sappho

5 hours ago, BalanchineFan said:

Was See the Music focused on the Debussy or on another piece of music?

It was Debussy. Andrews Sill was on the podium Thursday night, though, and he's far less compelling than Litton as both a speaker and conductor. (Beyond the casting issues, his interpretation of Square Dance was extremely sluggish.)

To echo an earlier comment, Veyette was great in Donizetti. Even without his former speed or amplitude, he gave an assured and polished performance, full of warmth and just the right amount of hamminess.

Would love to see Kikta in Haieff.

6 hours ago, Marta said:

I find Peck and Ratmansky works inventive and witty enough to fit into the City Ballet repertoire and hold up their end of the evening programs.

And here it's worth noting that Peck owes much of his success to the number of opportunities he's been given to 'get it right.' He's choreographed several good works (I like Rodeo and Pulcinella), but many bad ones (The Most Incredible Thing, Bright, Rotunda). (Just to editorialize, in general I find his choreography far too busy, especially in the arms and wrists. Many of his choreographic decisions read to me like glorified Tiler Peck speed challenges.)

As for other NYCB-trained choreographers, I think Lauren Lovette has a good eye for group work and could succeed with more opportunities and better music selections. I found Gianna Reisen impressive, too. And hasn't Silas Farley started choreographing?

Last time I checked, it was still available on Marquee TV. It's absolutely magnificent. I'd give anything to see it performed live.

4 hours ago, nanushka said:

It wasn't billed as one, and the work is only 4 minutes long according to the NYCB repertory page.

Ach, my bad! I'd forgotten that Scherzo was super short.

Though the Scherzo excerpt was brief, it was pleasure to see Claire Von Enck and Olivia Boisson in featured roles. They are both such witty and generous dancers.

Sanz and Kretzschmar are such delightful hosts. Loved the latest episode & hope they do more crew/wardrobe/admin interviews. I imagine they could spend a whole season in conversation with Marc Happel.

Worst: Peter Gelb.

Canari qui chante and Violente, which are somehow bland and anxiety-inducing at the same time.

Agree with Kathleen and vipa that a more intimate venue would help.

Would also love to see this performed with better singers and pianists. (I imagine they'd draw more of the opera crowd, too.) NYCB's LW musicians have seemed sort of meh and uneventful, which is sad given the quality of both contemporary Brahms lieder recordings and recent lieder concerts in NY.

I was at her first Il trovatore performance at the Met last January. Utter magic. It felt at the time like the audience sat in stunned silence between the end of "Stride la vampa" and the beginning of the uproarious applause, as though we all needed a moment to ask ourselves, "Wait, did I really just hear that?"

3 hours ago, Helene said:

On livestream, the Munich "Otello" with Kaufmann, Harteros, and Finley. 

Second this. Finley and Harteros were glorious, and Niermeyer's decision to stage Otello as a domestic drama centered on Desdemona was smart & well-executed.

So happy to see Parsifal at the top of someone else's list! It's been almost a year and I'm still basking in the afterglow of that production. I didn't catch the 2013 staging, but I watched the Met On Demand recording and agree that the boyishness/clarity/brightness of Vogt's voice makes him a better fit for the role than the unavoidably tragi-glamorous Kaufmann. Pape and Mattei were divine.

I knew about the Creutzfeldt/Jakob, although thanks for the fascinating NYT link @Helene; I hadn't known about how it specifically distorted his music & color perception.

This is the sort of thing I had it mind when I flagged Clifford's references to Balanchine's waning health, which he sometimes seemed to invoke as evidence that his (Clifford's) few years in the company represented a more quote-unquote authentic period of the Balanchine style. I suppose I'm wondering if Balanchine's late-life health factors into how other répétiteurs interpret Balanchine's aesthetic. To this casual observer, the comments seemed like a really dodgy way for Clifford to position himself as the repository of 'true' Balanchine knowledge, but I could be totally off-base here given how much I still have to learn about this period of B's life.

Hadn't checked Clifford's Instagram in a while, and wow. Recent posts constitute a real masterclass in how not to pitch oneself or one's ideas, and it seems like he's become more unprofessional since he accepted the fact that he was out of the running for AD. (Seems like he still wants to be involved with the company in some capacity, though?) In addition to the post that @nanushka linked to, I'm struck by a few things:

• A few instances in which he's discounted Balanchine's late-life decisions and statements on account of the latter's "brain problems." What's that about?
• Peter Martins was obviously no saint, but Clifford doesn't seem to realize that publicly and continuously attributing his own absence from New York to Martins' personal jealousy and vindictiveness is not what the board, the company, or members of the public want to see. You're not going to get a hero's welcome in New York simply in virtue of being different from Peter and more personally in awe of Balanchine.
• He's suggested that the board's decision represents a capitulation to "PC culture." Nope. Sorry. Being involved in the company in any capacity is going to require you to answer questions about gender and power in the ballet world -- including and especially from SAB parents -- with maturity and seriousness. Nobody -- donors, parents, press, board -- wants to talk to a spoilsport who rolls his eyes at the problem.
• He often says things like, "Everyone is interpreting these comments as a criticism of the dancers and boards." Tough cookies? When you're in a public-facing leadership position, you take ownership of the impact that your words have on others. Words such as:

Quote

 So now what am I supposed to do? Deny it? Play dumb and accept the mediocrity I see disguising itself for greatness? Allow Hubris to win the day? No thank you! Even if I’ve made some enemies with my recent posts, that’s their problems; not mine. 

Eek, sorry for the rant. 😮It seems I'm annoyed by historical nostalgia and hagiography and entitlement of all sorts these days.

3 hours ago, cassieallison said:

I thought Gretchen Smith's purple suit was stunning

3 hours ago, cobweb said:

I hope Gretchen is back dancing soon. Seems like she's been out for ages. 

I love Sara's dress too. 

 Loved both. The neckline of Gretchen's suit is so good. Well done, Marc Happel. 👏

6 hours ago, Dreamer said:

There were some interesting facts to learn; for example, that Hungarians were “ the finest group of immigrants this country ever had.”🙄

YIKES. 🤯 I'm glad Anthony Tommasini made note of the self-aggrandizing speeches in his review, but this particular detail is new to me. Unsurprising; still atrocious.

(And it makes me feel even more grateful that Iván Fischer is in town with the NYPhil this week.)

9 hours ago, FPF said:

Hazarding a guess here, but I suspect the lighting plots are pretty well documented, as are the original costumes and decor, and that these are the least of our worries.

Heh. My first thought when he mentioned this in the new video was that I'd sooner entrust the company to Marc Happel, the astonishingly knowledgable and much-beloved Director of Costumes, than I would to John Clifford. 🙃

3 hours ago, manhattangal said:

The underwriters must have very deep pockets.

Hungarian cultural institutions are heavily and notoriously dependent on state funding. (The Budapest Festival Orchestra under the wonderful Iván Fischer is a noteworthy exception.) It's worth reflecting on this tour against the backdrop of Fidesz's increasingly alarming and illiberal cultural interventions. See for instance: https://www.ft.com/content/9c657408-b514-11e8-bbc3-ccd7de085ffe

Oof, just saw that Leonidas Kavakos (with MTT & San Francisco Symphony) and Leila Josefowicz (with JvZ & NYPhil) both performed the Stravinsky Violin Concerto this past week, just days after the NYCB performance. Would have loved to hear either violinist try to tackle the piece as ballet accompanist.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/arts/music/stravinsky-carnegie-hall-opening.html

3 hours ago, BalanchineFan said:

I just watched several of John Clifford's postings. Boy, I don't envy the board having to pick a new director. The egos involved can be enormous. 

To put it mildly.

Beyond his unprofessional eccentricities (e.g. tagging certain dancers in every post), his sense of entitlement is shocking and foolish. He really does think he's an authority on the felt experiences of the women (and men) affected by Balanchine's various conflicts of interests, because he was 'there when it happened.'¹ He also doesn't seem to understand what constitutes a conflict of interest, but that's a separate point.

__________

¹ Always a bad look, but an electrifyingly bad one this particular weekend. 🤬

15 minutes ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

I actually liked the new Abraham work a lot, although of course your mileage may vary! It's worth the price of admission just to see Taylor Stanley, but I think it flatters the rest of the cast, too, especially the men. I love the ruffs; I love the headpieces. The only costume I'm iffy on is Ashley Bouder's; it makes her look just a little too much like a fuzzy caterpillar.  

One thing I liked  was the way Abraham interleaved a phrase of not-ballet with a phrase of most-definitely ballet, rather than trying to atom-smash them together into some kind of new dance compound. When the dancers were given ballet steps to do, they by and large got them in complete phrases and did them the way ballet dancers would. And they got real steps: like Pam Tanowitz, Abraham seems to have more respect for the possibilities of petite allegro than Christopher Wheeldon does. The dancers' movement had a different inflection in the not-ballet passages, of course, although it was fun to see a characteristic bit of Abraham resolve into a beautiful, poised croisé. 

Check out the samples on the work's repertory page on the NYCB website: https://www.nycballet.com/season-tickets/18-19-season/winter/feb-10-2019-new-combinations/new-abraham.aspx

They appear to have taken down one of my favorite bits of "flash footage" wherein Roman Mejia unleashes a demented barrage of petite allegro to the equally demented "I Love Kanye."

ETA: I will make every effort to see The Runaway again, although I probably won't get a chance this season, alas. 

Thanks for this awesome review and for the link; I'd seen the footage of Taylor Stanley but not the others. Love Ashley Bouder's exit in the second. Will be at the Armory for Keersmaeker's Brandenburg Concertos on Saturday, unfortunately, so I'm very happy to see that The Runaway is returning this spring!

Hello from the intermission of a not-quite-packed but very enthusiastic house. 

Teresa was pure poetry in Barocco. Beautiful arms, gorgeous lifts, and she really allowed the music to breathe. Miriam Miller in the corps looked a bit lost or unfocused. 

Tiler and Joaquin brought down the house. There were moments when it seemed like the house would bring down Tiler and Joaquin, though; my sense is that the rambunctiousness of the audience threw the orchestra and dancers out of sync in a couple of spots. 

Edit after the show: Kowroski was wonderful in Stravinsky Violin Concerto. Equal parts smouldering intensity and effortless joy. (It occurred to me that back-to-back excerpts from Violin Concerto, Mozartiana, and Slaughter on Tenth Avenue would make for an awesome and sartorially striking Kowroski farewell performance.) Stravinsky is such an expressive corps showcase piece, too, and I wish they'd stage it a little more frequently. I look forward to seeing more of Christina Clark. She also stood out in the corps of Symphony in C, as did Emma Von Enck, who projects so much warmth and character. Consistent with reviews from earlier this week, Indiana Woodward's 3rd movement was terrific.

On 9/22/2018 at 2:34 AM, Helene said:

Congratulations to Biasucci for this long-overdue and well-deserved promotion    

Ummm am I allowed to be super stoked by this even if I've never seen Leta dance live?! 🙌

Even on tape, it's clear what an absolute force of nature she is. I particularly love the short clips on PNB's YouTube (or possibly Facebook?) of Biasucci dancing Rubies and David Dawson works.

5 hours ago, On Pointe said:

In the Waterbury  case,  nobody died,  no one was battered,  and all of the sex was consensual.  It doesn't  meet the criteria for "revenge porn". 

It's been mentioned several times above, but it's worth reiterating that 'revenge porn' laws target the unlawful dissemination of sexual/intimate images (i.e. disseminating images of a subject without obtaining explicit consent to disseminate those images). This can happen even if the sex was consensual.

18 minutes ago, Helene said:

I certainly understand the "few bad apples" argument, that there is a rare organization or endeavor that is completely squeaky clean, and that the organization should be judged by how they address the issue, not that it should be tossed because there are imperfect humans operating in them.  I don't think there's anything vile about this argument, even if I don't agree with whether a given situation is "bad apples" or systemic.

For me, his argument comes dangerously close to "The ends justifies the means," particularly in the use of th ubiquitous passive voice.  "Mistakes were made," in my opinion, is one of the biggest cop outs in the English language.  

Definitely agree with this. I was referring mainly to his use of "unfortunate mistake" -- and in the passive voice, as you rightly note -- to characterize what happened. I also don't think NYCB's cultural contributions over the decades are relevant to the case at hand.