Boston Ballet’s 60th anniversary season to include four world premieres — and a trip to Paris
Boston Ballet’s 2023-24 season at the Citizens Bank Opera House will include world premieres by artistic director Mikko Nissinen, company dancer My’Kal Stromile, Helen Pickett, and Ken Ossola. It will see the return of resident choreographer Jorma Elo’s “Bach Cello Suites” and “Carmen,” Jirí Kylián’s “Bella Figura,” William Forsythe’s “Blake Works III (The Barre Project),” and Frederick Ashton’s “Cinderella,” along with the company’s annual production of “The Nutcracker.” And it’ll be capped off, May 27-30, by Boston Ballet’s return to the Théâtre de Champs-Élysées in Paris.
“Fall Experience” (Oct. 5-15) will feature live on-stage music. “Bach Cello Suites,” which the company premiered in 2015 and reprised in 2018, has its score played by an on-stage cellist.
Hans van Manen’s 1982 duet “Trois Gnossiennes” (a Boston premiere) is set to Erik Satie’s piano work of the same name. Nissinen says, “it’s sort of a hypnotic, meditative piece”; he compares it to Pickett’s “Tsukiyo” but calls it “more minimalist.” Stromile’s world premiere will likely also have on-stage piano. And then Akram Khan’s 2010 “Vertical Road” (also a Boston premiere) will go in a different direction, set to a commissioned score by Nitin Sawhney and drawing inspiration from the Sufi tradition and Persian poet and philosopher Rumi. “I’ve been talking with Akram for a while,” Nissinen says, “and this is a great way for him to get to know the company, and it’s a really gorgeous piece. His work is so unique, he brings so much of who he is, his classical Indian jazz background and then an incredible contemporary element.”
Following “The Nutcracker” (Nov. 24-Dec. 31), “Winter Experience” (Feb. 22-March 3) will feature a “reimagining” of Marius Petipa’s “Raymonda” by Nissinen and former Paris Opera Ballet étoile Florence Clerc, with new sets and costumes by Robert Perdziola. “‘Raymonda’ is one of those ballets that is a little bit problematic today to do with the story,” Nissinen points out, “so I’m giving it a treatment in three different scenes. The first scene is the beginning of the ballet, with Raymonda’s entrance and the grand waltz, and then I will do a sort of abridged dream scene, and the third scene starts with a big character dance and a sort of expanded classical divertissements that will finish with a new grand galop as a finale.”
Rounding out the program will be Pickett’s “Petal,” which Boston Ballet had planned to present in March 2020, and her world premiere, “SISU.” In Finnish, Nissinen explains, “‘sisu’ means determination and perseverance. Helen picked the name.” He describes the pair as “like a brother and a sister, two pieces that exist within the same huge walls but with a different coloring.”
March will bring “Cinderella” (March 14-24), which Boston Ballet last did in 2019. The company teamed up with Ballet West and Cincinnati Ballet to buy a Royal Ballet production that all three companies could adapt and use. “‘Cinderella’ didn’t really have any more sets that are rentable,” Nissinen says, “and we felt it’s important to keep the classics in everybody’s repertoire. I’m thrilled to have Ashton’s version back with whole new sets and costumes that our audiences haven’t seen.”
“Carmen” (April 25-May 5) will begin with Clerc’s staging of the iconic “Kingdom of the Shades” scene from Petipa’s “La Bayadère.” “This is going to be just a clean, classical dance, no real story,” Nissinen says. “It’ll be abstract classical ballet.” The evening will conclude with Elo’s “Carmen,” which is set to Rodion Shchedrin’s 45-minute “Carmen Suite.” Boston Ballet last did the piece in 2009; this production will have new lighting by Mikki Kunttu and new sets by Benjamin Phillips.
The Boston season will finish with “Spring Experience” (May 9-19): Ossola’s world premiere; “Bella Figura,” which the company last did in March 2022; and “Blake Works III (The Barre Project),” which we saw in May 2022. Ossola’s “Zoom In” was part of the company’s 2021 “Process & Progress” virtual program; he’s also been the stager for “Bella Figura.” His as yet untitled premiere will draw inspiration, Nissinen says, from Michelangelo’s “non-finito” “Prisoners,” four statues that struggle to free themselves from their blocks of marble. The score will be composed by Boston Ballet music director Mischa Santora.
After that it’s off to Paris May 27-30, where Boston Ballet will present “Bach Cello Suites,” “Bella Figura,” and “Blake Works III (The Barre Project).” About the company’s previous visit, in 2019, Nissinen recalls, “I have not really seen that kind of reception in our industry. It was sensational the last time, the kind of attention and embrace we got from the public. Our stock was so sky high, and there were so many opportunities for us opening all around the world, but then COVID hit. I hope this tour can have the same kind of impact and start paving the way to the future.”