Igor's Flood

The old man's 80th birthday was June 17. And last week, the extravagant tributes to Igor Stravinsky reached a fortissimo as CBS broadcast the world premiere of Stravinsky's only composition written expressly for television.

Noah and the Flood, a dance drama costing about $200,000 to produce, floated into view with strings shimmering, cymbals clanging, horns blaring dissonantly.

The show was endowed with the New York City Ballet dancers, Narrator Laurence Harvey, and an impressive cast headed by Sebastian Cabot and Elsa Lanchester. But the main reason that Noah proved to be seeworthy was the buoyant artistry of two old collaborators, Stravinsky and Choreographer George Balanchine.

Based on the tale from Genesis, Noah gave glimpses of Stravinsky at his best --his music speaking with the incisiveness of the century's most famed composer.

Stravinsky built Noah's Ark with flutes, French horns, and thumping timpani that seemed to pound every wooden board in place. He created the flood with wavy strings and the liquid tone of horns and string basses. His storm was disconcerting dissonance.

On the TV screen, Balanchine's dancers moved with an agile, flowing grace. Adam and Eve (Jacques d'Amboise and Jillana) performed an erotic pas de deux that eloquently argued for their eviction from Eden. There was tragedy--Lucifer being consumed by vanity and ambition. There was comedy--Noah and his tipsy wife got in a domestic squabble. And there were the mournful Te Deums of the Columbia Chorus.

The production--which resembles an oratorio in form--ran into trouble only be cause its diverse elements--orchestral music, song, narration, mime and dance--never quite had the chance to demonstrate their virtues in a massive production crammed into 21 minutes. One result was that musical ideas could not be fully developed with Stravinsky's twelve-tone technique. His music, the production's foundation, occasionally sounded like a collection of vignettes. Brilliant as it was, Balanchine's choreography was also bothered by limitations of space and time.

Despite its failings. Noah made a moving TV debut. It added up to one more success for the team that created such ballets as Petrouchka, Firebird, Orpheus and Agon. Says Prima Ballerina Melissa Hayden, who watched with admiration: "I do not know what Balanchine and Stravinsky will do next, what new medium they will conquer, and what new experiences they will give; I am only sure that when they do. I want to be there and be a part of it."

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