Ballet’s ‘Taming’ rollicks with a heart
You never forget you’re watching humans in a John Cranko ballet.
His “The Taming of the Shrew” hits the right buttons in other ways, too, through expressive pas de deux that advance the story, no mere rote classical steps, and deftly handled comedy. Susan Benson’s delicious costumes and scenery evoke a Renaissance Italy Leonardo da Vinci would have understood, but with a fresh touch of Impressionism in its painted backdrops.
Houston Ballet looked totally in its element during Thursday’s opening performance, returning confidently to a production it first performed in 2011. Melody Mennite and Connor Walsh, a virtuosic Kate and Petruchio who emit palpable sparks of energy, led the terrific cast.
Mennite burst onstage full of tornadic anger, a tightly wound troublemaker with no patience for the foolery of her sweet sister Bianca’s bumbling suitors. Every step, even when her feet were flexed, was full of crisp bravura sharpness. Walsh, her perfect opposite, bounded on with an equal amount of boisterousness and ne’er-do-well playfulness, looking utterly like the strong leading man he’s become.
If George Clooney could do triple tours and barrel turns with as much ease, this is what he’d look like. Petruchio doesn’t appear mean, even when he’s starving his new wife into submission. You sense he’s as charmed as you are by Kate’s spirit, which he doesn’t so much kill as control.
Mennite’s Kate is too smart not to know when she’s met her match. There’s more than one way to be swept off your feet, and their acrobatic pas de deux covers the range. Through each devilish lift, her frustration softens, and as she finally learns to let her feelings fly, her charm — and her eventually affectionate fisticuffs — become irresistible.
Cranko precedes that more contemporaryinflected dance with a pas de deux of extreme romantic purity for Bianca and her lover, Lucentio. Lauren Stron- increasingly foppish as the sneezing, chirpy old Gremio and self-absorbed Hortensio, provide laughs with every step, even as they’re tricked into marrying a pair of flamboyant bar girls, played with plenty of bombast by Jessica Collado and Katharine Precourt.
Ermanno Florio and the Houston Ballet Orchestra moved the action along colorfully through the many brief solos of Kurt-Heinz Stolze’s score — adapted from keyboard works by Domenico Scarlatti — which at various times features piccolo, clarinet, harpsichord and the zany effect of a whistle.
Multiple casts rotate in the leads.
molly.glentzer@chron.com
Additional generous funding is provided by Carol and Michael Linn; the National Endowment for the Arts; and the Vivian L. Smith Foundation.