SFB 2010 Program 3

[PeggyR]

All Balanchine: here are the casts for the first three performances; that 2/13 evening Serenade cast has me drooling...

    

Program 3 Opening Night
Thursday, February 11, 2010, 8pm


SERENADE

Choreographer: George Balanchine

Conductor: David LaMarche

Waltz Couple: Sarah Van Patten*, Tiit Helimets*

Russian Girl: Lorena Feijoo

Angel: Sofiane Sylve

Dark Angel: Brett Bauer*

INTERMISSION

STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO

Choreographer: George Balanchine 

Conductor: Martin West

Violin: Franklyn D’Antonio

Aria I: Sofiane Sylve, Pierre-François Vilanoba

Aria II: Yuan Yuan Tan, Damian Smith

INTERMISSION

THEME AND VARIATIONS

Choreographer: George Balanchine 

Conductor: David LaMarche

Vanessa Zahorian, Davit Karapetyan#

    

Program 3 Matinee
Saturday, February 13, 2010, 2pm


SERENADE

Choreographer: George Balanchine

Conductor: David LaMarche

Waltz Couple: Yuan Yuan Tan, Damian Smith

Russian Girl: Kristin Long

Angel: Katita Waldo

Dark Angel: Vitor Luiz

INTERMISSION

STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO

Choreographer: George Balanchine

Conductor: Martin West

Violin: Franklyn D’Antonio

Aria I: Elana Altman, Tiit Helimets

Aria II: Vanessa Zahorian, Davit Karapetyan

INTERMISSION

THEME AND VARIATIONS

Choreographer: George Balanchine

Conductor: David LaMarche

Maria Kochetkova*, Taras Domitro

Program 3 Evening
Saturday, February 13, 2010, 8pm


SERENADE

Choreographer: George Balanchine

Conductor: David LaMarche

Waltz Couple: Maria Kochetkova*, Joan Boada*

Russian Girl: Frances Chung*

Angel: Elana Altman*

Dark Angel: Anthony Spaulding*

INTERMISSION

STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO

Choreographer: George Balanchine

Conductor: Martin West

Violin: Franklyn D’Antonio

Aria I: Sofiane Sylve, Pierre-François Vilanoba

Aria II: Yuan Yuan Tan, Damian Smith

INTERMISSION

THEME AND VARIATIONS

Conductor: David LaMarche

Lorena Feijoo, Vitor Luiz

[PeggyR]

Saturday 2/13 matinee: All Balanchine

Got lucky: three masterpieces and many of my favorite dancers.

Serenade -- Kristin Long, quick and precise in the Russian theme. Pierre-François Vilanoba and a gossamer Yuan Yuan Tan in the Waltz (I've decided Tan should never wear pancake tutus -- they cut her in half; she needs a long, romantic tutu or contemporary skirt, something that doesn't impede that extraordinary head-to-toe rippling quality of her movement). Elana Altman's Dark Angel (with Vitor Luiz) made a wonderfully earthy contrast to Tan's ethereal Waltz dancer. And there was something in Tan I haven't really seen before: genuine emotion. And there was something else I haven't seen before: possibly the most unflattering men's costumes ever seen on any stage, anywhere, any time.

Stravinsky Violin Concerto -- Well performed by all: Altman/Tiit Helimets (Aria I) brought out a lot of deadpan humor I hadn't noticed when this was performed last year; and Vanessa Zahoria/Davit Karapetyan were fine in the Aria II, although I didn't think Karapetyan looked as comfortable here as, say in Swan Lake.

Theme and Variations -- Bringing the afternoon to a rousing close, Maria Kochetkova blazed through some beautiful petite allegro (Aurora, please!!). Taras Domitro showed off his wonderfully controlled dancing, although, mysteriously, he didn't show up for the final curtain call. Too bad; he deserved the cheers.

And a word for the corps de ballet: despite a ragged line here and there, on the whole they looked great, especially the men in SVC.

And while we're on the subject, WHEN is Elana Altman going to be promoted to principal, where she belongs??????

[Globetrotter]

It seems Alastair Macauley from the NYT enjoyed himself in San Francisco!

New York Times Review

[PeggyR]

Heads up: new principal Frances Chung is scheduled to debut in Theme and Variations on Sunday afternoon, 2/21. Should be an ideal role for her.

Program 3 Matinee

Sunday, February 21, 2010, 2pm

SERENADE

Waltz Couple: Sarah Van Patten, Tiit Helimets

Russian Girl: Lorena Feijoo

Angel: Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun

Dark Angel: Brett Bauer

INTERMISSION

STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO

Aria I: Elana Altman, Tiit Helimets

Aria II: Vanessa Zahorian, Davit Karapetyan

INTERMISSION

THEME AND VARIATIONS

Frances Chung*, Gennadi Nedvigin

[Helene]

Heads up: new principal Frances Chung is scheduled to debut in Theme and Variations on Sunday afternoon, 2/21. Should be an ideal role for her...

THEME AND VARIATIONS

Frances Chung*, Gennadi Nedvigin

Okay, I am in Vancouver at the Olympics, with tickets to see curling and figure skating that day, and I am green with envy that I won't be able to see this.

(Yes, I want everything. Please don't hate me )

[PeggyR]

Okay, I am in Vancouver at the Olympics, with tickets to see curling ...

So, hairdressing is an Olympic sport now, is it???

But seriously, I hope somebody will report on Chung's performance. I'm going to try and go, but probably won't be able to make it.

[Quiggin]

Program Three:

There is a little car made of two dancers that makes an appearance in the middle of Serenade. One of them, played by Vitor Luiz with a curiousity slightly reminiscent of Ib Andersen, is a blind or blind-folded poet (the original dancer for this role was very short sighted). The poet tells and becomes implicated in a story, and he strikes a series of unusual figures with the other dancers he comes across -- or who present themselves to him. He lingers and frames within his sweet concern the dancer who has fallen (and who perhaps is dreaming all this), while his chauffeur lingers over and and frames him within her concern. The poet also narrates a fragment piece about Apollo of Delos.

The story told, the poet leaves the dreamer, who may be his true love, and, blinded again, completes his journey across stage. Destiny, Balanchine has said, has other plans for him.

*

Sofiane Sylve dances the first pas of the Stravinsky Violin Concerto from inside out, feeling out all the corners, like a cat in a box. She dares move her hands at different rates and times -- they’re like the many little dials on an expensive Swiss watchface gone slightly mad -- and she now and then rolls a foot across the grain of the choreography as if turning a page. With the exception of the impossible backbends, you feel the part was written with an eye to her dancing it sometime in its long history.

*

When Theme and Variations was first performed, New York Times critic John Martin said, “it will probably never be necessary to again revive a Petipa ballet. Balanchine has achieved some truly marvelous three-voiced developments...It is the first ballet by this gifted choreographer which has compelled me to sit back and enjoy it with wholehearted delight.”

A little of the “enormous dash” of 1947 is missing, perhaps due to the complexity of the original dancing. Alicia Alonso says that her partner Igor Youskevitch asked for more, that he had nothing to do -- “I feel like I’m not dancing,” and Balanchine kept trying to make it more difficult and see where both of them would give up. “How do you let George do this to you,” Maria Tallchief said to Alonso.

On Wednesday night Lorena Feijoo and Vitor Luiz were a lovely couple and beautifully matched and they bought out many of the lovely figures of the ballet. But why was Lorena so intense? And where was the big effect of the male’s leap towards the audience? These restraints are cautioned against in the fine Balanchine Archive Interpreter’s video (which because of its sweetness and charm, has become the guide to this ballet for me).

In the video Mme Alonso says that parts of Theme & Variations are to be very flirtatious, others like running in the street, and jumping between puddles.

Alonso saw the role, as it was set on her, as a series of changing emotional weathers -- Lightly here Paloma she instructs: like a bird that wants to fly away, and at another place: semi-romantic; You are being woken from a strange and very beautiful dream ... Dance with your legs, like a smile, very delicate. Like a game with your head and top of body ... Now after a laugh, you’re getting serious ...

She gives a warning about the lateral lifts: Don’t lift her high, Corella, lift her only enough to fly -- the sensation you must give is only that she is so light -- there is not enough music here to lift her high.

And the forward jump: This is to the audience, Corella, the grand jete, not to Paloma; it’s a present you give the audience. Don’t leave your arms behind -- finish everything at once so the audience can take a snapshot.

I have quoted this at length because I’d love to see a cloud breaks of Alonso’s sunny vision in San Francisco’s coolish one.

*

Of the fine corps I’ve enjoyed watching Steven Morse and Diego Cruz -- their legwork is fast and clean and persuasive -- and it’s great to have Kristin Long back, as PeggyR notes -- she’ll be in Serenade once again on Friday night. Maria Kochetkova and the often miraculous Taras Domitro will be dancing Theme & Variations also on Friday night and princely Gennadi Nedvigin and debuting Frances Chung will be in on Sunday afternoon (as noted also above).