Ballet Ecarte Olympian Theater, Big Bear Inn, Big Bear Lake, California September 17,1994 Reviewed by William Fark

California's Gold Rush ended around the turn of the century, but there's still treasure in them thar hills. Among the nuggets is Paul Rizos's Madame Butterfly--The Ballet at Big Bear Inn in the San Gorgonio Mounains.

Big Bear Lake, where ski boots outnumber toe shoes, is still far from becoming a cradle of culture. But Rizos's innovative theater and dance ventures have attracted visitors interested in something beyond outdoor activities. "The Passion of Puccini" is Rizos's fourth classically-themed event, after ones honoring Mozart, Rossini, and Tchaikovsky. It's a weekend package of lodging and entertainment, featuring an opera or ballet performance accompanied by a lecture/tea and themed dinner.

Rizos wrote the scenario, adapted the music, and choreographed Madame Butterfly, which is performed by Ballet Ecarte of Culver City. Artistic director Nadezhda Kalmanovskaiya danced Butterfly opposite Golden Koscuik as Pinkerton, with Stella Gardiner as Suzuki, Butterfly's friend and confidante. Four men and four women danced more than a dozen supporting roles.

Rizos's greatest strength here is his skill at adaptation and condensation. He concentrates on the story of love and betrayal, portraying Butterfly and Pinkerton's relationship in a series of solos and pas de deux. Butterfly's doubts and fears about giving up her family, national heritage, and religion, in addition to her suicide, are presented in kabuki-like dance and mime sequences.

Stage size (just wide enough for one grand jete) in the ninety-nine-seat Olympian Theater forces Rizos to be imaginative. He has devised tricky lifts and erotic couplings for Kalmanovskaya and Koscuik, extended Boishoi-style pointe sequences for her, and in-place leaps and fast turns in the air for Koscuik.

Given the physical limitations of the stage, the performances are noteworthy. Kalmanovskaya is tall but dances with a remarkable delicacy that suggests Butterfly's Japanese fragility. Her renunciation solo is very well done. Koscuik is reed slender but projects a convincing virility, especially in the smooth lifts. Gardiner is expert technique personified in her one brief solo.

And Rizos has fun with the corps de ballet. There's a geisha quartet that recalls both Busby Berkeley and the cygnets from Swan Lake, a comic drunk dance for the Bonze, and a male duet featuring kabuki villains with the most ridiculous fright wigs ever.

Will Templin's costumes, a bit overdone for the small theater, define the characters in dramatic style. Kevin Crysler's lighting is adequate.

Overture to Romeo and Juliet, the ballet portion of "Tchaikovsky Letters," created for last year's festival at Big Bear Inn, has been restaged and performed by London City Ballet. Madame Butterfly--The Ballet deserves a similar extended life.

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