California

Interesting...All four works are still listed on the "Calendar" page on the ABT site: http://www.abt.org/calendar.aspx?startdate=5/1/2011 And still no word on the TBA casting for Don Quixote May 21 and Swan Lake July 2.

The LA Times has a lengthy feature story today about the film. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-black-swan-20101128,0,6197270.story On the left-hand side of this story, you'll see links to other stories, photos, etc. about the "Envelope Screening Series" here.

Very interesting...under "Product Details" for the DVD, Amazon.uk says: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flames-Osipova-Yasilev-Bolshoi-features/dp/B0044FEZBM/ref=pd_cp_d_h__1 But this wouldn't be the first time Amazon made a mistake in its on-line catalog! If I understand shipping correctly, "airmail delivery" shipping to North America would cost about 3 pounds ($5-6?) and take 5-7 days. Not bad! http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=11072991

Here's another one to enjoy fast before it disappears -- a Baryshnikov solo from the same piece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIJniU27zsM And, as many of us have noted repeatedly here: I would happily pay a hefty price to buy this performance released commercially on DVD or streaming video from iTunes. Are they at least trying to get the necessary releases?

POB in 2012? Is this just wishful thinking or has something been announced somewhere?

And we also have to wonder how much time Gillian Murphy will continue to spend with ABT. Note this, well into this article: "His partner on stage and in life, Gillian Murphy, also a principal dancer at ABT, will join him in New Zealand when her own schedule allows and it would be another coup if she joined the RNZB ranks." http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10684103 It's a heck of a commute from New York to New Zealand! This article suggests she's moving to New Zealand with him: http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/4288734/NZ-Ballet-secures-rock-star-pair

I just noticed today that the Don Q TBA for Monday, May 23 is now listed with Cojocaru and Carreno. They had earlier been announced for the Friday, May 20 Don Q. Still nothing announced for the Don Q matinee on May 21, nor for the Swan Lake evening performance on July 2, nor for the new works May 24-26.

My memory might be getting foggy with age, but in the height of the mid-70s ballet boom (Baryshnikov, Kirkland, Makarova), ABT typically sold out at the Kennedy Center before there were any casting announcements. You had to psyc out when Baryshnikov was likely to appear and buy tickets before anything was announced. E.g., he was the only one who did Push Comes to Shove, so that was a safe bet, and it was also a safe bet he would not perform at both evening and matinee on the weekend. I do remember in the early 80s that there was a late announcement that Baryshnikov would be partnering Makarova in Swan Lake, and I was able to rush over to the ticket office that day and still get tickets for their performances. But nobody had expected him to perform in Swan Lake, so that might explain it. For his Don Quixote world premiere in March 1978, I believe that sold out before we knew any casting, although opening night (which was also a high-priced gala) was a safe bet, of course. I don't know what the situation was with New York subscribers in that era, but I do remember gambling on single tickets for trips to New York, because so much seemed to be selling out before casting was announced.

From the information on the subscription site, it appears single sales begin on Sunday, April 3, but subscribers can buy additional single tickets now. They don't seem to offer a "design-your-own" subscription. http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/subscriptions/abt/packagetypes.aspx

Bedbugs have been found at Carnegie Hall: http://gothamist.com/2010/10/26/after_lots_of_practice_bedbugs_fina.php A spokesman for the Hall said: "There have been no bedbugs (or evidence of bedbugs) found in any of Carnegie Hall’s three auditoriums. In our monthly backstage search last week, we found evidence of bedbugs (although no bugs) in some employee lockers and in an isolated location backstage. "We immediately treated these areas, and asked employees to remove their belongings from the lockers for two weeks, the time necessary to ensure a complete treatment. Given the reports of bedbugs throughout the city, we will be continuing to conduct screenings throughout the building on an ongoing basis."

The LA Times has a story today that essentially says that all those consumer products that allegedly kill bedbugs are not effective: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-skeptic-bedbug-spray-20101025,0,2017880.story

Out of curiosity, I looked back at some ticket orders in the past year to see how these charges compare. For orders placed and paid for on the internet, here's what different theaters are charging: *Vail Dance Festival: $8 internet fee + $1 handling fee + $10 mailing fee! They mail out old-fashioned print tickets *ABT/Met: $11 service charge for tickets you print out at home (that's $11 per order) *NYCB: $10 handling fee for tickets ordered and paid for on-line. They also still mail out old-fashioned print tickets *UCI Barclay Theatre: $3/ticket for on-line ordering service charge; you print out the ticket yourself *Colorado Ballet: $10 for an on-line order, printing out your own tickets *OCPAC: 10% of ticket price is added as a "convenience charge" for ordering on-line and printing your own tickets It looks like everybody is tacking on significant fees. I guess I don't mind if the people responsible for processing everything are people who need jobs here! I don't know what Colorado has outsourced in their ticketing, but given that they receive over half a million dollars a year from the state government, I wish they would find a way to keep those jobs in Colorado, whatever they are.

Single tickets will go on sale to the public April 3. That information is buried on the subscriber benefits page under "free ticket exchange privileges": http://www.abt.org/performances/subscriberbenefits.asp

Last year the dancers at the International Evenings were quite impressive: ABT: Herman Cornejo and Daniil Simkin Alvin Ailey: Clifton Brown, Jamar Roberts, Matthew Rushing Boston: Misa Kuranaga NYCB: Tiler Peck, Wendy Whelan, Joaquin De Lux, Albert Evans, Robert Fairchild PNB: Carla Korbes Royal: Sarah Lamb, Eric Underwood Royal Danish: Hilary Guswiler, Alban Lendorf Freelance: Sokvannara Sar They did 14 small ensemble pieces and excerpts. Very nice for a summer festival. Great sightlines from anywhere in the reserved seating covered outdoor theater. A steeply sloped lawn area was packed. The Festival also does all sorts of community things during the day, and evenings with ballroom and other genres. Woetzel also organized the recent dance program at the White House.

Early programming information on the 2011 Vail Dance Festival is included in the first of what I'm sure will be many fund-raising letters: *Dates are July 31 - August 13, 2011 *World premiere by Christopher Wheeldon *International Evenings of Dance August 5 & 6 *Ballroom, more ballet premieres, Master classes, Dancing in the Streets, etc. The Festival will again be directed by Damian Woetzel. I've gone to the International Evenings in 2010 and 2009 and they're quite wonderful. No information on their web site yet, but I assume they'll get something posted soon: http://www.vaildance.org/

Bedbug sprays for travelling to hotel rooms are available at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Travel-BedBug-Spray-3-Ounce-Bottle/dp/B000SOT3BU/ref=pd_sbs_ol_3 Has anybody tried these? I don't see any customer reviews on the Amazon site yet. Also, my thanks to the moderators for letting this bedbug discussion continue. For those of us who love visiting New York to see the ballet, as many Ballet Talkers obviously do, this is a big issue. Still, I think I feel about bedbugs the same way I feel about terrorist threats and earthquakes in California. You can cower at home in nonstop fear of these things or you can take reasonable precautions and live your life. I've been searching travel supply sites for ideas on precautions, but I'm not finding anything other than these sprays. E.g., what about a plastic sheet one could use to cover a theater seat -- and then discard on the way out? Sort of like a travel-size poncho you might carry in your purse!

I can't find dates for the Kirov visit to the Met on-line. Are those available somewhere?

Subscription sales started October 15, according to their news release, but I can't find anything about single tickets on their site. Has anyone seen a date when those go on sale or remember from last year? Have subscribers received something in the mail? They don't seem to have on-line ordering yet for the subscriptions for the spring season. I kept print-outs I made a year ago and the TBAs were filled in by November 1, especially for the Osipova performances. So I'm wondering if she might be doing the TBA Don Q's on May 21 and 23 -- who else might take those? Any guesses on the Swan Lake July 2? I don't remember reading that Osipova has done Swan Lake. Perhaps that will be Cojocaru? Also, I haven't seen any info on casting for the three new works May 24-26 by Ratmansky, Millepied, and Wheeldon. Has any information come out somewhere on those?

Although this is listed on the UK site, I can't find it on the U.S. Amazon, Kultur.com, or Barnes & Noble sites. Let's hope it is released in DVD format and sold here.

The same press release is now available on the ABT site this afternoon: http://www.abt.org/insideabt/news_display.asp?News_ID=322 But I don't see a schedule anywhere, including the "Calendar" section. Did they send you the actual schedule in an Excel file? I'm dying to see it. Any chance you could do a copy-paste here? Or perhaps a save-as into html format, which might copy-paste? I'm looking at old print-outs I kept for the spring 2010 season. They just said TBA in early announcements and those were filled in much later with Osipova and Cojocaru.

Americans have a long history of stubborn resistance to these imposed names. JFK airport took hold, but Reagan? It will always be National Airport to me. John Wayne? No, Orange County airport. And last time I was at Lincoln Center, everybody knew what I meant when I referred to "State Theatre." Avery Fischer Hall took hold. (Was that the original name?) It will be interesting to see what people call the State Theatre five years down the road.

I believe the half hour earlier start is 7:30 (instead of 8:00). I love the intermissions being cut to one. It's nice to be able to get home a bit earlier. I think the early start and finish will work great for some (like me). For people who find getting there at 7:30 impossible and but don't mind a late finish, the other nights are a better option. I think it's a good idea to offer those optionns In the spring 2010 season, the weeknight curtains were at 7:30, with Friday and Saturday at 8:00. I don't know if that was the first time they had made that change, but it seemed like a good idea for people who had to get to work the next morning. It appears that opening the house one hour before curtain is new this fall, but that also seems like a good idea. Now people have time to get some refreshments, stop at the gift bar, find their seats, and browse the program, which was a rush before. In view of the numerous discussions on this board of the fiscal problems in the arts, I've been impressed with the tremendous range of innovations for the fall season of NYCB -- artist talks, tours, half-price deals, etc., etc. It's as if their board and managers (and dancers?) had a productive brainstorming session and decided to try a huge number of new approaches to attract and retain loyal audiences. Good for them! That might be what it's going to take to survive for a great many companies nowadays.

I love the Bolshoi Don Quixote with Nadezhda Pavlova and Vyacheslav Gordeev (1978), partly because you get to see Pavlova in a rare recording. The DVD comes with bonus scenes from the 1964 Pliseteskaya Don Quixote, so it's quite a treat. I also have the Mariinsky's Don Quixote with Novikova and Sarafanov; they're marvelous, but I don't have any others for comparison (other than the Baryshnikov/ABT version, of course). I have just one Raymonda, the Semenyaka/Moukhamedo/Bolshoi DVD, which is wonderful, although the lighting is often way too dark.

Festival Ballet Theatre of Anaheim, CA has announced its 2010-2011 season at the Barclay Theatre at University of California, Irvine: http://www.festivalballet.org/fbt/season.html Of special note, they are bringing in several interesting guest artists. With tickets only $35-40 and very nice sightlines at the Barclay, it's quite the bargain. Firebird & Mixed Repertoire - October 16 & 17, 2010 with guest Jade Payette, Washington Ballet The Nutcracker - December 11-24, 2010 guests: from ABT Gillian Murphy & Gennadi Saveliev: Sat. Dec. 11 at 2 & 7pm Sun. Dec. 12 at 1 & 6pm Irina Dvorovenko & Maxim Beloserkovsky: Fri. Dec. 17 at 7pm Sat. Dec. 18 at 2 & 7pm Sun. Dec. 19 at 1 & 6pm from Corella Ballet: Ashley Ellis & George Birkadze: Tues. Dec. 21 at 6pm Coppélia - March 26 & 27, 2010 guests TBA Gala of Stars - May 2011 guests TBA

I found a news release on the Mariinsky site which says they will be in New York at the Met next summer, but they don't include any dates: http://www.mariinsky.ru/en/news1/pressa/reliz_2010_09_14/ "Highlights of the Ballet Company’s touring schedule this year include the French premiere of the ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, a tour to South Korea, the traditional series of winter performances in Baden-Baden (Germany) and Washington (USA), a spring tour to Canada, visiting Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa and summer performances at the world’s ballet capitals – New York and London. At the Metropolitan Opera in New York the programme will feature, among other works, ballets to music by Rodion Shchedrin with choreography by Alexei Ratmansky – The Little Humpbacked Horse and Anna Karenina." As ABT's season closes July 9, presumably it's after that. Has anybody seen dates? I tried searching the Lincoln Center site. Nothing about next summer, but I did turn up a one-time performance October 23 that looks interesting: http://www.lincolncenter.org/show_events_list.asp?eventcode=28252 INTERNATIONAL CONCERTS presents "KORIFEI" BOLSHOI OPERA and BALLET SUPERSTARS Saturday, October 23, 2010 7:30 PM Avery Fisher Hall