abatt

Smirnova & Chudin were fantastic tonight.

It appears that whoever is in charge of selecting the programs for these Festivals does not have discerning cultural tastes. Yes, this Swan Lake is very odd, but at least it sold out, which is important to the bottom line. Remember that last year, someone somehow convinced the Festival to present about 2 weeks of something called Monkey Journey to the Earth at the Koch. They spent weeks trying to unload all those unsold tickets with discounts everywhere you looked. Maybe the sell out of the Bolshoi shows will help setoff the losses from the Monkey Journey debacle. Maybe its time for a new festival director with better taste, and also one who can better manage the methods and practices of ticket sales to festival events.

Yes, those must be the people who bought their 3 packs on the phone or internet, where you were required to buy each of the 3 ballets. In contrast, if you went to the box office, you could buy any combo of 3 ballet tickets,thereby bypassing Spartacus tickets. I'm actually happy that the Royal Ballet tour next season seems to have nothing to do with Lincoln Center Festival, because the sale of the Festival tickets was done in a very poor and uneven manner.

The Bolshoi is critic proof in NYC. They haven't been here in 9 years. Virtually all the tickets were already sold before they even arrived. I'm guessing they won't be back here for a good number of years, as it is such an expensive undertaking. The NY Times website just posted an article on David Hallberg. He is apparently the toast of the town this week. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/arts/dance/david-hallbergs-dancing-develops-via-russia.html?ref=arts#

Wow. Hallberg is dancing with ABT a lot this year, in contrast to the last few years. Semionova's not on the tour. I don't see why Kent couldn't dance in Fancy Free, as she has in prior revivals. She also previously did a role in Seven Sonatas, but that may now be out of her technical reach. I think the issue has to do with timing. She has young kids, and the new school year starts right when this tour is scheduled. I'm sure Victor Barbee has to go on the trip, and so they may have decided that one parent should remain in NYC.

In some ways, it makes perfect sense that Osipova might appear at ABT next spring. The Royal will be in New York as its last stop on the US tour. After the tour is completed, the Royal is done for the season, right? Since she will be in NYC anyway, why wouldn't she sign up for a few Met shows in late June or early July?

Saw SL again last night and thought Zakharova was even better than on opening night. The arch of her back, the gorgeous extension of her limbs - it was all breathtaking. She is gorgeous in this role. Whereas there was no front door security on Tues and Wed evening, last night they decided to install bag check security at the front door.

Attached is an AP article on Hallberg based on an interview he gave. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/07/17/arts/ap-us-dance-hallberg-bolshoi.html?ref=arts# Most interesting is the following: He also wants to dance again with Natalia Osipova, a former Bolshoi and ABT star who's now with London's Royal Ballet. Ballet fans went nuts over their "Romeo and Juliet" for ABT, a pairing that brought out the best in both. But she left the Bolshoi just as he was arriving. "Next year, we're going to have more chances," he promises. "I can't tell you details yet, but we're desperate to dance together." Here's hoping that he is referring to potential appearances with Osipova at ABT next season. We're desperate to see these two together again too!

Here's some news on American in Paris. It's confirmed as headed for Broadway in spring 2015. Robbie Fairchild will take a leave of absence from NYCB for the project. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/17/an-american-in-paris-will-open-on-broadway/?ref=arts#

"What struck me most about this performance is that the Bolshoi dancers seem to carry themselves more like the Paris Opera Ballet dancers, with erect torsos, rather than the Vaganova-trained /Mariinsky dancers, with their upper body fluidity. Think Diana Vishneva and Veronika Part. I love that upper-body fluidity and missed it last night. This must be simply a difference in style and taste, but suffice it to say that I'm glad I got only one ticket for the Bolshoi's Swan Lake." Since Nina Ananiashvilli, one of the great O/O's ever to grace the Met stage, was a Bolshoi ballerina, I'm not willing to concede that this lack of fluidity arises from Bolshoi training. Has there been some kind of radical alteration of the training since Nina was there?

I don't think we have a sense today of the level of enormous respect that Americans had for military service men who fought in WWII. They were considered the greatest generation, heroes who saved the world. Today we always hear in the media about creeps in the military who do horrible things. There is less support for the Amer. military today because of these types of incidents. Also, the wars the US is involved in today are unpopular wars, which is unfairly reflected onto the military. For these reasons, I doubt that people of earlier generations would have viewed Robbin's goofy fun loving sailor boys as a threat.

Thanks for your hilarious review Mimsyb. I laughed out loud. The Trocks reference is spot on! I was there last night too and I found it to be a very disappointing evening. I agree with everything you said about Nikulina. I saw her Giselle in DC a few weeks ago and thought it was wonderful. I guess O/O is just not her forte. There was some "acting" - she made sad faces as Odette and mean girl faces as Odile - but the technique was truly lacking. Her back was stiff as a board and never pliant. Her movements were perfunctory and lacked crispness and elegance. She did manage some nice double fouettes in Act III, but that wasn't nearly enough to elevate the level of the performance. Zakharova's level of technique, her phrasing and her stage presence were considerably more impressive than Nikulina's. I thought Ovarchenko (spell?) was pretty good, but not nearly as good as Hallberg. (Hallberg re-fluffed his hair after the necklace was removed in Act I. I almost burst out laughing when he did that.) As mimsyb pointed out, Ovarchenko's decision to call Nikulina out for a bow in Act III when NOBODY was applauding was an egregious blunder. No comparison between last night's Evil Genius and Jester and openning night's performers. Last night's performers were sleep inducing. Given how ugly NYCB's production is, I can't agree that the Bolshoi's is the ugliest ever seen. Yes, the ABT version is looking better and better compared to Bolshoi's.

Right, many choices in NY. That's why my husband and I eventually decided to only see guest conductors at the NY Phil during Maazel's tenusre, unless there was a truly spectacular soloist appearing on a Maazel concert.

Congrats to Part. I used to think that McKenzie denied her certain roles like Juliet and Giselle because of her height and the difficulty of lifts. However, since he has been giving the very tall Semionova all those roles, it is apparent that height was not the deciding factor in his mind. I hope someone posts clips of Part's performance on You Tube.

Living in New York and going to subscription concerts, it became hard to avoid the idiosyncratic Maazel. Therefore, in the minds of a lot of New York Philharmonic subscribers, the idiosyncratic Maazel remains at the forefront of our memory of his body of work.

Although the movie had many acclaimed stars, it often felt boring because of the poor writing. It wa okay as a DVD rental.

The Met also charges $25 for standing room, I believe. The Bolshoi tickets sales involved wild extremes. People who bought packages early were able to secure good seats at cheap prices. As mussel pointed out, those who waited got burned, and had to pay excessive prices, often in awful seat locations. There were many, many people looking to buy tickets outside the theater last night. This engagement is more successful than the Mariinsky's engagement at the Met a few years ago because: (1) the Mariinsky brought oddities, like Humpbacked Horse and Anna Karenina and (2) the Mariinsky/Met pricing was extremely high, which kept ticket sales relatively low.

Knowledge is always preferable to ignorance. No harm in learning no matter what the subject is.

I enjoyed Zakharova's performance very much. Her technique is excellent. As for the issue of coldness on stage, I didn't feel it was a problem last night. I thought she had good chemistry with Hallberg. (The coldness was a big problem in their Giselle together a few weeks ago at the Kennedy Center, though.) She is a regal ballerina, and O/O suits her very well. Also loved the Evil Genius and the Jester. My that stage looked overcrowded with all that scenery. There was barely any space left to dance. This is a bizarre production. I was particularly disturbed when the music from Act 4 suddenly appeared in Act III and all of these black swan clad corps members suddenly appeared. It disrupts the flow of the ballroom scene. I actually prefer the national dances on pointe as opposed to character shoes. What's up with that flooring they are using. Their feet made dstracting sounds on that flooring every time the swan corps danced. It was reminiscent of when my grandma had her couch covered in plastic and every time someone moved there was an awful noise from friction with the plastic covering.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/movies/the-roar-over-the-funds-of-the-crowd.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=movies&module=Ribbon&version=context&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Movies&pgtype=article# This is an intersting article about crowd funding sites. The article raises interesting arguments as to why these crowd funding sites are not meant to finance projects of well established, wealthy artists.

Thanks for your reports Birdsall, and I hope you are feeling better soon. FYI, Bayadere and Giselle are the only two "classical" ballets that Vishneva still performs at ABT, and Bayadere's' Act II requirements are evidently difficult for her based on her performance this season at ABT.

I went to the Washington DC Mariinsky Swan Lake's in Feb of this year. Every performance was sold out, even though none of the Big Guns (Lopatkina, Kondaurova, Vishneva, Tereshkina) performed. In contrast, when the Mariinsky brought Ratmansky's Cinderella a few years ago to DC, they were giving out discount offers to unload unsold tickets.

I can't see any company hiring him as a guest artisit. Maybe he 's planning on making the rounds on the gala circuit (like the YAGP galas, and other similar enterprises) where he can dance two pdd's and get paid. Even if he doesn't show the gala still has plenty of other participants so his cancellation wouldn't be a big headache. I saw him at the YAGP gala two years ago in NY and thought he was sloppy. Lack of discipline starts to show pretty quickly on a ballet dancer.

Interesting, Didn't know the casting was TBC for Month until recently. That definitely suggests that the conflict was contemplated and they decided to throw Osipova's NY fans under the bus for the Giselle shows after falsely using her name to sell tickets to the Giselles.

Osipova's conflict with the Mik Giselles is her Royal debut performances as the lead in A Month in The Country. Knowing Osipova's past cancellations, I would not expect to see her at the Mik for the Giselle performances.