Drew

Hello @KateLibby and welcome. London is a fabulous place to see great ballet and dance.  I am always happy to read about what is happening there. Your website sounds like quite an undertaking.....

When Balanchine created his one act Swan Lake, showing only one act of Swan Lake -- the first lakeside scene-- was the norm in the United States. People went expecting to see that scene only and in the context of a mixed bill program. That's pretty much all that was on offer for many years after Balanchine's production premiered. (And, as I understand, the Petipa-Ivanov production originated in Ivanov choreographing a stand-alone Lake scene--what we now know as Act II or Act I, scene ii, and its success spurred the development of the multi-act ballet.)  Insofar as Balanchine re-choreographed some material and brought in elements of the final act, his was a different approach but it was still the expected one Lakeside Act.

The norm now is different even at NYCB which has been regularly presenting a full length production. That latter fact is the reason I think it might make sense to signal in the title of this version that it's not the whole ballet. One may groan--after all it's obvious it can't be the full length ballet if it's one work on a mixed bill program. But since the company is rightly trying to pull in new audiences and not rely on old-timers or knowledgeable ballet fans I think some signal might be in order. Swan Lake (the Lake scene) or Balanchine's Swan Lake or some such. Honestly I doubt very many people are entirely confused but it could be worth addressing.

1 hour ago, volcanohunter said:

Actually, it isn't. Mussorgsky was referring to a proposed design by Viktor Hartmann (Gartman), which was never built. Thankfully, because it was an ugly design, complete with double-headed eagle, which might have fit in stylistically on Red Square, but which would have stuck out like a sore thumb among Kyiv's buildings. Also, the design never struck me as appearing especially "Great" or grand.

(The ruins of Kyiv's Golden Gate that led into the upper city survived into modern times, and in 1982 a reconstruction of the original gate was built in order to protect its surviving walls from further erosion. Today it stands about halfway between the opera house and the St. Sophia Cathedral complex along the same street.)

As far as I can gather, the change in the projection was made when the ballet premiered in Munich in the spring of 2022, which was interesting, because subsequently it turned out that AD Igor Zelensky was secretly Putin’s son-in-law and soon after he resigned his position for "family reasons" and returned to Russia. His former wife is still on staff at the Bavarian State Ballet.

Thank you for the clarifications—that adds a whole other layer of meaning! The ultimate allusions still seem to me there. Why build a new great gate if not partly in hopes of building the connection between Hartmann’s Russian imperial present and the Medieval past? Hartmann also is a figure associated with Slavic and specifically Russian cultural revival.

Presumably Ratmansky does not want anyone confusing his interest in this material with a Russia-centered version of Slavophile culture. Hence the appearance of the Ukrainian flag. It strikes an odd note to me, especially since I think Kandinsky is a very interesting mediating figure here. As some reading this probably remember, I am a huge Ratmansky fan (have been known to say a word in favor of The Tempest).  And of course he has the right to change his works. This change sounds discordant to me, though @abatt suggests the impact is minimal. And I hope to see the ballet again soon and I will see what I think then.

Ratmansky’s artistic and personal journey is what it is ... I have not forgotten Bright Stream: though not without irony, it is a delightful farce set in the era of a horrendous, Stalin-stoked famine in Ukraine. He would not make that ballet again today—at least I think not. I assume Marina Harss’s book will address some of these issues.

9 hours ago, pirouette said:

 

The people next to me were also unfortunately very distracting  They were a whole family and I cannot imagine why anyone would bring three small children under 10 to see a 76 minute contemporary ballet piece with no set, no story, minimal costumes, and no intermission. The little boy next to me was asleep within the first fifteen minutes and snored the whole way through. His sister next to him kept whispering to her mom. Curious what made them choose this program to bring the kids to. 

Its being a matinee may have been the main reason.

6 hours ago, abatt said:

 

I was  very impressed with certain new cast members of Pictures at an Exhibition, most especially Nadon and Alexa Maxwell.  The whole cast was very good.  This was a ballet where I could savor the brilliance of Tyler Angle without being distracted by his weight and his baldness.  And the projection at the very end of the ballet has been changed to a Ukranian flag.

 

Ratmansky’s support for Ukraine has largely cast him—to my eyes—in a highly sympathetic and admirable light, but this seems problematic to me. Much of his career has been spent both lovingly and critically exploring Russian culture and history. Pictures at an Exhibition is an example. It can’t retrospectively be turned into a tribute to Ukraine. Not convincingly anyway. When Mussorgsky  celebrates an image of the great gate of Kiev, surely the reference is to Kievan Rus —heck according to Wikipedia the composer traced his roots to Kievan Rus—and like Kandinsky’s radicalism (though for different reasons) it has nothing to do with being a standard bearer for Ukrainian nationalism.  And the whole spirit of Kandinsky’s abstractions and Ratmansky’s own witty, choreographically ‘colorful,’ abstract adaptations of the source material is undermined with the literalism of a flag. If the argument is that the folk traditions recalled in the ballet have Ukrainian provenance, not just Russian, then add a note in the program discussing the issue. That would be a fine idea.  Ratmansky has created more recent work in which incorporating the Ukrainian flag might be appropriate and I would happily applaud if he carried a Ukrainian flag with him during a curtain call for any of his ballets, but the backdrop is no trivial part of this ballet and changing it at the end seems to me to change the ballet. Of course, it is his ballet and he can do with it what he will but, writing as an admirer of this ballet, I wish someone had talked him out of the idea.

(No, I do not support Putin. I think he is a war criminal.)

Thank you @angelicaand @nysusan —it sounds like I will keep this seat for the pleasures of a closer look at the dancers without heads in front of me albeit maybe missing some sections of stage. If it were my only performance, then I would be more wary since I gather that it is a ballet with scenic effects and that Wheeldon makes full use of the stage, but I will stick with this seat.  

2 hours ago, FPF said:

I don't have personal experience with this seat, but you might get an idea from this website--they don't have that specific box, but they do have some nearby.

https://aviewfrommyseat.com/venue/Metropolitan+Opera+House+-+Lincoln+Center/seating-chart/theater/

 

Thank you!  I have given it a try —  unfortunately the views they show from seats closest to where I would be all show the stage with a scenic  curtain down so it is harder to judge.

I seem to have bought a “partial view” seat for Like Water For Chocolate at the Met. I did this more or less by mistake (don’t ask) but I am thinking it may not be ALL bad as it would take me closer to the stage than I can usually risk in an orchestra seat. And in my distant youth I did sometimes enjoy oddball seats. Anyway, I would be in the front row of Parterre Box 7. Has anyone sat in that box (or 8 across the horseshoe)? Any impressions to share? I am prepared to buy another ticket if it sounds like am going to lose too much to enjoy the dancers. I am a little less concerned about scenic effects because I will be seeing the ballet from a much better seat at a different performance. I have this seat for a dancer I am particularly eager to see. How much of the stage gets sliced off? (I am familiar with much of ABT’s full length rep, so reference to it would be meaningful to me.) Thank you.

7 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

There are major changes coming to the roster as well. Veteran principals Marian Walter and Dinu Tamazlacaru are leaving the company (perhaps more like retiring), and Daniil Simkin, Iana Balova, Evelina Godunova, Aya Okumura and Yevgeniy Khissmatudinov are also leaving. There may be other leavers who aren't dancing principal roles in Onegin.

https://www.staatsballett-berlin.de/en/blog/onegin-abschiedsvorstellungen/181

Im' curious about a number of those dancers and where they may end up. I wonder, too, if this means that Simkin will be seen more with ABT if only as a guest? 

Deleted

The inclusion of a moment in which the whole nation is summoned to pledge allegiance to the monarch and his descendants did rather catch my attention. It's ostensibly meant as a democratizing gesture -- where the "peers" once plead allegiance, now the "people" will. From the BBC website:

2 hours ago, MarzipanShepherdess said:

 

The program started off with Erica and Anthony leading Square Dance, but Harrison came out and performed the male solo that comes fairly late in the ballet. That solo has never lived large in my memory of Square Dance, but it will now. As Harrison danced it, it felt like he was doing a male waltz girl (from Serenade) with these deep deep surrendering backbends.

The solo in Square Dance was created for a dancer with "deep deep surrendering backbends" and a notable Melancholic in Four Temperaments--Bart Cook. Having seen Cook in the role--and also later, in a rather different performance, Peter Boal--it has always felt to me an incredibly important part of the ballet. I'm glad you got to see a performance that could bring that home to you--even if only as a one time event.

Hello and Welcome. San Francisco looks to be doing some great ballets next year!

On 4/7/2023 at 8:00 AM, California said:

The Stevenson Cinderella uses the same Prokofiev score everybody else uses. It's been performed by many companies, including Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Oregon, Norway, Colorado, San Jose, Ballet West.

 

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Stevenson's version was even danced by Margot Fonteyn back in the day. From an article by Anna Kisselgoff when ABT had the Stevenson version, briefly, in their repertory (link follows):

"George Balanchine was especially taken with this version and had it restaged in the mid-1970's at the Geneva Ballet, where he was artistic adviser..."

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/19/arts/dance-the-man-behind-the-much-in-demand-cinderella.html

Wishing her great success...

15 hours ago, cargill said:

The Wallace Collection is hosting a free lecture by Marina Warner on Ashton which is available on zoom as well.

https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/events/out-of-this-world-dancing-into-fairylands/

Thanks for the heads up....

22 hours ago, Balletwannabe said:

Which Balanchine ballets in fall would people recommend as must-see's for those who have seen very little of Balanchine?  "Asking for a friend"

In addition to what's been recommended already, I'd also put in a good word for Balanchine V--Serenade; Orpheus; Theme and Variations. Serenade and Theme and Variations are two of Balanchine's greatest ballets --both set to Tchaikovsky who was one of the composers most important to him and yet very different from each other. Serenade was also, in a slightly different version, Balanchine's first ballet in the United States so it has a special place in ballet history. in my experience Serenade is also cast-proof. So if you haven't seen those ballets, then it's a great program. Orpheus is, in some ways, an unusual work in Balanchine's oeuvre and hard to pull off, but it is always super striking visually because of the Noguchi designs and at least gives an example of one of Balanchine's collaborations with Stravinsky. It's also a narrative work so that breaks up the program a bit ...

I also like @volcanohunter's suggestions especially Program IV because both Concerto Barocco and Symphony in C are also "must see" ballets.   And Prodigal Son is another work with designs by a major artist (Rouault) and also a narrative ballet sitting between two non-narrative ballets. 

The company seems to have designed the programs to feature variety across Balanchine's oeuvre--in some cases that makes certain programs a little too split personality for my taste, but I think both of these programs look great as programs.

That's a wow ! I have seen and admired PIckett's work, but Crime and Punishment is a heavy lift, and Pickett's work has not been much seen in New York, so she doesn't have an established reputation there. I think an ambitious commission of this kind is a risk worth taking.... but it is a risk. I will definitely try to see it!

1 hour ago, eduardo said:

Any particular reason for Farrell and Martins being "like oil and water"? I'm not much very knowledgeable about that. I recall having seen them dance together in the well known video of Chaconne.

Farrell and Martins were a great dance partnership. However, when Martins became director of the company, he did not keep many of Balanchine's past ballerinas/muses around to coach and lead rehearsals. Farrell was working with the company in a very limited capacity but shortly after an interview she gave the New Yorker indicating some of her frustrations with the situation, he fired her and she did not work again with the company until after his departure as Director. Since Martins appears to have not wanted other leading Balanchine dancers to work with  NYCB or, at least, not often, I doubt the interview was the only issue.

I have heard and read people defend Martins' reluctance to involve Balanchine's former leading dancers to continue working with the company (Not just Farrell but, say, Patricia McBride)  on the grounds that different dancers remember different versions of the ballets; plus other issues arise with having former dancers around to coach -- everyone's Balanchine is different, personality issues; Martins' need to establish himself as the company's leader etc. etc. But I fear a lot of knowledge was lost to the company's traditions when dancers who had worked closely with Balanchine for years were not regularly working with the new generation of dancers after his death.  When, after Martins' departure, McBride returned to coach the role she created in Rubies, dancers talked about how differently she 'counted' the music and how difficult it was to adapt...that's not trivial.  Those of us who saw Farrell's now-defunct pick up company at Kennedy Center know what remarkable things she could do when staging ballets--even with dancers not always at the level of NYCB.

Here is a link to a NYTImes article published at the time of Farrell's firing:

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/04/arts/city-ballet-breaks-off-its-long-relationship-with-suzanne-farrell.html

Errante was the name of a ballet Balanchine created for Tilly Losch when he directed Les Ballets 1933 —the company that introduced Kirstein to Balanchine—so when I saw the name I wondered if someone was trying to reconstruct it.  But such a project did seem very unlikely. A renamed Tzigane makes more sense and I understand the reasoning behind the name change. (The ballet is still what it is, but if the name change keeps it in the repertory, then ...). I hope Farrell will also be working with dancers on Diamonds and some of her other roles.

For 2023-2024 Atlanta Ballet's  is co-producing with Hong Kong Ballet and Queensland ballet a full-length work by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa --Coco Chanel: The Life of a Fashion Icon.  It actually has already premiered in Hong Kong -- I found one rather mixed review  of the premier but most of the review was behind a paywall so I only read the opening paragraph.  On Pointe Magazine also had a short feature article about the ballet a few weeks back that I read this evening. The author of the article seems to loathe Chanel, and that takes up a lot of space in the article, but I imagine this  ballet will be a draw and I'm hoping it will be a reasonably substantial work that also manages to garner a lot of publicity.   (Atlanta Ballet danced Requiem for a Rose by Lopez Ochoa during McFall's tenure.)  I'll put the link to the On Pointe article below along with a link to a Hong Kong Vogue feature that talks more about the ballet itself and a video feature with Lopez Ochoa that was posted on Hong Kong Ballet's youtube channel,  but here is one interesting bit for Atlanta audiences. 

"When Atlanta Ballet produces the work next February, the company will partner with the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum to explore the harmful impact of Chanel’s antisemitism and collaboration with Nazis, while providing educational resources and hosting discussions on combating antisemitism today...."  (I support this idea.)

https://pointemagazine.com/coco-chanel-ballet/

https://www.voguehk.com/en/article/art-lifestyle/coco-chanel-hk-ballet-interview/

11 hours ago, matilda said:

 For one thing, they should get a new Swan Lake (Ratmansky's?) How about a Giselle? And they should really program Coppélia more often. It's a Balanchine gem, and it sells well! 

Completely on board with the Balanchine/Danilova Coppelia, but the idea of a traditional NYCB Giselle just depresses me.   Too much like a final nail in the Balanchine coffin. Maybe the Akram Khan Giselle could be an interesting option.

He had a long, rich life...may he rest in peace.

How very, very sad. She made a difference in the lives of so many critics, scholars, and fans of ballet. Deeply knowledgeable and caring about ballet history—always very kind to me personally, even when we were debating things! 

May her memory be for a blessing.....

8 hours ago, California said:

I have only seen Kim once in the theater -- partnering Tereshkina in Bayadere at the Kennedy Center in 2017. I saw two other casts and they just blew the others away. Stunning.

I agree with you on the choices he has made. We don't know if he has family in Russia who might be penalized if he defected. (I don't actually know). (I rationalize that explanation for others who have stayed.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_danc/the-ballerina-who-fights-back-in-la-bayadere-she-wont-be-manhandled/2017/10/18/fc0ee978-b41d-11e7-99c6-46bdf7f6f8ba_story.html

That Bayadere in D.C. was stunning.  I felt the same about Kim's Ali in Corsaire which I also saw live.  I've seen video of him in Legend of Love that I find pretty jaw dropping too....

It would have been hard for him to leave Russia I imagine since he has a Russian wife and has lived there a long time (over a decade), and he has spoken about his close, quasi-familial relation with his coaches. (Nagahisa's situation was very different.) But other non-Russian dancers in a similar situation--I'm thinking of Parish--did leave. The fine details of Kim's situation, as you say, we can't know. But a dancing career outside of Russia was waiting for him, indeed probably a bigger one than awaited Parish.  I can't get inside his head or heart and I'm sorry I won't see him dance again--at least it's unlikely--but, yes, his choices.

5 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

Looking at the history of Romeo and Juliet at the Bolshoi, there is a sense over the past 40 years that the company wanted its own version of the ballet, distinct from the Mariinsky's, just as every other major production in its repertoire--save Legend of Love and Carmen Suite--differs from the one at the Mariinsky. Russian companies don't regard the choreography of Swan Lake as sacrosanct, much less the choreography for Romeo and Juliet. So for the Bolshoi the Lavrovsky may look like a fallback position rather than a revered classic.

1946-1980 Lavrovsky
1979-1995 Grigorovich
1995-2000 Lavrovsky (i.e., immediately after Grigorovich's ouster)
2003-2005 Poklitaru
2010-2018 Grigorovich
2017-2022 Ratmansky

P.S. Naturally I'm aware that you're aware. 

Yes, I suppose it must look like a retreat--and likely, too, feel like one on a visceral level. I think the ballet should be a revered classics, but ... uh...fans don't get a vote.  Let alone U.S. fans!

(A rather hokey artifact I used to wish the Bolshoi would revive is the Messerer Class Concert. If they lose the rights to Etudes, then I suppose that might happen now. I realize this makes me sound awfully reactionary --but the video record suggests that they were rip-roaring in that ballet.)