BALLET PACKAGE: A LONDON-TO-S.F. VALENTINE
Without question, the S.F. Ballet is flying high with the love duo Valentine, “Marguerite and Armand.” It was flying into the troposphere Saturday when danced by SFB superstar Yuan Yuan Tan in a farewell performance. The Opera House was sold out wall-to-wall for the Feb. 10 show, vibrant with repeated bows for the ovations at the final curtain.
How apt for the Opera House, where many patrons recognize right away the synopsis of Verdi’s opera “La Traviata,” both drawn from the novel by Alexandre Dumas fils: The two fall in love, she takes up a tawdry affair with a wealthy sugar-daddy, she falls ill (consumption), and Armand is back front-and-center for her death scene, forgiving all. Sentimental and romantic, danced to an ultra-dramatic, enlarged Liszt piano sonata—a lovely, old-fashioned Valentine for every one witnessing the moving tale running close to 40 minutes.
Happy to say, Yuan Yuan (or YY, as she’s often referred to) did not show her age, nor the wear-and-wear of 29 seasons at the SFB: Still dancing on pointe, still as sinuous as ever, still radiating ardor in her Marguerite role. She is paired with the dashing Aaron Robison, an elegant, athletic swain ranging effortlessly all over the stage.
The work was created by the late Royal Ballet legend Frederick Ashton over a half-century ago as a vehicle for the wildly successful Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev—again, pairing a very senior ballerina with a young star. (Current assistance credit: the SFB’s new director, Tamara Rojo, coaching the title pair). This provided a grand finale to the season’s inconsistent second program, “British Icons.”
Kenneth MacMillan, also a midcentury British choreographer, created the sleepy companion piece “Song of the Earth,” with a plucky pit orchestra having some semblance to the full ensemble required by the eponymous Mahler symphony.
It lacked the vitality of that finale opus, providing its legions in nice rows and unisons, often like military formations. Despite the large-cast efforts, with Wona Park and Joseph Walsh showing their polish at the forefront, the 68-minute package of so-so vocal soloists and dance inspired the patron next to me to fall asleep twice over.
One would hope that MacMillan could be represented at a later date by his superb, forward-looking “Romeo and Juliet” created for the Fonteyn-Nureyev pair—one of the most stunning of mid-century choreographies, still lingering in memory 60 years after witnessing it.
Casting changes nightly, available if you crack the house’s QR code. Even there, while giving copious detail on both British choreographers, there is no mention when each of these ballets was premiered—a glaring omission. And I’m still searching for the night-by-night major casting, which rotates.
BALLET NOTES—“M and A” marked the penultimate farewell for Yuan Yuan. Her final will come on Valentine’s Day Feb. 14, in the same role….Martin West conducted the tandem program, dealing with undernourished Mahler forces and a lackluster orchestration of the Liszt sonata.
SAN FRANCISCO BALLET in “British Icons:” Ashton’s “Marguerite and Armand,” and MacMillan’s “Song of the Earth,” Feb. 9-15. Opera House, S.F. For info, (415) 861-6000 or go online, www.sfballet.org.
