American Ballet Theatre — one of the world’s top companies — is coming to the Wang Theatre next weekend, November 14 through 17, with five performances of Giselle, the 19th-century ballet about a peasant girl who dies of a broken heart. Given that Boston generally rates only an occasional detour on the itinerary of the larger ballet troupes, it’s ungracious to welcome a handsome gift with any hint of ingratitude. But you might well wonder why we’re getting a work that Boston Ballet performed — in the same sets and costumes — just this past February.
Actually, Giselle wasn’t the original game plan. FleetBoston Celebrity Series and the Wang Center for the Performing Arts had intended to give us ABT in Le Corsaire, another 19th-century story ballet that’s far less well known, even though we saw it here first from Boston Ballet back in 1997. Former BB director Anna-Marie Holmes was invited to restage the work for ABT, and Le Corsaire became a huge hit for the company, both at home and abroad — but there’s the problem. The back-up resulting from the longshoremen’s strike meant that ABT’s sets and costumes remained locked in the hold of the ship that returned them across the Pacific after this summer’s visit to Japan. Now it’s too late to try to truck them to Boston.
It’s tempting to think of what ABT might have brought instead. At the company’s Opening Night Gala at City Center last month, I saw two sections of the world premiere of Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison, the ones choreographed by David Parsons and Stanton Welch (the parts created by Ann Reinking and Natalie Weir premiered later that week), set to songs by the late Beatle. The program also included a delicious excerpt from Orpheus in the Underworld — which is a revival of the 1954 work by Antony Tudor, one of the most important 20th-century choreographers — and a performance of Jerome Robbins’s Fancy Free with a dream cast. Not to mention four pas de deux featuring virtuoso performances by some of the company’s stalwarts. As the run continued, new works by James Kudelka, Lar Lubovitch, and Robert Hill were also presented to New York audiences.
Boston audiences rarely get to see works by any of these choreographers. And after Boston Ballet’s fine Giselle, you might think the home audiences would have had their fill of the ghostly Wilis who rescue the love-betrayed waif in the second act. ABT’s roster of principal dancers and soloists includes some of the legendary stars of the current generation: Angel Corella, Ethan Stiefel, and Marcelo Gomes among the men, Julie Kent, Paloma Herrera, Gillian Murphy, and Irina Dvorovenko among the women. (Corella, Kent, and Stiefel were among the hip-hop parade that sashayed along the stage diagonal to Parsons’s vision of "My Sweet Lord" in the Harrison piece.) A single production will give little hint of the riches currently in the company’s active repertory.
Not that the ABT Gala program was necessarily on offer. A Celebrity Series spokesperson says that though the possibility of bringing a repertory program was broached, no details were discussed. ABT had brought repertory programs on its two previous Boston visits and wanted to do a story ballet this time. And a story ballet is what the Celebrity Series promised its subscribers when the season was announced back in May.
So, no Corsaire — but Giselle is a wonderful ballet, and we’re lucky ABT didn’t cancel altogether. Ballet fans can enjoy New-York-versus-Boston arguments. And the casting isn’t exactly chopped liver. Thursday at 7:30 p.m.: Paloma Herrera (Giselle), Marcelo Gomes (Albrecht), Ethan Brown (Hilarion), and Gillian Murphy (Myrtha). Friday at 8 p.m.: Xiomara Reyes (Giselle), Ethan Stiefel (Albrecht), Gennadi Saveliev (Hilarion), and Stella Abrera (Myrtha). Saturday at 2 p.m.: Paloma Herrera (Giselle), Marcelo Gomes (Albrecht), Ethan Brown (Hilarion), and Carmen Corella (Myrtha). Saturday at 8 p.m.: Irina Dvorovenko (Giselle), Maxim Belotserkovsky (Albrecht), Sascha Radetsky (Hilarion), and Michele Wiles (Myrtha). And Sunday at 2 p.m.: Julie Kent (Giselle), Angel Corella (Albrecht), Carlos Molina (Hilarion), and Sandra Brown (Myrtha). Reason enough to book those seats.
American Ballet Theatre will present Giselle at the Wang Theatre November 14 through 17. Tickets are $62 to $88; call Telecharge at (800) 447-7400, or order online at www.celebrityseries.org.
