American Ballet Theatre has announced its Fall 2023 season, featuring seven ballets across three programs, which will run October 18-29 at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theatre.
The first program, titled Classics Old and New, will run October 18-21, and will feature Alexei Ratmansky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort, and Harald Lander’s Études. Études, choreographed to piano studies by Carl Czerny, was created in 1948 for the Royal Danish Ballet, and was first staged by ABT in 1961. As its title suggests, Études is a demonstration of developing technique. Petite Mort, choreographed to movements from two of Mozart's piano concertos, was created for the Salzburg Festival in 1991, and first staged by ABT in 2003. Ratmansky's Piano Concerto No. 1, choreographed to the indicated work by Shostakovich, was created for ABT in 2013.
The second program, titled 20th Century Works: Balanchine and Ashton, features two works by the named choreographers. Balanchine's Ballet Imperial, choreographed to Tchaikovsky's second piano concerto, had its world premiere in 1941, and its ABT premiere in 1988, and is a tribute to the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, where Balanchine received training. In 1973, Balanchine stripped the ballet of its Russian scenery and costuming, and retitled it Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, with the aim of letting the dance and the music stand on their own. ABT will be presenting the original version of the ballet, while within the same month, at the same theater, New York City Ballet will be presenting the revised version.
Ballet Imperial will be paired with Frederick Ashton's The Dream, a retelling of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, using the suite of incidental music written for the play by Felix Mendelssohn. As with Ballet Imperial, New York City Ballet will also be presenting a version of this material in their own season, in the form of George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which supplements the incidental music with additional selections from Mendelssohn's oeuvre to create a full two-act ballet. Ashton's version had its world premiere in 1964 at the Royal Ballet, and was first staged by ABT in 2002.
The third and final program in ABT's fall season, titled 21st Century Works: King and Ratmansky, will run October 27-29, and will feature Alonzo King’s Single Eye, with a score by jazz pianist Jason Moran, and Ratmansky’s On the Dnipro. Prokofiev's 1929 ballet On the Dnieper, about a soldier returning home from war, was originally choreographed by Sergei Diaghilev. Ratmansky's new choreography had its world premiere in 2009, using the earlier title. When it is given this season, it will bear the title On the Dnipro, using the Ukrainian, rather than the Russian name for the river in question.
ABT's fall season will also include a gala October 24.
For more details about the upcoming season, including ticketing information, visit ABT.org.
