Red Angels
Music
Richard Einhorn
(Maxwell’s Demon, 1988-1990)
Choreography
Ulysses Dove
Staging
Peter Boal
Costume Design
Holly Hynes
Lighting Design
Mark Stanley
Duration
14 minutes
Premiere
May 9, 1994; New York City Ballet (Diamond Project)
PNB Premiere
September 17, 2005
Program Notes
Red Angels is a ballet of intense dramatic impact that is calculated to charge all the senses. Dressed in scarlet leotards and bathed in white and red hot light, four dancers perform with powerful athleticism to a riveting score for electric violin. Ulysses Dove commented on working with the dancers of New York City Ballet: “I wanted to deal with aspects of the Balanchine aesthetic I find appealing: the speed, legginess, the formality. As for the title, I think the dancers are angelic. And for me, the angels of the senses are red.” Composer Richard Einhorn has described Maxwell’s Demon as “a conscious attempt…to transmute American popular music into art…with a nod towards direct expression and to an audience steeped in American rock ‘n roll.”
Notes by Doug Fullington.
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Richard Einhorn
Composer
Richard Einhorn’s music has been described as “hauntingly beautiful,” “sensational,” and “overwhelming in it semotional powers.” He has become one of a small handful of living composers who not only reaches a large worldewide audience but whose music receives widespread critical praise for its integrity, emotion, depth, and craft. Einhorn has written opera, orchestral and chamber music, song cycles, film music, and dance scores.
Holly Hynes
Costume Designer
Holly Hynes has designed more than 200 ballets, including more than 60 at New York City Ballet, where she served as director of costumes for 21 years. PNB audiences have seen her designs in Christopher Wheeldon’s Carousel (A Dance), After the Rain pas de deux and Polyphonia, Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH, Richard Tanner’s Ancient Airs and Dances, George Balanchine’s Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Ulysses Dove’s Red Angels, and Lynn Taylor Corbett’s Mercury. She also designed the co-production of La Baiser de la Fée for PNB and the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the John F. Kennedy Center where she serves as Resident Costume Designer. She is the leading authority for recreating costume designs for the George Balanchine Trust and the Jerome Robbins Estate in the US and internationally.
Mark Stanley
Lighting Designer
Mark Stanley is resident lighting designer for New York City Ballet, where he has designed more than 200 premieres, including works by Peter Martins, Susan Stroman, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Justin Peck, Benjamin Millepied, William Forsythe, and Ulysses Dove, among many others in numerous ballet companies across Europe and the US. Mr. Stanley previously served as resident designer for New York City opera. He has designed plays for the Kennedy Center, Huntington Theatre Company, Long Wharf, The Ordway, The Goodspeed, and Off-Broadway companies. Currently, Mr. Stanley is MFA Programs Head, Design & Production and Associate Professor of Theatre (Lighting Design) at Boston University and also is on the board of directors of the Gilbert Hemsley Lighting Programs. He is the author of The Color of Light Workbook.