BALLET REVIEW : New ‘Orpheus’ in Central L.A.

In front of Mark Stock’s atmospheric backdrop of the 4th Street bridge in downtown Los Angeles, countertenor Dennis Parnell stands wearing a scarlet cape over a dark leather-and-metal-and-fabric costume that might have graced the Chorus in Shakespeare’s “Henry V.”

A lifeless arm can be seen on the stairs leading to the bridge (the rest of the body is hidden)--and these opening images in the new “Orpheus” by Los Angeles Chamber Ballet catch perfectly the haunting mix of eras and cultures, plus the edge of danger, that share the night in central Los Angeles. The sense of expectancy in the Japan America Theatre is high.

Set in perpetual twilight, this one-act opera-ballet boasts a score by Lloyd Rogers that sometimes evokes the infancy of opera but most often adds a welcome urgency to the leisurely developmental gambits of New-Age gamelan.

Singing in Latin, Parnell brings great expressive detail and vocal variety to the role of Ovid--narrator and creator of this somber vision of lost love--and, in Laurence Blake, the company has a dancer with the magnetism, technique and even the slightly over-ripe beauty ideal for the title role.

But this L.A. “Orpheus” never quite seizes its potential. Stock’s filmy costumes for everyone but Blake and Parnell lose the specificity of reference and opulent theatricality of his best work, and the cool, formal choreography by Raiford Rogers seldom redefines the myth’s situations and relationships in the contemporary terms suggested by the scenic environment.

Ambitious, worthy but perhaps too tasteful for its own good, this venture by the perennially risk-taking Chamber Ballet resembles those classic Diaghilev productions where decor and music overwhelmed dance . It is an intriguing experience but not an indelible one.

Distinguished by live music, the program also included Fred Strickler’s “Between Friends,” a fluid showpiece duet for Strickler (a modern-dance and tap veteran) and Victoria Koenig (the company ballerina who also danced Eurydice) that adroitly accommodated their different dance backgrounds.

Patrick Frantz’s convivial “Opus: People” featured little solos and small ensembles for eight company dancers--not all of them ready for the spotlight. Kristine Soleri, Melissa Hurley, David Cooney and Charlotte Richards proved the most winning, while the choreography itself (set to everything from J. S. Bach to popular tango-ballads) looked more inventive in port de bras than in footwork.