Word: cranko
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...test of the ballet? This Valentine’s Day, an endless sea of couples flooded the Wang Theatre for the opening night of the Boston Ballet’s “Romeo and Juliet,” featuring original staging by the legendary South African choreographer John Cranko and Prokofiev’s stunning score. Despite a slow and emotionally unengaged beginning, the performance eventually redeems itself and proves that Shakespeare’s famous “star-cross’d lovers” can hold their own—even in pointe shoes. Cranko?...
...STORY OF LOVE AND PRIDE, OF SORROW and tragedy, and it is being performed by the Boston Ballet now through Feb. 16 at the Wang Center. The ballet Onegin, choreographed by John Cranko in 1965, is based on the 19th century poem Eugene Onegin by the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, and set to music by Tchaikovsky. Pushkin's poem recounts the tragic love story of an innocent young woman, Tatiana, and the brooding Russian nobleman, Eugene Onegin, who breaks her heart. From the opening scene in the Russian countryside to the final denouement in Tatiana's bedroom, Cranko...
...love letter from Onegin. He comes to see her, and once again they are swept up into a passionate pas de deux: clearly, Tatiana's feelings for Onegin were never completely crushed. The tortured feelings of love and despair are captured both by the climaxing score and by Cranko's choreography. Ponamarenko and Berdo complements the technical perfection of their steps with an intensity of emotion that draws the audience to a breaking point as Tatiana pulls Onegin across the stage only to fall on his chest. In the end, however, her loyalty to her husband prevails...
Both versions are strongly influenced by the 1940 Kirov production by Leonid Lavrovsky, who worked closely with Prokofiev. This is the composer's best ballet music: rich, copiously dramatic, with a sunny spiritual radiance in the love scenes. Cranko set it first for the ballet of La Scala in 1958 and four years later for his own fledgling troupe, the Stuttgart Ballet. He was able to show off his inexperienced dancers without exposing their deficiencies with anything too intricate. That approach well suits the Joffrey youngsters, whose average...
...Cranko's Romeo is nearly as much a theater piece as a ballet. The second act, with its clowns and gypsies and with its great duel scene, is easily the best, and the Joffrey performs it with sweep and charging bravura. Elsewhere there are difficulties, some of which should disappear as the company settles into the work. Right now the dancers have absurd ideas of rich life in the Renaissance. The men strut and pose, the ladies arch their backs so radically that they look poised for a back flip. An exception is Gerel Hilding, whose Tybalt has genuine authority...