"Western Symphony", "The Unanswered Question", "Tarantella", "Stars and Stripes"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
September 26, 2023
by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2023 by Mary Cargill
It is odd to program two upbeat Americana closing ballets on the same program, but the audience didn’t seem to mind the lack of variety; only the brief, darkly mysterious “The Unanswered Question” interrupted the bouncy evening. There were several fine debuts, including Roman Mejia, NYCB’s boy wonder, exploding as El Capitan in “Stars and Stripes” and sending the audience home in a haze of excitement. Both “Stars and Stripes” and “Western Symphony” (the opening ballet) are witty explorations of the classical style hidden behind their folksy auras. They are symphonic, with the traditional four movements (“Western Symphony” originally had a scherzo between the adagio and the finale), formal corps patterns, hoe downs and square dances instead of mazurkas and czardas and, in “Stars and Stripes” a Petipa-style grand pas de deux, with an adagio, solo variations, and a bravura coda. Even the raucously American baton and trumpet so proudly flaunted in “Western Symphony” are surely cousins of Esmeralda’s tambourine and all those parrots in “La Bayadère”.
NYCB in "Western Symphony" photo © Paul Kolnik