‘Jewels,’ the gold standard

FULL-evening abstractions remain a rarity in the ballet world, so back in 1967, when George Balanchine choreographed “Jewels,” the first work of its kind, he was really swimming against the tide.

In that era, other classical companies were mortgaging their futures to stagings of story ballets, old and new. Just two months earlier, for instance, American Ballet Theatre had premiered its first complete “Swan Lake,” in a version far more authentic than the one it dances now. (More on that later.)

As Ballet Theatre’s great rival in American classicism, Balanchine’s New York City Ballet had a lot riding on “Jewels.” The company had just moved into the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, and it needed to fill that large stage with an indelible statement of Balanchine’s belief in music and dancing as the only indispensable components of the ballet experience.

“Jewels” did the job. It became a hit and then a classic. But now it’s fast becoming something else: the Mt. Everest of 20th century ballet, the jewel in the crown, the work that major companies must conquer in order to define their mastery.

From the beginning of the new century, Southern California has seen more productions of this three-act milestone than of “Swan Lake” or “Sleeping Beauty” -- performances by Edward Villella’s Miami City Ballet, Russia’s Kirov Ballet and New York City Ballet itself.

San Francisco Ballet has also recently added the work to its repertory, and just this month, Pacific Northwest Ballet danced it for the first time at the company’s home in Seattle and the Hamburg Ballet began performing it for German audiences. England’s Royal Ballet is set to join the club in a year or two. And now, Opus Arte DVD has issued the first complete “Jewels” on home video, in a glittering 2005 performance by the Paris Opera Ballet.

In concept, “Jewels” has no subject other than the evocation of precious stones. Act 1 uses short pieces by Gabriel Faure (from “Pelleas and Melisande” and “Shylock”) to help suggest the deep luminescence of emeralds. Act 2 adopts Igor Stravinsky’s jazz-tinged Capriccio for piano and orchestra to conjure the sensual fire of rubies. Act 3 makes the last four movements of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Third Symphony a paean to the brilliant purity of diamonds.

Balanchine wasn’t the first or only choreographer with precious stones on his mind. For instance, there’s a large-scale gem divertissement in Yuri Grigorovich’s full-length 1957 ballet, “The Stone Flower,” originally danced by the Kirov. But very early in the life of “Jewels,” people began finding another creative agenda in Balanchine’s work: a metaphor that enriches the choreography and makes it into an iconic statement.

You can insist that “Emeralds” is about nothing but Faure and green rocks -- but it also seems to summarize the flowing, moonlit mysteries of French Romantic ballet. (Think about the last acts of “La Sylphide” and “Giselle,” or the first act of “Sylvia.”) Similarly, the references to athletics and show business in the twisty, experimental “Rubies” make the choreography a kind of homage to 20th century American-style neoclassicism. And “Diamonds” can easily be viewed as one of Balanchine’s tributes to the Imperial Russian classicism of Marius Petipa.

“Jewels” thus assigns a gemstone to three of the major eras in the evolution of classical dance -- lending them a color and a radiance that isolate what Balanchine loved about them. He initially planned a fourth section -- “Sapphires,” to Arnold Schoenberg -- and it’s fun to speculate about what era or style it would have depicted. But “Jewels” hardly seems incomplete or insufficient, even though you might argue that Balanchine created greater Stravinsky ballets than “Rubies” and far greater Tchaikovsky ballets than “Diamonds.”

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A reflowering of classicism

PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET’S artistic director, Peter Boal, has said that “Jewels” is “perfect for someone who has seen many ballets or for someone who has never seen a ballet.” But its increasing popularity can also be explained by what has happened to the art since 1967 -- in particular, the wholesale deterioration of the 19th century repertory on world stages.

When actors perform “Hamlet,” they are testing themselves against the same text that defined the reputations of generations of colleagues stretching back to the original cast. But dancers in the current American Ballet Theatre “Swan Lake” know that what they’re performing is a contemporary patchwork, with minimal links to the classic choreography of Petipa and Lev Ivanov. It may please their audience -- it may even allow them to insert their favorite virtuoso steps -- but it’s a pastiche, not an authentic creation.

There are plenty of other examples. What companies call “updating” the classics represents an attempt to mediate between the prerogatives of restless star dancers (some with choreographic ambitions) and the demands of a moneyed, conservative audience -- with the result that a so-called classic often becomes an unrecognizable shambles.

Balanchine, however, requires dancers to toe the line. Sometimes, as with Shakespeare, there are different editions of Balanchine’s work, but his choreography exists under copyright, and since his death in 1983 the Balanchine Trust has overseen what we can call “accuracy control” with a firm hand. There is plenty of room for interpretation, but some issues are not negotiable, not even when stars are involved.

One of the most famous dancers of the 20th century lost the right to dance Balanchine’s “Apollo” after too many wretched farewell tours in his 50s. In addition, one of the principals in the Royal Ballet was fired from the company after refusing to dance Apollo Balanchine’s way -- and expressing his contempt for the choreography with an anticlassical obscenity.

Watching “Jewels” today, you may or may not see the sections in “Emeralds” that Balanchine added in 1976. (Some companies stick with the original.) And there will always be miscast and under-rehearsed performances. But, by George, the steps and style had better be what Violette Verdy, Villella, Patricia McBride, Jacques d’Amboise and Suzanne Farrell danced in 1967.

And that’s one reason why the work is replacing “Swan Lake” as the ultimate test of a company’s prowess: It is kept authentic, inviolate, an enduring standard of excellence, everything a classic should be.

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Dance and documentary

IN 1977, the PBS “Dance in America” series telecast highlights from “Jewels,” performed by leading dancers of New York City Ballet and videotaped under Balanchine’s supervision. Until this month, an abridged souvenir of that telecast (minus anything from “Rubies”) was the only “Jewels” choreography issued on home video. But the Paris Opera Ballet -- which has more of its current repertory available on DVD than any company anywhere -- has changed that situation and made the ballet its own.

Available from Naxos of America, the Opus Arte DVD is a deluxe package, start to finish. It comes with a booklet containing credits, color photos and an essay about Balanchine by filmmaker Reiner E. Moritz. There’s also an hourlong documentary by Moritz in which Balanchine’s longtime associate, Barbara Horgan, joins members of the Paris production team and the leading ballerinas in a detailed discussion of the work, illustrated with dance clips.

The documentary ideally should be seen first, because it not only introduces the work itself and the Parisian principals but also provides insights into the distinctive interpretation on view. The only thing missing is the names of the former New York City Ballet dancers who staged the production (Karin von Aroldingen and Sara Leland, according to the Balanchine Trust, though Patricia Neary also reportedly did some coaching).

Throughout, the dancing is pristine and generally more persuasive than was the opening performance by City Ballet the last time the company was in Southern California, two years ago in Orange County. Paul Connelly conducts the Paris orchestra authoritatively.

There are flaws -- it’s a semiprecious “Jewels” in many respects. For starters, the unique mood and liquidity of “Emeralds” are missing in the mannered interpretation led by Laetitia Pujol and Mathieu Ganio.

Aided by the close-ups, Alessio Carbone and Aurelie Dupont deftly project the saucy interplay of “Rubies,” but it’s Marie-Agnes Gillot in the so-called tall-girl role who dances at true Balanchine scale.

“Diamonds” features the most exposed corps dancing -- supremely elegant here -- and Jean-Guillaume Bart lacks nothing in technical precision and partnering finesse as the lead cavalier. But Agnes Letestu isn’t nearly incisive enough as the ballerina. She doesn’t know what to make of her big solo, and for all the insights she expresses in the interview segments of the documentary, her dancing stays a superbly schooled blank.

Couturier Christian Lacroix’s gem-encrusted costume designs have plenty of surprises: thick comet tails projecting from asymmetrical bodices onto the long “Emeralds” tutus, for instance, and the relative informality of the vests-over-poet-shirts for the men in “Diamonds.” Lacroix’s scenery, meanwhile, is never overbearing. It includes a single medallion in “Rubies,” two sprays of icy branches in “Diamonds” and a dark undersea vista in “Emeralds” that suits Balanchine’s purposes more than the Parisians’ dancing does.

Director Pierre Cavassilas sometimes allows his cameras to follow one soloist at the expense of everyone else, but usually he keeps the relationships between the principals and ensemble ideally lucid. This couldn’t have been an easy project to shoot -- especially in live performance -- but the bright, clear, wide-screen transcription will make many new friends for the ballet, expanding its sphere of conquest.

Balanchine’s aesthetic no longer needs defending, if it ever did. We all accept that dances exploring the expressive implications of great music can hold us for an hour, an evening, indefinitely. But now the ballet that became a monument to that aesthetic can sit on our shelves in its gleaming 7 1/2 -inch box ready to take us deeper into the essence of classical dance as often as we like.

The jewel in the crown. Just press “play” and see.