The San Francisco Opera House wasn’t quite full for the opening of San Francisco Ballet’s all-Balanchine program, next to last for the spring 2012 season. Part can be attributed to several days of rain and the reported 750 flashes of lightning hitting the San Francisco Bay Area. It also might also be attributed to the choice of Mr. B.’s invention, “Divertimento #15,” “Scotch Symphony,” and “Four Temperaments,” none new to the company’s repertoire.
Divertimento No. 15 was last seen at Stern Grove where casting included Lorena Feijoo, Nicolas Blanc and Tina Le Blanc, pleasant and civilized in that sylvan setting. Despite W.A. Mozart’s music, it seemed to drag. Part of the problem was the “after Karinska” costumes. Trying to evoke that era’s elaborate panniers in women’s costumes, tiny blue bows appeared twice on the chest, the tutu itself approximating elaborate lace and embellishments. The women’s heads sported an off center circles of brilliants equally at home with Chanel or Vionnet.
To that very intricate, delicate music, Balanchine managed to keep the eye engaged with visual shifts in small ensembles. The five women shared the three men, Taras Domitro and Hansuke Yamamoto, in sequence or in combination, along with Gennadi Nedvigin, the latter briefly a center piece of a trio with two women. In one duet Vanessa Zahorian gestured, then moved quickly aside so Nedvigin’s sautes could be seen; the two had shared prizes in the 1999 Erik Bruhn competition.
Frances Chung and Sasha De Sola also danced with distinction.
Like Divertimento and Four Temperaments, Felix Mendelsohn’s Scotch Symphony is no stranger to SFB’s repertoire; I disremember who danced it. But I saw it danced at New York City’s Civic Center when the three principal roles were created by Maria Tallchief, Andre Eglevsky with Patricia Wilde as the stand alone third. Not a stellar creation, Balanchine created it to compliment the Scots when the company appeared at the Edinburgh Festival.
Tallchief’s interpretation was marked by a certain astringency; both physical heft and weight were featured in the Eglevsky and Wilde assignments. Equally swift, Yuan Yuan Tan danced with nuance; her softness more than compensated for Tallchief’s qualities. It is an excellent role for her and Tan made the most of it, thanks to her astonishing line and lightness.
Karapetyan did well by the slight drama of the Sylph’s barred by the kilted men and in partnering, but he did not seem comfortable; his costume lacked the dash the kilted corps men enjoyed. Courtney Elizabeth’s rendering was crisp and engaging, if Wilde’s amplitude was absent. It reminded me, however, just how innovative Balanchine was in his use of solo female bravura.
Hindemith’s The Four Temperaments has seen some worthy interpreters amongst San Francisco Ballet dancers. In the Theme section with three couples, Nutnaree Piput-Suksun and Anthony Spaulding added to the memory bank, their gravity, and phrasing soothing and full. Taras Domitro, debuting in Melancholic, seemed too slight for the downward pull of that mood. When Sarah Van Patten and Tiit Helimets danced the Sanguinic variation, one felt his physical size would have lent itself to Domitro’s assignment.
Vito Mazzeo, new to the Phlegmatic, was another improbable piece of casting. Technically correct, his slender height seemed an impossible vehicle for such retarded behavior.
Sofiane Sylve, spot on, energized the stage in Choleric, leading the ensemble into those final thrusts of the arms, forward movements with the thrusting hips. The ballet has long since been denuded of the Seligmann costumes in favor of practice clothes, helping to energize the program’s finale.
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