15 replies to this topic

[Mel Johnson]

As long as a ballet continues to engage its audience in beauty, and provides continuing interest in its content, be it narrative, choreographic, or musical, it is fair game for production.  I never particularly cared for Balanchine's "extended version" of Act II "Swan Lake", and the critics can write about the "waves of dancers" in the last movement of the ballet, it never grabbed me.  I knew that that last movement was Act IV music, and I didn't like it, no sir, didn't like it a bit.  Now, compared to Martins' totally inadequate end-of-first-lakeside scene, it would be a welcome relief.