Balanchine's three-part, evening-long ballet, Jewels, is one of the jewels of his output. Created in 1967, Jewels revisits the central pillars of his glorious career. Thus, the first of the trio, Emeralds, to music by Fauré, is an homage to the French school of ballet; a Romantic episode in which soft-core lyricism comes to the fore. The second ballet, set to Stravinsky, ...
Baryshnikov, Harvey and Don Quixote is a combination which could hardly fail to be a crowd-pleaser, but in an era when armchair ballet audiences have a huge selection of sure-fire winners to choose from it's worth reflecting on just why this production is so good. This is the 1983 Quixote from the New York Metropolitan Opera House, full-length and, indeed, full of merit. The ...