THREE MASTERPIECES
May 15-18, 2008
Approximate run time - 2:05 (includes two intermissions)
Concerto Barocco
MUSIC: Johann Sebastian Bach
CHOREOGRAPHY: George Balanchine
Dark Elegies
MUSIC: Gustav Mahler
CHOREOGRAPHY: Antony Tudor
In the Upper Room
MUSIC: Philip Glass
CHOREOGRAPHY: Twyla Tharp
Performance Schedule:
Thursday, May 15 at 7pm
Friday, May 16 at 8pm
Saturday, May 17 at 2pm and 8pm
Sunday, May 18 at 2pm and 7pm
Mikko Nissinen speaks about the production.
Concerto Barocco is one of Balanchine’s most inspired ballets, the embodiment of dance for dance sake. Performed to Bach’s Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins, Concerto Barocco is a ballet about the relationship between dance and music: we “see the music and hear the dance,” as Balanchine liked to say. The ballet was premiered on June 27, 1941 by American Ballet Caravan – one of Balanchine’s companies prior to New York City Ballet – just two days after the company gave the first performance of his Ballet Imperial. These two ballets were the first ones in which Balanchine dispensed entirely with the fragment of a theme or story. It is with Concerto Barocco, Anna Kisselgoff, wrote in The New York Times that, “Balanchine became Balanchine – that is, he established the definitive model of the neoclassic plotless ballet that became his signature.” She calls it his greatest work. Concerto Barocco, last danced by Boston Ballet in 1988, gently but firmly weaves its spell with choreography that seems to grow organically from the music. This is a ballet that reveals itself quietly, totally without bravado. Its understated beauty is achieved through elegant, formal and classical steps that are made intricate through ever-shifting patterns and unexpected syncopations. The significance of Concerto Barocco is perhaps underscored by the fact that Balanchine selected it to be the opening work on NYCB’s first-ever program.
Antony Tudor (1909-1987) is best known for his compelling psychological ballets, dances that probe the heart and mind in minute detail, often to heartbreaking effect. Dark Elegies (1937), danced to Gustav Mahler’s poignant song cycle Kindertotenlieder, is one of his most powerful works, a deep and moving exploration of grief and mourning. Dark Elegies is performed by an ensemble of 12 dancers, including three principal women and three principal men, plus an onstage singer. Their costumes indicate they are peasants, and much of the movement springs from folk dances. It is the title of Mahler’s score, rather than the choreography, which reveals that the community has experienced the death of children. Tudor was a master of understatement in his approach to choreography and storytelling, and feelings in his ballets are conveyed through subtlety – subtle gestures, subtle body language, subtle dramatic expression. Tudor wanted the characters in his ballets to look natural, like real people rather than highly polished classical dancers. The original cast of Dark Elegies included Tudor, Hugh Laing, and Agnes de Mille. “I danced this piece toward the end of my career and I loved dancing it,” said Nissinen. “It’s a little bit like Ibsen: not much happens, but there’s so much going on.”
A lot happens in Tharp’s In the Upper Room, a propulsive, high velocity, wonderfully inventive work choreographed in 1986 and last performed by Boston Ballet in 1995. Danced to a commissioned score by Philip Glass, In the Upper Room is a 40-minute torrent of movement. Dancers emerge, disappear and reconfigure in groups large and small, enveloped by Jennifer Tipton’s astonishing, smoky lighting which gives the piece an other-worldly quality. Tharp was one of the first choreographers to blur the lines between ballet and modern dance, and in In the Upper Room, four women wear (red) pointe shoes while the other nine dancers are in sneakers. The choreography rushes at the audience in waves of virtuoso dancing and arresting patterns. Tharp incorporates classical ballet steps, stomping, spinning, jogging backwards, and feats of acrobatics and athleticism. When Tharp’s company danced the premiere in 1986, Dale Harris wrote in The Wall Street Journal “the expressive force of the work is so clear, so vividly communicated, that the audience can hardly but give it an ovation.”
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