This weekend launches the 2003-04 season for Southern Nevada's preeminent performing arts groups, Nevada Ballet Theatre and Las Vegas Philharmonic.
At 8 p.m. today, the company's first performance of the full-length ballet "Cinderella" marks the opening of the 32nd season for Nevada Ballet Theatre at Judy Bayley Theatre at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The 4:30 p.m. Sunday performance will be the swan song of one of NBT's most brilliant and beloved prima ballerinas, Clarice Geissel.
At UNLV's Artemus Ham Hall at 8 p.m. Saturday, the Las Vegas Philharmonic kicks off its fifth season with "The Spirit of America," a program of American, and America-related, music.
The three-act "Cinderella" is based on the 17th century Charles Perrault French fairy tale. It is set to the music of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. The opulent sets and costumes were originally developed for the Hong Kong Ballet.
The version NBT will perform was choreographed by Emmy Award nominee Peter Anastos, the founder and one of the original principals of Le Ballet Trocadero de Monte Carlo. Last year he created "Yes! Virginia, another Piano Ballet" for NBT.
The roles of Cinderella and the Prince will rotate among six NBT principals during the Friday-through-Sunday run of the ballet. Cinderella will be danced by Natalia Chapourskaya, Tess Hooley and Geissel, while the Prince will be performed by Kyu Dong Kwak, Zeb Nole and Baris Erhan.
Geissel's Sunday farewell will be followed by a "Yes! Clarice" gala at the Foundation Building next to the Judy Bayley Theatre. Tickets are $125.
Growing up in Baltimore, Geissel liked to watch the dancing on "American Bandstand." Though her parents knew nothing about dance, by a fluke her mother came across an ad in a drugstore about dance teacher Dolores Kerr in Washington, D.C., who was looking for students.
Clarice was 8. Telling the youngster she had a surprise for her, her mother took Clarice for an audition.
"After about 20 minutes, the teacher told Mom, "I must have this child," Geissel recalled. "I knew immediately that this was what I want to do and where I wanted to be. It introduced me, and my family, to a whole new world."
At 15, Geissel auditioned for the Ford Foundation and was accepted at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, both a high school and college. She remained there until her second year of college; then she successfully auditioned for the Phoenix Ballet. From there she moved on to Ballet West in Salt Lake City and had the chance to work with stars of the Royal Danish Ballet, the London Royal Ballet and the Balanchine Foundation.
Geissel joined NBT in 1983.
During her 20 years here, Geissel has performed lead roles in "Swan Lake," "Afternoon of the Fawn," "Nutcracker" and "Sleeping Beauty" and the title roles in "Carmen" and "Anna Karenina." She received the Governor's Arts Award in 1994.
After the curtain falls Sunday, Geissel will "pass on the principal dancer hat" and take on the position of full-time ballet mistress.
In contrast, Philharmonic soloist David Korevaar is expanding his career as pianist, composer and assistant professor of Piano at the College of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He began piano studies at age 6 and became interested in playing the piano because his older siblings had to start piano lessons when they turned 8.
"I was 5 when my immediately older brother began." Korevaar said. "I kicked and screamed until they let me start. It took a year."
At age 13, American virtuoso Earl Wild took him on as a student. He ultimately continued his studies with Wild at the Juilliard School, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees by age 20. In May 2000, Juilliard honored him with its Richard French award for his doctoral work on Ravel's "Miroirs."
With the Las Vegas Philharmonic, Korevaar will perform the Samuel Barber Piano concerto, Opus 38 (1962). It will be his debut of the work.
Conducting the Barber Piano Concert will also be a first for Philharmonic's music director, Harold Weller.
"I hope, for David and me, that 'first time' means 'fresh and spontaneous,' because that's how this work must be perceived," Weller said.
"Robert Browning appeared with the Philharmonic two seasons ago in the Beethoven 'Emperor' Concerto. He died a year ago, and it is in tribute to him that I programmed the Barber. It contains devilishly difficult passages for both piano and orchestra that intrigue me. But the rewards are great, especially in the beautifully expressive middle movement, which shows Barber's gift for soaring lyricism at its very best.
"The final movement is cast in a demonic 5/8 meter that goes lickety-split. Barber seems to love to test the mettle of the soloist in the final movements of his concerti, and this is perhaps the most demanding of them all. One simply holds on for dear life and hopes they won't crash and burn!"
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