7 for Eight, Magrittomania, Pas/Parts -- San Francisco Ballet Performance Review
7 for Eight, Magrittomania, Pas/Parts
San
Francisco Ballet Performance
January
26, 2016
This San Francisco Ballet performance was in three segments. The first, 7 for Eight, by Helgi Thomasson, is a very lightweight ballet set
to Bach piano concertos. It is graceful
and pretty, outstandingly performed by the San Francisco Ballet dancers, of
course, but does not have a lot of substance.
Conceptually, I think this ballet leaves a lot to be desired. It is set against Bach piano concertos. I have played some of these myself, and I
know what challenges they present and what powerful pieces of music they
are. The Bach piano concertos are very
strong dominating pieces. They are
forceful and energetic. That light,
ethereal ballet that was set against them didn't have a chance. The music dominated the ballet. With that music they didn't even need the
ballet. Mungunchimeg Buriad did a superb
job performing the Bach concertos. One
of them was performed on a harpsichord, which I think only underlined why the
harpsichord is an archaic instrument that is seldom used today. The Bach concertos sound so much better on
the modern piano. I don't have too much
to say about this one. It was rather
insubstantial and unimaginative.
The highlight of the evening was the second ballet, Magrittomania. This one was choreographed by Yuri Possokhov
and set against music by Yuri Krasavin that was adapted from Beethoven. This ballet worked really well. The music and the ballet complimented each
other. The ballet was interesting and
imaginative. The sets were interesting
and colorful. It was visually appealing
and engaging. I am not sure what the
relationship to the Belgian surrealist painter Rene Magritte was supposed to be
other than inspiration. It did not
attempt to depict his life or his work in any great depth. The imagery and colors and costuming
hearkened back to some of Magritte's most famous images and paintings. That is
about all you can say about it. The
dancing was excellent and fit well with the music. This one I liked.
The third ballet on the program Pas/Parts by William Forsythe and composer Thom Willems started
with some high pitched, shrill whistles that let you know right from the
beginning that you were in for something unpleasant. And it never let up all the way through. It was harsh, grating, percussive music, if
you want to call it that. Train whistles
and the metallic grinding of machinery. They sent the orchestra home for this
one -- and they were probably glad to get out of there. It was recorded sounds from an electronic industrial
junkyard. Stark, bare sets and bright,
hard, bland light. It was more of an
assault than a performance. I felt that
the sound track would have been well suited an auto body shop. They could have made the set had a bunch of
wrecked cars up on hydraulic lifts waiting to be worked on, have the dancers
dressed up like auto mechanics leaping and cavorting between stacks of
automobile tires and disembodied engines and transmissions. That might have worked. The interesting thing was that the dancing
was classic ballet movements, poses, and steps that seemed far removed from the
strident cacophony of the accompaniment.
The movements were more like what you would expect with Tchaikovsky or
Debussy. Think of a ballet taking place
in front of a forest fire. It was the
kind of surreal scenario Magritte might like.
So much for Program 1. If this is
the low point of the season, then we can look forward expectantly to better
things to come.