BOSTON -- Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen Wednesday announced the repertory for Boston Ballet's 42nd season, six programs that reflect his mission to preserve the past and point the way toward the future.

"I am so pleased to be able to offer our audiences and our dancers such variety in the upcoming season," said Nissinen. "I am thrilled that Mark Morris will be choreographing on the Company for the first time in almost 20 years. It will be a great experience for our dancers to work with him on a new creation. And I'm delighted to continue our artistic association with Jorma Elo. Jorma will not only be creating a major new production of Carmen, but we are bringing back his Plan to B, which was such a big hit in 2004.

"James Kudelka's Cinderella and Nijinska's Les Noces are two wonderful additions to the repertoire. James has taken a fresh approach to Cinderella, presenting the story in a way that modern audiences can relate to. And Nijinska's Les Noces is one of the great, groundbreaking ballets of the 20th century."

The season also includes the Company premiere of William Forsythe’s Herman Schmerman, George Balanchine's beloved Serenade, Sir Frederick Ashton's comic masterpiece La Fille mal gardée, Act III of Marius Petipa’s Raymonda, and, of course, The Nutcracker.

All performances are held at The Wang Theatre with the exception of The Nutcracker, which will be staged for the first time at the Opera House.

Cinderella
October 13-23, 2005
Music: Sergei Prokofiev
Choreography: James Kudelka
Sets and Costumes: David Boechler
Lighting: Christopher Dennis


The season opens on October 13 with the United States premiere of James Kudelka's beautiful, critically acclaimed Cinderella, choreographed in 2004 for the National Ballet of Canada, where Kudelka is Artistic Director. "A delight from start to finish," wrote Michael Crabb in The National Post. "A veritable feast for the eye, it has all the necessary stage magic to enrapture children and a handsome enough quota of sly wit and inventive choreography to satisfy devoted ballet fans." The production adheres to the familiar story, but Kudelka veers from the concept of "a rich man transforming a poor girl through money and power," as he said in an interview. For this Cinderella and her Prince, "happily ever after" means finding delight in nature, in life’s simple pleasures, and in each other.

David Boechler's exquisite set and costume designs are inspired by Erte, the Russian-born painter whose name is now synonymous with Art Deco. Erte became world famous as a fashion artist for Harper's Bazaar magazine, and as a designer of spectacular sets and costumes for the Folies-Bergere during the 1920s.

Sergei Prokofiev's superb score was written between 1941 and 1944, and received its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on November 21, 1945, with choreography by Rotislav Zakharov.

The Nutcracker
Presented by Fidelity Investments
November 25-December 30, 2005
Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography: Mikko Nissinen


The beloved Boston tradition of The Nutcracker continues this season as it moves into the magnificent, newly restored Opera House. The 2005 Nutcracker will be customized for the stage in the Opera House and will be performed complete with the full Tchaikovsky score played by the Boston Ballet Orchestra, children from Boston Ballet School, and many of the much-loved elements audiences have grown fond of over The Nutcracker's 37 years in Boston.

The Opera House was known as the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre when it opened in 1928 and presented vaudeville performances. It was restored to its original glory by Clear Channel Entertainment and reopened in July 2004. In February 2004, the Opera House was announced as the new home for Boston Ballet's production of The Nutcracker for the 2005, 2006, and 2007 seasons.

La Fille mal gardee
March 9-12, 2006
Music: Ferdinand Herold
Choreography: Sir Frederick Ashton
Sets and Costumes: Osbert Lancaster
Lighting: Brad Fields


Sir Frederick Ashton's La Fille mal gardee has been delighting audiences since it was first performed by the Royal Ballet on January 28, 1960. "It's a perfect comedy and a true lesson on theatrical timing," said Nissinen.

Fille was originally choreographed by Jean Dauberval in Bordeaux, France in 1789, and it is the inspiration for Ashton's production. Dauberval set his ballet to a score by Ferdinand Herold, and that music was adapted and arranged by John Lanchbery for Ashton's version.

The great critic Edwin Denby once remarked, "The more trivial the subject, the deeper and more beautiful is Ashton's poetic view of it," and this is certainly true of Fille. The ballet takes place inside and outside a farmhouse, where Lise, daughter of the well-to-do Widow Simone, is in love with Colas, a young farmer. But the Widow Simone has a different, much wealthier suitor in mind for her daughter, the bumbling Alain, son of a portly vineyard owner.

The ballet contains many light, delightful, and downright funny moments: dancing chickens, a clog dance, bits of slapstick, the consistent ineptitude of Alain, and the silliness of the Widow Simone, a role played by a man in drag. But it is the poetry of Ashton's choreography and his affection for his characters that elevates the ballet to a masterpiece. As Anna Kisselgoff wrote in The New York Times, "The spirit soars through the beauty of his choreography."

Spring Repertory Program
March 16-26, 2006

World Premiere
Choreography: Mark Morris
Herman Schmerman
Music: Thom Willems
Choreography: William Forsythe
Set: William Forsythe
Costumes: Gianni Versace
Lighting: Mark Stanley

Plan to B
Music: Heinrich von Biber
Choreography: Jorma Elo
Costumes: Jorma Elo
Lighting: Pierre Lavoie

Ballets by three of dance's most original, innovative, and inspired contemporary choreographers are showcased on this rousing mixed bill, which will include a fourth piece still to be determined. One of the most anticipated events of the season is the world premiere by Mark Morris. Morris is one of the most acclaimed choreographers in the world: in the Washington Post, Jean Nordhaus called him "Our Mozart of modern dance," and Allan Ulrich wrote in the San Francisco Examiner, "There is no more musical, inventive, volatile or entertaining dance maker currently afoot." Boston Ballet has previously performed, to great acclaim, three Morris works: Mort Subite, commissioned for Boston Ballet in 1986, Maelstrom, danced in 1999 and in 2002, was choreographed for San Francisco Ballet in 1994, and Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes, staged in 2004, was choreographed for American Ballet Theatre in 1988. "I have a long relationship with Mark that started in San Francisco. He is extremely supportive of our work here. Having him create something on the Company now really raises the ante," said Nissinen.

Jorma Elo's Plan to B electrified audiences when Boston Ballet premiered it in 2004. "Plan to B is a high-tech ballet in human terms," Anna Kisselgoff wrote in The New York Times, "and its impact as pure movement is explosive. If movement were sound, Plan to B would be called high-decibel choreography." The New York Times ranked Plan to B as one of the top 10 dance events in 2004, and Finnish-born Elo is gaining increasing recognition as one of the most creative choreographers working today.

William Forsythe's light-hearted Herman Schmerman, created in 1992 for New York City Ballet's Diamond Project, becomes the second piece by the choreographer to be performed by Boston Ballet. The Company has twice danced In the middle, somewhat elevated, in 2002 and 2005. "I love Forsythe's work, and I felt that this would be a great continuation on the exploration of his repertoire with our dancers," said Nissinen. Herman Schmerman, danced to an electronic score by frequent collaborator Thom Willems, is performed by five dancers, and features Forsythe's signature, cutting edge choreography and costumes designed by Gianni Versace. The name of the piece comes from an expression used in the Steve Martin movie Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid; Forsythe has said that the title has no meaning.

An Evening of Russian Ballet
May 4-7, 2006

Les Noces
Music: Igor Stravinsky
Choreography: Bronislava Nijinska


Raymonda, Act III
Music: Alexander Glazunov
Choreography: after Petipa

Boston Ballet pays tribute to the great tradition of Russian ballet that began in the nineteenth century with French-born Marius Petipa, whose work defined -- and defines -- Russian classicism. For the first half of the twentieth century, ballet continued to be dominated by Russian artists, including Bronislava Nijinska, Vaslav Nijinsky, Leonid Massine, Michel Fokine, Alexander Gorsky, Leonid Jacobson, and of course, George Balanchine. Petipa's Raymonda, Act III and Nijinska's Les Noces anchor this program, to which other pieces will be added. "The evening will have a festive, gala feel. We've honored Balanchine, we’ve honored Bournonville, and now it's time to honor the Russian tradition," said Nissinen.

Nijinska's extraordinary Les Noces was choreographed for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and premiered in Paris on June 14, 1923. The choreography for this highly stylized, ritualistic depiction of a Russian peasant wedding is a mass of geometric patterns. Stravinsky adapted Russian folk and wedding songs for the score, and incorporated idiosyncratic phrases for his text. His unusual orchestration calls for four pianos, seventeen percussion instruments, a chorus and soloists. Nijinska’s production was brought to this country for the first time by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1936.

Petipa was 80 years old when he choreographed the full-length Raymonda in 1898, and it proved to be his last important work. The third act is a wedding celebration for the title character, featuring a series of Hungarian divertissements and concluding with a grand pas de deux. Glazunov's score is regarded by many to be among the finest written for ballet.

Carmen
May 11-21, 2006


Serenade
Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Costumes: Karinska


Carmen
Music: George Bizet
Choreography: Jorma Elo
Sets and Costumes: Walt Spangler

Boston Ballet's final program of the season opens with George Balanchine's exquisite Serenade, the first work he choreographed after coming to America. It was created in 1934, just a few months after he and Lincoln Kirstein had founded the School of American Ballet, and was conceived as a vehicle that would enable the students to participate in the creative process and learn what it is like to perform onstage. Tailoring the dance to suit the talents of his mostly limited dancers, he created one of the most hauntingly beautiful ballets of all time, danced to Tchaikovsky's lovely Serenade in C for Strings.

The program concludes with Jorma Elo's Carmen, his third world premiere for the Company. Based on the 1845 story by Prosper Merimee, which inspired the exceedingly popular 1875 opera by Bizet, Carmen is a story of love, jealousy, passion and betrayal involving the fiery, free-spirited title character, the toreador Escamillo, and the soldier Don Jose. Walt Spangler, who designed Boston Ballet's The Nutcracker in 2004, will provide the sets and costumes. "This will be a sleek, contemporary visualization of the story, and Jorma is going to bring something very fresh to the stage," said Nissinen.

For more information on the Company's 42nd season, please contact the Boston Ballet Box Office or click here.