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Artscope Magazine | May/June 2021

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Ballet

MYTHOLOGIZING AND ROMANTICIZING: SERGEI DIAGHILEV’S REVOLUTIONARY BALLET COMPANY BROUGHT TO LIFE

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, January/February 2020

by Beth Neville

What a wonderful day of discovery! On a cold and dreary November day to find a new (for me) museum, a new artist and a new town with good restaurants! The Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Massachusetts, opened in 2006, is exhibiting the marvelous photographs of Emil Otto Hoppé (British, 1878-1972) of the Ballets Russes. The exhibition is sponsored by Artscope Magazine. Hoppé, one of the most famous photographers of his day, had exclusive access to Ballets Russes, the revolutionary ballet company founded by Sergei Diaghilev in Paris, France (1909-1929). Hoppé’s 73 ballet photographs provide an eye-popping view into the balletic revolution that moved away from 19th century heavily costumed, stylized, drama-ballets to the modernism of “The Rite of Spring,” “The Firebird,” “Petrushka,” “Le Carnaval” and others. What a sensation Diaghilev and his company caused; offended patrons rioted … [Read more...] about MYTHOLOGIZING AND ROMANTICIZING: SERGEI DIAGHILEV’S REVOLUTIONARY BALLET COMPANY BROUGHT TO LIFE

Lia Cirio in William Forsythe's Blake Works I. Photograph by Angela Sterling, courtesy of Boston Ballet.

PERFORMANCE: BOSTON BALLET’S FULL ON FORSYTHE AT THE BOSTON OPERA HOUSE

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, News, Visual Arts

by James Foritano

The Boston Ballet’s world premier presentation of “Full on Forsythe" opened on Thursday, March 7 and will run through March 17 at the Boston Opera House. Madeleine, my wife and partner in this critique, sat beside me for the full two hour and 30-minute performance with two intermissions. Madeleine was restive during the first of the three pieces, which I could sympathize with, since this first work, titled, obscurely, “Pas/Parts 2018,” is packed with so much raw energy, helicoptering dancers, electronic bonging and shearing and vibrating that I too sat back in my seat feeling the ice in my veins from the outside temperature begin to boil and bubble. And yet, as avant-garde a choreographer as William Forsythe is, he is also a performer, and knows when to slow down, just as the month of March proverbially “roars like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” The second piece, titled … [Read more...] about PERFORMANCE: BOSTON BALLET’S FULL ON FORSYTHE AT THE BOSTON OPERA HOUSE

Boston Opera House, decked out for The Nutcracker

Boston Ballet Presents Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker Boston Opera House, November 25, 2016

// Theatre

By Kate Kenney Boston, MA - The night is both decadent and magical, with grand Christmas trees lining the entrance of the spiral staircase leading to the theater doors of the Boston Opera House, whose walls, dressed in warm golds and deep, velvety reds, and ceiling glittering in ornate gilded designs, are hosting Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, presented by artist director Mikko Nissinen. This evening, its audience will see 182 costumes featuring 200,000 jewels and multiple tutus hand-dipped in gold paint. In the lobby, signed blush pointe shoes are for sale, scuffed from use and hard work. One pair of shoes is signed wonderfully, “Live What You Love!” by ballerina Dusty Button. The theater itself is majestic, lined with ornate paintings from its original 1928 French and Italian architecture. The orchestra, led by principal guest conductor Beatrice Jona Affron, opens the … [Read more...] about Boston Ballet Presents Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker Boston Opera House, November 25, 2016

Federico Fresi (center) and Boston Ballet in John Neumeier’s “Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler” (photo by Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy of Boston Ballet).

Boston Ballet presents Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler at the Boston Opera House

// Music, Theatre

By James Foritano Boston, Mass. - The “Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler,” choreographed by the renowned John Neumeier and performed on Thursday, October 22, by the Boston Ballet on the stage of the Boston Opera House, brought the audience repeatedly to their feet with cheering, clapping and foreign-sounding cries of approval.   I, on the other hand didn’t award my approval until what looked to me like an overcrowded stage gave way gradually, mercifully to fewer dancers with more space.   My parsimony, approval wise, was probably more a matter of personal esthetics, than expert judgment. I’ve seen traffic cops respond to an impossible glut of traffic at rush hour with absolutely balletic virtuosity, urging on and calming heated horsepower with memorable command. But is it art, or traffic control?   At least a million dancers, with helicoptering arms and … [Read more...] about Boston Ballet presents Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler at the Boston Opera House