San Francisco Ballet in Tomasson’s “Swan Lake.” Courtesy Erik Tomasson/SF Ballet.

The San Francisco Ballet opened its final program of the season on Friday—and last under the leadership of outgoing Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson, who’s retiring after nearly three decades at the helm. “Swan Lake” runs through May 8 to close out SF Ballet’s 2022 season.

The performances include a tribute video to Tomasson, who’s credited as leading SF Ballet from a regional company to one of the world’s most prestigious. The video includes congratulatory comments from the organization’s notable contributors and leadership.

“I will miss being in the studio with my dancers every day, coaching them and seeing them grow, and also choreographing and creating new works on them,” Tomasson told RIFF after his initial retirement announcement in January 2021. “I will also deeply miss connecting in the theater with our local audiences and dance lovers who have been so supportive of the company throughout the decades.”

The company has previous announced that Tamara Rojo will take over for Tomasson for the 2023 season.

San Francisco Ballet was actually the first American company to stage a complete production of “Swan Lake,” in 1940.  The current version being performed is the second iteration Tomasson has produced. He first staged the production in 1988, three years into his tenure as artistic director at SF Ballet. He kept the traditional choreography while making changes that clarified the story.

Misa Kuranaga and Angelo Greco rehearsing Tomasson’s Swan Lake as Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson instructs. Erik Tomasson/SF Ballet.

“I was very proud of that production because we needed that at that time—it catapulted us [from being considered a regional troupe] into a major company,” he has said.

For the 2009 season he and acclaimed designer Jonathan Fensom created a visually new concept while retaining choreography that draws on the ballet’s classical heritage, remaking it as a big-budget production. Fensom borrowed from architectural and decorative elements in San Francisco (City Hall and the War Memorial Opera House) and Paris (the Louvre).

The most important change in the 2009 production was the addition of a prologue, to make the focus of the story on the queen of swans rather than the male prince character, with whom the ballet typically begins.

Tickets for the remaining performances, which run through Sunday, are still available at San Francisco Ballet’s website.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.