Pacific Northwest Ballet opens its 2025-2026 Season with Jewels, also online
On 26 September, Pacific Northwest Ballet opens its new season in sparkling style with George Balanchine‘s Jewels.
The production, created in 2017 with designs by Jérôme Kaplan, is revived for seven performances, until 5 October, at Seattle’s Marion Oliver McCaw Hall.
Jewels premiered with New York City Ballet in 1967, with no title, but three sections called Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds. “I thought of doing sapphire, too,” said Balanchine. “I had Schoenberg in mind, but the colour of sapphire is so hard to get across on stage.”
The printed programme offered the following note by Lincoln Kirstein: “The idea for a new ballet using highly jeweled costumes was started over fifteen years ago but it was not until early 1966, after a visit by Mr. Balanchine to Van Cleef & Arpels’ Fifth Avenue Salons, that the idea of the ballet really began to grow. So impressed was Mr. Balanchine by the beauty of the jewels he saw there, that he decided to try to capture it forever.”
Emeralds is a romantic evocation of France and Balanchine’s comment on the French school. With a score by Gabriel Fauré and dancers dressed in Romantic-length tutus, Emeralds can also be a window on the nostalgia inherent in much late 19th-century art. Balanchine considered Emeralds “an evocation of France – the France of elegance, comfort, dress and perfume.”
Rubies is considered the American jewel, with its Jazz Age score by Igor Stravinsky, stylised flapper costumes, and Balanchine’s choreography in his sophisticated mode. A saucy leading couple play and compete as equals, and a second, siren-like ballerina takes on the men of the corps de ballet, requiring all four of them to partner her at once.
Diamonds is Balanchine’s homage to his native St. Petersburg with echoes of Petipa’s Swan Lake and Raymonda. The centrepiece of the ballet is an intimate pas de deux, potent in its chivalrous reserve, for the ballerina and her cavalier. At its end, the entire cast joins the principal couple for a gloriously spirited polonaise.
For those who find Seattle a little out of their way, Jewels will be streamed digitally on 9 October and will remain available until 13 October. Subscribing to the Digital Season at $300 gives access to all of PNB’s digital programmes, though single-ticket access is available for George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®. Not every work in the 2025/26 Season will be included due to rights issues.
Jewels
Music: Gabriel Fauré, Igor Stravinsky, and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust
Staging: Philip Neal, Jonathan Porretta, and Peter Boal
Scenic and Costume Design: Jérôme Kaplan
Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli
Running Time: Two hours and 15 minutes, including two intervals
Premiere: 13 April 1967; New York City Ballet
PNB Premiere: 1 June 2006 (Rubies premiere: 3 February 1988); New production, 22 September 2017
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 Italian ballerina 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.
