On March 24, 2019, the Metropolitan Opera House box office will start selling tickets to American Ballet Theatre 2019 Spring Season. This year’s includes several highlights to note.
2019 Spring Gala Performance
This year, the 2019 Spring Gala will be held on May 20 and will pay tribute to the company’s Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky. Since holding this position, he has created fifteen works for ABT, many of which will be seen this season. The Gala performance will be witness to a world premiere by Ratmansky set to Alexander Glazunov’s The Seasons.
Alexei Ratmansky Ballets
Audiences will have plenty of opportunities to see Ratmansky’s ballets including his full-length Harlequinade, Whipped Cream, and The Sleeping Beauty. Principal casting for the openings will be:
Harlequinade (May 13) – Isabella Boylston, James Whiteside, Stella Abrera, Thomas Forster
Whipped Cream (May 24) – Daniil Simkin, Stella Abrera, Calvin Royal III, Sarah Lane
The Sleeping Beauty (July 1) – Isabella Boylston, James Whiteside
There will also be a mixed program that features the aforementioned world premiere as well as his first and most recent works for ABT, On the Dnieper and Songs of Bukovina, respectively. The principal casting for the May 21 opening performance will be:
On the Dnieper – Hee Seo, Cory Stearns, Christine Shevchenko, James Whiteside
Songs of Bukovina – Isabella Boylston, Blaine Hoven
Full-length Ballets
Other full-lengths on the schedule are Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon, Marius Petipa’s (with additional choreography by Konstantin Sergeyev) Le Corsaire, and Company Artistic Director Kevin MacKenzie’s (after Petipa) Swan Lake. The opening performance casting will be:
Manon (June 17) – Hee Seo, Roberto Bolle, Stella Abrera, James Whiteside
Le Corsaire (June 11) – Skylar Brandt, Herman Cornejo, Sarah Lane, Carlos Gonzalez, Daniil Simkin
Swan Lake (June 24) – Hee Seo, Cory Stearns
A Farewell to Robert Bolle
June 20 marks Robert Bolle’s final performance with ABT as Des Grieux in Manon.
Company Premieres
This season also features a few company premieres. Cathy Marson’s Jane Eyre – which saw its debut by Northern Ballet on May 19, 2016 in England – will feature Devon Teuscher and James Whiteside in the leading roles.
Twyla Tharp’s Deuce Coupe, a 1973 piece choreographed to Beach Boys music, will be part of a Tharp Trio program that also includes The Brahms-Haydn Variations (made for ABT in 2000) and In the Upper Room (made for the Twyla Tharp Dance in 1986).
American Ballet Theatre 2019 Spring Season
ABT Dancers Share Their Thoughts About Alexei Ratmansky
Source: American Ballet Theatre, Featured Photo of Devon Teuscher and James Whiteside in Cathy Marsten’s Jane Eyre © Patrick Fraser