VIEWPOINTS – COPPÉLIA and HARLEQUINADE: A pair of comic story ballets play Lincoln Center, just in time to usher in the warmer months

Over the past few weeks, New York dance fans have been treated to a pair of high profile stagings of comic story ballets at Lincoln Center – just in time to usher in the warmer months.

American Ballet Theatre dances Alexei Ratmansky's staging of "Harlequinade" at The Metropolitan Opera House. Photo: Marty Sohl.

American Ballet Theatre dances Alexei Ratmansky’s staging of “Harlequinade” at The Metropolitan Opera House. Photo: Marty Sohl.

Last night, I caught the second performance of Alexei Ratmansky’s Harlequinade (RECOMMENDED) at the Metropolitan Opera House. Like his hit production of Whipped Cream last season (which comes back in a few weeks to close Ballet Theatre’s spring season), this colorful new staging of Harlequinade is pure fluff. However, I found that it lacked the giddy buoyancy and theatrical inventiveness that made Whipped Cream so irrisistible. This may be because Ratmansky here has tasked himself to meticulously reconstruct Marius Petipa’s original choreography, leaving little room for his eccentric sense of humor and innate understanding of human nature to shine through. In pieces, this Harlequinade is pretty delightful – the first act pas de deux and the second act divertissement were both gloriously recreated – but taken as a whole, the light-as-air evening didn’t quite hold together. Nevertheless, last night’s performance was joyously danced, led by Jeffrey Cirio as Harlequin, Sarah Lane as Columbine, David Halberg as Pierrot, and Stella Abrerra as Pierrette. All were ideal in their respective roles.

New York City Ballet dances George Balanchine's "Coppélia" at the David H. Koch Theater.

New York City Ballet dances George Balanchine’s “Coppélia” at the David H. Koch Theater.

Over the last week, I also caught a double serving of Coppélia (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) via New York City Ballet at the David H. Koch Theater. Coppélia is one of the indisputable classics in the repertoire, and City Ballet’s three-act version, choreographed by George Balanchine, is really quite wonderful. Unlike Ballet Theatre’s Harlequinade (City Ballet has its own staging of that ballet, by the way, also choreographed by Balanchine), this Coppélia is satisfying dance theater – steps and mime come together in ways that enhance each other – even when time stands nonsensically and enchantingly still (as in the ballet’s second act). Although it’s light entertainment, there’s real emotion and humanity in it, at least in City Ballet’s production. I saw two casts – Ashley Bouder, Joseph Gordon, and Giovanni Villalobos as Swanilda, Fratnz, and Dr. Coppélius, respectively, in the first viewing, and Erica Pereira, Anthony Huxley, and Robert LaFosse in the second (I wish I could have seen the great Tiler Peck take on Swanilda). All were excellent, but I was particularly happy to see Mr. Huxley dance with calm confidence and the air of a true romantic lead; he’s been giving curiously flat performances of late. Both shows I was at were conducted by the adorable Clotilde Otranto, who gave us a ravishing account of Léo Delibes’s famous, well-rounded score.

 

COPPÉLIA
Dance
New York City Ballet at the David H. Koch Theater
2 hours, 20 minutes (with one intermission)
Closed

HARLEQUINADE
Dance
American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House
1 hour, 45 minutes (with one intermission)
Through June 9

Categories: Dance

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