bolt, a kind of lumbering Gene Kelly.

I liked Mathilde Froustey and Carlo Di Lanno a lot as the sad couple. They seemed to play their roles more dramatically and opened them a bit more than the excellent Van Patten and Quenedit couple last year who were pure Ratmansky forces, always on the move, always setting up shop somewhere else. Froutsey and Di Lanno are in R&J rehearsals (on Froustey's Instagram) so maybe they brought some of that over.

I'll miss seeing Taras Domitro as the Melancholic Pierrot in 4 Temperaments this year. That was his debut role at San Francisco Ballet seven years ago and I've always been amazed by it – really the best I've seen outside of New York City Ballet, up there almost with Bart Cook's but of a slightly different density. He disappeared into the part. Domitro is also great as the punctuation marker in Shastokovich 9th Symphony, who accents and dances madly through through the ballet and yet holds everything in place. No one else quite nails it as dryly and succinctly.

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I was there April 9 -- had a wonderful time. My first go at this work, so only have overall impressions. I'm still thinking that Ratmansky has a very individual approach to ballet technique. It's not a hybrid form, like Kylian or tharp, but he's making choices about transitions and phrasing that don't expect -- it makes the whole thing very fresh, and really makes me pay attention. Lots to see, structurally as well as narratively -- now I need to find a way to see this again!

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I went April 17th and it was one of the better evenings of ballet I've seen in the last couple of years. Ths is a truly strong modern neo-classical ballet. All dancers looked well rehearsed (the Corps were able to fully inhabit their parts, rather than just try to remember the steps, and there was no obvious nerves). It was really an impressive performance by the whole company. Symphony #9 was uniformly great - everyone very intense and the speed of execution in that section was really impressive. Chamber Symphony definitely drags a bit because of the score, and is more melodrama, than edgy, imo. Things revive with Piano Concerto #1 - especially with the novelty of seeing Tan and Kochetkova dancing together (in tiny red bathing suits). I actually felt that the choreography was suiting Tan better than Masha K. It somehow didn't show off Masha at her best. But that's neither here nor there - there's no reason why she would have to dance a Russian 'theme' of this sort better than everyone else. It's too personal and idiosyncratic a work to actually require a dancer from the Russian culture to pull it off. That's part of what is so interesting about this ballet, it feels more psychological in its explorations than cultural. I walked out of the theatre wondering why this wasn't being filmed for DVD or PBS. What an opportunity missed!

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I went April 17th and it was one of the better evenings of ballet I've seen in the last couple of years. Ths is a truly strong modern neo-classical ballet. All dancers looked well rehearsed (the Corps were able to fully inhabit their parts, rather than just try to remember the steps, and there was no obvious nerves). It was really an impressive performance by the whole company. Symphony #9 was uniformly great - everyone very intense and the speed of execution in that section was really impressive. Chamber Symphony definitely drags a bit because of the score, and is more melodrama, than edgy, imo. Things revive with Piano Concerto #1 - especially with the novelty of seeing Tan and Kochetkova dancing together (in tiny red bathing suits). I actually felt that the choreography was suiting Tan better than Masha K. It somehow didn't show off Masha at her best. But that's neither here nor there - there's no reason why she would have to dance a Russian 'theme' of this sort better than everyone else. It's too personal and idiosyncratic a work to actually require a dancer from the Russian culture to pull it off. That's part of what is so interesting about this ballet, it feels more psychological in its explorations than cultural. I walked out of the theatre wondering why this wasn't being filmed for DVD or PBS. What an opportunity missed!

For my money, Symphony #9 is the masterpiece of the three, even though I'd guess Piano Concerto #1 will end up being the one most often performed as a standalone.

Re the Tan/Kochetkova pairing: On 4/11 I saw both performances and agree that MK isn't shown at her best. At the matinee, the pairings were Sylve/Helimets, Chung/Boada. All were excellent but Frances Chung just nailed it; very much her role (and she just seems to get better every time I see her).

Like you, I was thinking this really needs to be filmed, although it would take a sensitive director to do it justice.

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For my money, Symphony #9 is the masterpiece of the three, even though I'd guess Piano Concerto #1 will end up being the one most often performed as a standalone.

I saw Symphony #9 at City Center (several times) when that was the only one completed. Fortunately, they changed the costume colors for the spring Trilogy at the Met. But it can definitely stand alone and remains my favorite of the three.

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For my money, Symphony #9 is the masterpiece of the three, even though I'd guess Piano Concerto #1 will end up being the one most often performed as a standalone.

Re the Tan/Kochetkova pairing: On 4/11 I saw both performances and agree that MK isn't shown at her best. At the matinee, the pairings were Sylve/Helimets, Chung/Boada. All were excellent but Frances Chung just nailed it; very much her role (and she just seems to get better every time I see her).

Like you, I was thinking this really needs to be filmed, although it would take a sensitive director to do it justice.

I think both of the ballets are gorgeous, but I suspect that Piano Concerto #1 will lose its perfume more easily.

All the "early Soviet idealism come to naught" accents--the holiday backcloth, the gym exercises, the "death", etc.--in Symphony #9 are explicit enough for audiences to see them and dancers to understand them.

But although I think that Piano Concerto #1 could hold its own for years as a really exciting, fast, flashy closer, I wonder if it suggests the same meanings without the original cast. When you saw (dark-haired, pale, and adagio) Vishneva cradling (dark-haired, pale, and allegro) Osipova, it read a lot like a metaphor: older, cautious freedom-seekers who emerged from the Soviet world coming to terms with the dangers of a system with no rules while watching their reckless children zipping through the oligarchy...with equal danger. The flashiness of the red set and costumes seemed very deliberate.

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