Farrell Fan

Marga's recollection of the hair wash-and-dry scene is the way I remember it as well -- reverential, not sensual, and one of the most memorable parts of the ballet. In contrast, the scene in this production faded into the background, perhaps because neither Rodriquez nor Ogden has long-enough hair. Jack, I saw all three of Heather Ogden's performances and agree that the last one on Sunday afternoon was by far the best. It was also the best I saw all week, but I only saw two of Rodriguez's four performances -- opening night and Friday. I think the ballet came together as a whole very well at the Friday night performance. I saw Robert Gottlieb in the audience for Ogden's first performance on Thursday night and can't wait to find out what he thought of it and the ballet as a whole. My reaction at the end of the week is much like yours -- it was a great achievement -- not quite an unqualified success, but a brilliant restoration of an essential part of the Balanchine legacy. And the score has been going through my head for a couple of days now -- no kidding.

Well, I'm just back from Washington. Yes, BW, I was there and saw five of the seven performances. While there, I stayed away from computers, and a good thing, too, judging from some of what I've been reading here. I generally agreed with what John Rockwell and Alexandra had to say. As for the rest, yes, some of Don Q is boring, particularly in the first act, but audience members who leave at the end of the first act of a three-act ballet are not people you want to cite in a thoughtful review. Some of the music in the first scene of Act III, in the garden of the palace, IS gorgeous, there's no other word for it. The carping comments pointing out flaws in the production and performances fail to take into account the significance of the occasion. To think that the whole thing was pulled together in five weeks is truly amazing. On the whole, I'd give Heather Ogden the edge over Sonia Rodriguez -- the risk-taking was clearer. And I was delighted to see her in yesterday's matinee after being dropped by the Merlin character toward the end of Saturday night's performance. I think Mladenov's Don grew in grandeur over the course of the week, and I liked Eric Ragan's Sancho Panza, particularly after sitting next to his mother on Saturday night. I can report that Sancho's mom is a nice woman from Texas. Anyhow, I had a great time. In the interests of full disclosure, I will reveal that apart from the ballet, the highlight of my week was at Suzanne's book signing on Saturday afternoon, when she blew me a kiss.

These are just further instances of Suzanne's supernatural powers.

This is easy. I'd been a casual balletgoer for about ten years when Suzanne returned to NYCB in 1975. Balanchine's obsession was over and mine began.

I didn't think the Barber would ever work without the original cast either. The fact that it does has been largely due to Jock, who could do anything. It's one more reason he will be missed.

The preview piece in the Washington Post (6/19/05) names Bulgarian dancer Momchil Mladenov as the Don. He has danced with the Farrell company in the past. Since there are matinee and evening performances both Saturday and Sunday, perhaps the role will be shared.

Wow! This is more than I had expected. Thank you atm711, Mme. Hermine, and kfw. I'm ready for an Adolph Bolm revival!

I'm not a fan of David Brooks. Be that as it may, who is Joe Strauss?

Every so often, most recently in the Spring 2005 issue of Ballet Review, one comes across a reference to the first performance of Stravinsky's Apollon Musagete. But all we're told is that the score was commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge and was choreographed by Adolph Bolm. The otherwise-exhaustive Ballet Review article on Apollo didn't even use the word "choreographed" --author Aleg Levenkov marely said the premiere was "produced" by Adolph Bolm. Does anyone know the story? Why didn't Balanchine choreograph the premiere? Was Bolm's version ever seen again? What did he think of Balanchine? What did Stravinsky think of Bolm?

Jack, I took Barbara Newman's point to be that the look of ballets changes over time, and those of us who remember how Balanchine's used to look at NYCB realize this, but should be nevertheless grateful that they have escaped the fate of Ashton's ballets. Balanchine's are still performed in quantity at NYCB, whereas Ashton's are doled out in miserly fashion at the Royal. I'm not sure I agree that badly-staged Balanchine is better than none, but her Balanchine/Ashton statistics seem inarguable.

During NYCB's American Music Festival in 1988, Miriam Mahdaviani made her debut as a company choreographer with a piece to Mr. Diamond's Rounds for String Orchestra.

It would be interesting to hear Toni Bentley, author of "Sisters of Salome," debate this man.

Thank you, ari. Hope to see you at the ballet.

I've always been bothered by the term "full-length ballet." How long must a ballet be? Are Apollo, Who Cares, and Mozartiana not full-length ballets because they don't last all night? I think the term "full-evening ballet" is preferable.

Toni Bentley does her usual wonderful job in this article about Suzanne and Balanchine's Don Q (I'm sure a link will be posted tomorrow.) I'd like to point out one minor mistake, however. The production opens June 22 and runs for seven performances through June 26, not six as the article has it. There are matinee and evening performances on both Saturday and Sunday. June 25 and 26. Last time I checked the Kennedy Center website, tickets were available for all performances.

GeorgeB fan, I went back to the programs of the event (it was a miracle that I found them) to see if they'd jog my memory. But the first thing they brought back was startling, namely that in Chaconne, Jaffe and Boal were the secondary couple. I found a review in the Washington Post, by Alan M. Kriegsman, which somewhat justifies my confusion: "The lead couple -- New York-born Tamas Detrich and his German wife, Marion Jager, of the Stuttgart Ballet -- danced neatly, accurately and with much polish, but they did not quite take command of the stage. To an extent they were overshadowed by the subsidiary leads, American Ballet Theatre's Susan Jaffe and Boal, who were unremittingly excellent" As for Mozartiana, Jaffe's Prehiera, despite her noisy pointe shoes, was the most devoutly prayerful since Suzanne's, and the variations were delightful. That same Mr. Kriegsman said of her performance that it "outdid anything she's previously shown in th way of artistic profundity and interpretive authority." But the day after the Kennedy Center performances were over, Anna Kisselgoff's review of "Suzanne Farrell Stages Balanchine" appeared in the New York Times. Her verdict: "In all, a fine experiment." While not mentioning him by name, the clear implication of her article was that Peter Martins's way of staging Balanchine was just as good.

Of course I'm prejudiced, but I think that in the last ten years Peter Boal did some of his best dancing for Suzanne. I agree about the Apollo at NJPAC, but even before there was a Suzanne Farrell Ballet as such, there was "Suzanne Farrell Stages Balanchine" at the Kennedy Center in 1995. I remember sublime performances of Mozartiana and Chaconne with Susan Jaffe and Peter Boal. What a partnership that was!

Oberon -- wish I could identify the ballerinas who presented Peter with hugs and flowers, but though the Fourth Ring has the attractions you pointed out, it requires someone with better vision and opera glasses than I. I'll be back for Jock's farewell, but I have to say I found the steps up there daunting for my shaky legs. I was scared to go down to the Promenade at intermission for fear I'd never make it back. It astounded me that some people dashed out immediately after the final curtain, apparently unaware of the occasion.

In Western, the featured dancers were Maira Barriga, Andrew Scordato, Chantelle Pianetta, Daniel Baker, Isabel Vondermuhll, Matthew Renko, Coco Gonzalez, Robert Fairchild. In the d'Amboise piece, Michael Breedon, Cindy Huang, Eugene Shlapko, Emily Adams, Jason Franklin, Coco Gonzalez, Kathryn Morgan, Sean Orza. In the Millepied: Michael Breedon, Jan Burkhard, Zalman Grinberg, Nicholas Hagelin, Olga Krochik, Janelle Manzi, Kathryn Morgan, Chantelle Pianetta, Jose Sebastian, Eugene Shlapko.

The afternoon began with Boal alone onstage as Apollo, receiving a prolonged ovation. The dancing proper began with the pas de deux between him and Terpsichore. Yvonne Borree was wonderful, betraying not the least nervousness Ballet Talkers often mention. The other muses, Jennifer Ringer as Polyhymnia, and Miranda Weese as Calliope were superb as well, as befit the occasion. What can one say about Peter Boal? His was an Apollo for the ages and I only wish we could have seen it in it's entiety. Agon too, was given a splendid performance -- Maria Kowroski and Albert Evans in the pas de deux, Teresa Reichlen and Ben Millepied, Ellen Bar and the exciting Amar Ramasar, Jennifer Tinsley and Andrew Vayette. After the intermission, we had West Side Story Suite. I'm not sure what the relevance of this to the rest of the program was, other than to give such NYCB stalwarts as Damian Woetzel, James Fayette, Millepied and Ringer again, as well as Amanda Edge and Faye Arthurs a chance to shine. Personally, I could have done without it. I'd seen Opus l9/The Dreamer on Friday night and like that one, this was a superb performance by Peter and Wendy. The curtain calls were prolonged and deeply felt. Particularly moving was the homage to Boal by Jock Soto. Peter Martins was there, too of course, as were Boal's ballerinas, all of whom brought him a bouquet and an embrace. His wife, former NYCB dancer Kelly Cass came out with their three children. Peter hoisted the girl overhead and she looked like a miniature Terpsichore. The flowers kept on coming and finally began raining down from the flies. Another emotional farewell at NYCB. I've seen so many of them. This was the first I'd seen from the Fourth Ring. The seat wasn't bad.

I didn't enjoy the program as much as in previous years, but the main reason for that might have been the location of my seat -- in the Siberia of the mezzanine. There's nothing wrong with the view from up there, but "everybody who is anybody" is sitting downstairs. So I wondered what I'd done wrong to be relegated upstairs -- but many of the balletomanes I know (none of them slinky) had also been moved up there. Somebody said that everybody who ordered online was put up there, but that can't be true. I sent in my request by snail mail. At any rate, the first piece, by Benjamin Millepied, was to music of Brahms, and titled "28 Variations on a Theme by Paganini." The title gives a clue to what was wrong, in my opinion. It was an academic exercise that grew tiresome before the variations reached double figures. It was a kind of attempt at "Liebeslieder Walzer" that didn't come off. The Chris d'Amboise piece, "Tribute," a leotard ballet to music of Bach, came off much better, I thought. The tribute was to the choreography of Balanchine, from which there were many quotations. It was a trifle overlong, but I kept thinking how much more appropriate a centennial tribute to Balanchine this would have been than Eifman's "Musagete." "Western Symphony" didn't seem stale to me. If anything, I thought it was a little frenetic. All the dancers, all evening long, acquitted themselves superbly.It's impossible for me to single out anybody.

I also can't speak about stage door crowds at Covent Garden, but in the U.S. waiting for dancers is definitely cool. It's true that my experience is limited to waiting only for one dancer (retired) in New York and Washington and I don't ask for her autograph. But all the other dancers I've seen seem happy to sign programs. As I say, I don't know about programmes.

Lisa Hess's sister, Alexia Hess, was a member of NYCB at the seme time as Lisa. Back in the day when the NYCB Guild used to sponsor an annual weekend trip to Saratoga, they once had a party around the Holiday Inn pool. Because it was a Sunday afternoon, the dancers' day off, about the only company members who showed up were Roma Sosenko and the Hess sisters. Nice girls.

I don't know about Balanchine, but Kirstein's seat was A117 in the first ring. On 4/30/83 my wife and I were at the evening performance of the SAB Workshop. Peter Boal talked about it recently, contrasting the excitement of the young SAB dancers with the grief of the NYCB dancers across the street. I don't remember much about the SAB performance other than the appearance of Kirstein, Martins, Robbins, and Taras before the curtain to announce Mr. B's death.

Carolm, I was at the performance you saw and loved it. But I also loved your post, because it brought back "the good old days." Your comment that corps members each seemed to be dancing to their own beat was one heard frequently about Balanchine's company back then. And since we frequently debate here whether the performance of his ballets at NYCB isn't what it used to be, it's nice to know that this one, at any rate, still is. Seriously, I've seen many performances of the complete "Jewels" over the years, starting with the original cast, and I thought this performance was a good one. I don't know how to convince you of that, so we just have to agree to disagree.