Kathleen O'Connell

Don't misunderstand me -- I'd prefer that it were otherwise. But if the company could fill every opening night gala seat at $600 per, should they forgo the opportunity to raise the extra money and let seats go for less? I'd be interested to know how much they will actually net from the gala in any event.

Perhaps "Maple Leaf Rag" is indestructible, but yes, if they're going to do actual violence to the work it might have been better to commission a nice little capriccio from a choreographer who was up for the challenge. Sad to say, it would probably cost less than the flowers for the tables.

Sad, yes, that the satisfaction of aiding the company (and having their names on the donors list in the program) isn't reward enough. But this is just a logical extension of the "naming opportunities" that give us the "Koch" Theater and the Your-Corporate-Name-Here sports stadium. Call it egotism, call it the fulfillment of a fantasy (funny, I never, ever dreamed of partnering Patrica McBride) it's really nothing new. What really fascinates me is the thought that a gala audience might countenance this display. I've heard of Dancing with the Stars. Dancing by My Upper East Side Neighbor? Will the $600 and up gala attendees really accept this? And what does it say about the company that their gala excludes people who can't or won't pony up 600 bucks? A gala is for one reason only -- to raise money. The job of the Gala Committee is to haul out its collective rolodex and 1) fill as many $3,500 $25,000* tables as possible, 2) pack the souvenir dinner program with paid ads, and 3) score loot for the swag bag. (Tickets to the actual performance are for the little people to buy and sell. $600 in the NYC benefit circuit is chump change.) The benefit circuit is crowded and competitive, and the performance itself isn't what's going to fill those tables. A good show is nice, but that's not why the donors are there. Many are there because their friends and business associates have persuaded them to pony up the requisite bucks - and they're there to network, too, of course. (Some of these folks do three events a night during the high season - drinks at one, dinner at another, dessert and dancing at a third. An actual performance challenges the evening's schedule.) Putting Somers Farkas, Cornelia Guest, Grace Hightower, Karen Lefrak, and Muffie Aston Potter on stage - now that might help fill some tables. (My guess is that these ladies haven't just donated money -- they're out working the phones or whatever socialites work these days to sell those tables. They know why they're on the program.) Patronage -- 'twere ever thus. Felix Rohatyn slammed the whole benefit gala hustle back in 1986 and was duly exiled from the social circuit for a while for his pains. I'm with Papeetepatrick: it's harmless. It's for one night only, and then it will go away. And who knows, it might actually be charming. *Edited to add: Just checked the gala details- a top table (for 10) goes for $25K. The $3.5K tables are for "young professionals 35 and under." And now I see the logic of putting a glitzy hotel with a big function room and a performance venue in the same building ...

I tried buying a ticket for the 6/18 matinee on line yesterday and got assigned a relatively undesirable seat in the section I chose. (I'm a front-of-1st-or-2nd-ring girl, myself.) Since I was going to be near the theater later in the day, I decided to can the on-line purchase and see what was available at the box office. It was worth the effort - I got a much better seat. (1st ring, row A, and off center- which is where I like it - I think you get more depth in the stage picture. And ... if you're not in the first row, the sight lines over the heads in front of you are better.) I don't know why the Koch Theater on-line ticketing tool is so much less user-friendly than the Met's, City Center's, or BAM's ...

When I saw the title of your post, dancemom 101, I thought "Prince" meant Prince-Somebody-or-Other not The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As! Now I have to love him even more. In fact, I think I'll go put on "Sign ☮ the Times" right now.

Thanks for the link! I think it's one of the more thoughtful reviews of Apollo's Angels I've read to date. I think Harss puts her finger on one of the book's material shortcomings as a history here: Here: and here: Harss notes that Homans completely ignores Balanchine's Prodigal Son, and does a good job explaining why its omission from Apollo's Angels is telling. Really, go read it. I disagree with Harss on one thing at least - I didn't find Apollo's Angels "beautifully written" nor do I think it "strikes a graceful balance between exploring the nuances of steps and surveying the larger landscape of art, ideas and politics (more important than one might think), from ballet's beginnings in the Renaissance courts of Europe to its globalized present." Homans isn't a prose stylist; the book could have been more crisply written without losing its sweep. (Where was her editor?) Her survey of "the larger landscape" skims too lightly over the surface in some parts and goes down too many rabbit holes in others. There's far too much ink devoted to the life of Hans Christian Andersen, for instance. Not to his stories and their place in the 19th century's fascination with fairy tales and folk tales - that's important in a cultural history - but rather, to a lengthy biographical sketch. It's two pages that might have been better spent on Prodigal Son.

There's always the new 'Wichcraft in the Rubenstein Atrium on Broadway between 62nd & 63rd (just across the street from the plaza theaters). You can buy sandwiches, soups and salads there to either eat at the tables in the Atrium or take back to the theater.

The commitment to live music -- which is commendable -- has a downside: there isn't that much Balanchine that can be done with the very small contingent of musicians that will accompany the dancers for the first season of performances.

Maybe a little OT, but while we're waiting for the official casting list, is there any casting you're expecting -- or even better, hoping -- to see? I was poring over the schedule plotting a ticket exchange, noticed Mozartiana, and thought "Hmmm ... Has Sara Mearns done that yet?" It's something I'd love to see, even if it didn't really work.

A note about La Sonnambula's music: the score was composed by Vittorio Rieti, and is based on themes and arias from a number of Bellini operas (I Capuletti ed i Montecchi, Norma, I Puritani, and La Sonnambula). The plot, however, has absolutely nothing in common with Bellini's opera of the same name. Since I know the operas well, I find it very disconcerting to watch a ballet set to what sounds like a mixtape of Bellini's greatest hits -- minus the words and the voices to boot! It's not all that different from the music for Western Symphony, come to think of it .... I wish NYCB and / or the Balanchine Trust folks would go back to calling it Night Shadow -- a much more evocative title, IMO, and more in keeping with the ballet's mood. Bellini's opera has a happy ending and there isn't a poet in sight ...

I did love it, and have noted all of your suggestions. I'm entering a new world - thank you for your help Please report back and tell us what you think! I'd really be interested in your thoughts, as someone new to the genre, comparing the HD experience with the live one.

If Pelleas whet your appetite, I think you're ready for just about anything! It's a tough opera for a lot of folks: it's long, it's not jam-packed with tuneful arias, and the action is decidedly oblique and low key. Of course, this particular Pelleas was really special -- even at the Met it's not often that the stars align like that. That being said, there are some interesting looking things coming up at the Met in the spring. James Jorden, the Post's opera critic, was very enthusiastic about the new Traviata. The cast for the Met's new production of Rossini's Le Comte Ory looks unbeatable on paper (Damrau, DiDonato, Resmark, Flórez, Degout, Pertusi). I would crawl across broken glass on my hands and knees to hear Rene Pape sing the phone book, so I think going to hear him sing the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov is a no-brainer; however, the Met's new production has had a troubled history and might not live up to the cast. I'm thinking of getting a ticket to Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride to hear Susan Graham in the title role (I think it's one of her best); Domingo is singing too, and that's not going to last forever (although he seems not to have gotten that memo.) And speaking of Gluck, you could also catch a performance of Mark Morris' production of Orfeo et Euridice with David Daniels. And Nixon in China. NYCO is reprising their updated Elixir of Love, set in a roadside diner by Jonathan Miller. I really want to support NYCO (I've seen wonderful stuff there), but I might give this one a miss and opt for the Monodramas triple bill instead. As for opera sites to visit: James Jorden's alter ego La Cieca runs Parterre Box, the fizziest opera blog ever. I haven't found an opera site as sane and well-run as Ballet Alert, alas, though Opera-L isn't bad. Opera flame wars are the stuff of legend.

The house looked full, by the way, and not too many people fled during the intermissions -- although this may be as much due to the fact that the performance ended at 4PM rather than midnight as to anything else. Still, it was nice to see. Helene -- Have you seen this production? It's an example of how to exploit the vastness of the Met's stage without overstuffing it a la Zeffirelli. Miller updated the setting from the implied mythic middle ages of the original play to roughly the turn of the century -- i.e., around the time of the opera's composition. (Melisande's gowns are redolent of the pre-raphaelite version of the middle ages nonetheless.) The action takes place inside a vast but sparsely furnished, monochromatic, decaying chateau. (Yeah, no forest, no grotto -- but it still works.) There are no wings - it looks as if the palace's rooms just continue on into infinity. The working part of the set -- a carefully arranged jumble of interior and exterior walls, furniture, ancestral busts, mammoth empty picture frames, and of course the ancient fountain -- sits on a turntable set into the stage floor, which is done up to look like parquet from end to end. The set rotates during the orchestral interludes between scenes (and sometimes during a scene itself) to change the setting. It sounds gimmicky, but it neatly sidesteps the pitfalls of fairy-tale prettiness while still locating the drama someplace that reads like a myth or a fable. I suspect the set has to be big--and empty--to work; otherwise it might look like Miller was trying to turn Maeterlinck into Ibsen. It also solves the problem of what to do during all those interludes besides drop the curtain.

It was magnificent. Kudos to Simon Rattle: I don't think I've ever heard the Met's orchestra sound better and I loved, loved, loved his technicolor take on the score. Gerald Finely's Golaud was so powerfully drawn and beautifully sung as to make a case for re-naming the opera "La Tragédie de Golaud" or somesuch. His scene with Yniold beneath Melisande's window was especially gripping: it perfectly encapsulated Golaud's corruption through his suspicion and jealousy. (Neel Ram Nagarajan was terrific as Yniold.) Stéphane Degout's Pelleas was a bit pallid by comparison -- although I think that goes with the role -- but really came to life in his scene beneath Melisande's window (when he becomes entranced by her hair). Magdelena Kožená's Melisande was very interesting -- more faintly sinister faerie bride than otherworldy innocent. She sang beautifully (as did Degout) but didn't exhibit a ton of stage presence - her hair upstaged her more than once. I like Jonathan Miller's production a lot - it's one of those "updatings" that actually works. It's a shame they didn't capture it on video, although I'm not sure how well it would transfer to screen.

Well, it might also be unintentionally revealing about Macauly's field of view. There's plenty of interesting stuff going on out there. I can think of at least five young / youngish choreographers whose next new work I'd like to see pronto. Most of them don't do ballet, and they don't routinely produce masterworks, but they're definitely worth watching.

Film critic Denis Lim weighs in on whether or not "Black Swan" is camp per the terms of Susan Sontag's famous defintion. (Lim's article contains a link to Sontag's 1964 essay.) His conclusion?

It looks as if NYROB has now made the entire article available on line. Here's the link.

I was doing some ticket scouting yesterday and there were still decent seats available for most of the upcoming performances. Interestingly enough, some of the best seats are available for the "peak" (and more highly priced) performances, but not the "standard" ones.

Vanity Fair has posted a portfolio of dance photos going all the way back to its March 1986 issue (featuring a Bruce Weber portrait of Karol Armitage) and running up through the January 2011 issue (featuring a Weber portrait of Chase Finlay and Robert Fairchild). The Finlay / Fairchild portrait is accompanied by some...umm...frothy prose by Damien Woetzel, who was himself featured in one of Weber's VF portfolios (here). ABT men seem particularly well-represented. A so-bordering-on-cheesy-that-it-must-be-a-joke beefcake shot of Roberto Bolle by Bruce Weber is nicely offset by an Annie Liebovitz photo of Mark Morris looking for all the world like an avenging goddess straight out of a baroque fresco.

Hah! I just noticed that the final performance is Saturday, Jan 1, which I can attend after all! Can't think of a better way to open the new year ... Looks like lots of tickets are still available ...

I can't go either, and it's breaking my heart! Anthony Tommasini gave it a rave in the NYT. I know someone who's seen it, and she gave it a rave as well. I especially wanted to hear Gerald Finely's Goloud, but the whole cast looks splendid on paper and, I gather, sounds splendid too!

Lordy, how could I have forgotten about Mayor! Perhaps New York City Opera will mount a revival at Koch Theater...

Former Mayor Ed Koch just got a bridge! From today's NYT: Way more than just a bridge, even. And it just so happens that there's a theater that already has his name on it.

I haven’t seen “Black Swan” yet and probably won’t until it’s out on DVD. Based on the trailer and the reviews, however, it sure looks like the latest offering in a genre I’ve grown to loathe (but just can’t seem to resist anyway): lurid, overwrought “wages of art” flicks—in the line of, say, “Shine” or “Hilary and Jackie” or even “Amadeus”—in which it is posited that artists’ psyches are imperiled by 1) the cruel demands of their own genius, 2) the sinister machinations of their mentors, and 3) looking for love in all the wrong places. It’s as if there weren’t any other stories to tell about artists and the creative process—except of course for the ones involving substance abuse. At least “Black Swan” isn’t a biopic. My husband and I joke about doing a 3-D horror remake of “Shine” in which David Helfgott’s father, lit by lightening flashes, repeatedly thrusts the score of a piano concerto towards the camera lens while shouting “Rachmaninoff! Rachmaninoff!”

Oh my. I think I have new-found respect for Kanye West's If you have 35 minutes to spare, go bask in the sheer dementedness of the . An angelic bird woman falls from heaven in a ball of fire right in front of Kanye's car ... one of Apollo's angels, perhaps? Edited to add an advisory: Kanye's lyrics are of course explicit. But the man sure loves him some bourrees ...