fondoffouettes

Thanks for pointing it out. I just checked it out and really enjoyed what Teuscher had to say about being cast against type and making the role her own. It also confirms a few things that we've basically assumed all along: that she was pulled from the Detroit R&J because of Lendorf's injury, and that Lendorf is still injured. She comes across as very thoughtful and well-spoken. Bell seems shy and modest, but then again, he's only 19! It's funny that Teuscher didn't realize how young he was until the NYT article came out. I also hadn't known that Teuscher was in the very first class of the JKO School. She must be the first ABT principal to have come out of that school, right? I know others have said it's not regarded as one of the country's finest training programs, but it does show that it can be a talent pipeline for ABT. Royal, Trenary and Brandt are also alumni of the JKO School.

I never usually order champagne ahead of time, though I generally sit close to an aisle and can make it to the bar rather quickly. (Also, I go down to the basement bar, which is generally less crowded than the orchestra-level one.) And the bar lines seem like less of a problem during ballet season than opera season. Not sure it counts as a Met tradition, but there is a huge wall of photos of present and past Met stars down by the basement-level bar that I always enjoy looking at. And definitely keep an eye on the chandeliers in the auditorium as the lights go down. It can also be nice to walk up to Parterre level during intermission to hang out on the terrace. If you want a snack during intermission, I'd recommend picking one up beforehand at Le Pain Quotidien, Epicerie Boulud or Maison Kayser (if you're near Columbus Circle). I love the brownies from both Le Pain Quotidien and Epicerie Boulud. And the Met has never had an issue with me bringing in small food items in my bag, as long as they are only eaten during intermission, outside of the auditorium. Hmm...I feel like I've seen that gelato cart still going after a ballet performance; not sure. They'd also have gelato across the street at Epicerie Boulud till 11:00 p.m. I've never tried it, but all their other sweets are pretty fantastic. Probably my favorite finer dining spot near Lincoln Center would be Boulud Sud. It's true the pre-theater prix fixe isn't cheap, but the food is high-quality. The grilled octopus appetizer is to die for. I also really like Bar Boulud, and the prices are a bit lower.

Those are the only ones I can think of from the past 10 years or so. I think Jared Matthews would have been an excellent candidate, had he stayed.

That's interesting they scrapped that dress after the premiere. It looks like it may have some sort of whimsical decorations around the bottom (butterflies?) but I wonder if they didn't read well from the audience. I'm not crazy about the red decoration right on her crotch. The headpiece looks quite pretty -- I hope it doesn't completely go to waste! I have no memory of the little fairy girl from the Tuesday evening performance, but I guess she must have been there. I can only picture the one or two little attendants she had in Act I.

The colors are beautiful. I don't mean to split hairs, but she's hardly differentiated from corps girls who are also wearing Empire-style dresses in Act II. (This is the best pic I could find of the costume, just left of Brandt.) The way the dress isn't really brought it under the bust makes it more shapeless than the corps girls, though. Nothing about her costume reads "good fairy" to me.

Though I loved the costumes in general, I thought the Good Fairy's costume was a bit of a weak link, especially amongst all the whimsical, elaborate costumes worn by the rest of the cast. It was a beautiful dress, but it looked like she was heading to dinner at Downton Abbey. It didn't conjure a magical figure for me. But I see now that you posted a photo of the original costume earlier in this thread, and the ABT costume is indeed similar, so I guess they were going for authenticity.

Yes, I remember he had posted about it. The ABT calendar now lets you go back in time (yay!), and it shows him performing it just that one time in the D.C. run. (Cirio and Shayer each got one performance, as well; Simkin got two.) The casting is also mentioned in the thread from that run. Was it during the Hong Kong run that he was replaced?

And last year WC was a near sell-out. I assumed they programmed it for that week because they thought it could still sell well. And there will be tourists in town. I'm disappointed to hear Klein has been replaced; I was looking forward to seeing a corps member get a shot at a leading role.

Whatever the reasons may be for Copeland not appearing in Harlequinade, it appears Brandt was indeed subbed in quite late in the game and hadn’t prepared the role.

No, it ended there and I avoided any further interaction after the performance was over. I really hate interactions like this and usually avoid shushing unless it's absolutely necessary.

This is what I’ve heard from a mom I know who takes her child to the ballet. She puts in a lot of prep work before the ballet to make sure it’s a successful (non-squirmy!) experience.

I'm not sure "sophisticated" is the word I'd use; but perhaps NYCB attracts more regular ballegoers, whereas the ABT's Met season may attract more people who maybe go to a Swan Lake as a special occasion, once a year (I'm just surmising here). I don't think I've ever had to shush anyone at NYCB, now that I think of it. The only problems I've had are when I sit in the second or third rings and the ushers let latecomers mill around in the back of the ring and be distracting during the performances. (Do they seriously still allow that? It seemed crazy to me.) I moved down to orchestra after too many bad experiences. I do think the NYCB ushers tend to seat people a bit too late. If the curtain is up -- it's too late. Last night I broke a (personal) rule I thought I'd never, ever break -- I said something to a mom about her child's behavior. It was a mother who was letting her child do pretty much whatever she wanted to during the performance (repeatedly crinkle cellophane, take her shoes off and wave them in the air, wave the arms of her jacket back and forth, stand up and hang on the seat in front of her, among many other movements). The mom did little if anything. Of course this behavior reached its peak during the lark scene. I leaned forward and said, "Could you please keep your daughter under control? It's very distracting." I received a venomous look, and "I'm trying what I can." The thing is, she was doing nothing. Then she turned around again, looking furious, and said, "That was incredibly rude." I don't mean to underestimate how hard it is to be a parent, but if your child can't sit through a performance, it's time to exit and respect the ticket-buyers sitting around you. I realize a ballet ticket may be cheaper than child care, but if you can afford to raise a child in Manhattan, you can afford to hire a babysitter and respect adults who go to evening entertainments. Or if not, you may simply have to sacrifice going out to the ballet. There was a baby or young child crying last week at Bayadere. Seriously? I can't imagine the baby was brought there to enjoy the performance.

Yes! Fille Mal Gardee is a favorite of many on here, and I just couldn't get into it. Oddly enough, the tone, characters and whimsy of both pieces are exactly the sort of thing I'm drawn to (dancing chickens? jaunty peasant dances? Count me in!) and yet I didn't like the ballets overall, despite loving particular passages. I'm pretty sure I want to give Harlequinade a second chance. I will say, it certainly adds much-needed relief to ABT's programming, in the middle of the long, done-to-death full-lengths. I'd much rather seem them present Harlequinade than that dreadful Merry Widow or similar "light" fare.

I wasn’t expecting grand-scale or whiz-bang dancing. I just wasn’t expecting so much of the dancing to look uninventive and repetitive (I’m speaking of the ensemble dances, which take up much of the evening). Some sections of mime were funny and engaging; others dragged. Maybe my feelings about this ballet are similar to Fille mal gardee. Lots of “oh that’s charming” moments that don’t add up to a great ballet IMHO. I have tickets to the Saturday matinee that I was going to give away, but I almost want to go again to see if I can feel what others feel about this ballet. I don’t deny it had its moments; it just didn’t work as an evening-long entertainment for me.

Right -- I think you miss out on the varied texture of a Petipa work if such sequences are cut. I guess I just feel that this ballet wasn't a great candidate for reconstruction, given its dramatic and choreographic shortcomings. But I still admire Ratmanksy for pursuing this sort of work. I'd be interested in seeing selections or a condensed version in the future. but I'm not interested in sitting through the full thing again. I can't help but wonder if the resources for this production could have been better used for replacing some of ABT's more musty warhorses with newer productions.

Stories retold in varied ways. This was big clusters of kids just doing repetitive dance moves -- all prancy, stompy moves over and over again, with very little variation in ports de bras. And for the record, I loved the child dances in Balanchine's Coppelia. I don't disagree it's part of the Petipa ballet fabric. I just wonder if this may have been one of his least-inspired attempts.

This whole ballet made me wish Ratmansky had looked at the notation and decided to choreograph his own version, inspired by Petipa. Is the source material really worthy of a literal reconstruction?

It's so lively and exciting there -- not to mention beautifully tied to the music. And...it takes all of a minute? We don't have to watch children stomping and prancing for I don't know how long. It was awful.

I guess I missed that they were retelling the story. All I saw was hop-prance, hop-stomp, over and over and over again -- with the same ports de bras motions over and over and over again. All that distinguished the dances for me was that the costumes varied. But my eyes were glazing over by that point.

I guess I'll offer a dissenting opinion on Harlequinade. I don't mind that it's not a grand ballet, like Bayadere or Sleeping Beauty, but so much of the choreography for the ensembles was pleasant in an anodyne sort of way at best, and repetitive and boring at worst. And the ballet is filled with a lot of ensemble dancing. I can't imagine Ratmanksy looking at the notation and seeing the work of a genius choreographer. Much of it felt like Petipa at its most basic, and least inventive. The exception to this would be the Wedding "Lark" Pas, which was exquisite and offered a much-needed dose of pure dance spectacle. With the exception of that one fall, I thought Lane really sparkled in this section and pulled off those hops marvelously. I wish Cirio could have handled the partnering better. And I agree he didn't project much personality over the footlights; I imagine this is where Whiteside must have really excelled. Act I is really mostly action and mime, though I did love Columbine's solo (again, excellent hops from Lane), as well as Harlequin's somewhat understated solo. But there's just a ton of slapstick and mugging that didn't really feel funny at all. Maybe with a stronger cast it would have been entertaining, but to me it just felt boring. I think it's a big challenge to make commedia dell'arte characters funny to a modern-day audience, and the comedy didn't really land tonight. There were lots of people, soldiers, etc. entering and exiting the stage. It wasn't very engaging. I could have used some actual dance. The ensemble of villagers dancing did nothing for me. In Act II, you do get some good dancing, but you have to wait through endless ensemble dances by child corps members that seem to go on forever, with each dance barely distinguishable from one another. They basically consist of the same hop-prance-stomp moves over and over and over again. Maybe it's something to record for archival purposes, but it's one of the biggest snooze-fests I've ever experienced. Then, finally, the Lark Pas, which very much justifies being reconstructed and should probably be presented on its own or as part of a suite of dances from Harlequinade. But, overall, I was just shocked by how repetitive and unimaginative by much of the dance in this act. My problem is not that this is a minor work by Petipa; it just seems like a rather poor one. In terms of the physical production, the costumes are absolutely lovely, but I cared less for the scenic designs. The look like they could have been borrowed from a regional opera company's stock of tired old sets. I'd advocate for ABT to present this in the future as a suite of dances or as a condensed one-act ballet, with a much-reduced prologue based on Act I and a wedding scene with the repetitive child-corps dances cut down.

I don’t believe he’s officially retired Solor, but I assume as much. He pulled out of ABT’s Bayadere months ago, before he injured himself. I think the Petipa role he’s most likely to reprise at ABT or elsewhere is Prince Desiree. I could certainly see him in the Ratmansky reconstruction; lots of partnering, with just one (super taxing) solo.

Now I can't wait to see it tomorrow! Lane is this costume has me swooning.

In case anyone is curious, the new Ratmansky Harlequinade is 1hr 47mins, including one intermission. (The run time wasn't listed on the Met website, so I used the chat feature on their website and asked a customer service person.)

What an incredible afternoon at the ballet and a close to the season. It felt like the company was dancing full-out, and they delivered some of the most exciting performances I've seen all season. It's hard to believe Ashley Laracey and Silas Farley were making their debuts in Concerto Barocco. Laracey was exquisite and soared in Farley's arms. Their PDD brought me to tears. Lowery was fantastic. I've been very critical of her dancing over the past couple seasons, but this afternoon, I think I saw the qualities that others have so admired in her really come out. She was bold, effervescent and her dancing had great attack. I had no idea Miriam Miller would be so fierce in Agon. It's been quite a long time since I've seen the scorpion leg-whip around the partner's back executed so quickly and perfectly. T. Angle was of course a super solid partner. I couldn't take my eyes off of Unity Phelan. Those extensions! It looked like she was practically whacking herself in the head with her leg. Again, Lowery was so impressive. Daniel Appelbaum, who was subbing for, I believe, Andrew Scordato, needs to do something with his hair. There's all this weird length in the back that flops around as he's dancing; it's really distracting. Four Temperaments was danced with more energy than I've seen all season. Villarini-Velez made a fantastic debut in Melancholic. I haven't seen much of him in the past, but I was so impressed with his dancing -- fantastic leaps -- and characterization. Ask la Cour probably made the least impact. LeCrone really was great in Choleric, as noted above. I seem to remember others weren't impressed with her Choleric earlier this season, but she was really on today. This afternoon's performance made me really excited for the talent pipeline at NYCB -- most roles were danced by corps members and soloists, and they delivered some of the strongest performances I've seen all year at NYCB.

They are both young artists who’ve been given quite a few opportunities in recent years, but my sense (at least at this early stage of their careers) is that Trenary is a more fully developed artist, whereas Brandt goes for whiz-bang technical feats. Trenary has a certain ease, warmth and old-school glamour about her that I also find very compelling. Regarding Teuscher...have I been moved by her dancing yet? No. She can be a somewhat remote presence onstage. But I’m hoping her development follows the Murphy rather than the Wiles trajectory. Wiles’ dancing had a somewhat hard-edged quality, whereas Teuscher comes off as a much softer dancer, with greater potential for lyricism.