Alexandra

Croce was pretty hard on Diamonds. "If much was expected, much was promised." She was writing some decades ago and comparing it to other, greater, similar works in the repertory. As I remember it, and I havne't read it in years, it was the overall structure, not the pas de deux, that she felt weren't up to snuff. I remember the Farrell piece, too, but that was about the way it was danced.

Well, I'm sure the company didn't do it for fun! When I spoke to a company representative opening night, she indicated that both of them had been injured and working back from injuries, so perhaps they weren't quite ready. I'm not going to any more ABT performances this weekend, but I've asked a colleague who is going to see if he can find out anything, and if we have anything OFFICIAL I'll post it.

I mailed some out today, and will be mailing the rest throughout the week. This issue: Nancy Dalva: "The Long Goodbye; NYCB’s Opening Night" [of this year's Balanchine Centennial] Marc Haegeman: "A Conversation with Laurent Hilaire, Etoile of the Paris Opera Ballet" Mary Cargill: "Old Stories/New Ballets. Ballet Nacional de Cuba and American Ballet Theatre at City Center" Leigh Witchel: "Interpreters Archive and Works in Process, Part 6: Violette Verdy and Conrad Ludlow Coaching Maria Tallchief and Frederic Franklin Coaching" Mary Cargill: New York Report Dance Theatre of Harlem, ABT Studio Company, New York Theatre Ballet, SAB Workshop Jane Simpson: London Report Jonathan Burrows, Martha Graham, National Ballet of China, Birmingham Royal Ballet, The Royal Ballet Rita Felciano: Bay Area Report Hubbard Street, Alonzo King’s Lines, Oakland Ballet, Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company, AXIS Dance Company

I don't know why -- I got a call from a friend at intermission to let me know that Veronika Part and Monique Meuneier, both scheduled too dance in the Shades scene as soloist, had been pulled at the Saturday matinee performance.

I'll give you my audience survey: Anecdote One: Several people (long-time fans) came up to me at intermission and said, trying hard not to give away their own positions, "So, what do you think of this evening?" I said, "Much better than opening night!!" They all (this was about 4 people, separately) looked a bit surprised. One said, "Gosh, then Sarah's review must be right!" (refering to the review of the opening night ABT performance by Sarah Kaufman in the Post which indicated that all was not well.) I gathered from this that this small, non-random sample, was not happy with the performance. But..... Anecdote Two: At the second intermission, I heard a woman say to her companion, "That was so beautiful. I think that's the loveliest Shades scene I've ever seen." Anecdote Three: Another long-time ABT-goer. "They are so much worse than they were five years ago. It's hard to watch." Anecdote Four: I was in orchestra front. The people around me all seemed to be having a wonderful time. Sustained applause after Shades -- really generous, genuine "thank you, we love you" applause. And multiple curtain calls, including front of the curtain calls. So there you have it -- as always, in the eye of the beholder. I've never seen this production of Bayadere (!!!). I was sick or out of town the previous times it came here. So I found it interesting because it was new. I thought some of the mime was very well done, but the story is not at all clearly told and IMHO the made-up final act is the silliest echt-Petipa I've ever seen. I liked Michele Wiles' Gamzatti very much. Carreno (Solor) was a bit off, but I don't mind seeing a fine dancer off-form. Paloma Herrera danced Nikiya -- some lovely moments, but my benchmark for this one is Van Hamel (It's been a Van Hamel kind of week, between Raymonda and Bayadere). Some of the soloists were very nice, but more and more when I see ABT in classical dancing -- they seem to take no pleasure in it. The energy goes into doing steps and gestures dutifully. But when you see a Russian dancer in something like this, the style is so inbred that each solo is individual, it becomes a personal statement. Watching that is a large part of the pleasure I take in watching classical dancing, and that I don't see. I'm much more interested in what you all thought I hope we'll have report.s Jeannie, I KNOW YOU WERE THERE.

Thanks to all of you -- we're getting "Jewels" down here in a few weeks, so I'm especially interested in reading who's doing what and how. Michael, I agree with you on Diamonds. I think Croce wrote something like, it's not top drawer Tchaikovsky, and it wasn't top of the line Balanchine. I think this is one of the differences between Balanchine and Ashton, who wrote some of his most beautiful ballets to mid-level music. Balanchine wouldn't impose his talent or will on the score. I think Verdy said something along those lines, too, that Balanchine was such an honest musician. There's so much good music in that young man's symphony that it was worth choreographing, but putting a heavy polonnaise in at the end wouldn't have been supported by the structure. (??)

This is a casting update; a colleague of mine in Copenhagen checked this for us. Cuni was the woman in Flower Festival (with Sakurai) Newark -- pas de six in Napoli: Amy Watson Gudrun Boejsen Tina Hojlund Claire Still That's in order of solos, and would mean that Tina Hojlund was the "Teresina." I don't have the men yet; I hope to post an update on that.

I'd like others to go first this time -- what did you think? (For anyone interested in La Bayadere as a ballet, we have a whole sub-forum on it in the Ballets forum La Bayadere in Detail )

Yes, please. Go to ballet talk for dancers -- http://balletalert.com/dancersforum/index.php All dancer questions and topics have a new home there!

What a lovely debut! Thank you, DancingGiselle. I hope we'll read more of you. Do take a breath, and then come back and tell us about the Harrison -- and if you see Bayadere, I hope you'll post about that, too.

Thank you, corrival and koshka. Corrival, please never think you're "un-knowledgeable" -- you know what you saw and whether or not you liked it or thought it was good! And koshka, thank you for your 2 cents (I agree -- I think WIWO is one of those pieces that you either like, or you don't!) Corrival, I'm glad to learn that people were talking about the Post review. The opening night was a different cast, and also, some of the problems could have been corrected with rehearsal and coaching.

These are too good, dirac. You're starting a trend, and three seasons from now when these start turning up all over the world, they'll trace the trail back here.

I've been in situations where I've stood where I didn't want to because: 1. Otherwise I would have looked as though I was on strike because everyone around me was standing. Or 2. I couldn't see the stage unless I stood. 3. It seemed mean not to. Okay, so I'm a wimp.

I know -- that was discussed at the City Center season too. But the audience can't know that, and that's what we saw, and the costumes are extremely unflattering. The women look fat and the men look as though they have no necks.

Yes, I think that's true, because in Newark they were without Cavallo and they brought Bojesen in to do both Cavallo and Schandorff's roles, and things had to be shuffled around. I think there may have been some injuries by that time as well -- whatever the reasons, they could have announced the changes.

Glad you liked it. I agree that setting can make a difference, and maybe if this had been Lisner Auditorium it would have looked more at home. But I think the Kennedy Center, compared to the Met, is much smaller and more intimate. And I think wherever it was the choreography would still be bottom of the barrel. But if people like it, that's fine! The dancers certainly gave it everything they had.

In response to several questions asked earlier: I got a confirmation on Monday from the RDB press office that it was Caroline Cavallo who danced Terpsichore in Atlanta -- several people had wondered. Silja Schandorff did not dance at all on the Stars of the RDB tour; she was injured in Washington. I've gotten about three different versions of the casting of the pas de six in Napoli in Newark. We may have a post later from someone who can sort this out -- watch this thread!

Thanks, Jeannie. I'd second a vote for the Sergeyev Raymonda! Not that I've seen it, but a good friend of mine came back from St. Petersburg years ago saying "it was a cascade of beautiful classical dancing. He's kept enough of the story to make sense, and yet kept it in the background." I wondered why they chose this program too -- it wasn't a crowd pleaser. (Although the house was much better last night; the side backs were nearly full.) Anyone else go? Please don't be reluctant to disagree.

Yes, thank you so much for that. If we can't be there, it's great to be able to read about it in such detail. I've always been curious about Pharoah's Daughter. I read once -- in the John Percival biography, I think -- that Nureyev was always urging Ninette de Valois to revive that, saying that the flats were still in storage at the Mariinsky!!

Yoshida -- now there's a name I haven't read lately. She disappeared from the cast lists (at least the ones I read) during The Stretton Hour; glad she stuck around.

It didn't look under-rehearsed. I'd go for "just plain bad." And I think Kaufman hit it -- they look more at home in the Duato-Harrison parts of the program. In Raymonda -- and last year in "Romeo and Juliet" -- they looked like contemporary dancers dancing ballet steps. They're using ballet the same way some modern dancers are using ballet -- as a means to an end. Bigger, faster, stronger. More turns, higher leaps. The casting didn't help -- the men in the "character" segment had cleaner lines than those in the "classical" ones. Wednesday night (with Paloma Herrera and Marcelo Gomes) was a bit better -- Herrera wasn't as polished as Murphy but she looked as though she were enjoying the role and had internalized it. There were some arm positions that were, shall we say, nonstandard -- but that's throughout. They do Paul Taylor scoop arms every now and again, just throw their hands in the air. Gomes is such a warm performer, and so ardent a partner, that he set the stage. His dancing is big and clear and so musical that even when he and the orchestra lost each other during the coda it didn't matter. He still LOOKED musical. The flow of movement from the back, up the arm and out the fingers is glorious. But even Gomes could use some polish. The production is a cut and paste Raymonda, a bit from here, a bit from there. I was told by a friend who'd seen the production at City Center that there had been changes. There's now a double variation for two women and another for two men that, he said, had not been in the New York production. To me, these dancers, in their original form, are one of the glories of the classical repertory, and their structure, as well as the steps, are integral parts of that glory. Why not set it has come down to us? (That's a rhetorical question.) The George Harrison ballet is, to me, an embarrassment. It looks like an end of school show, recital stuff -- maybe at a cheerleading school. The dancers are wonderful They run and roll on the floor and jump up and down and wiggle their shoulders with all the energy one could want. It's nice to see the women with their hair down -- they look more individualized than when they're in contemporary bunhead mode.

Part danced in Raymonda and is scheduled to do a Shade.

Vive l'emploi!!! I saw Saravanov's Siegfried in D.C. and one thing that struck me was that he looked impeccably coached, as though the artistic staff was aware of the problems -- that he looks so young, that he's more a classique than a noble (the emploi question). He knew where and how to stand on stage, how to turn, how to walk, how to present a ballerina -- if he can internalize it, and loses the baby face, he might one day make a Siegfried. Having been watching ABT's blue jeans "classicism" in Raymonda for two nights, my hat's off to the Kirov coaches. But I agree with Thalictum that his "gestures look slightly pasted on."

That's a good idea, Anna -- to me, the crossword puzzle reading is more a matter of decorum than the quality of their playing. The dancers don't chat and read books while they're standing on the side in Symphony in C 4th movement, and I think we could expect the orchestra to be "on duty" the whole time they're in the pit. They're paid enough.

I'd like to encourage others to post their views -- especially if you enjoyed the performance