New York premiere of Wheeldon’s Like Water for Chocolate opens American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Season

American Ballet Theatre's 2023 Met box office opens today for the summer season that runs from 22 June to 22 July 2023.

ABT returns to the Metropolitan Opera House with four stories of love: Christopher Wheeldon's Like Water for Chocolate, together with Giselle, Swan Lake, and Romeo and Juliet.

Like Water for Chocolate – first seen at The Royal Ballet last year – will see Cassandra Trenary and Herman Cornejo in the leading roles of Tita and Pedro, characters from Laura Esquivel's bestselling novel of the same name. ABT first performed the ballet at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California, in March 2023.

The three-act ballet follows Tita, a young Mexican woman who struggles with familial duty in the face of forbidden love, expressing herself the one way she knows how, through cooking. The original score is by Joby Talbot with scenery and costumes by Bob Crowley, lighting by Natasha Katz, and video design by Luke Halls. Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra will conduct the first four performances of Like Water for Chocolate. Tomás Barreiro, a Mexican composer and guitar player will play at all 12 performances, and Venezuelan-born singer Maria Brea will sing the soaring soprano part that accompanies the climactic pas de deux.

ABT's June Gala on Thursday 22 June will begin with the premiere of Like Water for Chocolate, followed by dinner and dancing on the Promenade of the newly opened David Geffen Hall. The Gala will honour Yolanda Santos, Founding Member of ABT's Global Council and Founder of Ballet de Monterrey, for her championship of classical ballet and contemporary visual arts, nationally and internationally. Laura Esquivel, author of Like Water for Chocolate, will be the Honorary Chair of the event.

Full-Length Works

ABT will perform eight performances of Giselle from Monday 6 July, with Hee Seo in the title role and Cory Stearns as Albrecht. This is ABT's sixth production of the ballet with scenery by Gianni Quaranta and costumes by Anna Anni, and was created for the film Dancers in 1987. This production's first public performance was with Marianna Tcherkassky as Giselle and Kevin McKenzie as Albrecht, and the current staging is by McKenzie, using the Quaranta and Anni designs. The Saturday 8 July performance will be “In Tribute to Lupe Serrano” in honour of the late Lupe Serrano, former ABT Principal Dancer from 1953-1971, who, after retiring from the stage, taught classes for the ABT main Company, ABT Studio Company, ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, and Summer Intensives.

Eight performances of Swan Lake will begin Monday, July 10, with Isabella Boylston as Odette-Odile and Daniel Camargo as Prince Siegfried. The ballet features scenery and costumes by Zack Brown and lighting by Duane Schuler, a production that premiered in 2000 in Washington, D.C. with Julie Kent (Odette-Odile) and Angel Corella (Prince Siegfried). The Friday 21 July performance will be a “Special Evening for Susan Jaffe” to celebrate Jaffe's first Met season as Artistic Director of American Ballet Theatre, a homecoming for the former ABT Principal Dancer of 22 years.

Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet will be given seven performances from Tuesday 18 July, with Devon Teuscher and Aran Bell in the title roles. It features scenery and costumes by Nicholas Georgiadis and lighting by Thomas Skelton. It was given its ABT Company Premiere in Washington, D.C. in 1985, with Leslie Browne and Robert La Fosse in the leading roles.

Principal Dancers for the 2023 Summer season include Joo Won Ahn, Aran Bell, Isabella Boylston, Skylar Brandt, Daniel Camargo, Herman Cornejo, Thomas Forster, Catherine Hurlin, Gillian Murphy, Calvin Royal III, Hee Seo, Christine Shevchenko, Cory Stearns, Devon Teuscher, Cassandra Trenary, James Whiteside, and Roman Zhurbin.

Tickets

Single tickets for American Ballet Theatre's 2023 Summer season at the Metropolitan Opera House go on sale today, Monday 24 April at 12:00 pm. Tickets can be purchased by phone at +1 212-362-6000, in person at the Met Box Office, or online at ABT's website. Tickets start at $30.

 For more information, visit www.abt.org.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.