Serious weaponry in ‘Spartacus’
Swords, daggers and spears in the desert. Catch a slave revolt against the Romans with “Spartacus” and the New Mexico Ballet on Saturday.
The Aram Khachaturian classic explores the embellished exploits of the former slave king, complete with bluster and bombast, as he takes on the Roman consol Crassus, the richest man in the world. The performance will take place in Popejoy Hall. The New Mexico Philharmonic will provide the music, directed by conductor Grant Cooper.
“It is over the top in a good way,” New Mexico Ballet artistic director Jolie Sutton-Simballa said. “I’ve heard critics say it’s almost movielike. It has a lot of tones that sound similar to John Williams’. It’s accessible.”
The dancers are following the libretto of the Bolshoi Ballet, which premiered the piece in 1958, staging it again in 1968 to great acclaim. Nearly 30 dancers will perform in the two-hour show.
“The libretto covers the struggle he (Spartacus) has trying to free his countrymen and his wife,” Sutton-Simballa said. “It’s pretty lavish in that we have a huge amount of costumes and weapons.”
Expect plenty of togas and armor.
The weaponry is serious enough to warrant a fight choreographer, Albuquerque’s Arnold Brown, she added.
“We use real daggers and real spears.”
“Spartacus” remains Khachaturian’s most famous piece, especially the lush “Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia.” The romantic music was hijacked by Hollywood for the films “Caligula,” “The Hudsucker Proxy,” “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Ice Age.” Its themes accompanied the 2009 World Figure Skating Championship Ice Dance competition.
The rest of the ballet bears no resemblance to “Swan Lake” and “Sleeping Beauty,” which makes it challenging for the dancers.
“The rhythm of the music isn’t consistent,” Sutton-Simballa said. “It isn’t what we would normally call danceable music. It doesn’t have that steady tempo.”
Khachaturian is considered one of the leading Soviet composers. Along with Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, he was officially denounced by the Communist Party as a “formalist” in 1948, but was restored later that year.