It was Super Bowl week in San Francisco. Amid the hoopla preceding Sunday’s faceoff between godlike quarterbacks Cam Newton and Peyton Manning, George Balanchine’s Apollo appeared on the stage of Walnut Creek’s Del Valle Theatre to trace the making of a supreme athlete.
Diablo Ballet’s Christian Squires, Amanda Farris, Rosselyn Ramirez and Tetyana Martyanova in George Balanchine’s APOLLO
The ten-member Diablo Ballet fielded a quartet who at first glance seemed ill-matched (in particular, Tetyana Martyanova who, in the role of Calliope, towers over the other two Muses, and over Christian Squires’ Apollo.) But they performed this epochal work with skill and exuberance, striking a pleasing balance between playfulness and solemnity.
Elsewhere on the program, Tina Kay Bohnstedt’s My Way, set to a wordless arrangement of the Sinatra classic for cello and piano, was mysteriously affecting (though not in the cheesy way one might expect from the history of this song.)
Robert Dekkers’ Milieu proved mysterious in a different vein. The piece reveals a somewhat fearsome tribe in an illusory jungle conjured up by David Robertson’s tenebrous lighting design.
Live music for these last two pieces – including the talented Daniel Berkman on the West African kora and assorted electronics – showed up all those companies who have made the unwise decision to scrap live music in these difficult economic times.
– Click here to read our review in Bachtrack –
