Jakobson Ballets: A Copyright Test Case

The San Diego-based California Ballet and the heirs of Soviet choreographer Leonid Jakobson are entangled in a complex legal case that may become a model for others grappling with new Soviet copyright laws.

The heirs contend that they own the Jakobson works that California Ballet plans to present with members of the State Ballet of Leningrad U.S.S.R. (also known as Choreographic Miniatures, the name Leonid Jakobson gave his company in 1970).

A May 12 performance is scheduled in the San Diego Civic Theatre.

The widow and son of Jakobson are seeking to block California Ballet’s plans to acquire Jakobson’s works from the Soviet company during its visit here. At issue is who owns the more than 100 ballets Jakobson created.

There is more than a little irony in this situation. For the 40 years of his creative lifetime, Jakobson suffered artistic ignominy at the hands of Soviet cultural authorities, who repeatedly repressed his ballets as degenerate examples of anti-socialist realist art.

Within the last year, however, in the wake of Soviet reforms, Jakobson has come to be celebrated as a great cultural hero, the Soviet equivalent of his Vaganova Institute classmate, George Balanchine.

Since Jakobson’s death in 1975, his company has been directed by Askold Makarov, a former leading dancer with the Kirov Ballet in the 1950s, and the man who negotiated with California Ballet director Maxine Mahon in 1988 to bring Choreographic Miniatures to America.

Makarov for a time reportedly stopped crediting Jakobson as the choreographer of the company’s ballets, and for several years he has actively prevented Jakobson’s widow from staging her husband’s work anywhere in the Soviet Union despite her claimed legal ownership of them.

Currently holding the title of “master teacher” at San Francisco Ballet, Irina Jakobson has long contended that Makarov is not maintaining her husband’s work properly. She cites this as the reason she and her son don’t want California Ballet learning the works from Makarov and his dancers.

“I am sure that it is better not to show my husband’s work than to show them at all in this condition,” Irina Jakobson said last week. “It would be as if I copied a Rembrandt painting only I put the nose on the cheek and rearranged the rest of the features.

“We left the U.S.S.R. to escape this kind of lawlessness,” Jakobson said. “And now it has followed us here.”

Mahon, however, is sticking by her original plan to present Makarov and his company in May. “I have an arrangement with the Leningrad State Ballet to do a residency here and teach,” Mahon said in an interview. “It had nothing to do with Mrs. Jakobson. . . . I think the Leningrad State Ballet can do what it wants.”

Paul Epstein, a lawyer with the New York firm of Proskauer, Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn, the same firm that represents the estate of George Balanchine and the man the Jakobsons have retained as their legal counsel, says there is no question that Mrs. Jakobson is the legal owner of the works.

“The rights issue is very clear. The Russian government has confirmed that the rights for these ballets passed to Mrs. Jakobson at the death of her husband,” he said. “California Ballet simply has to find out that their best source for Jakobson ballets is right here, and everything will go ahead OK.”

No matter what happens between California Ballet and the Jakobsons, however, California will see the premiere next month of a Leonid Jakobson ballet: the full five duets of “Rodin,” when San Francisco Ballet becomes the first American troupe authorized to perform this ballet.

PIANISTS: Wendy Chen, a 17-year-old student at the R.D. Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, won the $12,000 first prize--plus a 10-city concert tour and a Lincoln Center recital debut in April--in the National Chopin Competition held in Florida last month. In addition, Chen will represent the United States in the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Oct. 1-20. . . . “Seven 11-Minute Masterpieces” is the name of the program Julien Musafia will present at Cal State Long Beach Saturday. Composers represented will be Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Bartok and Liszt. . . . Polish-Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska will give the world premiere performances of Liszt’s recently discovered Piano Concerto in E-flat, May 3-8, with the Chicago Symphony in Orchestra Hall, Chicago; Kenneth Jean will conduct. . . . Earl Wild will note his 75th birthday, Nov. 26, with a recital in Carnegie Hall in New York City. In January, the veteran pianist released his latest recording, “Earl Wild Plays His Transcriptions of Gershwin.”

DANCE KALEIDOSCOPE: Twenty artists have been selected for Dance Kaleidoscope, the annual festival of Southern California choreography and performance art to be held once again at Cal State Los Angeles. Three programs are scheduled over two weekends in July. In addition, a new “Best of Kaleidoscope” program will be seen Aug. 30.

Program 1 (July 20, 21) is titled “People” and will feature Shok-T, Steven Craig, Meri Bender, Nia Love, 3’s Company, Anthony Balcena, Rose Polsky, L.A. Contemporary Dance Theatre and Shell Wagner.

Program 2 (July 22, 27) is called “Places” and will include the Avaz, Karpatok, Juan Talavera, Linda Vega and Ballet Folklorico del Sur de California companies.

Program 3 (July 28, 29) is named “Dances” and will offer Jazz Dancers, Inc., Pacific Dance Ensemble, Loretta Livingston, Stephanie Gilliland, Patricia Sandback, Rudy Perez, L. A. Chamber Ballet and Liz Davidow.

AND OTHER PEOPLE: George de la Pena will dance the title role in “Petrushka,” with the Long Beach Ballet Saturday and next Sunday. . . . Katherine Ciesinski, Brian Matthews, Roy Stevens, James Schwisow, Gwynne Geyer, Martha Jane Howe, J.J. Leeds and Robin Buck compose the cast of Benjamin Britten’s “Rape of Lucretia,” to be presented by Long Beach Opera in Center Theater at the Long Beach Convention Center April 1-8. Stephen Sloane will conduct. . . . Veteran Chilean-American baritone Hernan Pelayo will make operatic and recital appearances and give master classes in Tallinn, Estonia, Tuesday through next Sunday.