I saw the performance Sunday afternoon. Gillian Murphy was lovely. She may be near the end of her career, but she’s definitely the reigning ballerina at ABT. Cornejo too, though not as incredible as he was in his heyday, he still commands the stage. This performance was the first time I’ve seen Carmago. Oberon is a good role for him and while I enjoyed his performance, I was a little disappointed in his jumps that I thought were a bit floor bound. The corps looked good, the four fairies were excellent and Mahoney was good as Bottom. The only sections of The Dream that I disliked are the two couples. I think it actually takes very high caliber dancers to pull those roles off, and unfortunately the dancers on Sunday were not able to do that. I agree with other posters that the fairy costumes were all too similar and would’ve preferred more delineation between the corps fairies, four fairies and Tatiana.
This was actually the first time I saw The Seasons. While I enjoyed the first half, the second half was a bit chaotic and didn’t really make sense to me. Of the women: most enjoyable were Misseldine (I see Nikiya in her future), Coker (remind me again why she wasn’t promoted? I really hope Jaffe corrects that and quickly!), and Hurlin (just, wow). Of the men: I thought for the most part they looked good, some better than others. I thought Forster did a good job, I’m not a big fan of Royal but he did well with Hurlin. Although he had issues with the end of his solo, Gonzalez impressed. Really good jumps I hope he stays healthy and gets better roles in the future.
Now…those costumes! I didn’t mind Winter that much, the Spring trio was ok as was the Autumn lead couple but my lord, the others were truly hideous. I can’t believe they were allowed on stage. Yikes!