Maestro Michael Pratt speaks at a previous Behind the Music discussion. (Photo courtesy of Leighton Chen).
Prior to the spring premiere of American Repertory Ballet’sFirebird, artistic director Douglas Martin and guest lecturer maestro Michael Pratt will discuss the show’s music.
Behind the Music: Stravinsky’s Firebird, an On Pointe Enrichment Series event, is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Jan. 10 at Princeton Ballet School, 301 North Harrison St., above McCaffrey’s Supermarket.
Martin and Pratt are set to discuss the ballet’s music and history.
In his role as director of the Program in Musical Performance at Princeton University, Pratt has led performances of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, giving him a unique knowledge of the work. Pratt is also conductor of the ARB’s orchestra for Nutcracker at State Theatre and co-directs the Composers’ Ensemble and the Richardson Chamber Players.
Martin’s Firebird is a contemporary re-imagining of the original ballet, which was choreographed by Michel Fokine for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The ballet marked the beginning of the great collaboration between Stravinsky and Diaghilev. Stravinsky later produced the score for Rite of Spring.
During ARB’s 2013 season, Martin produced a critically-acclaimed Rite of Spring, set in a 1960’s ad agency.
The world premiere of Firebird is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. March 12 at McCarter Theatre. The program also includes Martin’s Rite of Spring and Kirk Peterson’s Afternoon of a Faun, another acclaimed re-imagining of a Diaghilev-era ballet.
More information is online at arballet.org.
