George Balanchine's Prodigal Son is one of the most fascinating and important of all ballets because of the subject it deals with, not its success in dealing with it.
Jesus' famous parable is deceptively simple. Notwithstanding its paradoxical brevity, it is actually one of the most monumental, psychologically penetrating tales in the entire annals of human storytelling. Its denouement is as thrilling, as exhilarating, as triumphant as any conceived by the human mind. One would imagine that in a successful theatrical rendering the ending of the story would occasion an overwhelming display of human emotion and grandeur onstage. Members of the audience would be stunned and experiencing profound feelings of wonder and awe. They
Jesus' famous parable is deceptively simple. Notwithstanding its paradoxical brevity, it is actually one of the most monumental, psychologically penetrating tales in the entire annals of human storytelling. Its denouement is as thrilling, as exhilarating, as triumphant as any conceived by the human mind. One would imagine that in a successful theatrical rendering the ending of the story would occasion an overwhelming display of human emotion and grandeur onstage. Members of the audience would be stunned and experiencing profound feelings of wonder and awe. They