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New York City Ballet: Jewels Spring 2005

New York City Ballet

(NYC Ballet Website)
(See Other New York City Ballet Reviews)

Founders, George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein
Ballet Master in Chief, Peter Martins
Ballet Mistress, Rosemary Dunleavy
Children's Ballet Mistress, Garielle Whittle
Orchestra, Music Director, Andrea Quinn
Marketing, Managing Director, Rob Daniels
Assoc. Director, Communications, Siobhan Burns

New York State Theater, Lincoln Center

Dr. Roberta E. Zlokower
May 18, 2005

Conductor, Andrea Quinn

Jewels (1967): (See February 9, 2005 Review). Choreography by George Balanchine, Scenery by Peter Harvey, Costumes by Karinska, Lighting by Mark Stanley. Balanchine was inspired by the jewelry of Claude Arpels and decided upon pieces of music that expressed the essence of each of these jewels. The NYC Ballet costume designer, Karinska, used artificial stones that exemplified each of these three jewels. Like the difference in jewels, the mood and music differ, as well. Emeralds signifies the romanticism of France. Rubies has jazzy elements that evolved from Balanchine's collaboration with Stravinsky. Diamonds is illustrative of Imperial Russia and its grandeur. Some of the 1967 Premiere featured performers were Suki Schorer (See SAB Tour), Patricia McBride, Edward Villella, Suzanne Farrell, and Jacques D'Amboise. (NYCB Notes).

Emeralds: Music by Gabriel Fauré (from Pélléas et Mélisande and Shylock), Performed by Jenifer Ringer, James Fayette, Rachel Rutherford, Stephen Hanna, Amanda Edge, Antonio Carmena, Carrie Lee Riggins, and the Company. With the requisite shades of sparkling greens and dangling diamonds and pearls, Peter Harvey's set and Karinska's effusive costumes adorned the shining entrances of Jenifer Ringer and Rachel Rutherford, along with their impassioned partners, James Fayette and Stephen Hanna. The longstanding chemistry between Ms. Ringer and Mr. Fayette added to choreographic ornamentations and sensual glances within elegant figures and elongated lifts. Amanda Edge, Antonio Carmena, Carrie Lee Riggins, and the company added electricity and energy to this rapturous scene in green, to Fauré's equally rapturous score.

Rubies: Music by Igor Stravinsky (Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra), Piano Solo: Susan Walters, Performed by Miranda Weese, Damian Woetzel, Teresa Reichlen, and the Company. This staccato score by Stravinsky found Miranda Weese up to the challenging, rapid, and racy choreography. Damian Woetzel, as always, brought heraldic hormones to this powerful scene, with mid-air, side-wards leaps and lunges. His partnering of Ms. Weese was instantaneous and tantalizing. Susan Walters, on piano, enhanced the percussive power of the orchestral and dance motifs. Adam Hendrickson and Daniel Ulbricht, teamed with Aaron Severini and Kyle Froman, were sensational in the muscular motion called for by Stravinsky and Balanchine. The corps backed up this electrifying scene in red.

Diamonds: Music by Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky (from Symphony No. 3 in D Major, Performed by Maria Kowroski, Philip Neal, and the Company. Philip Neal was poised and well intentioned in his partnering of Maria Kowroski, always a graceful and mesmerizing presence. The slower, sensitive figures, evoked by Tschaikovsky's Symphony and by Balanchine's directives, were full and figurative, amongst the diamonds and regal setting. Kudos to Andrea Quinn for energetic, engaging conducting of these three, sometimes contrasting scores, in the full-length Jewels ballet.