NYCB Vol. 15 No. 1 - Chaconne

Peter Martins and Suzanne Farrell in Chaconne. Photo by Max Waldman.

I’m so happy today begins NYCB’s Spring Season. Back to my daily ballet posts correlating with each night’s performance, and back to engaging with all of you! On this evening’s opening program is Balanchine’s ‘Chaconne’ which was originally choreographed by Balanchine for a production of Gluck’s ‘Orfeo ed Euridice’ in Hamburg, Germany in 1963. He revived the ballet in 1976 for Suzanne Farrell and Peter Martins, keeping most of the choreography the same, except for the addition of a new duet for them.

Clive Barnes wrote:

“Chaconne is a masterpiece; it is one of those late-blooming Balanchine […] It is a marvelous ballet all about momentum; it has no literary landmarks whatever, indeed no specifics at all. Its movements remind you of nothing but movement, but the choreography for this divertissement is essentially organic. The ballet unfolds, unfurls, develops—it does not merely happen. The inevitability of movement, the sheer momentum of gesture, this is what Chaconne is such a rich and gorgeous work. There is no real virtuosity here except the virtuosity of spirit.”

"The strange, almost idiotic thing about Chaconne is that it appears 13 years old, and has waited all this time for its New York premiere. It is almost inconceivable that MR. Balanchine could have maintained a closet masterpieces for so long. Why?

Peter Martins and Suzanne Farrell in Chaconne. Photo by Max Waldman.

"The ballet was originally created at the request of Rolf Liebermann who happens to be Europe’s response to Lincoln Kirstein. The man is an entrepreneur at the level of genius. It was part of a production of Gluck’s opera ‘Orphee et Euridice,’ given first at the Hamburg State Opera, when Mr. Libermann was then intendant, on Nov 16, 1963. 

"Now, unfortunately perhaps, without the opera, he has staged it for his own company. It would be easy to suggest, knowing Mr. Balanchine’s work habits, that this was a completely new version, with only program lip service being paid to Hamburg and Paris. But it seems not. Brigitte Thom, who used to be the ballet mistress of the Hamburg Opera […] came over to New York to assist Mr. Balanchine in the revival. Without question Mr. Balanchine has changed things—there is a new first section, I believe—but, basically, Chaconne is apparently just what it was.

"It is a complex, baroque piece. It uses groups and ensembles, and consistently builds to the waves of the music. Its sensitivity to the music seems remarkable even for Mr. Balanchine. There is a rightness to everything that is perfect for the stage and for Gluck. One of the most fascinating aspects of MR. Balanchine is the way he adapts his gestural position to the composer; his inner ear, that secret balance of choreography, instinctively tells him the style of movement appropriate to the style of a score. He is so adaptable; he both mirrors and translates music and almost always leaves the music all the better for his attentions.

Peter Martins and Suzanne Farrell in Chaconne. Photo by Max Waldman.

"At the heart of this gleamingly white Chaconne are a number of duets for Suzanne Farrell and Peter Martins. It is difficult to believe that these were not specially created for the dancers, and obviously they must have been considerably adapted. These two wonderful dancers have no air of wearing secondhand clothes; they are too natural and unaffected. They both go through the ballet as gravely as dead lovers in an exultant memorial ritual to the past. This is going to be a permanent part of the American repertory and time will give it a different perspective. But even at this first performance it seemed to be danced with a  buoyant love.

—Clive Barnes, New York Times, 1976