Farrell Fan

I wasn't put to sleep, bertrande, I found your review very well written and interesting. Does the ballet closely follow the outline of the opera? I gather it does. I'm not surprised that the composer of Les Miz and Miss Saigon cribbed a melody or two from Puccini. Where would today's composers be without him? And the maestro himself was not beyond occasional acts of artful appropriation, including the Star-Spangled Banner. Because of a certain parochialism of mine, I was most interested in what you had to say about about Chan Hon Goh, a principal dancer with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet.

Using the music of dead composers and performers to sell stuff on television is old news, however distressing. But I've been startled lately to hear part of the Verdi Requiem, the terrifying Dies Irae (Day of Wrath), as the soundtrack for a Toyota Highlander splashing through puddles. I don't know if the perpetrators of this commercial know this music has to do with the Last Judgment, but I suppose it is appropriate, in a way -- because whoever's responsible deserves to be consigned straight to hell.

I assume the Farrell Company will again be performing to live music at the Kennedy Center in December.

Like carbro, I love the 2nd and 4th movements. Early on, those movements were danced by NYCB's simultaneously reigning ballerinas, Patricia MacBride and Suzanne Farrell. MacBride remains unmatched in the Intermezzo. Suzanne was originally partnered in the Rondo by Jacques d'Amboise, but I particularly enjoyed watching her in it a while later, when her gypsy hair ribbons used to whip across Peter Martins's face.

Thanks for the report, BW. I'm glad you made it back from Brooklyn safely, and enjoyed the day. When you get around to reading Eric Taub and Mindy Aloff, you'll see that Taub, who was both at NJPAC and Brooklyn performances, thought the latter much better. I was perfectly happy with the NJPAC performance, but wish I could heve gone to Brooklyn, too. I very much enjoyed Mindy Aloff's review of NJPAC (she couldn't go to Brooklyn either), and was particularly grateful for her remarks on "Variations." I feel the same way as she about Farrell's addition of the shadow, but was unable to articulate my reasons until I read this review. In this connection, last year at the Kennedy Center I told Suzanne, "I like what you did with the shadow in 'Variations'." She smiled and said, "Do you? So do I."

Since the recent performances of the Farrell Ballet seem to have been subsumed into this topic -- did anyone make it back from Brooklyn? How'd you like the show? I also can't resist asking whether "a decent regional company" has more status than a pickup group. And Shannon Parsley had no reason to look embarrassed as Leto, since Lisa Reneau danced the role.

At the risk of appearing to contradict myself, I think that in the Balanchine repertory, Peter Boal is nowhere better than he is in his performances with the Farrell Ballet.

I think Farrell's company has gone beyond being a pickup group, a term which implies casting whatever dancers are available. This is Jennifer Fournier's third season with the company; Chan Hon Goh's fourth season; Runqiao Du's fourth as well; Natalia Magnicaballi has been with Suzanne since 1999. As for Peter Boal, this is his third season with the Farrell Ballet, but he's actually been dancing for Suzanne since 1995 when he did Mozartiana and Scotch Symphony during "Suzanne Farrell Stages Balanchine" at the Kennedy Center. He says he loves dancing for Suzanne. Nevertheless, I agree with Leigh that his style rubs off on other dancers more than vice versa. But from what I saw last night at NJPAC, the company has started to jell as a recognizable entity. Don't ask me to describe it though, other than "very very good." Yes, that 's Magnicaballi in the Tsigane costume, pictured with Momchil Mladenov, another veteran of the Farrell Ballet.

This kind of confusion is nothing new. Often when SAB is mentioned on television. for instance, one is likely to hear "The American Ballet School." And of course, in the Jurassic Period, when ABT was called Ballet Theatre, Balanchine and Kirstein's company, first of several precursors of NYCB, was the American Ballet or some variant thereof. It doesn't seem to me that in the present instance there was a conscious attempt to fool the public. (That would imply that ABT dances at a higher level than NYCB, which is not always, or even usually, the case.) The real bamboozle would be if these "stars" are, for instance (no offense intended), Ask La Cour, Savannah Lowery, Aaron Severini -- you get the idea.

This is a model review, IMO -- a model of clarity, fairness, and lightly-worn scholarship. I loved reading it.

This early Mozart opera features a countess who impersonates a girl gardener. It's filled with intrigue, conflicted amours, and plot complications. Everybody gets sorted out and married at the end. It is probably a difficult opera to bring off, despite Mozart's wonderful melodies. But I imagine it could be quite funny. I don't know, because the New York City Opera production (created for Florida Grand Opera) doesn't really try. It sets the piece in a loony bin, where all the characters are inmates. A psychiatrist introduces it and walks around during the opera in his lab coat, carrying a clip board. The supertitles say things like "These people are all psychotic." The singers are asked to crawl around and act crazy when they're not singing. At least they are in the first of this production's two acts. I left at intermission. The singers deserved better. The set by Michael Yeargan and the lighting by Robert Wierzel reminded me of the movie "The Road to Wellville." (I thought that T.C. Boyle novel was terrific and the movie so-so.) The director of this mess was Mark Lamos. He gets a lot of operatic work despite his apparent dislike of the form.

Thanks and congratulations, Alexandra! I knew there was a reason why I finally broke down and bought a computer -- and this is it!

Have a great time, rk! I look forward to your POB review.

Clarification accepted, rg. Thanks.

When Balanchine expanded his ballet in 1973, the intention seems to have been to make it into a full evening work, like Midsummer Night's Dream, with the plot dispatched in the first act, and the second act given over to divertissements. I don't now remember whether Harlequinade was indeed always performed on its own after '73. The forthcoming revival pairs it with other works as curtain-raisers -- Serenade, Apollo, and Chopiniana. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I too have fond memories of Deni Lamont in the original cast, as well as of Suki Schorer, Pierrette to his Pierrot. Also memorable were Shaun O'Brien as a foppish suitor in a fantastic costume, the fabulous Gloria Govrin, "Big Glo," as the Good Fairy, and, of course, the incomparable principals -- Edward Villella and Patricia MacBride. It was magical, alright, and I hope some of that magic can be recaptured.

I'd like to add my plaudits about NJPAC. I've been there for DTH, Ailey, and Farrell, and really love the place. Just entering it makes me cheerful. I'm told though, that some of the streets between Newark's Penn Station and NJPAC are being torn up, making walking difficult at this time.

Kisselgoff and others often make a distinction, as she does in this review, between Forsythe's works for Ballett Frankfurt, and "the neo-classical works at which Mr. Forsythe excels (often in American ballet companies.)" I take this to mean that he caters to the differences in taste between European and American audiences.

One of the things I remember from that Dance Magazine review I brought up was the reviewer's unhappiness with the phrase Avant Scene as the heading for the prelude to Chapter One (Sorry, I can't make the accent mark over the first e in Scene.), and Entr'acte for the last two pages. He implied they were things Suzanne, the all-American ballerina, would never say. I found his attitude condescending. Perhaps the problem is that we fans like to imagine what Suzanne is really like -- the Elusive Muse syndrome. Toni Bentley is a very good writer and she did an excellent job helping Suzanne put her memories into words.

Toni Bentley's Winter Season is being reissued this Fall by the University of Florida Press, which brought out Holding on to the Air in paperback last year. Like that book, it will have a new preface.

That explains it. Thanks, Mel.

There's a post by mussel on the ABT forum about the forthcoming debut of Julie Kent at the Metropolitan Opera. She's going to dance with Damian Woetzel in Le Rossignol, part of a Stravinsky triple-bill. Ballet stars appear frequently in opera productions, but seldom is the choreographer as distinguished as in this case -- Sir Frederick Ashton. I've seen a number of forgettable appearances by well-known dancers in opera, but one I haven't forgotten was by Edward Villella in a New York City Opera production of Prince Igor, 30 or 35 years ago. I don't remember the choreographer (it wasn't Fokine) and, in fact, the choreography wasn't that good, but Villella, leading the Polovtsy tribe, clad in animal skins, was something to behold. Campy, yes, but also thrilling. For years afterward, whenever I heard the Polovtsian Dances, I visualized Villella jumping. Have you any particular memories of ballet dancers in opera productions?

I just bought Garison Keillor's new novel, "Love Me," and I am, indeed, loving it. It's about a once-famous, successful writer of fiction who used to pal around with William Shawn, and is now a newspaper advice columnist. I realize that Keillor is not a writer to everyone's taste, but I'm awfully glad I acquired the taste. Of course I'm looking forward in November to the book about Balanchine with photos by Costas.

Thanks for the opportunity to hold forth, Luna. I don't think anything in Suzanne's book came as a revelation. The basic outline of her story was well known to most NYCB fans. The reaction of the critics was generally favorable, although I remember a review in Dance Magazine headed "Blonde Ambition" (I'm not making this up) which castigated the writing style as contrary to what Suzanne was like as a dancer. I don't know what other dancers felt about it, but the powers that be at NYCB went to extraordinary lengths to promote the book -- they had a book signing on the Promenade of the New York State Theater before the start of the 1990 season. (Suzanne had retired from dancing the previous year.) There was a phenomenal crowd -- it took well over an hour for the line to reach her at the table in front of the Nadelman sculptures. She personalized each inscription. Ours read, "To Alice & Lou, With thanks for being in the audience -- all my love & best wishes. Suzanne Farrell 10. 04. 90" (Last year I took her the paperback to sign. That reads, To my dear, Lou -- With many years of Mr. B and ballet memories.") My impression is that whatever resentment other dancers felt toward her was mostly limited to the period before she left to join Bejart. After her return to NYCB, some dancers were taken out of the roles they'd done in her absence, but still, I don't think there was much animosity. People were glad to have her back -- and Balanchine did not lavish ALL his attention on her as had been the case earlier. Again, I'm just going by impressions, but I think the partnership of Suzanne and Peter was a happy one. Too bad he eventually fired her.

I went on Friday night and had a wonderful time. The day before, I was uncertain whether Isabel (the hurricane) would take precedence over Alexandra (the dancer), but it turned out that Isabel had no impact on Manhattan. Ansanelli, on the other hand, danced up a regal storm in her solo. In her David Quinn dress, she looked like she might have stepped from a John Singer Sargent painting, only livelier. I didn't get the title of the piece, "The Pause on the Way Down," but that's okay. A little mystery never hurts. Similarly, "The New Rome" eluded me as a title, but was fascinating as a dance for two women and three men -- Elizabeth Drissi, Sarah LaPorte Folger, Abraham Miha, Robert Rosario, and Peter Snow. It was danced to a commissioned score by (I have to be careful typing this) Evren Celimli. The great thing was that it was performed live by a real string quartet. The first violinist, Mat Maneri, had also accompanied Ansanelli's solo. That music was by Biber, the Passacaglia in G Minor. The first two pieces on the program, "A Waltz Remembered" and "Rideau," were danced to recorded music. by Sibelius and Debussy respectively. The Waltz was a pleasantly pyrotechnical pas de deux from 1993. (Dance as Ever's first season?) It was danced on this occasion by Mary Carpenter and Robert Rosario. I loved it. "Rideau," a sweetly romantic piece for Carpenter, Drissi, LaPorte Folger, and Miha, was danced in front of, behind, and through diaphanous draperies. The program helpfully informed us that "Rideau" is the French word for "curtain." It also said that the ballet "is dedicated to my good friends Estelle Souche and Philippe Bruhat on the occasion of their marriage." I figured out that means you, Estelle. What a lovely wedding gift!

This story has moved from the tabloids to the front page of the New York Times, complete with color photograph of Volochkova, so it must be important.