richard53dog

I have the VHS, which I like a whole lot. But I hop that whoever releases it, is able to get a good master. The quality on much of the VHS version is awful, no other word fits. It's primarily the lighting which is so murky in spots that parts of it looks like they are taped at night, underwater. But this is mostly the prologue and act 1. After that it's not anywhere near as bad Richard

Radetsky <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah, not to take away from anyone the other dancers, but I thought Cornejo and Rasetsky were really fine in the peasant pdd. And Fang was very, very strong. One sort of funny thing. Jesus Pastor was the last minute Hillarion. I thought he was made up to look real geeky, the kind of guy that is always being blown off. In a way it fit real well into the plot. Going back to Bocca, and my comments. I think several others were on the same wavelength with me. The last few minutes were just beautiful with Kent just very, very gently moving out of touch of Bocca. Then she mimed the tears beautifully. It was a three hanky ending for sops like me that really get sucked into the plots. Richard

I went to this evening's(July 15) Giselle. Others have already commented on Monday's performance with the same leads as tonight but showier casting in the smaller parts. Erica Cornejo and Sascha Radetsky did the peasant pas de deux and I thought it was well done. Like the other performance I saw Tuesday, Part did Myrta very powerfully. Julie Kent did what I would consider a very effective traditional Giselle, she was sweet without being coy, their were echos of the first act Giselle in the second. Dancing wise I would say that Julie danced pretty carefully without too many risks. This isn't really criticism; a good performer should know how to give the most that they have without courting points of failure. Ok, I'm a Bocca fan, I love watching the guy. Dancing was still pretty strong but he really digs out the character. The Albrecht was stricken with guilt. All in all I thought it was a lovely performance. This was to have been Ferri's second Giselle for the NYC season and it had been announced that a recognition ceremony of her 20 years with ABT would held after the performance. Well Ferri was there and took bows with the cast. McKenzie gave a speech but up in the family circle I couldn't really hear what he was saying. The very last curtain call was Ferri with her two kids, a nice touch Richard

Hans, yes I think so too. When I first started to go to ballet, me and my friends would watch Allegra Kent and in our obnoxious teenage way say "She could stick her toe into her ear" You can see this(not the toe-ear thing though!) in some of the clips of Kent, most recently I was playing Dancing for Mr B and you can see these kinds of extensions, in the Symphony in C clips. Although I followed her career much less closely, when Mimi Paul left NYCB to move to ABT (late 60s? 1970?) , she also had very extreme extensions, at least as far as I remember. People would tell her "you're overstretched" In a sense they were looked at as something atypical. Strangely, on some of the Bolshoi tours of that era we stated to see that kind of thing from them too. Again, a memory, when I first saw Pavlova, I thought "isn't this harmful?" It's funny how we didn't make the association with the American ballerinas, I guess they must have used them in different ways. Syvie was still a tiny girl at this point I guess the jury is still out on at , at last stylistically Richard

Helene, I agree with much that has been said here regarding small children that don't have manners needed for a theater event. But last night I was at ABT and these two ladies next to me chattered through much of act 1. They finally did quiet down before I had to get an usher but it made me wonder, how can kids behave quietly when adults nearby don't? Maybe this is snobby but too many audiences seem to have people in them that behave as they would in their living room watching TV. This turns me off at movies too. Richard

Zerbinetta, you're right about Vaness and the other singers you mention, but I think Bart's point is important; i.e. the Bing era and then later. After Bing left the Met, the flow was much more as you describe. Still, Gilda Cruz Romo and Maralin Niska did come to the Met from the NYCO during Bing's time, but I consider them house singers. One oddity. Shirley Verrett sang at the NYCO as Shirley Carter. In her case, it was a tiny career at NYCO and a much biger one at the Met and starting during Bing's time Richard

Yes, I think he chalked up 4 or 5 seasons there. I saw him a number of times in Puccini and light Verdi roles there. After 1968 and his Met debut, he tapered off his appearances there but still did a run of Roberto Devereuxs with Beverly Sills in 1970. But by then he was considered a star, they were almost like "guest" appearances. And Helene's point is good. So few singers had real careers at the NYCO and then moved to the Met. Maybe Troyanos? richard

Yes, I saw that production a lot. The huntsmen , including Benno were on stage at the start of Act 2, but they ran off pretty quicly. In the ABT video with Makarova and Nagy, Terry Orr is visible on stage at the start of the lake scene. But he leaves and has no part of the pdd. Richard

Has anyone seen the DVD yet? I'm still wondering it matches what was shown on PBS in terms of all the cuts. Richard

Colleen, I didn't notice the big jumps in the first verse of Odile's variation. That plus all the extra hand movements .But I could be mistaken, it happens a lot! I loved the performance, one way or another Richard

Odette and Siegfried are in the middle of the rising sun. It is visible from the Balcony, but just barely and you basically have to really be searching for the sight of them. From the Orchestra it's a clearer scene, it's much harder to miss them. Yesterday, Visneva did one final lovely gesture in that tableau. Sorry to be so cynical but I have come to believe that in general the theaters really don't care that much what people in the cheap seats see(that they shouldn't) and don't see (what they should). Richard

Hans, What a generous gesture! It sounds like those in DC are having a fine time with the Kirov Le Corsair. I find it really neat that a piece like this, not exactly common currency in the US, just finished a very successful run in NYC with ABT and almost immediately the Kirov run in DC began. Richard

Christine, I usually do sit upstairs but was considering a rear orchestra seat. In some kind of odd logic (which I can't recreate today) I bought a standing room spot at the back of the orchestra. Although this area is death for the opera because the overhang muffles the sound and particularly the voices, it also muffles a lot of the attendee noise , so it's not a bad deal for the ballet. So I heard a little of the screaming, but not enough to be distracting. I can't agree with GTWT on addressing the kiddie noise with the parents; often they become very righteous ("I paid for a ticket for my kid, they have a right to scream") and the whole thing escalates into an ugly scene. Not always, of course, sometimes a gentle suggestion to the parents IS enough. But usually I go to the ushers. After all I paid for my ticket too. I can be quite......shrill. Richard

Once more, I never really finished my train of thought. What I meant was that ABT's standing room matched their sliding scale of seat prices Mo-Fr and then a few bucks more for Saturday, but I never finished fleshing it out. One thing that puzzled me a bit is that Friday prices were the same as Mo-Thu rather than getting tossed in with "weekend" (i.e. Saturday) prices. Oh well, we can be grateful for small favors. The Met Opera is happy to charge higher prices for both Friday and Saturdays Hopefully this post doesn't have any dangling thoughts Richard

There has been a lot of comment on the high prices for the Bolshoi engagement at the Met this month. I bought just one ticket, thinking there's no way I'm going to buy a batch of Family Circle tickets at $45 per. Then I was wondering about standing room. But I wasn't too hopeful, right now for ABT the Met is charging $25 for standing room (I bought one today), which is the same price as the Family Circle. I was thinking could they price STANDING ROOM at $45???????? Not at all. Prices are now posted at the Met box office. Standing room for all preformances are priced the same $20 for orchestra, grand tier , and dress circle. $15 for family circle. Go figure Richard

I think carbro hit the nail on the head. To take Kent, Farrell, Kistler, McBride, and Hayden and then to toss in a few more female NYCB dancers like Verdy, Leland, etc, they all had sharply defined personalities. Allegra Kent was much more enveloped in a kind of gauze, almost making her impressionistic. Richard

I went to today's matinee and have to echo Christine on Vishneva. She just moves sooooo beautifully. The pdd's with Saveliev were smooth but careful, I'm sure more rehearsal would have helped. A few details: Vishneva did a different variation in the Black Swan pdd than the usual one done at ABT, maybe a concession ABT gave her for switching partners on her twice in Swan Lake and once (so far) for Giselle next week. Fans of these dancers would have been happy to see Hallberg, Wiles, and Meunier in the first and third act pdt. But each time I see Vishneva I like her more. I hope her's and Acosta's arrangements with ABT work out well. Richard

Dark Elegies too! This programming looks to have lots of possibilities Richard

Goro, She did perform a couple of times in late May here in NY. But they were 10 minute pdds not an evening length program. Richard

nysusan, I think we grew up on the same two Swan Lakes. The Ashton one for Royal Ballet and the Blair for ABT were the ones I came to know the ballet by. Your question on the Perm version is interesting. This is not an answer because much can change in 13 years, but if you click on the Amazon link and search Swan Lake Perm, you will see the VHS with Nina Ananiashvili from a 1992 Perm performance. I have this, haven't looked at it in a long time, but remember it being being similar to other Russian/Soviet versions. (these are not pluses for me) But I do remember some very nice work from the corps, which surprised me, then I did a little research and found that Perm is a major ballet company, maybe 3 rd after Maryinsky and Bolshoi in Russia, or rather the former USSR. I also remember Nina's very fast fouettes in Act 3. Richard

Well, as these things often go, I think Filin is out of the whole Bolshoi run in NYC. His name isn't in any of the casts at the Met website anymore. So far I only have a ticket for Pharaoh's Daughter, but I was looking forward to seeing him in it. I'd like to see more, but not at those prices Richard

And here I thought I was being so smart. The change for the 7/11 performance was announced a week or so ago. So last night I thought "ok, Ferri is out of the 11th, let me change that ticket for the 15th, where she's still listed". Last night I changed the ticket from the early to the later performance. Well it SEEMED like a good plan anyway. But that's ok, I'd like to see Julie anyway. To switch gears a bit, I have been surprised at how liberal the subscription ticket exchange policy has been this ABT season. Much more so than the Met Opera. Richard

I finally caught Corsaire last night and enjoyed it a lot. Acosta was really the big deal for me, wow. And Marcelo Gomes again looked like a "bad boy". What a charmer. FauxPas mentions the new Vishneva photo and the change in wording underneath it. So I agree it looks like the same format as all the other principals, hence she must be one. Same thing with Carlos Acosta, he's no longer listed as a guest, but rather "joined ABT as Principal 2002" I'm happy about both these changes myself. It looks like ABT got two new terrific dancers The only dancer still showing as "guest" is Tamas Solymosi. He is listed in the casting for Japan on the ABT site. One last thing I noticed with the photos and roster. Nina Ananiashvili's photo is gone, no more "on leave". Also she's off the roster. Richard

She's also quite a terrifying Myrtha in the German film of Giselle with Nureyev and Seymour. This has been released on DVD in the US fairly recently Richard

Oberon, the times article and the postings here have me eagerly anticipating Balanchine’s version of Midsummer’s, but is it ok if I think of it as the perfect way to kick off the summer ballet season, rather than the end of the ballet season? After all, it does continue across the plaza at the Met…see you there? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm with nysusan here. Maybe in August I'll be ready to close out the ballet season in NYC. I'm not ready to call it quits yet, not with 3 more weeks of ABT and 2 of the Bolshoi. Richard