NIGHT OF STARS
A Boston Ballet Benefit Gala Performance
ONE NIGHT ONLY October 12, 8pm
(not part of season subscriptions)
Join Boston Ballet for a dazzling evening of dance, featuring the entire company and world renowned guest artists.
Learn more about Night of Stars.
LA SYLPHIDE
MUSIC: Herman Løvenskjold
CHOREOGRAPHY: Sorella Englund after August Bournonville
with MONUMENTUM PRO GESUALDO AND MOVEMENTS FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA
MUSIC: Igor Stravinsky
CHOREOGRAPHY: George Balanchine
October 18-28, 2007
The 2007–2008 season opens with the haunting La Sylphide, which Boston Ballet will present on its exciting and historic tour of Spain this summer. Sorella Englund’s staging of this 1836 masterpiece was hailed in The Boston Herald as “immaculate.” Bournonville’s classic choreography and the ageless notion of ideal love continue to move and captivate audiences. Don’t miss the production The Boston Globe called “beautifully distilled and vividly theatrical.”
Perfectly complementing La Sylphide is George Balanchine’s Monumentum pro Gesualdo and Movements for Piano and Orchestra. Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen calls Monumentum “a profound statement of harmony and balance.” Movements, by contrast, is one of the choreographer’s most modernistic pieces. Together, these ballets reaffirm Balanchine’s genius.
ROMEO AND JULIET
February 14-17; February 28-March 2, 2008
MUSIC: Sergei Prokofiev
CHOREOGRAPHY: John Cranko
The narrative gifts of John Cranko have thrilled Boston Ballet audiences and earned the acclaim of critics, first in 2002 with the heartbreaking Onegin, and then in 2004 with the delightful The Taming of the Shrew. Romeo and Juliet completes the trilogy of Cranko’s full-length masterpieces. His exquisitely rendered ballet, set to Sergei Prokofiev’s magnificent score, is an inspired realization of William Shakespeare’s timeless tale. Escape to Verona and experience the great drama and passion, the wonderful pas de deux and big ensemble pieces that make this Romeo and Juliet a triumph. The New York Times raved, “John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet is arguably the best dance treatment of Prokofiev’s celebrated ballet score.”
NEXT GENERATION
4 BALLETS—3 WORLD PREMIERES
March 6-9, 2008
World Premiere
CHOREOGRAPHY: Jorma Elo
World Premiere
CHOREOGRAPHY: Heather Myers
World Premiere
CHOREOGRAPHY: Helen Pickett
Ein von Viel
CHOREOGRAPHY: Sabrina Matthews
Next Generation, featuring three world premieres and a company premiere, is an exciting showcase and celebration of the next generation of choreographic talent. Resident Choreographer Jorma Elo, whose most recent piece for Boston Ballet, Brake the Eyes, was hailed as “another major work” in The Boston Globe, returns with his fifth world premiere for the Company. Helen Pickett, whose Etesian was a hit of the 2005–2006 season, will choreograph her second work for Boston Ballet. And Boston Ballet’s own Heather Myers, whose gift for choreography was evident in Boston Ballet’s 2006 Choreography Workshop, will create her first ballet for a major dance company. Completing the program is the American premiere of Ein von Veil by Sabrina Matthews, who has already received critical acclaim in Germany and her native Canada.
SWAN LAKE
May 1-11, 2008
MUSIC: PI Tchaikovsky
CHOREOGRAPHY: Mikko Nissinen after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen’s 2004 production of Swan Lake was called “a must-see” by Christine Temin in The Boston Globe. “Characters under a spell themselves cast one on us too,” she wrote. You won’t want to miss the return engagement of one of the world’s most beloved ballets, danced to Tchaikovsky’s beautiful score.
3 MASTERPIECES
May 15-18, 2008
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
The season concludes with three celebrated works by three master choreographers: George Balanchine’s elegant, luminous Concerto Barocco; Antony Tudor’s profoundly moving Dark Elegies, and Twyla Tharp’s explosive, exciting In the Upper Room.
Created in 1937, Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies, danced to Gustav Mahler’s poignant song cycle Kindertotenlieder, is a profound and moving exploration of mourning and a community’s grief in response to tragedy. The themes of the ballet continue to resonate powerfully today with both dancers and audiences.