American Ballet Theatre’s 2023 Summer season at the Metropolitan Opera House, June 22 – July 22, featured the New York Premiere of Tony Award winner Christopher Wheeldon’s Like Water for Chocolate.
Principal Dancers for the 2023 Summer season included Joo Won Ahn, Aran Bell, Isabella Boylston, Skylar Brandt, Daniel Camargo, Herman Cornejo, Thomas Forster, Catherine Hurlin, Gillian Murphy, Calvin Royal III, Hee Seo, ChrisRne Shevchenko, Cory Stearns, Devon Teuscher, Cassandra Trenary, James Whiteside, and Roman Zhurbin.
Opening Night Gala and New York Premiere
The Opening Night Gala performance, took place on June 22 at 6:30 P.M. at the Metropolitan Opera House, with the New York Premiere of Like Water for Chocolate.
Like Water for Chocolate tells the story of Tita, a young Mexican woman who is overwhelmed by a sense of duty and family tradition. Tita’s only form of expression is through cooking, but her life takes an unexpected turn when she falls in forbidden love with her wealthy neighbor Pedro. The ballet received its World Premiere by The Royal Ballet on June 2, 2022 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. It received its North American Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on March 29, 2023 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California.
Classic Full-Lengths
The season’s first performance of the full-length production of Giselle was on Monday evening, July 3, with Hee Seo in the title role, alongside Cory Stearns as Albrecht.
ABT’s Summer season continued on Monday, July 10 with the first performance of Swan Lake, led by Isabella Boylston as Odette-Odile and Daniel Camargo as Prince Siegfried. Set to music by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, the ballet wase given eight performances this season.
Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet opened on Tuesday evening, July 18 with Devon Teuscher and Aran Bell in the title roles. Set to the score by Sergei Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet had seven performances through July 22 at the Metropolitan Opera House.
ABTKids
ABTKids, American Ballet Theatre’s annual one-hour introduction to ballet for families, took place on Saturday morning, June 24 at 11:00 A.M. All tickets for ABTKids are $25.
Subscriptons for American Ballet Theatre’s are available by phone at 212-362-6000, or online at ABT’s website www.abt.org.
