'The Peony Pavilion': Underpowered beauty

Beauty is a strength and a weakness in "The Peony Pavilion," an ode to the delirium of love, danced by the National Ballet of China at Wolf Trap on Tuesday night. The two-hour production is based on an epic 16th-century Kunqu opera, which choreographer Fei Bo has distilled into a shifting tableaux of dreams and the underworld, as two lovers challenge death in seeking a reunion.