This fall, Philadelphia Ballet presents Fall River Legend, the haunting Agnes de Mille ballet set to an original score by Morton Gould. Part of Philadelphia Ballet’s Evening of Horror program at the Academy of Music, this revival brings dramatic intensity, psychological nuance, and one of the most dramatic American ballet scores to life, with five performances October 16-19.
Originally choreographed by Agnes de Mille for Ballet Theatre (now American Ballet Theatre), Fall River Legend premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City on April 22, 1948. Set against the backdrop of the Lizzie Borden case in Fall River, Massachusetts, it dramatizes the family conflict, suspicion, and moral ambiguity surrounding the infamous murders of 1892.
Fall River Legend remains as one of de Mille’s most daring works and a prime example of the new direction of American ballet after World War II—focused just as much on psychological expression as physical virtuosity. De Mille’s choreography is known for its storytelling strength, character detail, symbolic movement, and emotional architecture, particularly in how it handles the dualities of innocence and guilt, repression and confession, and the burden of expectation.
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