“The pas de deux with Titania and bottom in the donkey’s head is the jewel at the heart of the ballet. It is Balanchine’s triumph as a commentator on human absurdity. Balanchine knew that the infatuated of either sex discern qualities in the loved one which do not exist: that love is blind: that we love monsters and become monsters of jealousy when loving: that anyone can get carried away by fantastic Hope on a Saturday night and wake to a nasty shock on Sunday morning. Titania goes through her motions with devout seriousness: Balanchine knows that while she seems to show bottom tenderly how to partner her, the clown supporting the fairy queen and an arabesque penché has only to turn his grotesque head, a very little wistfully over his shoulder at an imagined thistle to prick us with laughter. Yet even as we laugh, we experience a pang of sadness, the comedy is a comedy of the highest kind.”
–George Balanchine: Ballet Master by Richard Buckle
Melissa Hayden, George Balanchine, and Richard Rapp
Photos by Fred Fehl
Harry Ransom Center
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