61 replies to this topic

[abatt]

It's been a marathon week of Swan Lakes for me. No time right now to talk about the Dvorovenko/Bel.  matinee and the Paloma/Ethan performance on Wed. evening.  Last night Kent was absolutely gorgeous, luminous and heartbreaking.  She and Marcelo conveyed such romance and tragedy.  Gomes is an extraordinary partner.  His lifts of Julie were effortless.  His expressiveness is heartstopping.  Bravo.


I felt sorry for anyone who had to sit in the Family Circle.  It was full of little kids who were making noise throughout the performance.  Their adult parents have no consideration for others.

[MJ]

abatt, on Jun 25 2010, 08:50 AM, said:

It's been a marathon week of Swan Lakes for me. No time right now to talk about the Dvorovenko/Bel.  matinee and the Paloma/Ethan performance on Wed. evening.  Last night Kent was absolutely gorgeous, luminous and heartbreaking.  She and Marcelo conveyed such romance and tragedy.  Gomes is an extraordinary partner.  His lifts of Julie were effortless.  His expressiveness is heartstopping.  Bravo.


I felt sorry for anyone who had to sit in the Family Circle.  It was full of little kids who were making noise throughout the performance.  Their adult parents have no consideration for others.

The Additional procenium prevented seeingANYTHING from the rear of the stage, the White Swan vision and the Apotheosis/sunrise were unseen.

I did not see the company penchee/cambre that traditionally happens when the swans enter, did I fall asleep? Vishneva was AMAZING! Brava!

[Ambonnay]

Part/Hallberg/Mathews replace Irina/Max/Hallberg tonight!!!

[fondoffouettes]

Ambonnay, on Jun 26 2010, 12:21 PM, said:

Part/Hallberg/Mathews replace Irina/Max/Hallberg tonight!!!

Ambonnay--I can't thank you enough for posting this info!  I was still in a Saturday morning daze when I read it (and almost couldn't believe my eyes), but I threw on some clothes, cabbed it to Lincoln Center and was able to trade in some unwanted R&J tickets for tonight's performance!  I can't remember ever seeing David and Veronika dance together (perhaps once as Espada/Mercedes  several years ago?). I saw Veronika on Monday night and have never been so heartbroken by Odette before, so I can't wait to see her in more experienced hands tonight...

[Ambonnay]

You're welcome.  
I think Part/Hallberg might have collaborated in short pieces like Apollo and, not really dancing together, in On The Dnieper, but I haven't seen them in a full length ballet before  

Edit:

By the way, doesn't the fact that both Irina and Max B were swapped out (even though tonight would have been their second Swan Lake as a pair this year) suggest that the swap is not necessarily due to an injury.  Even though Irina and Max B frequently dance together, wouldn't an injury to one typically just involve that person being substituted for, instead of both being substituted for?  

If the swap is not due to injury (a big if), did somebody (Part or otherwise) complain to McK about the possibility that Stearns did not adequately partner Part?

Wouldn't it be unusual for the replacement pair chosen to have never danced the relevant full length ballet together before, as is the case, to my knowledge, for Part/Hallerg?

[Rosa]

Part and Hallberg have danced Swan Lake together before just once...back in 2008 I believe it was.

[nysusan]

Ambonnay, my thanks as well for the substitution info. As it happens, I have tkts for NYCB tonight and it's my only chance to see the new Martins ballet, as well as La Source and Western Symphony. I toyed with the idea of blowing it off and just getting tkts for tonight's SL but my nephew is joining me tonight. He's a young violinist and is very excited about  hearing the new Salonen violin concerto, so I think we're just going to try to run over to the Opera House during intermission and hopefully catch the 1st lakeside act. We'll see how it works out.

Regarding your speculation as to the reason for the switch - its just speculation, we have no way of knowing what actually transpired but I can tell you that

!- Veronika & David have danced SL together before, I saw them in it a couple of years ago and they've probably danced it together since on tour

2- often when one partner is injured they will replace the pair with another pair rather than ask the non injured partner to dance with someone they haven't rehearsed with. Especially for the last performance of the season.

Merde to Veronika & David, hope I can catch the 2nd act adagio!

[ksk04]

Well since Irina and Max are married it could be a personal reason they needed to pull out, rather than an injury. Also Veronika and David have danced SL before together, probably a few years ago-someone else probably knows the date. In this instance they could be the only two that were available as covers, and if you look at the schedule Veronika isn't scheduled to dance again until next Sat (whereas Gillian Murphy probably the only other dancer who frequently partners Max is on several times in different ballets next week) so she might have more time to move her rehearsal schedule around to accommodate an extra show. Also Veronika and David might not dance a lot on stage together but it's possible they rehearse together frequently for many ballets when other partners are unavailable, due to their heights

[bingham]

Irina has also been replaced in next week's Allegro Brillante(w/ X Reyes).

[onxmyxtoes]

Also note that Sterns performed SL in yesterday's matinee.  His body is probably not ready for another performance tonight.

[christine174]

Thank you ambonnay for posting the cast change! I have had my fill of SL over the years, and after seeing it with Part and Stearns Monday night had no desire to see any other casts. Been there, done that. But when I heard about Part and Hallberg, that was irresistible, and I picked up the phone for the box office immediately. What a great performance! Part looked fantastic, and I never thought I'd like her black swan more than her white swan, but truly, she just looked great. So glad I didn't miss this!

[abatt]

I didn't know about the cast change for tonight until I ran into NYSusan during the second intermission at NYCB.  After a few minutes of discussion w. my husband, we decided to skip the final piece at NYCB and sat in the lobby of the Met to watch Veronika and David on the TV monitors.  We saw almost the entire Act III and all of Act IV.  I enjoyed the Veronika/David performance very much.  Thanks NYSusan.

[Ambonnay]

christine174 -- You're welcome.  

The program insert said that Irina is indeed injured.

Part danced well.   I thought the positioning of her arms/wrists/hands was more expressive than I had anticipated, esp in Odette segments.  The partnering with David did not betray the apparently limited period of time they likely had to practice together this year.  One minor aspect I noted was that, like some members had reported when Part danced an Odile excerpt with Gomes during the Opening Night Gala, Part sometimes tilted when she was spun around as Odette in Act II.  But David readily addressed that, in an inconspicuous manner.   The only other nit I have with Part is that her "jump" to her death was not among the more audacious and full jumps I have seen.  David's jump, on the other hand, was almost from a running start and was a very full jump.  Part's acting as Odile seemed appropriate tonight -- not overdone like during the Opening Night Gala.

David was as excellent throughout the entire performance as usual.  [Heart]  It's such a pleasure to see David, among other performances, twice in Swan Lake this year (with Part and Tuesday with Vishneva), as well as twice in Sleeping Beauty (Osipova and Herrera).   I think I'll see him twice in Romeo & Juliet as well soon.  

Blaine Hoven replaced Jared Matthews as Benno.  Peasant PDD was with Stella A and Maria R. Jared Matthews' purple v Rothbart was pretty good.  Roman Zhurbin (corps member) left an impression as green/monster-faced v Rothbart.  Zhurbin was effective in the final Act in particular, when he seemed much more physically menacing than most green v Rothbarts I have seen.  Zhurbin was not only applauded at the end, but also somewhat booed (in an apprecative way).  Cygnettes were Y Kajiya, S Lane, M Copeland and R Pavam.  Two swans were only OK -- K Uphoff and D Teuscher.  Princesses were H Seo, S Lane, G Bond and S Smith.  Wolfgang was Frederic Franklin.

[Colleen Boresta]

I went to yesterday's SL matinee, and Gillian Murphy was fantastic.  I'll try to post more later.  I just wanted to say that Cory Stearns did not perform at yesterday's matinee.  Jose Manuel Carreno was Prince Siegfried.  According to the ABT calendar, Cory danced the Prince on Friday night with Michele Wiles.

[abatt]

Any info on who is replacing Irina as Juliet?