Last May it was announced that Kevin McKenzie was stepping down as Artistic Director of the American Ballet Theater. Named to replace him was a woman who was stranger to ABT. She was, after all, a dancer with the company for many years and worked with them for a total of 32 years prior to this role. So when Susan Jaffe rejoined her former home, she inherited projects that were already well underway. This includes Christopher Wheeldon’s ballet based on Laura Esquivel’s novel Like Water for Chocolate.

The ballet has its North American premiere beginning tonight at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. The New York premiere will take place at ABT’s summer home, the Metropolitan Opera House, from June 22nd to July 1st.

Last week I spoke with Jaffe about Like Water for Chocolate, the challenge of adding new ballets to the repertoire and what her priorities are in her new role at ABT. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Laura Esquivel, the author of Like Water for Chocolate, believes firmly that cooking is a wonderful way of telling a story. Obviously, ballet is a wonderful way of telling a story. Are there parallels between telling stories vis-á-vis cooking or vis-á-vis dance?

Yes, in a way, because it’s the passing down of traditions. It has spirituality connected to it and a lot of humanity and emotional value in both cooking and ballet. 

Just to go into the ballet, the way that Chris has pulled out and magnified things within the story is astonishingly beautiful. You really get a sense of the cultural traditions in the story and in the physicalization of this story. Chris is a great storyteller. All of the acting and scenes are extremely clear in the storytelling and very exacting within the score and within the steps. He’s amplified some of the most amazing parts of the book and made this a visual celebration of parts of this story. 

Water for Chocolate gives you an opportunity to reach out to people who may think Giselle and Swan Lake are relics of another era. This is something that’s going to feel more contemporary. What are your priorities and the challenges you face in attracting new audiences, but still at the same time keeping your core supporters, donors andseason ticket holders satisfied that they’re going to get the ABT they know and love?

People love the story ballets. That’s what ABT is famous for. Our Giselles, our Swan Lakes, those are very famous over years because they speak to our humanity, they speak to our light sides, our dark sides. One of the reasons why people come back to Swan Lake and Giselle is because they know them. They know the music and they want to see the artists take them through this journey. 

In bringing new ballets to our public…They say in business if you’re not moving forward you’re moving backwards. It’s the same in any art form. We must progress forward with the newer choreographers of today, the [Christopher] Wheeldons, [Alexei] Ratmanskys, etc… Our technique has become so complex. Dancer’s technique, ballet technique, and a lot of it has melded with contemporary upper bodies in contemporary ballet. So we’re getting a very complex movement. I think a lot of people, especially people who know ballet very well, will look at these new works and say, “My goodness, that’s amazing!” 

You spent a good portion of your career dancing with ABT and other people I know who have been with dance companies have always had their own ideas as dancers: what they wish the company could be, what they wish the company would do, the choices the company would make. Now that you’re in the position of being able to make those choices, how does your thought process today compare to the thoughts that you were having when you were a dancer?

Of course, it’s always easy from the outside to be saying I would do this and I would do that. When you get inside it, you realize it’s just not as easy as a simple decision. There are many, many factors that go into, for example, even programing. You’re working with production and you’re working with the head of touring and you’re working with your executive director and you’re working with an entire team. Then you also have to be realistic. How many new pieces can you do? What’s your budget limit? What are the limits that you can do?

I guess one of the biggest things that I’m trying to do currently – and it’s a very different world now than it was when I was a dancer – is really increasing the diversity within the company, increasing diverse voices, choreographic voices. And women. More women choreographers. That doesn’t mean that I’m not hiring male white choreographers, obviously, but when we have new opportunities, I try as much as I can to to widen our voices. I think it’s been really great for the dance world to do those things. It’s an exciting time.

You mentioned in a May 2022 interview that you did with Sarah L. Kaufman at the Washington Post when your position was announced about your desire to revisit Le Corsaire and La Bayadere. But you’ll make changes, possibly adjusting the storylines and details, after undertaking research “so that we’re really hearing from audience members.”

I don’t normally look at the comments people leave at the end of a story, but I was curious what people said. There were comments like “just what I don’t want politically correct ballet” or “I’m very leery of taking a social warrior approach to improving ballet.” How do you see the challenges you face as navigating that balancing act that accompanies revising and revisiting classic works? 

Everything has to be done very thoughtfully and not [be] reactionary. With La Bayadere, which is the first one I want to work on, although that’s several years down the road, I’ve already started working with the designer and with Indian scholars and Hindu scholars. That’s just the beginning. I found out that there’s actually not that many adjustments that need to be made to La Bayadere.

We’re not going to suddenly put La Bayadere in the eighties in Las Vegas, for example. We are going to do La Bayadere with some adjustments which currently seem to be very doable and will not really make a huge change to the ballet, but will be more culturally appropriate.

As far as the people, it’s so easy to sit behind your screen on your computer and make comments like that. But I don’t really pay much attention to it because they’re not inside it. I feel very responsible for what we put out on stage and also responsible to the art form. I am a traditionalist and I want to preserve the traditions of ballet while not misappropriating, while not insulting, but also preserving. That is who I am. That’s who I always will be. I’m not going to turn the whole world upside down and suddenly everything’s going to be completely changed. But it will be adjusted. 

Do you find that the labels that we used to traditionally identify things are maybe falling a bit by the wayside? Is there a dissolving a little bit of what the term ballet means?

It depends upon what people think traditional ballet is. What I consider to be ballet is when it is balletically-based. So Like Water for Chocolate is balletically-based contemporary movement. We’re not talking about contemporary dance, but it has a contemporary feeling to it, but the legs are classical in their execution. For me, it’s the technique of ballet that that makes something what I would consider to be classical ballet. Maybe not classical, but ballet.

You’re a strong proponent of meditation. I want to ask you about something that T.S. Eliot wrote. “I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope for hope would be hope for the wrong thing. Wait without love for love would be love for the wrong thing. There is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without a thought for you are not ready for thought. So the darkness shall be the light and the stillness, the dancing.”

Where do you find dancing in the stillness and how important will it be for you to find that as you navigate your way through your time as Artistic Director of ABT? 

The stillness and the dancing. Well, you’re tying that to dancing ballet. I was thinking that it was dancing of the soul.

They both work for the question. 

They both work for the question. Good ballet, just like any good art, comes not from the technical execution of it, but the transformation of that technical execution into depth, authenticity, beauty, humanity. That’s what makes ballet or any art form really difficult. But you can’t access your authenticity if you don’t know who you are. For me, an artist’s responsibility is to not only know who they are from the depths of silence, but then be looking out.

When you’re meditating you really get to experience compassion towards humanity and for all our failures. We are a bunch of failures, failing up, sometimes failing down, but usually failing up even if it doesn’t look like that.

When you’re sitting in an audience and you feel, sense and experience those artists that are in the flow; being danced by a much higher energy. But from deep within is the real part. That’s a dancer’s journey. You can’t do anything on the surface because you will not move your audience and you will not move yourself. From the depths is where it’s the origin of the emotional force of dancing. 

And is it from those same depths that you have to rely to guide your way as artistic director?

100%. Because I’m in charge of all these people. I take that very seriously and I want everybody to grow. You still have to be honest. You still have to make sure that that everybody is growing, but also understanding where they need to grow. I think it’s a delicate art. Leading people is not for the faint of heart. It is a huge responsibility. And not only leading people, but also leading us into our new artistic vision and endeavors for our audience. So I take that very seriously and hopefully now I’m not taking myself too seriously because that would be tragedy. But yes, I do believe that deep thought and responsibility goes into these kinds of jobs.

To watch the full interview with Susan Jaffe, please go here.

Main Photo: Cassandra Trenary and Daniel Carmago in Like Water for Chocolate (Photo by Fabrizio Ferri/Courtesy Segerstrom Center for the Arts)

The post Susan Jaffe Takes New Steps with ABT appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

One reason for this is our Top Pick this week actually happens on Monday. It’s a reunion of the original off-Broadway cast of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s musical Assassins.

There’s literally something for everyone this week with options for jazz, classical music, opera, dance, ballet and two top Broadway stars perform as well.

Here are the Best Bets: March 5th – March 8th:

*TOP PICK* – Assassins Reunion – Studio Tenn Theatre Company – March 8th – 8:00 EST/5:00 PM PST

On Monday, Studio Tenn Theatre in Franklin, Tennesse will be streaming a reunion of eleven of the original cast members of the Playwrights Horizon production of Assassins including: Victor Garber, Greg Germann, Annie Golden, Lyn Greene, Jonathan Hadary, Eddie Korbich, Terrence Mann, Debra Monk, William Parry and Lee Wilkof.

If you’re wondering why a theatre in Tennessee is holding this event, Studio Tenn Theatre’s Artistic Director is Patrick Cassidy who originated the role of The Balladeer in that production. He’s participating, of course.

If you aren’t familiar with the Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman musical Assassins, you should be. The show opened in December of 1990 at Playwrights Horizon in New York. It’s a musical that features successful and would-be presidential assassins as its subject matter. Yes, the likes of John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme had their stories musicalized.

Sondheim and Weidman along with director Jerry Zaks, music director Paul Gemignani and orchestrator Michael Starobin will also participate.

The following clip is from Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall and features Patrick Cassidy and Victor Garber.

As Frank Rich explained in his New York Times review, “In Assassins, a daring work even by his lights, Mr. Sondheim and his collaborator, the writer John Weidman, say the unthinkable, though they sometimes do so in a deceptively peppy musical-comedy tone. Without exactly asking that the audience sympathize with some of the nation’s most notorious criminals, this show insists on reclaiming them as products, however defective, of the same values and traditions as the men they tried to murder.”

The timing of Assassins‘ opening wasn’t terrific. With the first Gulf War raging, producers didn’t believe audiences would be so interested in the show – even though the off-Broadway performances sold out.

Many consider the addition of the song, Something Just Broke, as a key to the musical’s emotional core. That song was added by Sondheim for the 1992 Donmar Warehouse Production. In a 1994 production in Toronto the characters of Lee Harvey Oswald and The Balladeer began to be played by the same actor.

Theatergoers did finally embrace the show, as did many critics, when the Roundabout Theatre staged the first Broadway production in 2004. That production would go on to win five Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical.

Given recent events in the past year, particularly the riot in Washington, D.C. on January 6th, this musical will be more topical than ever.

There is no charge to watch this reunion, however donations are certainly encouraged.

DANCE: ‘kwirē/ – REDCAT – Now – March 6th

This solo work by dancer/choreographer Jessica Emmanuel finds the dancer seeking details about her past from her ancestors. ‘kwirē/ takes place in a dystopian world. Most information about public and personal history along with ancestral information has long ago been destroyed. Very few human beings are still alive. Through dance and sound, Emmanuel utilizes natural resources to reconnect with her own memories and her DNA.

Emmanuel is Los Angeles-based and has worked with Poor Dog Group, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre and countless other companies.

There are two performances this weekend available for streaming: Friday at 11:30 PM EST/8:30 PM PST and Saturday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST. Tickets are $15 for general admission; $12 for REDCAT members and students and $8 for CalArts students, faculty and staff.

BALLET: Wooden Dimes World Premiere – San Francisco Ballet – Now – March 24th

As part of their digital programming, San Francisco Ballet is presenting the world premiere of choreographer/director Danielle Rowe’s Wooden Dimes. Joining this work are two archived works: Symphony #9 by Alexei Ratmansky and Swimmer by Yuri Possokhov.

Symphony #9 had its world premiere by American Ballet Theatre in 2012. It is set to composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s 9th Symphony.

Ratmansky is a former dancer who went on to be the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet in 2004. He joined ABT in 2009 as Artist in Residence.

Symphony #9 features a cast of 21 dancers with two couples in the lead and a solo male. Can you dance to Shostakovich?

Wooden Dimes by Rowe features the music of composer James M. Stephenson. Not much is officially known about Wooden Dimes except that it takes place in the roaring 20s, is a backstage story and that it title comes from the expression “Don’t take any wooden nickels.”

On Stephenson’s website, he says the ballet is about Fanny Brice (the actress brought to life by Barbra Streisand in the stage and film musical Funny Girl).

Swimmer as 1960s pop culture in its sightline. Posskhov, is a former dancer with both the Bolshoi Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet. He’s a very popular choreographer with SF Ballet and this work, which dates to 2015, is immensely popular.

His work is set to music by Shinji Eshima, Kathleen Brennan, Gavin Bryars and Tom Waits.

Tickets are $29 and allow for 72 hours of access.

PLAY: Jericho – New Normal Rep – Now – April 4th

In Jack Canfora’s play, Jericho, a family gathers for Thanksgiving in the aftermath of the September 11th tragedy. While that sounds like heavy material, Canfora infuses the play with generous amounts of humor and compassion. The play had its world premiere at the New Jersey Repertory Theatre in 2011.

Appearing in this reading of Jericho are C. K. Allen, Jill Eikenberry, Eleanor Handley, Jason O’Connel, Michael Satow and Carol Todd. Directing is Marsha Mason.

Anita Gates, in her New York Times review of the play said, “Mr. Canfora has delivered a smart, hard-hitting drama filled with biting wit. One character says: ‘It’s an oxymoron. Like jumbo shrimp or Fox News.’ The best jokes consist of wordplay with expletives that are not printable here. But to give you a sense of the tone, one character, Jessica, complains in Act I that her husband considers her occasional viewing of the celebrity-gossip show Access Hollywood ‘the moral equivalent of sodomizing kittens.’

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased here.

OPERA: The Marriage of Figaro – Royal Opera House – March 5th – April 4th

Conducted by Ivor Bolton; starring Erwin Schrott, Sophie Bevan, Stéphane Degout, Ellie Dehn, Kate Lindsey and Carlo Lepore. This revival of David McVicar’s 2006 production is from the 2015-2016 season.

Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro is based on the 1784 play La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (translated: “The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro”) by Pierre Beaumarchais.

Lorenzo da Ponte wrote the libretto. La Nozze di Figaro had its world premiere in Vienna in 1786.

Figaro and Susanna are getting married. They are in a room made available to them by the Count who plans to seduce the bride-to-be based on an old law that gave permission to lords to have sex with servant girls on their wedding night. When Figaro gets wind of this plan he enlists several people to outwit the Count using disguises, altered identities and more.

Tim Ashley, in his review for The Guardian, said, “At the centre of it all, however, lies a grand confrontation between Erwin Schrott’s Figaro, and Stéphane Degout’s Count. Schrott’s interpretation has also changed somewhat since he last sang the role here. There’s less political anger, more manipulative wit: he sings Se Vuol Ballare with bemused irony rather than scorn, not so much as a manifesto, but as a prelude to a game that turns increasingly dangerous. Degout, a wonderfully patrician singer with a handsome, ringing tone, has an innate charm that can turn to menace in a flash: it’s a superbly accomplished characterisation.

Tickets are £3 which equates to approximately $4.20.

JAZZ/EXPERIMENTAL: Laurie Anderson and Tammy L. Hall – SFJAZZ – March 5th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

In 2018 Laurie Anderson served as Resident Artistic Director for SFJAZZ. Over the course of one week in late November she performed and curated a series of concerts. Amongst them was Songs for Women.

Anderson was inspired to create Songs for Women after hearing Tammy L. Hall’s song For Miss Jones.

From there a musical collaboration was born with songs written for and about women by both artists.

Laurie Anderson is known for her innovative films and recordings including Big Science, Strange Angels and Home of the Brave.

SFJAZZ will stream this concert as part of their Fridays at Five series. You must have either monthly digital membership ($5) or an annual digital membership ($60) to stream this and all other Fridays at Five concerts.

BROADWAY/VOCALS: Leslie Odom Jr. in Concert – PBS – March 5th (Check local listings)

Tony Award winner Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton) performs Live From Lincoln Center in this concert which originally aired in 2018. But don’t expect to hear all of his songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s juggernaut of a musical. This performance showcases Odom’s jazz and soul chops.

As with all PBS programming, best to check your local listings. For instance, in Los Angeles this show is not scheduled to run until March 11th and 12th.

OPERA: Das Rheingold – San Francisco Opera – March 6th – March 7th

San Francisco Opera streams their 2018 production of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle with each of the four operas available in successive weeks. The first opera is, of course, Das Rheingold.

Conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles; starring Greer Grimsley, Jamie Barton, Falk Struckmann, Ronnita Miller and Stefan Margita.

This revival of Francesca Zambello’s 2011 production is from the 2017-2018 season.

This is the first in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (also known as The Ring Cycle). As with all four of these operas, Wagner wrote the music and the libretto. Das Rheingold had its world premiere in 1869 in Munich. It was premiered as a stand-alone opera. The first performance of the entire cycle was at Bayreuth in 1876.

Alberich is a dwarf who renounces love in his successful effort to take gold from the Rhinemaidens and have possession of a ring bestowing power to the wearer. With this one action, he sets in motion the storyline that runs through all four operas in the Ring Cycle. Fafner and Fasolt are the giants who built Valhalla. The long-suffering Wotan is introduced here as are the challenges the gods face in repaying the architects of Valhalla. When the ring is stolen from Alberich he puts a curse on it and on anyone who takes possession of it.

Zambello sets this production in the American west beginning with the Gold Rush and ending with the tech age.

All four operas in the Ring Cycle will be presented in order on consecutive weekends. There is also a Ring Festival with additional programs. You can find details about that here.

DANCE/CLASSICAL MUSIC: Sasha Waltz & Guests in C – Bang on a Can Website – March 6th – 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST

If you thought dancing to Shostakovich was intriguing, how about dancing to Terry Riley’s In C? It’s a work that has an undefined length. Riley wrote 53 different musical phrases. They are all numbered. It is up to the musicians performing the work to figure out exactly how long they want to play each phrase, in what order and when they start.

Choreographer Sasha Waltz, Co-Director of the Staatsballett Berlin with Johannes Öhman for the 2019-2020 season, is using a recording of In C by Bang on a Can for this live-streaming performance from Berlin. Here’s how she explains what this project is:

“The score of In C consists of fifty-three musical phrases and reads like stage directions for musicians. The thought of translating these detailed instructions into dance through a choreographic exploration of the music appealed to me. The result is an experimental system of fifty-three movement phrases for a structured improvisation with clear rules and laws. The length of the piece remains variable, as does the number of musicians and dancers.”

There is no charge to watch the performance, but donations are encouraged.

DANCE: Israel Galván/Maestro de Barra, Servir el Baile – CapUCLA – March 6th – 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST

To get a sense of flamenco dancer/choreographer Israel Galván, let’s turn to an interview he gave Dance Magazine in 2019 where he told them:

“I know it sounds odd, but I think I dance because I don’t like to dance. It’s not logical, but there is something freeing in accepting that. I literally cannot remember a time in my life when I didn’t dance. I’ve danced since I’ve had consciousness. It’s simply in my DNA. And you can’t escape what you are.

“I was always going to be a dancer, but my saving grace as an adult is that I don’t feel any pressure. I feel total freedom when it comes to how I choose to dance. As long as people continue asking me to perform, I will, but it has to be on my terms.”

His terms will be on full display on Saturday when CAP UCLA offers up Maestro de Barra Servir el Baile which roughly translated means Master of the Bar, Serving the Dance. This is Galván’s way of keeping dance alive during the pandemic. He utilizes the concept of music and dance as played out in cafes and bars around the world for this work.

There is no charge to stream this performance, however donations are encouraged.

BROADWAY/VOCALS: Eva Noblezada – Seth Concert Series – March 7th – 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST with an encore at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST $25

If you were lucky enough to see Hadestown on Broadway before theatres closed in New York, you got to experience the wonderfully talented Eva Noblezada. She received her second Tony Award nomination for her performance as Eurydice in the musical.

Her first nomination came for her performance as Kim in the 2017 revival of Miss Saigon.

Noblezada is Seth Rudetsky’s guest for this weekend’s conversation and performance program.

Tickets are $25. Note that the schedule has changed a little for these performances (at least through the month of March.) The live show is in the afternoon on Sunday and the encore stream of the performance is Sunday evening.

JAZZ: Alan Broadbent Trio – Smalls Live – March 7th – 5:00 PM EST/2:00 PM PST and 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

For nearly 50 years, pianist Alan Broadbent has been making great music. He’s worked as a bandleader and has collaborated with some of the biggest names in multiple genres of music. That list would include David Byrne, Kristin Chenoweth, Natalie Cole, Charlie Haden, Shirley Horn, Diana Krall, Linda Ronstadt and Barbra Streisand.

If you haven’t heard his solo recording, Heart to Heart from 2013, I suggest you do so. It’s beautiful.

For these two sets at New York’s Smalls Broadbent will be joined by Billy Mintz on drums and Harvie S on bass.

You can make reservations for either streaming show (which includes a donation), or you can wait for the show to just go live at the link above.

That does it for Best Bets: March 5th – March 8th. But I want to remind you of a few other options I’ve already covered this week:

The Los Angeles Philharmonic begins the second season of Sound/Stage on Friday, March 5th with a performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals. Yuja Wang and David Fung join Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for this performance filmed on the stage at the Hollywood Bowl.

CaltechLive! has begun streaming Herbert Sigüenza’s A Weekend with Pablo Picasso. You can read our full preview here and my interview with Sigüenza here.

The 25th anniversary celebration of Rent will remain available through 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST on Saturday, March 6th.

This weekend’s offerings from the Metropolitan Opera where they are celebrating Women’s History Month are Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes from the 2007-2008 season on Friday; Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka from the 2013-2014 season on Saturday and Giuseppe Verdi’s La Forza del Destino from the 1983-1984 season on Sunday.

With our new line-up extending to Monday, here’s a preview of next week at the Metropolitan Opera: Monday’s production is Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut from the 1979-1980 season and kicks off Week 52 at the Met with the theme Verismo Passions.

I hope you enjoy your weekend and enjoy whichever of my Best Bets: March 5th – March 8th interest you the most! Have fun!

Main photo: The cast of the Playwright’s Horizon production of Assassins (Photo courtesy Studio Tenn Theatre Company)

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The novel tells the story of the beautiful Callirhoe with whom Chaereas has fallen deeply in love. This doesn’t go over too well with others who had their eyes on her so they conspire to fill Chaereas with doubt about her fidelity to him. An abusive encounter with Chaereas leads to what many presume to be her death, but in reality was just a coma. Other suitors pursue her even though her death did not end her marriage. Like many women of that time, she was granted no particular power over her own destiny. But she had one thing that still holds power over people today, beauty combined with brains.

Of Love and Rage was choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky. He’s a Russian born dancer-turned-choreographer who has worked with the Bolshoi Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, New York City Ballet and multiple other companies.

With Of Love and Rage he has choreographed his 17th ballet for American Ballet Theatre. He says in the press release for this world premiere that, “I am fascinated by the topic of forgiveness. This is a story about how anger and jealousy tear two people apart – two people who are madly in love. Forgiveness is the only way they can reunite, and forgiveness requires strength.”

Ratmansky has selected the music of Aram Khachaturian, as arranged by Philip Feeney, for the ballet. That music will be played live at these performances by the Pacific Symphony.

The announced casting for Of Love and Rage is as follows:

Thursday, March 5th and the matinee on Saturday, March 7th:

Callirhoe – Catherine Hurlin
Chaereas – Aran Bell
Dionysius – James Whiteside
Mithridates – Cory Stearns
King of Babylon – Roman Zhurbin
Queen of Babylon – Devon Teuscher

Friday, March 6th and Sunday, March 8th

Callirhoe – Christine Shevchenko
Chaereas – Thomas Forster
Dionysius – Blaine Hoven
Mithridates – Alexandre Hammoudi
King of Babylon – Keith Roberts
Queen of Babylon – Katherine Williams

Saturday, March 7th evening performance:

Callirhoe – Hee Seo
Chaereas – Calvin Royal III
Dionysius – Joo Won Ahn
Mithridates – Cory Stearns
King of Babylon – Roman Zhurbin
Queen of Babylon – Devon Teuscher

Of Love and Rage will have its New York Premiere June 2nd – June 6th during the company’s 2020 Metropolitan Opera House season.

The ballet runs approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes.

For tickets go here.

Photo: Catherine Hurlin and Aran Bell in Of Love and Rage (Photo by Erin Baiano/Courtesy of American Ballet Theatre)

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