NYCB announces 2007 Winter Repertory season/Nutcracker

[Dale]

From the company (there's a separate thread about the new scheduling):

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

NEW YORK CITY BALLET ANNOUNCES 2007 WINTER REPERTORY SEASON AND ANNUAL HOLIDAY ENGAGEMENT OF GEORGE BALANCHINE’S THE NUTCRACKER™

Eight-Week Winter Season to Feature 11 Distinct Programs

Showcasing 38 Different Ballets

Highlights Include a Major Revival of Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein’s Dybbuk,

Peter Martins’ Full-Length Production of The Sleeping Beauty,

and Four Ballets From the 2006 Diamond Project by

Mauro Bigonzetti, Jorma Elo, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon

New York City Ballet announced today the programming for its 2007 winter season. The season will begin with a two-week run of Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins’ full-length production of The Sleeping Beauty, followed by 10 distinct repertory programs. The programs have been designed to highlight various aspects of the Company’s repertory and history, and each will be performed several times.

The Company also announced the date for its Opening Night Benefit, Tuesday, November 21, 2006, and the annual holiday season of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™, which will run for 45 performances from November 24 through December 30, 2006. All of the performances will take place at the Company’s home, the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center.

Among the highlights of the winter season are a major revival of Jerome Robbins’ Dybbuk, which NYCB has not performed in its original version since 1974, and the Company premiere of Tribute by former NYCB Principal Dancer Christopher d’Amboise. Tribute and The Sleeping Beauty were originally created to honor Lincoln Kirstein, NYCB’s co-founder, and are being performed this winter to launch the festivities for the 100th anniversary of Kirstein’s birth, which will be celebrated during the 2007 spring season.

Of the 38 ballets being performed during the winter season, 19 are by George Balanchine, 8 are by Jerome Robbins, 3 are by Mr. Martins, and 3 are by NYCB’s Resident Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, including Evenfall, which was created for the 2006 Diamond Project festival of new choreography.

The season will also include three other 2006 Diamond Project ballets – In Vento by Mauro Bigonzetti, Russian Seasons by Alexei Ratmansky, and Slice to Sharp by Jorma Elo – as well as Eliot Feld’s Intermezzo No. 1, which had its NYCB premiere during the 2006 spring season.

WINTER SEASON PROGRAMMING

This year New York City Ballet has adjusted its programming and scheduled the winter season to consist of 11 distinct programs that will each be performed several times. The programs, designed by Mr. Martins, have been created to provide a more focused way of approaching the repertory.

The 11 programs consist of the full-length production of The Sleeping Beauty and 10 mixed repertory programs. “For much of our audience, especially those who are new to the Company, we have found that providing some context helps to enhance their appreciation and enjoyment of the vast number of ballets that make up our repertory,” said Mr. Martins. “But the season is also designed with our longtime fans in mind: it includes roughly the same number of ballets as it always has, and by attending just 11 times this winter an audience member can see all 38 ballets without any overlap.” Mr. Martins added that the new programming model would have other advantages for the Company in areas such as scheduling production time and rehearsals.

This is the same programming model that the Company often uses for touring engagements, but it is the first time a New York State Theater season has been arranged in this way. “It is a bit of an experiment, and I am hopeful that our New York audiences will enjoy this new way of experiencing the repertory,” Mr. Martins said.

OPENING NIGHT AND GEORGE BALANCHINE’S THE NUTCRACKER™

New York City Ballet’s annual Opening Night Benefit will take place on Tuesday, November 21, at the New York State Theater. Program information for the benefit will be announced at a later date.

Opening Night will be followed by NYCB’s annual holiday season of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™, which will take place from Friday, November 24, through Saturday, December 30.

This production, which premiered on February 2, 1954, at the City Center of Music and Drama in New York, helped to establish The Nutcracker and its score as perennial favorites in the United States. NYCB’s beloved production is seen by more than 100,000 people annually, and has been performed more than 2000 times.

Set to Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky’s score, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™ features choreography by Balanchine, scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska, and lighting by Mark Stanley, after the original design by Ronald Bates. The production includes the Company’s entire roster of more than 150 dancers and musicians, as well as two alternating casts of 50 children from the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet.

2007 WINTER SEASON PROGRAMS

January 3 through February 25

The Sleeping Beauty

The 2007 winter season will begin with 13 performances of Peter Martins’ full-length staging of The Sleeping Beauty. The production, which premiered in April 1991, was created by Mr. Martins as a birthday present for NYCB co-founder Lincoln Kirstein. The two-week run of The Sleeping Beauty will launch NYCB’s celebration of the centennial of Kirstein’s birth, which will culminate during the 2007 spring season. Set to Tschaikovsky’s beloved score, the production features choreography by Mr. Martins, after Marius Petipa and George Balanchine, with scenery by David Mitchell, costumes by Patricia Zipprodt, and lighting by Mark Stanley.

The Sleeping Beauty will debut on Wednesday, January 3 at 7:30 pm, and continue with 12 additional performances through Sunday, January 14.

Stravinsky and Balanchine: An Eternal Partnership

The first repertory program of the winter season will consist of five works created by George Balanchine to the music of Igor Stravinsky. Throughout his lifetime Balanchine often worked with scores by Stravinsky, his friend and fellow Russian émigré, resulting in some of the choreographer’s greatest works. Included on this program are Agon, Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Movements for Piano and Orchestra, Duo Concertant, and Symphony in Three Movements.

This program will debut on Tuesday, January 16 at 7:30 pm, and will be performed four additional times: Friday, January 19 at 8 pm; Saturday, January 20 at 2 pm; Thursday, January 25 at 8 pm; and Sunday, January 28 at 3 pm.

Tradition and Innovation

This program will feature two works by Balanchine to the music of Tschaikovsky, Mozartiana and Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, as well as a new addition to NYCB’s repertory, Mauro Bigonzetti’s In Vento, from the 2006 Diamond Project festival.

Created for NYCB’s 1981 Tschaikovsky Festival, Mozartiana was the last major worked choreographed by Balanchine, and is set to Tschaikovsky’s musical homage to Mozart. Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, which prior to 1973 was called Ballet Imperial, is Balanchine’s nod to Tschaikovsky, Petipa, and the Russian ballet tradition.

The middle ballet on the program, Mauro Bigonzetti’s In Vento, was created for the 2006 Diamond Project festival. It is the second work created for NYCB by Mr. Bigonzetti, who is the Artistic Director of Italy’s Aterballetto. It is set to an original score (which was commissioned by NYCB) composed by Mr. Bigonzetti’s longtime collaborator Bruno Moretti.

This program will debut on Wednesday, January 17 at 7:30 pm, and will be performed three additional times: Thursday, January 18 at 8 pm; Tuesday, January 23 at 7:30 pm; and Friday, January 26 at 8 pm.

Jerome Robbins: An American Icon

This program features four ballets by Jerome Robbins, whose long association with New York City Ballet began in 1949 when he joined the Company as associate artistic director. In addition to his extraordinary career on Broadway, where he created such legendary works as West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof, Robbins spent most of his creative life at NYCB, where he choreographed more than 50 ballets.

Included on this program are four works created during a span of 11 years. The first two ballets on the program, both choreographed in 1994 to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, are 2 & 3 Part Inventions, which was originally performed by students from the School of American Ballet, and A Suite of Dances, a solo work created for Mikhail Baryshnikov.

The third work, In Memory of…, was choreographed in 1985 and is set to Alban Berg’s haunting violin concerto. The last ballet on the program, I’m Old Fashioned, created in 1983, is Robbins’ tribute to Fred Astaire, set to an original score by Morton Gould that was inspired by the Jerome Kern song “I’m Old Fashioned.”

This program will debut on Saturday, January 20 at 8 pm, and will be performed two additional times: Sunday, January 21 at 3 pm; and Wednesday, January 24 at 7:30 pm.

Tribute to Kirstein

This program pays tribute to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Lincoln Kirstein, who co-founded both the School of American Ballet and New York City Ballet with Balanchine. Kirstein, who was born on May 4, 1907, in Rochester, New York, is widely acknowledged as one of the most important cultural figures of the 20th century. English

critic Clement Crisp has written that Kirstein was “one of those rare talents who touch the entire artistic life of their time. Ballet, film, literature, theater, painting, sculpture, photography all occupied his attention.” The Company will continue its Kirstein centennial festivities during the 2007 spring season.

Included on the program is the NYCB premiere of Tribute, a ballet that was created to honor both Kirstein and Balanchine by former Principal Dancer Christopher d’Amboise, and was originally performed at the School of American Ballet workshop performances in 2005. The program will also include Episodes and Vienna Waltzes, two landmark works by Balanchine, whose arrival in America in 1933 was made possible through Kirstein’s efforts.

This program will debut on Saturday, January 27 at 8 pm, and will be performed four additional times: Wednesday, January 31 at 7:30 pm; Sunday, February 4 at 3 pm; Tuesday, February 6 at 7:30 pm; and Thursday, February 8 at 8 pm.

Essential Balanchine

This program features three Balanchine ballets that were created during a three-year period, 1957 to 1960. The first ballet, Square Dance, premiered on November 21, 1957, and is set to a score by Antonio Vivaldi and Arcangelo Corelli. Balanchine adapted patterns from American folk dances for the ballet’s choreography.

The program’s second ballet, Liebeslieder Walzer, which premiered on November 22, 1960, is one of Balanchine’s great masterpieces and is set to Brahms waltzes performed by an on-stage piano duet and vocal quartet. Staged in two parts, it begins in an elegant 19th-century drawing room with the dancers in evening dress and ballroom slippers. In the second section the women are costumed in tulle skirts and pointe shoes.

The final ballet of the evening is Balanchine’s homage to Americana, Stars and Stripes, which premiered on January 17, 1958, and is set to Hershy Kay’s orchestrations of marches by John Philip Sousa.

This program will debut on Tuesday, January 30 at 7:30 pm, with three additional performances on Thursday, February 1 at 8 pm; Saturday, February 3 at 2 pm; and Saturday, February 10 at 8 pm.

Balanchine and Robbins: Masters at Work

This program features three works by NYCB’s Founding Choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, who together created more than 150 ballets for NYCB.

The centerpiece of the program is a major revival of Jerome Robbins’ Dybbuk, which was created to a commissioned score by Leonard Bernstein in 1974. The ballet uses the Yiddish play “The Dybbuk” by S. Ansky as a point of departure for a series of dances concerning mysticism and the Kabbalah. In Jewish folklore, a dybbuk is a spirit that inhabits the body of another person.

Shortly after the ballet’s premiere in May of 1974, Robbins revised the work and changed the title to The Dybbuk Variations, and this version, with several additional revisions, was performed until 1977. In 1980, Robbins again revised the work to include only the men’s variations from the ballet, and re-titled it Suite of Dances.

The revival of Dybbuk will restore the work to the first version from 1974 and will feature the ballet’s original production design with decor by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Patricia Zipprodt, and lighting by Jennifer Tipton.

The program will also feature two of Balanchine’s most acclaimed works to music by two of his favorite composers, Tschaikovsky and Stravinsky. Serenade, set to Tschaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C major, was the first ballet that Balanchine made after arriving in America, and Stravinsky Violin Concerto was one of ten pieces that Balanchine created for NYCB’s legendary Stravinsky Festival in 1972.

This program will debut on Friday, February 2 at 8 pm, with three additional performances: Saturday, February 3 at 8 pm; Wednesday, February 7 at 7:30 pm; and Saturday, February 10 at 2 pm.

Contemporary Quartet

This program will provide a look at four ballets by contemporary choreographers, all of which have been added to the New York City Ballet repertory since 2002. NYCB Resident Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s Carousel (A Dance) was created in 2002 in honor of the Richard Rodgers centennial. The ballet, which was last performed during the 2003 spring season, is a distillation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel and is set to William David Brohn’s orchestration of selections from the beloved musical’s score.

Also included are Eliot Feld’s Intermezzo No. 1, which was created in 1969 to a score by Brahms and first performed by NYCB during the 2006 spring season; Jorma Elo’s Slice to Sharp, to a score by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber and Antonio Vivaldi, which was created for the 2006 Diamond Project festival; and Peter Martins’ Friandises, which is set to a commissioned score by Christopher Rouse and premiered during the 2006 winter season.

This program will debut on Friday, February 9 at 8 pm, with three additional performances: Sunday, February 11 at 3 pm; Thursday, February 15 at 8 pm; and Wednesday, February 21 at 7:30 pm.

Visionary Voices

This program features works by two influential new voices in the world of ballet, Christopher Wheeldon and Alexei Ratmansky, as well as a signature work by Balanchine. Klavier, choreographed by Mr. Wheeldon for NYCB’s 2006 winter season, is set to the adagio sostenuto movement from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major (“Hammerklavier”). Mr. Wheeldon, who became NYCB’s Resident Choreographer in 2001, has created 14 ballets for the Company. He has also worked with many of the world’s major ballet companies, and his current repertory consists of more than 30 works.

Mr. Ratmansky’s Russian Seasons was created for the 2006 Diamond Project festival and is set to a score for solo voice and orchestra by contemporary Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov. Mr. Ratmansky trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School and danced with the Ukranian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. He has also choreographed works for such companies as the Kirov Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, and Royal Swedish Ballet. In 2004, at the age of 35, Mr. Ratmansky was named the Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet.

The final ballet on the program is Balanchine’s modernist masterpiece The Four Temperaments. Set to a commissioned score by Paul Hindemith, the ballet was choreographed for the opening program of Ballet Society, a precursor of NYCB, in 1946.

This program will debut on Tuesday, February 13 at 7:30 pm, with three additional performances: Saturday, February 17 at 8 pm; Sunday, February 18 at 3 pm; and Thursday, February 22 at 8 pm.

For the Fun of It

This program features an assortment of four eclectic works by Balanchine, Robbins, and Mr. Martins – three to music by Stravinsky. The first is Robbins’ charming Circus Polka, which takes place in a circus ring and features a ringmaster and 48 young dancers from the School of American Ballet. The ballet is set to a score by Stravinsky that was originally used by Balanchine for a ballet he choreographed for the elephants of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1942.

The second ballet on the program is Balanchine’s exhilarating Walpurgisnacht Ballet, which is set to music from Charles Gounod’s opera Faust. The ballet was first presented by NYCB in 1980 and was originally staged by Balanchine as part of a Paris Opéra production of Faust in 1975.

The third work is Mr. Martins’ Jeu de Cartes, which was choreographed to a Stravinsky score that had been commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein and Edward Warburg for Balanchine’s The Card Party in 1937. Mr. Martins’ production was choreographed in 1992 and was redesigned ten years later, with a whimsical card party motif, by illustrator and children’s book author Ian Falconer. The final ballet on the program is Firebird, a lavish spectacle with music by Stravinsky, choreography by Balanchine and Robbins, and legendary sets and costumes by artist Marc Chagall.

This program will debut on Wednesday, February 14 at 7:30 pm, with three additional performances: Saturday, February 17 at 2 pm; Friday, February 23 at 8 pm, and Sunday, February 25 at 3 pm.

A Banquet of Dance

The final repertory program of the 2007 winter season consists of four ballets spanning five decades of the Company’s history. The program begins with Balanchine’s Raymonda Variations. Set to selections from the score by Alexander Glazounov, the ballet is a plotless, neo-classical homage to Petipa’s original full-length story ballet, Raymonda. The last ballet on the program is Christopher Wheeldon’s most recent work for NYCB, Evenfall. Set to Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and created for the 2006 Diamond Project, it was called “a banquet of dance, a feast to be remembered,” by dance critic Clive Barnes.

The middle ballets on the program are two works by Jerome Robbins to the music of Claude Debussy. The first, Afternoon of a Faun, is Robbins’ intimate look at two dancers alone in a ballet studio, while the second, Antique Epigraphs, is his suite of dances for eight women that takes its inspiration from the art of the ancient Greeks.

This program will debut on Friday, February 16 at 8 pm, and will be performed three additional times: Tuesday, February 20 at 7:30 pm; and Saturday, February 24 at

2 pm and 8 pm.

TICKET PURCHASES

Tickets for George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™ range from $15 to $110 and are currently on sale by mail and, as of July 31, through the NYCB website at www.nycballet.com. Beginning September 25, tickets will also be available at the New York State Theater box office, and through Center Charge at 212-721-6500.

Tickets for the Opening Night Benefit will be also available at the New York State Theater box office and through Center Charge beginning September 27.

Beginning August 1, winter season subscription series will be on sale by mail, through the NYCB website at www.nycballet.com, and by phone from the NYCB subscription office at 800-580-8730. Single-ticket orders for the winter repertory season will be accepted by mail and through the NYCB website at www.nycballet.combeginningSeptember 25. Single tickets will also be available beginning November 20 at the New York State Theater box office, and by calling Center Charge at 212-721-6500. Single tickets range in cost from $20 to $95.

New York City Ballet’s 2007 spring season will open on April 24 and continue for nine weeks through June 24. Programming for the spring season will be announced at a later date.

The New York State Theater is located on the Lincoln Center Plaza at Columbus Avenue and 63rd Street. The mailing address for the NYCB Box Office is New York City Ballet, New York State Theater, 20 Lincoln Center, New York, NY 10023. For general information on tickets for any New York City Ballet performance, call 212-870-5570, or visit www.nycballet.com.

[drb]

The Winter Season Subscription Brochure is a beauty. Maria Kowroski, in Serenade, graces the cover. The page-spanning photo of the finale to Symphony in Three Movements is probably motivating me to consider adding a subscripton series for the season. True to the spirit of the company many of the photos focus on (named) corps and soloist dancers. However, three dancers listed on the website are not listed in the brochure:

Soloist: Pascale van Kipnis

Corps: Christopher Boehmer, Jerome Johnson

Which is right?

[sz]

However, three dancers listed on the website are not listed in the brochure:

Soloist: Pascale van Kipnis

Corps: Christopher Boehmer, Jerome Johnson

Which is right?

Pascale left NYCB after returning all too briefly for the end of Spring Season's Vienna Waltzes (I saw) and Fancy Free (I didn't see).

But Pascale, in Vienna Waltzes, one last time, with all her beauty of elegant sexiness and warmth, I wouldn't have missed it. Her performance of radiance and tastefully, womanly style was one of the best treats of the Spring. Not a debutante, not a wife eager for a party.... She was the kind of woman I imagine fine men dream they're waltzing with.

Anyway, I'll miss Pascale most in ballets such as Vienna. Oh, and also Liebeslieder wherein she only had one or two opportunities to fill in for someone injured a few seasons ago, but she was absolutely at home in it -- perfectly suited to the layers of its charms. Pascale was one of my favorite females ever in Liebeslieder and Vienna Waltzes. I'll miss her.

[richard53dog]

The Winter Season Subscription Brochure is a beauty. Maria Kowroski, in Serenade, graces the cover. The page-spanning photo of the finale to Symphony in Three Movements is probably motivating me to consider adding a subscripton series for the season. True to the spirit of the company many of the photos focus on (named) corps and soloist dancers.

I got my copy today. I would agree that the large photos are really beautiful, a nice improvement on some past brochures.

Importantly, I could see the larger photos generating interest in a new-to-ballet or occassional audience.

Those thumbnail photos though, someone who knows the piece is not going to pay much attention to such a tiny photo and someone that doesn't isn't going to be able to get much of them. This is a tough problem;

I can see the need for a photo of each ballet but if every ballet got a largish photo the cost and brochure

size might become unwieldy. I'm not sure what the solution is here.

Richard

[drb]

JANIE TAYLOR, of the dancing tresses, graces the cover of the Winter Season brochure that arrived in today's mail. Partnered in Faun by Sebastien Marcovici. Let's hope it signals the return of that beautiful and emotionally powerful ballerina.

Other photos include Fairchild/De Luz Raymonda, Ringer/Martins Sleeping Beauty, Kowroski/J. Stafford/Reichlen/R. Fairchild/Beskow In Vento, Whelan/Evans Symphony in 3 Movements, Rutherford/Higgins Old Fashioned, Sylve/Hanna Stars and Stripes, Sloan/Peck/Dronova Episodes, Borree/Martins Violin Concerto, La Fosse Circus, Ringer/Orza Evenfall, J. Stafford/Carmena/Evans/Suozzi/A. Hendrickson Russian Seasons, Reichlen/Evans (and 12 more) Monumentum, Kowroski/Evans Agon.