By James Foritano Sometimes, it seems to me that classical ballet is bending over backwards, awkwardly, to demonstrate to modern audiences that it can be contemporary and convey a modern, democratic spirit with a blueprint conceived for the royal courts of Europe. In their final production of the season, “Mirrors,” the Boston Ballet has indeed seasoned its repertory with more than a whiff of modernity, a crackle of contemporary challenge and even a soupcon of angst. Four edgy ballets, two of which, “Smoke and Mirrors” and “Bitches Brew,” are specially commissioned world premiers, close out this season along with a concurrently running production of the traditionally classical “Swan Lake.” I was entertained by the elegance and spirit of three of the four ballets comprising “Mirrors,” but I was especially enthralled and intrigued by the fourth and final piece of this four-course … [Read more...] about The Boston Ballet’s Mirrors at the Boston Opera House
Boston Opera House
Boston Ballet presents Onegin, at the Boston Opera House
by James Foritano “Onegin,” the three-act ballet choreographed by John Cranko, based on the novel by Alexander Puskin and currently at the Boston Opera House, has a simple plot — but one based on the eternal human verities. Onegin, a super-sophisticated aristocrat from cosmopolitan St. Petersburg, visits a country house somewhere in the hinterlands outside the city. It’s a friendly duty owed to societal norms despite what little fellow feeling Onegin’s under-developed heart possesses, since his friend and fellow aristocrat, Lensky, is to be married to Olga. Trouble is, Onegin could be the very image of the romantic hero which Olga’s bookish younger sister Tatiana has been feeding on in her country seclusion. When Onegin enters, all lean thighs, swagger and jet-black coiffure, Tatiana’s book falls to the floor. It’s as if, despite a still-clinging adolescence, Tatiana’s … [Read more...] about Boston Ballet presents Onegin, at the Boston Opera House