ABT Met Season 2017 announced

[Don Q Fan]

NEW YORK PREMIERE OF WHIPPED CREAM AND COMPANY PREMIERE OF SOUVENIR D’UN LIEU CHERBY ALEXEI RATMANSKY TO HIGHLIGHT ABT’S 2017 SPRING SEASON, MAY 15-JULY 8, AT METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE

 

Guest Artist Alessandra Ferri to Dance Two Performances as Tatiana in John Cranko's Onegin, June 20 and 22

 

Principal Dancer Marcelo Gomes to Celebrate 20th Anniversary with ABT

 

10/25/2016 - American Ballet Theatre’s 2017 Spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House, May 15-July 8, will feature the New York Premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s Whipped Cream and the Company Premiere of Ratmansky’s Souvenir d’un lieu cher, it was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. 

 

Guest Artist Alessandra Ferri will perform the role of Tatiana in Onegin on Tuesday evening, June 21 and Thursday evening, June 22.  Principal Dancer Diana Vishneva will give her American Ballet Theatre farewell performance in the same role on Friday evening, June 23.

Principal Dancers for the 2017 Metropolitan Opera House season include Stella Abrera, Roberto Bolle, Isabella Boylston, Jeffrey Cirio, Misty Copeland, Herman Cornejo, Marcelo Gomes, Maria Kochetkova, Alban Lendorf, Gillian Murphy, Veronika Part, Hee Seo, Daniil Simkin, Cory Stearns, Diana Vishneva and James Whiteside.

 

2017 Spring Gala Performance and New York Premiere

American Ballet Theatre’s 2017 Spring Gala on Monday, May 22 at 6:30 P.M. will feature the New York Premiere of Whipped Cream, choreographed by ABT Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky, with scenery and costumes by artist Mark Ryden and lighting by Brad Fields. Whipped Cream, with a libretto and score by Richard Strauss, is based on the two-act ballet originally created as Schlagobers, which premiered at the Vienna State Opera in 1924.  Ratmansky’s production will receive its World Premiere by ABT on March 15, 2017 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California.  Whipped Cream will be given twelve performances at the Metropolitan Opera House May 22-24 and June 26-July 1.  For more information on ABT’s 2017 Spring Gala, please call the Special Events Office at 212-477-3030, ext. 3310. 

 

Company Premiere and Tchaikovsky Spectacular

The Company Premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s Souvenir d’un leiu cher will be part of a Tchaikovsky Spectacular program beginning Monday evening, July 3. Souvenir d’un leiu cher is set to music of the same name by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. Featuring sets and costumes by Keso Dekker with lighting by James F. Ingalls, the ballet for four dancers received its World Premiere by Het National Ballet on February 16, 2012 in Amsterdam.  Souvenir d’un lieu cher will be presented on alternating programs with George Balanchine’s Mozartiana and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Marcelo Gomes’AfterEffect and Ratmansky's Nutcracker Pas de Deux and Aurora’s Wedding.  Aurora's Wedding, Act III of Ratmansky’s staging of The Sleeping Beauty with choreography by Marius Petipa, will omit the Hop 'o my Thumb andCinderella dances and add The Porcelain Trio and Three Ivans, divertissements originally choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska.  Set to music from The Nutcracker, both divertissements were created for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes staging of The Sleeping Princess in 1921.  Three Ivans was first presented by Ballet Theatre as part of Princess Aurora (a suite of divertissements from The Sleeping Beauty) in 1941.  Performances of the Tchaikovsky Spectacular run through July 8.

 

Full-Length Ballets

American Ballet Theatre’s 2017 Spring season will include an additional five full-length ballets beginning with Don Quixote which opens the Met season on Monday evening, May 15 with Gillian Murphy as Kitri, Cory Stearns as Basilio, Hee Seo as Mercedes and

James Whiteside as Espada.  Staged by Kevin McKenzie and Susan Jones, with choreography after Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorsky, Don Quixote is set to music by Ludwig Minkus and features scenery and costumes by Santo Loquasto and lighting by Natasha Katz.  The McKenzie/Jones staging of the current production was first performed by ABT on June 12, 1995.  Don Quixote will be given eight performances through Saturday evening, May 20. 

The season’s performances of Giselle begins Thursday evening, May 25 led by Hee Seo in the title role, opposite Cory Stearns as Albrecht and Veronika Part as Myrta.  Set to music by Adolphe Adam, with scenery by Gianni Quaranta, costumes by Anna Anni and lighting by Jennifer Tipton, Giselle features choreography after Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa and has been staged for ABT by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.  The world premiere ofGiselle, one of the oldest continually‑performed ballets, occurred at the Theatre de l’Academie Royale de Musique in Paris on June 28, 1841.  The ballet was first presented by ABT (then Ballet Theatre) at the Center Theatre in New York City on January 12, 1940 with choreography by Anton Dolin and scenery and costumes by Lucinda Ballard.  The leading roles were danced by Annabelle Lyon and Anton Dolin.  American Ballet Theatre’s sixth production, featuring scenery by Gianni Quaranta and costumes by Anna Anni, was created for the film Dancers, produced in 1987 by Cannon Films.  This production’s first public performance was given on March 20, 1987 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, with Marianna Tcherkassky as Giselle and Kevin McKenzie as Albrecht.  The current staging is by McKenzie, using the Quaranta and Anni designs. Giselle will receive eight performances through May 31.  ABT will celebrate the 20^th Anniversary year of Principal Dancer Marcelo Gomes during his performance in the leading role of Albrecht on Tuesday evening, May 30.

Alexei Ratmansky’s The Golden Cockerel will be given four performances beginning Thursday evening, June 1 with Stella Abrera (Queen of Shemakhan) and Cassandra Trenary (the Golden Cockerel), Alexei Agoudine (Tsar Dodon) and James Whiteside (Astrologer) leading the first cast.  Set to music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov with sets and costumes by Richard Hudson, Ratmansky’s The Golden Cockerel is inspired by Michel Fokine’s original production. Anne Holm-Jensen Peyk will stage the ballet for ABT. 

The season’s first performance of Le Corsaire on Monday, June 5 features Maria Kochetkova, Herman Cornejo, Sarah Lane, Daniil Simkin and Jeffrey Cirio in the leading roles.  Based on the Lord Byron poem “The Corsair” (1814), the ballet features choreography by Konstantin Sergeyev after Marius Petipa, and staging by Anna-Marie Holmes after Petipa and Sergeyev, with music by Adolphe Adam, Cesare Pugni, Léo Delibes, Riccardo Drigo and Prince Oldenbourg.  Scenery and costumes are by Irina Tibilova, with additional costume designs by Robert Perdziola and lighting by Mary Jo Dondlinger.  Le Corsaire received its Company Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on June 19, 1998 with Nina Ananiashvili (Medora), Ashley Tutttle (Gulnare), Giuseppe Picone (Conrad), Angel Corella (Birbanto), Jose Manuel Carréno (Ali, the slave) and Vladimir Malakhov (Lankendem).  Le Corsaire will be given eight performances through June 10. 

Eight performances of Swan Lake, choreographed by Kevin McKenzie after Marius Petipa, will be given beginning Monday, June 12 with Isabella Boylston and Alban Lendorf leading the opening night cast.  Swan Lake is set to the score by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky and features scenery and costumes by Zack Brown and lighting by Duane Schuler.  This production of Swan Lake premiered on March 24, 2000 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. with Julie Kent (Odette-Odile), Angel Corella (Prince Siegfried) and Marcelo Gomes (von Rothbart).

 John Cranko’s Onegin will be given eight performances during the Company’s Spring season beginning on Monday, June 19 with Diana Vishneva as Tatiana and Marcelo Gomes as Eugene Onegin.  Set to music by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, arranged and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze, Onegin is based on the verse-novel Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin. Onegin received its World Premiere on April 13, 1965 by the Stuttgart Ballet in Stuttgart, Germany.  The ballet received its Company Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on June 1, 2001 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York with Julie Kent (Tatiana), Robert Hill (Onegin), Vladimir Malakhov (Lensky) and Maria Riccetto (Olga).  This new production, with sets and costumes by Santo Loquasto and lighting by James F. Ingalls, was premiered by the National Ballet of Canada on June 19, 2010 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Canada and was first performed by ABT on June 4, 2012 at the Metropolitan Opera House.  Le Corsaireis staged for ABT by Reid Anderson and Jane Bourne.

 

ABTKids

ABTKids, American Ballet Theatre’s annual one-hour introduction to ballet, is scheduled for Saturday morning, May 20 at 11:30 A.M.  All tickets for ABTKids are $25.

 

Subscriptions for American Ballet Theatre’s 2017 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House, on sale beginning Wednesday, October 26, are available by phone at 212-362-6000, or online at ABT’s website www.abt.org.

 

American Airlines is the Official Airline of American Ballet Theatre. 
Northern Trust is the Leading Corporate Sponsor of the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. 
ABT is supported, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

 

Leadership support for Whipped Cream and The Golden Cockerel has been provided by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and the Lloyd E. Rigler – Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation.  Additional support has been provided by Linda Allard, Avery and Andrew F. Barth, The Susan and Leonard Feinstein Foundation, Brian J. Heidtke, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, the Ted and Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund, The H. Russell Smith Foundation, and Stewart R. Smith and Robin A. Ferracone.  Whipped Cream and The Golden Cockerel are generously supported through an endowed gift from The Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund.

 

AfterEffect has been generously supported through an endowed gift from The Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund.

 

American Ballet Theatre's performances of Le Corsaire are generously underwritten through an endowed gift from Irene and Fred Shen. 

 

Don Quixote is generously supported through an endowed gift from Anka K. Palitz, in memory of Clarence Y. Palitz, Jr.

 

American Ballet Theatre’s performances of Giselle are generously supported through an endowed gift from Sharon Patrick.

 

David H. Koch is the Lead Underwriter of American Ballet Theatre’s The Nutcracker.

 

American Ballet Theatre’s performances of Onegin are generously supported through an endowed gift from Ruth and Harold Newman.

 

ABT gratefully acknowledges Lead Sponsor of The Sleeping Beauty, David H. Koch. Additional leadership support is generously provided by the Lloyd E. Rigler – Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation.

 

Swan Lake has been generously underwritten by R. Chemers Neustein.  Costumes for Swan Lake are generously sponsored by the Ellen Everett Kimiatek Costume Preservation Trust.

[Don Q Fan]

Casting is already being shown on the website calendar as well.

 

http://www.abt.org/calendar.aspx?startdate=5/1/2017

[Bruce Wall]

How refreshing it is to see an ABT season announcement where the ONLY guest (a feat unto itself given past practices) is a former long-standing ABT principal and not a plethora of named artists dropped into assignments - even - on occasion - ones for which their celebrated skills are not particularly noted.  

 

I do think that KOH at the RB had done a magnificent job with casting/building the company from the bottom up and it has really paid dividends - as I'm sure it will for KMcK at ABT.  That said my heart did miss a beat when I saw Ms. Salenko was cast in Diamonds in Balanchine's Jewels in the forthcoming RB run.  I REALLY don't think that the RB is in a position where they need to bring in a guest for such a slot just now.  In the event that they WERE to be (outside of an emergency situation of course) I would like to think that they would bring in someone noted for that particular role so that they could share their expertise.  I don't think that is the case with Ms. Salenko - however much she may be respected in other climbs - in this SPECIFIC regard.  It would have been lovely to have, say, those two performances covered by, say, Sara Mearns, Teresa Richlen or Olga Smirnova who are currently known for dancing the Suzanne Farrell role.  It would have been particularly exciting if, say, Ms. Nunez - who is so dazzling in Diamonds - could have danced with NYCB in their recent stint of the Balanchine masterwork in exchange for one of the two NYCB dancers returning the favour with the RB for the two performances Ms. Salenko is covering.  Surely that way everyone would have been able to benefit - i.e., both companies and their audiences - and the real profit/point for bringing in a guest would have been realised.  

Edited October 26, 2016 by Bruce Wall

[Don Q Fan]

Good point Bruce. I love Salenko but feel she is more suited to bravura roles such as Kitri in DonQ. She is doing/has done Rubies at Berlin which again seems more her bag than Diamonds. To have Smirnova guest for Diamonds would be a real treat especially if Chudin came too!!