AN EPIC QUASI-CENTENNIAL IN BALLET
                   Tracing a Century of the Medium in High Relief  
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of March 3-10, 2010
                                                                  Vol. 12, No. 72
            The San Francisco Ballet’s “Petruchka” is an electrifying spectacle and historic recreation from the epic Ballets Russes days of Paris, 1911. It is an astute blend of Old Russia, commedia dell’arte figures, and symbol-rich drama as the hapless puppet with the human soul named Petruchka falls in love and pays the ultimate price for his affection.
            The SFB’s first-ever mounting of the piece sidestepped a myriad of (much amended) hand-me-down versions of this great classic in ballet history, going to the grand-daughter Isabelle of the original choreographer Michel Fokine for the new staging that opened March 2. The 37-minute piece with the highly pictorial Stravinsky score featured a throng of 102 persons on stage, 47 of them regular SFB dancers. The sets are after the originals by Set Designer Alexandre Benois.
            A quaint period piece? No way! The opening scene of the Russian Shrovetide Fair (matching our pre-Lenten Mardi Gras) whirls as a pageant of folk dance, motion and circus whiz-bang, so Russian that you can almost smell the vodka and hot piroshki. There are even the difficult prisyadku, those kicks from the squatting position by the men that are a Russian folk-dance trademark. 
            But it’s a piece of many levels. The Fair’s realism with the surging, intoxicating crowds reveling gives way to the mesmerization by the Magician, and then his three dancing puppets, their world, and their intimate interaction. The awkward Petruchka falls in love with Columbine---one of the few ballet dancers in the whole extravaganza---only to be squashed by the primitive, bigger-than-life Blackamoor. The Magician who brought them all to life is aghast when the spirit of Petruchka appears on high posthumously, motioning fruitlessly for succor and support.
            This tale is fraught with symbolism about the human condition, the loss of idealism, and repression. Even the chained-up dancing bear could be seen as a reference to pathetic peoples exploited by establishment forces, in Russia or elsewhere.
            The SFB captured this epic piece with a lavish production. The title role, played early on by Nijinsky and Leonide Massine, is more an acting role, challenging for a performer (like the Frenchman Pascal Molat here) because instead of the usual turn-out of feet, he must be pigeon-toed all the way. Molat’s partner puppets were Clara Blanco and Brett Bauer (as the Blackamoor). Rotating casts will predominate, with future Petruchkas played by Taras Dimitro (from Cuba) and Gennadi Nedvigin (from Russia). That internationalism should surprise no one: Only three of the 20 current company principals were born in the US.
            The SFB attacked the crude racist caricature of the Moor in bygone productions in a novel way: He is not black but purple! But that was a welcome deviation from the original.
            Martin West’s orchestra did a dazzling job of the rich Stravinsky score, part from some opening-night gremlins in the brass section.
            This latest program (#4) also spotlighted two dazzling modern ballets. William Forsythe’s “in the middle, slightly elevated” (1987) suffered from a ear-pounding sound-score, akin to prolonged gunfire in the war (bad timing, Mr. Forsythe). Otherwise it was a smashing Adonis-ballet display, showing off the perfectly formed human bodies in all their beauty and flexibility thanks to astute lighting (Forsythe’s own design), working in various permutations. There were nine principals, headed by Sofiane Silve, Tiit Helimets and David Karapetyan.
            Yuri Possokhov’s “Diving into the Lilacs” (2009) takes you through the seasons, with the lilacs he knew from his Muscovite origins as the metaphor. Molat returned here, epitomizing the new breed of SFB men who are nimble, can jump well, and lift the ladies without strain. I can still see him in mid-air with one knee extended, like an unstoppable running back plowing toward the goal line. The feathery ballerinas Maria Kochetkova and Yuan Yuan Tan made their mark, as did a strong male pair of Vitor Luiz and the fast-rising soloist Anthony Spaulding.
            All in all, a great night of ballet.
            LITTLE-KNOWN HISTORICAL NOTES---At the Ballet Russes’ American debut of this work in 1915, the role of the Moor was played by Adolphe Bolm, who much later founded the San Francisco Ballet….Composer Stravinsky astutely combined two organ-grinder tunes in the opening act contrapuntally. One was a bad choice: He had heard an organ-grinder outside his hotel play it first and borrowed it, and later was hauled to court on a lawsuit for unauthorized use of privileged intellectual property…The inordinately lengthy military drum roll during a “Petruchka” scene change originally prompted Set Designer Alexandre Benois to ask Stravinsky to produce more music to fill the gap. But, already past deadlines, Stravinsky could not comply. So today, the drum rolls on and on and on….This “Petruchka” missed two centennials by an eyelash---2009, that of the reform-minded Ballets Russes’ start in Paris, aptly called the balletic shot heard round the world; or 2011, that of this work’s world premiere. 
               San Francisco Ballet in Program Four, through March 7 at the Opera House, S.F., with orchestra. Two and a quarter hrs., two intermissions. For info: (415) 865-2000, or go online.
        ©Paul Hertelendy 2010
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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