Goldfish17

I went to see Merry Widow on Saturday night and had a merry evening. It was like watching light operetta in the middle of serious opera season. No deep emotions, just pleasant entertainment. The sets are gorgeous, costumes are lavish, music is charming. Irina's and Maxim's acting and dancing were beautifull, so was Yuriko Kajiya's and Jared Matthews. I thought that can-can girls at Maxim's in the third act could use more rehearsals - they were completely out of sync with each other and some of them out of music as well.

Absolutely agree. Those two children deserve a credit , though. I thought they did a good job, especially Lindsay. Also, I would love to see a child, not adult, as a Red Riding Hood.

You are not alone. I was especially disappointed because it happens to be my favorite variation in SB and because I like Gennady Saveliev. First of all, Kajiya and Gennady did not belong together; there was no harmony in this partnership. Then ether Gennady was in a bad mood, or it is generally not his role. He seemed to be to “heavy” and his jumps were quite low, his performance “uneventful” and definitely did not put me in mind of bird. Plus I hated costumes – they do not match together and have 0 resemblance of a Blue Bird.

Sarah Lane was a delightful, “for real” teenage Aurora. Bravo! Just to add couple of things: I could not agree more - Maria Bystrova did create a most powerful character in the whole Act I. But those alien creatures that surround her! – boy, do they look ridiculous. Act II. Some costumes are replaced, toned down, some left untouched. Most of them look fine and even good separately. However when put all together on stage, they create a colorful mess. All foreign princes’ costumes are replaced. Now they have no character, look the same and it is hard to differentiate one prince from another. Plus, bright yellow peasants make it difficult to focus on princes, whose costumes are made from the same dull, dark fabric. They probably used that shower curtain.. I was very glad Lilac fiery did not send King and Queen to die in a forest this time. They fell asleep with the whole castle and even get a chance to be at their daughter’s wedding.

Couple of things went wrong during yesterday's performance. Starting with Gennady Saveliev who got back injury during the performance.. So Carlos Lopez had to perform most of the PDT in second act.. .. Gennady finished the 3rd act but was obviously in pain.. Julia Kent fell out of the music during PDT and did not complete all of the usual turns.. Still, she created such a sensual, playful, glacial and believable, Medora! Especially comparing with Irina Dvorovenko the night before, who was perfect technically but her Medora was blank, flat.. Also, Julia Kent was not wearing that new costume - bright blue tutu which makes horrible contrast with color of Ali's pants.. She danced in her "old" costume, which I think was great. Angel Corella was as fantastic as the night before.

As much as I did not care for Veronica Part's Aurora, I have to admit that her Lady Capulet was magnificent. During the "weeping scene" she was so "for real" that I felt a chill and goosebumps on my skin.. Nothing was dull about her performance on Monday night. As far as "war of Romeos" mentioned in Mr. Macauley review - I do not think there was ever a war. ABT's Romeo and Juliette is so much stronger and better then R +J that war did not even started.