San Francisco Ballet's "Broken Love" Presents Two Superb But Mismatched Works
April 4, 2025—Last night's opening at the War Memorial Opera House of San Francisco Ballet's production, "Broken Love," is billed as portraying the theme of two strong female leads in tales of the enduring power of love. Broken Wings is choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's tribute to Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Sir Frederick Ashton's Marguerite and Armand is a love story of sacrifice and forgiveness. Both were performed last season to enthusiastic audiences. Although both are excellent works, the theme seems to be a stretch, unfairly pairing a surrealistic, visually exuberant, and artistically profound piece followed by a classical romantic love story set on a bland stage.
Broken Wings is a surrealist work featuring dancing skeletons, male Fridas in colorful Mexican dresses, an imaginative and surrealist set by Dieuweke van Reij, and costumed birds, as well the main characters portraying Kahlo and the people closest to her. Kahlo's husband Diego Rivera was danced by Myles Thatcher, her boyfriend Alfonso by Cavan Conley, and Frida's Sister Cristina by Sasha Mukhamedov.
In April 2024 I saw and reviewed the SFB premiere of Broken Wings as part of SF Ballet's "Dos Mujeres." I focused on understanding the symbolism, but watching it a second time, I realized this is a work that is meant to be experienced, not understood. Yet, to appreciate the experience it is necessary to understand a little about Kahlo's paintings.
For example, the scene representing Kahlo's miscarriage, in which one of the skeleton figures pulls a red cord from her abdomen, is taken from Kahlo's 1932 painting Henry Ford Hospital, which depicts Kahlo lying on a bed amidst blood and hemorrhage, six objects suspended in the air attached to her by red cords. In another scene of Broken Wings, a dress is suspended above the stage, apparently a nod to Kahlo's 1933 painting My Dress Hangs There, meaning that physically she was in the USA, but her life was in Mexico. The character Female Deer, danced by Jihyun Choi, refers to Kahlo's 1946 painting The Wounded Deer, which art critics leave open to interpretation.
In addition to Kahlo's paintings, Lopez Ochoa has imbued Broken Wings with her own symbolism. As she explains in her SFB interview, she added ten Male Fridas, representing Kahlo's numerous self portraits, because she sees Frida Kahlo as "very masculine," and she wanted the paintings to be bigger than Frida.
In my March 2024 interview with Annabelle Lopez Ochoa about her work Tupelo Tornado, she said, "With all the historical characters that I choose, I don't want to judge them. I want to make a portrait so that we are informed about who they were. We can see into their souls, their fears, their pains, and their dreams. Human behavior is a fascinating thing to put on stage. When I see ballets that make it clear who is a bad guy, it's infantilizing our audiences." Lopez Ochoa's Broken Wings is a profound portrait of Frida Kahlo's anguish as portrayed in her paintings. There is no infantilizing here. This is deep art.
Accompanying the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, conducted by Gerry Cornelius, the singer and guitarists Geo Meneses & Los Macorinos performed the song "La Llorona" live.
Following Broken Wings, Sir Frederick Ashton's romantic tale of doomed love, Marguerite and Armand, seemed a letdown by comparison. Although the many pas de deux by Misa Kuranaga and Joseph Walsh in the lead roles were outstanding, the tale of a young woman in love with a man younger than her middle-aged husband is an old story. The minimalist set of white curtains and 19th Century formal costumes contrasted dimly against the vibrant colors and exuberant action of the preceding Broken Wings. If the intention was for Marguerite and Armand to balance the exuberance of Broken Wings, it should have been presented first.
"Broken Love" runs through April 18th at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. For more information, see San Francisco Ballet.