Displaying items by tag: Alberto Velazquez

If you are one that finds ballet boring, you haven’t been to Joffrey Ballet. Kicking off their 70th season with Carmen, Joffrey once again proves it’s the ballet company for adults. Hot off the heels of his 2023 production of ‘Frankenstein’, Liam Scarlett returns to Chicago with his US premiere of Carmen.

Set to the iconic Georges Bizet opera score, Carmen is the classic tale of love and betrayal. Carmen works in the harsh conditions of a Spanish cigar factory. Her and the other factory women trade flirtations for preferential treatment from the guards, but it’s the sexy Carmen men all want. Soon she’s entangled in a love triangle between the guard Don Jose (Alberto Velazquez) and bullfighting champion Escamillo.

You can’t have a love triangle in a ballet without a little sex, or in this case, a lot of it. Joffrey has never been shy about putting eroticism into their work, even their Nutcracker has a little something for all ages. Scarlett’s choreography is red hot and his Carmen is even hotter. Victoria Jaiani dances the lead with such lithe dexterity. However, it’s Dylan Gutierrez dancing the role of Escamillo who becomes the focal point in the second act. The bullfight scene nearly commands a standing ovation, something typically reserved for the curtain call.

Carmen is the main character, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s the hero. Instead, another unrequited love story unfolds between Don Jose and a young woman from his past Micaëla. Micaëla is danced by Gayeon Jung who not only scorches the floor with her dancing but breaks hearts with her ability to convey emotion through facial expression.

Alberto Velazquez and Gayeon Jung in Carmen at Lyric Opera House.

Carmen begins a little slow, but by the second act, the audience is as seduced by her as Don Jose is. An even more seductive element are the settings created by Kristin McGarrity, Laura Morera and Lauren Strongin. The action plays out against a deepening red sky and concludes with the subtle symbolism of a dying bull. Costumes by Jon Bauser only add to the visual splendor of Carmen.

As Bizet’s beautiful score floats out from the orchestra pit, emotions run high. Carmen is a ballet that keeps its audience firmly in its grip. Opera and ballet are known for their melodrama, but few feel as suspenseful as Carmen. Scarlett’s vision for this new production is perfectly matched by the spectacle created by the innovative team at Joffrey Ballet. 

Through September 18 at Joffrey Ballet at Lyric Opera House. 20 N Wacker Dr. 312-827-5600

What source materials make a great ballet? Can everything be interpreted through dance? It’s a fair question when considering Joffrey Ballet’s new adaptation of Ian McEwan’s complex novel. This sumptuous co-production with Ballett Zurich is proof that the sky’s the limit when it comes to what’s possible on stage.

Those who have read the novel or are familiar with the 2007 Joe Wright film will certainly find the plot a bit easier to follow. However, through Cathy Marston’s fascinating choreography, the ill-fated romance leaps off the stage. ‘Atonement’ begins at the Tallis family estate in the English countryside during one sultry summer evening in 1935. Young Briony Tallis (Yumi Kanazawa) witnesses a sexual congress between her older sister Cecilia (Amanda Asssucena) and Robbie (Alberto Velazquez), the son of one of the servants. Later in the evening, her cousin is attacked in the dark by an unknown prowler. Assuming the incidents are related, she implicates Robbie and forever changes the course of his and Cecilia’s lives.

Ian McEwan’s novel endures as one of the most inventive books of the early 00s in part because of its unique story structure. Joe Wright honored that in his film version by showing the same scenes from various points of view. ‘Atonement’ the ballet takes a unique approach to narrative structure with the traditional act order somewhat altered.

‘Atonement’ is forthrightly erotic. Given the deeply romantic plot between Cecilia and Robbie, it’s imperative for the audience to believe their chemistry. And that chemistry is hard to deny. Amanda Asssucena and Alberto Velazquez move with fluidity that may put a little sweat under your collar. Afterall, not every ballet is ‘The Nutcracker’.

Laura Rossi’s score pulls every emotion to the surface. A buoyant, romantic first act is balanced out by the urgent sounds that simulate the horrors of WWII-era London in the latter half of the ballet. Along with artful staging by Adam Blyde and Anastacia Holden, ‘Atonement’ is a feast. From the costumes to the minimalist setting, this production oozes sensuality.

The Joffrey Ballet has a certain knack for literary adaptation. ‘Atonement’ is another installment in their archive of hits. Classic settings provide a perfect backdrop for provocative modern steps that take your breath away. ‘Atonement’ achieves romantic complexity without words, proving how universal feelings of heartbreak and longing are. 

Through October 27 at Joffrey Ballet, Civic Opera House, 20 N Wacker Dr. 312-386-8905 

All apologies to the teachers and professors who groomed me to be a ceaseless reader and sporadic writer — I never finished Anna Karenina. But while I never plowed through all 900 pages of Tolstoy’s novel, moments from the book have stayed with me. One of them is just a line, one seemingly effortless line among pages full of them, and what a line it is: “All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.”

As I reflect on the variety, the charm, and the beauty I was privileged to behold at the Joffrey Ballet’s world premiere of Yuri Possokhov’s production of his countryman’s classic, I realize I witnessed a whole world of light and shadow being created right there on the Auditorium Theatre’s stage.

The creation of that entire world was, most obviously, performed by Possokhov’s choreography carried out by the Joffrey’s outstanding company, of course. Victoria Jaiani’s Anna navigates said world in both light and shadow — beautiful but damaged, faced with reality but delirious. Her husband Karenin, towers over the stage, as portrayed by the magnificent Fabrice Calmels, as a stately, stern husband and father and statesman. Just as stately, while also boyish and beautiful, Alberto Velazquez’s Vronsky lures the audience just as he lures poor Anna. And parallel to the love triangle and tragedy that envelope those three is the love story between Yoshihisa Arai’s Levin and Anais Bueno’s Kitty. If the former affair gives us the shadow, then the latter relationship brings it into the light.

These lights and shadows do not flicker before us thanks solely to the dancers, however. No, the spectacle of sight and sound beyond the dancing are every bit as stunning. Tom Pye’s sets and David Finn’s lighting navigates from dusky railyards to sunny Tuscany, from opium dreams to canapé flings. Of the many delights dished out by the Joffrey’s Nutcracker, perhaps my favorite was its use of projections, and Finn Ross’ projections for 'Anna Karenina' equal those, coloring the story and conjuring spirits.

But from curtain to curtain, the visual thrills are always complemented and often eclipsed by Ilya Demutsky’s original score directed by Scott Speck. The Chicago Philharmonic’s accompaniment, shifting seamlessly from elegance to dissonance, while always both classic and contemporary, is joined by Lindsay Metzger’s mezzo-soprano — who literally joins the show by the end — to craft this world of light and shadow in multiple dimensions that quicken multiple sensations.

So join the Joffrey Ballet at the Auditorium Theatre for Anna Karenina through February 24, as all of these world-class talents work together to shade and illuminate, to craft and create the variety and the charm and the beauty one would expect from a hefty literary classic written a century-and-a-half ago and half a world away.