Mariinsky II (New Theatre)
28 June |
19:30 |
2018 | Thursday |
|
Evening of one-act ballets. Carmen Suite. Le Jeune Homme et la Mort. Concerto DSCH Ballet
|
|
Carmen is a passionate, free-spirited woman in contrast to the temperamental and fickle Don Jose. Fate, a ballerina dressed in black and a representation of Carmen’s alter ego, shows Carmen the cards. After a fight with tobacco dealers, Carmen seduces Don Jose and convinces him to release her from jail. Carmen is subsequently caught in a love triangle between Don Jose and the popular bullfighter Escamillo.
Le Jeune Homme et la Mort is one of the earliest and most famous works by Roland Petit. The ballet was staged in post-war Paris in 1946 for the recently established company Les Ballets des Champs-Elysees. The ballet by Roland Petit which we know today is considered based on mime drama by Jean Cocteau. In actual fact, both the theme of relationships between an artist and death and the very image of a girl as death and lovers as death were key themes for Cocteau; he had his own accounts to settle with women and he himself was an artist. Carmen Suite.
World premiere: 20 April 1967, Bolsoi Theatre, Moscow Premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: 19 April 2010 Running time: 45 minutes
Carmen is a passionate, free-spirited woman in contrast to the temperamental and fickle Don Josй. Fate, a ballerina dressed in black and a representation of Carmen’s alter ego, shows Carmen the cards. After a fight with tobacco dealers, Carmen seduces Don Josй and convinces him to release her from jail. Carmen is subsequently caught in a love triangle between Don Josй and the popular bullfighter Escamillo.. Le Jeune Homme et la Mort
Running time 16 minutes Le Jeune Homme et la Mort is one of the earliest and most famous works by Roland Petit. The ballet was staged in post-war Paris in 1946 for the recently established company Les Ballets des Champs-Йlysйes. The ballet by Roland Petit which we know today is considered based on mime drama by Jean Cocteau. In actual fact, both the theme of relationships between an artist and death and the very image of a girl as death and lovers as death were key themes for Cocteau; he had his own accounts to settle with women and he himself was an artist. A studio. The artist is unable to relax as he waits in torment. A woman appears: mysterious, sharp and heartless – the typical crafty Parisian woman – and during her brief visit she prompts the Youth to commit suicide. Moreover, she is, in fact, Death itself, its unique and original personification. Production Sponsor: Toshihiko Takahashi CONCERTO DSCHCREDITSMusic by Dmitry Shostakovich Choreographer: Alexei Ratmansky Assistant Choreographer: Tatiana Ratmanskaya Lighting Designer: Mark Stanley Costume Designer: Holly Hynes ABOUT THE PRODUCTIONConcerto DSCH to the music of Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto is Alexei Ratmansky’s seventh ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre. Today the theatre’s repertoire includes three of his “plot” ballets – the witty and ironic Cinderella and The Little Humpbacked Horse and the laconic Anna Karenina. The company also has experience of performing Ratmansky’s plot-less ballets – fifteen years ago he staged the strikingly emotional and stylishly refined Middle Duet and the flowing and heartfelt Le Poème de l'extase. Concerto DSCH , which has no literary plot, is different – joyful, witty and totally filled with movement. It is as if Ratmansky is almost afraid of permitting a musical motif that is suitable for dance. Such miserliness in the movements, such concentration of the choreographic text is beguiling for both the dancers and the audience. Ratmansky is an inarguable master of plot-less dance who can create, with virtuoso ease, forms of virtuoso solos, duets, trios and crowd scenes and, with impeccable taste, fill them with amazing dance combinations. Concerto DSCH is just one such example. Solving the puzzle of his incredibly musical combinations has proved an engaging task for the Mariinsky Ballet. This ballet was created in 2008 for the New York City Ballet, and it is ideal for a company that is focussed on the instrumentalism of dance and ensemble-performance. Moreover, Ratmansky refers to it as a “portrait of that company”. On the other hand, the text of Concerto DSCH and the style of the scenes it contains are full of references to Soviet realities that cannot be fully understood by American performers, while for Russian dancers and audiences it brings a whole bag of associations and raises an emotional response on more than just the choreographic content. For those unfamiliar with Soviet sculpture and have no idea of the athletics displays and well-loved-techniques of Soviet cinema from the 1920s–50s, many of Ratmansky’s high supports are simply conjured-up poses, and the gestures mere original ideas of a ballet-master. To feel and convey the energetic purposefulness of an adagio one has to see at least a few Soviet films that celebrate the sincere simplicity of meetings in the evening between loves who live next door, where a shyly stolen kiss was the limit of what was allowed. And in the energetic drive of the final crowd scene, breathing with its life-giving optimism, one can recognise the generally-accepted Soviet concept about doubts of a happy future. Ratmansky is obviously captivated by Shostakovich’s music and the spirit of his time, and in his ballet he tenderly revives this. In the title of his ballet the choreographer uses the composer’s musical autograph (D.Sch in the German musical notation), which has no direct link to the Second Concerto but which does identify with the ballet’s style. Just like Balanchine, paying tribute to the Imperial Russian Stage, named his own ballet to piano the music Ballet Imperial by Tchaikovsky. Concerto DSCH is Ratmansky’s second “Russian” ballet, staged abroad and brought to a Russian theatre in which much can only be fully felt and understood by Russian performers. The first was the Russian Seasons (also created with NYCB) that featured motifs of Russian folklore. Apparently paradoxically to westerns critics, the choreographer’s journey across the ocean in search of his cultural roots allowed him to distance himself from the strong traditions of the stage presence of those cultural roots and has helped him present them in a new light. With Concerto DSCH it was the same story. The production for NYCB demonstrated Ratmansky’s talent in creating varied and engaging combinations, yet always logical compositional constructions and drawings, enchanting with the free nature of his dance. The same production for the Mariinsky Theatre also brought to light a subtle stylist who can put an entire history of the Soviet era into a one-act ballet. Olga Makarova Premiere: 28 May 2008, New York State Theater, New York Premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: 4 July 2013 Running time: 20 minutes Dmitri Shostakovich was a fan of ballet and composed numerous dance scores in the 1930s, including The Bolt and The Bright Stream. Alexei Ratmansky has choreographed both of those works for the Bolshoi Ballet, and for New York City Ballet's 2008 spring season, Ratmansky created another work to a score by Shostakovich, this time the Piano Concerto No. 2. Shostakovich wrote the concerto in 1957 as a birthday gift for his 19-year-old son Maxim, and it displays the composer's optimistic energy after the repressions of the Stalinist era. The opening allegro evokes a brisk military march with the piano referencing the British melody Drunken Sailor. By contrast, the andante movement basks in Russian soulfulness for the strings, piano, and solo horn. The brief, invigorating allegro finale takes on a 7/8 meter as the entire orchestra sprints to the finish. The ballet's title refers to a musical motif used by Shostakovich to represent himself, with four notes that, when written in German notation, stand in for his initials in the German spelling (D. Sch.). Age category: 12+
|
|