abatt

I read an article in the NY Times last week stating that Ratmansky has added additional dances to this ABT version because the critics felt that the ballet had too little dancing, and too much mime, when it premiered in Denmark.

I thought that overall the "short cast" on Thursday evening was better than the cast of Wed night. Cornejo defied gravity in very high jumps that covered an enormous amount of space. He was an excellent Conrad. Cirio was a very impressive Ali - he, too, is a very high and fast jumper. His spinning skills are not as strong as his jumping skills, based on what I've seen so far. It doesn't matter whether Simkin is Lankadem or Ali - he pretty much does the same schtick, which is fine with me in this ballet. I thought Medora was a good role for Kochetkova because of her strong technique, although i generally prefer a taller woman as Medora.Lane was a lovely Gulnare, but Abrera was a gorgeous and lyrical Gulnare on Wed evening. Speaking of Gulnare, why didn't they cast Boylston in that role. She was terrific in her debut during the last run. I suspect during the next run of Corsaire we will probably see Boylston as Medora. Seems like Boylston has two weeks off - not cast in either Corsaire or Golden Cockerel. A word about Gabe Shayer. Considering how young he is and that he hasn't had many lead roles, his debut as Lankadem this week was impressive. I hope he (and a few others) get promoted to soloist soon.

http://watch.thirteen.org/show/nyc-arts/ Several ABT dancers are interviewed on the June 2 episode of the Channel 13 show tilted NYC ARTS. You can watch the full episode (see attached link). I think it will also be rebroadcast locally in NY on Sunday June 5 on Channel 13.

Heymann was good, but in my opinion not stellar. Mr. Abatt remarked to me that he is better than the majority of ABT's own male principal roster right now, and ABT should sign him up. Since Bolle and Gomes don't do Corsaire, the only tall principal men available are Stearns and Whiteside.

I think that the lackluster audience attendance is due, in large part, to the absence of international stars. I think attendance will pick up for Swan Lake week and SB week. There will also be an uptick for Golden Cockerel as a curiosity. Maybe the high high attendance for Misty's performances is counterbalancing the losses for lackluster attendance for other performances. I also thought that Heymann would have been much more suitable in other ballets. However, the need was for a Conrad. Also, Heymann is not generally known to American audiences. I thought Marcelo might have taken those Conrad performances that went to Heymann, but it appears that Marcelo has retired the role from his rep.

Corsaire just isn't as fun as it used to be, in my opinion. Last night I had flashbacks to when Bocca was Conrad, Corella was Ali, Nina Ananiashvilli was Medora and Malhakov was Lankadem. I also fondly remember Vasiliev and Osiipova. While all the performances were good last night, they did not measure up in comparison to ABT's recent past. As noted above, in terms of sheer technical brilliance Simkin stole the show. However, even Simkin, as good as he is, is not at the level of some prior ABT Ali's. It made sense to present this ballet for a week at ABT when they had a stellar roster, but now I'm not so sure that Corsaire is the event it once was. Added: I was also thinking back to the days when Cornejo and DeLuz alternated as Birbanto. Even this minor role used to be danced with incredible brilliance. Last night Aaron Scott was fine, but not thrilling. This used to be a ballet where some of the greatest dancers, in their prime, were going for broke and competing against one another in a playful way for audience attention and bravura dazzle. I never got that feeling last night, except for Simkin's performance.

The Wed evening show w. Copeland and Cornejo was well sold, but not a sell out. In contrast, the Friday evening show w. Boylston and Cirio, which in theory should have sold well because it is a weekend and kids don't have school the next day, was less than 50% sold. There were literally rows and rows of empty seats in the balcony and dress circle.

I saw Wednesday's performance with Cornejo and Copeland. I enjoyed the ballet and its cheery charm, but this is definitely not one I could see year after year like Swan Lake and SB. I agree there is too much mime, too many silly gags and too little actual dancing. I too felt that the second act was mostly boring until the very end when Lise and Colas finally had their difficult pdd. By that time, I think I had "checked out" mentally. Seeing some other casts this weekend. It is certainly a family friendly ballet, so I hope parents are bringing their kids to this. I much prefer Ashton's Sylvia and the Dream to Fille. Bring on the Peitpa please.

Thanks Syrene.

To an extent, I agree with the idea that more information about the meaning of the trilogy and its historical context would make watching the ballet more rewarding. However, I also believe that too much explanation and specificity could diminish the universality of the themes raised in the ballet.

I saw Tuesday's performance. The best thing about the performance was the Act II divert. w. Peck and Angle. They were sublime. This second act pdd has rarely been performed this well. However, Veyette was probably the worst Oberon I've seen in terms of the quality of the dancing. He was very sloppy and unimpressive. Carmena was lethargic most of the time as Puck, and his jumps lacked height. He was a very earthbound Puck, literally and figuratively. Mearns danced beautifully as Titania, but she seemed uncomfortable with the partnering of her Cavalier, Catazaro. She was much better in her dance with Bottom (Taylor Stanley). Lowery was an exciting and fearless Hippolyta.

http://borsen.dk/nyheder/avisen/artikel/11/140110/artikel.html Does anyone have access to this recent article about Lendorf? If so, can anyone translate it?

Re JKR's post, for Midsummer I would go with any cast that has Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle doing the Act II divert. Thus, I would aim to go on Tuesday evening or Friday evening.

I get and appreciate your point, Kaysta. I just felt there was a lot of wasted talent..

I tend to doubt that the program was based on the release of the Misty Barbie doll. The fact is that Copeland's performances sell very well regardless of whether any product or merchandise regarding Misty is also being released at the same time. The Misty Firebird tickets were selling very well way before they started sales of the doll. I think that Matel may have waited to start selling the doll until the beginning of the ABT season to capitlize on additional sales and publicity regardng the ABT season and Copeland's roles for the season. I assume that was what you are suggesting Stuben, and it makes sense. This is especially so because the designers of the doll are using a similar costume to the Firebird costumes. (Wonder if there is an intellectual property violation going on re the costume design.)I doubt either Matel or Copeland realized that the Washington Post would stir up controversy by asserting that the skin color of the doll was too white. The controversy didn't seem to hurt sales of the doll, however.

This may have been a circumstance where Craig Hall was offered the position of ballet master, but if he had refused it there would not have been another opening for him. This was a smart move in terms of long term job security and stability. He has not danced much, and he may have suffered many injuries over the years. It seemed clear that he was not on the track to make principal. I though the second cast of DSCH was fantastic on Sat. afternoon, and I especially liked Sterling Hyltin in the lead role. I thought Krohn gave a pretty good performance in Serenade on Sunday, but I definitley prefer the more overtly dramatic (melodramatic?) approach of Mearns in Serenade. By the way, Mearns was perfection in Western yesterday, and she easily conquered the technical demands of the role. Catazaro was much better in the last movement as compared to a few years ago when he made his debut in the role. Finlay was replaced yesterday in Western yesterday by T. Stanley. Hope Chase is not injured again. I liked both Huxley and Lovette in Duo, but they have no connection to one another the way Hyltin and R. Fairchild do. Hall and T. Peck were mesmerising in After the Rain pdd.

I think the outlandish costumes in the Firebird were completely deliberate and part of Ratmanksy's overall conception or "reworking" of the ballet. He decided that he was going to turn this classic Russian fable into an opportunity for comedy. Instead of having the maidens do a traditionally beautiful dance, he decided he was going to have them dress in very strange, distracting costumes and wigs, and that they would run around the stage waving their arms around and acting goofy for some comedic relief. I'm not sure how anyone could judge the quality of dancing of either Trenary or Abrera, because there was very little actual classical choreography for them to execute. I think Ratmansky does much better when he creates a work entirely from scratch. When he attempts to distinguish himself from well known works like Firebird and Nutcracker, things seem to go badly off the rails. No disrespect to people who enjoyed the Firebird. I also think that neither Symposium nor Seven Sonatas belongs on a stage the size of the Met Opera. However, those programs sold much better than the trilogy because people were interested in seeing Firebird.

I thought the Trilogy was completely original In terms of both the choreography and the dramatic content. I've seen the pieces performed individually, but the overall impact and brilliance of the work is much stronger when all three works are shown on the same program. I suspect that, given the large number of empty seats, the Trilogy will not be revived again for some time. I saw both casts, but I felt that it didn't really matter which cast you saw. The brilliance of the work was not dependent on any particular dancer.

Wanted to note that on Wed evening, Abrera and Royal were superb in Seven Sonatas. Why is Royal still in the corps! I thought the rest of the cast of that ballet also danced beautifully, especially Shevchenko (spelling?). Luciana Paris, however, struggled with the demands of some of the choreography. I thought Boylston did a great job with Firebird on Wed evening. She's a very high jumper, which is needed for this role. Also, whereas Misty merely marked some of the sliding movement of the choreography, Boylston did it full out. Now I need to wait until next season to see a much better version of Firebird at NYCB.

I think Pollack will make principal, perhaps next year. She gets a lot of lead roles now. I bet after the run of Sleeping Beauty next season there will be a number of promotions.

Murphy's name is removed from Chamber Symphony on Friday May 20 and from Piano Concerto 1 on Sat May 21 at 8PM. Hope she can do Fille next week.

Cornejo danced last night, too. By the way, Simkin and Aaron Scott are alternating in the same part in the new Ratmanksy ballet. Based on what I saw last night, the solo variation that Aaron Scott is performing is not the same as the one Simkin performed. Scott's is easier and requires less virtuosity. I guess this is due, in part, to the fact that Scott also has a difficult lead role in Seven Sonatas on the same program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/arts/dance/review-taylor-stanley-at-city-ballet.html According to the NY Times, Peter Martins's decison to promote Stanley was spontaneous.

Sometimes the promotions at NYCB come in bunches, so it must be extra special to Stanley that he was the only person promoted.

Mearns gave an enthralling and heartbreaking performance in Serenade last night. I've seen her do the role before, but I thought last night's performance reached a new height of insightfulness and poignancy. Tiler Peck was magnificent in her debut as Russian Girl. She added some dramatic nuance that you usually don't see. (I would love to see Tiler Peck do the Waltz Girl at some point in her career.) Jared Angle and Adrian DW were both ardent partners. Megan LeCrone had a very nasty fall, but she continued on and did not appear to be injured. Ulbricht is always impressive in Hallelujah Junction because it shows off his speed and technical ability. I had never seen Taylor Stanley in this ballet (substituting for Garcia), and was impressed by his strong dancing. I thought Lovette was too slow and leaden in the female lead role. Next was Duo Concertant with Hyltin and R. Fairchild. Some have commented on the fact that R Fairchild is out of shape. This was never more apparent to me than in last night's performance. The allegro footwork that he used to do with ease is now a struggle - a fight to the finish line. Abi Stafford, usually not one of my favorite dancers, was light on her feet and did a wonderful job in the first movement of Western Symphony. Her partner, Taylor Stanley, looked a bit tired. After all, he had just danced a demanding role in Hallelujah Junction only minutes earlier. Brittany Pollack needs some time to settle into the lead role in the second movement. What is supposed to look charming and comic came off looking forced. Also, she just barely managed to stay on pointe during that killer portion of her role where she has to deeply bend her knees while staying on pointe. Reichlin was sassy in the final movement but the fouettes eluded her. She came off pointe, started over, and came off pointe again.