Wheeldon, Ashton works on tap for Sarasota Ballet

For the final concert of its 25th anniversary season, the Sarasota Ballet is performing three works, two by 20th century master Sir Frederick Ashton and one by Christopher Wheeldon, one of the greatest contemporary ballet choreographers.

Sarasota Ballet audiences are familiar with Ashton, whose works are something of a specialty for the company. For this weekend's performances at the Sarasota Opera House, the two Ashton works on tap are "A Wedding Bouquet" and "Jazz Calendar." "A Wedding Bouquet" includes text by Gertrude Stein and music by Lord Berners (a.k.a Gerald Tyrwhitt). It's a bittersweet but comic vignette about a turn-of-the-century provincial wedding in France at which everything seems to go wrong. "Jazz Calendar" is '60's-era interpretation of the nursery rhyme "Monday's Child," with music by Sir Rodney Bennett.

Wheeldon is probably best known to the general public from the Emmy Award-winning documentary "Strictly Bolshoi," which followed him as he became the first Briton to be invited to create a new work for the Bolshoi Ballet. He is a former resident choreographer for the New York City Ballet.

His work on this weekend's program is "The American," set to Dvorak's string quartet. The Sarasota Orchestra will perform the music live.

Details: April 29-30, Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota. Show times: 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Information: 941-359-0099, sarasotaballet.org.

-- Marty Clear

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 6:10 PM with the headline "Wheeldon, Ashton works on tap for Sarasota Ballet ."