Two flawed heroes and two indomitable heroines light up the stage in the last three performances of the ballet and opera spring season.
Two flawed heroes and two indomitable heroines light up the stage in the last three performances of the ballet and opera spring season.
On Sunday, the Bolshoi Ballet performs “A Hero of Our Time,” an opportunity for a trio of the Bolshoi’s legendary male dancers to display their almost gravity-free prowess. In a ballet based on the highly regarded story by literary master Mikhail Lermontov, a young officer, both sensitive and cynical, crosses the perilous Caucasus Mountains. Pechorin’s path brings supremely poetic interludes: He meets a young Circassion Princess, Bela; then, leaving her tragically, he encounters the Red Swan, a femme fatale, Undine. As he travels on, his final encounter is with the naïve Princess Mary.
A Byronic antihero, Pechorin’s courage and character prove flawed, calling for a challenging emotional range in the choreography and dancing. Yet Pechorin is perhaps as much a hero for our time as we are going to get, or perhaps it is our time itself which is deeply flawed. Tickets for the 12:45 p.m. show range from $16 to $19.
On April 22, live in HD from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera comes Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s exposition of Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin.” The young, romantic and idealistic country girl Tatiana plunges madly into love with the wealthy, aristocratic Eugene Onegin, selfish, opportunistic and bored. All too soon, Onegin reveals his flaws, leaving Tatiana more than wretched. Years pass, and Onegin returns — to fall in love himself with Tatiana, now herself a glamorous Princess.
Anna Netrebko has made Tatiana’s role her own, Peter Mattei sings Onegin, and Alexy Dotgov his friend, Lenski. The Metropolitan chorus brings deeply emotional life to this deeply Russian story.
On May 13, the mood changes in Richard Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier.” A handsome, lithe young man, Octavian is a lover of the Marschallin Young Sophie is in danger of being married to the Marshallin’s boorish cousin Baron Ochs. Octavian, the Marschallin and some merry servants play a comedy of errors to thwart this. But Octavian has presented the Silver Rose to Sophie, and the Marschallin shows what true love can mean in the passing of time.
The music and lavish settings of aristocratic Vienna evoke the escapades of youth’s time of roses. The opera is, however, above all a sympathetic portrait of the late summer of a beautiful and yes, brave, woman. The magnificent voice and acting of Renee Fleming bring the Marschallin to life; Elina Garcia shines as Octavian.
Tickets for both operas are $22 to $24 each, and performances begin at 12:45. All three productions will be shown at the Stadium 10 Regal Theater at the Makalapua Center in Kona. Tickets are available from the box office and through www.fandango.com and www.fathomevents.com. Encore performances for both operas are the following Wednesdays at 6 p.m. ■