Barbara Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 Just wondering if any BT posters in Sweden have seen David Hallberg performing there. If so, please post impressions. Thanks and Happy New Year! Link to comment
Pamela Moberg Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 Just wondering if any BT posters in Sweden have seen David Hallberg performing there. If so, please post impressions.Thanks and Happy New Year! Happy New Year to you as well, Barbara As far as David Hallberg goes, I know that he performed once in Sweden. There was a gala last fall at the opera house in Gothenburg. Did not attend, as the tix were horribly expensive and the entire gala evening was a terrible mixture of all but the kitchen sink. There was modern, street dance, bits of Ek and very very little of those visiting American stars. The serious papers didnt even bother to review. So, alas, no impressions to post - just to answer your question. Another thing, though, his name is a rather common Swedish name, I mean Hallberg. But as far as I know he is born in the US, most probably to Swedes who immigrated some time in the early 1900. As a curiosity, we would pronounce it more like "Hullberg". Link to comment
Jane Simpson Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 He's just been dancing Theme and Variations with the Royal Swedish Ballet at a couple of special performances for the New Year, I think. Link to comment
Pamela Moberg Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 Further to Jane's post, yes, there have been galas in Stockholm over the New Year. The link showed the program. I live on the West coast and these days there is no reason for me to go to Stockholm so I did not attend. Sorry to have to say so, but with tickets (train or plane) tix for the performance and hotel accomodation, it would have been far too much. Anyway, there was a review in a Stockholm paper - in Swedish so I will do a brief translation:- "Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg (who is a descendant from a Swedish family) gave extra glamour to Balanchine's Theme and Variations. This was Hallberg's second appearance in Sweden, last August he was a guest at the dance gala of the Gothenburg Opera. He has been hailed as a new Baryshnikov and is surely technically brilliant, but in my opinion rather lacking in personality. The otherwise excellent ensemble swayed and the couple Murphy-Hallberg did not seem to find the right kind of chemistry between them. Balanchine's demanding choreography did not really hold its own in this final number". The new ballerina, Jurgita Dronina, got a wonderful write-up. "Ethereal Giselle, unwordly beautiful". Avetik Karapetyan's Bronze Idol was also acclaimed, and so were AdiLiJian Abudureheman and Andrey Leonovitch. Well, seems that Stockholm Opera had a few guys to show off. . . Nadja Sellrup did Dying Swan and was called "a firecracker on stage". What that might mean... I am just translating from the paper here ) Link to comment
Barbara Posted January 4, 2010 Author Share Posted January 4, 2010 Thank you Pamela for your translation! I must agree with the critic that Hallberg and Murphy often don't "click" with one another. I also certainly understand your comments about the cost of traveling for performances. I would love to see ABT's performances in Washington DC but cannot for the same reasons you state. Link to comment
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