Coppelia, NYC Ballet, May 26 2018

Coppelia Act III;  a beautifully proportioned suite of allegorical dances that belong to the mythical world of Coppelia.
--Arlene Croce, "The New Yorker," Dec. 9, 1974

It's interesting to me that Croce spends a good part of her piece on Coppelia complaining about Rouben Ter-Arutunian's design and costumes.  How much Balanchine cared about scenery and costumes has always been unclear to me but I have never found that what Ter-Arutunian and Karinska do interferes with my enjoyment of the choreography.  I generally prefer the Balanchine ballets that don't have scenery or costumes -- Concerto Barocco (which did have costumes originally), Agon, The Four Temperaments (which also premiered with costumes) but what is appropriate for Bach and Stravinsky is not necessarily appropriate for Delibes and Tchaikovsky. Coppelia also has a story, of course, and that can be confusing:  it was not clear to my daughter that  in the second act Swanhilda replaced the doll in Dr. Coppelius's secret workshop, reminding me of when I saw The Awful Truth at MoMA and some of the audience was confused as Irene Dunne imitated Joyce Compton as Dixie Belle Lee; imitations and plots can be confusing.

For this production Balanchine had Alexandra Danilova (she had fled the Soviet Union with Balanchine and had danced Coppelia herself) re-create the first two acts and Balanchine himself created a new, abstract third act which my daughter loved: "it's incredible, so beautiful I had tears in my eyes."  I had seen the original production shortly after its premiere in 1974, with Patricia McBride and Helgi Tomasson, and it was a pleasure to see how wonderful the lissome Sterling Hyltin and the attacking Andrew Veyette were in their parts.  The conductor, Andrew Litton, kept up an impressive pace that Hyltin was able to match with the speed of her brise voles.  The first two acts dragged a bit --constrained by the necessity of telling a story -- but the third act was intense and beautiful and even sometimes charmingly goofy, with Discord and War sporting helmets and spears like something out of Wagner, and Balanchine adding lively music by Delibes from La Source and Sylvia.  The children from the school were coached by Dena Abergel and Arch Higgins;  they effectively and delightfully represented the future of the wedding being celebrated.