abatt

Stearns was much improved this afternoon as compared to the Wednesday matinee. The differernce was quite startling, in a good way. Bravo Cory for getting your act together.

Doesn't NYCB perform more weeks per year than ABT? Also does Martins' salary include his duties as the head of SAB?

The casting change slip inserted into the programs tonight stated that Alina Cojocaru is injured and unable to perform. There was no mention of any injury or illness to Herman. Turns out Hee Seo's Act IV is her best act. I thought for sure her Act II woud be better than average, but I was wrong. As she went through the choreography, she failed to connect one phrase with the next. It was like she was going through a mental checklist of what the next movement was, and was therefore too busy to concern herself with the flow from one movement to the next. She didn't interact much with Bolle. Her focus was just getting through the choreography of Act II. Sometimes she also lost focus of what her arms were supposed to be doing, and would just fling them without any thought of making them look beautiful. Her Act III was danced better on Monday than tonight. The characterization was very good, but not the execution of the choreography. That balance that she held so nicely on Monday was gone almost instantanously tonight. The fouettes were even more sloppy tonight than on Monday. Since Act IV contains mostly mime and no difficult spins, she must have been relieved because she danced much better during the final few moments. Bolle was terrific. He used every second on stage to create his character during Act I. Anyone who wants to see the creation of a pensive introspective Siegfried in Act I should watch how Roberto does it. He changed some of the choreography in Act III to make it a little easier. Who can blame him? He's not young anymore, and he has to do this again in 24 hours! He fudged one of his landings, but other than than he did good work. His acting was first rate and his partnering was very secure. He lifted Hee with no difficulty or strain. Hammoudi has improved greatly in the characterization of purple Rothbart. However, I thought his dancing was noticeably strained. When he had to rotate on one foot, you could see he was making all kinds of little adjustments of his foot because he was not secure. Worse yet was that tonight he attempted to go on demi pointe while lifting his other leg into arabesque, which is what the choreography calls for. This did not go well at all. The foot that was on demi seemed almost to be shaking, and he could barely raise the other leg (maybe just a few inches, that was it). It looked bad. Is he still injured? All in all, a less than thrilling evening. Was fun to see many ballet talkers at intermission. I will not be making a return visit to a Hee SL for quite some time. I'd like to check out Boylston during the next run of SL next season.

Why did they bring such awful works on the tour. Were they really so afraid of comparisons to NYCB and/or ABT? The ticket sales were dismal. They have been trying to unload discount tickets for weeks.

I'm sure Gomes has lots of aches and pains, but he's a trooper.

Unless they've made any changes since last year, booster seats are only for children and they often run out. You have to bring the child with you to prove it's for a child, and they make you leave your driver's license as hostage so they get the cushions back. I seriously doubt that at 6'0 they would give you a booster seat, MJ. I've seen full size adults with booster seats and no kid. All you have to do is say my kid is in the bathroom or something like that and they will give it to you if you leave your ID.

How do we know whether Bolle in fact would have been more than happy to dance with Alina. She is certainly light and easy to lift. What's the basis for the assumption Alina's cancellation was due to some factor other than Alina's own decision not to appear tonight? Maybe McKenzie or Alina should reach out and explain the situation. There will be 2,000 or so fans of Alina's in the audience tonight who would certainly appreciate a reasonable explanation. Social media provides an easy method for the communication of such information, if there is a desire to provide it.

In terms of fairness, Boylston is still a soloist. It may be more appropriate to have principals fill in on short notice for multiple shows over a short period of time.

Hallberg was out for the entire season two years ago due to injury. He had a significantly reduced schedule last season because he was coming off his injury. (A number of his scheduled appearances were re assigned to others last season). And now this season he lasted through 4 shows. Time for McKenzie to find another tall guy who can partner to fill out the roster, because Hallberg seems to be plagued with injury issues every season. I know Whiteside is not universally loved on this board, but he fills an important role. ABT needs another guy like him. Hamoudi was supposed to be the next tall partner who could do lead roles, but that hope has not been fulfilled. Not sure it ever will be either.

Maybe it's time to rest SL, but I doubt they will. It's a license to print money.

I doubt that Roberto wants to lift Part. Seo will be much easier for him to lift. While the crowd was 100 percent behind Seo on Monday night, I'm not sure she will get the same reception tonight. People don't appreciate bait and switch games, and the vast majority of people will be completely unaware fo the casting switcheroo until they get to the Met tonight. Of course, the cancellation of Cojo is not Seo's fault.

The timing of the Cojo cast change is annoying. It seems like they intentionally waited until after 5 PM today to announce the cast change the day before the show. Since you cannot exchange on the same day as the show, this left people about 2 hours to scramble to the box office in the hopes of exchanging a ticket, assuming you happened to have tomorrow's ticket with you.. As noted, this is the second year in a row there has been a Cojo. SL cancellation. And so we return to the same topic of ABT's male principal problem .

My negative opinion of Stearns' performance has nothing to do with makeup or lack thereof. It has to do with his lack of acting ability or engaement in communicating his story to the audience. If it were only as simple as a makeup job to solve his issue, that would be fantastic. Sadly, the problem runs much deeper.

Radetsky hasn't performed in two weeks. He's been replaced at every performance he was scheduled for, so his absence is not a surprise. Is it possible that Cojocaru Cornejo might get switched into the Sat matinee? No definitive info on what was on the back of Part's tutu, but it was a bit distracting.

I think everyone was looking forward to seeing Cojo's SL. What's going on. Very disappointed.

Casting update. ABT website indicates that Hee and Roberto will dance on Friday evening AND Sat evening. Hallberg still listed w. Semionova for Sat matinee. What happened to the Cojocaru-Cornejo SL!!!!!

Did anyone notice that the back of Part's white SL tutu had a huge makeup stain. Surprised that they would send out someone in such a filthy garment. Is it possible that a pre-show attempt at a lift caused a goodly amount of Cory's stage makeup to end up on the back of Part's costume? (Semionova was wearing a completely different tutu than the one Part wore.)

Hi California. Misty's roles in SL have been her usual ones- peasant pas, 4 little swans and one of the princesses in Act III. She certainly has not been cast as O/O. I wonder if a number of ABT's dancers (like Semionova) have opted out of the Australia tour, leaving them short of an O/O. The timing is right when most people take vacations - end of August.

The people who are renting hotel rooms to attend are the out of town tourists. There are many elderly people who live within one or two hours drive to the Met but can't come into the city anymore. As an anecdotal example, I know someone who subscribed to the Met for decades. Now she is approaching 70 and she does not feel that she can drive from her home in Connecticut anymore into Manhattan due to medical issues.As a result, she dropped her subscription and only attends the HD broadcasts in her community. It is not a matter of price. It is a matter of declining health preventing trips to the City. (She also regularly attended NY City Ballet, but since she cannot drive to the city she has not seen the Company for a few years.)

One person's pensive is another person's sleepwalker. Yes, pensive works for Act I, but not the rest of the ballet.

If the Met's HD audience is largely people who cannot actually get to the Met anymore, then the argument that the HD broadcasts are the cause for the drop in in-house attendance and ticket sales makes no sense. By the way, not sure if this was posted, but the Met's administrative offices were vandalized yesterday AM. Didn't realize this until I looked at the newspaper late last night, but I did think it strange that a cop was in the elevator at the Met after the matinee of SL. Now I understand why the police were at the Met yesterday.

I haven't seen the full version of Hee Seo's SL, but I can tell you that Semionova's Act III was about a thousand times better than Seo's Monday evening performance. Semionova was in complete control of her technique - flawless triple fouettes, flawless unsupported balance held for a long time without any drooping of the leg in arabesque, and a completely winning characterization. I thought Semionova's Act II was gorgeous, with deep back bends and fluid upper body movement. I dread to think who will partner Semionova on Sat afternoon if Hallberg is out. Can the MVP Gomes do a third SL in one week? Probably not. I have this sinking feeling that Stearns will end up as her partner, and someone else (Hammoudi or Mathews) will fill in as Purple Rothbart. By the way, Hammoudi did not even attempt to go onto demi pointe when he did his arabesque last night. I didn't think he was the least bit menacing.

The replacement slip said Hallbeg is injured. Lots of casting changes probably on tap for next week. No casting listed for Australia yet, but if it turns out that Copeland is getting a SL but not Lane, that will be a complete travesty.

I'm too tired for a full report so this will be brief. I went to both SL's today. Part- sublime. Stearns, as noted above, Dull Dull Dull. Semionova and Gomes tonight were spectacular.

I think when the production is bad, they dump it as soon as possible (as soon as finances are available for a new production) it even if McKenzie is listed as the choreographer. Isn't McKenzie the choreographer of the ABT SB? They are dumping that for a new Ratmansky sB next season.