American Ballet Theatre Unveils 2024 Summer Season at The Met

American Ballet Theatre’s 2024 Summer season at the Metropolitan Opera House, June 18 – July 20, will feature the New York Premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works, as announced today by Artistic Director Susan Jaffe. The season will also see the return of Tony Award® winner Christopher Wheeldon’s Like Water for Chocolate, as well as beloved classic productions of Onegin, Swan Lake, and Romeo and Juliet. 

 

Principal Dancers for the 2024 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. 

 

New York Premiere 

ABT will present the New York Premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works on Tuesday evening, June 25 at 7:30 P.M. Woolf Works, an award-winning ballet triptych, re-creates the emotions, themes, and fluid style of three of Virginia Woolf’s novels: Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves. Enmeshed with elements from Woolf’s letters, essays, and diaries, Woolf Works expresses the heart of an artistic life driven to discover a freer, uniquely modern realism. It brings to life Woolf’s world of “granite and rainbow,” where human beings are at once both physical body and uncontained essence.  

 

Woolf Works has received notable recognition and outstanding critical acclaim. The full-length contemporary ballet 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. 

 

Created for The Royal Ballet in 2015, Woolf Works is structured into three acts: “I Now, I Then,” “Becomings,” and “Tuesday,” each starkly distinct in visual design and choreography. Woolf Works features choreography by Wayne McGregor and music 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. It is set to receive its North American Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on April 11, 2023, at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. Woolf Works will be given seven performances through June 29. 

 

Alessandra Ferri, former Principal Dancer with ABT from 1985 to 2007, will make a guest appearance for two performances, on Tuesday, June 25 and Friday, June 28, during ABT’s 2024 production of Woolf Works at the Metropolitan Opera House. The performance on Friday, June 28 will be dedicated to honoring Ferri and her career. 

 

Full-Length Productions 

ABT’s Summer season will kick off with seven performances of John Cranko’s Onegin beginning on Tuesday evening, June 18 at 7:30 P.M. with Devon Teuscher and Daniel Camargo in the leading roles. Set to music by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, arranged and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze, Onegin is based on the verse-novel Eugene Onegin by Alexandrer Pushkin. Onegin received its World Premiere on April 13, 1965, by Stuttgart Ballet in Stuttgart, Germany. The ballet received its Company Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on June 1, 2001, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York led by 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 on June 19, 2010, at the Four Seasons Center for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Canada, and was first performed by ABT on June 4, 2012, at the Metropolitan Opera House. Onegin is staged for ABT by Reid Anderson and Jane Bourne. 

 

Week three of ABT’s Summer season will open on Monday evening, July 1 with the first performance of Swan Lake, led by Isabella Boylston as Odette-Odile and Daniel Camargo as Prince Siegfried. Set to music by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, Swan Lake is choreographed by Kevin Mckenzie after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov and features scenery and costumes by Zack Brown and lighting by Duane Schuler. This production of Swan Lake premiered on March 24, 2000, at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. with Julie Kent (Odette-Odile) and Angel Corella (Prince Siegfried) in the leading roles. The ballet will be given eight performances this season. The Friday, July 5 performance of Swan Lake will be a “Corps de Ballet Celebration” to honor ABT’s world-class talent in the corps de ballet.   

 

Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet will open on Tuesday evening, July 9 with Devon Teuscher and Aran Bell in the title roles. Set to the score by Sergei Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet features scenery and costumes by Nicholas Georgiadis and lighting by Thomas Skelton. Romeo and Juliet received its World Premiere by The Royal Ballet in London on February 9, 1965, and was given its ABT Premiere at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on January 3, 1985, with Leslie Browne and Robert La Fosse in the leading roles. Romeo and Juliet will be given seven performances through July 13 at the Metropolitan Opera House. 

 

The final week of the 2024 Summer season will feature seven performances of Like Water for Chocolate beginning Tuesday evening, July 16 at 7:30 P.M. 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 neighbor Pedro. From the award-winning 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 June 2, 2022, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, led by Francesca Hayward as Tita and Marcelino Sambé as Pedro. It received its North American Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on March 29, 2023, at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California, led by Cassandra Trenary as Tita and Herman Cornejo as Pedro. The Friday, July 19 performance of Like Water for Chocolate will celebrate Herman Cornejo’s 25th Anniversary with American Ballet Theatre.  

 

ABTKids 

ABTKids, American Ballet Theatre’s annual one-hour introduction to ballet for families, is scheduled for Saturday, June 22 at 11:00 A.M. All tickets for ABTKids are $25. 

 

Subscriptions 

Subscriptions for American Ballet Theatre’s 2024 Summer season at the Metropolitan Opera House, on sale beginning Monday, November 20 at 12:00 P.M., or online at ABT’s website www.abt.org.  

*All casting, programming, and pricing are subject to change. 

 

 ABOUT AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE 

American Ballet Theatre is one of the greatest dance companies in the world. Revered as a national treasure since its founding season in 1940, its mission is to create, present, preserve, and extend the great repertoire of classical dancing for the widest possible audience. Headquartered in New York City, ABT is the only cultural institution of its size and stature to extensively tour, enchanting audiences for eight decades in 50 U.S. states, 45 countries, and over 480 cities worldwide. ABT’s repertoire includes full-length classics from the nineteenth century, the finest works from the early twentieth century, and acclaimed contemporary masterpieces. In 2006, by an act of Congress, ABT was designated America's National Ballet Company®.