Ruth Leon recommends… L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato – Mark Morris Dance Group

L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato – Mark Morris Dance Group

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With all the success that Mark Morris  has earned in the past 30 years for his innovative, carefully crafted and totally original ballets, this one is still my favourite. I hadn’t seen it for a long time, his newer works tending to be performed more often, so I screened it this week and fell in love with it anew. It hasn’t dated in any particular, if anything, its details and choreographic delights are even more meaningful today.

Choreographer Mark Morris garnered international fame for his landmark work L’Allegro,  il Pensaroso et il Moderato, set to Handel’s Baroque masterpiece, in which a colorful array of dancers embody the ecstasy of art that transforms.
“L’Allegro” was Mark Morris’s premiere work as Director of Dance at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Belgium in 1988, and in the intervening years, has been performed to critical and audience acclaim all over the world.

Winner of numerous awards including a Laurence Olivier Award, “L’Allegro” uses Milton’s text and features sets inspired by William Blake’s  later watercolors. Founded in NYC in 1980, the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) is considered one of the preeminent modern dance companies, its members praised repeatedly for their technique and musicality. This performance was filmed July 2014 at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain.

The music is by George Frederic Handel. The soloists are Sarah-Jane Brandon, Elizabeth Watts, James Gilchrist and Andrew Foster-Williams with the whole Mark Morris Dance Group. Irresistible.

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