I descend the stairs of the State Theatre, for that is where the emeralds are, beneath the Earth’s surface. Follow the sounds of Gabriel Fauré’s “Pelléas et Mélisande” and “Shylock,” for when entwined these musical elements chime the properties of emeralds as they refract the light. This is the Romantic era, they herald. A nineteenth-century reverie, in long green tunics. A memory of France. This is the opening night of the Melbourne season of The Australian Ballet’s performance of George Balanchine’s “Jewels.”[1]
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