Type: Contemporary Ballet
Company: Royal Ballet Flanders
Soloist: Drew Jacoby, Alexandra Burton
Program:
Conductor: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Jeroen Verbruggen
Location: Opera Antwerp, Belgium
Year: 2016

This Ravel-centered contemporary ballet is a delightful success yet not the kind that turns into a repertory fixture. It brings together Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (heard in Maurice Ravel’s famous orchestration) in a striking choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, alongside Ravel’s Mother Goose, both choreographed by Jeroen Verbruggen. Rather than becoming an every-season staple, the ballet is admired for its imagination and musical intelligence and is revived selectively.