EIFMAN BALLET BRINGS NEW WORKS TO NEW YORK CITY.

NEW YORK CITY--Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg brings two American premieres, The Karamazovs and My Jerusalem, to Manhattan's City Center January 19 to 31. The company made its U.S. debut just last year with Tchaikovsky and Red Giselle, both of which it will perform again during the City Center run.

The two-act Karamazovs was staged by Boris Eifman in 1995 and is set to fragments of music from works of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Modest Mussorgsky, and Richard Wagner. The plot is inspired by the Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel but does not explore all of the novel's ideas. In the ballet Feodor Karamazov is murdered in the first act, but the spectators will never know who did it--the choreographer concentrates on different problems. According to Eifman, the ballet is entitled The Karamazovs because each of the three sons displays the vicious passions of his father. In the second act, Eifman refers to the continuation of the novel, conceived but not realized by Dostoyevsky, and traces the possible future of the youngest brother, Alyosha Karamazov.

The unique ability of the Eifman Ballet's artists to create emotionally and psychologically complex heroes is manifested in The Karamazovs. Vera Arbuzova provides a fascinating image of Grushenka, while Igor Markov portrays Alyosha's desperate attempts to reach emotional balance and his terror of lusts of the flesh with great artistry. Albert Galichanin depicts Ivan's emotional range, from his cool pondering of human nature to his virulent hatred for his lewd father. Yuri Ananyan's Dmitri is wicked and unrestrained in quarrels and helpless in misfortune.

Eifman's latest production, My Jerusalem, is markedly different from the Eifman works that New York audiences have seen. Consisting of two one-act ballets (Requiem and My Jerusalem) which are linked only by association, the ballet is more abstract than the choreographer's recent dances. My Jerusalem is set to techno music, and to Muslim, Christian, and Judaic religious and ethnic music. The piece is not alien to the choreographer's style, however: from 1977 to 1991, Eifman created one-act dramas, parables, comedies, slapsticks, and even rock ballets for younger audiences.

Eifman's first choreography to Mozart's Requiem premiered August 21, 1991--the day of the procommunist putsch in Russia. He came back to make a new version of the work in 1998, he says, because "there was no other ballet where I was as sincere, as internally exposed, as in the Mozart Requiem. This is my past, my present, and my presentiment of the future. This is my memory that introduces an unprotected youth into the world, that recalls the ordeals of mature age, wisdom, and feebleness of old age. Listening to Mozart, you can feel the breath of eternity."

My Jerusalem was inspired by the legendary town of three religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The choreographer only occasionally separates the three heroes--a Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew--from the group, giving them short solos.

Combining contemporary musical and choreographic elements, My Jerusalem displays a utopian vision. In the finale, the characters overcome racial and religious differences and achieve unity through suffering.