Ratmansky's Shostakovich Trilogy Closes SF Ballet's 2019 Repertory Season

Alexei Ratmansky's Shostakovich Trilogy returns to San Francisco Ballet (SF Ballet) May 7-12, closing the Company's 2019 Repertory Season at the War Memorial Opera House. Called a "fascinating, thrilling, bewilderingly ambiguous evocation of life in Shostakovich's Russia" (The New York Times), and simply, "a masterpiece" (San Francisco Chronicle), Shostakovich Trilogy is Ratmansky's homage to the composer, using three of his full-length works: the Symphony No. 9, Chamber Symphony, and Piano Concerto No. 1.

Co-commissioned by SF Ballet, Shostakovich Trilogy premiered in full in 2013 at American Ballet Theatre. The triptych includes Ratmansky's 9th, 10th, and 11th ballets set to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, which-alongside stories of Stalinist era-censorship of his works-has long been of interest to Russian-born Ratmansky, who served at the artistic helm of the Bolshoi Ballet before joining American Ballet Theatre as artist in residence in 2014. "He expected arrest every night. His friends and relatives were arrested and killed," Ratmansky said in a 2012 interview with The New York Times. "[His music] is nihilism... He takes something very seriously, and then he crushes it with the most vulgar melody from the street." In 2014, Shostakovich Trilogy awarded Ratmansky his second Prix Benois de la Danse-one of the world's most prestigious ballet awards, named after the seminal artistry of Ballet Russes designer Alexandre Benois.

The trilogy opens with Symphony #9, in which Ratmansky creates a work for 21 dancers, highlighting two lead couples and a solo male to Shostakovich's opus 70 (1945), set against designer George Tsypin's backdrop of grays, with penciled sketches and splashes of red recalling works of Socialist realism. In the following Chamber Symphony (set to an orchestration of the composer's String Quartet No. 8 from 1960), dedicated by Shostakovich "in memory of victims of fascism and war," Ratmansky takes a biographical approach to his choreography, representing each of Shostakovich's three wives as solos in the dance. The program closes with the Piano Concerto #1 after the kaleidoscopic, neo-baroque Concerto in C minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra from 1933. Keso Dekker's sleek red and blue-gray bodysuits highlight the best of Ratmansky's neoclassical choreography.

The May 7-12 program also marks the retirements of Steven D'Amico, Principal Double Bass and James Gott, Principal Timpani of the SF Ballet Orchestra. D'Amico, who is the last founding member of the Orchestra, began as Principal Double Bass in 1975; Gott has been a member of the Orchestra since winning his audition in 1989. D'Amico and Gott can both be heard on the Orchestra's Grammy Award-winning album Ask Your Mama, composer Laura Karpman's setting of Langston Hughes' poem "Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz," and on many of the Orchestra's other eighteen albums and four DVDs. Opening night of Shostakovich Trilogy includes a Meet the Artist interview at 6:30 pm with Steven D'Amico and Shinji Eshima, Associate Principal Double Bass and Steven's long-time stand partner.

Additional Meet the Artist interviews occur on May 10 and May 12, when a "Meet the Orchestra" discussion takes place with Music Director and Principal Conductor Martin West. More information, including Shostakovich Trilogy's program notes, is available on San Francisco Ballet's website, in its Discover section. Shostakovich Trilogy's Pointes of View lecture with Carrie Gaiser Casey, PhD is May 8 at 7:30 pm.

Casting for Shostakovich Trilogy will be available here at least one week before each performance.

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