March 5 – 8, 2020 in Segerstrom Hall

Tickets on sale now

Catherine Hurlin and Aran Bell in Alexei Ratmansky's of Love and Rage. Photo: Erin Baiano.

COSTA MESA, CA – Segerstrom Center for the Arts proudly presents the World Premiere of American Ballet Theatre’s Of Love and Rage, a new work choreographed by ABT Artist in Residence and MacArthur Genius Alexei Ratmansky. Sets and costumes are by award-winning designer Jean-Marc Puissant, with lighting by designer Duane Schuler. Inspired from the first century Greek novel, Callirhoe, the libretto for Of Love and Rage was adapted by actor, director, screenwriter and Molière Award winner Guillaume Gallienne. The ballet is set to music by Aram Khachaturian with arrangements by Philip Feeney and performed live by Pacific Symphony. There will be five performances: March 5 – 8, 2020 in Segerstrom Hall. The ballet will have its New York Premiere during ABT’s 2020 Metropolitan Opera House season June 2 – 6.

Alexei Ratmansky said, “Of Love and Rage is not a fairytale. Although it was written thousands of years ago, with the complexity of the relationship [between Callirhoe and Chaereas] at its core and the tough choices they face, it feels very modern and relevant. Callirhoe is a strong woman in a world where women had very limited options and no power.  After early experiences where her fate is determined by men, she learns that she can use her beauty and her brains to shape her fate.” Ratmansky added, “I am fascinated by the topic of forgiveness. This is a story about how anger and jealousy tear two people apart – two people who are madly in love. Forgiveness is the only way they can reunite, and forgiveness requires strength. As Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.’”

Single tickets for American Ballet Theatre’s Of Love and Rage at Segerstrom Center for the Arts start at $29 and are now available online at SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling (714) 556-2787. For inquiries about group ticket discounts for 10 or more, call the Group Services office at (714) 755-0236.

Principal Casting for Of Love and Rage at Segerstrom Center for the Arts

Artists and program are subject to change.

Thursday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m.     
Callirhoe – Catherine Hurlin
Chaereas – Aran Bell

Friday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Callirhoe – Christine Shevchenko
Chaereas – Thomas Forster

Saturday, March 7 at 2:00 p.m.
Callirhoe – Catherine Hurlin
Chaereas – Aran Bell

Saturday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Callirhoe – Hee Seo
Chaereas – Calvin Royal III

Sunday, March 8 at 1:00 p.m.
Callirhoe – Christine Shevchenko
Chaereas – Thomas Forster

About the Ballet

Declared “the most gifted choreographer in classical ballet today” (The New York Times) Ratmansky was introduced to the ancient Greek text Callirhoe by his friend and colleague Guillaume Gallienne. Written by Chariton of Aphrodesias, Callirhoe is widely acknowledged to be the oldest novel ever written, set around 400 BC in the ancient Greek world, which, at that time, sprawled across the Mediterranean. A ballet in two acts, Of Love and Rage follows the novel’s powerful love story of Chaereas and Callirhoe as they struggle with the tragic consequences of their mistakes and, ultimately, find redemption through forgiveness.

Of Love and Rage pulls inspiration from the Greek aesthetic of beauty and harmony, incorporating many elements from ancient Greek drama. Ratmansky utilizes his expansive knowledge of classical ballet’s history and the rhythms, harmonies and orchestrations of Aram Khachaturian’s score Gayane to create a powerful, story-driven piece, utilizing the full company of dancers. The corps de ballet, dancing as one unit, will portray supporting emotions in the commentary role found in Greek theater.

The Story

Callirhoe is a young noblewoman living in the city of Syracuse. She is acknowledged as the most beautiful woman in the world, compared often to the goddess Aphrodite. She has many suitors, but when she and the handsome Chaereas see each other, it is love at first sight. Although her father Hermocrates and Chareas’s father Ariston are bitter enemies, the families are convinced to put aside their feud for the sake of love. Callirhoe and Chaereas are married.

Callirhoe’s rejected suitors, now jealous of Chaereas, deceive the groom into thinking that Callirhoe is unfaithful. He becomes consumed by his own jealousy and confronts Callirhoe. In the course of the confrontation, she collapses, causing Chaereas to believe that his beloved is dead. Callirhoe is entombed along with a large cache of treasures. Pirates have secretly observed the funeral and, after the mourners leave, they plunder the tomb. Callirhoe awakens – she is not dead. The pirates kidnap her and sail to the city of Miletus in Cyprus. They sell her as a slave to the benevolent and wealthy Dionysius, who instantly falls in love with her. Meanwhile, she discovers that she is pregnant with Chaereas’ child. To save her child from being born into slavery – and thinking she will never see Chaereas again – Callirhoe takes control of her destiny and marries Dionysius. He doesn’t know Callirhoe is pregnant and assumes that the child is his. Chaereas, in the meantime, has returned to the tomb and finds it ransacked and Callirhoe gone. He gathers a ship and sets sail to find her.

Following a series of coincidences, adventures, and near-reunions, Callirhoe and Chaereas finally see each other again. Dionysius, who loves Callirhoe and her son as his own, allows Callirhoe to decide whether to stay or return to Syracuse with Chaereas. Fate has imposed this decision on Callirhoe. Neither situation is perfect, but she must make a choice.

About Alexei Ratmansky, Choreographer

Alexei Ratmansky was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow. His performing career included positions as principal dancer with Ukrainian National Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet.  He has choreographed ballets for the Mariinsky Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Kiev Ballet and the State Ballet of Georgia, as well as for Nina Ananiashvili, Diana Vishneva and Mikhail Baryshnikov. His 1998 work, Dreams of Japan, earned a prestigious Golden Mask Award from the Theatre Union of Russia.  In 2005, he was awarded the Benois de la Danse prize for his choreography of Anna Karenina for the Royal Danish Ballet. He was made Knight of Dannebrog by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in 2001. He won his second Benois de la Danse for Shostakovich Trilogy in 2014. Ratmansky was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow for 2013.

Ratmansky was named artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet in January 2004. For the Bolshoi Ballet, he choreographed full-length productions of The Bright Stream (2003) and The Bolt (2005) and re-staged Le Corsaire (2007) and the Soviet-era Flames of Paris (2008). Under Ratmansky’s direction, the Bolshoi Ballet was named “Best Foreign Company” in 2005 and 2007 by The Critics’ Circle in London, and he received a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for The Bright Stream in 2006. In 2007, he won a Golden Mask Award for Best Choreographer for his production of Jeu de Cartes for the Bolshoi Ballet. In 2009, Ratmansky choreographed new dances for the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Aida. Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre as Artist in Residence in January 2009.

For American Ballet Theatre, Ratmansky choreographed On the Dnieper (2009), Seven Sonatas (2009),  Waltz Masquerade, a ballet honoring Nina Ananiashvili’s final season (2009), The Nutcracker (2010, West Coast Premiere at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in 2015), Dumbarton (2011), Symphony #9 (2012), Firebird (World Premiere at Segerstrom Center for the Arts 2016), Chamber Symphony, Piano Concerto #1 and The Tempest (2013), The Sleeping Beauty (World Premiere at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in 2015), Serenade after Plato’s Symposium (2016), Songs of Bukovina (2017), Whipped Cream (World Premiere at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in 2017), Harlequinade (West Coast Premiere at Segerstrom Center for the Arts 2018) and The Seasons (2019).

About Jean-Marc Puissant, Set & Costume Designer

Jean-Marc Puissant is an award-winning set and costume designer working internationally in opera, theatre, dance and musicals. For The Royal Ballet, he has designed Christopher, Wheeldon’s Aeternum, Electric Counterpoint, DGV: Danse à grande vitesse and Tryst, set designs for George Balanchine’s Jewels and Javier De Frutos’s Les Enfants Terribles. For The Royal Opera, he designed sets for David McVicar’s production of Aida. Further work at the Royal Opera house includes Whelan/Watson: Other Stories for The Royal Ballet, A Dream within a Midsummer Night’s Dream for Ballet Black Arthur Pita’s God’s Garden and Alexander Whitley’s The Measures Taken. He has also appeared on the main stage as a dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Puissant began his career as a dancer, training at the Paris Opera School and dancing professionally with BRB and Stuttgart Ballet. He then studied on the Motley Theatre Design Course and studied art history at the Sorbonne. He designs for leading international companies including New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, BRB, Dutch National Ballet, Rambert, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Scottish Opera, Norwegian National Opera, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia, Menier Chocolate Factory and Théâtre du Châtelet.

Several productions Puissant has designed have won Olivier, South Bank Show and Critics’ Circle awards. He was nominated for Best Scenographer at the 2016 Benois de la danse and was a finalist at World Stage Design 2013. He has given talks about his work at the V&A and Guggenheim Museum, New York, has tutored theatre design at Central School of Speech and Drama and is on the Board of Directors of Dance Umbrella Ltd. He was a 2018 Fellow at New York University’s Center for Ballet and the Arts.

About Duane Schuler, Lighting Designer

Duane Schuler’s work encompasses opera, ballet and theatre. Opera productions include Turandot (La Scala), Pelleas et Melisande (Metropolitan Opera), La Fanciulla del West (Opéra Paris), Elektra (Salzburg Festival), Fidelio (Covent Garden), Beatrice et Benedict (Glyndebourne), Candide (Santa Fe Opera) and Don Giovanni (Lyric Opera of Chicago).  Ballet credits include Swan Lake and The Snow Maiden (American Ballet Theatre), The Sleeping Beauty (Stuttgart Ballet), Giselle (Deutsche Ballet) and The Nutcracker (Houston Ballet). Theatre credits include House and Garden (Manhattan Theatre Club), The Royal Family (Ahmanson Theatre), The Importance of Being Earnest (Broadway) and Ragtime (The 5^th Ave Theatre). Upcoming productions include Cendrillon (Metropolitan Opera) and Ernani (San Francisco Opera). Schuler is also a founding partner of Schuler Shook, the theatre planning and architectural lighting design firm whose projects include Seattle’s Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. 

About Guillaume Gallienne, Librettist

Gallienne made his film debut in 1992 in Tableau d’honneur and he has starred in Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette. Between 2008 and 2010, he had a short sketch segment entitled Les Bonus de Guillaume on Le Grand Journal, parodying DVD bonus features. He won a Molière Award for Best Newcomer in 2010 in his one-man stage show Boys and Guillaume, to the table! (Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table!) and another for Best Supporting Actor in 2011 in Un fil à la patte. He collaborated with choreographer Nicolas Le Riche to write the libretto for the 2011 Paris Opera Ballet production of Caligula. He adapted Bolshoi Ballet’s 2014 Parisian production of Illusions perdues, choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky.

His 2013 film Me, Myself and Mum, an adaptation of his stage show, was screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where it won the top prize (Art Cinema Award) and the Prix SACD. The film was nominated for ten Césars, the most in 2014, winning five in total. Individually, he was awarded the César Award for Best Actor and the César Award for Best Writing. Gallienne has been a member (Sociétaire) of the Comédie-Française company since 2005, having first entered in 1998. He became a Knight of the National Order of Merit in November 2008 and an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters at the start of 2013. He has hosted a weekly literature show Ça peut pas faire de mal on France Inter since September 2009.

 About Philip Feeney, Musical Arrangements

Composer and pianist Philip Feeney studied composition at the University of Cambridge and at Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He is best known for his work in dance, which he first encountered in Italy and has since worked with many companies in addition to American Ballet Theatre, including Northern Ballet Theatre, Rambert Dance Company, the White Oak Project and the Martha Graham Company. He has collaborated with many choreographers including Michael Pink, Didy Veldman, Michael Keegan-Dolan, Derek Williams, David Nixon, Adam Cooper and Sara Matthews, and his works have been performed by dance companies as diverse as Northern Ballet Theatre, Rambert Dance Company, Cullberg Ballet, Boston Ballet, Fabulous Beast, Scottish Dance Theatre, Milwaukee Ballet, in addition to more than forty works for Ballet Central.

From 1991-95, Feeney lectured in composition at Reading University. He is currently composer in residence for Ballet Central and has been a longstanding accompanist at the London Contemporary Dance School. Inspired by image and movement, Feeney’s output is remarkable for its range and scope. Extending from full-length orchestral ballet scores to electro-acoustic soundscapes, jazz and hip hop scores, his works exhibit a capacity for reinventing past styles in a post-modern way. For Feeney, it is crucial that music for dance make sense as pure music at all times. It needs to have kinetic musicality and parallel logic that make the listener feel that the music is right, and that it is the only possible music that could work for that particular choreography.

American Ballet Theatre is one of the great dance companies in the world. Few ballet companies equal ABT for its combination of size, scope and outreach. Recognized as a living national treasure since its founding in 1940, ABT annually tours the United States, performing for more than 300,000 people, and is the only major cultural institution to do so. For 80 years, the Company has appeared in a total of 132 cities in 45 countries and has performed in all 50 states of the United States. ABT has recently enjoyed triumphant successes with engagements in Paris, Brisbane, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Hong Kong and Oman. On April 27, 2006, by an act of Congress, American Ballet Theatre became America’s National Ballet Company^®.

Pacific Symphony, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair for the last 29 years, has been the resident orchestra of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall for over a decade. Currently in its 40th anniversary season, the Symphony is the largest orchestra formed in the U.S. in the last 50 years and is recognized as an outstanding ensemble making strides on both the national and international scene, as well as here in Orange County. Pacific Symphony is dedicated to expanding the orchestral repertoire,

illustrated through its many commissions and recordings, in-depth explorations of American artists and themes. The Symphony’s innovative approaches to new works received the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming in 2005 and 2010. In April 2018, Pacific Symphony made its debut at Carnegie Hall as one of two orchestras invited to perform during a yearlong celebration of composer Philip Glass’ 80th birthday. The New York Times saluted Pacific Symphony as “excellent…a major ensemble.” The following month the orchestra toured China, and in June 2018 made its national PBS debut on Great Performances with Peter Boyer’s “Ellis Island: The Dream of America,” conducted by St.Clair. Presenting more than 100 concerts and events a year and a rich array of education and community engagement programs, the Symphony reaches more than 300,000 residents—from school children to senior citizens.

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The Center’s International Dance Series is made possible by the Audrey Steele Burnand Endowed Fund for International Dance and The Segerstrom Foundation Endowment for Great Performances. Of Love and Rage is presented with special underwriting from Mr. and Mrs. Eyal Aronoff, Mr. and Mrs. George Schreyer and William J. Gillespie. Segerstrom Center for the Arts applauds United Airlines, Official Airline of the Center. COAST Magazine is the official media partner of the Dance Season.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is an acclaimed arts institution as well as a beautiful multi-disciplinary cultural campus. It is committed to supporting artistic excellence, offering unsurpassed experiences and to engaging the entire community in new and exciting ways through the unique power of live performance as well as a diverse array of inspiring arts-based education and community engagement programs.

Previously called the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Center is Orange County’s largest non-profit arts organization. In addition to its six performance venues, Segerstrom Center is also home to the American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School and the School of Dance and Music for Children with Disabilities.

The Center presents a broad range of programming for audiences of all ages, featuring international ballet and dance companies, national tours of top Broadway shows, jazz and cabaret, contemporary artists, classical music performed by renowned chamber orchestras and ensembles, family-friendly programming, and free performances on its plaza, such as outdoor movie screenings, concerts, community and cultural festivals.

Segerstrom Center is a leader among the nation’s performing arts centers for providing education programs designed to inspire young people through the arts. The Center’s programs reach hundreds of thousands of students each year in five Southern California counties. The CDI supports flagship artistic programming and a wide range of projects that celebrate innovation, nurture creativity and engage audiences of the future. The Center Without Boundaries develops partnerships with non-cultural organizations to help them in their own efforts to respond to the ever-changing needs of the community.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is also proud to serve as the artistic home to three of the region’s major performing arts organizations: Pacific Symphony, Philharmonic Society of Orange County and Pacific Chorale. Each contributes greatly to the artistic life of the region with annual seasons performed at the Center.

In addition to Segerstrom Center for the Arts as a presenting and producing institution, it also identifies the beautiful 14-acre campus that embraces the Center’s own facilities as well as two independently acclaimed organizations: Tony Award^®-winning South Coast Repertory and a site designated as the future home of the Orange County Museum of Art.

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE: OF LOVE AND RAGE
Segerstrom Center for the Arts – Segerstrom Hall

600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA

Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky, based on Chariton’s novel Callirhoe

Music: Aram Khachaturian’s Gayane, arranged by Philip Feeney, performed live by Pacific Symphony

Set and Costume Design: Jean-Marc Puissant

Lighting Design: Duane Schuler

Of Love and Rage is a co-production with the National Ballet of Canada.

March 5 – 8, 2020

Thursday – Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday at 2:00 and 7:30 p.m.

Sunday at 1:00 p.m.

Tickets –          Start at $29

In Person –      The Box Office

600 Town Center Drive

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Open 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. daily

Online –           www.SCFTA.org

www.ABT.org

Phone –           (714) 556-2787

Open 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. daily

Group Sales – (714) 755-0236

Open 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday-Friday

Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ 2019–2020 International Dance Series continues with

Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company’s Onegin (July 31 – August 2).

Information provided is accurate at the time of printing but is subject to change. Segerstrom Center for the Arts is a public, non-profit organization. “Segerstrom Center for the Arts” is a registered trademark.

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