abatt

I've only seen the opera at the Met Opera, with Dimitri Hvorostovsky as Onegin and Renee Fleming. I enjoyed the performances and the opera very much and was very moved by the acting. Hvorostovsky, in particular, was perfect for Onegin. I understand that Netrebko may be a future Met Tatiana.

Great news! She absolutely deserves it.

I saw Midsummer Night's Dream on Tues and Wed evenings. Titania is one of Maria K.'s best roles, and she was captivating on Tues. Her long legs and forever extensions are perfect for Titania. She also has a great sense of comic timing. I liked Reichlin in the same role,but not nearly as much as Maria. DeLuz showed off his incredible technique, speed and elevation as Oberon. Garcia, in my opinion, is not a virtuoso dancer, and his Oberon looked effortful and too small in scale. Reichlin (on Tues) and Scheller (on Wed) were both excellent Hypolitas. I'm not sure why Ulbricht has not been cast as Oberon, but I certainly enjoyed him as Puck. The star crossed lovers in both performances were wonderful. I especially liked R. Krohn's long lines and expansive sweep. Wendy Whelan, w. Jared Angle as her partner, was sublime and ethereal in the Act II divert. She had a few shaky moments in the most technically demanding passages, but they were very minor. I had not seen her do the role for a number of years, so I had my worries going in as to whether she could still do this role. My worries were unfounded. Whelan has been very smart in choosing her roles. The audience's response at the end of the pdd was rapturous. Wendy is a treasure. Megan Fairchild and S. Marcovici are, in my opinion, miscast as the leads in the Act II divert. (on Wed.) The little kids on stage were delightful.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did, MakarovaFan! I'm going back Thursday too. Can't wait!

I looked at Vishneva's facebook page. She posted a photo of the curtain call. She also thanked ABT for this role, stating that she has been waiting to dance this role a long time. I thought that was very classy. I thank ABT, too, for bringing us this stellar cast. I agree that this was the best I've ever role I've ever seen Jared dance. I loved all the lifts, and I didn't think it was too much of a good thing. Also agree that the Bolle/Kent letter scene on opening night was half-baked.

I'm still in awe of tonight's performance. Vishneva and Gomes were passionate, explosive and electrifying together. They danced with abandon. I had forgotten how tricky the partnering in this ballet is. Gomes handled all the difficult lifts superbly, and Vishneva's fully stretched out positions were heightened the drama. Vishneva was heartbreaking in the final scene. She looked completely drained by the curtain call. She also did a great job in acting out the change in her character from naive romantic girl to mature woman. I found it a little hard to believe Marcelo as the mean snob in Act I. However, he was totally in his element in the final romantic, frantic scene where he is pleading with Vishneva. Jared Matthews was excellent as Lensky. He did an especially wonderful job in his solo in Act II. Osipova was also excellent in playing the coquette. The sets and costumes were quite lovely, especially the beautifuly dresses in Act III. Based on past history, I'm guessing that Vishneva and Gomes will be even better on Thursday than tonight. Get your tickets now or live to regret it. The audience cheered the wonderful cast at the curtain call. I'm finding it hard to picture how any of the remaining 3 casts could top this, but we'll see.

I don't begrudge NYCB for wanting to attract large donors to the gala by giving them the potential opportunity to interact with a celebrity (in this case, a fashion celebrity). NYCB raised an enormous amount of money from rich donors by having Paul and Stella McCartney as the central figures of last year's fall gala. Ocean's Kingdom was not an artistic success, in my opinion. However, I think it was a box office success in terms of ticket sales. Clever marketing becomes important in tough economic times.

I knew Sarah Jessica Parker would get into the act for this one. She was conspicously absent for the Spring Gala, which also focused on fashion. I guess there just wasn't room enough for her and Portman to share the limelight at the Spring Gala.

The two people who made the biggest impression on me from this tour were Yulia Grebenschikova and Anna Tikhomirova. Yulia G. had such graceful, fluid movements. She was absolutely gorgeous, especially her arms and hands. I don't recall seeing her before, but now I will surely look for her name. Anna T. was like a beautiful butterfly floating effortlessly through the air. She has incredible, effortless elevation. She is another person I will be looking for in the future. Alexandrova is very tall and regal, and I thought she approached the lead role with great wit. She also has so much charisma and presence on the stage. I also enjoyed Kaptsova, who was more of a traditional, girlish Swanilda. She was also very light on her feet.

Botalex, I'm on a hotel computer where I can only stay on a few minutes. Not really possible to write in detail at the moment.

When I saw the All Martins program, I thought they had a lot of chutzpah to do that. Yes, we'll see how many tickets sell for that one. I guess Martins thought that since Wheeldon had an All Wheeldon program at NYCB, Martins deserved one also.

I went to a few Bright Stream performances earlier in the week. Attendance was very, very poor. Although I enjoyed seeing it, I can understand the reasons for the sparse attendance. I think the choreography is thin for large portions of the ballet. I enjoyed the first cast very much (Murphy, Gomes, Herrera, Hallberg). Hallberg was pretty hilarious in drag. Murphy and Herrera looked great together in the portions where they danced side by side. The standout of the second cast was Herman Cornejo,with his awesome technical skills. Boylston, replacing Osipova, was full of high flying leaps as well. She's having a great season. I saw a porton of the performance on Wed. evening, and Vasiliev was thrilling. However, the pairing of Kent and Vasiliev (as Kent's husband), and Boylston (as Kent's contemporary) was odd, to say the least. The age difference was very apparent. Moreover, there was no unison between Boylston and Kent in the sections where there should have been. Boylston was dancing full-out, while Kent, in comparison, was sketching the choreography. Based on the sparsity of attendance, this one will probably not be back next season. Hoping for Flames of Paris.

Greetings from D.C. I attended last night's performance (Kaptsova et al) and enjoyed the production tremendously. Absolutely charming every way. The sets are gorgeous, and the performances were first rate. I'm seeing both performances today with the second and third casts. I have loved Alexandrova's performances in the past, so I am especially looking forward to seeing her today. Last night was a wild weather night here in D.C. - non stop heavy rains. Today the weather is glorious. If any Ballet Alert folks are at today's shows, can we meet up at the Kennedy bust at the first intermission?

So disappointed. First Vishneva, then Osipova. ABT's website indicates that she is being replaced by Boylston.

Based on the financial difficulties at Barcelona Ballet (linked elesewhere),Barcelona Ballet might not have much in the way of funding to hire Sarah Lane, or anyone else, as a guest artist.

Selling tickets for a weak full length ballet is much more difficult than selling tickets for a weak one act ballet, because you can always put one or two great ballets on the same program. For example, the only way you could see Vienna Waltzes for the last two seasons was to also see the deadly Seven Deadly Sins on the same program.

I saw Double Feature during its initial outing a few years ago, and I never had any desire to see it again. It's fun Broadway - style fluff, but it's not ballet. In the NY Times review that appeared in yesterday's paper, it was described, perfectly, as a ballet for people who do not like ballet. When Stroman first made this work, Peter Martins was quoted as saying that his goal in having Stroman do this was to sell a lot of tickets. That goal was accomplished when it initially debuted. However, it appears from the $10 ticket offer that NYCB's core audience is not flocking to see this revival, especially at the new Super-Sized prices they are charging. That should be a lesson to NYCB as to the consequences when you alienate your core audience. I started receiving discount offers for this back in March, so they have realized for a number of weeks that this was going to be a box office bomb.

Juliet, I was at the matinee too. Messmer was excellent. I think Murphy is more effective as Gamzatti than Nikiya. I thought Matvienko was very good, and I appreciated the opportunity to see him in a classical role. The only other times I've seen him is at Kings of Dance (which I'm trying hard to forget it was so awful) and at galas doing things like Radio and Juliet, which I cannot stand. Also went to tonight's performance. Hee Seo had a lot of problems. Her Italian fouettes traveled all over the place, out of control. When she did the fouettes that follow the Italian fouettes, she under-rotated and ended up with her back to the audience. I don't understand how or why she is getting so many lead parts. I LOVED Semionova tonight. Her extensions go on forever. Gorgeous lines. She held some of her balances for an eternity, but not to the point where it became a circus trick. She used her flexible back to max effect in Act I. So glad we will be seeing her on a regular basis. David did well, but he seemed a little off at times tonight.

It was nice to meet so many ballet talkers at intermission. Part and Gomes both gave better performances last night as compared to Tuesday. Part conquered the scarf dance, and overall her performance was dialed up a few notches compared to Tuesday. Osipova was wonderful as Gamzatti. I don't think she's better than Gillian in terms of the technique. They are both very, very strong. However, I did notice a lot more characterization from Osipova than from most other Gamzattis. Thank you, carbro, for the link about the Harem pants in the finale.

Yes, we have the third act staged by Makarova. The Bronze Idol does his variation in that act, and Nikiya comes back in the harem pants outfit. I think NY and London have the same exact production.

No technique problems have been mentioned because there weren't any to speak of. She was totally "on" last night. Her first act, in particular, was the most thrilling. Great fluidity of movement.

Misty seemed to have her own little cheering section somewhere in the auditorium. Every time she completed a variation, that section in particular would go nuts.

It is interesting that the press release specifically notes that Semionova will appear on all the company's tours, and not merely at the New York Met season. A lot of people have complained that ABT brings the B-casts on their tours.

Like Ilya, I thought Cojocaru and Vasiliev were excellent together. I also felt that it was unfortunate that Copeland had to debut her Gamzatti as Vasiliev's partner. She barely left the ground, and he was flying through the air. It looked disjointed. Cojocaru's deep back bends were especially wonderful in Act I. Vasiliev has very bulky legs, a sometimes sloppy line, and the white tights did him no favors. However, he is exceptional in his spins and jumps. I also thought he did well in the characterization aspect. I wasn't very impressed w. Joe Phillips as Bronze Idol. Can we have Herman or Angel back in that role, just for one night?

I think we all guessed that this would happen once it was announced that she had asked to be let out of her contract in Berlin, but now it's official. http://artsbeat.blog...eater/?ref=arts