Farrell Fan

I saw no mention in the press or on this board. Did the scheduled peformance of the Nilas Martins Dance Company in Lake Placid on July 2 take place? That was before his arrest.

The Post has been having trouble determining the master-in-chief's character. The other day, the adjective of choice was "imperious," bringing to mind someone domineering or even dictatorial. At least "mercurial" has connotations of "the artistic temperament." I think of Orson Welles's "Mercury Radio Theater."

Thank you, artist. That was wonderful.

Of all that I've read so far--in the Albany and Saratoga papers, the Daily News and Post, and the brief paragraph in the New York Times, the best and most accurate account was in the Daily News. For one thing, they were the only paper to get Peter Martins's title correct, silly though it is -- Ballet Master in Chief. The others, including the NY Times, had it as Master in Chief which sounds like a retired commodore. The News also seemed to know more about Amar Ramasar, including that he's from the Bronx.

Thanks, Leigh. Having such a lawyer in a case like this certainly seems misguided.

What's a PI lawyer? And why the UGH?

Was anyone else as surprised as I was by the information that Nilas is forty years old?

Her importance to the performing arts is demonstrated by the full-page ad in the Arts section of today's New York Times, signed by all twelve constituents of Lincoln Center.

Saratoga seems a hard-luck town for dancers named Martins.

You are not wrong.The line is from a Croce review (Feb 24, 1975) in which she contrasted Farrell's dancing after she returned to NYCB with what it had been before her departure. Almost every line is quotable, but since the review is available in Croce's first collection, "Afterimages," and probably elsewhere, I won't bother to do it. The immediate context of the words in question is: "Of course. the autonomy of the ballerina is an illusion, but Farrell's is the extremest form of this illusion we have yet seen, and it makes Diamonds a riveting spectacle about the freest woman alive."

Hi Caitlin, This will be the first summer in many years that I won't be coming to Saratoga Springs for NYCB. You're going to be 17 and I'm now 75. The prospect of your posts during the season promises both a fresh perspective and a somewhat "inside" view. I look forward to them. (Incidentally, I like parentheses too.) Lou

I saw Kent and Gomes on Monday night. They were wonderful, but Kudelka's ballet is not worth talking about.

I was fortunate enough to have seen and heard her in her prime -- as Baby Doe, Cleopatra, Manon, The Three Queens... Sills performed all these great roles at New York City Opera during the years when she was ignored, or even snubbed, by the Met. By the time she made her Met debut. she was past her vocal peak. That's why it seemed ironic when she became a pillar of that institution after she'd retired from performing. As an administrator, she undertook everything with with great brio and skill. But I still think of her as one of the great sopranos of her time. I can see and hear her now in Manon, on her knees, bidding goodbye to their little table. Adieu.

I found the overall tone of Macauley's year-end wrap-up to be tremendously positive. My feeling is that things are looking up, both at NYCB and at the NY Times.

While Ballet Talkers have been parsing Alistair Macauley's sentences and measuring his column-inches-per-ballerina at the New York Times, something tremendous happened at the New York Observer: Robert Gottlieb gave a good review to New York City Ballet! I quote from the July 2-July 9 issue: "If Kowroski continues in this new expansive vein, if Somogyi fully recovers, if the Bouder locomotive doesn't derail (and it won't), we finally have the dancers to bring to life the parched earth of the recent painful years. And I haven't even mentioned another new charmer, Sterling Hyltin, who suggested in Martins' Jeu de Cartes, that faux-"Rubies," what she'll be able to do with the real thing." Then, returning to the subject of the Kyra Nichols farewell, Gottlieb concluded: "She's earned her retirement, however painful it is for the rest of us, and she claimed it joyously. After Vienna Waltzes, she stood on the stage accepting the cheers and the bouquets, modest, centered, unpretentious, superb -- and glowing with happiness, her arms around her two little boys. She was telling us she had a future. And now, against the odds, the company may have one too."

Like Natalia, I was a fan of Beverly Sills before becoming a fan of ballet. This news saddens me very much.

I saw this video some years ago, thanks to a friend -- I don't think it was ever for sale here. It was interesting how Bèjart expanded the tale of two warring families into a contemporary anti-war drama, complete with the sound of bombs and machineguns. I love the Berlioz score, but I actually think the best parts of this ballet were in the snippets seen in the "Elusive Muse" film. I loved Farrell and Donn together, and regret I never saw them live.

To the best of my knowledge, Farrell doesn't usually come out for curtain calls at Don Q performances. I hope she got a few "bravas" before her abrupt exit. Thanks for the great report, Noreen.

The day after Farrell's farewell, the New York Daily News,a paper not noted for its dance coverage, ran an emotional editorial about Suzanne's last entrance in Vienna Waltzes. I don't know what became of my copy, but I still get chills thinking about it. One more thing: My wife and I were sitting a few seats away from the great Alexandra Danilova, who though eternally youthful, was no longer chronologically young. Madame rose to her feet at the first curtain call, and remained standing and applauding throughout the long, long ovations which followed. The continuity of this great art was never better demonstrated.

Too bad it was buried on page 5 while the article on Nichols' was twice the length and featured so prominently on page 1. Considering Ferri was an international ballet superstar (while Nichols was not), to have the adjacent Macauley article state that Nichols was the "greatest ballerina in the last 20 years" was disrepectful to Ferri and an indirect jab at her. Buried? It was adjacent to the "jump" on the Kyra article and both the photo of Kyra and of Ferri were wonderful. A brief paragraph 0n Page 1 directed readers to the Ferri review

Your report was worth waiting for, TutuMaker

Thank you, mom2, I've been rooting for people to like this ballet for over forty years, and every once in a while I'm rewarded by an intelligent opinion and reaasonable reaction like yours.

I'm going by one of the most treasured books I own, "Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works, published in 1983 by The Eakins Press Foundation. A photographic portrait of Balanchine by Tanaquil Le Clercq is the frontispiece. Her name is in innumerable entries, of course, and appears throughout as Le Clercq, with the space.

Despite the sadness of Davidsbundlertanze, there was an overall joyousness to the evening which I don't remember from other farewells. Even in Serenade, Kyra was smiling and by Vienna Waltzes, she was positively beaming. During the curtain calls, she kept coming forward, threading her way through the flowers that covered the stage, opening her arms to the audience as if to gather us all in her embrace. And her two boys were charming and obviously proud of their mom. So was her husband.

This is the kind of post I love; thanks, Makarova Fan, I was at Monday night's performance as well, and it was the first live viewing of Vishneva for me, too. I agree with everything you say. Incidentally, I heard that Makarova was in the audience.