bbfan

Before I entered this discussion I was hoping to tap into some sources for more accurate info on Onegin ticket sales, but haven't yet. So this is an educated guess. I'm pretty sure that more than 7000 tickets were sold, including subscriptions, over the two week period. We went twice on weekend nights. The first week the orchestra (which seats 1800) was between 1/3 and half full. The dress circle seats 600. The balcony/mezzanine seats 1400. There are subscribers in both the dress circle and balcony/mezzanine as well as the orchestra. If the DC was 1/3 full and the balcony 1/4 full then maybe there would have been 1100+ that one night. If I assume the other weekend evening and opening nights were similar that would account for 3300 for only 3 performances the first week. The second weekend we went there were noticeably more people there - some repeaters like us, some for the first time. There was a line of people waiting to buy or pickup tickets when we arrived, the lobby was more crowded, seats filled farther back in the orchestra, etc. Not sold out but far from empty. So imagine the second two weekend night performances had maybe 1500 each. (And I'm making low estimates). That would bring the attendance for 5 performances to 6300. Nothing I've heard suggests that the remaining 7 performances were nearly empty. I'm assuming the number Temin quoted was wrong, based on partial data or some misunderstanding.

I have heard that subscription sales for Boston Ballet have been going well, with much interest in how the company is doing under its new management and direction.

FWIW - we know a couple who used to be subscribers but are now caught up in child rearing and exurban living. They came with us to the new choreography progarm, loved it, remembered Onegin from a performance in Boston years ago and got another couple to join them for that. I guess the point is that this is the third time BB has performed Onegin so it is not completely unfamiliar. Nevertheless, it would have been nice if even more people had come.

I saw it twice, both times with almost the same cast - Larissa Ponomarenko as Tatiana, Pollyana Ribeiro as Olga, Gael Lambiotte as Onegin, and Alexander Ritter as Lensky. Only significant difference was that we had Viktor Plotnikov as Gremin one night, and Robert Moore in that role another night.

We were a little disappointed not seeing different casts, but the cast we saw, especially Ponomarenko, was so good we couldn't feel very sorry about it. Larissa was wonderful! She was so effective expressing the range of emotions and growing maturity the role calls for. She and Lambiotte were impressive in all their pas. Her pas with Gremin was so effective both nights we saw that several of us felt sorry to see him standing to the side during the curtain calls!

The corps was in fine shape, and wonderful in their diagonal jetes across the stage.

The first evening we saw it (not opening night) we were sorry to see so many empty seats in the theater (the Wang is huge though). The good reviews must have had an effect because the audience was noticably larger the next week we saw it.

Several people saw other casts and said they were also terrific. All in all I think this was a success for the company and the people lucky enough to see it. I hope we don't have to wait too many years to see it again here.

I said older not mature ;)

Anyway, can't correlate age and taste. One of my mid-20's relatives saw the program, thought the Morris piece was ok, hated the Elo, didn't like the Forsythe.

bijoux, since you are in the area you've probably noticed the press that Nissinen is getting as one of the new hotties in town. Your idea of a nifty TV ad is interesting, I've seen TV ads for Nutcracker but otherwise the ads are print and radio. Maybe a budget consideration. I think we'll just have to wait and see what Nissinen and Wilder come up with this year. Wilder has actually been here, in residence, less than a month.

I've been going to Boston Ballet for many years, since the days of E. Virginia Williams. Here is a rather lengthy set of assorted thoughts on the above exchange.

1. Interesting point on use of ballet vocabulary in dance. That may be one reason why "In the Middle" works (for me) and "Sharp Side" doesn't. The latter may be less balletic. I'll have to think about that when I see it again.

2. 140,000 people reportedly saw the Boston Lyric Opera on the common over two nights. How many of these people could really see the stage and hear the music? The Globe had an interesting article about the amount of prep that went into generating that audience, arranging the venue, etc. Not something that could be done routinely - this performance was to celebrate BLO's 25th anniversary.

3. Boston Ballet has given free performances in the past. At least once at Quincy Market (where Elaine Bauer broke her back doing a modern piece) and for several years in the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade (where the Pops concerts are held). I'm not sure why they stopped, the difficulty of the performing conditions may have been a factor.

4. Boston Ballet does a lot of outreach to try to develop its audience and attract younger people. BBII dancers show up at malls and schools, in costume, to promote some of the programs and to help educate audiences. Students can get rush tickets for $12 starting something like 30 minutes before the performance, and tickets are often very good, not necessarily the worst seats. Depends on what is available. Tickets are available at reduced rates at Bostix ticket kiosks the day of performance (I think). Tickets are donated to various charity events, given as promotions, etc.

I'm not saying they are doing everything right or everything they could be doing, but that they are not catering to the older wealthier audience, they are trying to attract and educate more people to come and enjoy the ballet.

An aside: A couple of years ago the audience at Dracula was interesting. The audience was full of young people, some goths in "costume", it was fun to see them. Did these return for other ballet performances? Not many that I've noticed.

Another aside: It occurs to me that by some people's standards, while I'm not a Beacon Hill matron, I'd be considered one of the older wealthier folks. And I do know some Beacon Hill matrons who attend ballet. And many of us enjoy the modern, neoclassical, ballets. I'd rather see "Sharp side" 6 more times than have to sit through "The Pirate" (Le Corsair) or Cleopatra one more time. One of the older wealthier women gave a large gift to endow new choreography. So lets try to develop new audiences without stereotyping the older fans.

5. Nissinen and Wilder are trying to liven things up, and attract more young people. Early days yet, but they are replacing stuffy meetings with receptions and parties, trying to get people to mingle, etc. In the the past there was an effort to develop a young professionals group, with special receptions before or after the performance, maybe they can revive that. And they try to promote group sales, with discounted tickets and backstage tours. One problem in Boston is the intense competition for potential attendees' attention. There are so many things going on, sports, arts, educational, historical, etc.

6. I tend to say I don't like story ballets, but what I mean is that I don't like performances where there is a lot of standing around setting a scene and not so much dancing. Dracula and Cleopatra and Hunchback had some nice dance moments, but were more drama than ballet. Onegin tells a story but is all out dancing, I can hardly wait to see it again!

7. Boston badly needs a better performance venue, for ballet and for opera. Odds of such a venue being built? Maybe when the Sox win the pennant.

FWIW - Christine Temin is an arts reviewer for the Globe. I don't think she does community fairs or 4H shows, but she does do art exhibits, other dance performances, and sometimes travel articles when she has gone someplace interesting in conjunction with her art/dance reviewing tasks. I've also been dismayed in the past by her negative reviews of Boston Ballet; sometimes it seemed that BB could do no right, so it is a relief when she says something positive.

I think the best ballet reviews in Boston are those published in the Phoenix. The Phoenix is a weekly, so their reviewer (often but not always Jeffrey Gantz) attends dress rehearsal and several performances before writing the review. Thus the review is generally more thoughtful and comprehensive than the reviews written against an opening night deadline. They are also available on the Phoenix' web site for longer than a day or week. The downside is that someone reading the review has only a few days to see the performance, since more than half the usual two week run will have passed by the time the review is published.

FWIW - Christine Temin is an arts reviewer for the Globe. I don't think she does community fairs or 4H shows, but she does do art exhibits, other dance performances, and sometimes travel articles when she has gone someplace interesting in conjunction with her art/dance reviewing tasks. I've also been dismayed in the past by her negative reviews of Boston Ballet; sometimes it seemed that BB could do no right, so it is a relief when she says something positive.

I think the best ballet reviews in Boston are those published in the Phoenix. The Phoenix is a weekly, so their reviewer (often but not always Jeffrey Gantz) attends dress rehearsal and several performances before writing the review. Thus the review is generally more thoughtful and comprehensive than the reviews written against an opening night deadline. They are also available on the Phoenix' web site for longer than a day or week. The downside is that someone reading the review has only a few days to see the performance, since more than half the usual two week run will have passed by the time the review is published.

As promised, here are some comments on Boston Ballet’s season opener. Not being a reviewer I didn’t take notes, so unfortunately my comments are not as specific as they might be, particularly about individual dancers or movements. This is more my impression of the experience.

Some context: First, I like modern ballet, and prefer it to many of the story ballets we’ve been seeing in recent years. Second, my experience of the second two pieces on the program was marred when several people moved into previously empty seats in front of us. One of these was a tall curly headed fellow who couldn’t sit still. Most of the time I lost the left quarter or third of the stage; some of the time I couldn’t see anything at all; all of the time his bobbing around was distracting to me and the people with me. But that is not the fault of the choreographers or dancers, and I look forward to going once more with better sight lines.

On to the dance:

Maelstrom. Very enjoyable, not as edgy as the next two pieces. As expected, this is Morris doing ballet vs. modern dance, and is the most accessible piece on the program. The music (Beethoven) was beautifully played (the musicians’ names were omitted from the printed program, but were announced and the trio was brought on stage for bows).

Sharp Side of the Dark. I have mixed feelings about this. Some parts I liked very much, some I didn’t like at all. It stuck me as dark literally and figuratively. I don’t like dances without music and illumination; parts of this dance were silent, parts were done with very little light. This could be very dramatic but it was hard to see the dancers. Other times the lighting was very harsh. The combination of lighting, costumes (gray unitards for women, gray/silver tights and jackets for men), and girder and industrial steel plate set, resulted in a post-apocalypse or maybe outer-space colony feeling. The music was beautiful. The dancers’ interactions, or in some cases lack of interactions, with each other could be quite moving. I really need to see this piece again to decide if it is something I’d like to see many times. At present I suspect not. One of the people I was with hated it (pointless capering) and others thought it was wonderful.

In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated. In my view, this had some interesting similarities to Sharp Side. Spare costumes, spare set, dim dramatic lighting (but consistent and sufficient to see the dancers clearly.) The big difference is that In the Middle works. The electric soundtrack is not something I would choose to listen to, but it worked for the dance. I felt the dancers were being driven by the sound, I kept thinking of The Red Shoes and the compulsion to dance. The dancers were wonderful in their movements and interactions, and I felt the result was very compelling. I look forward to seeing this again.

Usually I have to enjoy the music to enjoy the dance, but the second two pieces disproved this. The Bach for Sharp side was beautifully played; Thom Willems’ electronic soundtrack for In the Middle was generally harsh. I feel I’m learning something about choreography watching and comparing these two pieces, and that the evening was well worthwhile. I'm glad I'll have another chance to see these three pieces.

Bruce Marks started the CityDance program at Boston Ballet, and he made an effort to have an ethnic mix of dancers in the company. BB had a black Nutcracker prince, and one of Bruce's favorite stories was the excitment of one of the boys in the audience when the Nutcracker's head was removed (hmmm, you know what I mean) and the prince underneath was revealed to be black. Last year BB's Nutcracker had a black Fritz in one of the casts, and the party children and other parts taken by youngsters were of mixed heritages. So the program seen the most by children has dancers of varous ethnic backgrounds. BB does have fewer black dancers in the company than when Marks was here, but it does have Asians as well as Latinos. I'll be going to the season opening performance this weekend, and will give the program a close look to see what mix we have this year. I do know one of the Asian women - I'm blanking on her name - has a lead role in one of the pas. It will be interesting to see what Mikko does about this issue. I have heard him say he was impressed by the amount of outreach BB does in the community. I don't know what viewpoint he has on diversity as a goal for the company.

Looks good, can hardly wait. (Eventually there should be a link to much longer press announcment on BB's site, and probably will be mentioned in tomorrow's Globe and/or Herald.)

BOSTON BALLET ANNOUNCES 2002-03 SEASON

Mikko Nissinen's first season features new repertoire for the company,

world premiere

MORRIS, FORSYTHE

+ WORLD PREMIERE

September 19-29, 2002

Maelstrom

Choreography by Mark Morris

Music by Ludwig van Beethoven

In the middle somewhat elevated

Choreography by William Forsythe

Music by Thom Willems and others

World Premiere

Choreography by Jorma Elo

ONEGIN

October 24-November 3, 2002

Choreography by John Cranko

Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

THE NUTCRACKER

November 29-November January 2, 2002

Choreography by Daniel Pelzig, Bruce Marks,

Sydney Leonard, Anna-Marie Holmes,

and Gianni Di Marco

Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

LA FILLE MAL GARDÉE

February 27-March 9, 2003

Choreography by Frederick Ashton

Music by Ferdinand Hérold

ALL BALANCHINE

April 3-13, 2003

Ballo della Regina

Music by Giuseppe Verdi

Movements for Piano & Orchestra

Music by Igor Stravinsky

Monumentum pro Gesualdo

Music by Igor Stravinsky

Prodigal Son

Music by Sergei Prokofiev

ROMEO AND JULIET

May 8-18, 2003

Choreography by Rudi van Dantzig

Music by Sergei Prokofiev

Ballet can be educational as well as entertaining: Corybantic sent me to the dictionary. It refers to the Corybants, in Greek mythology the attendants who followed the Phrygian goddess Cybele with dancing and revelry, or the priests in the worship of Cybele, or revelers.

The program notes are very interesting but too long to repeat here. They don't explicitly discuss how the ballet got its name, but do say the Leonard Bernstein was inspired by Plato's Symposium when writing the music (Serenade). Wheeldon was working on a ballet with Grecian images and theme when he asked Jonathan McPhee his opinion of using Bernstein's Serenade as the music for this new ballet.

McPhee wrote that years earlier he had talked to Bernstein about Martha Graham creating a ballet to Serenade but even though they'd discussed it (Bernstein, Graham,McPhee) the project never came together. So McPhee was pleased and surprised when Wheeldon suggested using Bernstein's Serenade. And interested in how some of Wheeldon's ballet "resonated strongly" with Graham's images in Medea, even though Wheeldon had not prior knowledge of a potential Graham connection to Serenade.

Unfortunately I have only found the Boston Globe's review online in its archives, you'll have to buy the article (published on 3/17, written by Christine Temin). Unusual for them not to have it available for at least a day.... You can get to it using www.boston.com/globe/search and searching for ballet or American Trilogy.

Am hoping the Phoenix comes through for us tomorrow with their usual thorough articles.

[ March 20, 2002, 03:23 PM: Message edited by: bbfan ]

As Mikko Nissenen said in his program notes, Balanchine was originally from Russia, Wheeldon is from Britain, and deMille was American. But the music to Corybantic is Leonard Bernstein's Serenade, so that is the American connection. Also it was commissioned by Boston in '99 so it was done for an American company. Guess that counts too.

Recently we’ve seen both a dress rehearsal and a performance of Boston Ballet’s current offering, American Trilogy. This includes two vintage pieces, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue and Rodeo, sandwiching Corybantic Ecstasies, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon for Boston Ballet in 1999. Most of my comments relate to the performance.

In Slaughter we saw April Ball as the Strip Tease Girl and Michael Johnson (a member of the corps) as the Hoofer. As noted by the reviewers in Boston papers, the introductory dialog setting the scene was unintelligible so many in the audience were mystified by the plot. Nevertheless the dancers were having such fun and the music is so good (and familiar) that the performance was enjoyable. Ball did a find job but the most impressive performance was by Johnson. We already knew we liked him in ballet, but he showed great talent as a jazz dancer and tapper!

Corybantic was quite a change of pace. If I didn’t know better I would have pegged that as the Balanchine piece of the evening. The music is cerebral and the dancing well matched to it. Simon Ball was Eros; his dancing beautiful and seeming effortless. (We sit near the front of the orchestra and are often impressed by the sweat flying off the dancers.) Christopher Budzynski, one of my favorites, shadowed by Joel Prouty, was Narcissus and Tara Hench Echo. Theirs was a poignant section. Pollyana Ribeiro and Jose Martin performed the Hermes section; they are both strong and quick and well matched for this, flying around the stage. Larissa Ponomarenko was paired with Ball for the Eros and Psyque section. This was also a beautiful partnership. The last section is Dionysia, where Sarah Lamb and Gael Lambiotte had the leads. I assume this section gives the ballet its name, with a frenzied look reminiscent of the drunk scene in Prodigal Son or maybe parts of Carmina Burana. It seemed jarring after the beauty of the previous movements. While Lamb was credible in her role I felt that she was no match for Adriana Suarez, who we had seen in rehearsal. Suarez is so strong and agile and sinuous. Lamb is a young and beautiful dancer, but not yet the perfect choice for this role. (During the intermission several of my friends remarked that they enjoyed Corybantic but felt it was a bit too long; the contrast of the Dionysia with the rest of the ballet didn’t work for them.)

The final piece was Rodeo. During the rehearsal I’d felt disappointed; I remembered enjoying this ballet in the past but now it seemed dated. The performance was quite different, it was interesting to me how much the energy and enjoyment of the audience fed into my enjoyment of the ballet. We saw Frances Perez-Ball as the Cowgirl, Simon Ball as Head Wrangler, and Reagen Messer as the Champion Roper. Messer came through the strongest with his dancing and acting, marvelous jumps and impressive tap dancing. (It was interesting to realize how much tap dancing contributed to this evening.)

We are fortunate to have an excellent orchestra. Jonathan McPhee is very sensitive to the needs of the dancers.

We are going again next weekend, and hoping for a different cast. But if we were to see the same cast we’d still enjoy the evening.

I'm a long time Boston Ballet fan and supporter, though not a real insider. With regard to Nissinen's coming, the people I've talked to are still pleased and looking forward to having him on board full time. Changes in dancers and staff are to be expected so are not surprising. Even without a change in leadership some dancers leave every year, for various reasons, and it is contract review/renewal season. The teaching staff changes represent, I think, an attempt to shift the company from its current strong emphasis on Russian training to some other style(s) and enhance abilities for modern/contemporary choreography.

Losing Jorden Morris is unfortunate but not surprising given his strengths and Nissinen's need to be the company leader, and probably Morris' interest in being in a lead role somewhere. Again, my assumption about events.

So in general, while some of the changes may be sad, change is inevitable and expected. Nowhere near as shocking as some of the changes Guilguid made last year.

By the way, we just finished seeing Maina Guilguid's Giselle. She evidently had a good experience working with the dancers and staff at Boston despite last year's troubles. The produciton was well received by audiences and positively reviewed in the papers. We saw it several times and it was beautiful

I am interested in dance quotes, and have two questions:

Azza_4eva: What is the URL for your quotations web site?

Anybody: Several years ago we came across a quote "Dance is the art that most moves man's soul" attributed to Plato. Is anyone familiar with this quote able to give a more specific reference, that is to a particular one of Plato's writings?

The people I've talked to are glad an AD has been named and happy with the choice - looking forward to getting to know him and work with him. And we fans can look forward to the coming seasons.

This morning Boston Ballet held a press conference and named Nikko Missinen the new artistic director for the ballet - and reportedly made it clear he will be the one in charge at the ballet. No links to press release yet.

Lost of smiles from Boston.

> I think he thought he could just run the BB like a business. As a musician (as he purports to be) he should know better.

I agree. My opinion is that any arts organization benefits from having strong people handling business, but that the business people are there in support of the artistic people, not vice versa. So if you have a strong business leader and a strong artistic leader there is bound to be tension - think of the personal characteristics needed to be strong and succeed in each position. Seems like the best way for the organization to succeed is if the business leader loves the art from and respects the artistic leader enough to put aside some amount of personal ambition. I would not call the top business person a CEO - better to stick with a somewhat lesser title like business manager so it is clear where the prioritie are.

I haven't seen an org chart, I think Boston Ballet's Center for Dance Education reports to BB CEO, but it basically financially self supporting - there are three related schools, in Boston and two suburbs, plus numerous out reach and summer programs.

[ 06-19-2001: Message edited by: bbfan ]

>And one other thing: the BB press release implies that Babcock was responsible for saving the satellite school.

I don't think the BB press release implies that. The release was, I thought, rather carefully crafted to make these points:

- Babcock is leaving the ballet but staying in Boston;

- we are looking for a new CEO and will work together on transition;

- (despite problems) the ballet has accomplished good things in the past year and will continue to do so (without crediting Babcock or anyone else specifically).

BU's press release was, as one might expect, more laudatory.