Premiere 12/2/2025 Subsequent performances: 14, 16*, 19, 21, 22, 27 February and 1, 2*, 6, 8, 9* March 2025 | Curtain-up: 20:15 / *14:00 | Ticket sales start on: 22 August 2024 | Price Category: B | Location: Main Stage, Dutch National Opera & Ballet Triptych Choreography George Balanchine Music Emeralds Gabriel Fauré Music Rubies Igor Stravinsky Music Diamonds Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Musical accompaniment Dutch Ballet Orchestra conducted by Fayçal Karoui Choreographer George Balanchine was not only crazy about women – “Ballet is Woman” is one of his memorable quotes – but also about jewels. The two come together in masterly fashion in his Jewels. In this triptych, inspired by the most exclusive precious stones, the most important choreographer of the twentieth century pays tribute to women, in particular, and respectively to the French, American and Russian ballet styles. Balanchine (1904 – 1983) got the idea for his jewels ballet when he walked past the windows of a jewelry house on Fifth Avenue one morning. The jewelers had set up “one window of diamonds, one of emeralds and one of rubies”, whereby “in the centre of each group, a beautiful diadem was displayed, just like at the court of the tsar”. “I was”, said Balanchine, “hypnotised on the spot”. International ballet traditions In 1967, the three types of gems served as the basis for three glittering ballets portraying different worlds and ballet traditions. Balanchine, who was familiar with each of them, as he grew up in St Petersburg, created his first works in France for the legendary Ballets Russes, and then gained world fame in the United States, as the leader of the company he founded there: New York City Ballet. Elegance, dynamism and splendour Jewels opens with the refined and elegant Emeralds; ‘an evocation of the France of elegance, comfort, dress and perfume’. Rubies, flashy and razor-sharp, shows the influence that dynamic American life had on Balanchine. And the noble Diamonds, to music by Tchaikovsky, refers to the splendour of the court of the Russian tsars and its affiliated Mariinsky Theatre, where Balanchine began his career. Extravagant jewel costumes For the Dutch premiere of this choreographic crown jewel, Toer van Schayk designed a plain set whose subtle interplay of lines symbolises the facets of cut gems. The extravagant ‘jewel costumes’ are made following the original designs by Barbara Karinska. Jewels Dancing emeralds, rubies and diamonds Glittering ballets, inspired by the French, American and Russian ballet styles 87
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