As Oberon, the King of the Fairies who is determined to teach
proud Titania a lesson, Alexander
Dutko has the necessary speed
and lightness, and his Oberon
adopts a supercilious air when
giving commands to his factotum,
Puck. Karen Leslie Moscato’s Titania runs emotionally hot and cold,
but her affections are misdirected.
She is icy to her husband when
he demands she surrender her
changeling page, but turns sluttish
when infatuated with Bottom, the
bumbling actor whom Oberon’s
magic has transformed into a don-
key. Moscato’s performance in the
pure-dance segments of the ballet shows the other side of Titania’s capriciousness and instability
however. There Moscato appears
as the mistress of her fairy realm,
securely placed and confident in
her balances.
In Martin’s staging, the pas de
deux that reconciles Oberon and
Titania includes some tricky, backhanded partnering and clingy
passages that Dutko and Moscato
negotiate securely. As the duet
intensifies, they echo each other’s
movements creating lovely im-
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pg 49