MCB Program II

[cubanmiamiboy]

PROGRAM II. Going tomorrow and reporting back.

Serenade

Balanchine / Tchaikovsky

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The first ballet George Balanchine made in America, in 1934, Serenade is one of his most famous and cherished works. Seventeen girls form and reform in kaleidoscopic patterns. A girl enters, late. A boy joins her. After she falls to the ground, another boy approaches her, guided by a “Dark Angel,” and then leaves her behind, to be carried off to a kind of transfiguration.

Endlessly suggestive though essentially plotless, Serenade is impelled forward by Tchaikovsky’s rushing, deeply affecting score.

CHOREOGRAPHY
George Balanchine
© The George Balanchine Trust

MUSIC
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Serenade in C Major for String Orchestra

COSTUME DESIGN
Karinska

LIGHTING DESIGN
John Hall

Carousel Pas De Deux

MacMillan / Rodgers

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COMPANY PREMIERE
When London’s Royal National Theatre’s revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel moved to Lincoln Center in 1994, it ran for almost a year, winning five Tony Awards, including one for Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s choreography. His deeply touching duet for the central couple is a quintessential expression of ecstatic – and dangerous – young love.

CHOREOGRAPHY
Sir Kenneth MacMillan

MUSIC
Richard Rodgers

COSTUME DESIGN
Bob Crowley

LIGHTING DESIGN
John Hall

Calcium Light Night

Martins / Ives

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COMPANY PREMIERE
Peter Martins’ first ballet, from 1978 – raw, witty, combative – pits a modern young couple against each other in provocative seduction and collision. The assertive and challenging score by America’s greatest composer, Charles Ives, is complemented by the electric colors of the ultra-sleek costumes. Calcium Light Night was the first step toward George Balanchine’s choosing Martins to be his successor at New York City Ballet.

CHOREOGRAPHY
Peter Martins

MUSIC
Charles Ives
The See’r, The New River, Incantation, Ann Street, Calcium Light Night, At Sea, “Gyp the Blood” or Hearst!? Which is Worst!?, and Hallowe’en

SET DESIGN
Steven Rubin

ORIGINAL LIGHTING
Ronald Bates

RECREATED BY
Mark Stanley

Glass Pieces

Robbins / Glass

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COMPANY PREMIERE
When Jerome Robbins premiered Glass Pieces in 1983 (with Lourdes Lopez in the original cast), The New York Times hailed it as “a picture of our times – the electronic age, the computer age.”

Because its Philip Glass score is so resonant; because it is so brilliantly structured; because its images, beginning with its huge graph-paper backdrop, are so indelible, it continues to grip and thrill audiences everywhere.

MCB is proud to add Glass Pieces to its expanding Robbins repertory, following Fancy Free, Afternoon of a Faun, Dances at a Gathering, In the Night, The Concert, Fanfare and West Side Story Suite.

CHOREOGRAPHY
Jerome Robbins

MUSIC
Philip Glass
Rubric, Façades, excerpts from Akhnaten

COSTUME DESIGN
Ben Benson

SET DESIGN
Jerome Robbins and Ronald Bates (Production Design)

LIGHTING DESIGN
Ronald Bates

RECREATED BY
Les Dickert

[sandik]

I imagine the juxtaposition of Serenade and Glass Pieces could be fascinating.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Of course I love "Serenade".  We ALL love "Serenade".  Quintessentially romantic, tasteful and of course... how could Balanchine go wrong with such sublime music to play with...? And just as with "Les Sylphides", I love how the choreographer flirts, very cleverly, with the idea of giving the audience certain "clues" to go and try to build a plot, and of course...there is none. And in between-(and just as with "Les Sylphides)- we have a generous supply of balletic idiom onstage: jetes, petite allegro, turns, adagio and all of it with the great refinement that characterizes Balanchine's works. Tricia Albertson and Reyneris Reyes did the honors, with Jeanette Delgado following.  The whole company did a terrific job.

The rest of the night was pretty unremarkable. I found the Martins thing very boring, and the MacMillan pdd was cute, but not enough to arouse my interest. Glass Pieces was sort of interesting...in a cinematic way, but I wouldn't necessarily want to see it again.  

[sandik]

Robbins does indeed often use the stage like a screen.  I've seen Glass Pieces a few times here in Seattle, and like the opportunities it has for the ensemble.  It reminds me of its period.

 

[vipa]

19 hours ago, sandik said:

Robbins does indeed often use the stage like a screen.  I've seen Glass Pieces a few times here in Seattle, and like the opportunities it has for the ensemble.  It reminds me of its period.

 

Interesting observation sandik,  Some times with Robbins I struggle with the idea of a something being dated or a period piece.  Two different things.  It's complicated.

[sandik]

4 hours ago, vipa said:

Interesting observation sandik,  Some times with Robbins I struggle with the idea of a something being dated or a period piece.  Two different things.  It's complicated.

 

It is indeed complicated.  Our local company did Fancy Free earlier in the season, and I was really surprised when I spoke to two young dance writers who felt they just couldn't get past the gender stereotyping, especially the interplay between the woman with the red purse and the trio of men early in the work.  I've always thought it was period byplay, but they felt strongly it was menacing -- that element followed through the whole work for them.

[cubanmiamiboy]

12 hours ago, sandik said:

 

It is indeed complicated.  Our local company did Fancy Free earlier in the season, and I was really surprised when I spoke to two young dance writers who felt they just couldn't get past the gender stereotyping, especially the interplay between the woman with the red purse and the trio of men early in the work.  I've always thought it was period byplay, but they felt strongly it was menacing -- that element followed through the whole work for them.

 

MCB does "Fancy Free" as well, and i do too find the piece outdated-(although not offensive in any way).  My mother, who is 77, on the other side loves it.  She says it reminds her of her childhood and the films of Gene Kelly, who were very popular back in 1950's Cuba. The majority of patrons at the Arsht Center are baby boomers from NYC, and I can tell they really enjoy said work. 

Back to Program II. I went back for yesterday's matinee, if anything just to luxuriate in "Serenade". The Waltz couple was danced by Lauren Fadeley and Jovany Furlan.  Russian girl was wonderfully done by Jeanette Delgado, with the crispness and buoyancy that characterizes her. Fadeley-(who was debuting in the role)-had quite a struggle with her hair, which refused to leg go freely during her falling down sequence. She kept trying to pluck her stubborn hair pin to no avail, and her whole 'do kept tangled while on the floor.  I was seated right in orchestra third row, almost in front of her, and she kept imperceptibly untying it. No success.  It reminded me of similar struggles of many Giselles I've seen with the same problem during the first fall in the madness scene, but unlike the waltz girl, Giselle has lots of helping hands around her-(mainly Berthe)-to complete the task. She finally was able to go her hair freely just when she started spinning, after a little while.

Chase Swatosh was the Elegie boy.  He is a VERY elegant blond dancer with perfect proportions and fluid demeanor.  Loved him.  Dark Angel was a role debut for Jordan Elizabeth Long, a dancer I've been following ever since she was a teen with the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, and one of the only two tall dancers of the company-(the other one is Callie Manning). She always gets the Myrtha-type roles, and was BEAUTIFUL here.  The whole company was great. CONGRATS!!

 

And then I left.

 

Cristian Rey

19 hrs · Miami Beach · 

 

Miami City Ballet's "Serenade". Sunday matinee.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2017 by cubanmiamiboy