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Balanchine's 'Jewels' Packs the Royal Opera House

by Zoe Strimpel
Wed, 5 Dec 2007 at 1:52 PM

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Sir Richard Eyre, the director and former head of the National Theatre, expressed concern recently that Britain was heading for cultural "apartheid," with the gap growing between those who feel engaged by the arts and those who feel the arts are not for them.

But last night as people jostled to find their seats in a packed Royal Opera House, it was plain to see that in London, anyway, there is plenty of engagement with the arts. It was a Tuesday night, and the crowd flocking into the sold-out auditorium (many had paid $180 a ticket) was there for "Jewels," George Balanchine's three-part, plotless ballet.

Balanchine, the man who brought ballet to America, was inspired in 1967 by the gleaming goods on offer in Van Cleef and Arpels in New York. (Unsurprisingly, the ballet is seen as a Met specialty.)

Although precious stones provide the pretext, "Jewels" is actually a meditation on three different facets of dance history. In "Emeralds," dancers wore beautiful green dresses and bejeweled smocks. Dancing to Fauré, beneath art-nouveau Lalique chandeliers, they evoked the luscious French fin de siècle tradition.

The next part, "Rubies," provided a big contrast. A naked piano bashed out Stravinsky's "Concertino," in celebration of a brash, dynamic Manhattan, a place that both Russian emigrés (Stravinsky and Balanchine) knew intimately. Carlos Acosta and Sarah Lamb, the principal soloists in "Rubies," were stunning.

"Diamonds" was a nostalgic tribute to the lustrous world of Imperial Russia. The formal, highly technical suite (dancers wore traditional, sugar-puff tutus) was set to Tchaikovsky's stirring Third Symphony.

The show held all the joyful sparkle of its title, and more.

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