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I watched the Seo/Stearns performance on Thursday and loved it much more than Monday night's performance. Seo mentioned in her TONY interview that her R&J might be a bit "rough" compared to the seasoned principals but that's exactly what I liked about it. It made Romeo and Juliet seem like real characters and I understood them better. Herman Cornejo was great on Monday night but I actually liked Craig Salstein's more humorous Mercutio better. Seo seems like a terrific dancer and though there were times when I thought maybe she wasn't relaxed enough, I enjoyed her Juliet a lot more than Vishneva's. She was beautiful, convincing, and not hysterical. Stearns was great as Romeo but having already watched Roberto Bolle in the role, I think there is still room for Stearns to grow. On Monday, I was ready to bolt by the beginning of the second act but on Thursday, I think I might have even been entertained by the harlots dancing. It was a completely different R&J for me, and for the better.

Really minor point, but I believe Yan Chen is Chinese. I would love to Hyltin and Fairchild dance MacMillan's R&J also. I thought the NYCB one was decent, not atrocious or anything, but probably not something I'd want to watch over and over again.

Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed by the end of last night's performance. The last time I watched this production was Ferri's retirement and I absolutely loved it, but last night wasn't very captivating. I'm probably in the very, very small minority because it seemed like everyone around me enjoyed it so my opinion is definitely just my opinion. The dancers are great, I just don't love the production. I'd love to see more dancing from Romeo and Juliet, not from the harlots, not from the many side characters, and definitely not from the sword fighters (enough!!). For me, there were too many corps dancing/parading scenes to make me feel like Romeo and Juliet were truly the main characters. I have read the book and I guess the ballet followed the plot well but it just felt a little dry. This was also the first time that I watched Diana Vishneva dance with ABT. She is an amazing dancer, but all the arm flailing and running from one end of the stage to the other over and over again became uninteresting and annoying pretty quickly. I did enjoy Marcelo Gomes as Romeo and he seemed to fit the role very well. Side note/question: I never noticed before but the orchestra doesn't sound as good as they used to. When Juliet was sitting in the center of the stage playing the mandolin in Act I, I thought the violinist hadn't practiced his part at all! I felt the same way watching Swan Lake and Sylvia. It made me really uneasy that section, thinking that he might not make it to the end or something. I should probably listen to a recording of that part.. & I was a little bit astonished by all the people eating noisy foods around me (in the mid-rear orch section). I guess no time for dinner? I'm going to Thursday's performance as well and hopefully I won't be as cynical then!

I just noticed this in an older article: Now in Principal’s Slippers, Facing Fears Yay! I guess it all worked out! (I'm not exactly sure about how to quote articles on this forum)

I think that's probably because tonight's Swan Lake was close to selling out, if not already sold out. When I looked the site two days ago and checked out tonight's performance just to see what kinds of tickets were left, the seat-choosing system didn't show up and instead it was just a picture of the seating levels. I couldn't buy a ticket online even if I wanted to. As far as I can tell, you can still choose seats online for all the other programs.

I just got back from the performance as well and this was the first time I had seen Part and Bolle in their respective roles. They were both incredible and I could not take my eyes off Veronica's endless limbs, expression, and steady balances. I found the whole production pretty decent but there were some moments that were a bit dull. My friend, who I finally convinced to go watch a ballet performance, liked it overall (esp. act III) but was so disappointed by the corps. I'd been reading reports about the corps on this site and from other places but I honestly didn't think it would as bad as it was today. If the messy dancing could be improved even by 30%, the overall performance would be so much more enjoyable. I always avoided Swan Lake because I was never a fan of it but after watching Part tonight, I wish I had gone the previous years when she danced! She was absolutely incredible. There may have been a few minor fumbles here and there but they didn't take away from the performance at all for me. Side note, I was sitting in the front section of the orchestra and as sealings mentioned, the set changing made so much noise over the music. But I guess it needs be done some way or another.