"A Midsummer Night's Dream"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
June 18, 2009
By Martha Sherman
Copyright © 2009 by Martha Sherman
As the lights fell and conductor Maurice Kaplow raised his baton, the magic of the violins dripping with fairy dust caught us once again. Part of the enduring magic of Balanchine’s ballet is the anticipation of new casts, an eternally youthful ballet continually rejuvenating itself. There were many debuts on Thursday evening, and several strong fresh solos. Theresa Reichlen, giving her first performance as the fairy queen Titania, brought the two essential elements of this character with her – a regal bearing combined with the lightness of fairydom. Whether entering with a diaphanous train, or sinking into her fairy bower, Reichlen is dancing royalty. Her precision among the lilting attendants was both light and powerful. Her partner, Andrew Veyette as Oberon, also danced a powerful solo, especially the relentless beats of his entrechats-six. Surprisingly, their duets (as well as her duet with debuting Cavalier, Justin Peck) were unsteady, with some landings and balances that were compromised.
Of the several other debuts of the evening, the most charming was Brittany Pollack’s Butterfly, all sweetness and speed, centering the delicious fairy swarm who are still cast from every age at the School of American Ballet. In Jared Angle’s debut in the second act Divertissement, his partnering of Jenifer Ringer was steady and powerful and their elegant duet was the most poised performance of the evening. Savannah Lowery, in her debut of the other queenly role as the huntress Hippolyta, had the strength and power for the role, but did not deliver the precision it required.
All of these performances were beautifully served in the perennial framing of the flittering dance of young fairies who blew in like the wind to the opening notes, their small hands and arms fluttering in already graceful Balanchine port de bras. Those arm movements let young girls poise for flight, and this music powers the transformation. As they have for decades, the rush of wings floated in gossamer Karinska costumes. Balanchine once said "there is Shakespeare for literature and Karinska for costume." This ballet continues to lean joyously on both.
In a last minute cast change, Daniel Ulbricht joined the opening as Puck. Ulbricht embraced the character, including clear signature leaps of entry and exit and the scissors kicks that punctuate each prank. Although his leaps didn't take him to heights of flight, Ulbricht's Puck was a buzz of energy and expression.
Shakespeare's plot is told with great crispness in the course of Act I, still leaving plenty of time for glorious dance interludes. In addition to his fabled relationship of the dance and the music, Balanchine is a master of connecting movement and character to advance the story. The conflict of the fairies is interwoven with the rustics and the tales of love. All four lovers' stories are told concisely in one short parade through the stage forest -- who loves whom, who hates whom (a crisp repeated gesture of dismissal), who is no longer loved or hated, a miniature Marx Brothers scene en pointe. Their shifts of love and loyalty are danced in a series of duets, moving from innocence to anger to confusion to, again, love. In each pairing, the movement not only reveals the emotions of the players, but offer wonderful shifts of lift, balance, connection and release. Hermia, danced by Sterling Hyltin, was most thoughtful in these transitions, at first just a dreamer floating in the shallowness of untested love. Her sharp transition to bewilderment, sorrow, and anger at her lover's betrayal were played not only in her face but also in her movement. It is easy in this ballet to rely on the obvious comedy and the sympathies of the audience, but Hyltin was most successful in dancing her character's growth, not sliding into comic shorthand. As a bride in Act II, the expressiveness of her new found happiness was reflected in a more mature brightness than the thoughtless young lover we first met in the forest. Robert Fairchild made his debut as Lysander, her callow lover turned thoughtful husband.
The grand Wedding March entrance of the second act allows Balanchine to shift the choreography from the magical and comical intertwinings of the forest into glorious stateliness. The stage filled with dozens of courtiers weaving seamlessly through Balanchine's complex, majestic movement.
Our familiarity with the light and accessible music and the company's fluency in Balanchine's vocabulary make this ballet a sweet exercise in enjoyment. This cast, who also seemed to enjoy the story and their characters' pratfalls, offered little spectacle, but danced a beautiful, clean performance in ensemble. As evening fell, the fairies became brightly lit fireflies in the forest, one last flight of fancy. The star of this show remained its creator. There is Shakespeare for literature and Karinska for costume. And there is Balanchine for dance.
copyright © 2009 by Martha Sherman
Photo: Daniel Ulbricht in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Paul Kolnik
