Farrell Fan

Thanks, Michael. I got my copy today and it's a fascinating interview. I've often wondered how Hugo felt when, after Leon Barzin retired, he was passed over in favor of Robert Irving. And more recently, how he felt when Andrea Quinn was brought in as music director. Now I know. He almost quit over Irving, but likes Quinn and didn't want her job of having to hire and fire people. What surprised me was that, according to Hugo, Balanchine didn't like Robert Irving.

I was still half-asleep this morning, listening to "Morning Edition" on NPR (it was too early to be drinking white wine) when I heard a woman with a cultured accent pay tribute to George Balanchine on his birthday. The segment included sound bites of Kyra Nichols, Merrill Ashley, Arthur Mitchell, John Gruen, and Balanchine. At one point someone said that Mr. B had seen a man limping on the street and incorporated the step into "Agon." The narrator also said "Agon" was one of the few Balanchine ballets in which the male predominates. Did I imagine the whole thing?

This is off-topic, except that for me it is always the topic: Maurice Bejart said of Suzanne Farrell: "She's like a violin; the music comes out from her body."

"By contemporary standards, the plot is feeble and far-fetched. Yet the ballet has held the stage for well over a century." Ms. Assoluta was unaccountably off-form. "The revival of "Harlequinade" brings to mind Todd Bolender's unjustly neglected "Commedia Balletica" from 1945." "Mr. Diddly Cool's 'Hip Hop Mish Mash' is an instant classic!"

I'm sure you're right.

Thanks for recalling Afshin Mofid, Glebb. He was superb in "Afternoon of a Faun."

I agree with everything Bobbi said. Peter Boal's "Apollo" has grown so much in depth and detail recently that there were moments during the muses' variations when I found myself looking at him on his stool rather than at them. He was never a passive presence there, always gazing raptly at them, and subtly reacting to what they were doing. Apollo's choice last night could not have been easy. Bouder's debut was a triumph. Kowroski was made for "Slaughter." Her legs seem to grow even longer in the part. And she flings them about with total abandon. Really thrilling.

Arthur Laurents's understanding of the word "encoded" is also mine. I agree with Alexandra -- to say of an actor that "everybody in New York" knew he was gay, is plain old McCarthyism.

Edwin Denby is quoted in Repertory in Review, "Roma was not much of a success at its opening. Its modesty turned out to be an extremely avant-garde effect. People went to see what new twist Balanchine had dreamed up and when they were shown the innocent art of dancing they were too bewildered to recognize it."

Hugo Fiorato's association with Balanchine and Kirstein actually predates New York City Ballet. He was the violin soloist in the Ballet Society 1947 premiere of Symphonie Concertante. In the early days of NYCB, he was violin soloist in Ondine, a 1949 ballet by William Dollar to Vivaldi, and in Tudor's Lilac Garden, which premiered at NYCB in 1951. He became associate conductor in 1955. I'm pretty sure he was first violin in a string quartet which used to play live on radio station WQXR. At any rate, in 1954 he was that for a Robbins ballet called Quartet, to Prokofiev's String Quartet No. 2. I'm grateful to Michael for introducing this subject. I wish I knew more about Hugo's career beyond this bare bones outline. I absolutely agree that some kind of recognition should come his way this year. In the meantime, I've taken to shouting bravo as loudly as I can every time he takes the podium.

Bizet was not successful during his all-too-brief lifetime. Even his last opera, Carmen, was a failure at its opening. A short time later Bizet was dead, and Carmen on its way to becoming the best-known opera in the world. I was startled the other day to hear an announcer on a classical-music station (WNYC-FM), refer to Symphony in C as "Bizet's first symphony." Did she know something we don't?

If I remember correctly from 1984 when this program was first seen, the narration is spoken, magnificently yet unobtrusively, by the actor Frank Langella. The opening lines are particularly great.

There was a tribute yesterday to Anne Belle, the documentary filmmaker whose films included "Reflections of a Dancer -- Alexandra Danilova," "Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse," and "Dancing for Mr. B: Six Balanchine Ballerinas." They were part of this year's Dance on Camera Festival at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. I attended the "Elusive Muse" showing, at which Suzanne made some introductory remarks. She said she'd had no interest in participating in the making of the film until she met Ms. Belle and saw in her eyes the same look she'd known in Balanchine's eyes, so she knew she'd be safe confiding her thoughts and feelings to her. She said that when the film shows her looking at the camera, she's actually looking into Anne Belle's eyes. When Ms. Belle died last June, Suzanne felt she'd lost her best friend. The print of "Elusive Muse" should have been better, but it was worth seeing anyway, because it included some extra minutes of footage which are not in the video (recently shown on Channel 25). These include a brief scene in a chapel in Paris dedicated to Saint Suzanne; rehearsal scenes with the Miami City Ballet; recollections of "Diamonds" by Jacques d'Amboise; a "Mozartiana" rehearsal with Peter Boal (as well as Susan Jaffe); and Suzanne's visits to the dressing rooms of her ballerinas on opening night of "Suzanne Farrell Stages Balanchine" at the Kennedy Center in 1995. Many additions consist of just a sentence or two in interviews with Arthur Mitchell, Suzanne's mother, and Suzanne herself, among others. It was a bittersweet occasion, but I left the theater with a warm feeling on an arctic night.

I was channel-surfing last night, and voila! (as Violette kept saying to the dancers). How sweet, charming, and enthusiastic she is! I hadn't seen the film before, but I'd certainly like to see it again, at regular intervals, and so I join in Perky's plea.

Great to see these three masterpieces last night, although Scotch Symphony looks nothing like what it did even a few years ago. Having seen both full-length and truncated Apollos many times over the years, I used to agree with Mr. B that the short version in NYCB's rep was preferable for today's audiences. But last October, Peter Boal's Apollo with the Farrell Ballet, in the version that begins with Apollo's birth, changed my mind. Hubbe was fine last night, but I missed Boal's uncanny transformation from impetuous youth to god.

dirac, you're always so reasonable.

Katharyn, why would you read for 'the umpteenth time," a book that infuriates you? After finishing "Dancing on my Grave," my impression was that Gelsey blamed others for everything bad that had happened to her. I wasn't left with that impression from Allegra's book. Toward the end of "Once a Dancer..." she says, "What I regret is that it took so long for me to emerge into a somewhat normal person who could handle everyday life with easy grace. But it did happen."

ABT helped further this distressing trend by designating one of its programs last October/November at City Center as "Family Friendly." The ballets on the program were "Theme and Variations," "Le Grand PdD," "Three Virgins and a Devil," "Tchaikovsky PdD," and "Fancy Free." There was nothing on that program that rendered it any more or less "Family Friendly" than the programs designated "Innovative Works," "Master Works," or Whatever Works. I was particularly miffed because the "Family Friendly" program was given only on six matinees, and no evenings.

Endowing a toilet stall, a drinking fountain, a seat, or a new production are good things, whether performed anonymously or for recognition. But it strikes me that "sponsoring" a given dancer -- what Anna Kisselgoff was specifically complaining about -- is something quite different and utterly bizarre. It makes the ballet company look bad, like they can't afford to pay their dancers. And what about dancers with no sponsors? Do they toil for minimum wage until they attract the attention of Mr., Mr.& Mrs., or Ms. Sugar Daddy? I'm being obtuse here, just because the whole idea seems so stupid to me. I enjoyed this piece because of the interaction of the three critics. Is there any other newspaper anywhere with three dance critics? Fifteen or twenty years ago I used to think that when one revewed something that had already been written about by another (say when Jennifer Dunning went to see somethng Anna Kisselgoff had reviewed on opening night), there would be subtle digs at the first review. But I'm no longer sure that was ever the case. The three have their distinctive styles. I like to think that if the Times left off their bylines, I could still identify the writer. Kisselgoff seldom pans anything, except perhaps in a year-end piece on the year's lows, and she often drags in obscure dance references. In the present instance it's to Akram Khan, and "the Kathak style of classical Indian dance." Anderson, faced with a new work, invariably wonders who these dancers are meant to be, and what it is they're doing on stage. Dunning is the least predictable and the one most likely to contradict the traditional wisdom. Anyway, I love them all, and critics in general -- including all those on Ballet Alert.

"Dance is a Contact Sport" is one of my favorite ballet books -- it paints an unforgettable, gritty portrait of life inside NYCB at a great moment in the company's history --after the Stravinsky Festival and before the return of Suzanne Farrell and the retirement of Melissa Hayden. I don't know of any other book like it. Mazo affects a sort of wise-guy tone throughout, but it is endearing and appropriate. Some of my all-time favorite dancers have cameo roles -- Bobby Maiorano, Delia Peters, Victor Castelli -- and the stars ... Villella, von Aroldingen, d'Amboise ... But while for me the book is a nostalgic trip down memory lane, there's much in it that is always relevant -- on the subjects of money, injuries, life in the corps, the relationship between soloists, principals, and stars, and -- as they say -- much, much more.

Jack Anderson makes clear he's expressing his own opinion: Referring to the "cute videos," he says, "The British audiences who know these dancers may have been charmed by them. But I just thought (my italics) it was purely a marketing ploy, a rather self-congratulatory one, like showing home movies of what they did on their summer vacations." In fact, the "ballet boyz" came off rather well in Sunday's Times, I thought. Surmounting the article was a large, silhouetted photograph of two of their number.

Thanks for the wonderful photos, citrus -- an unexpected holiday gift!

I'll most remember The Waltz of the Flowers ("Tempo di Valse') from The Nutcracker, danced by the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center. With the same company, Peter Boal's "Apollo," at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. During ABT's season at City Center, I most enjoyed the "Masterworks" program -- "Diversion of Angels," "Symphonic Variations," "Pillar of Fire," and "Grand Pas Classique" from "Raymonda." The same season provided my personal low point, the "Contemporary Works" program -- "Petite Mort," "Sechs Tanze," and, last and worst, "Dorian." A highlight of the year was the triumphant return of Ashley Bouder to NYCB. The trend to earlier curtain times continues. No matter how many people this makes happy (I'm not among them), more and more always rush out as the final curtain is still descending.

I can't answer the question, but fondly recall the ballet in the NYCB repertory. It made me think that, in addition to all the "lost" Balanchine ballets NYCB could have revived during 2004 but won't, they could have revived this. After all, it's Ashton's centenary as well, and would have been far more appropriate to the history of ballet, Balanchine and NYCB than ballets by Susan Stroman and Boris Eifman. I saw Illuminations after the 1967 revival, with Robert Maiorano, who had the perfect tough-guy, debauched poet look. I think Sebastien Marcovici would be ideal for the part today.

Just leafing through "Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works," the possibilities seem endless. That's why NYCB's "Balanchine 100" plans were so disappointing to me when they were announced. Just off the top of my head, I'd love to see Roma, and Native Dancers. Also, the ballet commissioned by Kirstein and Warburg, The Card Game. This was to the Stravinsky music Peter Martins later used for his messy Jeu de Cartes. Carbro, I saw PAMTGG, and though I've forgotten it, I don't need to see it again. Neither does anybody else.