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A wild guess: 1) McKenzie is proud of his version, and wants to make a case for it wherever he can. 2) He's banking on seasoned London balletomanes being curious to see it for themselves, despite what they've read, and more casual balletgoers, who haven't read the critical drubbings, not wanting to miss their chance to see ABT dance a classic.

Stop the torture -- I'll answer however you like!

Laugh or cry, take your pick. Here are three of the most egregious examples of flowery and just plain incompetent writing in NYCB's 2009 Spring Season brochure: And then there's this: Never mind that most of those ballets were introduced to the public years ago, is there any way to know for sure what that last clause even means without studying the schedule? I know there are people in the company who can recognize how bad this stuff is.

The Times has a few more details here. I assume the symbolism was unintended, but holding the press conference in the smaller hall was apt.

Thanks for alerting, us papeetepatrick. The Times' lead jazz critic took questions a couple of weeks ago, so it's reasonable to hope Alastair MacCauley will do the same soon.

bolshoi lover, that's quite a large question! If you search through past Ballet Talk threads, you'll probably find answers in many places. Here are a few places to start: Imperial and Vagonava styles Bolshoi Style Royal Ballet style Kirov/Mariinksy style Royal Danish Ballet style NYCB style La Scala style You'll also find forums devoted to each of the companies you ask about under the European Ballet Companies and American Ballet Companies headings. You might want to add comments or ask questions on one of those existing threads.

I guess the obvious well known example would be Toni Bentley, who left a physically demanding job centered on the body for an intellectually demanding, cerebral career, or career on the side (as a writer), at least. Of course after she left the ballet world she tried her hand at another kind of dancing, but, er, still, the contrast stands. Of course Bentley also began writing and was a published author before she ever left NYCB. And now that I think about it, a Ballet Talk member who is a former dancer mentioned awhile back that he was working on a writing project. If he sees this thread, I hope he'll chime in and perhaps make some connections between his former work and his current project.

I appreciate the author's point that no one can read everything that's highly regarded, and that a close reading of canonical books qualifies one to comment on " the key literary issues of our time." Critical thinking will always yield insights. But when he writes that in regards to "Ulysses" that I want to reply (lie) that Balanchine's "Agon" is an amazing ballet (I've seen it twice, but only so I could boast that I'd seen it twice) but there's nothing in there that you can't crib just as well from You Tube clips and the brilliant essay Denby once wrote, summarising the antecedents and pointing up the clever updating. Now that my taste has been formed by a "reasonable" number of viewings of Balanchine classics, I feel qualified to pass judgment on his heirs, and even though I've never seen "Concerto Barocco," I don't feel I'm missing anything. I mean, that's absurd. Summaries and commentaries can't substitute for the experiencing a work of art first hand.

I bought some there in 1988. Good luck, Treefrog.

This week's New Yorker has a remembrance of Updike by Adam Gopnik (one of my favorite New Yorker writers). This insight in particular rings true: This issue also has an appreciative piece from Roger Angell.

Hans, I remember reading something somewhere once about a fixed smile being used as a tool to mask effort. The basic idea stands to reason, but there was more to it than that, something technical I can't recall. Do I have that right? In any case, Macaulay reviews PNB's Jewels in tomorrow's Times. See those now forbidden smiles here. Macauley reports that This makes me wonder if, to use bart's wording, the conspiratorial, wink, wink smile is appropriate in Rubies, or in other ballets or sections of ballets where showing off is part of the point. Or do the feelings and the motives show to better effect if they're directed the other dancers enacting the story onstage?

In Acocella's piece on Suzanne Farrell Ballet in 2003, she quotes Farrell saying that her students lack musical sensitivity. If many young dancers can't hear time, I guess it's not so surprising they can't hear mood, and smile their way through Emeralds and Diamonds.

Thanks so much for your work on this, Nanatchka. I had been greatly looking forward to these videos, and, viewing issues aside, I have not been disappointed.

Thanks for writing, sandik. Searching back issues of Ballet Review for the issue, which I never did find, with photos of Balanchine's production of the opera for the Met, I ran across photos of the 1996 Morris version: bare feet, togas and robes, skirts on the men when they're barechested. Very much a Grecian, as you say, nymphs and shepards look. It's the summer 1996 issue if anyone's interested.

Prolific as he was in life, he just might. What a shock. He was like the Energizer Bunny, and about the last person I'd imagine dying in his 70's. RIP.

Bart and Helene, I was really glad to read your comments, although I didn't share your feelings. The sound in the beautiful theater I heard this in was, if anything, too low for much of the opera, especially in Act 1. Only later did I feel enveloped in the music. In the first act I also wanted Blythe's/Orfeo's voice to be a little louder in relation to the orchestra. This may reflect my lack of familiarity with baroque performance traditions; in any case, as the opera went on, Blythe's voice did emerge more, so that the softer start made the performance as a whole more effective dramatically. My wife didn't care for the stark scaffolding either. For me it was a fitting reminder of the judgment of history. That said, I wish Morris had found some dramatically coherent way – during the overture, I guess -- to show us the historical characters before the action really got underway, because I too found noticing individual figures for the first time (look, there’s Rosa Parks next to Jimi Hendrix!) to be distracting. It was also amusing, and this isn’t a comedic opera, except for the scenes with Amor. Your knowledge of dance and dance history dwarfs mine, to say the least, but I loved the dancing as much as the gorgeous singing. Bart, in regards to the diversity of body types that struck you as a caricature showcase, I wouldn’t want to see that in ballet, of course – I want ideals there -- but here it moved me deeply, not the least as an expression of diversity and community. I also loved the changing camara angles, some of which maybe didn’t serve the choreography well, but brought us, as it were, into the middle of the stage space. Not having seen or heard this opera before, I had no idea it would have so much room for dancing, and I was delighted that it did. Given your reservations about the choreography, bart, I understand your wondering about Morris' motives, but I didn’t notice anything different in his body language than I remember from previous television appearances.

Bring in a guest who's up to the role?

Thanks, Quiggin. Here's the link.

In his short note on the death of composer George Perle, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross has a clip of Richard Goode playing Elegy in Memory of Balanchine.

I'll be watching too; I love this story. The NY Times review of opening night is accompanied by a lonnnng sound clip. The Times has also published a piece on this production's Euridice, Danielle de Niese.

Bart, at first I wondered if you were thinking of Ragtime, with its score by Stravinsky, for Mitchell and Farrell, or Clarinade, with a score by Morton Gould for Benny Goodman, which Farrell danced with Anthony Blum, both of which you probably saw. But you must be thinking of "Concerto for Jazz Band and Orchestra." From Anna Kisselgoff in 2000:

Thanks, ViolinConcerto. Isn't that same booklet, probably repackaged, still on sale at the theater? In any case, I've always supposed that Balanchine quotes put out by NYCB were subject to editorial revision by Lincoln Kirstein.

Thanks, Sandik. I'm still working out my thoughts and feelings about the poem. It contains images that stir me and others I find awkward and forced and not as clear as they could be. My favorite poetry of the day was at the end of Reverend Lowery's benediction, when he turned bluesman Big Bill Broonzy's lamentation into the anticipation verging on celebration of bracketing those lines with echoes from Christian scripture and then, by calling on the audience to "say amen," prompting us, as it were, to finish the poem with him.

abatt, Croce writes that it is "arguably rightfully his."

How good to have another Croce article on Balanchine! "Balanchine Said: What was the Source of choreographer's celebrated utterances?" The full article is available online to subscribers who have yet to receive their copy of the magazine. An abstract is available on the magazine's website. The magazine makes no mention of it on their Contributor's page, but this raises my hopes that we'll get her Balanchine book soon.