Friday, January 22, 2021

SFB Launches 2021 Digital Season

Last night San Francisco Ballet (SFB) launched its 2021 Digital Season by revisiting the first and only offering of last year’s season at the War Memorial Opera House. During that past performance of George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the word went out from City Hall that all public performances, events, and gatherings at the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center were to be cancelled to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The initial cancellation was to last through March 20, 2020; but, as we all now know all too well, that cancellation is still in effect.

A few days after that announcement SFB was able to return to the Opera House with a film crew led by Frank Zamacona. A multi-camera capture of the entire ballet was created, and the Web page for viewing the results was launched last night. That Web page will remain active through February 10.

What is probably most important is that the resulting video provides a viewing experience that goes beyond what anyone could have seen from any seat in the Opera House. Regular readers should, by now, be familiar with Zamacona’s name through the videos he created for the San Francisco Opera, many of which have been made available for viewing through the Opera is ON service. He clearly understands how to determine the right vantage point for every instance of the drama unfolding on the stage; and, when the curtain is down, he is just as skilled in tracking the instrumental performance in the orchestra pit. For Midsummer that included several opportunities to appreciate Martin West’s skills in managing the breadth of instrumental resources required to perform the music by Felix Mendelssohn.

Most of the video, however, involved accounting for the highly imaginative choreography for an extended corps de ballet along with a rich cast of characters exploring the interplay between the natural and supernatural worlds. That narrative was further enhanced by the “hyper-reality” of Martin Pakledinaz’ scenic designs, enlarging the flora of the forest to remind the viewer of how small the fairies are. As I observed last year, Balanchine developed his own plot line, rather than following William Shakespeare’s lead. This was more than a matter of allowing for all that splendid corps de ballet work. It also entailed a rich diversity of techniques through which character traits could be established without the characters ever speaking.

Titania (Sasha De Sola) and her attendants (photograph by Erik Tomasson, courtesy of San Francisco Ballet)

For the most part his techniques were impressively convincing. The relationship between Oberon (Esteban Hernandez) and Titania (Sasha De Sola) emerges as richer than the squabbling one encounters in Shakespeare’s text, while Puck (Cavan Conley) establishes himself as the “prime mover” of the entire narrative. (Was he serving as alter ego of Balanchine himself?)

Then, of course, there is the abundant abstract choreography in the second act, which I had previously described as moving Shakespeare into “Aurora’s Wedding” territory. In this case there are three couples getting married: Theseus-Hippolyta, Lysander-Hermia, Demetrius-Helena. [updated 1/24, 7 a.m. for a more accurate account of how Theseus and Hippolyta figure in the choreography: Theseus and Hippolyta are finally given distinctive “voices,” albeit through some lusciously elegant non-narrative choreography.] Mostly, however, the act consists of Balanchine abstractions at their finest, returning to narrative only to wrap up the entire ballet with Puck’s monologue.

Clearly, no spirits were offended in the making of this video account of one of Balanchine’s more extended creations.

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