abatt

13 hours ago, Papagena said:

Honestly LWFC is selling better than I thought it would given that there are so many performances.

 

That appearance may be deceptive.  Nearly every performance of LWFC was offered on TDF.  So on the seating chart it may look like a ticket sale, in reality large numbers of tickets may have been supplied to discounters like TDF.

Nothing against Hee Seo and Aran Bell, but the Saturday matinee of Swan Lake would sell out regardless of casting.  

Yes the music is fantastic.  The Atlantic Theater is a very small off Broadway house with a small stage.  I don't think the dimensions allow for any  large ensemble  dance numbers.  

I had not thought about the fact that the guests may be singers, not dancers.   That makes a lot of sense.

Gustave never really had a full run during its premiere NYCB season because of rampant Covid.  At the performance I attended at which it was scheduled, it was replaced by an excerpt from The Runaway.

A friend with a lot of spare time looks at this issue regularly.  All of the Swan Lakes are selling very well (shocking!) and the Giselles and R&J's are selling well (but not at the same pace as Swan Lake).  Ticket sales for LWFC have been weak. 

Thank goodness they are ditching those awful Santo Loquasto costumes.  

The invitation of "guest artists" is interesting and unusual.  What other companies perform Who Cares?  Royal Ballet?  Does Paris Opera do this work.

ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY ANNOUNCES
THE FIRST TWO PRODUCTIONS OF 2023-2024 SEASON

World Premiere Play
A Co-Production with National Theatre
INFINITE LIFE
Written by Annie Baker
Directed by James Macdonald
Linda Gross Theater
August 18 – October 8, 2023
Opening: Tuesday, September 12, 2023

World Premiere Musical
BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB ®
Book by Marco Ramirez
Music by the Grammy Award winning Buena Vista Social Club
Choreography by Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck
Directed by Saheem Ali
Linda Gross Theater
November 17 – December 31, 2023
Opening: Tuesday, December 12, 2023
 

The rest of the season seems to be selling well enough.  So maybe even if LWFC is box office dud it's not a complete disaster economically for them.  

The timing of the departure seems calculated to cause as much damage as possible.

Belka, you should try to see Taylor Stanley in Apollo.  I suspect he will be cast in the fall (barring injury or illness).

Thanks for kind thoughts, Helene. 

Today it is clear and lovely in NYC.  So it seems that the smoke problem is gone, for now. 

Wednesday's orange sky was bizarre.

Mearns is one of the most celebrated ballerinas in the United States, and she has extensive experience is Ratmansky ballets.  

Not much time to write.  I went to the Workshop last night. The winners of the Mae L. Wein awards were Oscar Estop (he is 6 ft 5 in), Natalie Glassie and Mia Williams.  Mia Williams did not perform due to injury. The booklet says that Mia and Oscar will begin apprenticeships w. NYCB starting in August.   A very impressive group of dancers.

Napoli was my favorite because there are so many featured parts, and NYCB has not performed it in quite some time. 

Mearns will be in Canada dancing R&J with the Natl Ballet of Canada during the KC engagement.  That's why she is not listed for the KC.   In one sense, her absence has created opportunities for new people to shine.  It was Mearns' withdrawal that led to Nadon getting SVC in the Winter, and Nadon was great.  Another Nadon opportunity is created by Mearns' absence from the Kennedy Center.   Hoping for reports on her debut in Concerto B.

The dance companies that have galas prefer the Koch because there is space on the Promenade for the party, so they don't have to go to the expense of renting a party venue and transporting people to the party venue.  That's why ABT and Paul Taylor no longer perform at City Center.  

1 hour ago, California said:

Time for a new topic on ABT Fall 2023! Here's what we "know" so far:

Other Dances (from Gillian Murphy's Instagram story)

Piano Concerto No. 1 (from Skylar Brandt's Instagram story)

Etudes, Petit Morte, The Dream (from photo shoots)

Anything else?

Since we just had the Dream last season, I would not be very anxious to see it again this season.  But the rest of it is of great interest. One thing is for certain- they need another Oberon.  Camargo did all performances.  Cory seems to be injured often.  Give Aran Bell a shot at Oberon.

14 hours ago, matilda said:

Myrta, Von Rothbart, and Mercutio casting has been posted. https://www.abt.org/performances/summer-season/

Katherine Williams appears to be out this season (replaced in LWFC by Claire Davison, no Myrtas)

Fanqui Li gets a Myrta debut. 

Jarod Curley and Corey Stearns are both listed as Dr. John Brown for the same LWFC shows (3rd cast), must be an error. 

The Met website is listing J Curley for John Brown; Cory's name does not appear on the Met website anymore for Dr. John Brown.  Is this a minor role?  The chance to see Curley might motivate me to see this cast.

The bigger question is whether Stearns will make his other scheduled appearances during the Met season.

Erica is the right size for Huxley, even though she is wrong for the role in Square Dance.

Sara Mearns was spectacular on Friday night in Swan Lake.  Glad I had the opportunity to see it.  Phelan was not in the same league  in the role.

Another season completed.

For me the All Stars were Nadon, Fairchild, Gordon & Chan.

On to the 75th Anniversary season ....

Reports of the runs in Saratoga and the KC are appreciated. 

23 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

The last full run of Corsaire in 2019 also saw the debut of POB étoile Matthias Heymann as Conrad as guest artist.  The days of the "Dream Team" are long gone.  Kimin Kim would be a wonderful guest artist in "Corsaire" and has guested in "Bayadere" as has Vladimir Shklyarov.  Now that the iron curtain is back up around Russia and Russian artists, guest artists from the Mariinsky and Bolshoi are verboten.  Olga Smirnova could come back any time and I hope will though.

I don't recall that Smirnova actually appeared with ABT.  She was scheduled, but I recall that she may have been injured.  In fact, since she was injured, Chudin did not appear as scheduled at ABT because they were a "package deal".

Kimin Kim is still dancing with the Mariinsky, I believe.  He is one of the few non-Russian artists who continues to perform  with the company.  Is that correct

1 hour ago, angelica said:

Since Shevchenko's promotion to Principal, I have thought of her as a world-class ballerina, but unless she dances more in major roles, I'm afraid she's going to be left behind. Both Bayadere and Corsaire have the kind of roles that keep a dancer in performance shape. As someone said above, she was kept too long in soloist purgatory. Please, do whatever it takes to keep those ballets in the repertory and give Shevchenko two performances of each. The more she dances, the better she'll get.

With her Giselle performances for National Ballet of Ukraine, and personal training from Ratmansky, she now has substantial experience in Giselle. Good for her.

I saw Bell & Teuscher last season in R&J.  I thought she was definitely miscast as Juliet. 

3 hours ago, California said:

 

The absence of  the Russian companies for the indefinite future is going to be felt for many of these dance series - Kennedy Center, Segerstrom. 

I think the touring to the US of the Mariinsky and the Bolshoi was in part funded by oligarch money. 

We have not seen the Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet or the major German companies here because, in part, there is no funding available for it.  

2 hours ago, California said:

I guess we can look forward to Ballet Imperial at the Met in 2024. Interesting they use that name instead of the current Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2. 

The absence of  the Russian companies for the indefinite future is going to be felt for many of these dance series - Kennedy Center, Segerstrom. 

Actually, I think there are some differences in the choreography between BI and Tsch Piano Concerto 2.  Certainly, the decor and costumes are entirely different.  Maybe some people on the board know  more about the distinction.  Looking forward to Ballet Imperial coming back to ABT.

So it looks like ABT has jumped on the Kyle Abraham bandwagon.  If NYCB has hired him twice, we need to hire him too is the apparent thinking at ABT.

Also, since the film Black Swan, I think most people who are casual ballet goers expect that there is going to be an act or  a portion of the ballet where the Black Swan dances to seduces the prince.  Not  so in the Balanchine version.