Retiring PBT artistic director and dancer love ‘Giselle’
“Giselle” is a bittersweet story. Woven throughout the ballet is the joy that comes with discovering something (or someone) you love and the sadness of letting go.
It’s a fitting choice to open Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s 201920 season, its 50th, next weekend at Benedum Center with the PBT Orchestra. While celebrating this golden anniversary, the company is also getting ready to say goodbye to longtime artistic director Terrence Orr and principal dancer Luca Sbrizzi.
Mr. Orr announced during this summer that he will step down as artistic director at the end of the season, making this the fifth and final time he’ll present “Giselle” in his 20-plus years with PBT.
“I think it’s probably my favorite ballet in a way,” he says. “It has a wonderful piece of music that’s not known to be by one of the famous composers. It has an incredible story that’s very much like ‘Romeo and Juliette,’ but people don’t see it that way.”
The Paris Opera Ballet premiered “Giselle” in 1841 with choreography by Jean Coralli and
Jules Perrot and music from Adolphe Adam. Later, it was updated with revisions by 19th-century French choreographer Marius Petipa.
Set in a village in Germany, it follows the unlikely love story of nobleman Count Albrecht and Giselle, a peasant maiden. Meanwhile, a huntsman and gamekeeper named Hilarion also has fallen for Giselle. She later learns, though, that Albrecht has
pledged to marry someone else, and she dies of a broken heart.
In the second act, Giselle is destined to join the Wilis, a group of female spirits jilted in life who now haunt the forest and any man in their path. But Giselle’s bond with Albrecht continues beyond the grave.
Mr. Orr has a soft sport for this ballet because his wife, PBT ballet mistress Marianna Tcherkassky, had the title role as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. He says The New York Times called her “one of the greatest Giselles of our time.”
PBT last staged the ballet in 2016 with fresh scenery and new costumes and staging by Mr. Orr. To help dancers dig even deeper into the emotion-packed plot this time, Mr. Orr invited dramaturg and friend Byam Stevens to work with them for a week.
“I’ve known his family — they’re all involved with American Ballet Theatre — and that’s probably where I first knew him,” Mr. Orr says. “That’s been easily more than 50 years.”
Like Mr. Orr, Mr. Sbrizzi ranks “Giselle” among his favorite ballets. When he learned PBT would revive it, he postponed his retirement from last spring until this month so he could dance the role of Albrecht again.
“I’m super fortunate and lucky that I’m able to go out with a ballet I love and respect so much,” he says.
A native of Udine, Italy, Mr. Sbrizzi danced with Boston Ballet II before joining PBT in 2007. He was promoted to principal in 2016. Exiting the company was a decision that he’s been “thinking about for quite some time,” he says. His wife, Jenna, is pregnant with their first child, who’s due in November. Mr. Sbrizzi plans to work in massage therapy after earning his license in it several years ago.
“I feel like my career has been fully satisfied, and I want to retire when I’m still feeling good and healthy,” says Mr. Sbrizzi, 33. “I don’t want to have issues later on in life because I pushed the career for too long.”
He credits Mr. Orr for making his time with PBT a positive experience.
“He’s really taken me under his wing from the very beginning. He’s coached me through the ranks,” he says. “He’s allowed me to do all the roles I wanted to do and ever desired to do.”
In “Giselle,” he’ll be partnered with principal Alexandra Kochis, whose husband, Christopher Budzynski, made his final PBT performance in the 2016 production of “Giselle.”
Despite the impending retirements, it’s been business as usual around the studio and in rehearsals.
“I think that, of course, is in the back of everybody’s mind, but we’ve honestly been so busy and have such an incredible lineup of ballets to be performing this season,” Ms. Kochis says.
“Terry gets so excited about ballet, and he’s just so passionate about passing on what excites him.”