Joan Acocella for The New Yorker

Mark Morris, “The Muir.” Unlike most other artists today, Morris can be sweet, but he achieves this dialectically. While “The Muir” is set to Irish and Scottish folk tunes, they were arranged by Beethoven, and the lads and lasses of the libretto don’t so much gambol over the hills as they go to war or get their hearts broken. Much of the thrill of the piece was due to the powerhouse women in its cast: Amber Merkens, Michelle Yard, and especially (because she is now in bloom) Laurel Lynch.