Sparrow | Choreographer: Stanton Welch | Music: Simon & Garfunkel
Four Last Songs | Choreographer: Ben Stevenson O.B.E. | Music: Richard Strauss
Theme and Variations | Choreographer: George Balanchine | Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
The final program, Sparrow ignites the stage with three one-act ballets by choreographers spanning from yesterday’s eminence to today’s prominence: George Balanchine, Houston Ballet artistic Director Emeritus Ben Stevenson O.B.E, and our very own Stanton Welch AM.
Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, set to Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 3 in G major, is an intensive development of the classic ballet lexicon. Theme and Variations were intended, as Balanchine wrote: “to evoke that great period in classical dancing when Russian ballet flourished with the aid of Tchaikovsky’s music.”
Stevenson’s Four Last Songs, set to Richard Strauss’s operatic score, presents four distinct movements, each reflecting the ebb and flow of the human experience. Hailed by SFGATE as ‘ineffably moving,’ the ballet converges verbal, musical, and choreographic imagery at its culmination.
Welch’s uplifting, toe-tapping Sparrow, set to some of Simon & Garfunkel’s most recognizable music, fills the stage with a vibrant and large ensemble cast. Embodying movements that bring to life the mini stories within songs such as Cecilia and Scarborough Fair, this audience favorite is a nod to the late ‘60s culture, blending drama, energy and an All-American sound that transcends generations.