Jewels
Jewels ballet. Choreography by George Balanchine. Music by Gabriel Fauré, Igor Stravinsky, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Performed 2006 by the Mariinsky Ballet Company. Solo stars in the Emeralds part are Zhanna Ayupova, Denis Firsov, Daria Sukhorukova, Dmitry Semionov, Yana Selina, Xenia Ostreikovskaya, and Anton Korsakov; in Rubies, Irina Golub, Andrian Fadeyev, and Sofia Gumerova are the soloists; the soloists in Diamonds are Ulyana Lopatkina and Igor Zelensky. Tugan Sokhiev directs the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra. Staging by Karin von Aroldingen, Sarah LeLand, Elyse Borne, and Sean Lavery; scenery by Peter Harvey, costumes by Karinska with recreation of costumes supervised by Holly Hines; original lighting by Roland Bates is executed by Perry Silvey; directed for TV by Brian Large. Released 2011, has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound Grade: A
This is an abstract ballet in which Balanchine pays homage to various influences in his artistic life. The dancers are dressed first in green for the "Emeralds" number, then in red for "Rubies," and last in white for "Diamonds." Per Balanchine himself, the dances, without plot or props, have "no literary content at all." The musical selections are unrelated to each other. My impression is that "Emeralds" honors the French origins of ballet, "Rubies" is a salute to the United States for giving Balanchine a safe place to work, and "Diamonds" celebrates the Russian school of ballet where Balanchine got his start.
Jewels is considered to be a masterpiece of modern neoclassical dance. There is a legal entity called the George Balanchine Trust that arranges for production of Jewels in accordance with the "Balanchine Style." This suggests that performances of this work will probably have a lot in common and few differences. At this date (October 2011) there have maybe been about 150 productions of Jewels around the world since its premiere in 1967. In other words, although this has been a successful and popular work, only a pitifully few people have been lucky enough to see it.
Before the release of subject title, there was only one complete video of Jewels. This was the performance by the Paris Opera Ballet in late 2005 released by Opus Arte in 2008 in Blu-ray. (There was also a DVD of this POB show from Opus Arte.) Alas, as described in a mini-review on this site, the POB recording in Blu-ray is marred by many motion artifacts that make it unsatisfactory for general viewing .
It follows that subject Mariinsky Blu-ray of Jewels is probably today the only way for a discriminating viewer to enjoy a video of Jewels.
So let's look a bit closer at subject title. Scenery is allowed for each part of Jewels. In the POB version the minimal scenery used was so cold as to be counter-productive. It would have been better leave the stage completely bare and rely on lighting for augmenting the mood of each ballet. At the Mariinsky, Peter Harvey did a much better job. He added side curtains that reduced the size of the stage. He also added interesting and luxurious jewel-like hangings that tend to "lower the ceiling." This together with clever painted backdrops and lighting transformed the stage into a thing of beauty itself and provided a cozy (rather than sterile and forbidding) environment for the dancing. The Mariinsky corps might not show quite the same degree of precision for which the POB is famous. But the Mariinsky stars seem to me to be completely competitive with the French dancers. In addition, the Mariinsky stars managed on occasion to sneak in some actual emotion into their dancing. These dashes of salt and pepper help a lot to season the steak.
The Mariinsky video was made in 2006, which is long ago in the world of HDVD. The TV director was Brian Large, one of the best around. Now there are also motion sickness defects in this recording. But I would say that 75% or more of the Opus Arte Jewels has some kind of motion problem and that this is reduced to less than 25% in the Mariinsky shoot. The result is that I can enjoy the Mariinsky show, but I can't stand to watch the POB version.
So to sum up, this Mariinsky title is an important asset because it is the only game in town for anyone who wants to see Jewels. The Mariinsky performance is equal to or better than the POB show. The Opus Arte DVD is obsolete; the Opus Arte Blu-ray is defective. The Mariinsky is an "A+" title for anyone with a serious interest in ballet. But I'm not sure it "needs" to be in everone's fine-arts HDVD library, so I'll settle on the "A" grade for purposes of this website.
We still need a comment that we can place here as a more complete mini-review of the artistic merits of this ballet performance.
Henry McFadyen Jr.
