The Atlanta Ballet and the Red Clay Ramblers will premier The Ramblin’ Suite during its annual Haywood County residency Sept. 21 at 7:30 p.m. and again on Sept. 22 at 3 p.m. at the Haywood Community College auditorium. Both performances will include the “Ramblin’ Suite” as part of a full ballet program. A gala at the Waynesville Country Club follows the Sept. 21 performance and a reception follows the Sept. 22 show. Tickets are $25, $20 and $15. Student tickets are half price on Sept. 22. Call the Haywood County Arts Council at 828.452.0593 for information or visit the website at www.haywoodarts.org.

RAMBLIN’ SUITE

Choreography by Diane Coburn-Bruning

Music performed live by The Red Clay Ramblers

Known for creating new, bold ballets that stray from convention, choreographer Diane Coburn-Bruning will look to North Carolina’s internationally acclaimed string band, The Red Clay Ramblers, for her inspiration for this world premiere. Bluegrass, rock, Dixieland, and gospel sounds emerge in nutty profusion from these zany instrumentalists and singers. With more than a dozen albums and a Tony Award-winning Broadway show to their credit. The Red Clay Ramblers have brought original and traditional string band music to the concert hall and theatre stage for the past 30 years.

MADAME BUTTERFLY

Choreography by Stanton Welch

Music by Giacomo Pucinni

Australian choreographer Welch transforms Puccini’s famous opera, Madama Butterfly, into dance. Premiered by the Australian Ballet in 1995, this two-act dramatic ballet tells the tragic tale of a young geisha’s love for an American naval officer and his ultimate betrayal. Puccini’s lush, romantic score has been adapted for ballet by John Lanchbery. Madame Butterfly originated in a story by John Luther Long and was adapted for the stage by David Belasco. The play premiered with great success in New York in 1900, then crossed the Atlantic for a London production, which Pucinni saw. Pucinni’s first version of the opera failed in 1904, but a revised version was successful the same year, the version that we hear and see today. Madame Butterfly is intimate, devoid of spectacle, taking place completely within a house in Nagasaki. There is one straight plot line, without subplots: girl wins boy, girl loses boy, and girl commits hara kiri. What makes Welch’s Madame Butterfly work are its picturesque sets, a ravishing wedding-night pas de deux, the passionate, dishonest relationship between Butterfly and Pinkerton and the rich and luscious score of Pucinni.

RAPTURE

Choreography by Lila York

Music by Sergei Prokofiev

Lila York’s opulent Rapture launched the former Paul Taylor dancer’s choreographic career when it received its premiere on February 2, 1995 at New York’s Julliard School. Atlanta Ballet first performed the piece during the 1996 Olympic Arts Festival. Set to Prokofiev’s Third and Fifth Concertos, Rapture was created after York lost two friends to AIDS. In an exploration of heaven and earth, Rapture features an ensemble of 10 men and 10 women who soar and plunge, only to soar again in the joyous finale. According to Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times, “Set in an often dimly lighted stage, with a field of stars behind, Rapture was ingeniously plotted, with moments of dreamlike stillness and melancholy punctuating the stage.”

ESMARELDA

Choreography by Ben Stevenson

Music by Pugni