Gordon B. Lankton

Design sketch, by Alexandre Benois, 1914

THE NIGHTINGALE BALL

Saturday, November 22, 2014
The Algonquin Club of Boston

Guest of Honor: Gordon B. Lankton
Ball Committee: Rita Cuker, James & Renate Kenney,
Catherine Mannick, Peter Rand, Kent dur Russell
Adam de Sola Pool, Vladimir & Vera Torchilin

An unforgettable evening of performances, dancing, and a gala dinner honoring Gordon B. Lankton, philanthropist, collector and founder of the Museum of Russian Icons.

Enjoy a feast for all the senses and help support the BRCP's mission of co-operation and exchange in the arts between the US and post-Soviet countries! The inspiration for this year's ball is the Ballets Russes opera, The Nightingale (Le Rossignol), which premiered a century ago in Paris. Download the invitation

Dress code: Creative Black Tie or Costume
For ideas and inspiration, visit our Pinterest page

Program

6:00 pm Cocktail reception, jazz by the Jason Benjamin Jazz Quintet
6:45 pm Sara Knight performance of dance work by Rebecca Rice
7:00 pm Gala dinner honoring Gordon B. Lankton
8:45 pm Performance by Lynn Torgrove and Allison Voth of the Cantata Singers
8:00 - 11:00 Dancing to the Jason Benjamin Quintet, dessert, cash bar.

Read more about the performances

Tickets

Stravinsky Circle (Dancing Tickets) : $100 ($30 tax deductible)
Admission from 8 pm. Includes dancing, performance, dessert. Cash bar.

Diaghilev Circle (Dining Tickets): $350 ($175 tax deductible)
Admission from 6 pm. Includes reception, dinner and all benefits of the Stravinsky Circle. Purchasers of two or more tickets will be recognized in the evening's program.

Emperor Circle (Table of 8 or 10): $2800/$3500 ($1400/$1750)
Recognition in the program, premium table for dinner, front-row seating for performances. All benefits of Diaghilev Circle for your group.

Nightingale Circle (Dancing 5-pack): $400 ($50 tax deductible)
Pack of 5 dancing tickets. Includes dancing, performances, dessert. Cash bar. $50 of ticket price is tax deductible.

To pay by check, please download the reply card in the invitationHERE and send it to the address provided, together with your payment.
To pay online (fees apply),      

Dinner seating for individual tickets is at tables of eight.
The Algonquin Club is at 217 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 02116
Limited valet parking $20 or park at the 149 Newbury Garage

Please make sure to indicate your guest(s) name(s), number of vegetarian entrees in your group, and any seating preferences you may have within your party or with other attendees.

Honoring Gordon B. Lankton
Philanthropist, collector & founder, Museum of Russian Icons
The board of the Ballets Russes Cultural Partnership (BRCP) has chosen to honor Gordon B. Lankton for his commitment and contributions to the cross-cultural relationship between the United States and Russia, and his deep appreciation of the art and history of Russian icons. Since he first discovered his passion for icons in 1991, Gordon assembled an extensive collection and opened a state-of-the-art museum to display it. Through this and other philanthropic endeavors—including support for educational exchanges, and a school of icon painting in Russia—Lankton has played a significant role in building bridges between the two countries.

More information about performers and program coming soon!
Prepare to be beguiled!

Some History:
The Nightingale (Le Rossignol), was an opera that was premiered by the Ballets Russes in 1914, with a score composed by Igor Stravinsky and a production designed by Alexandre Benois. In 1918, his friend the artist Aleksandr Golovin designed a production that would have been the first staging in Russia, at the Mariinsky, but due to the upheavals of the Russian Civil War and other factors it did not come to fruition. In 1920, The Nightingale was reworked into a very different Ballets Russes production: a ballet with a shortened score, choreography by Leonide Massine and new designs by Henri Matisse, called The Song of the Nightingale (Le Chant du Rossignol). In 1925, George Balanchine choreographed an additional solo specifically for the very young Alicia Markova in the role of the Nightingale.
The Nightingale's libretto is based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a Chinese emperor and a magical nightingale, and so the early productions were all carried out in the visual paradigm of Chinoiserie--Western stylization of Chinese motifs. However, each artist interpreted Chinoiserie in a different way.