With ‘Anna Karenina,’ Joffrey Unveils a Modern Classic
The full review appears in the February 14 online edition of the Chicago Tribune.
By Lauren Warnecke, Chicago Tribune
As the overture to composer Ilya Demutsky’s glorious score swelled under the baton of Maestro Scott Speck on Wednesday, haze filled the house of the Auditorium Theatre and billowed across a downstage screen shrouding the stage. It reminded me of the polar vortex – those images of steam floating just above the surface of a frozen Lake Michigan, or the Amtrak yards, where crews set fire to the train tracks to keep engines moving in February’s bitter cold snap.
But it is the opening to “Anna Karenina,” a highly anticipated, brand-new production by the Joffrey Ballet, with Demutsky’s original score and moody sets, lights and projections by an all-star production team setting the stage for choreographer Yuri Possokhov’s newest masterpiece.