MJ

I notice the ABT gala will NOT be at the Met.

it will be at a fancy catering hall on 42nd street.

I'm stunned. He was my "son" in a Nutcracker. 

Gassing Children, truly awful. Nobody in the audience liked it. Woman next to me from Austria said she was trying to get rid of her tickets. Not the way to end a Gala.

Harlenquenade was great, the tap piece blew everyone away I hope they do it again. The last piece was an abomination, they had small children in a glass box and "gassed" them at the end. Nobody liked that piece. Not the way to end a Gala performance. 

That Tap piece, If ABT does not add it to their repetoire, Dance Theatre of Harlem should. Amazing! I want to see it again!

Be the Match!

bethematch.org

I get an email every year confirming my address. The test is a simple swab of the cheek. Do it!

Casting?

I went. Amazing Performances! RDB dedicated a piece to 9/11, which was very touching. The final tarantella included all dancers, including the Director who danced in his Tuxedo! So much fun!

The seashell pedestal on which Aurora balances in A2 was also in the 'earlier' Mariinsky-1890 'new-old' staging, as many will recall. I'm wondering if there really was a 'seashell' in Diaghilev-Bakst's 1921 London production or if the shell was added because Ratmansky used the old Mariinsky notes? If the shell was indeed seen in London-1921, then I'm wondering when & why it was dropped in later stagings, as it is such a lovely moment. That balance goes so well with the music!

I guess it allows Aurora to balance for a very long time. Seo did. Lovely. I would have liked the fairies holding the attached cloth more spaceing to give it a sense of grandeur and depth.

The Queen's Wig looked like the Bride of Frankenstein.

The Fairies looked like Busby Berkley dancers.

Princess Aurora dies and her parents are barely responsive.

Lilac is a very demanding role, and ABT puts her in Character shoes?

Dream Sequence was an insult to the gorgeous Tchaikovsky score.

The Corps was good, Orchestra Exceptional.

Boring Choreography. No big leaps, no Bravura.

Awakening scene was BORING.

I've never seen a Pas De Trois with three Females before. Boy Girl Boy is the rule.

Pantomime in the First act was not recognizable. Hard to understand. Classic Panto, I did not get this.

3rd and 4th acts were better than the 1st and 2nd.

Seo in the Rose adagio was great.

Can we bring back the Disney Version of SB? Please? That was a magnificent production.

It will travel well, that is certain.

B-, C+ Worst SB I have ever seen.

Playbill has been screwing up the Ballet 'bills royally. I'm not a printer, but I think you gotta run everything through a printer and stapler at the same time. I don't think it would make sense to keep old parts of playbills.

I assume it is:

Print

Staple and fold

Cut

Box it up

Perhaps they added the ABT to the end of the NYCB season print run to save some money. They may have been printed weeks in advance.

Why was the back half of the Playbill all about NYCB? It had the NYCB winter season and all the NYCB donors listed. Did NYCB pay for all the advertising or is it some NYS theater house rule?

The fall season will be at the Koch Theater (the former State Theater), after the NYCB season and before the Mikhailovsky season.

Interesting. Has ABT ever performed at the Koch-State Theater before? I guess Mr. B is on the repertoire.

With the demise of the NYC Opera, the Koch theater has become the world's best stage for dance.

I just don't see ABT doing a 3 hour work. There is musician and stage hand overtime to consider. My husband was a stage manager on broadway shows and time was always of the essence. Aside from that this is a work people bring their kids to - it it lasts for 3 hours it better be very magical.

ABT has been using 7:30 start times during the week nights, so that doesn't seem too terrible for a ballet to get out around 10:30. Most Broadway shows let out around then. And I believe a 10:30 curtain would satisfy the unions also.

Opening night for ABT, the Ushers noted how nice it was to get out at a decent hour. Met Operas can last 3.5 hours.

Where will the Fall season be? Will there be a fall season? City Center has lousy sight lines, but is a nice stage.

http://www.connecticutballet.com/production.html

DANZA!
A Festival of Latin Choreographers
New works by Rodney Rivera, Daniel Fetecua-Soto,
Marcos Vedoveto and a revival of a classic
duet by Alberto Alonso

Connecticut Ballet’s Summer Dance Caravan dates for SUMMER 2014:

Saturday, July 19 - 7:30pm - Riverfront Recapture, Hartford
(Rain date: Sunday, July 20)
Tuesday, July 22 - 8:00pm - Levitt Pavilion, Westport
Friday, July 25 - 7:30pm - Ives Concert Park, Danbury
Saturday, July 26 - 7:30pm - Elizabeth Park, West Hartford (new venue!)
(Rain date: Sunday, July 27)
Sunday, July 27 - 2:00pm, Middlesex Community College, Middletown
Friday, Aug. 1 - 6:30pm - Onteora Theater, Tannersville, New York (new venue)
Saturday, Aug. 2 - 7:30pm - Untermyer Festival, Yonkers, New York

For those who may want to take Mass transit, the Yonkers and Westport events are close or a short cab ride from MNRR stations.

These events are all free.

I'm always troubled when directors cut music from a score. Should the NY Philharmonic cut parts out of a Symphony?

Pytor must be rolling in his grave, to a very loud brass and percussion section.

I agree with California that the best boxes in the Parterre are 5 and 6, and also that you must sit in the first row because a great deal of the stage is obscured from any other row.

Over the years I have sat just about everywhere in the Met to try out the different seats, and at the risk of repeating myself yet again, to my mind every seat in the Met is a compromise for a ballet performance. At this point my favorite seats are Orchestra Row A, but they're almost never available for sale, except if you're lucky at the last minute and someone turns them in. I just love seeing everything up close, even though you do miss the feet at the back of the stage when the women are not on pointe. If I were just a bit taller, that probably wouldn't be a problem. After that I like Orchestra Rows I, J, and K, on the aisle.

However, from a cost/benefit pointe of view, those side parterre seats are a very good deal. However, if you like a panoramic view, then Dress Circle Rows A and B are also cost effective. The problem is that most of the first row Side Parterre seats are held by subscribers. Same for the first two rows of the Dress Circle.

I sometimes wonder whether the number of unsold seats at ABT has to do with the fact that people are reluctant to pay upwards of $125 for, say, Orchestra seats on the sides and in the back, where you can't see much of anything except little people moving around on the stage. With the greatest dancers, the house tends to nearly sell out because people will pay anything for even a glimpse of these artists. I, for one, wouldn't buy a ticket in the back of the orchestra no matter who was dancing.

I'm 6'0 and have difficulty looking over the heads of other patrons in the second set of seats, but they are substantially cheaper.

I just found out you can go downstairs and get a booster seat in the basement lobby. I may try that and will let you know.

Where were the makeup people at the crucial moment?

Unless called onstage, makeup people are in the makeup rooms. In the darkness it would be difficult to fix any makeup well.

I sat in the Orchestra, I typically sit in the rings. It took me a few minutes to notice Seminova's perfect balance, and Gomes' perfect partnering. Polina was amazing! Many gasped when she did those perfect turns and piques.

I noticed one of the female corps dancers in the first act was wearing a leg warmer under her dress! If she had a pink or white one on, noone would have noticed. LOL. I almost happened to me once, but it is more obvious for guys in tights.

The auditorium was a bit humid, hard to balance comfort and coolness this time of year.

Does the Met still have a stage turntable? I recall seeing Die Fleidermaus set that rotated. Even if ABT took advantage of the Met's huge stage, it does not travel well.

I wish there was some way the "Entr'acte symphonique" between Scenes I and II of Act II could be incorporated. Though it was cut from the original production, I think it's some of the most beautiful music in the score. It would be hard to justify its inclusion from a dramatic standpoint and I realize it probably has no place in a production focused on historical reconstruction, but I love that section of music nonetheless.

No.16 Scène

No.17 Panorama

• Interpolation: 3 transitional bars for the end of no.17 composed by Riccardo Drigo to lead into no.19, as no.18 was cut in the original production

No.18 Entr'acte symphonique (solo for violin composed for Leopold Auer, cut from the original production)

Scene II — Le château de la belle au bois dormant No.19 Scène du château de sommeil

I love that entr'acte. The Mariinsky does it during its Sleeping Beauty, and even though the curtain goes down, the auditorium goes dark except a spotlight on the violinist and the whole orchestra is mechanically raised during this portion, it is a breath-taking moment! It is so lovely!

I performed in Mr. B's Nut for several years in Act I, I would stand at the pit door afterward to listen to that gorgeous solo. every night.

I actually liked the "disney" version of SB. The scenery and costumers were gorgeous. I did not quite understand the spiderweb part.

Ratminski is doing a great job, I hope he does more work with ABT.

What I would like to see in a SB:

When Carabotte enters the court, I'd like to see some some magical ability besides the wig. Maybe supervillan invulnerability or something. The whole court should be in absolute fear when she enters. The role is always well acted, I'd like something that will scare little girls, but not too much. Snakes and Spiders come to mind. A carriage pulled by Spiders?

The Fairy's gifts should be more symbolic, a prop you can see from the cheap seats

Prince Phillip should actually scale the castle or get the drawbridge to come down. Something dramatic. This Castle has been unguarded for 100 years. The Prince is risking his life for the love of his life. Climbing the vines would involve stunt and wire work that the company may not want to risk.

The costumes in the wedding scene should be very different from act I, it is hundred years later. The Mazurka is the main dance, so I'd like to see something eastern-europe looking.

Seattle, like I mentioned the same thing happened at NYCB's PlayBill.

PlayBill is a monopoly and does not give a Moose's patooty.

They print months of these Playbills and just change the pages in the center for each performance.

Like NYCB, ABT should place a poster in the lobby with head shots. The Dancer's union could have issues if this is not corrected.

Who was the JKO soloist? He was amazing! There were four students with Sigourney that evening.

Ivan was explosive. The men at ABT are amazing. Well put together evening.

Two loud crashes came from the Orchestra, or the front of the house.

Like NYCB last week, the Playbill was a mess, Few dancer's head shots were correct. Shameful. I don't blame ABT or NYCB, obviously was Playbill's fault.

I found the audience was a little low key, Anna Wintour's gala a few weeks earlier stole a lot of the spotlight. NYCB gala was less than a week ago.

The dancing was great. Kudos to all!

Anyone going opening night's performance? Should one dress up?