New Jersey Ballet revives 'Esmeralda' for Community Theatre

BY JUDITH BUCKINGHAM
SPECIAL TO THE DAILY RECORD
Friday, November 16, 2007


MORRISTOWN -- When Carolyn Clark, the founder and artistic director of New Jersey Ballet, attended the Hollybush Festival at Glassboro State College in 1987, she discovered a ballet she had never seen before.

Clark's dance company was there to dance alongside the Kirov in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Lyndon Johnson-Alexei Kosygin summit meeting.

Clark, who had danced professionally for 20 years with several companies, including the American Ballet Theatre, watched a scene from the beautiful and rarely seen ballet "Esmeralda" and was awestruck. Taken with its beauty and bold theatrical qualities, Clark decided to try bringing the full-length ballet to an American stage for the first time.

" I was so impressed by what I saw that I thought it would be wonderful to do it here," Clark recalled. "'Esmeralda' had never been performed in the United States before. No one had ever seen it."

In 2004, New Jersey's first professional ballet company brought "Esmeralda" to the United States and performed it on the stage of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark to rave reviews and critical acclaim.

" The results were absolutely fantastic," Clark said. "The performance was exhilarating, and all the reviews were outstanding. A few companies have performed parts of 'Esmeralda,' but we are the only ballet company in the United States that has done the full-length ballet."

New Jersey Ballet once again will perform one of the hidden jewels of 19th-century ballet when it presents the full-length "Esmeralda" in Morristown Nov. 17 at the Community Theatre at Mayo Center for the Performing Arts.

Kicking off its Saturday Night Series at the theater, New Jersey Ballet will reprise its groundbreaking performance with the company's cast of 20 principal artists from 12 nations, a corps de ballet of 20 and music by the New Philharmonic of New Jersey.

Based on the epic 1831 French novel "Notre-Dame de Paris" (aka "The Hunchback of Notre Dame") by Victor Hugo, "Esmeralda" is a little known ballet that is still considered a classic in Russia. Once tremendously popular all over Europe, the ballet eventually fell out of favor and virtually disappeared, except in Russia.

Created in 1844 by ballet master Jules-Joseph Perrot, who also created "Giselle," with music by Cesare Pugni, the ballet has evolved through the years with elements added by composers Reinhold Gliere and Riccardo Drigo, and other famed Russian choreographers, among them, Marius Petipa, Agrippina Vaganova and Validimir Bourmeister, the legendary ballet master of the Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet.

New Jersey Ballet has based its production of "Esmeralda" on Bourmeister, who brought his vision to the stage in 1950.

The ballet focuses on Esmeralda, the innocent gypsy girl who performs on the streets of Paris. Known for her extraordinary beauty and superb dancing, she becomes the object of love for the hunchbacked bell-ringer Quasimodo, the sinister Archdeacon Frollo and the faithless Captain Phoebus. That love will eventually doom Esmeralda to her tragic fate.

Set amid 15th-century Paris, the masterful tale reaches a heartbreaking ending that audiences will surely remember.

World-renowned choreographer and artistic director Vitali Akhoundov first staged "Esmeralda" for New Jersey Ballet in 2004. Following the rich Russian tradition, Akhoundov has once again staged the moving and beautiful ballet for the Community Theatre stage.

Akhoundov, who is the artistic director of the Russian Ballet Theatre, also holds the honor of Honored Artist of Russia. After a successful career dancing professionally for almost 20 years, Akhoundov turned his attention to choreography, directing and teaching, eventually serving as Dean of the Ballet Masters Faculty at the Russian Academy of Theatre Art. Akhoundov is thrilled to be staging "Esmeralda" for New Jersey Ballet again.

" The ballet has many facets," Akhoundov said through an interpreter. "It is rich with classical dancing and dramatic theater. This ballet has everything, which makes it difficult to direct, but that is what makes it so great."

Julia Vorobyeva will reprise her role as Esmeralda. The Bolshoi-trained Vorobyeva was already very familiar with the ballet and leaped at the chance to dance the part again.

" I feel very comfortable in the role," Vorobyeva said. "She is closer to my own personality than any other role I have danced. I also like that there is drama and emotion that I can express. It is a very theatrical ballet."

Vorobyeva, who enjoys the theatricality of dance, also enjoys dancing to a story.

" This is a story, not just a dance," she said. "I can show the beginning to the end. My friends were very excited because of the story, and they like that they can see the whole ballet performed, not just an act. They say, 'Finally, we can see the full ballet.' It is also exciting for me to dance with a full orchestra."

Andrei Jouralev will co-star alongside Vorobyeva as Captain Phoebus. A powerful, yet graceful dancer, Jouralev has danced with New Jersey Ballet for 13 years. He was trained at the Perm Academy in Russia and went on to become a principal dancer in the Perm State Ballet. He has won silver and bronze medals in international competitions and is in demand as a guest artist, recently appearing as Albrecht in California Ballet's 40th anniversary season production of "Giselle."

Tuvshin Bold will dance the part of Archdeacon Frollo, while Konstantin Dournev will dance the part of the hunchback, Quasimodo.

As New Jersey's preeminent ballet company, New Jersey Ballet will showcase this production in the newly completed Community Theatre, featuring colorful characters, lavish sets, beautiful costumes, and full accompaniment by the New Philharmonic of New Jersey, conducted by Leon Hyman.

" People like story ballets," Clark said. "They like a story line to follow with drama and action, and 'Esmeralda' has all of that. Everyone should see it.""

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