richard53dog

Well, the Met would like NYCO to go away, although they don't really share core audiences to a huge degree. The Met was more opposed to building a new theater on the site of Damrosch Park/Bandshell than the theater diagonally across Amsterdam, (as I remember anyway). Imagine the NYCO playing even closer to the Met than they are now!

That may be a can of worms that won't be able to be reopened for a while. As I understand it while Mortier was nominally in charge, he made the decision that NYCO would stay in the NYST/Koch and part of the renovations include the expansion of the orchestra pit, which Mortier insisted on. So even though Mortier is no longer in charge, it would add to the messiness to have NYCO change direction on staying/going. I have no idea but part of the whole renovation plan might include NYCO's committment to stay in Lincoln Center. Although they settled with the orchestra, they still haven't settled with AGMA yet and they don't seem to have a lot of cash left. While the whole operation might be more manageable in a smaller venue , can they risk alienating further what subscription base they still have by moving? I feel that absolutely HAVE to have a 2009-2010 season to remain alive. I personally would have loved to see the NYCO in it's own theater. I hope they manage to survive and maybe down the road if they are viable, they can revisit that issue. There were briefly discussions about moving to a site just west of Lincoln Center across Amsterdam Avenue which sounded ideal to me as they could still be considered part of Lincoln Center but those plans are history.

Love the image of the Firebird!

Oh, yes I remember! My first time in Paris in 1974 I went to the Opera to see Nozze di Figaro and didn't really understand about the tipping practice. And oh, was the usherette a harpy! We tried to give her some large coin, don't know the denomination but it must have been an old one worth not too much, and she wouldn't take it! It was our first day in France and we weren't too sure of the currency but finally we gave her some combination of coins that she was satisfied with.

Well I'm certainly sorry that Reyes is injured, bad luck for her and I hope she is soon on the mend. That being said, I feel better about Osipova's taking over her Sylphide on Monday night. The thought of ABT pulling Reyes out arbitrarily wasn't a very nice one and I'm glad there is a legitimate reason, although, again, my sympathies go out to Xiomara for her injury. Given the situation, I give credit to ABT management for using this unfortunate situation to add back in Osipova's third performance this season as guest. So Osipova gets her two Sylphides and Seo gets her opportunity. In conclusion, I hope we see Reyes back on her feet soon.

Yes, I understand Lobenthal's comment and agree that for me this is NOT an advantage. I'd rather have a performer project youthfulness in their performance rather than merely being a teenager. But there is more and more a segment of today's audiences that prize youthfulness itself rather than the appearance of it and I think Martins is trying to appeal to that segment.

wow, all those ties have to be one for the books! But as Natalia says, "congrats to all of the winners!"

Until the shock of the Berlin Wall coming down, didn't the Cold War seem endless? I never expected to be able to set foot on the ground where my grandparents were born. Yeah, but it seems almost like there is some nostaglia for the Cold War days in some quarters. Ick. I remember going through attack alert practice when I was in grade school and being very frightened. It sure doesn't seem like the "good old days" to me.......

I personally think it's important to have new works to keep ballet vibrant. I think Kathleen's language analogy is a good one . In an ideal world there should be lots of both performances of the classics and well as new entries. This is important to renew the audiences, in many cases new viewers may be attracted by new works that have more points of reference for them. On the other hand the potential new viewer may relate well to the format of a tried and true classic. So let's have both.

I remember commenting two years ago that I felt the choreography was very weak, the dramatic development was poor and the physical elements; i.e. sets and costumes were pure ugly. Watching it on tv didn't change my views. Unfortunately Sterling Hyltin didn't appear particularly youthful on camera, aside from being untelegenic in ttheir first scene together the main difference between Juliet and her nurse were their costumes. I just don't get the PBS situation. NYCB puts on some super programs, if they wanted to showcase NYCB WHY pick this????? If a story ballet was needed WHY choose NYCB. Midsummer Nights Dream was already filmed and a different performance was shown on LFLC. Nutcracker has been filmed and Coppelia was already LFLC'd. That only leaves the three Martins pieces, that well is pretty dry!

Margot Fonteyn will always be special to me. Almost exactly 40 years ago she is the dancer that really hooked me into ballet. She was just turning 50 that May of 1969. Although I had seen a few performances at NYCO ballet and had enjoyed them, when my high school teacher took a bunch of us to see Fonteyn and Nureyev dance Romeo and Juliet with the RB all of us were immediately captured. I was lucky enough to see her a couple dozen times and she still defines so many things about ballet to me .

Also, does anyone know what the policy is for standing room sales?

The boys running in the reeds and then the dunes remind me of Fellini's setting of the scene with Saraghina in 8 1/2.

Natalia, I find this disappointing too. Too bad that it seems to reflect the current thought of the MT management. But I guess some people are flexing their muscles!

Paul, Thanks. I've already commented on this film twice on this thread but let me go for three! It's an absolute delight!

Sounds like a job for Alina Somova!!!!!

NYST has been renamed after a very large contribution from a very rich donor http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=27627 A major renovation of the theater has been going on for months now. The Met hasn't been renamed (yet) however parts of the interior have been. the main auditorium has been the "Sybil Harrington" auditorium and the Grand Tier WAS named (and then un-named when the money didn't show!) the Alberto Villar Grand Tier.

Here in New Jersey, all gas stations are "full service". It's illegal for the driver to pump their own gas. But the attendants are no longer recognizable as such, I haven't seen a uniform in years. Just thought you needed to know this...........

Thanks rg, this is a photo from the pdd that I mentioned. Ninel is just a delight in this. Also the photo shows the top hat, cane , and fan which the two dancers manage beautifully during the complicated moves of the pdd. I love watching this video from time to time, glad it was filmed!

Ick. The Queen of the Dryads section is a favorite of mine. Is this woman EVERYWHERE????

I never saw her perform live but I have a video memory that I'm very fond of. On the DVD release, "The Glory of the Kirov" she dances, among other selections, an pdd to an arrangement of waltzs from Der Rosenkavalier. It's a B&W film on a rooftop sort of set overlooking old Vienna (I suppose). She is absolutely charming, adorable really. The piece is a bit of fluff but I get a kick out of how the dancers manage the props; a cane, a fan , and a hat amidst quite a few complicated toss lifts. It's really a lot of fun. RIP, Ninel

I found the PBS site to be a bear but found a slot on WNET 13, which is the NYC metro area for 5/21/09 at 8PM Details from the site: Live from Lincoln Center New York City Ballet's "Romeo + Juliet" Live from Lincoln Center joins the New York City Ballet for Peter Martins' interpretation of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. Additional Airdates Sat May 23rd at 1:30am on Thirteen Sun May 24th at 12pm on Thirteen Sun May 24th at 3pm on WLIW21

Hans, I saw this from a few opera lists that I read. I registered and browsed a bit over the weekend, the Met has a really impressive library that makes up the menu , mostly from audio broadcasts and video telecasts going back about 70 years. I listed a watched a bit of this and that over the freebie weekend trial. The Met has an advantage in that it has been using the media (as we would say today!) for eons to bring it's performances to much larger audiences than could attend in person. The radio broadcasts go back almost 80 years at this point and , after a few experiences in the 50's that didn't quite click, the video telecasts go back more than 30 years. Not all of this material is currently available in Met Player but a really impressive selection of it is and my thought is that they will gradually expand the Met Player selections if the offering attracts a good base. Opera has a big advantage over ballet here is that my people today are still very happy to listen to an audio only opera performance and there is such a huge amount of material there. Ballet is a different story in that obviously we would only be interested in a video. A few ballet companies are obviously filming (and thus preserving) a portion of their repertory; the Royal Ballet, The Mariinsky, and the POB come to mind a number of their performances. But I can't think of any one of these that has enough material to offer up an on-demand kind of service at least right nw in 2009. I think the future may lay in HD telecasts to theaters. The Met Opera has been very successful here, I think La Scala has also HD's some of it's performances (but not LIVE, which is an advantage the Met has) and volcanohunter has kept us well posted of the efforts of the Royal Ballet and some other ballet outfits that have started this. Much of this material is released on DVD but who knows what the technology of the future may be and the companies that are doing these filmings and distributing them via today's technology such as HD and DVD are also building libraries of performance history which may be made available in ways we haven't even thought possible yet.

Very good question! And ABT has come in for some criticism recently on the way they handled the issues surrounding Osipova's dates this coming June. Compared to the sponsors of this event, well....never mind.

Unfortunately it's all too often not her forte when she's singing either!