cargill

Here is the link to my review of "Sylvia" if people are interested. I just love that balley so much!

As I understand it, Ashton originally had complete variations for the Act III gods and goddesses, but felt they made the act too long, so cut them. It's too bad no one remembers them!

I was there last night--it was wonderful. The audience, which was quite large, seemed to love it. There was a child in the audience who was just howling with laughter when Eros pranced on in his old lady disguise, which was so charming--ABT should hire him/her to come to them all!

Here is the link to my review of "The Winter's Tale". Mary https://www.danceviewtimes.com/2025/07/kings-behaving-badly.html

If people are interested, here is the link to my review of Misseldine's Swan Lake. I thought she was incredible. https://www.danceviewtimes.com/2025/06/heart-and-soul.html

I know I am aging myself, but I was at the 1979 festival, and I have to say that that was one of the absolute highlights of my ballet going. I don't think they will ever match it, they had such wonderful mimes and gorgeous dancers--Ib Andersen and a young Lis Jeppesen, and so many others.

The male lead in the afternoon was Corbin Holloway. My program says he and Lucie Richard (the female lead) are both apprentices, but didn't say anything about the other apprentices. They were both very good!

In the original Fokine Firebird, which I love, the Prince, being a hunter, tried to capture the Firebird and they struggle. She pleads with him to let her go and finally offers him the magic feather to set her free. She is therefore obligated to come to him when he is in trouble, but basically she is a creature and generally hates him. The ending is absolutely majestic, with the Prince and Princess taking over the kingdom with the freed knights (Koschei had turned other invaders into stone which he tried to do to the Prince) and the enchanted maidens. Goncharava's backdrop is stupendous, a huge city full of onion domes.

Sylvia is one of my favorites, a gorgeous pastiche of a 19th century version of 18th century ballet. The hero is like the Prince in Sleeping Beauty (another 19th century take on 18th century style) in that he is protected and guided by supernatural forces, winning the heroine because he has a noble soul. He has a lovely lyrical solo in Act I and a fast and elegant solo in Act III. Syliva has a lot of very hard dancing (Osipova reportedly said when she did it at the Royal Ballet that she didn't see how Fonteyn could dance it), and like Sleeping Beauty has a different character in each act. The music by Delibes, is just gorgeous.

Very interesting--I wish you had named and shamed the works though!

I just saw this blurb on the Kennedy Center's website. It seems they are promoting the female creative team. “It’s not often that a presenting organization such as the Kennedy Center can support the creation of a new full-length story ballet by giving it a chance to be seen in another city. It’s an extra thrill that ABT is bringing us a story crafted and created by a predominantly female creative team. While it may not seem revolutionary, seeing a classical full-length ballet with choreography, music, lighting, sets, and costumes all directed by women, performed by a company directed by a woman, is a huge step forward for the field.”

If people are intersted, here is the link to my review. Mary Cargill https://www.danceviewtimes.com/2024/10/the-heart-of-the-matter.html

I interviewed Judith Fugate not long after she retired, and the girl who find the key in Coppelia came up. (I had quoted a friend of mine who said he always remembered how vivid she was.). She just beamed and said she couldn't believe anyone remembered it, and talked about how Balanchine spend a lot of time coaching her in it, how she should go slowly and show everyone in the audience the key. She said he called her Sarah Bernhardt, because he liked her acting, and was very proud of a movement in Tombeau de Couperin (an all corps piece) which she did and he had marked "Sarah Bernhardt" in the score.

I just got mine. The print is very small! How wonderful it is to have pictures on glossy stock again, it makes such a difference.