oberon

But we still have Tchaikovsky. The heart of SWAN LAKE is the first lakeside scene. That's all Balanchine gives us, and it also is there - and beating quite strongly - in Peter's version.

I understand exactly what you are saying and those who want the whole 9 yards with courtiers, tutor, lots of mime, etc can get it at ABT - though their production has its oddities as well. Peter's tells the whole story, without getting bogged down. It really isn't at all like "greatest hits from CARMEN" but it might more reasonably be compared to CARMEN without the spoken dialogue. The ethnic dances are there, and the would-be-brides, the jester, cygnets, black swans in the finale. It's funny that I have ended up defending this production because I simply loathed it at first. It's the dancers that keep me going back. I could not imagine sitting through 5 performances in ten days of a "traditional" SWAN LAKE with all the mime and 3 intermissions...I'd be exhausted. I guess for me, as apparently for Balanchine, the first lakeside scene is the essence of SWAN LAKE. Peter may have edited but Balanchine discarded, and still calls it SWAN LAKE. Because even there, you really get the whole scenario: the meeting, the tenderness, the parting. I suppose Peter's SWAN LAKE might be compared to Chereau's RING CYCLE at Bayreuth which drew a very hostile response because there was no Grane and Wotan wore a smoking jacket. Eventually people saw that it was a powerful telling of the tale with a more modern resonance. Timeless, actually.

WOW!!!!!

I have a feeling we might see another full-length ballet at NYCB in the next couple of years. A familiar story & score. For all the controversy around Peter's SWAN LAKE it's done pretty well at the box office, which is always a consideration. The house has been fuller during the recent run than at some of the NUTCRACKERs I saw, and much fuller than repertory nights. I think the general public sees advertisements for SWAN LAKE or CINDERELLA or ROMEO & JULIET and that means more to them than AGON, FANCY FREE or POLYPHONIA. Also, NYCB had a very nice poster done up for their SWAN which showed very traditional pictures of a couple of Odettes and the swan corps. I've noted many passersby being drawn to this poster, and in fact being photographed in front of it. While NYCB is not a traditional full-length ballet company, a broader public associates names like GISELLE or SLEEPING BEAUTY and most especially SWAN LAKE with "going to the ballet". Whether the casual ballet-goer liked the SWAN when they saw it could be questioned, but maybe they fell in love with Sara Mearns or Ash Bouder and decided to come back to see more ballet. That is always a good thing. PS: ...the Robert Wilson SWAN LAKE!! Adagio, anyone?

...the Susan Stroman SWAN LAKE, anyone? Or should they borrow Bourne's?

I understand the various presentations of partner-switching or multiple partners in many of Martins' works because I spent 25 years of my doing just that. When I look back on it now, I realize the tremendous amount of energy I expended in looking for love. But I wouldn't change anything. Because in the end I found it, and it was worth everything that went before.

I believe a very similar topic made the rounds here a few months ago.

Yup. No one will have to look at this SWAN LAKE again for at least another year. But I did hear they're scrapping this production in favor of a new version to be choreographed by Boris Eifman

After going to 5 SWAN LAKES and seeing the house nearly filled each time, it was a bit depressing to go tonight and find so many empty seats. I saw BALLO & MORGEN, then left before OPUS JAZZ. Bouder delivered the goods tonight is a dazzling performance, and Ben Millepied danced brilliantly as well. The four beauties Keenan, Edge, Scheller & Riggins were delightful, Riggins back to her usual luminous self after an oddly unpolished solo in the SWAN LAKE pas de trois. These dancers elicited a warm reaction from the small but appreciative crowd. Jessica Jones has the right rapture of tone for the Strauss songs in MORGEN though she sometimes veered a bit sharp of pitch. This beautiful ballet in which three women and three men dance a series of duets seems to me to be about the search for an ideal love. Each woman dances with each man and at the end they each have found the object of affection. While basically lyrical, there are moments of tension and some very demanding partnering work. Darci's gorgeousness here made me forget her MONUMENTUM/MOVEMENTS earlier in the season. In one series of pristine unsupported turns she was simply mesmerizing. Jenifer Ringer also has a most congenial role here, and Sterling Hyltin danced beautifully if missing just the last touch of sheer abandon that Janie Taylor brought to the role. Marcovici, Askegard & Nilas Martins were all very fine.

It's the same story that is told in the first act of every SWAN LAKE I've ever seen, it just isn't bogged down by the fussiness of being a formal court celebration and there is no tiresome tutor and alot of mime and promenades. The only purpose of this scene is to introduce us to the prince, to show him coming of age and under pressure to "do something" with his life. Of course there was one production where he was supposedly in love with Benno or vice versa. Peter's version tells the story with perfect clarity. And continues to do so to the end. He just tells it quickly, the sooner to get us to the lake, which is the heart of the matter. Unfortunately he tells it against a decor that is not very attractive.

I do not know what kind of "story" people want to see in the first act (first scene) of SWAN LAKE that cannot be seen clearly in Peter's production. The prince is celebrating his birthday with his friends - not courtiers but villagers. The Jester is there to entertain and keep everyone feeling lively. The Queen comes in; she does not approve of the Prince hanging out and having fun when he should be thinking about getting married and producing an heir for the throne. Producing heirs is a key duty in any royal family, and princes marry young to insure plenty of time for "issue". The Queen lays a little guilt trip on her son. Then she gives him a birthday gift - a crossbow. Hunting is the great diversion - and a necessity - for noble/royal men of that era - I'm just reading a novel about James VI of Scotland's great love of the hunt. So when the party guests depart, the Prince gets kind of pensive thinking maybe it's time to do what his Mom wants even though he'd really rather not. To shake him out of his sombre mood, Benno suggest a trip to the lake to shoot a few birds and try out the new crossbow. So they take off, with eventual disastrous results. What is it about this scenario that people cannot grasp, or are they too put off by the colours of the costumes?

Yes, these are the kind of pictures I like. Dancers dancing.

She must have been shivering. Someone once described her as "plucky"...I'll say! And so much more. So glad she's made it back after her injury. NYCB hasn't been the same without her.

drb: Color-coding? Not really. These girls remind me of the three girls I dated in high school. I was always one to send roses, and each girl had her unique color. But then I outgrew all of that. Men generally don't send roses to other men. Richard: I hated the production when I first saw it. HATED. I swore never to go back. But when the dancers you love are dancing, you make adjustments. I came to accept the visual aspects of the settings & costumes. 80% of any given evening I am watching thru opera glasses and focussing on individuals. The overall stage picture recedes. What I like about this SWAN LAKE is, it contains alot of DANCING and it has a devastating ending. Of course I'd be happy if the sets were easier on the eye and the green-orange-blue costume "salad" was modified in the opening scene, but I just don't let that detract from what my dancers are doing.

Darci Kistler is miscast in M/M but I would not say she is scary. Darci is a warm & lyrical dancer and quite refined. She is also not the type of dancer you want to see being held upside-down. The part calls for a colder, more aloof type. It used to be the property of the divine Helene Alexopoulos who was "just what the doctor ordered" for this ballet. Kowroski has done it superbly and I imagine if she weren't recuperating we might be seeing her in the present revival. If I was in charge of casting at NYCB, I would probably assign it to either Wendy or Teresa Reichlen. Or Rebecca Krohn ...

I really don't care what Robert Gottlieb thinks about anything. 1/18 LAC DES CYGNES with French ballerina and conductor. Sofiane Sylve is a gorgeous woman, a true prima ballerina, thrilling to watch. But for me, she had very little to say about Odette. She danced it perfectly, aside from a minor stumble early on, but I didn't feel anything. I just sat there watching a beautiful woman do beautiful things with her body. Although they were vastly different in approach, I thought each of the four other women I saw dance it this year were far more interesting to watch. Sylve is a more natural Odile, to my mind. She clearly has the technical abilities and then some, but sometimes she seemed a bit loose to me. I guess I just like a crisper attack at certain points. The fouettes, kicked off with a triple pirouette and some doubles & triples, were excellent though near the end a bit of her headpiece came flying off, which was a distraction. The final scene was again beautifully danced but only for a split second as she finally morphed back into her swan state did I feel a twinge of emotion. Sylve won a good ovation, with some whoops, though I do think she has a slight tendency to milk the applause. Askegard danced quite well, partnered her well aside from that little glitch, and he is a good & sincere balletic actor. Henry Seth is, for my money, the best Rotbart I've ever seen. Tom Gold again served up his trusty Jester; Sean Suozzi was a fine Benno with Dronova & Riggins. Among the boys in the opening scene, Robert Fairchild & William Lin-Yee stood out for height and elegance, Giovanni Villalobos for his easy charm. Faye Arthurs is a remarkable dancer with an uncanny extension; both here and as a "princess" at the ball she was outstanding. The pas de quatre again created a sensation, Jon Stafford dancing with airy assurance. Maestro Karoui gave Scheller a fiendishly fast tempo for her solo but she managed to pull it off...between her Dewdrop and this role in SWAN I have fallen in love with her. Tiler Peck was fantastic and Fairchild spun off her turns with great precision and flair. Wished I'd had big bouquets of roses to throw to these girls: pink for Fairchild, red for Scheller, and pale peach for Tiler Peck. Hungarian (Rutherford & Fowler) and Spanish (Bar, Muller, Craig Hall & Tyler Angle) were still full of zest at the end of the run; Albert Evans brought his sexy presence and adept partnering to the Russian dance, with Melissa Barak in a very impressive debut - she perfectly balances the ballerina and character elements of the piece, siezes on the drama of the dance, and knows how to hold the audience. Excellent! Amanda Edge & Adam Hendrickson are both so attractive and they gave a spirited, fluent Neopolitan. Aside from two overly fast segments (the big Swan waltz and Scheller's solo) Karoui gave a fine rendition of the score. I half thought he might ask the horns to use that watery sound that the French seem to prefer. But he didn't. For all the venom heaped on this production over the years, it is interesting to note that it attracts very large audiences - at all five performances I attended the house was nearly full; actually there were more empty seats at the four NUTCRACKERs I attended this Winter. I long ago made peace with the decor and some of the costumes by simply tuning them out. The story is told very clearly and the ending is harrowing. Having dozed thru ABT's version a couple years ago, I'll at least give Peter credit for keeping me awake.

More about all the rising youngsters at NYCB: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/arts/dance/18rock.html

Thanks for the Spring rep news, B'mane...I remembered that this was a Diamond Project year. MIDSUMMER is always fun, maybe Mearns will do Titania...

Hopefully SWAN LAKE will be included in the Spring season, giving the new Swans a chance to refine their interpretations, getting Kowroski & Somogyi back to the Lake, and - maybe - someone new? Like...Tess Reichlen? The house has been substantially full during most of the run; a good sign. Come on, Peter, how about 12-14 more performances of the production everyone loves to hate? Besides, I missed Miranda this Winter and feel like I need to make amends.

May I refer everyone to today's Links section (above) where you will find more reviews of Mearns, Bouder & Sylve.

Pauline Golbin interviews Christopher Wheeldon about his upcoming premiere at NYCB. Try this link: http://www.nycballet.com/about/dod6.html

No one could really have guessed how Mearns would fare as we have seen so little of her. In a way this worked to her advantage; she revealed her Odette/Odile as a finished product and a most attractive one at that. I would imagine there are several girls at NYCB who could deliver a perfectly respectable Swan Queen; the challenge would be stamina. On a normal night, NYCB dances 3 or 4 short abstract ballets. Most nights a corps girl might dance in one piece, her total stage time 15 minutes or less. Building up to a full evening of dance, even if you are just one of 16 swans, is going to be a workout. But if you are tapped for O/O, a whole new set of responsibilities arise. Wendy spoke in the Playbill interview of the issue of stamina in SWAN; you not only have to dance a long time but also create a character - 2 characters, really - which, on most nights, these girls don't have to consider.

The main reason I recognize NYCB girls, even from the school, is NYCB face. It seems to me that it's become more pronounced in recent years, a sort of aloof and slightly bored look, always focussed at some imaginary point. I suppose it discourages people from talking to them when they're walking down the street. Eventually they outgrow it, and some of the more senior women are quite friendly and animated. Are those fouettes that the girls do in unison in the SWAN LAKE pas de quatre? They don't seem to spin continuously as Odile does.

In general I think arms have improved, although hands can still be a problem. But there are - and always have been - leggy girls and port de bras girls and a few who have both. It sometimes seems that legs are not as long as they were in the 70s or is it just my imagination?...seems to be a "shorter company", with the obvious exceptions.

nysusan, I agree that Bouder's first Odette had a very frantic quality but I sort of liked it. A wild creature utterly terrified of human contact. And the man has a crossbow! I hope she doesn't soften her approach too much. This in contrast to the softer shyness of Mearns, who then carried this forward with her dreamy adagio. This season I have really enjoyed the variety of interpretations offered by the leading ladies, and even the altering of some steps and the various fouette solutions. Each ballerina has made me see things differently...and I still have Sylve to come. The ending of this production overwhelms me every time and you have perfectly described the transforming moments when Odette loses her battle and is doomed, beyond her control. The ranks of the swans closing in around her as she bourees off, and Siegfried's grim remorse, send chills up my spine.