Into the underworld.

International

Ballet British Columbia Queen Elizabeth Theatre Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada May 23-25, 2002

The story of Orpheus, the poet and musician who descends into the underworld in search of his dead wife, Eurydice, has been told by artists of every kind, including choreographers George Balanchine (1948), Maurice Bejart (1958), and Kenneth MacMillan (1982).

Now Ballet British Columbia Artistic Director John Alleyne has plumbed the depths of this tragic Greek myth for his second full-length narrative ballet, following his Shakespeare-inspired The Faerie Queen from 2000. Orpheus, with its strong staging, inventive choreography, and archetypal characters, reaches a poetic intensity that had until now eluded him.

Central to Alleyne's Orpheus is Persephone, the wife of Hades, ruler of the underworld. The role was introduced into the story as a vehicle for the strong presence of the 5' 11" principal dancer Emily Molnar (also central to The Faerie Queen, as Puck). In Alleyne's telling, with aid from playwright John Murrell, the regal and discontented Persephone is the cause of Eurydice's death.

Edmond Kilpatrick, as Orpheus, began the two-act ballet as a happy newly-wed who only becomes a true musician at the end, when he has lost Eurydice once more, forever. Acacia Schachte was a sweet and innocent Eurydice, while Andrea Hodge as Aphrodite, goddess of love, was radiant in a more womanly way. The rest of the fifteen-member company doubled or even tripled up as Nymphs, Furies, and Shades.

The dramatic, contemporary choreography includes a series of pas de deux that are crucial to the story. The light and lovely flow of Orpheus's duets with Eurydice contrast with his grappling matches with Persephone. There are also a number of key solos, including those for Persephone, which begin and end the ballet. In her opening solo, restless, shifting shapes plunged Persephone to the ground more often than they allowed her to rise above it.

Kim Nielsen's set design is stark, even economical, and powerful. The "corridor" between earth and the underworld where most of the action takes place is dark and cavernous, with a crimson curtain that at one point crashes thrillingly to the ground. This twilight world is superbly lit by New York City Ballet Lighting Director Mark Stanley, who strategically illuminates the gloom to allow the dancing to be seen without strain.

Nielsen's costumes were somewhat bland, such as the differently colored gowns for the lead women and the rather ordinary pants and T-shirt for Orpheus. The green-tinged bodices for the male and female Furies were more interesting, as were the fitted, floor-length coats for the athletic trio portraying Cerberus, the savage three-headed dog.

The commissioned score by Michael Bushnell and Owen Underhill, the same team who composed The Faerie Queen's music, is based on five eighteenth-century operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck, including his Orfeo ed Euridice. Played live by a ten-member orchestra, the score ranged from grand to tender to chaotic, always with a light, modern touch.