All Balanchine

New York City Ballet (David H. Koch Theater), New York, USA

Scene 6 from the ballet "Stravinsky Violin Concerto", photo 1

Scene 1 from the ballet "Stravinsky Violin Concerto", photo 2

Scene 2 from the ballet "Stravinsky Violin Concerto", photo 3

Scene 3 from the ballet "Stravinsky Violin Concerto", photo 4

Scene 4 from the ballet "Stravinsky Violin Concerto", photo 5

Scene 5 from the ballet "Stravinsky Violin Concerto", photo 6

All photos (10)

Tuesday 17 January 2023

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Important Info

Type: Ballet

City: New York, USA

Starts at: 19:30

Overview

The brief but captivating Valse Fantaisie follows two Black & White leotard ballets on a program that concludes with the ever-cheerful Donizetti Variations, featuring music from the opera Don Sebastien.

A quartet of Balanchine works, both beloved and comparatively rare, are gathered on this program. From 1972, Stravinsky Violin Concerto remains one of Balanchine’s Black & White leotard ballet masterworks, rarely absent from the repertory for long. By contrast, his Haieff Divertimento, created in 1947, returned to the repertory after a quarter-century absence in 2020. The five-part ballet combines classical steps with elements of popular American dance styles. Valse Fantaisie is a brief but sprightly classical dance set to selections of the Russian composer Glinka’s music, and rounding out the program is the effervescent Donizetti Variations, with its nimble choreography suggesting the influence of the great 19th-century Danish choreographer August Bournonville.

The outer sections of Stravinsky Violin Concerto are carefully woven masterpieces of symmetry that peel away to reveal two of Balanchine’s most ingenious and unique pas de deux.

Stravinsky Violin Concerto was composed in 1931 and at its premiere, conducted by Igor Stravinsky with Samuel Dushkin as the violin soloist. It was first used by Balanchine for Balustrade with the Original Ballet Russe in 1941. When Balanchine returned to this score three decades later, he could no longer remember his original choreography. “What I did then was for then,” he said, “and I wanted to do this music for our Stravinsky Festival.” Stravinsky Violin Concerto premiered on the opening night of the 1972 Stravinsky Festival, which also included the premiere of Balanchine’s Symphony in Three Movements.

The silken precision of this Black & White ballet, set to a Alexei Haieff composition in equal parts vivacious and quietly nostalgic, makes this rarely performed work a delightful nod to the reputed Balanchine style.

This brief but captivating ballet finds a principal couple and a corps de ballet of four women in a whirl of perpetual motion set to Glinka’s swooning melodies.

The current version of Valse-Fantaisie was originally presented by New York City Ballet in 1967 as the second section of Glinkiana, which was choreographed to four different compositions of Glinka.

Balanchine had choreographed to the Valse-Fantaisie on two other occasions: in 1931 for one of Sir Oswald Stoll’s Variety Shows in London, and in 1953 for New York City Ballet. The music, roughly contemporaneous with Chopin’s waltzes, is fast and light, although it was popularly called the Melancholy Waltz.

The cheerful 26-minute Donizetti Variations sets a series of effervescent dances to music from the opera Don Sebastien, offering choice but technically challenging roles for two bravura dancers and three supporting trios.

This ballet (originally titled Variations from "Don Sebastian") was created for "Salute to Italy," a 1960 New York City Ballet program celebrating the 100th anniversary of Italy’s unification. Balanchine created this cheerful and sunny work to offset the more somber tone of the other ballets on the program, which included La Sonnambula and Monumentum Pro Gesualdo.

History

Premiere of this production: 18 June 1972, Stravinsky Festival, New York State Theater, New York

Igor Stravinsky's Violin Concerto in D is a neoclassical violin concerto in four movements, composed in the summer of 1931 and premiered on October 23, 1931. It lasts approximately twenty minutes. It was used by George Balanchine as music for two ballets.

Premiere of this production: 13 January 1947, Hunter College Playhouse, New York

This work was composed in five sections: “Prelude,” “Aria,” “Scherzo,” “Lullaby,” and a “Finale.” The ballet is choreographed for a leading couple and four supporting couples dressed in simple costumes. Haieff Divertimento features a blues pas de deux and combines popular American dance idioms and modern concert dance with classic ballet.

Premiere of this production: 16 November 1960, City Center of Music and Drama, New York

This ballet was created for “Salute to Italy,” a New York City Ballet program celebrating the 100th anniversary of Italy’s unification. Balanchine felt he needed a “cheerful and sunny work” to offset the more somber tone of the other ballets on the program, which included La Sonnambula.

Venue Info

New York City Ballet (David H. Koch Theater) - New York
20 Lincoln Center Plaza

The David H. Koch Theater is the major theater for ballet, modern, and other forms of dance, part of the Lincoln Center, at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and 63rd Street in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Originally named the New York State Theater, the venue has been home to the New York City Ballet since its opening in 1964, the secondary venue for the American Ballet Theatre in the fall, and served as home to the New York City Opera from 1964 to 2011.

The New York State Theater was built with funds from the State of New York as part of New York State's cultural participation in the 1964–1965 World's Fair. The theater was designed by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee, and opened on April 23, 1964. After the Fair, the State transferred ownership of the theater to the City of New York.

Along with the opera and ballet companies, another early tenant of the theater was the now defunct Music Theater of Lincoln Center whose president was composer Richard Rodgers. In the mid-1960s, the company produced fully staged revivals of classic Broadway musicals. These included The King and I; Carousel (with original star, John Raitt); Annie Get Your Gun (revised in 1966 by Irving Berlin for its original star, Ethel Merman); Show Boat; and South Pacific.

The theater seats 2,586 and features broad seating on the orchestra level, four main “Rings” (balconies), and a small Fifth Ring, faced with jewel-like lights and a large spherical chandelier in the center of the gold latticed ceiling.

The lobby areas of the theater feature many works of modern art, including pieces by Jasper Johns, Lee Bontecou, and Reuben Nakian.

Important Info

Type: Ballet

City: New York, USA

Starts at: 19:30

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