{"id":5651,"date":"2013-04-14T07:48:22","date_gmt":"2013-04-14T14:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=5651"},"modified":"2013-04-14T07:49:50","modified_gmt":"2013-04-14T14:49:50","slug":"program-7-san-francisco-ballet-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/program-7-san-francisco-ballet-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Program 7 — San Francisco Ballet Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Program 7 — San Francisco Ballet Performance<\/strong><\/p>\n

April 13, 2013<\/p>\n

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There were three separate ballets on Program 7<\/em>.\u00a0 The first was called Criss-Cross<\/em>, choreographed by Helgi Thomasson.\u00a0 This is a celebration of beauty and grace, superbly performed by the San Francisco Ballet dancers.\u00a0 It is lively and energetic.\u00a0 The first section is done against the music of Domenico Scarlatti, arranged by Charles Avison, and the latter part is done to the music of Arnold Schoenberg, taking off on George Frederic Handel.\u00a0 You don’t have to think too much for this one.\u00a0 It is visually interesting and the mood is upbeat.\u00a0 The highlight for me were the two male-female duets.\u00a0 The first was beautifully romantic and elegantly performed.\u00a0 The second one in the latter half of the performance was more somber, almost languid.\u00a0 The choreographer seemed to be listening to the music when he composed this.\u00a0 The dance was well suited to the musical score, which is something I like to see.\u00a0 It is a solid, enjoyable, well-executed performance that does not challenge too much.<\/p>\n

The second ballet was Francesca da Rimini<\/em>, choreographed by Yuri Possokhov.\u00a0 This was my favorite of the three.\u00a0 The set, lighting, special effects, costumes and choreography are interesting and imaginative.\u00a0 The dancing fits well with the music, which gives a feeling of solidity and stability.\u00a0 This one is supposed to have a minimal story line, although this staging is not concerned over much with telling a story.\u00a0 It is actually dominated by a duet which is done to powerful effect.\u00a0 It contrasts with the duets in the previous ballet in that this duet is much less romantic.\u00a0 It is sensual, even lurid.\u00a0 One does not get any sense of an illicit affair in this performance, which is the original story line.\u00a0 Supposedly Francesca falls in love with Paolo, the younger brother of her husband, Gianciotto, who is supposed to be ugly and crippled.\u00a0 The tall, robust dancer who plays Gianciotto, Vito Mazzeo, doesn’t exactly fit that description.\u00a0 He does discover the lovers and murders them, true to the original script, but then Possokhov gives it a twist, which I think is a great improvement.\u00a0 Instead of the adulterous couple being consigned to Hell, as in Dante’s Inferno<\/em>, Gianciotto, the jealous murderer is dragged off to Hell.\u00a0 I like Possokhov’s conception better and congratulate him on his modification of the story.<\/p>\n

The Symphony in Three Movements<\/em> by Igor Stravinsky rounds out the program.\u00a0 It is choreographed by George Balanchine.\u00a0 It is imaginatively done, with lots of visual activity and interesting configurations that blend and morph in interesting ways.\u00a0 This is one where the dance does not well reflect the mood and temper of the underlying music.\u00a0 There is a lot of distress in this music, but the choreography seems oblivious to it.\u00a0 The choreographer seemed to have his own agenda and he wasn’t going to let the music get in the way of it.\u00a0 \u00a0The dancing is generally more positive and energetic than the music.\u00a0 This one is interesting to watch.\u00a0 It has complexity and many different elements that work together smoothly.\u00a0 It is well thought out from the point of view of the choreography, but it was clearly not conceived from the music as the starting point.\u00a0 I had the sense that the dancers like doing this one.\u00a0 I could feel a vigor and enthusiasm from them that seemed inspired by the work itself.\u00a0 This seems to be one they would choose to do themselves.<\/p>\n

Generally an enjoyable, stimulating performance with lots of visual interest, imaginative staging, good positive energy and first rate dancing by the San Francisco Ballet dancers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Program 7 — San Francisco Ballet Performance April 13, 2013     There were three separate ballets on Program 7.\u00a0 The first was called Criss-Cross, choreographed by Helgi Thomasson.\u00a0 This…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"