Boston Ballet Launches A New Era

Boston Ballet commences its inaugural season at the Opera House with the fourth annual Night of Stars, a thrilling program that showcases the entire company. Boston Ballet’s all-star roster will shine especially bright with four new principal dancers, Kathleen Breen Combes, Melissa Hough, Misa Kuranaga and James Whiteside. Two weeks later, Boston Ballet opens its six-program schedule with Maina Gielgud’s acclaimed production of Giselle, last performed by the Company in 2007.

The season continues with World Passions, a thrilling mixed repertory program featuring a new version of Paquita by Pino Alosa after Marius Petipa, Viktor Plotnikov’s Rhyme, Jorma Elo’s Carmen/Illusions and a World Premiere by Helen Pickett. The beloved Boston tradition, The Nutcracker, returns for the holiday season for its 42nd consecutive year. The season continues with a Company premiere of Balanchine’s classic Coppelia, a sparkling full-length ballet with more than 20 children, which has only been performed in its entirety by two other companies in the world.

Following Coppelia is Ultimate Balanchine, a dynamic evening of Balanchine’s masterworks featuring The Four Temperaments, Apollo and Theme and Variations. In a unique move by Nissinen, the Company will bring back Jiri Kylian’s sensational Black and White as the final program of the season. Black and White, which Boston Ballet debuted to American audiences in February, created fireworks with audiences and critics alike. Never before done back-to-back, the program returns in spring 2010 to great audience demand.

“The Company’s 2009-2010 season is an exciting mix of remarkable works which reflect the elegance, history and culture of our new home, the Opera House. The season highlights so many fantastic styles of dance from the romantic and breathtaking Giselle, to evenings full of recent and world premiere works, balanced by Balanchine’s finest masterpieces. Boston Ballet will enter its new era with a bang,” said Nissinen. “It is a thrill to bring back Kylian’s Black and White, giving audiences a second chance to see this powerful program, and it is equally as exciting to make the Boston premiere of the bright and charming Coppelia. Boston Ballet continues to strive for excellence and range, and our audiences have responded with great enthusiasm. Next season will surprise and delight.”

Boston Ballet’s inaugural season at the Opera House brings more than a fantastic season of programming for audiences. Boston Ballet’s new home will feature a fully renovated orchestra pit with improved acoustics and functionality befitting the spectacular Boston Ballet Orchestra. The Opera House also boasts an intimate viewing experience and excellent sightlines.

Night of Stars
September 19, 2009

Night of Stars, a spectacular showcase of Boston Ballet’s exciting repertoire, opens the 2009-2010 season at the Opera House. The evening features the talents of the entire company, including Boston Ballet’s Principal dancers and rising stars. Following the 2008 Night of Stars, Matthew Reed Baker of Boston Magazine wrote, “I’ll wax like a rhapsodic moon over Boston Ballet’s Night of Stars. It was the most thrilling performing arts experience I’ve had this year. [It] was as moving as it was exhilarating.” This unique evening provides audiences with a taste of the upcoming season, the talents of Boston Ballet and is the first opportunity for the company to welcome Boston audiences to its new home theater, the Opera House.

Giselle
October 1-11, 2009

Maina Gielgud’s production of Giselle takes the stage at the Opera House for the first time to open the Company’s season. Last presented in 2007, critics raved and The Boston Globe wrote, “This is a ‘Giselle’ that stays with you long after you leave the theater. You’ll be chilled to the bone, but also warmed to the heart.” Set to Adolphe Adam’s score, Giselle is the crowning achievement of the Romantic era of ballet, the most poetic of all nineteenth-century full-length works. Giselle, choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, received its triumphant world premiere in Paris on June 28, 1841 and soon became an international success. The ballet underwent a dramatic transformation when Marius Petipa staged the ballet in Russia twice in the 1880s and again in 1899. It is Petipa’s Giselle that has served as a model for most twentieth-century productions.

World Passions
October 22-November 1, 2009

An evening of variety and innovation by four international choreographers, World Passions will please audiences with its contrasts and display the versatility of the company. The program includes the world premiere of Pino Alosa’s new version of the Petipa classic, Paquita, a quick, bright work with Spanish influence. A set of new works, by rising talents Viktor Plotnikov and Helen Pickett, are at the center of the evening. Plotnikov, a former Principal dancer with Boston Ballet, choreographed Rhyme for the 2008 Night of Stars Gala. Rhyme, a pas de deux set to Chopin, is a play on light and darkness which Plotnikov describes as “telling a poem with two bodies.” Pickett’s world premiere, a passionate, sensual pas de deux, will have Japanese influence. This will be her third commission for Boston Ballet following Etesian and Eventide. World Passions closes with Jorma Elo’s Carmen/Illusions, a stunning revision of the classic, premiered by Boston Ballet in 2006.

The Nutcracker
November 27-December 27, 2009

Following the opening of The Nutcracker last season, Karen Campbell wrote in The Boston Globe, “The Nutcracker provides a sugar rush into the holiday season. The company’s version of this beloved classic sports vivid, imaginative scenery, captivating special effects, substantive choreography and exquisite dancing.” Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker, features the Company and more than 250 children from Boston Ballet School, hailed last year as “adorable, focused and disciplined” handling serious pattern and partner work with “impressive aplomb.” This holiday tradition has showcased Boston Ballet and Boston Ballet School’s artistry, technique and love for dance for more than 40 years and continues to delight Boston audiences. The cherished Tchaikovsky score will be performed live at the Opera House by the Boston Ballet Orchestra in the newly renovated orchestra pit.

Coppelia – BOSTON BALLET PREMIERE
April 8-18, 2010

The light-hearted comedy of George Balanchine’s Coppelia, a Boston Ballet premiere, begins the spring season. Based upon the book by Charles Nuitter, after “Der Sandmann” by E.T.A. Hoffman, this sentimental tale revolves around the life-size dancing doll created by Doctor Coppelius who becomes the source of love troubles for a village swain. The ballet, first choreographed by Arthur St. Leon, was restaged by Marius Petipa and again by Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti. Balanchine maintained elements from these versions in Acts I and II, creating entirely new choreography for Act III. With this premiere, Boston Ballet joins Geneva Ballet and New York City Ballet, as one of only three companies in the world that have performed this work. Leo Delibes score, called by The New York Times, “a classic of melody, orchestration, rhythm, and storytelling,” is at once lively and accessible. With more than 20 children from Boston Ballet School, Coppelia remains a jubilant and melodic triumph.

Ultimate Balanchine
May 6-16, 2010

Boston Ballet presents the crown jewels of choreographer George Balanchine’s work with Ultimate Balanchine, featuring The Four Temperaments, Apollo and Theme and Variations. The Four Temperaments, choreographed in 1946, is a ballet divided into themes: Melancholic, Sanguinic, Phlegmatic and Choleric. The Four Temperaments features Balanchine’s signature invention, a fusion of traditional and contemporary movement, which would become a new language in dance. In summer 2007, Boston Ballet toured The Four Temperaments before international audiences in Spain receiving critical acclaim. Apollo, originally choreographed in 1928 for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, marked the beginning of a lasting and significant relationship between Balanchine and Stravinsky. The work, one Balanchine regarded as milestone in his career, centers around the young god of music who is visited by three muses. Theme and Variations, set to Tchaikovsky, received its premiere in 1947. A spectacular, glittering work, Theme and Variations evokes the purity and beauty of the classics. Boston Ballet continues to develop and expand its Balanchine repertoire and was recently hailed by The New York Times for the 2009 production of Jewels.

Black and White
May 20-30, 2010

Black and White, a program by Jiri Kylian, one of the world’s most fascinating and celebrated choreographers, returns to Boston Ballet for a second season in an unprecedented move by Nissinen. The five-ballet program made its Boston premiere in February 2009, providing audiences with a view into Kylian’s unique and potent vision. Black and White made company history by exceeding sales goals a day before opening and making Boston Ballet the first company outside the Nederlands Dans Theater to perform the full program. Dance critic Thomas Garvey wrote, Black and White was “a triumph; a must-see; a dance that brings the audience to its feet, cheering. And then sets the crowd to thinking.” Black and White includes a dynamic range of works. No More Play, a study in contrasts, is at once somber and light, engaging and introspective. Petite Mort, a visual stunner, incorporates artistic swordplay set to Mozart. Sarabande, a powerful work for ten men, and Falling Angels, a mesmerizing, patterned dance for women balance each other. Sechs Tanze, a light, madcap romp concludes the evening with energy and Kylian’s unique wit. The Phoenix raved, saying “the energy was palpable everywhere. The [theater] was full and the curtain calls were enthusiastic. So much for the notion that Boston is interested only in classical story ballets.” -- www.bostonballet.org