A couple of Wheeldon’s ballets had unorthodox musical settings. There Where She Loved (2000) alternated songs by Chopin and Kurt Weill (sung by soprano Kate Vetter Cain and mezzo Shelley Waite, accompanied by Cameron Grant). Vetter Cain’s Slavic romanticism was trumped by Waite’s super-tragic interpretations of Weill songs that are better known through the rueful cynicism of Lotte Lenya. Wheeldon’s 11 dancers assembled in various temporary relationships: passionate duets quickly cooled, a stud embraced and then discarded three women in turn, a male quartet manipulated a pliant Anastasia Yatsenko.
Mesmerics (2003) was set to selections by Philip Glass for eight cellos, the players seated in a row behind and slightly above the stage, and a string quartet in the pit. The seven dancers once again explored partnering in duets and trios, with acrobatic somersaults, flying women, and a few breakdance moves sewn in.
By the end of the second program, Wheeldon seemed a less distinguished talent than I’d thought. You can’t fault him for the overlong programs, the excessive trivia and repetitious themes. Scheduling, rehearsing, and paying for your dream programming is so much more problematic if you work with a pick-up company, but still . . . Let’s see what Morphoses comes up with next time.
Related:
State of the art, Two tales retold, Prodigies old and new, More 
- State of the art
Maybe it’s the economy, but Boston Ballet’s third-annual season-opening gala was a sober evening, without the orchestral overture that graced the first two affairs.
- Two tales retold
The big ballet companies are shackled tighter than ever to the idea of the story ballet.
- Prodigies old and new
Tharp’s dances almost invariably have a euphoric effect on their first audiences, even when they miss their mark and don’t hold up over the long run.
- Sight and insight
“New Visions” is the kind of title ballet-company directors come up with for programs that are sort of new and are hoping for vision.
- Twinkle, twinkle
For some 15 years now, Boston Ballet has danced like a major international ballet company, and Mikko Nissinen wants to be sure everybody’s aware of that.
- Year in Dance: Reusable histories & durable trends
Conservation is a good thing in these times, and some of the most interesting performances drew on the uses of history — personal history, performance history, and even some inventions that sought to overturn history.
- Adam and Eve
A day at New York City Ballet that starts with a matinee of Coppélia and ends with a Balanchine evening might seem to offer merely the contrast between classic and modern, old and new.
- Smaller is better
Next fall, Boston Ballet will move all its performing operations to the Opera House from Citi Performing Arts Center's immense and unfriendly Wang Theatre.
- Not so great
Way back in 1977, PBS gave us a Nutcracker with a difference: Mikhail Baryshnikov as an electrifying Nutcracker/Cavalier and willowy Gelsey Kirkland as an older-than-usual Clara, as the Sugar Plum Fairy.
- Oppositions
The end of a three-week, thousands-of-miles-from-home season is never the right time to assess a dance company.
- Russian revel?
The Russians are coming!
- Less
Topics:
Dance
, Entertainment, Music, Lotte Lenya, More
, Entertainment, Music, Lotte Lenya, Maria Kowroski, Sterling Hyltin, London's Ballet, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Classical Music, The Metropolitan Opera, Kurt Weill, Less
