There is a fundamental bittersweetness about life that those attuned to it can find in varying degrees in all worthwhile works of art. This feature is readily apparent in Alexei Ratmansky’s Odessa. Considering its limited time frame, this work persuasively evokes a bygone place and era (the eponymous city in early post-Revolutionary Russia). On the one hand, its mood is somber and disquieting, some of its “action” is distressing, and its male “characters” appear ruffianly and menacing. On the other hand, the ballet is permeated with a breathtaking beauty which places it in my opinion high among (if not at the top of) all works that have premiered at NYCB in recent years.
Two sequences in Odessa arouse controversy since they seemingly depict
Two sequences in Odessa arouse controversy since they seemingly depict