New York City Ballet Jan. 28, 2017

The emotion of the ballet {La Sonnambula} comes in a series of nervous shocks, as deeply pleasurable as in a horror story.

What looks to the Prodigal Son like the fun of happy voluptuousness turns into a sickening orgy in which he is systematically degraded, beaten and robbed.

--Arlene Croce, Playbill, Winter 1969

Beneath the new trappings it{Firebird} is the same old unserious , childish, gaudy little ballet.

--Arlene Croce, The Dancing Times, July 1970

There’s no doubt in my mind that the three ballets we saw on January 28 would have been considerably changed if Balanchine had lived beyond 1983, Balanchine believing that ballets were meant to be living and breathing, not stuck as museum pieces such as these three ballets are, as lovely as they may be. As my wife Susan pointed out, these three ballets – La Sonnambula, Prodigal Son, and Firebird – are too similar to be grouped together in a dubious characterization as “short stories.”  All three are somewhat fantastical oneiric period pieces featuring strange and elusive women luring men with their beautiful bourees.  Balanchine’s work was generally as varied as the music he used, from Bach to Stravinsky.

This being said, the ballets were beautifully danced.  Sterling Hyltin was a suitably mysterious sleepwalker and Chase Finlay was effective as the doomed poet in La Sonnambula.  The divertissements and the mazurkas of the guests seemed like a dance of death, presaging the ending, not only of the ballet but of all of us.  The ending of the ballet is inordinately sad, with just the light from a candle indicating the movement of the doomed poet and sleepwalker.

I find Prodigal Son, one of the earliest (1929) Balanchine ballets still being performed, hard to appreciate these days after one has seen Villella and Baryshnikov dance it.  Gonzalo Garcia danced it on Saturday and did a good job, though he doesn’t have quite the presence of some of his predecessors;  Sara Mearns was an effective siren in her limited role but much of this ballet is just plain goofy and weird, especially the “drinking companions,” who slither and crawl.  Interestingly, the endings of Prodigal Son and La Sonnambula are rather similar, with someone being carried sadly off the stage.  Incidentally, there is a scene in the PBS Balanchine biography of Balanchine demonstrating the ending of Prodigal Son to Baryshnikov and Balanchine’s performance is far superior to Baryshnikov’s!

I have only recently begun to appreciate Balanchine’s Firebird, with its similarities to some of his better ballets, especially his marvelous one-act version of Swan Lake.  It’s another period piece by Stravinsky and Balanchine that’s considerably influenced by Russian folk dances and tales. I could do without the Jerome Robbins part of the wizard and his subjects, but I have grown to like the stately wedding at the end.  Stravinsky’s music is somewhat thin compared to the Rieti and Prokofiev of the two preceding ballets on Saturday.  Teresa Reichlen did beautiful bourees as Firebird.