The Joffrey Ballet
Friday and Saturday, March 15–16, 2024, 8pm
Sunday, March 17, 2024, 3pm
Zellerbach Hall
This performance is made possible, in part, by an anonymous Patron Sponsor, Daniel Johnson and Herman Winkel (March 16), and Beth DeAtley (March 17).
Cal Performances is committed to fostering a welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment for all—one that honors our venues as places of respite, openness, and respect. Please see the Community Agreements section on our Policies page for more information.
Run time for this performance is approximately 2 hours including intermission.
From the Executive and Artistic Director
We continue our extraordinary 2023–24 season with a schedule of performances that would be the envy of any performing arts presenter in the nation. I’m especially proud that the legendary pianist Mitsuko Uchida will return to campus this month as Artist in Residence, for two special concerts—March 17 with tenor Mark Padmore in Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise, and March 24 with the acclaimed Mahler Chamber Orchestra in piano concertos by Mozart and an orchestral work by Jörg Widmann—as well as additional opportunities for the campus and wider Bay Area community to engage with her singular artistry. We are also very excited to welcome the return of one of the crown jewels in American dance, The Joffrey Ballet, which this year celebrates the renewal of a multi-season residency at Cal Performances with its first full-length narrative ballet, Anna Karenina, at Zellerbach Hall (Mar 15–17).
The iconic Elevator Repair Service theater company visits from New York with Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge (Mar 1–3), its lean and elegant production about a historic 1965 debate between the progressive queer Black writer and activist James Baldwin and the “Father of American Conservatism,” William F. Buckley, Jr. And, the Bay Area’s beloved Kronos Quartet celebrates its 50th year of reinventing the string quartet for our global, connected, contemporary world with a special concert featuring a world premiere commissioned from Indonesian composer Peni Candra Rini, who will join the Kronos members onstage as a performer (Mar 2).
We’ll enjoy an artfully curated program by the brilliant young pianist Conrad Tao (Mar 3); the Cal Performances debut of a particularly exciting young string ensemble, the Isidore String Quartet (Mar 5); and the West Coast premiere of Ki moun ou ye (Who are you?), an immersive staged song cycle by composer, flutist, and vocalist Nathalie Joachim (Mar 7). Joachim’s piece is set on the remote Caribbean farmland where her family has lived for generations, and travels deeper into the Haitian heritage introduced on her Grammy-nominated Fanm d’Ayiti recording.
In other genres, the June Award-winning group OKAN demonstrates what can happen when you take a classically trained percussionist from Santiago de Cuba, add a one-time concertmaster from Havana’s Youth Orchestra, and stir in the sounds of Caribbean folkloric and dance music in the context of Toronto’s vibrant immigrant music community (Mar 8); and Wild Up, the dazzling Los Angeles contemporary music collective, reminds us how new a 50-year-old music score can sound with its presentation of Julius Eastman’s ecstatic, jubilant, and hypnotic Femenine. And finally, we can’t wait for the Cal Performances debut of Ema Nikolovska, a young mezzo-soprano on the rise and in demand in international opera houses and concert halls; born in North Macedonia, raised in Toronto, and based in Europe, Nikolovska visits with a program featuring songs by Schubert, Richard Strauss, and Debussy.
Even as all these remarkable performances take place on the UC Berkeley campus, the Cal Performances team is hard at work planning for the mid-April announcement of our 2024–25 season. Trust me when I promise that we have a truly exceptional schedule planned for you, an example of which was last month’s sneak-peak announcement of the Maria Manetti Shrem and Elizabeth Segerstrom California Orchestra Residency, when Cal Performances and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County will bring the world renowned Vienna Philharmonic, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and pianist Yefim Bronfman to California in March 2025.
Finally, thank you for joining us today at Cal Performances! We’re delighted to spend this time together, celebrating the very best in live music, dance, and theater.
Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances
We continue our extraordinary 2023–24 season with a schedule of performances that would be the envy of any performing arts presenter in the nation. I’m especially proud that the legendary pianist Mitsuko Uchida will return to campus this month as Artist in Residence, for two special concerts—March 17 with tenor Mark Padmore in Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise, and March 24 with the acclaimed Mahler Chamber Orchestra in piano concertos by Mozart and an orchestral work by Jörg Widmann—as well as additional opportunities for the campus and wider Bay Area community to engage with her singular artistry. We are also very excited to welcome the return of one of the crown jewels in American dance, The Joffrey Ballet, which this year celebrates the renewal of a multi-season residency at Cal Performances with its first full-length narrative ballet, Anna Karenina, at Zellerbach Hall (Mar 15–17).
The iconic Elevator Repair Service theater company visits from New York with Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge (Mar 1–3), its lean and elegant production about a historic 1965 debate between the progressive queer Black writer and activist James Baldwin and the “Father of American Conservatism,” William F. Buckley, Jr. And, the Bay Area’s beloved Kronos Quartet celebrates its 50th year of reinventing the string quartet for our global, connected, contemporary world with a special concert featuring a world premiere commissioned from Indonesian composer Peni Candra Rini, who will join the Kronos members onstage as a performer (Mar 2).
We’ll enjoy an artfully curated program by the brilliant young pianist Conrad Tao (Mar 3); the Cal Performances debut of a particularly exciting young string ensemble, the Isidore String Quartet (Mar 5); and the West Coast premiere of Ki moun ou ye (Who are you?), an immersive staged song cycle by composer, flutist, and vocalist Nathalie Joachim (Mar 7). Joachim’s piece is set on the remote Caribbean farmland where her family has lived for generations, and travels deeper into the Haitian heritage introduced on her Grammy-nominated Fanm d’Ayiti recording.
In other genres, the June Award-winning group OKAN demonstrates what can happen when you take a classically trained percussionist from Santiago de Cuba, add a one-time concertmaster from Havana’s Youth Orchestra, and stir in the sounds of Caribbean folkloric and dance music in the context of Toronto’s vibrant immigrant music community (Mar 8); and Wild Up, the dazzling Los Angeles contemporary music collective, reminds us how new a 50-year-old music score can sound with its presentation of Julius Eastman’s ecstatic, jubilant, and hypnotic Femenine. And finally, we can’t wait for the Cal Performances debut of Ema Nikolovska, a young mezzo-soprano on the rise and in demand in international opera houses and concert halls; born in North Macedonia, raised in Toronto, and based in Europe, Nikolovska visits with a program featuring songs by Schubert, Richard Strauss, and Debussy.
Even as all these remarkable performances take place on the UC Berkeley campus, the Cal Performances team is hard at work planning for the mid-April announcement of our 2024–25 season. Trust me when I promise that we have a truly exceptional schedule planned for you, an example of which was last month’s sneak-peak announcement of the Maria Manetti Shrem and Elizabeth Segerstrom California Orchestra Residency, when Cal Performances and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County will bring the world renowned Vienna Philharmonic, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and pianist Yefim Bronfman to California in March 2025.
Finally, thank you for joining us today at Cal Performances! We’re delighted to spend this time together, celebrating the very best in live music, dance, and theater.
Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances
Synopsis
PROLOGUE | MOSCOW
Train Station of the St. Petersburg Railway
An old station guard forces himself along, against a strong wind. Walking through the snow, the guard leaves behind a foot trail. A faceless crowd emerges from the shadows. The old man accidentally falls on the tracks and is crushed by an oncoming train. Among the horrified crowd are Anna Karenina and Alexey Vronsky. Anna and Vronsky meet and sense an immediate attraction.
ACT 1, SCENE 1 | MOSCOW
Shcherbatsky House, Salon
Countess Nordston, the young Princess Kitty Shcherbatskaya, her parents, and friends gather at the Shcherbatsky home. Kitty is anticipating the arrival of Count Vronsky. A long-time family friend, Constantine Levin, enters the salon. He is clearly in love with Kitty and makes a proposal, but she does not share the same feelings and declines with a heavy heart. Vronsky arrives and is greeted by Kitty, but he is distracted by a brief glimpse of Anna, who is leaving the house as he enters. Vronsky shows Kitty polite affection. Countess Nordston invites everyone to participate in a séance. During the séance, Vronsky has a vision of Anna.
SCENE 2 | MOSCOW
A Ballroom
Guests dance at a ball. Kitty arrives looking for Vronsky. Kitty and Vronsky dance. She has high expectations of him proposing tonight. Anna arrives and steals Vronsky’s attention. They dance. Kitty watches in despair. Vronsky loves another.
SCENE 3 | ST. PETERSBURG
Train Station/Karenin House/A Hotel
Alexey Karenin waits for his wife alone on the platform at the St. Petersburg train station. Anna arrives, followed by Vronsky, whom she introduces to her husband. At home with her husband and son, Seryozha, Anna acknowledges a void in her life. She departs the house in search of her new love. Anna and Vronsky’s affair begins.
SCENE 4 | ST. PETERSBURG
A Racecourse
Spectators take their places in the stands at the racecourse. The Karenins meet Anna’s friend Betsy Tverskaya. The jockeys, including Vronsky, start to race. Vronsky takes a fall and his horse is badly injured. Anna’s reaction reveals her feelings and affection for Vronsky to Karenin and the crowd. Vronsky retrieves a gun and shoots his horse.
INTERMISSION
ACT 2
PROLOGUE | ST. PETERSBURG
Karenin House: Delirium
Anna lies ill in bed with a fever. She has a vision of the old station guard and imagines a life lived happily with both her husband and her lover.
SCENE 1 | ST. PETERSBURG
Karenin House: Reality
Karenin, in total despair, is at the foot of Anna’s bed. Anna is on the verge of dying. Vronsky, devastated and lost standing at her side, asks forgiveness from her husband and runs away in shame. Karenin calls on the doctor who administers morphine to Anna. She is hallucinating.
SCENE 2 | ST. PETERSBURG
Parliament
Karenin takes a stand in Parliament, presenting his proposal of a new law on immigrants residing in Russia, but it is not received well by the other members.
SCENE 3 | ITALY/RUSSIA
Anna and Vronsky have a new life in the Italian countryside. Meanwhile in Russia, Levin dares for another attempt to propose to Kitty and she gratefully accepts. Anna and Vronsky’s relationship shows signs of discord. Vronsky leaves Anna and she falls into despair.
SCENE 4 | ST. PETERSBURG
Karenin House
Anna secretly comes to visit her dear son, Seryozha. Karenin finds her in their son’s room. They fight over Seryozha and Karenin makes Anna leave, separating the mother and the son forever.
SCENE 5 | ST. PETERSBURG
Betsy Tverskaya’s Salon
Betsy hosts friends at her home. Kitty and Levin arrive and announce their engagement. The guests extend their congratulations. In the course of the evening, Vronsky has another vision of Anna: a foreboding premonition.
SCENE 6 | ST. PETERSBURG
Obiralovka Train Station
Anna takes morphine to dull her misery. She recognizes a simple way to end her suffering. She throws herself beneath an oncoming train.
EPILOGUE | RUSSIA
Field with Grain in the Countryside
Kitty and Levin enjoy a simple country life. Levin reflects on the people who have influenced him. On one hand, he feels tragic loss. On the other, happiness. He finds contentment in understanding the purpose of his life.
From the Choreographer
Anna Karenina is one of the most famous stories in all of literature. The novel is celebrated, both for its status as a 19th-century masterpiece and for the way it captures our imaginations today. It is a ubiquitous cultural phenomenon, a story passed down from generation to generation, much in the manner of a timeless folktale.
As a choreographer, I have wanted to make this ballet for a long time. There were many opportunities to do so, but the circumstances were never right. When the Joffrey and Ashley—who I’ve known for many years, dating back to our time together at the San Francisco Ballet—approached me to create a world premiere in 2019, all the missing pieces fell into place. Conceiving a new full-length production, especially one of such incredible magnitude, was seamless at the Joffrey. Once the process began, it was impossible to contain our excitement.
The revival of Anna Karenina recalls the beautiful artistry that has come to define this production. Bringing the Australian Ballet on as a producing partner allowed us to commission an original score by the brilliant Illya Demutsky, one of the most sought-after composers working today. In addition, our award-winning set and costume designer, Tom Pye, is an artist in every sense of the word. His designs are both breathtaking and innovative; and our lighting designer, David Finn, has created such a magnificent sense of place that it often feels like a dream. Finn Ross’s projections veil and unveil the heart of the narrative, magnifying and articulating.
What you’ll see at today’s performance is the result of many months of planning, collaboration, and execution. I am deeply indebted to the Joffrey and my collaborators for making this Anna Karenina a reality, and I am especially thankful for the Joffrey artists and their work ethic. They bring this fascinating and complex story of love and family to life, a story that truly is for everyone.
—Yuri Possokhov
The Dancers
