Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×

Don Quixote Spring 2018


Recommended Posts

IG stories alert: is that Trenary rehearsing Queen of Dryads (my phone is being weird and I can't make out her face). That's fantastic. I wonder who she's splitting Mercedes with? Didn't Part perform just Dryads last year too? They'll need to cast an extra tiny Amour 😄.  

Link to comment
14 minutes ago, LadyBubbles said:

IG stories alert: is that Trenary rehearsing Queen of Dryads (my phone is being weird and I can't make out her face). That's fantastic. I wonder who she's splitting Mercedes with? Didn't Part perform just Dryads last year too? They'll need to cast an extra tiny Amour 😄.  

Yes, that’s Trenary rehearsing Queen of the Dryads. Part danced that role last year in a performance where Luciana Paris was Mercedes. My best guess would be that Trenary is dancing the role in the two Don Qs that feature Abrera, since they are both cast with short dancers. Also, there’s that sequence of hops on pointe, so if Abrera is still having issues with those, as she did in Giselle, it makes sense that perhaps she’d want to avoid Queen of the Dryads. Plus, others have noted the overall diminishment of her technique. I’m not sure how she’d handle the Italian fouettés, as we didn’t get to see a Gamzatti from her this season.

Edited by fondoffouettes
Link to comment
10 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:

There may be other examples from other modern ballets, as well. But I can't think of any traveling fouettes in the 19th-century classics.

You got me thinking about this....and someone mentioned Nutcracker above...there are also some travelling fouettes  (or what I would identify as such) in the Vikharev Coppelia the Bolshoi dances.. 

Edited by Drew
Link to comment
1 hour ago, fondoffouettes said:

Yes, that’s Trenary rehearsing Queen of the Dryads. Part danced that role last year in a performance where Luciana Paris was Mercedes. My best guess would be that Trenary is dancing the role in the two Don Qs that feature Abrera, since they are both cast with short dancers. Also, there’s that sequence of hops on pointe, so if Abrera is still having issues with those, as she did in Giselle, it makes sense that perhaps she’d want to avoid Queen of the Dryads. Plus, others have noted the overall diminishment of her technique. I’m not sure how she’d handle the Italian fouettés, as we didn’t get to see a Gamzatti from her this season.

The hops en pointe are in Dulcinea's variation, not Queen of the Dryads.  I remember her Italian fouettes being fine as Gamzatti a few years ago, but don't know if those have since diminished.  

Edited by MRR
Link to comment
4 hours ago, MRR said:

The hops en pointe are in Dulcinea's variation, not Queen of the Dryads.  I remember her Italian fouettes being fine as Gamzatti a few years ago, but don't know if those have since diminished.  

Ah, yes you are right! I wonder how Copeland will manage them.

Edited by fondoffouettes
Link to comment

It's really hard to tell because the video quality isn't great and she's in constant motion. As she lands the first jete, I can briefly see her hair and it looks too dark to be Trenary's. However, I can't tell whether that's Stella either. I too hope it's Stella. I guess we'll find out next week.

Link to comment

Off Instagram: Teuscher won't be performing Queen of Dryads tonight. Katherine Williams will perform instead. Good for K. Williams. She's had a great season.  Abrera is dancing Mercedes.

Hopefully Teuscher's not injured and this is just a precautionary measure.

Edited by LadyBubbles
Link to comment

Now I really wish ABT listed QofD for all shows, since both last year and this year there have been some split Mercedes/QofD casting. Teuscher's post notes that it's an "early debut" for Williams, which suggests she's scheduled for at least one other this week — as may be Trenary (noted above). Is Abrera the only Mercedes not dancing both roles? I'm hoping that Fang, especially, is getting to do both, since that would be a great and well-deserved opportunity for her.

Edited by nanushka
Link to comment

I'm very tired but I was there tonight and it was just one of those performances where everyone was on. I thought Katherine Williams made a wonderful debut as Queen of the Dryads. This role brings out the best in Isabella Boylston -- her jumps and balances were amazing. Fouettes good -- singles with doubles mixed in, little traveling. Simkin was spectacular. I lost count of how many 540's and 9-pirouettes in a row and saut de basques and whatever else he did. Stella Abrera and Calvin Royal were a really handsome Mercedes and Espada. Cate Hurlin and Cassandra Trenary also excellent as Kitri's friends.

Link to comment

I was there tonight, and this performance highlighted the frustration I've felt with casting all season.  Combine a principal I like (Simkin) with one I find overexposed and charmless (Boylston), throw in a lackluster Espada (Royal) partnering a beautiful Mercedes (Abrera), and top it off by wasting wonderful Thomas Forster yet AGAIN (as Kitri's father).  Skylar Brandt (as Amour) drew gasps from the man sitting next to me. 

I'd love to see Tuesday's Espada (Blaine Hoven) and Kitri (Shevchenko), and I'd kill to see Sarah Lane as Kitri on Saturday (sadly, I have to work that day).  But of course they're combining Shevchenko with Whiteside, who I don't need to see ever again.

Link to comment
11 hours ago, canbelto said:

I'm very tired but I was there tonight and it was just one of those performances where everyone was on. I thought Katherine Williams made a wonderful debut as Queen of the Dryads. This role brings out the best in Isabella Boylston -- her jumps and balances were amazing. Fouettes good -- singles with doubles mixed in, little traveling. Simkin was spectacular. I lost count of how many 540's and 9-pirouettes in a row and saut de basques and whatever else he did. Stella Abrera and Calvin Royal were a really handsome Mercedes and Espada. Cate Hurlin and Cassandra Trenary also excellent as Kitri's friends.

I second that!  I was at the Boylston/Simkin performance last night and it absolutely spectacular!  It was perfection in every role.  I gave myself a sore throat from screaming so much.  Looking forward to Shevchenko /Whiteside tonight!

Edited by NinaFan
Link to comment
12 hours ago, canbelto said:

I'm very tired but I was there tonight and it was just one of those performances where everyone was on. I thought Katherine Williams made a wonderful debut as Queen of the Dryads. This role brings out the best in Isabella Boylston -- her jumps and balances were amazing. Fouettes good -- singles with doubles mixed in, little traveling. Simkin was spectacular. I lost count of how many 540's and 9-pirouettes in a row and saut de basques and whatever else he did. Stella Abrera and Calvin Royal were a really handsome Mercedes and Espada. Cate Hurlin and Cassandra Trenary also excellent as Kitri's friends. 

A superb evening indeed. I've been lukewarm about Boylston in the past but she definitely won me over last night. Those fouettes - gosh, so effortless. And Simkin was phenomenal. Abrera and Royal too. My last Don Quixote was with Osipova/Vasiliev a few years ago. I think I enjoyed last night's performance even more.

Link to comment
40 minutes ago, Rick said:

A superb evening indeed. I've been lukewarm about Boylston in the past but she definitely won me over last night. Those fouettes - gosh, so effortless. And Simkin was phenomenal. Abrera and Royal too. My last Don Quixote was with Osipova/Vasiliev a few years ago. I think I enjoyed last night's performance even more.

It sounds like Boylston has really been having a breakthrough season. I used to see her a lot, but then mostly avoided her this season and last. But it sounds like her interpretations have really grown, and that her technique is stronger than ever. I hope they bring back Sleeping Beauty next year so we can see her in it.

Link to comment
1 hour ago, Rick said:

A superb evening indeed. I've been lukewarm about Boylston in the past but she definitely won me over last night. Those fouettes - gosh, so effortless. And Simkin was phenomenal. Abrera and Royal too. My last Don Quixote was with Osipova/Vasiliev a few years ago. I think I enjoyed last night's performance even more.

The performance keeps going round and round in my head.  I'm a huge Osipova/Vasiliev fan, and I believe your comparison to them is very accurate. 

Link to comment

 

21 minutes ago, fondoffouettes said:

It sounds like Boylston has really been having a breakthrough season. I used to see her a lot, but then mostly avoided her this season and last. But it sounds like her interpretations have really grown, and that her technique is stronger than ever.

In my experience Boylston has always had an incredible technique, since she first burst into the corps. But, but, but... somewhere up-thread, I believe someone asked whether she has improved in things like the broken wrists, overly casual demeanor, lack of grace and refinement and, IMHO, show-offy quality. If there was an answer to that, I missed it in the rolling tide of posts. I know she has a lot of ardent fans here, so I ask this cautiously, but can anyone comment on her development in these areas?

Link to comment

Boylston's port de bras depends on her coaching.  It was excellent in "Harlequinade" (Ratmansky coached her) and "Giselle" (Carla Korbes coached her).  Last night had a few noticeable broken wrists and some careless positions of the arms and hands but overall was good.  Kitri isn't Aurora or Odette - in some places you don't have to be totally classical and refined.  I admit port de bras is not one of her natural strengths but overall she is better.  Simkin I concur with everything above except that he was better as a solo dancer than a partner.  He is a little short for Boylston and one or two of the one-handed lifts nearly got away from him.  In the first one, Isabella wasn't lifted to full height, began to teeter and Simkin put her down quickly.    Daniil clearly prepared for the second one and it came off well.

I echo all the praise above for the rest of the show.  Katherine Williams danced with creamy expansiveness, technical security and a big jump as the Queen of the Dryads.  In the Act II "dream ballet", ABT also now has a corps of little "amorini" or baby cupids seemingly from the JKO School which was heartening to see.  I also must praise Gabe Stone Shayer and Isadora Loyola as the Gypsy couple.  

A very enjoyable evening and two genuine bravura performances in the leads.

Edited by FauxPas
Link to comment
1 hour ago, FauxPas said:

Boylston's port de bras depends on her coaching.  It was excellent in "Harlequinade" (Ratmansky coached her) and "Giselle" (Carla Korbes coached her). 

I hadn't heard that Korbes was working with her.  Korbes' Giselle at Pacific Northwest Ballet was astonishing -- I'm glad she's passing some of that knowledge along!

Link to comment
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...