By James D Watts, Tulsa World:

    “The life of the composer Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is – to borrow a phrase once used to describe his homeland – a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.  Tulsa Ballet’s extraordinary “Tchaikovsky: The Man Behind the Music,” which had its world-premiere performance Friday at the Tulsa PAC, may not fully unravel all the conundrums or answer all the questions that have swirled around Tchaikovsky since his death in 1893.

    “What this ballet does, with remarkable power and exquisite artistry, is use elements of Tchaikovsky’s life and character to tell a surprisingly universal story – one that deals with ideas of individuality and identity, and the often destructive conflict between the private self and the public eye.

    “It is a story that artistic director Marcello Angelini has wanted to set into motion for decades, and the wait, it would appear, has been worth it. The international team of artists that have been brought together to create this work has made a richly nuanced work of dance theater, one that has all the spectacle expected of a ‘story ballet’ while telling a intimate tale in which much of the true drama takes place within the psyche of its title character.  It is, simply, a triumph.  Choreographer Ma Cong has said one of the aspects of Tchaikovsky’s life that intrigued him was the ‘double life’ he led – he was during his lifetime one of Russia’s most honored composers, yet his homosexuality was something that he tried to keep hidden, since acting upon feelings was a criminal offense at the time. The ballet focuses on trio of relationships, all of them in some way doomed from the start. There is attraction Tchaikovsky (danced by Arman Zazyan) has toward a young violinist, Josef Kotek (Rodrigo Hermesmeyer), for whom he originally composed his Violin Concerto. In the ballet, the two meet at a social gathering, where Tchaikovsky is the guest of honor, and Kotek is performing. The attraction between the two men is instant, but both of highly conscious of the perils they could face – when a simple hand placed upon a shoulder could be scandalous.

    “Cong’s choreography of the scene in which men meet to work on the concerto emphasizes that push and pull – the way, for example, Tchaikovsky’s tentative physical advances are warily eluded though not outright rejected.

    “As portrayed in the ballet, one doesn’t know if Tchaikovsky and Kotek exchanged anything more than smoldering looks and a symbolically charge handkerchief. But Kotek remains an object of obsession, one that metaphorically and literally haunts Tchaikovsky’s life.

    “Kotek is present when Tchaikovsky meets a potential objecs of his affections – the opera star Mme. Artot (Na Eun Kim), whom Tchaikovsky courts when interactions with Kotek catch the disapproving eye of the social order. And he is at the wedding between Tchaikovsky and Antonia Miliukova (Madalina Stoica), an overeager student who has set her cap – and everything else – on making Tchaikovsky her own, although he can’t muster the same sort of passion that she obviously feels for him.

    “We’ve watched Cong’s development as a choreographer over the years, and what he accomplishes in “Tchaikovsky” is some of the most impressive work he has ever done – not simply on a technical level, but in the way he is able to tell a story through movement.

    “He gives you the sense of the mundaneness of 19th-century Russian society with lots of fast, flashy, yet repetitive dancing that almost distract from the title character – a way of showing Tchaikovsky’s ability to blend into that society, and how that will change.

   “The duets he has created are character-driven is the best way – the passionate restraint between Tchaikovsky and Kotek; the slow-burning passion that Artot expresses in spite of Tchaikovsky’s disinterest, and his futile efforts to respond in kind; the violent ardor with which Antonia throws herself at Tchaikovsky, and his equally violent response, expressed through some of ballet’s most inventive and startling choreography.

    “And Tchaikovsky’s own passions and fears are palpable expressed in two fever-dreamlike sequences, including a climactic “judgment” in which Tchaikovsky is hounded by masked, gavel-wielding figures that drive him to the brink of sanity and beyond.

    “The performances throughout are at the highest level. Zazyan is hardly ever off stage, yet his dancing from the first moment to the last is powerful and expressive, full of nuance and feeling expertly communicated. It was truly a heroic performance.

    “Stoica’s Antonia is a whirlwind of passion and need, and she goes at the extremely taxing duet with Zazyan with a fearlessness that is breathtaking. Hermesmeyer makes Kotek an intriguingly enigmatic figure, whose conflicted emotions are ably expressed.

    “Ramirez and Sena Hidaka danced a superb pas de deux as part of the opera scene (which featured a fine performance by soprano Whitney Myers), and the ensemble scenes were performed with great energy and precision.

    “Tracy Grant Lord’s multi-level, mobile set design, creativity lit by Matthew Marshall, evoked a wide range of locations, from high-society salons to country retreats, while her costumes were elegantly understated.

    “The ballet’s score was assembled by Cong and composer-librettist Oliver Peter Graber from familiar and lesser-known pieces by Tchaikovsky, augmented by Graber’s own compositions and selection from some of Tchaikovsky’s contemporaries.

    “The result was a remarkably seamless, highly dramatic whole, which the Tulsa Symphony, under the direction of Peter Stafford Wilson, performed about as well as one could hope. It was a highly colored, well-paced performance that packed as much of an emotional punch as the dancing.”