The American Ballet Theater & "Swan Lake"

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Wednesday, 06 July 2022 15:12

Written by Jack Angstreich

Scene from Swan Lake. Photo: Gene Schiavone.

On the evening of Thursday, June 30th, at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, a thus far terrific season for the superb American Ballet Theater continued marvelously with an ultimately thrilling realization of the magnificent, exceedingly popular Swan Lake, with gorgeouschoreography by retiring Artistic Director, Kevin McKenzie, after that of the immortal Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov of the Imperial Russian Ballet. The glorious score is by Peter Tchaikovsky, which was ably conducted here by David LaMarche. The splendid sets and costumes were designed by Zack Brown, with beautiful lighting by Duane Schuler.

A fabulous cast was headed by Gillian Murphy—maybe the finest ballerina in the company—who was simply dazzling in the celebrated dual role of the Princess Odette and Odile, von Rothbart’s daughter. Her excellent partner—who was also effective as the male lead in the previous week’s remarkable Alexei Ratmansky production, Of Love and Rage—was Thomas Forster, who again succeeded as a matinee idol. Duncan Lyle and Jarod Curley were impressive as von Rothbart, the evil sorcerer. Sung Woo Han shone as Benno, the prince’s friend, as did his counterparts in the first act’s Pas de Trois: Sunmi Park and Chloe Misseldine. Equally fabulous, in the mesmerizing second act, were the four Cygnettes—Léa Fleytoux, Hannah Marshall, Erica Lall, and Rachel Richardson—and the Two Swans: Zhong-Jing Fang—who was stunning in the season’s opening week production of Don Quixote—and Paulina Waski, who also played the Spanish Princess in the third act.

The admirable dancers of the third act included: Emily Hayes as the Hungarian Princess; Virginia Lensi as the Italian Princess; Kathryn Boren as the Polish Princess; and Betsy McBride and Kento Sumitani, who executed the Czardas.The two couples of the Spanish Dance were Courtney Lavine with João Menegussi and Scout Forsythe with Patrick Frenette, while the Neapolitan dance was performed by Cameron McCune and Jonathan Klein. The corps de ballet was enchanting. The artists deservedly received an unusually enthusiastic ovation.

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