Fearful Symmetries

George Balanchine’s ballet Symphony in C is one of his masterpieces, celebrated for its technical precision, artistic virtuosity, and breath-taking complexity. Balanchine was introduced to Georges Bizet’s composition by his long-time collaborator Igor Stravinsky. He choreographed the piece as Le Palais de Cristal (The Crystal Palace) in 1947 within just two weeks for the Paris Opera Ballet, where he served as ballet master. When he revived the work for the New York City Ballet on October 11, 1948, he simplified the sets and costumes and renamed it Symphony in C, after Bizet’s score. The music itself was composed in 1855 when Bizet was just 17 years old and a student at the Paris Conservatoire. However, it was not performed until 1935, long after the composer’s death. In Symphony in C, Balanchine structures the music into four movements, each featuring a different pair of soloists alongside the corps de ballet. Each movement functions almost as an independent ballet, demanding both soloistic brilliance and ensemble unity. The ballet embodies the heritage of classical dance traditions while the dancers’ versatility and energy infuse the performance with a unique vibrancy and dynamism.

Christian Spuck’s dance piece Fearful Symmetries explores the composition with the same name by John Adams, channelling its rhythmic intensity, bringing the music’s energy visually to life. John Adams, one of the most significant figures in contemporary classical music, titled his work after the phrase «fearful symmetry from William Blake’s 1794 poem The Tyger. However, Adams was not inspired by the poem’s content but rather by the evocative phrase, reflecting his composition’s repetitive, melodic and harmonic structures, which he intentionally exaggerates to heighten their impact. Adams is known for his operas, which often draw from recent historical events. Notable works include his first opera Nixon in China (1987), based on President Nixon’s 1972 visit to Mao Tse Tung, and Doctor Atomic (2005), centered on physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.» Adams described Fearful Symmetries as closely linked to his first opera.