San Francisco Ballet Streams Jewels For Program 4

San Francisco Ballet Streams Jewels for Program 4

From April 1 -21, for the next program of their digital season, San Francisco Ballet streams Jewels and dedicates the performance to the memory of Elyse Borne who passed away in December of 2019.

The company had worked extensively with Borne, a Balanchine répétiteur whose first ballet set on them was Concerto Barocco in 1996.

“While recording Emeralds on stage this year we all thought fondly of Elyse. She and I met while dancing for New York City Ballet in the 1970s and 80s. We were both aware of how fortunate we were to be a part of that last generation of dancers who worked directly with Balanchine. She joined us as ballet master in 1997 after working with companies all over the world, and over the following six years, she guided and supported the dancers here with expertise, grace, and humor. She will always be a long-remembered colleague and dear friend.”

Helgi Tomasson

Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer of San Francisco Ballet

The Emeralds section of George Balanchine’s no-plot full-length ballet was filmed at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco in January of this year. This capture will accompany archival footage of Rubies and Diamonds, to complete the trifecta of one of the master choreographer’s most beloved ballets.

Jewels, which The New York Times has called “a perfect introduction to ballet”, premiered in full in 1967 at New York City Ballet and showcases the different musical and balletic traditions of the countries most influential to the art forms: France (Emeralds), the United States (Rubies), and Russia (Diamonds).

Each section is distinct in color – green, red, and white as their corresponding Van Cleef & Arpels gems inspire – and style, costumes designed by Barbara Karinska to fit each act.

Emeralds alludes to the 19th-century dances of French romantics and is set to excerpts from Gabriel Faure’s Pelléas et Mélisande (1898) and Shylock (1889).

Rubies is a feat of athleticism, set to the irregular, modernist, jazz-inspired Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra by Igor Stravinsky.

Diamonds invokes memories of Imperial Russia in a grand and formal display of classical ballet and is set to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3 in D major.

SF Ballet Orchestra performs in each ballet, with newly recorded music for Emeralds captured using approved safety protocols at Skywalker Studios and the SF Conservatory of Music and produced and engineered by Leslie Ann Jones.

San Francisco Ballet Jewels Principal Casting

Emeralds
Misa Kuranaga, Angelo Greco
Sasha Mukhamedov, Aaron Robison

Rubies
Mathilde Froustey Pascal Molat
Wanting Zhao

Diamonds
Sasha De Sola, Tiit Helimets

Complement to Jewels is a Zoom conversation featuring former New York City Ballet principal dancers Kay Mazzo, Mimi Paul, and Edward Villella, alongside Helgi Tomasson. Celebrating Jewels will stream on April 20.

San Francisco Ballet Digital Season Trailer

Featured Photo for San Francisco Ballet Streams Jewels is the company in Balanchine’s Emeralds // Choreography by George Balanchine © The Balanchine Trust; Photo © Erik Tomasson