abatt

I feel the exact opposite, dirac. I have never felt that the Crucible was one of Miller's greatest plays, but I have been enthralled by two productions I have seen of A View From the Bridge. The first time I saw it was during a 1998 Broadway run, with Anthony LaPaglia, Allison Janney and Brittany Murphy. The acting was great and the story was fascinating. The next revival I saw was with Liev Schreiber, who is such an intense stage presence. He was mesmerizing. Scarlett Johansson played the young girl and won the Tony for it, but she seemed too worldly for the role. I think there is a new production of Crucible coming to Broadway in 2016. Brian Dennehy in Death of a Salesman ranks up there among my most cherished theater experiences.

I attended Thursday and Friday evening. The highlight for me was Herman Cornejo's breathtaking Spectre of the Rose. He is ABT's greatest dancer at the moment. I enjoyed seeing Monotones, and I thought Thursday's cast was mostly excellent. Tom Forster, however, needs to land his jumps with less of a thud. (Cory landed his jumps in complete silence.) I wasn't quite as enthusiastic about the Seo Whiteside Valse Fantasie as some other posters. I thought their performance was lethargic. Moreover, in a solo passage Hee Seo blurred the fast, complex footwork to keep up with the music. Seo is not a Balanchine dancer. Speed is not her friend. The Brahms Haydn Variations , while not my favorite Tharp, was well danced and is a well constructed ballet. Particular mention to Gillian Murphy. I enjoyed the new Morris. Not a masterpiece, but perfectly lovely. I think Gomes is too warm a stage personality for the Green Table. I recall that David Hallberg was much more frightening the last time this ballet was revived.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/10/26/arts/26reuters-russia-bolshoi.html?ref=arts&_r=0

Maybe Vishneva should hand out refunds instead of lemons. There is a perception that her adoring fan base will follow her in whatever projects she wants to do based on her history as a great ballerina. Some will follow her in whatever she wants to do. But for me that wore thin a long time ago, and I quit going to Vishneva's Ardani shows because they were awful. It's clear that she is moving further and further from ballet. She's only doing 2 performances during ABT's 8 week season. She has also given up on the Ratmansky SB after one season. It will be interesting to see how these BAM engagements sell. It seems like BAM realized it hit the lottery last season when the Mariinsky visited, and now they are trying to ride the wave of that financial success by presenting these programs.

Thanks. You've confirmed my suspicion that I have no interest in seeing it. And what does this work have to do with paying tribute to Plisetskaya? Anything? Or just a false advertising game?

Lendorf withdrew from the ABT fall season due to injury.

Sadly few details about the content of the programs, or even which ballerina will appear on which night. It's like putting together a pot luck dinner but charging caviar prices. Lopatkina and Vishneva are certainly "caviar" level artists, but it's inappropriate for BAM to provide so little information at these prices. Is there a video anywhere of Woman in a Room? My idea of attending a ballet performance does not include watching old films clips as a significant part of the program.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/20/arts/ap-us-misty-copeland.html?ref=arts This is a short interview I noticed which Misty gave to the Associated Press in advance of the release of A Ballerina's Life. She mentions that it's painful for her to do the 32 fouettes in SL because of the surgery she had a few years ago. I was interested in this statement: "I clearly am in a different position when I make these debuts and all the critics are coming," she says, somewhat wistfully. "That doesn't happen to most dancers on their debuts, that they're being critiqued like that. It's a very interesting position to be in." Based on past experience, the NY Times almost always sends a critic if a soloist or principal debuts a new lead role, so I don't understand why she thinks that doesn't happen to most dancers. Perhaps the reviews didn't end up on the front page of the New York Times, and were buried in the a small Arts section review, but the critics do attend these debuts regularly. The price of fame. I also find this statement bizarre since ABT is the source of critic tickets for all publications (except the NY Times, which pays to avoid an appearance of impropriety). If neither Copeland nor ABT wanted the attention of the press for the debuts, they could just pull the free press tickets. In fact, they do the exact opposite and encourage the media coverage .

Thanks RUKen.

Now I'm getting audio but no video!

My connection just went down. Now the site is telling me to return mas tarde.

Well I've been very sick these last two days, but I had to drag myself out of bed when Mr. Abatt told me the casting was up. Most surprising (or depressing) is that Hallberg is not listed.

Sublime artistry. What a gift from Yale. I couldn't see the subtitles of the film, but that didn't matter. A friend who attended in person told me that only 200 tickets were distributed to the public.

There is an article about the newly discovered Bolshoi Swan Lake materials in today's NY Times.

For anyone going in person to tonight's performance, I've been told by someone involved in the Yale presentation to advise the ballet alert community that there might be an opportunity after tonight's performance to greet Ms. Lopatkina and obtain her autograph. Yale reps will make any announcement regarding autographs at tonight's show.

Did anyone watch today's 4 PMl ivestream of the lecture and demonstration? What was the transmission quality? I didn't see any link to permit someone to watch it at a later time..

Jack, the State Theater actually has two ladies rooms on the orchestra level, and one men's room on that level. All other floors have one men's room and one ladies room. Given the fact that the fourth ring is now closed for almost every performance, the smart money is to take the elevator up to the fourth ring where the restrooms are empty and clean.

I saw the performances on Sat evening and Sunday afternoon. A pleasure to see these masterpieces danced so brilliantly. Special mention to Huxley for his debut performances in 4T's. He is quickly proving himself to be one of NYCB's most exciting and wonderful dancers. I can't wait to see him debut in more new roles. His debut in Melanchonic was superb, and I'm guessing he will get even better with more performances. The excellent performances in Concerto B. were also a pleasure. I hope they promote Janzen to his deserved principal spot soon. On Sunday, Tiler Peck was even more brilliant than she was earlier in the week in T&V. Also, everyone was firing on all cylinders in Liebeslieder. Most improved over last week was Sterling Hyltin, who has gained authority in her role. Somogyi was wonderful and received a heartfelt sendoff from the cheering audience and her fellow dancers. After the novelty acts that were on display in the new works earlier this week , these All Balanchine performances were a reminder that a genius like Balanchine only comes along rarely. You don't need gimmicky designer costumes or faux dramatic storylines with blindfolds and soccer balls to make great ballet. All you need is great choreography.

I liked the costumes for all of the ballets except for the costumes used in Common Ground (Troy's ballet). In fact, I thought the costumes in the Thatcher and Binet ballets were more interesting than the choreography. The New Blood costumes were my favorite of the evening. I did not like the makeup used in that ballet, though. It was distractingly weird. http://dancetabs.com/2015/10/new-york-city-ballet-jeux-polaris-the-blue-distance-common-ground-new-blood-new-york/ Here's there first review regarding last night's debut.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/11/arts/the-big-ask.html?ref=arts I have only glanced at this, but it is an interesting, in-depth look at the art of fundraising and important donors. I got a big laugh out of the section regarding naming rights for the bathroom.

I thought last night was one of the most depressing nights at NYCB in a long time. When a balletomane like me leaves the theater wishing that I had spent the night at home watching television instead of coming to the ballet something is seriously wrong. The only ballet that I would come to the theater to see again is Justin Peck's 15 minute "New Blood", which pulsated with energy and tricky choreography. It seemed like things mostly went from bad to worse, with the Brandstup work frustratingly opaque and shallow. First,it seemed like the music was merely background atmosphere music rather than a springboard for the choreography. Would anyone care to enlighten me on the plot. I know Brandstrup was trying to tell us a film noirish story, but the narrative never came through for me. When your work is only 20 minutes long, you had better be a really good choreographer if you intend to tell the audience a story of any depth or meaning. Why was Adrain DW bouncing a ball? Why did Mearns get hold of the ball at the end? Mearns starts out with a blindfold , and by the end Adrian DW is wearing the blindfold/ What? In the meantime, the corps is doing some generic ballet 101 lifts in the background. The portion in which Mearns attempts to interact with the group looked comical to me. Was that intentional? The setting was a almost completely dark stage with a bright lightbulb in the back of the stage. Is there some handbook which requires modern choreographers to use dim lighting? It was relentless. Almost every work was done on a stage that was dimly lit. Is that to hide the poor choreography? And why were there all kinds of strings, and fabric pieces flying around on the costumes for Troy's ballet? Those big pants that the men wore completely obscured their body line. My remaining ticket for this program will be exchanged faster than you can say Kim Brandstrup. It's no wonder that Martins decided not to present the Brandstrup work at the gala, and instead opted for the more user friendly Thou Swell. If I were a donor and had to see this entire program at a gala, I would tear up my donation check. PS: Despite being approx 10 weeks along in her pregnancy, Bouder looked positively svelte in her skin tight leotard in the Peck work.

Garcia has been replaced in every ballet this week and also missed most or all of last week. I had assumed he was injured, but I suppose it's possible he could be off rehearsing w. Paloma. Kind of strange. Keep us posted.

For the LeCrone fans, she is debuting next week as Choleric in 4T's.

Tiler Peck was mesmerizing and brillliant in T&V. Technically marvelous as always. In addition, gorgeous musicality and phrasing. She also added so many lovely romantic touches in the way she responded to Veyette. I was less impressed with Veyette. He was good but not as flawless as DeLuz. Am I correct that Veyette turned the last turn in his solo into something much easier? Poor ticket sales. Third ring was less than half full. Fourth ring was closed. I guess they need SL to support these low attendance nights.

An article about the making of A Ballerina's Life http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/arts/dance/misty-copeland-on-pushing-ballets-boundaries.html?ref=arts&_r=0