Sponsored in part by SummerHill Homes and the City of San Jose Ballet San Jose ends its 2008-09 season with SONG & DANCE, three Company premieres of ballets set to music with songs. New York City Ballet principal dancer Nilas Martins has set PUCCINI SONGS, his classical ballet for three couples, to eleven operatic songs by Giacomo Puccini.
It will be performed with live voice and piano accompaniment. Antony Tudor’s DARK ELEGIES is regarded as one of the greatest ballets of the 20th century. Set to Gustav Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder,” this 1837 setting of poems by Ruckert is a true masterpiece for the ages. And Twyla Tharp has set NINE SINATRA SONGS to recordings by Ol’Blue Eyes himself.
SONG & DANCE performance details are:
Thursday, May 7 at 8pm
Friday, May 8 at 8pm
Saturday, May 9 at 8pm
Sunday, May 10 at 1:30pm
New York City Ballet principal dancer Nilas Martins’ PUCCINI SONGS is a classical ballet infused with airy lightness for three couples. It is set to a score of eleven operatic songs by Giacomo Puccini performed live alternating between tenor and soprano with piano accompaniment: A te, Salve Regina!, Storiella d'amore, Ad una morta, Mentia l'avviso, E l'uccellino, Morire?, Casa mia,casa mia, Sole e amore, Sogno d'or, and Terra e mare. The songs span the length of the composer’s career and all of them are musical settings of lyrical poetry instead of passionate operatic arias. The six dancers are shown in a vaguely timeless setting, taking the stage individually and then pairing off. It is flirtatious, romantic and emotional.
Antony Tudor expert Donald Mahler will stage DARK ELEGIES for Ballet San Jose. “Anthony Tudor’s ballet are about truth, the inner truth of each person,” says Mahler. “Tudor tackled many serious subjects in his ballets, but each ballet ends by being uplifting and positive.” Set to five songs from Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder cycle (“Songs on the Death of Children”) DARK ELEGIES is a plotless but emotionally rich work danced by rough dressed village peasants expressing resignation and acceptance of some unspecified disaster—usually thought to be the death of a child or children. Tudor used a very free ballet style with very little pointe work for the piece, which often looks like a folk ritual. It premiered on February 19, 1937 by the Ballet Rambert in London (Duchess Theatre).
Twyla Tharp set NINE SINATRA SONGS to some of Frank Sinatra’s most popular recordings. The songs are: “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)” “Strangers in the Night’,” “All the Way,” “That’s Life,” “My Way,” “Softly as I Leave You,” “Something Stupid” “Forget Domani.” and a second version of “My Way”, recorded later than the first. It’s roots date back to a pas de deux with Twyla and Mikail Baryshnikov called ‘Once More Frank’ and research done on ballroom dance Twyla did for the movie ‘Ragtime.’ Danced by 7 men and 7 women, this 28-minute piece is elegantly costumed by famed couturier Oscar de la Renta. The choreography is delightfully sophisticated and witty.
SONG & DANCE plays four performances only, May 7-10, 2009 at San Jose Center for the Performing Arts in downtown San Jose. Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 1:30pm. -- www.balletsanjose.org
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