I was maybe 10 or 15 years ago a ballet season ticket holder. Then I began my romance with theater, and hadn’t been to a ballet since.
I was really drawn to the advertising for Carmina Burana and Serenade – this weekend only, so you can’t go see it now!
Serenade was a piece I’d seen before, and the first classical music I learned was Tchaikovsky: this was a wonderful performance on both counts. The company was movement perfect in the ebbs and flows of the piece, and the principals and soloists are gifted dancers.
Carmina Burana was totally new to me, and I didn’t even have a chance to read the program notes before watching it. All about power in many ways, all about sex, all about bold moves, with a certain mechanistic quality to it. The Enquirer said this morning it’s ‘audacious, oozing with sexuality, purposefully rough-edged’. Which told me I had ‘gotten’ it, confirmed by the program notes – the original 13th century manuscripts were written by minstrels, defrocked monks, vagrant students.
I’m often amazed and impressed at what supposedly staid Cincinnati audiences love and give their endorsement to. A very long standing ovation attended this graphically sexual and powerful performance. We’re not as staid as we look – for sure!
Bravo, Cincinnati Ballet!