The immediate antecedent to Mark Morris’s Layla and Majnun may date back only a century, to the first Azerbaijani opera, but the story has pervaded the Islamic world, from India to Morocco, for over a thousand years — as folktale, epic poem, miniature painting and classical dance. By idiosyncratic means, the American choreographer confirms why this tragic romance has long mattered: the love it describes is essential and vast.

★★★★★