Kathleen O'Connell

Brahms-Schoenberg was my guess, too. I always thought that the colors in Opi's New York City Ballet line of nail polish looked like an homage to Karinska's Brahms-Schoenberg costumes.

I tucked away a whole file of (digital) clippings on this because I was pretty pumped about the renovation's upgrade to the theater's media capabilities and the promise of some sort of publicly available video output, which, alas, never materialized. I'm not surprised: the decade or so since the media center was installed has been one of tremendous disruption in the media landscape generally and most performing arts organizations are still charting their way through the wreckage. Yes, there are labor and rights negotiation issues, but also simply figuring out who and where the audience is and what they (and/or the universe of arts funding organizations) will pay for. I keep hoping that someone puts together a consortium of performing arts organizations; federal, state, and local arts councils; libraries; colleges and universities; foundations; and individual philanthropists that can fashion a meaningful arts streaming service that would 1) provide reasonable income to the participants, 2) actually be worth the subscription price, and 3) be distributed via a platform that made the videos more difficult to download and pirate than YouTube or Vimeo. I mean this as no disrespect to the various companies that are trying to put something together on their own, but there are only so many dollars most of us can plunk down for a limited run digital season.

The 2008-10 renovations to the Theater Formerly Known as State included "a completely new communications and technology backbone for the facility and the creation of a media center to allow for recording and broadcast." Here's a picture of the media suite from the linked page. From a November 2011 New York Times Article entitled "A Digital Future Not Quite Here for City Ballet": More than a year after its completion at a cost of several million dollars, a sleek media control room equipped to help the New York City Ballet record its performances for digital archiving and for theater broadcasts has languished unused. The so-called media suite was installed as part of a celebrated $107 million renovation of the ballet company’s Lincoln Center home, the David H. Koch Theater, largely completed in 2009. Outfitted with the latest technology to capture, edit and store high-definition images, the room was promoted by City Ballet as a potential source of revenue that would bring the theater “into the 21st century.” But that future has yet to arrive. Per the article, NYCB blamed the delay on labor negotiations. I suspect that figuring out how to turn HD videos into a reliable revenue stream was also a factor. Just because you film it doesn't mean they'll come. ETA: I believe that some of the cameras—or at least the housings for them—are mounted on the front of the first and second rings.

Maybe, but first the theaters have to be allowed to open and then the audience has to feel safe enough to show up. The Met does have to do a ton more advance planning with respect to casting than a company like NYCB. It is not uncommon for a singer for a lead role to be signed up years in advance, especially if they are a prominent artist in high demand. The Met may have decided that there is too much uncertainty regarding 1) whether or not they will be allowed to open, 2) whether the right singers for the operas they've scheduled will be available, and 3) whether any of non-US based singers they may have signed up three years ago will even want to risk coming to the US given how dismal our management of the pandemic has turned out to be. I can imagine a star international singer getting an offer to sing this spring in the US and thinking, "No thanks, not this year" or scanning their existing contract for a clause that will allow them to cancel due to Covid-19.

To the best of my knowledge, no, aside from the archival performance videos available for viewing in the NY Public Library's Performing Arts research collection.

Most likely Sterling Hyltin. My mental model for tracking who's dancing what in Liebeslieder is to name the roles after who originated them since there seems to be no other convention such as "The Waltz Girl" or "Rubies Tall Girl" or what have you. So, here are the originators: Diana Adams – Bill Carter Melissa Hayden – Jonathan Watts Jillana – Conrad Ludlow Violette Verdy – Nicholas Magallenes I've seen all of the dancers BalanchineFan referred to dance Liebeslieder, but never that exact cast. From my experience, here's who generally dances what: Tiler Peck = Violette Verdy Rebecca Krohn = Diana Adams Sterling Hyltin = Melissa Hayden (the Nein, Geliebter role) Megan Fairchild = Jillana Unity Phelan has indeed danced Hayden's role, as has Lauren Lovette. Although I've seen the men move from one role to another when the ballet is recast, I don't recall seeing any of the women move from one role to another, which is not to say that it doesn't happen of course. I think we've all had the experience of finding a particular dancer's stamp on a role practically indelible. For me that's Whelan in Hayden's Liebeslieder role. (Teresa Reichlen as the Rubies Tall Girl and Heather Watts in the Midsummer Divertissement are two more.)

Take my money! I'd like a recording featuring Whelan and Hübbe performing the second half pas to "Nein, Geliebter." I cried every single time I saw them dance it. Here's a clip of Laurent Lovette and Jared Angle performing that duet in 2019:

I had that exact thought!

If I recall correctly, the principal women wear pointe shoes for both the Waltz and Scherzo and the corps wears pointe shoes in the Scherzo as well. I am honestly drawing a blank as to what the Waltz corps has on its feet, but I think it's slippers at least.

Me too! I'm sure this sounds heretical to anyone whose only memories of Watts comes from the last half decade or so of her career. No one has moved me as much in the Divertissement pas de deux as Watts did. I'm an Ashley fangirl, but I've always been grumpy about the fact that it was her performance of the Divertissement that got broadcast, not Watts'. I wouldn't be surprised if Balanchine omitted the Emeralds solos if he thought they wouldn't translate well to the small screen. (I don't remember if Paul's solo was included or not. I'll check my DVD at some point because now I'm curious ... ) It's important to remember that TV screens were w-a-a-y different back then. They were smaller, the broadcast quality was low-def, and some of us didn't even have color, even at that relatively late date.

Yes, Verdy's solo was omitted. I always thought it was odd because it's one of the ballet's highlights and, along with the "walking" pas de deux, one of its iconic moments. (Maybe this wasn't the case at the time of the broadcast and it's just me thinking that with 40 years of watching the ballet under my belt?) The broadcast was made not so many years after Verdy retired the role. Perhaps Balanchine thought it was too soon for another ballerina to assume the role for a national audience. PS - I know Balanchine made a number of changes and additions to Emeralds over the years, but I didn't realize he added that gorgeous ending for the broadcast. Another reason to be glad these broadcasts happened!

Such a fun ballet ... I don't know why it fell out of the rep. But yes, Kowroski's comic chops were on full display. The tender little pas de cinq for Kathleen Tracey (as the stage manager) and four stagehands with big push brooms is one of the sweetest things Wheeldon has ever choreographed.

I hate to be that "well, actually ... " person, but I believe the women only dance barefoot in Elégie. But yeah, it's an awful lot of minutes of unbound hair and swirling tulle cocktail dresses to sit through until we get to T&V. If they had to televise a movement other than T&V, Elégie is definitely the one.

I too prefer whole ballets to excerpts. That being said, Balanchine himself elected to present excerpts from his ballets for the Dance in America series featuring his choreography. There was no Jewels in its entirety, only excerpts from Emeralds and Diamonds. (And not even the entirety of those two ballets, either, just excerpts.) Only excerpts from Chaconne. Only the Andante from Divertimento No. 15. Only Elégie from Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3. I have no idea why Balanchine chose to have only excerpts of those ballets televised, but he did.

A video of Natural History, a new ballet choreographed in the time of Covid by Troy Schumacher, for his company, Ballet Collective, performed on an outdoor stage at The Mashomack Fish & Game Preserve Club in upstate New York. Brian Seibert's New York Times review: City Dancers Unleashed in the Wild. There are eight dancers, six from NYCB and two from the Martha Graham Company: Devin Alberda, Anthony Huxley, Ashley Laracey, Lorenzo Pagano, Erica Pereira, Davide Riccardo, and Leslie Andrea Williams. Per Seibert's Times review, they quarantined together nearby and rehearsed on a local school's basketball court. Today (9/13/20) may be the last day that the stream will be available, so check it out if you are interested.

As far as I'm concerned, the announcement of Ahn, Bell, Brandt, Forster, Royal, Shayer, and Trenary's promotions is a ray of sunshine in a dark time. It's heartening to see a U.S. arts organization embrace its future in the face of so much uncertainty. I've enjoyed watching each of these dancers perform and have gone out of my way to catch some of them when they've been cast in featured roles, so I'm delighted to see their careers advance.

That is great news! I'm rarely in a position to consume a live stream from start to finish, so being able to dip in and out over the course of a few days is a real gift.

I too would prefer whole ballets to excerpts, but I am also delighted that NYCB has decided to make their digital season free and available on whatever screen the audience has available to them. I'm not inclined to watch ballet on my phone while I'm waiting in line at the grocery store, but someone else might be and I think it's a fine thing that they can. I absolutely agree about the need to tailor the content to the platform so that the art on offer is shown to its best advantage. I'd be shocked if NYCB doesn't have pretty robust data from its digital spring season regarding which programs got the most views, which got the most repeat views, which platforms—e.g., Facebook, YouTube, etc—the audience used most often, and what devices the audience used to watch. (And if they don't have this data, they need to bring the right talent onto the team.) The percentage of the audience that watches via YouTube on a laptop, vs the percentage that watches via their phone on FB, vs the percentage that watches it on their TV via the YouTube app on their Amazon Fire Stick may help them think about what will best showcase the company's rep and its dancers. Another thing that might be driving the use of excerpts: the ability to showcase as many dancers as possible in roles that suit them best. And we've all been to enough performances to know that on any given night for any given ballet you might get an absolutely world-beating performance by half of the cast while the other half looks like they're dancing it for the first time to music they've never heard before. Excerpts allow the company to shine a light where they need to and tactfully tuck the rest of the tape away in the farthest reaches of the archive.

More out-of-the-ordinary opera, this time from Bard College's Fisher Center Upstreaming project. The Bard Music Festival and Summerscape programs are always inventive and very well produced. (It helps when your college president—in this case Leon Botstein—is also a very well-regarded conductor and musicologist.) Richard Strauss - Die Liebe der Danae Antonin Dvořák - Dimitrij Emmanuel Chabrier - Le roi malgré lui Ethel Smyth - The Wreckers Carl Maria von Weber - Euryanthe Sergey Taneyev - Oresteia Anton Rubinstein - Demon Erich Wolfgang Korngold - The Miracle Of Heliane All well-produced video, with subtitles and downloadable programs. Upstreaming's non-opera offerings are worth exploring, too, including choreography by Beth Gill, Tere O'Connor, and Pam Tanowitz. I don't know how long these programs will remain online.

Thank you! I knew there had to be one ...

Is this where we put Opera? Not covid-19 motivated streaming, but free streaming nonetheless: OperaVision, sponsored by the EU and under the editorial supervision of Opera Europa, the European association of opera companies and festivals. These are well-produced videos of live performances from a variety of European opera houses and festivals. The videos are available for viewing for between three to six months after they've been posted. They are subtitled and come with some nice ancillary materials. There are some popular favorites—e.g., Tosca or The Marriage of Figaro—but many, many more less well known and / or infrequently performed works, such as Frank Martin's version of the Tristan and Isolde story Le Vin herbé or Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria. Right now I'm working my way through Mozart's Lucio Silla in a performance at Brussels' La Monnaie. Yeah, the production is vaguely eurotrashy (it's La Monnaie after all), but it features the very wonderful mezzo Anna Bonitatibus as Cecilio, and is worth it for that alone. A few of the operas on offer come down in a few of days (Halévy's La Juive, Korngold's Violanta) so if you are interested in either, don't delay. Note: the dates are shown as they are in Europe and elsewhere: day-month-year. PS: OperaVision is where Close, posted a few messages above, is from

Long past it.

Perhaps the hope was that hydroxychloroquine would mediate the immune system's potentially deadly inflammatory response to the virus—the now infamous "cytokine storm"—rather than target the virus itself. I think that's why the drug is given to patients with certain autoimmune disorders such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

In deference to Wagner's intentions and in defiance of human biology, The Metropolitan Opera stages Die Fliegende Hollander and Das Rheingold without intermissions. (The operas are each about two-and-one-half hours long.) Lots of critics and scholars have tried to justify this on the theory that the resulting continuity from beginning to end is a better musical and theatrical experience. Of course, it's a pretty lousy musical and theatrical experience when one's bladder or one's back—or both—are clamoring for your immediate attention RIGHT NOW barely two-thirds of the way through, and this has apparently never occurred to the opera powers that be.

Many of the organizations that fund dance-related non-profits are making efforts to address the impact of Covid-19, either by providing additional funding or by allowing their grantees to use their grant money to meet general operating expenses rather than for the artistic projects they'd hoped to pursue in 2020. At the moment, funders may see their immediate mission to be trying to keep their grantees afloat in the short term, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was heightened receptiveness to matters like resiliency or cultivating digital audiences going forward.