Houston Ballet’s 2017 premiere of Mayerling marked a period of community, grit, and determination
When I wrapped up my first season working for Houston Ballet, I should have also bid adieu to any semblance of normalcy. Fresh out of college, I began working in the development department for the 2016-17 season; it was an incredible start to my dream job. We had toured Stanton Welch’s Romeo and Juliet to Australia and premiered his whimsically larger-than-life Nutcracker. Houston Chronicle Senior Writer Molly Glentzer published an article about the Company entering a golden age, and I felt so lucky to be part of the momentum.
Come August 2017, studios were bustling with dancers, and staff around the office were hurriedly preparing for the start of another legendary season. Two weeks before opening night, murmurs of a hurricane became a constant in daily conversation, but as a native Houstonian, the news always tends to exaggerate these things, right?
The days following Hurricane Harvey were brutal. All eyes were on the TV, watching fellow Houstonians wade through the rivers that were once streets to help neighbors get to safety. Houston Ballet staff were sequestered in their homes, watching helicopter footage of downtown Houston swallowed by water. The devastation began to sink in once we realized our home theater and Center for Dance were uninhabitable.
As the water cleared, Houston Ballet bounced back with determination, which would prove a useful trait in the coming years. Eager to give the city a collective escape through art, the community pulled together – donating studio space and clearing room in busy theater calendars – to help the show go on with Mayerling, marking the first North American company premiere, only a month after Hurricane Harvey’s landfall.
“It was challenging to be in what was sort of a dark time in this city to then dive into such a complicated and dark work,” recalls Principal dancer Connor Walsh, who danced the lead role of Crown Prince Rudolf. “But at the same time, Mayerling is a work that really gives us a lot of space and opportunity to express and stretch ourselves artistically.”
Created by lauded choreographer Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Mayerling tells the true, dark tale of Crown Prince Rudolf, the sole heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 1880s. A story of complicated relationships, scandal, and political intrigue, MacMillan weaves it altogether, mastering the nuanced complexities of real people.
As Walsh calls it, Rudolf is a “once-in-a-lifetime” role. Playing Rudolf requires technical proficiency for intricate solos and pas de deux, stamina for the abundant stage time, and most of all, theatrical aptitude to capture the psychological turmoil of a prince plagued by addiction and illness triggered by his surroundings. Moreover, Mayerling is a company showcase, featuring a multitude of evocative roles for the Company to exhibit what they do best.
“That first night back in the theater had a really special energy,” Walsh notes of opening night at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Even former Mayor Sylvester Turner took to the stage to welcome the Company back, underscoring that “the show must go on,” which Houston Ballet proved to do and then some. Despite the challenges, opening night was electric, made more special for the community’s effort to mark this momentous occasion. Mayerling signifies more than a North American company premiere, a once-in-a-lifetime role, or company showcase; Mayerling marks a period of community, grit, and determination that fuel Houston Ballet to make us, us.
“Bringing something powerful, bringing something meaningful, and bringing something that shows the range of the Company,” Walsh says, “I think in the end, proved worthwhile and special.”
This May, Houston Ballet revisits Mayerling for the first time since its premiere, and Walsh reflects on the upcoming performance, noting “the more time you spend with a role, the more time you understand it.” With this sentiment, Mayerling will no doubt electrify audiences once again.
By Jasmine Fuller Cane