Farrell Fan

I would have thought that obviously it's the Balanchine repertory. But a glossy brochure for the 2007 Winter Season has this quote from Peter Martins: "New Repertory is the lifeblood of this Company." The copy (for the program dubbed "Contemporary Quartet") goes on to say, "In building the Company's repertory, George Balanchine both created and commissioned countless works. Today Peter Martins continues that tradition, having introduced more than 150 ballets to our repertory." That sounds more like a hemorrhage than a repertory. Believe me, Martins-bashing is not my favorite sport. But how else can one react to something so tone-deaf and clueless?

Roslyn Sulcas's article refers to "the 16 ballets that remained on [Ms. Russell and Mr. Stowell's] list after eliminating those for which no records existed." Since I probably saw many of them, I'm curious as to what they are. Aside from excerpts, the only mention in the article is of "Gaspard de la Nuit." I have yet to recover from the insensitive reviews out of the Edinburgh Festival over the Farrell Ballet's "Don Quixote" and can well imagine a similar critical outcry over "Gaspard." Robert Weiss gives a hint of this by calling it "unique" in the Balanchine repertory...it's interesting that he was still so experimental at 70." Right! The only problem is that critical opinions over what constituted a "Balanchine ballet" were well-formed by then, and by now have calcified into a distorted hagiography. I'm all in favor of recovering as much as possible of the lost Balanchine. We should keep in mind, however, that it may not look as we expect.

I've gotten too old to carry passion to rapturous extremes, even for ten minutes. I've been thinking of skipping NYCB's opening night in recent years, and since I never got this year's Gala invitation, this seems like a good time to do it. Hope you enjoy it, drb.

I hope someone will post a link soon. A new production of La Gioconda opened at the Metropolitan Opera on Tuesday with choreography by Christopher Wheeldon with dancers Letizia Giuliani and Angel Corella. Reviewing it in today's NY Times, Roslyn Sulcas says the 10-minute Dance of the Hours "deserves a life of its own." I learned in "Choreography by Balanchine" that Mr. B choreographed this twice, in Monte Carlo and the Met. And his water nymph ballet from Goldwyn Follies "was later the model for the dance of the hippos and ostriches to the Dance of the Hours from La Gioconda in Walt Disney's film Fantasia". Edited to add that dirac has posted the link. Thanks.

I guess he's my current favorite dance critic because I can't think of another whose reviews I actually look forward to reading: Robert Gottlieb.

Hello Mike, Your post struck a chord because fifty years ago my wife introduced me to ballet. Apparently unlike other husbands in the audience, I immediately fell in love with it and became "obsessed" too. It was a great time because Balanchine and Robbins were alive and working at NYCB, putting on new ballets on a regular basis, and Suzanne Farrell was dancing. Congratulations on recognizing the worth of this art. I wish you many happy hours at the ballet. Lou

Hubbe may have lost his technique in New York, but he gained a singing voice.

Yes, I believe that's the dress, too; thanks, Paul. Just want to say that Suzanne has never been bizarrely thin. In fact, I remember a Ballet Review article years ago in which John Taras complained about her supposed plumpness.

In his brief remarks on the new choreography program seen recently at the Miller Theater, Leigh Witchel made that distinction in reference to the piece by Tom Gold. Most posters liked it, but Leigh didn't and said there was a danger in having good dancers perform an inadequate piece: They make it look good, so the choreographer never fixes it. Does anyone care to expand on this? I admit to being somewhat mystified. Leigh?

I watched this program because I'd read about it here. The ostensible subject was "stereotypes." The opinion was that though stereotypes were bad, there was a lot of truth to them, but "we're not supposed to talk about it." The program was all over the lot -- from hate crimes to a pointless classroom experiment in which little kids were told that their blue-eyed classmates were "better" than the brown-eyed ones. The next day they were told it was a mistake -- the brown-eyed ones were better. Some of the children were in tears. I wasn't feeling so good myself. As for whether male dancers are effeminate, I'm not sure the program had an opinion, but the role of the Pennsylvania Ballet in this unnecessary mess was neglible to the point of invisibility.

Thanks, Jack, for bringing this thread to closure, thus dissipating the virulent effects of those reviews. I came to admire much about Mr. B's Don Quixote last year in Washington (as I had years before at the New York State Theater), including some of the music, and I was struck by your description of the Don as a wash drawing, compared to Sancho's portrait in oils. The ballet, of course, rises or falls on its various incarnations of Dulcinea. I saw Heather Ogden last year and much admired her. I'm sure Magnicaballi this year was also memorable. It would be nice to see that Act I mini-ballet some day. At any rate, Suzanne performed a noble endeavor in reviving this flawed masterpiece, and you've done a great service in setting down exactly what happened.

Today's New York Sun headlined an article about Michael Kors's spring collection "Dancer Chic." It said, "Several dresses were named after favorite dancers. The 'Fonteyn' dress was a glamorous black V-neck number with a tan belt. A soft pink mini dress in silk chiffon, accented with a simple black bow, was dubbed the 'Farrell' dress. For serious drama, there was the 'Graham' gown: a high-neck Jersey gown with a plunging back and a hem that swept the floor." The "Graham" gown sounds like a possibility, but I'll bet Ballet Talkers could design dresses more appropriate than those mentioned

It has a great ring to it: "America's Assoluta." Thanks for the report, drb.

This sounds like a familiar refrain, but as of now, according to Michael Kaiser, "The Suzanne Farrell Ballet will perform a mixed repertory program featuring works by Balanchine and Béjart, including Béjart's Rite of Spring, on June 6-10, 2007."

Twyla Tharp is well within "that certain age." She is old enough for Medicare and older than Suzanne Farrell.

What a difference a year makes!

Thank you, drb. It may be too early to declare "Mozart Dances" the dance event of the year, but it's definitely the one to beat.

When Jewels was a brand-new ballet and a "hot ticket" at NYCB, Rubies was just about everyone's favorite.

In the Heather Watts era at NYCB, "Purple" was subsumed into "Ecstatic Orange." Why is it now being exhumed?

NYCB GETS THE SILENT TREATMENT FROM ABT The September issue of ABT Footnotes, which I received today has a feature on Jorma Elo, whose new work will premiere on October 19. The copy reads, "Moving fluidly from dancer to choreographer, Elo has created new works for Pennsylvania Ballet, Alberta Ballet (Canada), and the Finnish National Ballet. Elo's most recent work includes pieces for Norwegian National Ballet, Ballet Debrezen (Hungary), Stockholm 59 (Soloists of Royal Swedish Ballet), and two premieres for Netherlands Dance Theatre, 1st Flash and Plan to A." There's no mention of the ballet company across Lincoln Center Plaza, where Elo had one of the big hits (although I was unimpressed) of last season's Diamond Project. Kind of childish, wouldn't you say? And speaking of childish, did you know that Congress had passed a resolution recognizing ABT as "America's National Ballet Company?" The news is in the same issue of ABT Footnotes.

Nice to read posts by another Farrell fan. Just to keep the record straight, she was 22 at the premiere of Jewels.

Just because I preferred Diamonds to the other sections of the P.O.B. Jewels doesn't mean I disagree. In fact I think all Farrell-originated roles should be retired except those she chooses to teach or coach herself.

You pretty much explained why I voted as I did, carbro. At NYCB performances, I generally prefer Emeralds and since this was the French ballet company dancing the "French" part of Jewels, I'd expected the same -- but I had all I could do to keep awake. And Rubies looked neither jazzy nor American. As you said, Diamonds came closest to the Balanchine ballet I know and love.

In his review of last year's performances at the Kennedy Center, John Rockwell called parts of the music "gorgeous," and some of it at the start of Act 3, is just that. But on the whole the music is no more than serviceable. The problem with the ballet is that it's not "Man of La Mancha." The mood is neither comic nor inspirational, but sad and gloomy. It must say something about me that I've always liked the ballet and still cry at its end.

I'm all in favor of polite, civilized behavior, Jack, but have the audiences there given any indication of whether they appreciate Balanchine's "Don Quixote?" The reviews I've read on Ballet Talk links have been uniformly dismal. Of course this ballet is not a crowd-pleaser, but to just dismiss it as old-fashioned and boring because the dancers aren't in leotards shows a narrow, stereotypical view of Balanchine. Thank goodness for your reports!