ABT SS Met Season - casting?

[volcanohunter]

I'm not at all convinced that a principal character artist category is needed. Except perhaps for the Royal Danish Ballet, it seems to have been a creation of the latter 1980s. Prior to that, many of the companies that have a substantial number of principal character artists today, such as the Royal Ballet or the National Ballet of Canada, included mime artists among their principals as a matter of course. In the early 1980s, the Royal Ballet's principals included Gerd Larsen, who was exclusively a mime artists, David Drew and Leslie Edwards, who specialized more in villains and were a bit older at that point, as well as Derek Rencher, Brian Shaw and Michael Somes, who had previously been "dancing principals."

When the National Ballet of Canada created its principal character artist category in 1985, it incorporated three principals--two of whom had always done mime roles and another who had transitioned to them prematurely because of catastrophic injury--and one career-long mime soloist.

I rather like the idea of "principal dancer" indicating especially distinguished artistry rather than a specific Fach.

[abatt]

4 hours ago, California said:

Speaking of...hope they announce the fall schedule soon. Green Table and T&V would make for nice mixed bills, perhaps with Ratmansky's Seasons? 

I think Paul Taylor Dance Company may presently has rights to Green Table .  They just added it to their rep this year.

[abatt]

3 hours ago, ABT Fan said:

Oh no!! Cornejo has been replaced by Royal at Saturday’s matinee. I mean no offense to Royal, but I was so looking forward to seeing Cornejo with Trenary! (And, I was thinking this was probably the first Met season in recent years that Cornejo wasn’t injured; although I don’t know the reason for the substitution.) Ugh.

I consider myself lucky to have seen Cornejo in T&V a few days ago.  The fact that he can't make it through even a 5 week season anymore does not bode well.

[Drew]

1 hour ago, volcanohunter said:

I'm not at all convinced that a principal character artist category is needed. Except perhaps for the Royal Danish Ballet, it seems to have been a creation of the latter 1980s. Prior to that, many of the companies that have a substantial number of principal character artists today, such as the Royal Ballet or the National Ballet of Canada, included mime artists among their principals as a matter of course.

Absolutely! (I think the existence of that category does though confirm that there is nothing particularly outré about ABT promoting Zhurbin to principal or the idea that a character dancer could/would/should get such a promotion.)

[nycvillager]

4 hours ago, ABT Fan said:

Oh no!! Cornejo has been replaced by Royal at Saturday’s matinee. I mean no offense to Royal, but I was so looking forward to seeing Cornejo with Trenary! (And, I was thinking this was probably the first Met season in recent years that Cornejo wasn’t injured; although I don’t know the reason for the substitution.) Ugh.

Oh no, I had specifically gotten a ticket to see Cornejo with Trenary too. I was really looking forward to it, as he was still in fine form this season and didn't expect that this past weekend would be the last time I'd see him this season. I'll probably still go to see Trenary as I didn't get to see much of her this season, but not particularly excited about Royal. 

[MarzipanShepherdess]

9 hours ago, nycvillager said:

Oh no, I had specifically gotten a ticket to see Cornejo with Trenary too. I was really looking forward to it, as he was still in fine form this season and didn't expect that this past weekend would be the last time I'd see him this season. I'll probably still go to see Trenary as I didn't get to see much of her this season, but not particularly excited about Royal. 

Oh no! I also got a ticket for Saturday specifically to see Cornejo. Disappointing. After seeing his Siegfried debut, though, I'm looking forward to seeing Calvin as Romeo. 

[abatt]

When Julio Bocca was on the road to retirement, Romeo was the first ballet he left behind.  Bocca stayed with the more classical ballets for the next few years until he retired. I'm wondering if Cornejo feels the same way .  Women seem to love doing Juliet as a farewell late in their careers, but not the men.

[Papagena]

1 hour ago, abatt said:

When Julio Bocca was on the road to retirement, Romeo was the first ballet he left behind.  Bocca stayed with the more classical ballets for the next few years until he retired. I'm wondering if Cornejo feels the same way .  Women seem to love doing Juliet as a farewell late in their careers, but not the men.

I didn't know this about Bocca! The tendencies for older Juliets / younger Romeos in this ballet have always been so interesting to me, especially how older Romeos can 'feel' older than older Juliets. 

The men's choreography - while not requiring Don Q-level virtuosity - needs to be very precise to look good. I'm also wondering if there is a psychological element for male performers and general audience members: Romeo is always flanked by young men in this ballet and needs to portray reckless abandon with lifts and leaps, while Juliet is the lone female performer with dramatic rather than technical needs. I imagine it's much easier for a 40-year-old Romeo to really 'feel their age' than a 40-year-old Juliet, who is able to shape the space around her in almost every scene. It could also be that I grew up watching tapes of Fonteyn, which confirmed this type of age difference as the norm for me. 

Very sad about Cornejo's absence on Saturday, as he is still such a leader in exemplary technique. I imagine he overworked himself in T&V and wish him a restorative off season. 

Trenary seems to have good chemistry with Royal (however I didn't see their Giselle). Along with Klein as Mercutio, I'm hoping we're in for an electric show on Saturday. I've seen both Trenary and Royal be absolutely sublime or miss the mark - definitely the wild card show of the week, which feels exciting! 




 

[ECat]

16 hours ago, ABT Fan said:

They both still danced lead roles. Moore did Myrtha, Other Dances, I think Lilac Fairy, but never an O/O, Kitri etc. 

Thank you for the clarification.  In fact, I seem to remember Moore in Pillar of Fire.