Item details

Date

May 3, 2018 7:00PM

Location

Symphony Hall

Name

All Balanchine

Description

Three ballets by the genius choreographer George Balanchine, staged by Artistic Director Ib Andersen, who is one of a handful of artists worldwide authorized by The Balanchine Trust to stage Balanchine’s masterpieces. “One of the most striking developments in modern ballet is that there is now a trans-American, even trans-global, Balanchine diaspora. Ballet Arizona ranks among the most significant.” – Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times About the Works Prodigal Son Music: Le Fils Prodigue, Op. 46 Composer: Sergei Prokofiev Prodigal Son was the last of Balanchine’s works for Ballets Russes; it premiered in 1929, opening what was to be the company’s final Paris season. Diaghilev commissioned Sergei Prokofiev to write the score and Georges Rouault to design the Fauvist sets and costumes. The ballet’s story comes from the biblical parable, but Boris Kochno added much dramatic material and, to emphasize the themes of sin and redemption, ended the story with the Prodigal’s return home. Symphony in Three Movements Music: Symphony in Three Movements Composer: Igor Stravinsky Balanchine choreographed several notable masterpieces for the 1972 Stravinsky Festival including the majestic Symphony in Three Movements. Stravinsky had suggested the music as a ballet when the choreographer visited the composer in Hollywood during World War II. Despite its 21-minute length, the piece evokes a fuller symphonic breadth with two instruments, the harp and piano, providing the dominant contrasts. The signature Stravinsky propulsive rhythm is mirrored by the angular, athletic choreography for soloists and a large ensemble, although the second andante movement, originally composed for an apparition scene in the movie Song of Bernadette, is reserved for a meditative pas de deux. One of Balanchine’s “leotard” ballets, the work requires no scenic or narrative distractions from the complexity of the choreography. La Sonnambula Music: Based on themes from operas by Vincenzo Bellini including La Sonnambula, I Puritani, Norma, and I Capuletti ed i Montecchi Composer: Rietti, Vittorio/Bellini, Vincenzo La Sonnambula is the story of a poet who pays suit to a coquette, escorted by the host. After a series of divertissements, the guests leave the poet to himself. An apparition in white enters – a beautiful sleepwalker. Entranced, the poet tries to wake her, but she eludes him. The jealous coquette informs the host of the poet’s advances to her; enraged, he stabs the poet. The sleepwalker reappears taking the poet’s lifeless body away.

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