American Ballet Theatre's 2017 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House Announced

American Ballet Theatre's 2017 Spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House, May 15-July 8, will feature the New York Premiere of Alexei Ratmansky's Whipped Cream and the Company Premiere of Ratmansky's Souvenir d'un lieu cher, it was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

Guest Artist Alessandra Ferri will perform the role of Tatiana in Onegin on Wednesday evening, June 21 and Saturday evening, June 24. Principal Dancer Diana Vishneva will give her American Ballet Theatre farewell performance in the same role on Friday evening, June 23.

Principal Dancers for the 2017 Metropolitan Opera House season include Stella Abrera, Roberto Bolle, Isabella Boylston, Jeffrey Cirio, Misty Copeland, Herman Cornejo, Marcelo Gomes, Maria Kochetkova, Alban Lendorf, Gillian Murphy, Veronika Part, Hee Seo, Daniil Simkin, Cory Stearns, Diana Vishneva and James Whiteside.

American Ballet Theatre's 2017 Spring Gala on Monday, May 22 at 6:30 P.M. will feature the New York Premiere of Whipped Cream, choreographed by ABT Artist in

Residence Alexei Ratmansky, with scenery and costumes by artist Mark Ryden and lighting by Brad Fields. Whipped Cream, with a libretto and score by Richard Strauss, is based on the two-act ballet originally created as Schlagobers, which premiered at the Vienna State Opera in 1924. Ratmansky's production will receive its World Premiere by ABT on March 15, 2017 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. Whipped Cream will be given twelve performances at the Metropolitan Opera House May 22-24 and June 26-July 1. For more information on ABT's 2017 Spring Gala, please call the Special Events Office at 212-477-3030, ext. 3310.

The Company Premiere of Alexei Ratmansky's Souvenir d'un leiu cher will be part of a Tchaikovsky Spectacular program beginning Monday evening, July 3. Souvenir d'un leiu cher is set to music of the same name by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. Featuring sets and costumes by Keso Dekker with lighting by James F. Ingalls, the ballet for four dancers received its World Premiere by Het National Ballet on February 16, 2012 in Amsterdam.

Souvenir d'un lieu cher will be presented on alternating programs with George Balanchine's Mozartiana and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Marcelo Gomes'AfterEffect and Ratmansky's Nutcracker Pas de Deux and Aurora's Wedding. Aurora's Wedding, Act III of Ratmansky's staging of The Sleeping Beauty with choreography by Marius Petipa, will the omit the Hop 'o my Thumb and Cinderella dances and add The Porcelain Trio and Three Ivans, divertissements originally choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska. Set to music from The Nutcracker, both divertissements were created for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes staging of The Sleeping Princess in 1921. Three Ivans was first presented by Ballet Theatre as part of Princess Aurora (a suite of divertissements from The Sleeping Beauty) in 1941. Performances of the Tchaikovsky Spectacular run through July 8.

American Ballet Theatre's 2017 Spring season will include an additional five full-length ballets beginning with Don Quixote which opens the Met season on Monday evening, May 15 with Gillian Murphy as Kitri, Cory Stearns as Basilio, Hee Seo as Mercedes and

James Whiteside as Espada. 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. Don Quixote will be given eight performances through Saturday evening, May 20.

The season's performances of Giselle begins Thursday evening, May 25 led by Hee Seo in the title role, opposite Cory Stearns as Albrecht and Veronika Part as Myrta. Set to music by Adolphe Adam, with scenery by Gianni Quaranta, costumes by Anna Anni and lighting by Jennifer Tipton, Giselle features 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 continuallyperformed ballets, occurred at the Theatre de l'Academie Royale de Musique in Paris on June 28, 1841. The ballet was first presented by ABT (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. Giselle will receive eight performances through May 31. ABT will celebrate the 20th Anniversary year of Principal Dancer Marcelo Gomes during his performance in the leading role of Albrecht on Tuesday evening, May 30.

Alexei Ratmansky's The Golden Cockerel will be given four performances beginning Thursday evening, June 1 with Stella Abrera (Queen of Shemakhan) and Cassandra Trenary (the Golden Cockerel), Alexei Agoudine (Tsar Dodon) and James Whiteside (Astrologer) leading the first cast. Set to music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov with sets and costumes by Richard Hudson, Ratmansky's The Golden Cockerel is inspired by Michel Fokine's original production. Anne Holm-Jensen Peyk will stage the ballet for ABT.

The season's first performance of Le Corsaire on Monday, June 5 features Maria Kochetkova, Herman Cornejo, Sarah Lane, Daniil Simkin and Jeffrey Cirio in the leading roles. Based on the Lord Byron poem "The Corsair" (1814), the ballet features choreography by Konstantin Sergeyev after Marius Petipa, and staging by Anna-Marie Holmes after Petipa and Sergeyev, with music by Adolphe Adam, Cesare Pugni, Léo Delibes, Riccardo Drigo and Prince Oldenbourg. Scenery and costumes are by Irina Tibilova, with additional costume designs by Robert Perdziola and lighting by Mary Jo Dondlinger. Le Corsaire received its Company Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on June 19, 1998 with Nina Ananiashvili (Medora), Ashley Tutttle (Gulnare), Giuseppe Picone (Conrad), Angel Corella (Birbanto), Jose Manuel Carréno (Ali, the slave) and VLADIMIR MALAKHOV (Lankendem). Le Corsaire will be given eight performances through June 10.

Eight performances of Swan Lake, choreographed by Kevin McKenzie after Marius Petipa, will be given beginning Monday, June 12 with Isabella Boylston and Alban Lendorf leading the opening night cast. 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).

John Cranko's Onegin will be given eight performances during the Company's Spring season beginning on Monday, June 19 with Diana Vishneva as Tatiana and Marcelo Gomes as Eugene Onegin. Set to music by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, arranged and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze, Onegin is based on the verse-novel Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin. Onegin received its World Premiere on April 13, 1965 by the 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 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 the National Ballet of Canada on

June 19, 2010 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Canada and was first performed by ABT on June 4, 2012 at the Metropolitan Opera House. Le Corsaire is staged for ABT by Reid Anderson and Jane Bourne.

ABTKids, American Ballet Theatre's annual one-hour introduction to ballet, is scheduled for Saturday morning, May 20 at 11:30 A.M. All tickets for ABTKids are $25.

Subscriptions for American Ballet Theatre's 2017 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House, on sale beginning Wednesday, October 26, are available by phone at 212-362-6000, or online at ABT's website www.abt.org.

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