Eifman to create ballet for NYCB?

[Alexandra]

In the current Dancing Times, there's the following intriguing little item in their report from Russia column:

"New York City Ballet invited Boris Eifman to create a ballet dedicated to the 100th anniversary of George Balanchine's birth."

I wondered if anyone would care to speculate on the libretto for said ballet? Or, perhaps, have suggestions of other ballets that might be created for this momentous anniversary? Yo, Manhattnik

[Juliet]

This is a joke, no?

It's not April first....

[Alexandra]

I have no idea whether it's true or not, but it is true that what I put up is in print, in the Dancing Times. Now, if ballet companies had as many press conferences as sports teams, we could ask

In the meantime, there's no reason why we can't be imaginative and help Mr. E along. All those wives, all those bits of ballets. . .

[cargill]

Since his Speztizeva ballet had Soviet Comissars, exploding heads and a gay Albrecht, I think that it is possible that Eifman might concentrate on the early career in Russia (definitely with the drowning/murder of the dancer whose name I forget), the Diaghilev years, with the Nijinsky-Diaghilev relationship tossed in, and the post Diaghlilev lung removal--lots of opportunity for blood and gore. The US years with all the wives could be a second night. What about casting?

[Leigh Witchel]

This is actually Manhattnik's: alas we were joking about this a year ago and we should have learned by now not to make jokes lest they come to pass. He already suggested a title that is perfectly tortured-Eifman.

Prodigal Son.

[Alexandra]

Sorry. "Prodigal Son" is already taken -- that (as I'm sure you know) is the title of Edward Villella's autobiography. Perhaps that could be the next Eifman/NYCB ballet, though.

[samba38]

Are we sticking to Bible-based titles for an Eifman pscyhodramatic ballet honoring the man who forbid "acting" by his dancers? Something with Jacob could work. Two wives. Two concubines. Tribes of rival kids founding nations of their own. A few lost tribes... Lots to work with. Just think what Eifman could do with the rape of Dinah.

Actually, I enjoy Eifman. I just don't think he fits this particular mission. Wouldn't Wheeldon be a better choice?

[Manhattnik]

Actuall, it was "Balanchine -- the Prodigal Son." Something about his soul returning to Mother Russia after all that NYC nonsense....

Of course this ballet will work on many levels, but I see Eifman presenting us with a Balanchinian psychodrama much like Tchaikovsky. We learn that, of course, Balanchine's much ballyhooed love of women is nothing more than overcompensation for -- you guessed it -- repressed homosexuality.

Balanchine's relationships with his wives, affairs, etc., will be presented as nothing more than doomed, never-consummated, desperate attempts at conventionality, always thwarted when the castrating-bitch-ballerina leaves him. The excerpt from Don Quixote, where Farrell's Dulcinea beats Balanchine's Don to a pulp with her shepherd's crook is one of the emotional highpoints of the ballet.

Another high point will be the extra-jazzy version of Concerto Barocco, with new music by Winton Marsalis.

Contrasted to Balanchine's unhappy (if artistically productive) relationships with women will be Eifman's depictions of Balanchine's many "conversations" with the spirits of dead composers, not coincidentally all male. The details of these are best left to the imagination, as is the climactic duet between Balanchine and Stravinsky.

[Leigh Witchel]

Great. You can just rock me to sleep after that little tidbit right before bedtime.

I am now going to take a sedative and lay a cold compress across my forehead.

[ November 24, 2001: Message edited by: Leigh Witchel ]

[Juliet]

You know you can always count on some people.......

[Alexandra]

I do hope someone's emailed that one to Boris E It should be the hit of the season!