richard53dog

Good luck to them both. It's a terrific opportunity!

That is good news indeed. Even for me, coming from NJ, getting to BAM is easy and I go there willingly. Going a bit OT, another Russian (oops, sorry, Nina's troup is not technically Russian) troop, Perm Ballet must also be doing well on their tours. According to my recently received NJPAC schedule, they will be back on another tour, this time with Romeo and Juliet.

Great news and well deserved!

It was just reported that Beverly Sills died earlier today. As I noted late last week when her illness was reported, she was really my first opera star that I followed. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070703/ap_on_...t_beverly_sills RIP , Beverly

If you follow the link it says the bidding has ended. Does that mean the book sold or that the time just ran out and no one met the reserve?

I'm also really saddened. She must be very, very ill. Beverly was really the first singer that I started to follow when I first came to opera about 40(yikes) years ago. I saw her many, many times from the later sixties until she stopped singing. I wish her peace

That's a really good point. When I'm counting, I watch the dancer's head. And then you miss what's going on with the rest of her body.

Vishneva? She's dancing tonight.

What lovely tributes to these two ladies.

I believe an important factor here is that the performance is a matinee, a Saturday one in particular. People like to bring their kids and not have them out late and older people like to go out and get back home during daylight hours. Opera, ballet , and theater tickets all sell heavily on Saturday matinees so I believe that is at least part of the reason for the sold out sections. Also, as you noted, Julie Kent's Wednesday matinee is selling briskly; again a matinee. Another example. Look at the following week, Cinderella. Not exactly a hot ticket. But the Saturday matinee has 3-4 sections sold out and the Wednesday matinee has 1-2. All the evenings have all sections open (at least yesterday when I went through them, figuring out when I wanted to go) Certainly Part divides the audiences, which is fine. But what bothers me a bit is I feeling that some of her supporters react to any criticism with hostility. That's not what discussion is about.

Yes, the lipstick story is cute, but I see this like Zerbinetta. Last year in Romeo, she had an accident of some kind in the wings. You could hear a crash and there were heavy smudges on her. But she went through the last three scenes like she was possesed. I wonder if O/O is just an elusive part for her that she hasn't found the key to. I wish I could go on Tuesday but I can't

The two week schedule is now posted on the ABT website. I was not to pleased with the comission to Millipied after sitting through his very forgettable Quiet Music at the YAGP gala in April BUT it is last on most programs so if it's another zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz we can skip out during the second intermission and do an "early quit" http://www.abt.org/insideabt/news_display.asp?News_ID=199 Scroll all the way to the bottom for the sched

I don't know if I'd count on it but it sure would be a nice gesture, wouldn't it?

No, you're right, a musical being revived that quickly is odd. But let me make a few guesses(mostly concerned with money of course). The Peters revival of 2003-2004 was troubled and you are not the only person to remark that the role was not a neat fit for her (imagine whispering Everything's Coming Up Roses??????) More important , it was an open ended show at a Broadway house. The Lupone is easier and neater for the promoters, it's closed ended, just three weeks and it should be easy to sell a lot of tickets even in July based on the short window. I don't know this as fact, so bear that in mind, but I think this version may be moved around to limited engagements in other cities. The producers have less of that old style managing of looking at last weeks takes and deciding to post a closing notice. Sorry, I've gone waaaaaaaaaaaaay

that is (yet another revival of) the musical Gypsy about Gypsy Rose Lee and the ultimate stage mother of all time, Momma Rose. Im not sure *why* they are reviving it since it was on bway just a few years ago, but that is what it is. Well, I guess CC thinks they can sell a lot of tickets, especially with Patti Lupone as Mama Rose. Actually Broadway shows are very late in the food chain of "reviving" Up until the 70s most of what was put on the Broadway was brand new. It was only around then that new material started to dry up, and revivals start to absorb the space. As I said, Broadway shows are recent additions to the revival business. We have been looking at revivals of Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, etc. for a long time. And they are revived for the same reason; people will buy tickets. So you could say "why do Swan Lake, it was done last year" I could add operas, classical plays, and orchestral music. All the schedules for this classifications are dominated by revivals for a long , long time. Audiences want to play it safe with stuff they know and that figures regularly in the scheduling *****edited to fix the role that Lupone will play, it's NOT the title role

Thanks, Dale!

Thank you!

Hnh? Ferri is 44; Bolle 32. I am arithmetically challenged here. Yeah, he has been around for a while now. He dances the Peasant pdd on Ferri's Giselle DVD from La Scala which has a copyright of 1996. So anyone that thinks he has a babyface now should check him out in the Giselle performance! But certainly the age Zerbinetta quotes for him fits in with the logistics of that 11 or 12 year old performance.

These aren't exactly "new" links, they go back to early May and the newest is about a month old. Maybe change the thread title???????

Sigh. I'm going to do the same. It can be a tough trip into Manhattan from NJ. I hope DV is feeling better for Tuesday's Manon.

Cool. I'll be seeing Vishneva, Malakhov, and Kirkland all in one night (6/9). Well , apparently not! Malakhov of course has been replaced a while back by Hallberg but I just noticed on the ABT site that Vishneva/Hallberg is now Herrera/Corella for this evening (6/9).

What amazed me was that in the extras on the DVD it was explained that the guy that photographed all the tiny little clips that were spliced into the final film is that he evidently went back in the theater with a recorder and recorded what we would know today as the audio track. So the music is the real deal too from a performance. And somehow he got the audio synched up with the master video. What a job! It boggles the mind.

For me, one of the weakest Carabosses on record. Although it may not be fair to point to physical attributes -- in this case, Kirkland's diminutive size -- I feel that it is warranted, as it deeply affected the impact of the interpretation. Quite simply, no matter the acting, Kirkland could not overcome the fact that she is a teeny-tiny figure above whom even the Fairy Canari towers. I'm used to a man or a 'big powerful woman' (a-la Van Hamel or Ashley or Mason) interpreting Carabosse. I felt more pity than terror when seeing Kirkland's Carabosse; I don't think that's what Petipa or Ceccheti had in mind. I HATE seeing a man as Carabosse. The performances are almostly always OOT, hammy and comical. I can't find any menace at all this type of a performance. I think Carabosse needs a bit of remnant of glamour, she is one of the fairies after all, just gone to hell. I should see Kirland tomorrow so I'll see what kind of an issue her tininess is for me, she IS very small. But again, I'd rather go in that direction that a 6'2'' with 5'clock shadow.

Yeah, me too. It sounds almost too good to be true. When the RB annnounced their new/old Beauty that premiered last year, it sounded almost like they were doing something along that line. But they messed up (IMHO in a minor way) with the choregraphy, and to a greater degree, in different ways, with the sets and costumes.

Guilty????? I don't think so. Certainly it is you right to stand by what opinion that you have devised. But other opinions may also be in other people's minds