Colorado Ballet’s enchanting, season-opening production of “Giselle” offers abundant evidence that the Gil Boggs era is off to a sparkling start.
Although the company’s artistic director has been on the job since March, it is the company’s first mainstage offering staged under his supervision – a key milestone.
Since his arrival, the former principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre has assembled a strong artistic team, recruited five promising dancers and used his connections to secure the loan of scenery and costumes from ABT for this production.
But as important as such accomplishments behind the scenes undoubtedly are, it’s what takes place on the stage that counts. And in that regard, “Giselle,” which continues for nine more performances in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, is a success in virtually every regard.
Boggs and his team have put together a touching, technically sound production on the kind of grand scale this work demands, with 51 dancers, including apprentices and a few children, and resplendent, tradition-hewing scenery and costumes by Gianni Quaranta and Anna Anni respectively.
This revival honors the venerable conventions of the 165-year-old classical choreography of Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli and simultaneously infuses the work with a sense of dynamism and vitality.
Significantly boosting the offering is a capable performance by an ample, 43-piece pit orchestra led by music director Akira Endo. The organic, in-the-moment quality of live music enhances any ballet experience, but the Colorado Ballet is not always able to afford it.
Of course, most important is the dancing itself, and the company looks very good, especially the corps de ballet, which is critical to this work, especially in Act 2.
The famed choreography for the Wilis (restless spirits of women who died with their love unrequited), especially the crossover section, with two groups of nine dancers gracefully hopping across the stage, their second leg horizontally extended to the rear, is executed with precision and energy.
Boggs has divided the company into three casts, allowing dancers to take turns in the principal roles. Leading the first cast, which debuted Friday evening, are veteran principals Maria Mosina and Igor Vassine, who appear eminently comfortable and in command in this classical work.
Expectations always run high for this superb duo, and, as usual, the two easily met them, especially Mosina, who has never looked better. She not only handles the multifaceted technical demands of the title role with ease but also vividly conveys each step of Giselle’s dramatic transformation.
High points include the mad scene, in which she poignantly and believably conveys Giselle’s breakdown and death; her slow solo early in Act 2, each deliberate move imbued with emotion; and her breathtaking grand pas de deux with Vassine.
If Sharon Wehner and Koichi Kubo, two other veteran principals who led Saturday evening’s cast, do not have the same affinity for the classical style, they nonetheless turn in fine performances as well. Giselle seems younger in Wehner’s portrayal, with a more pronounced mad scene that is not quite as powerful.
Sayaka Karasugi exhibits a well-honed technique as Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, but she possesses little stage presence and her performance seems emotionally empty. Chandra Kuykendall might not look quite as technically sharp in the role, but her portrayal is more convincing overall.
Wehner and Kubo seemed a little out of sync Friday evening in the peasant pas de deux, with Kubo delivering his usual lofty acrobatics but struggling with the partnering. Slightly more effective were Karasugi and Chauncey Parsons, who drew cheers Saturday with his soaring scissor leaps.
The alternating casts for the pas de six, one of the highlights of Act 1, are uniformly strong, and John Henry Reid and Tomasz Kumor are both effective as Hilarion, Giselle’s shunned lover.
Boggs faces many challenges ahead, but “Giselle” was an important first test of the novice artistic leader, and he passed with high marks.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
“Giselle”
BALLET|Colorado Ballet, Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets; 7:30 p.m., Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m., Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; 6:30 p.m., Oct. 11; 7:30 p.m., Oct. 13; 2 and 7:30 p.m., Oct. 14; 2 p.m., Oct. 15|$27-$113 |303-837-8888 or coloradoballet.com or ticketmaster.com
