Helene

I thought I had read somewhere that Balanchine's original cast was supposed to include Diana Adams, not Verdy, but Adams couldn't do it.

Please use Jack's link to discuss the program. Thank you!

This is now the right place Jim Nelson, General Manager of Houston Ballet, is blogging about the Ballet Across America experience here, and he's included photos.

Please post your impressions of Ballet Memphis in Troy McIntyre's "In Dreams" and Aspen Santa Fe Ballet in Jorma Elo's "Red Sweet" here. We hope to hear from you!

Please post your impressions of Arizona Ballet in Ib Andersen's "Diversions" here. We hope to hear from you!

Please post your impressions of Pacific Northwest Ballet in Benjamin Millepied's "3 Movements" here. We hope to hear from you!

I've lived in four big cities in a row, and I travel extensively on my own. If I thought walking alone late at night in a city was a bad idea without question or regard to specific circumstances, I'd never get to the ballet or opera.

Or they've heard stories about these women who hang in the forest and are checking it out, like all of the characters in horror movies who walk into the haunted house, just to check it out.

Thank you for your effort and your explanation, Marc. The other day in a post-performance Q&A, an audience member asked Pacific Northwest Ballet's James Moore if he saw much of other companies, and he answered, yes, there was lots on YouTube. Which makes me long for the day that more and more videos of older dancers are released, so that today's dancers' video experience isn't starting with the equivalent of a young opera singer hearing not much released earlier than Pavarotti or Domingo. As an audience member, I understand the difficulties, but I want it all now. I won't argue that this isn't immature or greedy, but it's true.

While a big of an exaggeration -- probably every other movie -- and inspired by the recent discussion about the Tony awards, (Warning: it's not the most sensitive mockery ever made.)

In the afternoon's Q&A, Peter Boal told us that there would be a few unannounced departures. Jordan Pacitti singled out a dancer for the final onstage bow, which is real-life mime for a dancer for whom it is a final performance with the company. I thought I recognized Duge; I'm sad to see her leave. I wish her happiness and success in whatever she does next. Thank you for the ID on Janie Taylor: I thought she looked familiar!

Swoooooooonnn!

Natalia Makarova with ABT, 1971. Her partner is still dear to my heart, Ivan Nagy.

On 22 May Doug Fullington presented a seminar on "Coppelia" at the Phelps Center. He began with a discussion of the history and music of the ballet, with musical illustrations from the Kent Nagano/Lyons Opera Ballet Orchestra recording. After a short break, we moved to the main, stage-size studio for a discussion of the costumes with Costume Shop Manager Larae Hascall, a formidable designer in her own right, and a comparison of a partial reconstruction by Doug Fullington of the music to which Balanchine choreographed Spinner, danced by Brittany Reid, to the Balanchine version. The seminar concluded with a Q&A with stager Judith Fugate, a beautiful Swanhilda in her day, and Carla Korbes, who performed the role for the fist time last weekend. Some historical and musical highlights: The origin of the story is ETA Hoffmann's "Der Sandmann" (The Sandman). [This is the same source that Offenbach used in the Olympia section of "The Tales of Hoffmann"] Originally Franz was a trouser role, performed by a woman. The score had mini leitmotivs: Franz has two, Swanhilda none. Delibes emphasize the national dances, Mazurka and Czardas. The music was more symphonic and atmospheric and less literal than, for example, Adam's score for "Giselle". The theme for the theme and variations for Swanhilda and her friends was originally from a Polish opera. The handout had excerpts from the "Coppelia" chapter of Robert Fiske's book "Ballet Music". Doug created a chart to map the Act III Divertissement segments from the Original Score (1870), the published piano reduction (1870), and the Balanchine production (1974), and he noted where Balanchine added music from "Sylvia". In the studio, Hascall displayed several costumes on mannequins: a woman "villagers" costume from the first act -- the villagers perform the Mazurka and Czardas -- Coppelia/Swanhilda's violet dress, the dress for Dawn, and there may have been another I forgotten. (It was hard to keep my eyes off of the green, violet, and gold villager's costume.) In addition, she had one of the corps de ballet girls' pink tutus from Act III, a fez, and one of the helmets worn by the Discord and War dancers, which to our astonishment wasn't made of metal or molded plastic, but was shiny, metallic-looking soft fabric, from which the bristly plumes were attached with velcro, making the "helmets" washable. Hascall showed us the "Bible", a series of binders with costume sketches and swatches, and detailed information about the fabrics and construction. She explained that they stockpile fabric when the can, because it's not always possible to buy it again. There were two sets of costumes each for Swanhilda and Franz, for different heights. Width is adjusted, at least in the women's costumes, by multiple long strips of hooks and eyes that allow multiple closures. The bodices could be detached from the skirts to mix and match sizes. Hascall told us that in one of the intermediate lighting rehearsals, they realized that the violet of Swanhilda's dress washed out, and that they used such rehearsals to make adjustments. She was very happy that a single designer, Roberta Guidi di Bagno, was hired to do both costumes and sets. She told an anecdote about a full length designed by Ming Cho Lee (sets) and Martin Pakledinaz (costumes), in which during a lighting rehearsal, Lee remarked that perhaps he and Marty should have spoken more. Hascall said that the wisteria in the Act III sets was inspired by Guidi di Bagno own house in Italy. The designer created signed sketches for each of the corps girls. The most astonishing thing she told us was that PNB got a liquor license in order to use grain alcohol to spray the costumes that aren't hand-washed after each performance, in order to kill the bacteria. She said they started with vodka, but it was too expensive. This was to keep chemicals and fragrances from commercial products off the dancers' skin, and she showed us how seams were covered where the fabric could be irritating. The Shop spends years refining and adjusting costumes to make them more efficient and comfortable. The women's dresses were deliberately lengthened to look less 1970's -- the original NYCB production was in 1974, and PNB got permission to do a new design for this new PNB/San Francisco Ballet co-production -- and Hascall noted that the costumes for Dawn, Prayer, and Spinner were based on the same design. Then Brittany Reid entered in the Spinner costume, and our jaws dropped: the dress was rendered in bright white with black, deco-like designs, including a wheat pattern on the skirt, and she looked like Audrey Hepburn in it. It's a stunner. Reid worked with Doug on the partially notated variation from 1903, called "Work (Spinning Girl)", and Doug noted where they had to make educated guesses. Reid performed it and then the Balanchine version, and I was struck by the bigger use of space and strong use of the diagonal in Petipa. The deceptively simple movement reminded me more of Balanchine's Dawn variation than Spinner's, which is danced primarily downstage and laterally. Since this wasn't in the High School of Needle Trades, a shallow, comparatively wide stage, I thought maybe Balanchine didn't want the variation to look like the POB Melancholic, lost in a sea of blue on the l'Opera Bastille stage, but sandik pointed out after opening night that there was no room of the stage: the 24 girls from Waltz of the Golden Hours remain on stage until Discord and War shoo them off with everyone else. Since this was stager Judith Fugate's first chance to see Reid dance the variation in the voluminous costume, she worked with Reid on making some of the movements bigger, so that they would have the same impact. On our way back into the discussion with Fugate and Korbes, we mobbed Reid to see the dress: it was like the scene in "The Nutcracker" where the guests go up to the dolls, but, thankfully, we didn't maul her, although we might have worried her for a few moments. In the final discussion, Judith Fugate, who had started working with PNB last summer, then went to stage the ballet in one continuous phase for Boston Ballet, and later returned to finish the PNB staging, told us that she had been in the original, as Swanhilda's friend who finds the key at the end of Act I; Balanchine used to call her "Sarah Bernhardt", and she took her responsibility seriously, because if she wasn't clear, what followed wouldn't have made sense. (This is noted in the score as "Judy finds key.") She danced many roles in the production over time. (Her splendid Swanhilda was one of the highlights of my NYCB-going days, and I wasn't even a fan of the ballet at the time.) She said that Balanchine felt that the simpler the gesture, the clearer it is, and that he worked towards exact timing needed for comedy. About the comedy, Fugate seemed pleased that each of the casts had different sense of humor, and they translated their humor into different interpretations. She spoke with Korbes about the challenges of the role, like the simple, but intricate partnering, the sheer amount of dancing, and the changes from peasant to doll to elegant bride. For Korbes, it was her chance to play a peasant and to do comedy, and to do all of the jumps. She lauded the corps girls, and in response to a question, said if there was a collision, it was probably the fault of the lead, since they were dancing so precisely. I don't remember whether it was Fugate or Korbes who talked about the special feeling of being a role model for the young dancers. It was a wonderful presentation, and to Doug, Hascall, Reid, Fugate, and Korbes, who were so generous with their time so close to the premiere.

Schmidt had a gorgeous voice, but he was very short (well under 5') and was not cast on stage in operatic roles, but performed on the radio and made recordings and several films, where his height wasn't an obstacle. The tragedy was that he died trying to escape pre-Vichy France, and was interned in a Swiss refugee camp, where he died, being in fragile health, at 38. Una furtiva lagrima Madame Butterfly love duet from Act I, with Grace Moore Search YouTube for "Joseph Schmidt" or "Josef Schmidt" for more.

It's also advertised as a "Farewell" performance, not a regular season performance. For example, Adam Luders and Gen Horiuchi retired in the same performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Act II Divertissement and as Oberon, respectively, a regularly scheduled performance of the ballet.

Back in the day, the majority of dancers, even principals, got an announcement of when their last performance would be, and, principals got a career history and wrap-up article in the NYT before the final performance. They were presented with flowers, and there could be hugs from company members, staff, former dancers, etc. Reviews were regular performance reviews with a mention of the retirement and perhaps a line or two in tribute. While there might have been private company events and celebrations to mark the milestone, the public recognition was in the context of a regular season performance, or in the case of Stephanie Saland, who retired with the 1993 Balanchine Celebration, a special solo bow in front of the curtain, a privilege also given to retiring corps members and soloists after regular season performances. Fans of the dancers would show up for those performances. The tribute performances were for historically important dancers like Farrell and McBride, where programs would be tailored to them, although not all historically important dancers got them. If that tradition had held, we wouldn't need to have this conversation.

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Here is a direct link to the tribute photos on the Bolshoi site: http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/season/press-offi...x.php?id26=1554 I can't find an English version of the article to which Marc linked and leonid referred. (Substituting "en" for the second "ru" in the URL is currently a broken link. Perhaps it will be translated later on the site, but for now, there are Google and Microsoft translators.

Peter Boal said in a Q&A earlier this season that there would be a few retirements. A third dancer who will not be back next year although not retiring : Mara Vinson last PNB performance will be in the "Coppelia" Pas de Deux and Finale, the last scheduled work in the Encore Program.

RM Campbell confirmed in his review in "The Gathering Note" (reported in Links), that Mara Vinson is leaving the Company at the end of the season.

I think it's been NYCB policy for years, at least since the Lincoln Center years, to program a new ballet at least once more in the next season, unless the work was part of a big festival. Does anyone know if "Tricolore" and "PAMTGG" were given (at least) a second run?

I agree with Sandy and Sandi. The slip really wasn't a big deal in either the context of the solo and certainly not in the overall performance, and Orza did the full rotations, which was very impressive in itself. Focusing simply on the ending might be a human tendency, but it's not the whole story. Every one of those performances was a major role debut in a full-length ballet. I saw two of the three performances, and the quality was consistently outstanding.

If it's in the order of appearance, it would be Whelan/Neal in "The Man I Love", Somogyi in "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise", Kowrowski/Neal in "Embraceable You", Tiler Peck in "Fascinatin' Rhythm", Scheller/Neal in "Who Cares?" and Hyltin in "My One and Only".

I think that sentence summarized the paragraph before it and the sentence before that and could have stood alone, without the rest.