abatt

Ramasar, as noted above, needs a lot of improvement in Tschai Piano Concerto. Saying that he was better than Ask LaCour is the ultimate backhanded compliment, in my opinion. I'm hoping for future casting of the male lead role in some future season to go to Janzen or Catazaro. You've heard of fantasy sports teams. This is my fantasy ballet casting.

Yes, Reichlin is stellar in Tschai Piano Concerto. Mearns is still working out the intricacies of the choreography and gives a good, but not stellar, performance. She may also be hampered by her partner, Ask LaCour. On Tuesday he flubbed the portion where he has to do a turn in the air and then drop to his knee while partnering the ballerina. Tiler Peck's execution of the choreography last night in Tschai Piano Concerto was very, very impressive, as was her musicality. Nevertheless, I felt like the choreography lost some of its grandeur because she does not have long enough legs or feet to really show off all of the many elongated lines and extensions built into the ballet. Of the three soloists in Tschai Piano Concerto, my favorite was Savanah Lowery. She dances with exuberance and covers a huge amount of space in jumps. She radiated joy. I thought both Scheller and Lauren King were too small scale and dull. Garcia was just sloppy as James. The footwork and speed are too difficult for him at this stage of his career.

http://www.metopera.org/About/Press-Releases/The-Metropolitan-Opera-2016-17-Season/ 10 Live in HD broadcasts The 2016-17 season of The Met: Live in HD will kick off October 8 with the 100th presentation in series history, Tristan und Isolde. The series will continue with Don Giovanni (October 22), L’Amour de Loin (December 10), Nabucco (January 7), Roméo et Juliette (January 21), Rusalka (February 25), La Traviata (March 11), Idomeneo (March 25), Eugene Onegin (April 22), and Der Rosenkavalier (May 13).

Balonchinette, you took the words right out of my mouth. Ask had the EXACT same problem when he caused Reichlin to fall down in the same sequence. Both Reichlin and LaCour were splayed out on the floor. This was about two years ago.

Sara Mearns was mostly wonderful in her debut in Tschai Piano Concerto. However, there are some things that have to be ironed out in her performance. She had some issues, in particular, with the choreography in her first solo. On Friday night, Reichlin, who has been doing this role for a few seasons, was breathtaking. Her command and authority in Tschai Piano Concerto was a marvel. This has been her best role of the Winter season, and I would say she now "owns" the role in the same way she owns the tall girl role in Rubies. Beautiful and fearless. It was a blissful performance. I liked both Hyltin and Peck as the leads in Sylphide. I thought Peck's mime and dramatic abilities were superior. Both dancers, however, had excellent technique. Veyette allows some sloppiness to creep into his performances. The leg beats are sometimes fudged, and a lot of his landings are not in the proper position. Oh well. The stiffness mentioned above by cobweb was part of the problem. Yes, Ulbricht danced much better than Veyette. Why wasn't he doing the role of James?

Part is still listed for Mar 31.

I'll be there Tuesday through Thursday and would look forward to meeting people at intermissions at the Kennedy bust in the lobby (mentioned by Natalia above). Also, on Tuesday various ballet fans are planning on hooking up in the cafeteria upstairs before the show for dinner. All ballet alert folks are welcome!

Part is listed for only one Lilac in Detroit, which suggests to me that she may still be injured and her participation in the tour at all is questionable. They probably need to reserve Stella for her Lilac duties.

Somogyi never danced T&V, I think. There were so many roles that she missed out on because she was absent for so many seasons due to long term injuries or maternity leave. On paper, she had a long career, but in reality she was not on stage much during the last decade of her career.

Just noticed that this week's casting has been updated. Veyette is taking over both of DeLuz's Sylphide assignments this weekend, in addition to doing both of his own assignments of that role this weekend. Hope he's up to the challenge.

Casting is up for the final week of the season. Miriam Miller is debuting as the lead in Agon. Also, Robbie Fairchild is returning for the week, with a debut in Agon (secondary lead role).

I didn't think this conversation had any relationship to race. One size does not fit all for ballet roles. That sentiment is unrelated to race.

Based on reading R Fairchild's comments that continuing to do AiP might put him in a wheelchair, it doesn't make sense that he would agree to continue in the role if and when it transfers to London.

I was hoping that David Hallberg might at least return to do the Ratmansky Chamber Symphony, but that's not in the cards. ABT website updated- Whiteside is first cast in Chamber Symphony, and Cirio is listed for the second cast.

I thought Peck was miscast as Terpsichore in Apollo a few seasons back because of her proportions. I also thought that Lovette was miscast in the main pdd in Wheeldon's DGV (the pdd that was done by Maria K and Whelan) for the same reason. Sometimes size (and proportions) do matter in certain ballet parts.

I was (pleasantly) surprised that Martins gave Tiler Peck Tschai Piano Concerto 2. That lead role usually goes to a tall to medium height woman. However, with Bouder out and Hyltin already in so many other lead roles this season, I guess it was Tiler's turn for this juicy, difficult role. Notably, Scheller remains in the soloist role, which she has been doing for a period of time. For whatever reason, Martins does not appear to regard Scheller as an artist worthy of significant advancement to new, important roles. I can understand why he passes over Abi Stafford and Krohn, but I don't get his attitude regarding Scheller.

Tiler Peck's biggest career hurdle is her size. Since Martins is casting the shorter "soubrette" types in T&V, she was able to get that lead part and triumphed in it. However, I doubt we will ever see her in most of the "queenly" roles due to her stature.

I couldn't find anything about a London production. However, it appears that there will be a tour of the United States (no casting provided on that tour). http://www.playbill.com/news/article/an-american-in-paris-will-launch-national-tour-in-boston-383954

I'm hoping that David Koch will pony up the funds needed to bring this to ABT.

I didn't realize that he agreed to work on the London production. I wonder how long he has committed to the London production. Oh well, better catch him during the Spring season at NYCB because who knows when he will be back at the Koch.

As an example of what I'm talking about in comparing M Fairchild's Ballo with Tiler's, there is a moment in the choreography that I think is called a grand pas de chat or a pas de chat jete. It requires the dancer to throw the left leg out all the way out to the side and then pull the right leg into passe. Megan, in order to keep up with the music, barely throws that left leg out. In contrast Tiler Peck (and our beloved and missed Bouder) throws that left leg all the way out so that you can clearly see the brilliant choreography. I'm not saying Megan gave a bad performance. I applaud anyone who can do this role without falling on their face. It's a killer. However, I think she makes small compromises in executing the steps in order to keep up with the tempo. I do feel sorry for M. Fairchild and her personal situation.. I think that all of the busted up romances at NYCB must create real casting headaches. It's generally not a great idea to get romantically involved with co-workers.

NY Times review of the new SL is up on the website. Thanks for the reports, Natalia.

Yes Megan did T&V on Sat afternoon with DeLuz. I'm assuming that there was an illness/injury to DeLuz, which caused today's casting changes. Tiler Peck made an excellent debut in Ballo on Sat. afternoon. Great musicality, and a much better spinner than Megan. Also, I thought Peck's speed allowed her to finish every movement with clarity, whereas Megan has a tendency to clip the end of a movement in order to keep up with music, Too bad Tiler didn't get to do Ballo again today. But really, who can complain about having Tiler fill in in T&V? Keeping my eyes on the Sylphide casting to see if DeLuz is able to dance his part on Friday.

Re Symphony in C, I thought that the poor looking falls backward were as much Peck's fault as Hytin's. There was repeatedly an evident lack of trust, which really shouldn't come as a surprise. I don't think they have ever been paired up before, and this is not the ballet in which to test out a new partnership. I'm assuming (hoping) that they will have a better, smoother relationship going forward. (I exited after the 3rd movement, so I didn't see the finale). I think Hyltin was probably pretty nervous. My problem with Reichlin in this role has been that she is too blank. She strings together the steps, but there is no imagination or interpretation in her role. She does, however, have an exquisite body for the lines and extensions of the role. Martins is increasingly using people of mid-height like Hyltin to do roles normally associated with tall women. Even more problematic is that he is casting really short ballerinas in Liebeslieder. The cast that had Megan Fairchild and Lauren Lovette in Liebeslieder just looked silly. Those ball gowns overwhelmed their petite sizes, and their legs were barely visible in the portions where they had to do extensions in those gowns. I guess Tiler Peck was also too short for this ballet, but her dancing is so exquisite that her height didn't diminish my enjoyment. It's ironic that NYCB's top ranks are now dominated by so many smallish ballerinas. Yes, 2nd movement of Symphony in C was a signature role for Whelan, and none of the current crop comes close to her brilliance.

One thing that Millepied never learned from his old boss Peter Martins is that you never, ever say anything negative about your dancers. Peter Martins has given numerous interviews over the years, and you will never see him say anything negative about the NYCB dancers or the company. I'm sure Martins is a very difficult person and is highly critical of dancers in private, but he has never expressed such thoughts in the public media. Millepied seems very arrogant and naive. Additionally, I think Millepied may have an overinflated sense of the quality of his own works. When people talk about today's significant ballet choreographers, they refer to Wheeldon, Ratmansky and now Justin Peck. Millepied has never really broken through to that level of acclaim, although he gets lots of commissions.