Donald Mahler

Donald Mahler is a celebrated ballet dancer, choreographer, and stage director. As a dancer and later choreographer, Mahler had a long and fruitful partnership with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City that spanned from 1962 to 1986. Today he is mainly active as a director of ballets and is particularly known for his stagings of the works of Antony Tudor.^[1]

Biography

Boston Ballet dancers perform Antony Tudor's Dark Elegies (1937) under Mahler's direction in 2008.

Mahler studied at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School under Margaret Craske and Antony Tudor during the 1950s. While at the school he appeared in the 1958 film The Very Eye of Night which was directed by Maya Deren. Filmed in 1957, the short film features inverted images of dancers (with choreography by Tudor) moving across a starry sky. Shortly after finishing this project, Mahler joined the National Ballet of Canada where he danced for five years. While there he was a featured dancer in two ballets by Tudor, Lilac Garden and Offenbach in the Underworld.^[2]

In 1962 Mahler joined the Metropolitan Opera Ballet at the invitation of Alicia Markova, making his debut with the company at the "Old Met" on February 16, 1962 in a production of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida with Leonie Rysanek in the title role and Franco Corelli as Radamès. He remained at the Met up through the spring of 1975. He rejoined the Met for the 1979-1980 season. His final and 316th performance at the Met was as the Hairdresser in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier on January 12, 1980 with Agnes Baltsa as Octavian, Anna Tomowa-Sintow as the Marschallin, and Judith Blegen as Sophie. In addition to operas, Mahler performed in many ballets at the Met, including Tudor's Echoing of Trumpets and Concerning Oracles.^[3]

Although no longer dancing at the Met, Mahler continued to work for the company through 1986 as one of their main choreographers. He choreographed productions of Strauss's Salome (1981), Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani (1982), Verdi's La forza del destino (1982), Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda (1982), Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur (1983), and Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1985). The last opera he choreographed for the company was Riccardo Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini which gave its final performance on February 13, 1986 with Renata Scotto in the title role.^[3]

Since the early 1980s, Mahler has worked mainly as a stage director and choreographer for ballets, particularly focusing on staging the works of his teacher and mentor Antony Tudor. He has staged Tudor ballets for many companies internationally, including the American Ballet Theatre, Ballet West, Ballet San Jose, Boston Ballet, the Edinburgh Festival, and the Joffrey Ballet to name just a few.^[2]

References

1. ^ Douglas Sonntag (2009 / Vol. 2). "Tudor Revival: Boston Ballet Restages Dark Elegies". National Endowment for the Arts Journal. http://www.nea.gov/about/NEARTS/story.php?id=p04-tudor&issue=2009_v2. Retrieved August 12, 2009. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Dean Speer and Francis Timlin (August 2004). "Transitioning Tudor - Staging the Works of Antony Tudor for Ballet West: An Interview with Donald Mahler". Ballet-Dance Magazine. http://www.ballet-dance.com/200408/articles/MahlerInterview20040700.html. Retrieved August 12, 2009. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Metropolitan Opera archives

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