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\u201cThe Firebird\u201d Choreography by Elizabeth Wistrich, featuring Sumire Ito and Iago Breschi.Photo by J. Richters Photography<\/p>\n
May 3, the City Ballet came to Escondido and all I can say Wow! Bravo!\u00a0<\/p>\n
What an extraordinary treat if you were lucky enough to attend one of their performances of a favorite work by George Balanchine \u201cWho Cares\u201d and the classic \u201cFirebird\u201d at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.<\/p>\n
I gave my wife an early Mother\u2019s Day treat, and we attended Sunday\u2019s matinee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was nothing sort of a transcendent performance of both dance pieces. Words like mesmerizing, fabulous, beautifully performed are still ringing in my head.\u00a0 When Brian Marsh, City Ballet president\u00a0 before the show told us we were in for some \u201camazing ballet,\u201d I thought: \u201cSure all arts presidents say that.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he was right. City Ballet knocked it out of the park and Escondido is fortunate to have this company visit us. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Many moons ago I was immersed in ballet as an arts manager and the stories of Balanchine were that during the early rehearsals and creation of his choreography, the dancers might ad lib with a smile or cheeky pose or even sometimes a visitor walked into the rehearsal studio by accident and Balanchine choreographed all these little ad libs into his final work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWho Cares\u201d is full of these little quips and gestures. The dancers of City Ballet carried it off immaculately. Most dancers today know that Balanchine pushed his dancers to the limit of their technical ability\u2014 and again the dancers of City Ballet stepped up and delivered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The entire performance of \u201cWho Cares\u201d was fabulous. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Next was \u201cThe Firebird,\u201d\u00a0 a wonderfully relevant magical work for our present day of a woman held back under the weight of a controlling society\u2014and her transformation into a \u201cFirebird.\u201d With the help of her partner she breaks the chains holding her back and together they transcend into freedom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Again, the entire company delivered an exceptional magical performance.\u00a0 I\u2019d love to call out some of the soloists\u2019 talent and beautiful art but really every single dancer on stage, the entire company performed at the highest expression of ballet\u2019s art and skill. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Add the superb conducting and delivery of the live orchestra, the simple but beautifully conceived stage design and you simply have a perfect ten.<\/p>\n
A personal mission in my service as president of Escondido Art Association is to encourage Escondido to recognize and appreciate the depth, richness and diversity of the arts and cultural environment, that we have right here in Escondido.\u00a0<\/p>\n
City Ballet performing here in Escondido is a great example. This was a very special gift to those of us who call Escondido home, let\u2019s be sure they will visit us again.\u00a0 When they do, get your tickets early if you want to experience awe, delight and magic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Firebird\u201d Choreography by Elizabeth Wistrich, featuring Sumire Ito and Iago Breschi.Photo by J. Richters Photography May 3,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":795929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-795928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-sandiego","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116573256277394035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}