zerbinetta

Jeesh! Orders from Headquarters, eh?

Not seeing this until next week. Herein lies the problem. ABT normally does a 2-week season at City Center; this year it was expanded to 3 weeks but with 2 weeks worth of repertory, so unless one wishes to see more than one evening of New Works (or the dreaded "W" program) one tends to stick with the oldies but goodies.

What a truly extraordinary dancer Acosta is. .. what a thrill it was to see him on stage here once today.  Such a strange and wonderful combination of masculine weight and of lightness, Acosta has.  Of showing force and power and effortlessness at the same time.  He breathes in the air -- and it is that moment of breath that gives the illusion that he can soar and hang in the air.  In addition, after watching him, we no longer have to ask if ABT has a man who can cleanly complete a double tour. 

 

Oh, yessss. Watching Acosta is akin to seeing a panther unleashed onstage. There is a visceral quality to his dancing & to the audience response that I can only compare to that of a great tenor.

He has unusually shaped feet - rather spade-like, but beautifully stretched & pointed & they certainly get the job done without a sound.

He is also an extraordinarily sensitive partner, all the best assets plus he gives his ballerina that little bit of extra room to "breathe", making her part of a unit but the more important part. Not since Peter Martins have I so admired partnering skills - & that's saying quite a lot!

Congratulations on your new concert hall; it looks gorgeous. The NYTimes has covered it inside & out. There was some question about the acoustic being "bright" & "modern". Have you heard the orchestra in the house yet?

Maybe we're getting off the ballet track here?

Final note:  The Slipping Duty Award for the evening goes to the Maryinsky Orchestra.  After exemplary playing of Minkus' score, they committed a tactless non musical boo boo:  During the second (!)curtain call 90% of the musicians rose up en masse and left the pit while their conductor, Nioradze, Sarafanov and the corps de ballet received their bouquets and ovation on stage.

With the exception of Opening Nights, orchestra members are not required to remain in the pit for curtain calls. This is true of opera as well as ballet & is protocol internationally.

On occasion, musicians who are greatly moved by a performance will remain in the pit but this is their decision, not their "duty".

Onstage orchestra members, on the other hand, better dang well stay put if they want to keep their jobs.

That would be fun!  But, Zerb, does ABT do Tudor?

Yeah, right...

Martine is also studying voice & sings with choral groups.

She is a mezzo soprano; wouldn't it be fun to hear her sing "Dark Elegies" (Kindertotenlieder) with ABT? She was unforgettable dancing it.

I guess there has been no press release on casting yet? Any info on who is coming, at least?

Even a rumor would be something.

zerbinetta, it does make a difference to me who is dancing at NYCB...but I have to admit, that unless there is a particular dancer I can't stand  , I do look more at what is being performed at NYCB than by whom...as opposed to ABT where I am generally more interested in who is dancing what. That said, I do care what is being danced at ABT...and will try to avoid certain ballets sometimes. How's that for a confusing statement?

I suppose this brings us back to the feeling that ABT is more "star" driven. :yawn: 

BW, I did not mean to imply that casting was unimportant to me at NYCB nor that repertory was unimportant at ABT. What I said was "more important" in both cases.

I definitely agree that there are dancers I avoid at both companies & repertory I avoid at both companies but NYCB is more repertory driven &, as you mentioned, ABT more star driven, as it has always been & not such a bad thing.

I feel pretty lucky to have such an embarrasment of riches.

I hope this isn't a trend, an assumption that people only care who is dancing and not what they're dancing taken to its logical, but unfortunate, conclusion!

Speaking for myself (well, who else would I be speaking for?), I do find casting for ABT more important in terms of ticket buying than repertory. Not so with NYCB.

Might this be worthy of a thread or even a poll?

Haven't heard of Viorica Cortez & just looked her up online & found nothing. But remember Victoria Vergara, wonderful Carmen, Dulcinee & Baba at NYCO a while back. Actually one of the on stage rather than off beauties as she had one of those large faces that read right into the 4th ring but offstage was a bit .. large.

Farrell Fan (I think it was farrellfan) why "in the eyes of the beholder"? Isn't that the case whatever?

&, yes, Marilyn Horne has the most amazing skin I've ever seen on a real live person.

Any story which makes the front page of the New York Times brings national attention to the subject. Ballet needs the attention.

Page One! Was it a slow news day?

Ah yes, Leigh, Helen of Troy was totally fun. Cynthia Gregory, Bruce Marks & the cutest lamb on the planet: Susan Jones, now ballet mistress. Also Eliot Feld in the Hermes role.

Murphy, Carreno. Sarawanee Tanatanit as the lamb & maybe Lopez or Salstein as Hermes?

Gergiev conducting ballet? A surefire recipe for disaster!

I am trying to look on the bright side: there will be no Diamond Project.

Watermlll: it looks like your question was unanswered. The Tristan in Vienna was Thomas Moser.

I'm not sure the Pacific NW is all that fertile for Wagner, but Seattle certainly is. One of the reasons is that it has a strong director in Speight Jenkins who is able to convince singers to come there & sing in a good house with a good orchestra & chorus. It is not in the public eye like a NY or Chicago & many singers will take on a new role there before singing it in a more major house.

The same is true for Houston, where Renee Fleming just did her first Traviata.

Just wondering if we should separate our faves in terms of Beauties Onstage, Beauties Offstage & Beauties OnorOff.

For instance, Kiri te Kanawa, who was one of the most breathtaking women on any stage, offstage is an attractive woman with overly close-set eyes. Rise Stevens was chic & attractive enough offstage but on, the woman was dynamite.

Anderson, Battle, Fleming & Mattila are in the OnorOff category.

Deborah Voigt & Jessye Norman look like very big ladies onstage but off they are both quite beautiful women.

Sneds/carbro: with the amazing amount of rain &, now, humidity, it is surprising that a single instrument in either orchestra can play in tune. The brass section is particularly affected but all instruments can go off pitch in an instant due to excessive moisture in the air.

I haven't found this to be a chronic problem, so am somewhat forgiving in this beastly weather.

Just imagine if they were playing Lohengrin ..:eek:

Actually, JdL did two T&Vs but, yes, due to another's injury.

Ah, Symphonic Variations. I'll be so happy to see it again at all, I may not be terribly particular about casting/sizes.

I did feel Hallberg should have made Soloist; he's been dancing solo roles for two seasons now &, with the minimum two-year-as-Soloist policy they seem to have at Ballet Theatre, wouldn't make Principal until 2006 at least, by which time he'll probably be doing Principal roles for three years. pfoo ..

Sorry, Leigh, didn't see your post until after I'd responded to Dale's.

Reyes, E. Cornejo & Cojocaru, should she return (please please) are all small enough for HC, as is McKerrow, but I don't think she does fall season plus she seems to be limiting her roles of late & perhaps permanently.

I do see H. Cornejo in the danseur noble roles but agree that it remains to be seen since he hasn't been cast that way yet. I hope he will be.

DeLuz did very well in that T&V, yes, but whether he would have become a prince/poet is likely to be moot now.

I'm afraid we'll get Irina D in the Raymonda, too, but perhaps good coaching of the MvH sort would help.

I agree with your Raymonda casting but wonder why you don't think Cornejo would work in T&V. It would seem to me he can do just about anything & is extraordinarily musical.

Yes, indeedy, that would would be a fine Pillar. Robert Hill is wonderful in the true love role; do we know if he's still dancing?

Do we need a thread about Dancers Who Have Disappeared without Notice? I was wondering what happened to Jerry Douglas, who had a promising season last summer, despite being too big for the small boy roles in which he was cast.

Ah, but what about that "W" program? .. eek.

Hermann in T&V and as The Devil in the DeMille would be a treat.

Carreno as The Man Across the Way?

Daron, I was certainly not doubting you; it was the statistic I was doubting as Russian statistics can be a bit misleading (as are NBA statistics!). After all, these are the folks who invented baseball, right? Was it Abneri Doubledievich, perhaps?

In any case, I think we are all in agreement that, whatever her height, when she dances she is an Amazon.

Daron: where did you find this statistic, please?

Interesting Fact I Just Learned Today: the NBA measures basketball players in their sneakers. So, Latrell Sprewell, who is listed at 6'6" tall is actually 6'4-3/4" tall in his (undoubtedly gorgeous) bare feet, as professional sneakers have a 1-1/4" sole.

Where am I going with this, you wonder? It could be that in Russia, ballerinas are measured on demi-pointe, as I am 5'6" & had to bend down to hug The Nina when I met her.

She accepted the unsolicited hug from a total stranger quite graciously, I might add.

Let's switch the word short to "petite"; it sounds more positive.