ABT’s Absolutely Jawdropping “Of Love And Rage” At Lincoln Center


Review: Lincoln Center June 2022

We caught this on Saturday June 22, the last day at Lincoln Center. What a sleeper - there is only this one performance video online (dance starts at 0.43). Had we first caught it on Monday we’d have bought tickets for the rest of the week. It is an absolute jaw-dropper. Everything about it works. Story? Wow. Choreography? Wow. The two leads? Wow. Sets? Wow. Costumes? Wow. Lighting? Wow. Male and female corps? Wow, wow, wow, they seemed thrilled out of their skulls to be kept so busy. There are often up to 50 dancers onstage all at once. You haven’t lived until you have seen that.

Just amazing that Khachaturian’s flamboyant works have never been adapted for a major ballet before. His music here, in part from his 1942 ballet Gayane, unknown in the US, is so energetic under Ormsby with a fine orchestra that you will emerge from the theater 5 pounds lighter. The story is complex and there are many feuds and love-scenes. Rarely if ever has a female lead been at the epicenter of so many goings-on. Her arc sure is busy: intensely revered, she is married, then dead, then pregnant, then fought for and fought for right to the very moving happy end.

This really merits to be ABT’s long-waited flagship, and to be put on every summer season. Please, dear ABT, get some ensemble performance YouTubes online like yesterday - well, two weeks ago.

Read Alastair Macauley here. Read Gia Kourlas here. Read Marina Harss here. Read Victoria Looseleaf here. Read Jerry Hochman here. Read Nadia Vostrikov here. Read Haglund’s Heel here. Read Nick Erickson here.

Commentary: There were too many empty seats Saturday, as another reviewer commented about Monday. ABT may wrongly feel discouraged. No need. Current leaders in modern ballet promotion, Russian companies & dancers and Royal Ballet, would produce and upload half a dozen videos on any new ballet weeks in advance. Videos of rehearsals, dancer interviews, sets, costumes, story-line… Video is a great low-cost investment - ABT might have pulled in an added 1/4 of a million dollars on this ballet alone.

Below: nice video chat 2020 pre-COVID but sells it short.


Posted on 06/25/22 at 10:02 PM in

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