Farrell Fan

Many of Balanchine's most evocative works are known simply by the titles of their scores: Divertimento No. 15, Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3, Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, Kammermusik No. 2, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Symphony in Three Movements, Robert Schumann's "Davidsbundlertanze," and so on. In contrast, there are the ballet titles of Antony Tudor -- Jardin aux Lilas, Dark Elegies, Dim Lustre, The Leaves are Fading, etc., and some of Jerome Robbins's -- Dances at a Gathering, Antique Epigraphs, Interplay, The Cage, etc. I'm not saying the Balanchine works need other titles -- clearly they don't -- but it might be amusing to think up alternate titles for those listed above (or any others) ala Tudor, Robbins, or even William Forsythe.

Apropos Manhattnik's comment about the "overly-saturated sherbet colors" of the costumes, I heard last night that some people refer to Soiree as "Sorbet." I must confess, though, that I enjoy Richard Tanner's ballet, including Carole Divet's costumes, and, especially, Nino Rota's music. [ January 26, 2002: Message edited by: Farrell Fan ]

The same question occurred to me tonight, Michael. Having seen Tuesday's Theme and Variations on its own and the complete suite tonight, I can safely say I like them both. Those first three sections are so moody and romantic that when the scrim finally gives way to the dazzling ballroom scene, it's a thrilling release -- even before the dancing starts. I feel a little ashamed of having dismissed Abi Stafford's performance the other night. I take it back. I liked her a lot tonight. And I agree with you about the performances in the Elegie and Scherzo. I would add that Kathleen Tracey and James Fayette were very fine in the Valse. So I'm with you in preferring to see the entire Suite No.3 at NYCB. As far as ABT and other companies, that's another story. But we're lucky in New York to be able to see both versions.

Over forty years ago, when I still qualified as a "boyfriend," a woman took me to my first ballet. It was the Kirov doing Swan Lake at the old Metropolitan Opera House. It was summer and the place was not airconditioned. Nevertheless, I remember it as the best time I'd ever had sitting in a theater seat. That Fall she took me to New York City Ballet for the first time. We held hands. After that --what else? -- marriage! I know times have changed, but I suspect those Cosmo editors still have a lot to learn.

Last night at NYCB began with a rather somber reading of "Happy Birthday," conducted by Hugo Fiorato. As the Stagebill stated, "Tonight is the sixth annual New Combinations Evening. This event, held annually on George Balanchine's birthday, celebrates his extraordinary creativity with the presentation of new works." Not all these evenings have been cause for celebration, but last night was pretty festive. There was another performance of Raymonda Variations, with Jenifer Ringer and Philip Neal, and Ashley Bouder particularly sparkling in Variation VII. After the intermission came the new work, Peter Martins's "Hallelujah Junction," to music by John Adams. I haven't a clue what the title refers to. If it's the title of the music, I still haven't a clue. This was the work's NYCB premiere. Martins choreographed it for the Royal Danish Ballet in March of last year. Two of the principals were RDB dancers, Gitte Lindstrom and Andrew Bowman. They had a beautifully lyrical pas de deux, and the third principal, Benjamin Millepied, was tremendously exciting, living up to his name. The ballet included four other couples. I particularly enjoyed Glenn Keenan with Amar Ramasar, but they were all good. The others were Abi Stafford and Craig Hall, Ashley Bouder and Antonio Carmena, and Sarah Ricard and Jonathan Stafford. After a while, the repetitive music made me think "This ballet is going on too long." But no sooner did I think that, than the music, and dancing, stopped. I think Martins has a winner here. Certainly he shows more affinity for Adams than Verdi. Zakouski followed the second intermission and made me sad Margaret Tracey is retiring. There was some schmaltzy violin playing by Catherine Cho which sounded just right for the choreography. Following that, Abi Stafford returned to tackle anew the ballerina role in Theme and Variations with Damian. I agree with those allerters who don't think she should be doing it. But, all in all, Mr. B's 98th birthday was a happy occasion.

It was a wonderful evening, and thankfully there were two intermissions. Andrea Quinn has come in for criticism by BalletAlerters for her supposedly too-fast tempos, but I thought she conducted Mozartiana and The Four T's brilliantly.

It stood for Pan Am Makes the Going Great, and was called "Pamtuhguhguh" by some. It was done in June of 1971, two years after Suzanne went into Belgian exile. It featured a very large cast, which included Karin von Aroldingen, Kay Mazzo, and Victor Castelli. The music was by Roger Kellaway, based on the advertising jingle by Stan Applebaum and Sid Woloshin. There were elaborate costumes by Irene Sharaff which included a lot of plastic, and many pieces of luggage were involved. I saw the ballet but don't remember any specifics. I just recall a general feeling of confusion and audience restiveness. It was probably the single worst thing Mr. B ever did. But I treasure the experience of having seen it, sort of like the theatergoers who saw the legendary Broadway flop "Moose Murders." A sidelight: In November of 2000, the New York Times ran an obituary headlined, "Sidney E. Woloshin, 72, Writer of Ad Jingles." It mentioned "P.A.M.T.G.G.," but got a number of things wrong, including the company which performed it. (They said American Ballet Theatre instead of NYCB.) So I sent an email to the obituary page and the obit writer called up to thank me. She said she was curious about the music because a friend of hers, Roger Kellaway, had written it. I remembered it as jazzy. Then we got into a discussion about whether to put periods after the letters in the title in her correction the next day. I advised against it, citing "Repertory in Review," by Nancy Reynolds, as my authority. The correction ran without periods, PAMTGG.

Since I started going to the ballet in the 1960s, I've never knowingly thrown away a program. For the first few years, I even clipped reviews of the performances and saved them inside the programs. I suppose the thought was that in my golden years (hah!)I'd relive some great moments at the ballet. It hasn't worked out that way. The neat chronolgical piles long ago gave way to an apartment-wide mess. In no discernable order, there are programs in every drawer, on and under every surface. If I wanted to put my hands on a specific one, say for Suzanne's farewell performance in 1989, I couldn't do it in a million years. Although I now realize the futility of the endeavor, I still bring home a couple of programs a week and stick them in any available nook or cranny. Has anyone else had this experience? Where did I go wrong?

The one person who would have known how Tchaikovsky pronounced it is Balanchine. In "Balanchine's Tchaikovsky," by Solomon Volkov, Mr. B says, "When I was doing Serenade, Tchaikovsky encouraged me. Almost the whole Serenade is done with his help." But he fails to state how Tchaikovsky felt about Balanchine's switching the order of the third and fourth movements.

Many moons ago, I saw a ballet called "Serenade" for the first time. It was the most beautifully mysterious thing I'd ever seen, and turned me into a balletomane overnight. Soon after, I began talking to more experienced balletgoers and noticed they referred to this ballet as "SerenODD," which struck me as odd indeed, particularly since I'd learned by then that this was the first ballet Balanchine had choreographed for American dancers. Nevertheless, not wishing to be thought a Philistine, I adopted the European pronunciation myself. Not only adopted it, I confess that over the years, I've felt pity for the uninitiated who call the ballet "Serenade," just like the title of the music. (I've never yet heard anyone refer to Tschaikovsky's "SerenODD for Strings.") A few years ago, I even qualified for membership in the "Serenade Society." Pronounced in the normal American way, this sound like an organization promoting euthanasia. In fact it is composed of people who have made bequests to NYCB in their wills. And I have it on official NYCB authority that it is pronounced "SerenODD Society." Does anyone know why we say SerenODD? Is it because Mr. B said it that way, or is there another reason? Do younger balletgoers still observe this odd custom? Do they care?

Wonderful to hear about the little kid hollering "Wow!" People of all ages should have such reactions. A minor point about a minor ballet: We haven't seen "Viva Verdi" at the State Theater yet, although it's due soon. The clinker to which you and Manhattnik refer is called Quartet for Strings. Viva Verdi makes use of themes from La Traviata, by Marc-Olivier Dupin in much the same way Vittorio Rieti used themes from Bellini's opera for Sonnambula. There's a nice violin solo. During the last week of the Saratoga season, the two ballets, Viva Verdi and Quartet for Strings, were performed together at a "preview." I liked Viva Verdi considerably more than the Quartet, which I didn't like at all -- there or here. However campy,the choreography was a lot more interesting, as performed by Darci and Charles Askegard. Ashley Bouder, Glenn Keenan, and Lindy Mandradjieff completed the cast. I have no idea why Martins separated the two, because the Quartet is certainly not viable on its own. [ January 13, 2002: Message edited by: Farrell Fan ]

It's great how you guys post NYCB reviews in white heat immediately after the performances. It's a lot more fun than reading Kisselgoff, Dunning, or Anderson, believe me. I see many of the perforances you report on -- not this afternoon, but last night, for instance -- and I usually have nothing to add. You are knowledgeable and ENTHUSIASTIC. I love it. Particularly since your enthusiasms frequently coincide with mine. For example, in four decades, I've only bought two pairs of toe shoes at the Guild Gift Bar. The second pair was Rachel Rutherford's. So thanks. [ January 12, 2002: Message edited by: Farrell Fan ]

Many thanks for all your very sensible comments. I have no quarrel with early curtains, provided NYCB will keep the 8 o'clock curtain on other nights. It shouldn't be a problem. Last month there were "Nutcracker performances in early afternoon, late afternoon, early evening, and evening. I don't object to shorter intermissions either, although NYCB's have never struck me as overly long. What does bother me is NO INTERMISSION between ballets that are by different composers, different choreographers, and totally different in mood. That's been happening this NYCB season, and it seems to me to be a disservice to the ballets involved and to the audience. Imagine, say, "Apollo," immediately followed by "Ash." That's a hypothetical example. So far.

I thought I remembered that long ago, all NYCB company members were listed alphabetically. But I may be wrong, because I just came upon a program for the 1960-61 winter season which lists fourteen principal dancers and, in smaller type, six others (Patricia McBride, Conrad Ludlow, Arthur Mitchell, Francia Russell, Roland Vasquez, William Weslow). Those who were not principal dancers, or quasi-principals, went unlisted, but were included in the casts for the individual ballets. Nowadays, as you say, Estelle, at NYCB and ABT there are three dancer categories, and three different type sizes -- and the principals get their photos in the program. I think this hierarchy is fine because it presumably gives the dancers something to strive for, the press department something to report when someone is promoted, and us something to talk about. Occasionally, I've been puzzled by a given dancer's remaining in the corps years after she or he merited promotion to soloist or principal. I'm thinking specifically of Delia Peters, a charming and totally individual dancer who never made soloist. And that was before Peter Martins.

What I'd like to see happen is for ABT to share the theater with NYCB. I love seeing ABT during their City Center season in the fall, but hate going to see them at the Met. I think the State Theater is ideal for dance and if ABT peformed during the months now devoted to opera, it would be ideal for them and benefit NYCB as well. Dance Theatre of Harlem should perform there too. What I think will happen is that NYC Opera will stay. Even though she favors a new theater for the opera, Beverly Sills is right when she says that when she was singing at the State Theater with Placido Domingo and Norman Treigle, nobody complained about the acoustics.

Under Recent Performances, Manhattnik provides an excellent, insightful account of the January 8 NYCB performance. This is somewhat extraneous, so I'm posting it separately. I was bothered by there being just a pause, no intermission, between Mozartiana and Polyphonia, to the detriment, in my opinion, of audience appreciation. NYCB Tuesday night performances start at 7:30 this season. This seems the wave of the future -- both New York City Opera and the Philharmonic have gone to 7:30, and I have little doubt that soon all NYCB performances will also. No problem. But trimming intermissions from the usual two to one seems designed to please people who don't like ballet and would like to get out of the State Theater as soon as possible. Although short ballets like Monumentum Pro Gesualdo and Movements for Piano and Orchestra (and now Duo Concertant, thanks to the Suzanne Farrell Ballet)actually have their appeal enhanced when performed consecutively I think works like Mozartiana and Polyphonia shouldn't run into one another. I'd be interested in hearing what others think.

Another vote for "Morgen," by Peter Martins. Surprise!

Anna Kisselgoff, in her review of Peter Martins's "Quartet for Strings," points out that "The Verdi music used by Balanchine in 'Ballo della Regina' and by Robbins in 'The Four Seasons' came from operas." While this is true, my impression is that, for the most part, the music, from "Don Carlo" for "Ballo," and "Vespri Siciliani" (partly) for "Seasons," was written specifically as ballet music and is usually omitted from modern opera productions During his lifetime, whenever Verdi operas were performed in Paris, he wrote music for the obligatory ballet. According to Charles Osborne's "The Complete Operas of Verdi," the composer considered the custom "an artistic monstrosity." Nevertheless, he wrote some wonderful music, which it took Balanchine and Robbins to vindicate. There's lots more where that came from. It's too bad Martins didn't seek out some if it for NYCB's trip to Parma. The ballet scores for "Macbeth" and "Otello," for example, are almost never heard in the opera house. Of the latter, Osborne writes, "the eighty-one-year-old composer sketched a scenario for the Paris ballet involving Turkish slaves, Venetian lads and lasses and 'beautiful young Greek girls.'" Sounds good to me, but Martins might have had his own ideas.

It's been interesting seeing the comments on Dan Ulbricht's recent performances in Mozartiana and Four Seasons at NYCB. I haven't seen him with the company yet, but I did attend the SAB Workshop where he danced up a storm. He is certainly a wonderful prospect and I look forward to his career. But the other night another NYCB fan was telling me she was "tired of seeing short dancers" in the gigue of Mozartiana. After all, she said, the part was made on Victor Castelli. And even though Castelli didn't get to dance it till after Ib Andersen, he made an indelible impression. "I want to see someone tall in the part again," she said. Her remarks brought to mind Arlene Croce's scathing diatribe some years ago against Gen Horiuchi, whose extemely short stature Croce seemed to blame on Peter Martins. (In the years since, I've blamed Martins for almost everything myself.)It is true that when Horiuchi lifted a ballerina part of the effect was comic, but I've always thought the ferocity of Croce's attack was unwarranted. He was a great Faun in The Four Seasons, led the men in Stars and Stripes spectacularly, and was an interesting Oberon (the immediate cause of Croce's ire, as I recall.) It's certainly true that physical attributes play a major part in determining whether someone will have a career in ballet. So how tall must a man be to dance?

Last night's NYCB program started with Christopher Wheeldon's leotard and lighting ballet, Polyphonia, to music by Ligeti. It's a beautiful piece and provides ample evidence why Wheeldon is the hope of the future for NYCB. This was particularly clear after seeing the next item, Peter Martins's Quartet for Strings, to Verdi's String Quartet in E minor, arranged for String Orchestra by Yuli Turovsky. (Aside to NYCB Stagebill: the composer's first name is spelled Giuseppe.) This work had its premiere last September in Parma, Italy, where it was commissioned by the Verdi Festival. Last night was billed as its New York Premiere, although I had seen it during the last weekend of NYCB's season in Saratoga last July in what was called a "preview." There it was paired with Martins's "Viva Verdi," to Variations on La Traviata by Marc-Olivier Dupin. I enjoyed that more than the Quartet because the choreography was completely at odds with the sentiments of the melodies. I wouldn't have minded seeing that quirky piece -- a pas de deux for Darci Kistler and Charles Askegard -- again. The Quartet, by contrast, is set to a dull piece of music, and is totally in keeping with it. As in Saratoga, the cast consisted of Margaret Tracey, Yvonne Borree, Nikolaj Hubbe, Sebastien Marcovici, and Jennie Somogyi. There's some nice partnering involved and everybody looks good in Holly Hynes's green costumes. The applause was so tepid at the end, that it seemed doubtful there'd be enough for Martins to take a bow. He did anyway. In Polyphonia, the wonderful dancing of Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto deserves mention. I also enjoyed the pas de deux for Alexandra Ansanelli and Craig Hall. The third item, Symphony in C, was the highlight of the night, of course. I saw the same cast as Thursday's, so well documented by earlier Ballet Alertniks. I have nothing to add to their comments other than applause.

In "Who Cares," Marnee Morris danced "Embraceable You" with Jacques d'Amboise. She also had a solo to "My One and Only." Alexandra is correct that Morris was in the original cast of "Symphony in 3 Movements." She was also in the first cast of "Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3" in which she danced the scherzo with John Clifford. And she was a "maiden" in the original cast of Balanchine's "Don Quixote." Besides the roles she originated, Morris was a notable Siren, Dewdrop, Hippolyta, Calliope and Polyhymnia.

This may be a little off the topic, but years ago my wife and I used to run into an elderly gentleman named Alden Bevier at NYCB intermissions, both at the New York State Theater and in Saratoga, who once told us that seeing "Symphony in C" was the closest he'd ever come in his life to having a religious experience.

To BW -- a very good complement to the book is a documentary called "Suzanne Farrell, Elusive Muse," which was nominated for an Oscar in 1996, but lost out to a film about Muhammad Ali. It is available on video. This shows lots of clips, including some priceless footage of her dancing Balanchine's "Don Quixote," with Mr. B himself as the Don. Jacques d'Amboise has a prominent part in the film. There are also appearances by Arthur Mitchell and Edward Villella, among many others. The story of her relationship with Balanchine, marriage to Paul Mejia and subsequent exile from NYCB is told very movingly by Suzanne. There's also considerable footage of her teaching, coaching, and preparing such dancers as Susan Jaffe and Maria Calegari for the Kennedy Center performances of "Suzanne Farrell Stages Balanchine" in 1995. It runs 105 minutes.

A friend who knows I love ballet but who herself does not, gave me (among other things, I should make clear) a 16-month 2002 calendar called "Ballet" with photographs of unidentified, and to me unkown, young dancers, by one Doyle Gray. Unfortunately the photographs are all in soft, fuzzy focus. I suppose they are meant to elicit a warm, fuzzy feeling toward a warm, fuzzy art, but my reaction to this kind of photography is "Bah, humbug!"

Sorry, Alexandra, I hadn't noticed your question till now. Yes, I went. Part of the audience whooped and hollered, and at the end even tried, without success,to initiate a standing ovation. But I think "Woolf Phrase," "Enemy in the Figure," and "Quintett" must be the kind of ballets you were warning against when you started Ballet Alert! Correct me if I'm wrong. I was later told that Gavin Bryars, composer of "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet," the music for "Quintett," is very well known. I don't know whether the problem was in the sound system or my hearing aid, but I misheard the lyric, which is repeated a gazillion times, as "Jesus! Love never found me yet." And in fact, the choreography made sense to me that way. Anyhow, as I've said before, I will henceforth steer clear of companies where "ballet" is spelled with two t's.