Houston Ballet revels in the ravishing, guilty pleasure of ‘Mayerling.’
So much rode on the long ovation after Houston Ballet finished its first performance of the season Friday at Hobby Center.
Patrons seemed relieved to see the company on stage again, with its home theater a few blocks east still ravaged by Hurricane Harvey. They also appeared grateful for a night of beauty. But most of all, they applauded the flawless performances of a masterpiece that is the best thing Houston Ballet has added to its repertoire in years.
Houston Ballet is the first U.S. company to own and perform Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s “Mayerling,” a brutalist ballet created in 1978 that makes “Manon” look mild. The lush score — seamlessly arranged from 30 emotionally fraught compositions by Franz Lizst — perfectly conveys the drama.
Based on the true story of 19th-century Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary — the most dysfunctional member of a salaciously dysfunctional family — the narrative unfolds more like a must-watch train wreck than a tragedy. Unfettered by big corps dances, except for a gorgeous, brief waltz or two and a campy, Bob Fosse-esque cabaret scene, “Mayerling” rolls along as swiftly as a barn-burner, in spite of its three acts.
Rudolf died in 1889 alongside one of his many mistresses in an apparent murder-suicide, although conspiracy theories have lingered about the hastily covered-up incident at the Hapsburg dynasty’s hunting lodge, Mayerling. (Rudolf, the sole heir to the throne, also was politically radical.)
In MacMillan’s telling, Rudolf, who is suffering from symptoms related to syphilis and addicted to morphine, finds a soul mate in the 17-year-old Baroness Mary Vetsera, who’s all in with his death obsession.
“Mayerling” is sometimes called the “Hamlet” of ballets, perhaps because Rudolf keeps a skull handy to contemplate with. The role also demands consummate acting skills as well as extreme physical virtuosity. But Rudolf is no Hamlet in the virtue department; he roughs up all the women he encounters and carelessly kills a member of his family’s hunting party.
Connor Walsh, with a vacant despondence in his normally cheerful eyes, danced as if possessed by an army of reckless inner demons. His Rudolf barrels toward an end he seems to deserve. On the dancing side, Walsh smoothly handled all six of his ballerinas in pas de deux full of entwining lifts, and executed his own tortured, acrobatic solos with a beautifully refined sense of desperation.
Karina Gonzalez, with an innocent sparkle that morphs a bit weirdly into gleeful morbidity, danced fearlessly as the infatuated Mary, flinging herself with abandon into Walsh’s vortex.
Sara Webb deliciously steals every scene she’s in as the deviant disrupter Countess Marie Larisch von Moennich, the naughty lady-in-waiting and exmistress of Rudolf who introduces him to Mary and ultimately shows him more compassion than anyone.
Jessica Collado, as Rudolf ’s complicated mother, Empress Elisabeth, swings believably between coldness and warmth. She’s repulsed by her son’s advances, distant from her bombastic and philandering husband and compliant with court rules but also delights in what looks like sincere love with the British Colonel “Bay” Middleton. (Ian Casady, in that role, seems like the only gentleman in the palace.)
Melody Mennite takes the audience beautifully through the painful journey of Princess Stephanie, Rudolf’s battered wife. Quietly humiliated during their wedding, she’s even more powerless and terrified when he rapes her, disgusted when he drags her to a brothel and, finally, subdued and nearly faded into the woodwork.
Christopher Gray is delightfully empathetic and sharpspirited with two solos as Bratfisch, an entertainer who is Rudolf’s cab driver. Yuriko Kajiya flies exuberantly through the role of Mitzi Caspar, Rudolf’s favorite prostitute, as she is tossed around by a bevy of men. Allison Miller dances with dignified grace as Stephanie’s sister, Princess Louise. Ryo Kato, Rhys Kosakowski, Linnar Looris and Jared Mathews bring a kind of sinister levity to their roles as a quartet of Hungarian officers trying to manipulate the prince.
Conductor Ermanno Florio and the Houston Ballet Orchestra, working in a less-than-ideal pit, delivered a stunningly good performance brimming with romance, passion and swirling, tempestlike passages. Mezzosoprano Sofia Selowsky and pianist Richard Bado, soloists in a surprise onstage performance-within-the-performance, brought a beautiful moment of clarity. Meanwhile, Pablo Nunez’ richly colored, glittering sets and costumes create a vivid portal into both the opulence and gloom of late-19th-century Vienna.
Yes, “Mayerling” is driven by sobering subject matter — sex, drugs, drink and death — but it’s also high art and ravishing entertainment. A good, guilty pleasure.