I’ve read two great articles recently on Elliot Goldenthal, the composer of the current movie, Public Enemies (found here and here).  They caught my eye because Goldenthal also composed the music for the full-length dramatic ballet Othello, originally choreographed for American Ballet Theater and San Francisco Ballet by our very own Lar Lubovitch (Co-Artistic Director of CDF.)

from Joffrey.org

The San Francisco Chronicle called the ballet “a major new chapter in American ballet.”  Lar is now setting Othello on the Joffrey Ballet for its upcoming fall season.  You can see the Joffrey perform in two of the CDF 09 performances, New Voices (Aug. 18) and Modern Masters (Aug. 20).

Speaking of Othello-related things you’ll see at the festival - star-dancer Desmond Richardson performed in CDF 07 and danced the leading role in Othello both at American Ballet Theater and San Francisco Ballet.  And, I just recently learned, he also danced in Michael Jackson’s “Bad” video!  If anyone knows more about Desmond’s appearance in “Bad” and would like to share, please post your comments here.

Here are what the critics at the Tribune and Sun-Times had to say about Monday’s performance.  What did you think?