Christopher Wheeldon's adaptation of the classic Mexican novel runs three acts, nearly three hours. My main qualm is the medium. I'm all for dance, but it's not really an effective way of communicating plot. And it's very plot heavy for interpretive dance. You need to read the synopsis in the program to really appreciate it. And yet I felt like there were too many scenes that didn't have enough dance. What you'd call 'book scenes' in a musical, they convey plot without songs; well here they "convey plot" without dance which is to say nothing. I've mostly in the past seen just vignettes, independent scenes, not really a whole plot ballet. Even The Nutcracker is lighter on plot, and full of irrelevant Arabian/Chinese/etc dances. The dance scenes are fabulous though. Act II features the most dance. The music by Joby Talbot is beautifully cinematic. It sounds like a movie score--I thought it might have actually been from the movie adaptation. But it's original for the ballet. The final pas de deux features a soprano solo too, the first spoken words of the whole ballet, just at the very end. I also loved the instrumentation with the guitar solo. The show has the sound and look of Mexico. The production is beautiful. The final image of the lovers set aflame in the air is breathtaking.
