nysusan

The lobby casting sheet indicated that Huxley will replace Chan for the last 2 performances of La Source.

10 hours ago, Balletwannabe said:

I had never seen Square Dance and will avoid any program with this incredibly boring ballet in the future.

You would never find Square Dance boring if you'd seen it with Bouder, or MCB's Jeannette Delgado. I have, and I love it. However last night it was deadly dull. I wish I could see it next week with Fairchild and Huxley, I'm sure it will be very different. Unfortunately I can't go to their performances.

I just took a look at my renewal. My $38 standard sub seats are in Second Ring D and it looks like they are still $38 plus a service fee. I tried to add another sub and 2nd ring D was not an option. The least expensive was 2nd ring C at $551 or 68.88 each for a 8 performance standard sub (this may include the service fee).

So it may be that they haven't raised prices on those 2nd ring D seats, but are not making those locations available for new subs. Not happy about that, but its less upsetting than to think that they're doubling the price of the cheap seats. Theoretically they may still be available for something like $38 as single ticket purchases.

Its not just Flex sub ticket prices that have been raised. Yes, I can renew my standard sub at the same or nominally higher rate. But I just looked at adding another standard sub and the lowest price was $551 - which comes out to almost $69 per ticket. Not gonna do it.

56 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

Oh golly. An all-Balanchine fall is just scrumptious. 

Silly me, looking at it all piecemeal I didn't realize that the whole fall season is ALL BALANCHINE!!! Can't wait!

Ah, I know Tzigane! Didn't know they changed the name.

Looks like there are 5 All Balanchine programs, and one includes Errante, which I am not familiar with.  I do not see a full Jewels, but I have a Rubies on my sub. There is also  a Tribute to Robbins program (Fancy Free, In the Night, 4 Seasons). Other ballets I see listed are T&V,  4Ts, Orpheus, Steadfast Tin Soldier, Le Tombea de Couperin,  This Bitter Earth, Herman Sherman PDD,  Pictures at an Exhibition, Red Angels, Glass  Pieces, Copeland Dance Episopes, and a new Garner

21 minutes ago, Becki Lee said:

I had previously asked a membership associate…

”Regarding the Gala - it is the opening night of our Summer Season, and it is also the New York premiere of Like Water for Chocolate. There is one cast being featured that night. There will be performance-only tickets available, just not in the orchestra…”

Ahh, that clears it up. Thank you.

24 minutes ago, Becki Lee said:

If guessing for opening weekend, do you think there is any way they wouldn’t give the premiere to Trenary/Cornejo?

Then my best guess would be Park/Carmago Friday…

Barring some really drastic shifts which could be the delay?

That would make sense but you never know.

And to make things more confusing, ABT's calendar shows the 1st performance of LWFC on Thurs 6/22 but the Met's calendar shows a gala on Thurs with the 1st performance of LWFC on Friday. So I'm waiting till casting is posted.

2 minutes ago, abatt said:

Ditto what mysusan said.  If there is no casting published for LWFC during subscriber priority week, I'm not getting tickets for it.  What is the  cause of the delay?!

I would see the Trenary - Cornejo cast and the Park-Carmago cast, but I'm not likely to see the Ahn cast.  Ahn in my opinion is wooden.  No acting ability.

Exactly. I have Friday night of the second week on my sub. There's no way I'll go If its the Teuscher/Ahn cast but I definitely want to see the other 2 casts. The only consolation is that I doubt it will sell well so I can still probably get whatever night I want after for this production after exchange week.

I received my ABT subscription tickets yesterday. Their subscriber exchange week starts Monday and they still haven't announced casting for LWFC. I find that very unusual, and frustrating!

On 4/6/2023 at 6:33 PM, cobweb said:

nysusan, which performance of LaFreniere's Aurora did you see - the debut or the one a few days later on Sunday afternoon (or both)? I was at the debut and it was nerve-wracking. Reports are that she did better at the second performance, but I'm wondering how much better. I agree with your assessment about her lack of dancing major roles. Here is where I think they should have gone with Emily Kikta, who is far more experienced in featured roles, and as far as I can see, delivers every time. I totally agree about Nadon - she is young, but so talented there's no arguing with her being a principal. 

I saw both of LaFreniere's performances. The second was way better than the first but she is still not my idea of an Aurora. I do think she's very talented and I'm interested in seeing how she develops. I also would have promoted Kitka ahead of her.

33 minutes ago, abatt said:

I went online last night to pick up some tickets for the second week after the casting came out.  I was shocked at how poorly the programs for the first two weeks were selling. 

The All Balanchine program is on TDF. Its a shame.

On 4/4/2023 at 10:03 PM, vipa said:

I'm not surprised but a bit disappointed to see Pereira doing both shows of Square Dance that week. She's not cast much, and that ballet has been in her rep, so I expected her to be cast, but I hope there will be a second cast. Megan Fairchild did it on tour recently and I'd be thrilled to see Emma Von Enck get a shot at it. Speaking of Square Dance, it's a signature Ashley Bouder role. There has been no indication that she will be dancing this season. Whether she returns or not, I hope she gets some sort of send off, or acknowledgement when she does decide to leave the company. 

On 4/5/2023 at 11:31 AM, cobweb said:

I too am kind of disappointed to see Pereira in Square Dance. I'd love to see Megan Fairchild, but I'd also REALLY love to see Emma von Enck! Come on NYCB, for all of us who were disappointed not to see von Enck's Aurora, let us see her in Square Dance!

Well, the thing is that unless they are going to stop renewing her contract they have to give Pereira roles to dance. I would actually love to see Woodward or EVE in Square Dance but I feel that Pereira has improved considerably post pandemic so I am willing to give her a chance.

I am sure there will be another cast, its just a question of who they will give it to.

I pretty much agree with Kourlas (which is unusual). Went to the first 2 performances. The first time out I loved the first 15 minutes or so of Anima Animus but then I thought it got repetitive. Somehow I liked it a lot more the second time around and thought the dancers, as a group, were really compelling. It was the same cast so I don't know what the difference was.

I had seen ABT do Concerto years ago - maybe in the 70s - and I remember enjoying it. I enjoyed it again and  thought Pereira was beautiful in the 2nd movement but not so beautiful as to make me feel like I had to see her again , like I feel about Ogden and Lunkina.

I left after 10 minutes of Angel's Atlas on Thursday and left after Concerto on Friday, it is definitely not my thing.

All in all I am glad I went to see them but thought the whole thing was pretty mediocre.

I remember hearing that Sarah would be guesting with Houston Ballet in Swan Lake both on their Japan tour and at home in Houston in June.

I would love to go see her in Houston but can't find any casting info. Anyone know when she's dancing?

7 hours ago, California said:

Shocking! Somebody must be losing sleep over the 12 performances at the Met! Do any old-timers remember late schedule revisions for something like this? Maybe a few more Giselle's, which is scheduled for the next week?

https://www.abt.org/performances/master-calendar/?start=2023-03-22

5 hours ago, matilda said:

In my view this Like Water for Chocolate ticket situation was entirely predictable. Doesn't necessarily mean the Met sales will be bad, but it's not a good sign. To fill the Met for 12 performances would require selling more than 45,000 tickets. Hmmm. The book and movie don't have a whole lot of mainstream appeal decades after their releases, and just because something is popular in the UK (at the nation's top ballet company, no less) doesn't mean it will do well here.

Interested in hearing reports! Hopefully some positive word gets spread from the West coast to East. 

The first thing that crossed my mind when I saw that they had scheduled 12 performances of LWFC  was - what in the world were they thinking? If every ABT subscriber goes to see it twice (which they won't) they would still have to sell an enormous number of tickets to fill the house 12 times. Even if it gets rave reviews how many casual ballet goers and members of the general public will those reviews and any marketing draw to the Met? I hope I am wrong but I think this will be a huge disaster.

The second thing that crossed my mind was that with a season reduced to only 4 weeks they're dedicating almost 2 full weeks to LWFC instead of giving us more of what their core audience wants? More Petipa, Ashton, MavMillon etc.

NBoC just announced casting for their NY City Center appearances and I am super bummed that none of the dancers I'd hoped to see are dancing (ie. Ogden, Cote and, of course, Lunkina). With the exception of the MacMillan the programing is not at all up my alley so I would never have bought tickets had I known I wouldn't get to see any of my favorites.

I guess I will just hope to enjoy it anyway, unlike the last NYCC Ballet program by PNB which I absolutely hated.

Casting here

3 minutes ago, abatt said:

This run has sold like gangbusters.

It sure has! Yesterday I took a look at tickets for the 2/26 matinee. I saw that there were only about 10 tickets left in the last 2 rows of the 4th ring (although a couple of tickets in other areas do pop up from time to time & are snatched up immediately). I just signed into NYCB to see what it looks like today and I was put into a waiting room! When I was able to look at tickets I saw that now there are only 3 tickets available at the back of the 4th ring. Only 3 tickets available in the whole house! I can't remember when anything at NYCB sold this well. And I noticed that there have been a lot of younger people at these performances. People in their teens, twenties & thirties.

35 minutes ago, matilda said:

Jarod Curley from the corps is a very promising dancer/actor/partner who could eventually lead the big ballets. Thankfully management seems to be recognizing his talents, as he's dancing Some Assembly Required on tour. They do need more promising lead males though, not just the Mercutio types. Jonathan Klein is a very fine dancer but he needs a lot more practice with partnering.  

Jarod Curley is absolutely fabulous in every way - technique, acting, partnering & versatility. I was surprised that he wasn't included in the last batch of promotions.

So sad. I remember him very well, saw him many times dancing with Cynthia Gregory. He was one of my favorites.

11 hours ago, bingham said:

Does the Met have a similar Digital Program during the ABT season? It would be very interesting.

No, the Met and ABT still give you physical printed programs (Playbills). When I went to the Kennedy Center to see the Ukranian ballet's Giselle I was very disappointed to find out that they had abandoned printed programs and you had to go online to the digital program for a full list of dancers. I would be happy to have both printed and digital but am not happy at all with only digital.

Fairchild, absolutely!