Don Quixote.Don Quixote, the season finale for American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre, one of the foremost international dance companies of the 20th cent. It was founded in 1937 as the Mordkin Ballet and reorganized as the Ballet Theatre in 1940 under the direction of Lucia Chase and Rich Pleasant. (Metropolitan Opera House, April 24-June 17, 1995) was given a sparkling new lease on life by fresh staging and extraordinary dancing, emblematic of the ensemble's appearances this year. In spite of the Minkus score and sections of choreography by Marius Petipa, this grand old warhouse can seem antiquated. Not so with ABT's production, conceived by the troupe's artistic director Kevin McKenzie, and Susan Jones. Best of all were the glorious performances by a star-filled cast. Paloma Herrera and Julio Bocca were technically ravishing rav·ish·ing adj. Extremely attractive; entrancing. rav  ish·ing·ly adv. as the young lovers, Kitri and Basil. Their flights were anchored by the sensitive acting of Victor Barbee, as the gentle don, and Terry Orr as his irrepressible sidekick. Christine Dunham was a seductive Mercedes to Maxim Belotserkovsky's brash, arrogant matador matadorIn bullfighting, the principal performer, who works the capes and attempts to dispatch the bull with a sword thrust between the shoulder blades. Most of the techniques used by modern matadors were established in the 1910s by Juan Belmonte (b. 1894–d. . Such first-class dancers as Shawn Black and Sandra Brown danced the Flower Girls, Julie Kent portrayed the Queen of the Dryads dryads: see nymph. dryads divine maidens of the woods. [Gk. and Rom. Myth.: Wheeler, 108] See : Nymph , and Ashley Tuttle appeared as Amour. In the second-act Gypsy cameo, Kathleen Moore and Angel Corella sent sparks across the footlights footlights Row of lights set across the front of a stage floor to light the scene. The oil lamps and candles in use in the 17th century eventually gave way to gas and electricity. . Passion was rightly viewed by McKenzie as the engine for Don Quixote, and his spectacular opening cast delivered with maximum force. |
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