FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2002

CONTACT: Mark Fleisher:

Festival Ballet Providence, 401-353-1129
Melanie Gendreau, RDW, 401.521.2700 ext 134

Quasimodo takes to the floor - Festival debuts a re-made Esmeralda
BY MICHAEL JANUSONIS
Journal Arts Writer

Word that Festival Ballet Providence's next production would be George Lyssenko's Esmeralda, a retelling of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, might have left some people scratching their heads in bewilderment.

After all, Quasimodo, the title character of Hugo's 1831 book, is hardly the graceful ballet ideal. The Notre Dame Cathedral's bellringer was not only hunchbacked but also misshapen, walked with a limp and was deaf from all those years of bells pealing in his ears.

But that, guest artist Cornel Crabtree said in the Festival Ballet studios one recent afternoon between rehearsals for Quasimodo, "is what makes it challenging and exciting."

Tall, rangy and athletic, but with a dancer's grace, Crabtree describes himself as "a little more princelike than good old Quasimodo." In fact, he has often played the prince in that perennially popular Christmas confection, The Nutcracker, with companies across the country. Last year alone he did it in New Orleans, Miami, Pennsylvania, San Antonio and Midland, Texas.

Fortunately for Crabtree, who lives in New York, where he dances with a pair of small troupes, he won't be wearing a hump on his back. Nor will his Quasimodo be deaf, so he will be able to hear the music.

"It's all in giving the impression," Crabtree said, standing up to bend his body into a rather creepy pose. "I have to contort my body for the in-between steps and the storyline. But there are also ballet sequences."

'It's . . . who you are' Listening nearby, Lyssenko, who created Esmeralda for Alabama's Montgomery Ballet in 2000, put in that "it's not what you look like, but who you are" in portraying Quasimodo. Lyssenko said that Crabtree, who has an extensive repertoire of dramatic ballet roles, was the right man to bring Hugo's venerable hunchback to life.

Crabtree has spent about a month rehearsing the role, unusual for him. As a freelance artist, he is most often brought in to perform roles he has danced before, "where I work on auto-muscle memory and sort of plug into the role." But he had never even seen Esmeralda performed.

Not that it would have mattered. The production being danced this weekend at Veterans Memorial Auditorium is very different from the one the Montgomery Ballet premiered two years ago. Lyssenko said he has revamped it so much with Festival Ballet artistic director Mihailo "Misha" Djuric "that it is a completely new production. I have changed almost everything."

Djuric calls it a "world premiere" and said that "now the story is much more clear," as well as being 10 minutes longer.

"It's funny and it's tragical and it's sad and it's breathtaking and it's technical and it's . . . everything!" bubbled Djuric, adding, "I always thought dancing was much more than just movement."

Different focus Although Esmeralda, whose title refers to the Gypsy beauty who befriends the lonely, disfigured bellringer, is new, its music is not. The score was written in 1849 by Russian court composer Cesare Pugni for a production in St. Petersburg.

It was, as its title implies, mostly about the Gypsy. Because of its lush romantic style, it didn't have great success at the time. But Lyssenko, who had collected Pugni's music over the years, was determined to preserve it in his version of Esmeralda.

Crabtree thinks that now, following the success of the Disney cartoon version of Hugo's novel as well as its recent video sequel, the story "is more popular than ever" and that this is a ripe time for this ballet.

Born in Tripoli, Libya, when that North African nation was friendly with the United States and his father was in the U.S. Air Force intelligence branch there, Crabtree said he doesn't mind his own Gypsy lifestyle as a freelance dancer. Because his mother was Romanian (Cornel is a diminutive of a Romanian name), he chuckles that maybe there's some Gypsy blood in his veins.

"It's less money and you don't have the security," he said of his career, "but I have enough contacts. And at this point, it's nicer for me to come in and have a good time and not have to get messed up in the politics of a company."

At 44, he has had knee surgery and, two years ago, ankle surgery. But he's confident that he can keep going, even though he refers to ballet as "a constant love-hate relationship. When I'm on stage in front of an audience, I love it. When I'm in my ice bath with cold water and ice cubes for 10 minutes at the end of the day, I hate it.

"It all comes down to genetics. You have to take care of your body. You have to understand movement very well so you don't injure yourself. You also have to have an idea of when to say no."

Festival Ballet Providence's production of George Lyssenko's Esmeralda will be performed at Veterans Memorial Auditorium at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $40, $30, $24, $20 and $12 and are available from the box office at 272-4862 or from Ticketmaster outlets.