richard53dog

In her autobiography Galina, Galina Vishnevskaya gives a very vivid, colorful picture of their life together, both the ups and the downs. It's quite a read, although of course it is more her story than his.

And that could also work, but it might be a little harder to figure out the "bait" that could be used. Still I'm sure it could be done, maybe a selection of items from the store to choose from in return for bying a ballet subscribtion.

Wow, this sounds fascinating. But I was ALWAYS a sucker for Gelsey anyway.

I too am saddened by this news. I saw Smuin many times when he danced for ABT back in my early ballet days. He was a supernice guy to the fans. He died young.

I'm thinking of Friday right now.

Thanks for posting the program. It looks great. I can't wait.

Truly weird. One of the dates I bought was the closing performance, the matinee on April 20, 2008 and I thought, "that's exactly a year from today" Oh well, nothing wrong with doing something different

Me too! Very fast and easy and I got decent seats. I bought three programs I wanted to see, maybe will pick up more later.

I'm putting together a list of programs I'd like to see. Great intentions. It'll be interesting to see next April how the programs match what they are showing now. A year is a long time in advance to put out a schedule.

That's absolutely amazing!!!!!!!! And you have to buy tickets a year in advance, huh? Oh well, it's a great opportunity

I saw this too at City Center and would agree that Guillem still has a tremendous magnetism that lights up the stage. But I thought the material was very thin . Maybe Sacred Monters will have more substance than PUSH.

I'm on the NYTimes e-mailing list for theatrical event. It's called ticket watch and I got an email today with info for free tickets for the Dress Rehearsal. I'm a little surprised they didn't offer the 4rth ring tickets too but maybe since that offer is open to anyone and they can't claim it as one of their "deals"

This may be all very valid from the point of view of the performer. The opportunity to gain exposure and experience is very valuable for a young dancer. From the point of view of this ticket buyer, I don't want to see a student or apprentice in a lead role. I'm paying full price if I go to a performance, I want to see professionals. If I want to see an apprentice I think the appropriate venue is a studio performance.

Welcome, Holly! Richard

As well as Nagy, Dowell, and Bocca. All four overcame the difficult trap for this character, falling for Odile's ruse and seeming hopelessly stupid for doing it. I could believe in each case that Odette sincerely forgave these Siegfrieds

I love the POB shades. Not just for the descending down the ramp but also for the work on the stage, forming and unforming patterns. Just wonderful!

Great, I'm looking forward to that. I wonder what the deal was with Richardson though. I heard Chenier over the radio

Any ballet/s in particular? His best work to date, IMO, has been "after" -- i.e., Petipa's Sleeping Beauty -- but not the original interpolations and changes. I can't think of a single Martins ballet that I would cross the street to see, even if Bouder were in it, but maybe that's just me. I can't see Martins' work in any way being "for the ages". Kleenex choreography.

(more) All I could stand was 2 years of Latin in High School . I thought the first year was pretty easy but in the second we read and translated from Caesar's Gallic Wars. Horror. The final was a chapter to translate. I picked up the exam and looked at the selection and thought "I don't know a single word" The grammar in Latin drove me nuts

Even though I don't really like his work that much, I think some of Roland Petit's works will survive.

Something else I noticed on the Met website regarding standing room Standing Room Tickets: Orchestra Standing Room tickets will be available beginning at 10am on the day of the performance. Family Circle Standing Room tickets will also be available on the "day of" for Saturday performances, and Monday through Friday performances when Family Circle Seating is sold out. Tickets are subject to availability and limited to two per person. Please note that a $5.50 per ticket service charge will apply. This is a new policy this season at the opera. It did make some sense because Mo-Fr Family Circle seats and the FC standing room were the same price. But will Standing Room for ABT be $24 for the Family Circle??????? One other thing, I didn't actually go all the way through with itbut I was testing buying a Standing Room online some months ago. Imagine that? I guess we'll see

Yes, you get exact seat locations. Very nice. The website is a bit slow today, probably a lot of activity. I bopped around various performances, the only one I saw that didn't have none or just one location sold out was the Ferri Farewell Romeo. The website shows ALL locations sold except Family Circle. This may be a bit misleading as there may be partial view box seats available but the Met likes to sell them only at the BO so that that they can be sure ticket buyers know what they are getting. Actually, in my experience, if you are very carefull, some of the box seats are not so bad.

Orchestra sitters don't lean. Even if they did, the people behind them are looking up -- or at least straight ahead -- so their heads won't block the view. It's with the steeper grading of tiers that leaning is a problem. Yes, and quite a few in the tiers sit on the edge of their seats and THEN lean forward. Their shoulders and heads seem to block about about half the view of the person in the higher row just behind them.

Just came home from BAM. Unfortunately Gottlieb was right. What a waste of $80. I hope nobody else here was subjected to this charade. Maybe I'll speak about it in more detail tomorrow. But it's a pretty sad commentary on a ballet when the only thing you can praise are the sets. Oooh , it does sound like a clunker. Sorry, Klavier. I had thought of going but (it seems fortunately) forgot about it.

Oh,I hate this! It can cause a domino effect. Generally a few minutes after the curtain is up, if someone ahead of me is still leaning forward , I tap them on the shoulder and ask them to sit back. This usually works.