City Ballet presents classical triple bill at Artscape
CAPE Town City Ballet opened its autumn/winter season on Saturday night at Artscape, with a triple bill.
Amaranth is an exciting programme of neo-classical and contemporary classical masterpieces with George Balanchine’s Serenade, Frank Staff‘s Transfigured Night, and Christopher L Huggins’s Enemy Behind the Gates.
Set to Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C, Op. 48 with four movements – Sonatina, Waltz, Russian Dance and Elegy – neo-classical, Serenade is one of Balanchine’s most beautiful ballets and a milestone in the history of dance as the first original ballet he created in America.
It remains a signature work of the New York City Ballet’s repertory and is staged by Rebecca Metzger.
Honouring South African heritage as part of the programme: Transfigured Night is staged by doyenne Veronica Paeper. Set to a sweeping score by Schoenberg, Transfigured Night, based on a true story, is intense and dramatic, telling a story of a brother and sister dominated by an older sister.
Obsessed with keeping the family together, and unhappy with the arrival of a suitor for the younger sister, she senses that the solidarity of the family is threatened.
The older sister weaves an intense love story with intimate duets that are a hallmark of Staff’s choreography.
Following significant popularity, American choreographer Christopher L Huggins returns with his acclaimed Enemy Behind the Gates, a look into the minds of incendiaries – how they live quietly and patiently in the shadows before they strike.
Amaranth will be performed at the Artscape Opera House until July 7. Tickets are R150 to R495 with concessions for pensioners, scholars and block bookings of 10 or more.
Bookings can be made at Computicket on 0861 915 8000, online at www.computicket.com or at any Shoprite Checkers outlets.
‘Amaranth’ is an exciting programme of neo-classical and contemporary classical masterpieces