Farrell Fan

Just reading the names on the program is exciting. I take it that George d'Amboise is one of the d'Amboise clan who eventually left the dancing to his siblings?

I remember fondly her guest appearances with NYCB.

This is an intriguing sentence and I, for one, hope we don't have to wait that long. I can't say I felt traumatized by the Martins succession -- Kirstein had indicated it for some time. What traumatized me was Farrell's firing by Martins in 1993. I'll never get over that.

After the site started working again, I had a great deal of trouble logging back in. But thanks to the care, compassion, and patience of Helene and Carbro. all is well again. Thanks so much.

Soon after I started posting on this board, I asked about Serenahd vs. Serenade. The consensus at that time, as I remember, was that it was Serenahd. But I still don't know why.

I appreciate the attention.

That feeling has been around a long time now. I was walking past the lions in front of the NY Public Library once some thirty years ago and mentioned to a co-worker that they were named "Patience and Fortitude" which had also been the motto of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Of course he'd never heard of LaGuardia. "That was before I was born," he said, as though explaining everything

Maybe the one who's at fault here, if anyone, is Mr. Macaulay?

It just sounds ever so much more elegant and pretentious. So what if my American Heritage Dictionary says the accent is on the second syllable?

I see between forty and fifty performances a year and it makes very little difference to me who's in the cast. Most of my attendance is at NYCB, ABT, and the Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Advancing age and decrepitude caused me to miss the most recent Farrell season this past June and will probably do the same in November. Nevertheless, her company is the one I'm most fond of.

I had an "Aha!" moment in the Macaulay review when he pointed out that "Morphoses" is pronounced with the accent on the first syllable.

In the Jeopardy "Teen Tournament," now going on, none of the contestants knew that Nijinsky was a dancer.

Had I been asked this question in 1972, after I'd first seen the ballet. I would not have hesitated to answer. "The most boring ballet I've ever seen is "Watermill," by Jerome Robbins." Plenty of people would have agreed. The audience booed the night I was there and at many subsequent performances. Who could blame us? We'd come to see one of the great dancers of the time, Edward Villella. But instead of his usual jumping and turning, he hadn't danced a step. He'd come onstage in a long black cloak, slowly removed it and whatever else he'd been wearing, until he was finally down to white jockey shorts. Ah. we thought, watch him go now! But instead, he'd gone to lie down and think about his past. The subject of "Watermill" was the passage of time, and, as Lincoln Kirstein said, the tempo of the ballet was "diabolically slow." It took several viewings and the passage of time in my own life, for me to begin to appreciate the beauty of "Watermill." I don't know what today's audiences would make of it. After all, everything is faster now than it was in 1972. I still don't count it among my favorite ballets. But I'd like to see it again once or twice before it's time to put the cloak back on.

Thanks, kfw. Beautiful photo of Nilas as a boy with proud papa Peter. Nilas is wearing a Saratoga Springs shirt.

I know several NYCB fans who regularly attend ABT when both companies are in residence at Lincoln Center -- but, like me, they go to ABT only on Mondays, when NYCB has the night off.

Thanks from me too, and to sz as well.

My impression is that when the two versions are seen in juxtaposition, the original, with the caller and without the male solo, inevitably looks gimmicky and annoying. The callerless version, on the other hand, seems pure and beautiful.

Thanks for sharing the excitement, patrick. Do you have any thoughts on Ben Brantley's less-than-ecstatic review of Lupone as Mama Rose?

So did George Balanchine, who described himself that way.

It's heartbreaking to think of "Candide" shooting himself in the head. May he rest in peace.

Askegard has been a principal since 1998; Nilas Martins since 1993; Albert Evans since 1995.

No.

As usual, Mel Johnson brings a bracing dose of reality to the discussion. Thanks.

In my case, it made no difference and that's how I voted. My wife and I became subscribers to NYCB in the 1960s, and I still maintain three subscriptions. So I've long been used to a kind of "block programming." This has often meant I see the same ballet three times in one season. I don't mind. Back in the old days, subscribers stayed away in droves from Balanchine's "Don Quixote," but we went to every performance. So I was able to greet it as an old friend when Suzanne revived it. Now that I've mentioned her name, there's nothing more I have to say.