American Ballet at the MET Opera House Announces 2014 Spring Season, Box Office Opens 3/30

American Ballet Theatre's 2014 season at the Metropolitan Opera House, May 12-July 5, will be highlighted by the Company Premiere of Frederick Ashton's Cinderella and a Shakespeare Celebration to include Ashton's The Dream and Alexei Ratmansky's The Tempest. Season revivals include Léonide Massine's Gaîté Parisienne and Kenneth MacMillan's Manon. Tickets for ABT's Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House go on sale at the box office on Sunday, March 30 at Noon.

Principal Dancers for the 2014 Metropolitan Opera House season include Roberto Bolle, Herman Cornejo, Marcelo Gomes, David Hallberg, Paloma Herrera, Julie Kent, Gillian Murphy, Veronika Part, Xiomara Reyes, Polina Semionova, Hee Seo, Daniil Simkin, Cory Stearns, Ivan Vasiliev, Diana Vishneva and James Whiteside.

American Ballet Theatre's 2014 Spring Season opens with a Gala Performance featuring ABT's Principal Dancers on Monday, May 12 at 6:30 P.M. For information on ABT's Spring Gala, please call the Special Events Office at 212-477-3030, ext. 3310.

Guest Artists

Guest Artists for the 2014 Spring season include Alina Cojocaru, principal dancer with English National Ballet, Maria Kochetkova, principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet, Denis Matvienko, a guest artist with the Mariinsky Ballet and Vadim Muntagirov, principal dancer with The Royal Ballet. Olga Smirnova, a leading soloist with Bolshoi Ballet and Viktoria Tereshkina, principal dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet, will make their American Ballet Theatre debuts as Guest Artists this season.

Exchange Artists

Vladimir Shklyarov, a principal dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet, and Amy Watson, a principal dancer with The Royal Danish Ballet, will perform as Exchange Artists during ABT's 2014 Spring season as part of an exchange program with their respective companies. Shklyarov will dance the role of Solor in La Bayadère on Thursday, May 29 and Watson will perform Myrta in Giselle on Thursday, June 19. Watson will make her ABT debut in the role on Saturday evening, April 5 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Company Premiere

American Ballet Theatre will give the Company Premiere of Frederick Ashton's Cinderella on Monday, June 9 with Hee Seo in the title role and Cory Stearns as the Prince. Set to the score by Sergei Prokofiev, Ashton's Cinderella features sets and costumes by David Walker. The ballet received its World Premiere by Sadler's Wells Ballet on December 23, 1948 at London's Royal Opera House. The original cast included Moira Shearer as Cinderella, Michael Somes as the Prince, Frederick Ashton and Robert Helpmann as the Stepsisters and Alexander Grant as the Jester. Staged for ABT by Wendy Ellis Somes with additional staging by Malin Thoors, Cinderella will be given eight performances through June 14.

A Shakespeare Celebration

American Ballet Theatre's 2014 Spring Season will also be highlighted by four performances of a Shakespeare Celebration, featuring Frederick Ashton's The Dream and Alexei Ratmansky's The Tempest, Monday, June 30 through Wednesday, July 2.

Revivals

The Revival Premiere of Léonide Massine's Gaîté Parisienne will be presented on Tuesday evening, May 20 for four performances through May 22.

Full-Length Ballets

American Ballet Theatre's 2014 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House includes five additional full-length ballets opening with Don Quixote on Tuesday evening, May 13 led by Polina Semionova as Kitri and Cory Stearns as Basilio. The ballet, which will be given eight performances through May 19, is staged by Kevin McKenzie and Susan Jones, with choreography after Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorsky. Don Quixote is set to music by Ludwig Minkus and features scenery and costumes by Santo Loquasto and lighting by Natasha Katz. The McKenzie/Jones staging of the current production was first performed by ABT on June 12, 1995.

La Bayadère, choreographed by Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa, will be given seven performances, May 23 through May 29. Diana Vishneva as Nikiya, Marcelo Gomes as Solor and Gillian Murphy as Gamzatti will lead the season's opening night cast of the ballet. Set to music by Ludwig Minkus, specially arranged by John Lanchbery,

La Bayadère features scenery by PierLuigi Samaritani, costumes by Theoni V. Aldredge and lighting by Toshiro Ogawa. The full?length La Bayadère received its World Premiere by the Imperial Ballet at the Bolshoi Kamenny in St. Petersburg on February 4, 1877.

La Bayadère, Act II (The Kingdom of the Shades) was first performed in the West by the Leningrad?Kirov Ballet in 196l.

Natalia Makarova first staged The Kingdom of the Shades scene for American Ballet Theatre in 1974 and it received its premiere at the State Theater in New York City on July 3 of that year, danced by Cynthia Gregory as Nikiya and Ivan Nagy as Solor. Makarova subsequently produced and choreographed the complete version of La Bayadère (in three acts) for ABT, which received its World Premiere on May 21, 1980 with Natalia Makarova as Nikiya, Anthony Dowell as Solor and Cynthia Harvey as Gamzatti.

Eight performances of Giselle begin Monday evening, June 16 with Diana Vishneva dancing the title role opposite Marcelo Gomes as Albrecht and Gillian Murphy as Myrta. Set to music by Adolphe Adam, with scenery by Gianni Quaranta, costumes by Anna Anni and lighting by Jennifer Tipton, Giselle has choreography after Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa and has been staged for ABT by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. The world premiere of Giselle, one of the oldest continually?performed ballets, occurred at the Theatre de l'Academie Royale de Musique in Paris on June 28, 1841, danced by Carlotta Grisi as Giselle and Lucien Petipa as Albrecht. The ballet was first presented by American Ballet Theatre (then Ballet Theatre) at the Center Theatre in New York City on January 12, 1940 with choreography by Anton Dolin and scenery and costumes by Lucinda Ballard. The leading roles were danced by Annabelle Lyon and Anton Dolin. American Ballet Theatre's sixth production, featuring scenery by Gianni Quaranta and costumes by Anna Anni, was created for the film Dancers, produced in 1987 by Cannon Films. This production's first public performance was given on March 20, 1987 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, with Marianna Tcherkassky as Giselle and Kevin McKenzie as Albrecht. The current staging is by McKenzie, using the Quaranta and Anni designs.

Swan Lake, choreographed by Kevin McKenzie, will be given eight performances beginning Monday evening, June 23 with Gillian Murphy as Odette/Odile and Marcelo Gomes as Prince Siegfried. Swan Lake is set to the score by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky 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 Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. with Julie Kent (Odette-Odile), Angel Corella (Prince Siegfried) and Marcelo Gomes (von Rothbart).

Coppélia, with staging by Frederic Franklin after Nicholas Sergeyev, will be given six performances, May 30 and 31 and July 3 through 5. Coppélia features music by Léo Delibes, scenery by Tony Straiges, costumes by Patricia Zipprodt and lighting by Brad Fields. Misty Copeland will lead the season's first performance of the ballet on

Friday, May 30, dancing opposite Herman Cornejo as Franz. Franklin's staging received its ABT premiere at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, California on February 14, 1997, danced by Paloma Herrera (Swanilda) and Angel Corella (Franz).

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