New York Premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works highlights American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Season
Tickets for American Ballet Theatre‘s 2024 Summer Season go on sale Monday 22 April 22 at 12pm at the Metropolitan Opera House box office.
Performances – from 18 June until 20 July 2024 – will feature the New York Premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works, repertory favourites Onegin, Swan Lake, and Romeo and Juliet, plus the return of Christopher Wheeldon‘s Like Water for Chocolate.
Woolf Works opens on 25 June with ABT Guest Artist and former Principal Dancer Alessandra Ferri. The ballet triptych is inspired by three Virginia Woolf novels: Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves.
Woolf Works won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production, and McGregor was awarded the Critics Circle National Dance Award for Best Classical Choreography for the work. He created the ballet for The Royal Ballet in 2015, and it is structured has three acts: “I now, I then”, “Becomings”, and “Tuesday”, each starkly distinct in visual design and choreography. McGregor uses a commissioned score by Max Richter, with set design by Ciguë (“I now, I then”), We Not I (“Becomings”), and Wayne McGregor (“Tuesday”); costume design by Moritz Junge; lighting design by Lucy Carter; film design by Ravi Deepres; and dramaturgy by Uzma Hameed.
The ballet will receive its North American Premiere by ABT on 11 April 2024, at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California.
In addition to the opening night performance, Ferri will make a guest appearance on Friday 28 June. This performance, as one of ABT’s 2024 Summer season celebratory evenings, will be dedicated to honouring Ferri and her career.
ABT’s Summer season kicks off with seven performances of John Cranko‘s Onegin beginning on 18 June with Devon Teuscher and Daniel Camargo in the leading roles. Set to music by Tchaikovsky, arranged and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze, Onegin is based on the verse novel Eugene Onegin by Pushkin. Onegin received its World Premiere on 13 April 1965, by Stuttgart Ballet and its ABT premiere on 1 June 2001 with Julie Kent (Tatiana), Robert Hill (Onegin), Vladimir Malakhov (Lensky), and Maria Riccetto (Olga). This new production, with sets and costumes by Santo Loquasto and lighting by James F. Ingalls, was premiered by National Ballet of Canada in 2010 and was first performed by ABT in 2012.
Week three of ABT’s Summer season will open on 1 July with the first performance of Swan Lake, led by Isabella Boylston as Odette-Odile and Daniel Camargo as Prince Siegfried. The version is choreographed by Kevin McKenzie after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with scenery and costumes by Zack Brown and lighting by Duane Schuler. This production of Swan Lake premiered in 2000 in Washington D.C. with Julie Kent (Odette-Odile) and Angel Corella (Prince Siegfried). The ballet will be given eight performances this season.
Kenneth MacMillan‘s Romeo and Juliet will open on 9 July with Devon Teuscher and Aran Bell in the title roles. Romeo and Juliet received its World Premiere by The Royal Ballet in London on 9 February 1965 and was given its ABT Premiere in Washington D.C. in 1985, with Leslie Browne and Robert La Fosse in the leading roles. Romeo and Juliet will be given seven performances until 13 July at the Metropolitan Opera House.
The final week of the 2024 Summer season will feature seven performances of Like Water for Chocolate beginning on 16 July with Cassandra Trenary as Tita and Herman Cornejo as Pedro. Based on the bestselling novel by Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate tells the story of Tita, a young Mexican woman who is overwhelmed by a sense of duty and family tradition. Tita’s only form of expression is through cooking, but her life takes an unexpected turn when she falls in forbidden love with her neighbour Pedro. From the team of choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and composer Joby Talbot, this co-production with The Royal Ballet features scenery and costumes by Bob Crowley, lighting by Natasha Katz, and video design by Luke Halls.
The ballet received its World Premiere by The Royal Ballet on 2 June 2022 with Francesca Hayward as Tita and Marcelino Sambé as Pedro. It received its North American Premiere by American Ballet Theatre in 2023, at Segerstrom Center for the Arts with Cassandra Trenary and Herman Cornejo. The performance of Like Water for Chocolate on 19 July will commemorate Herman Cornejo’s 25th Anniversary with American Ballet Theatre.
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.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
