ABT 2022: Of Love and Rage

[canbelto]

But my point is Duo Concertant isn't a "new" ballet to NYC audiences. As of this year, it's 50 years old and is performed (maybe overperformed?) at NYCB. ABT audiences were acting like this was totally new and avante-garde.

Even Ashton's Cinderella and Fille mal gardee don't sell well. 

[nanushka]

11 minutes ago, canbelto said:

But my point is Duo Concertant isn't a "new" ballet to NYC audiences. As of this year, it's 50 years old and is performed (maybe overperformed?) at NYCB. ABT audiences were acting like this was totally new and avante-garde.

Even Ashton's Cinderella and Fille mal gardee don't sell well. 

Yup, got that. My own point was that the venue probably didn't help, and that some of the characteristic elements of Duo — e.g. the dancers standing around listening to the music, and the odd (IMO overly precious) ending of the piece — probably made it seem especially unusual to those in the audience who come to ABT for the narrative classics. Assuming there wasn't any widespread polling happening, I think that probably explains what you heard or overheard. Those who love ABT for the classics aren't going to NYCB to see mixed programs (so they don't know anything about how often Duo is programmed there), and they likely aren't checking dates in the program either. They're just reacting to what they see onstage.

There's no single "ABT audience." To fill a house of 4,000 (or even come acceptably close) requires drawing in a number of different audience constituencies. There are plenty of people who attend ABT who are excited to see Theme and Variations or Cinderella; probably significantly fewer who are excited to see Duo; and, so it seems, even fewer who want to see this new thing called Of Love and Rage.

[MarzipanShepherdess]

Well, I won’t be seeing this one again. 

The choreography has interest, particularly where Ratmansky takes inspiration from classical friezes with the corps dancing in profile, and references Greek folk dancing with some of the choreography for the corps men. Some lovely lifts. 

But oof, the plot. There are three or four pas de deux where the heroine is being literally dragged around the stage by yet another man who’s enslaved her, sometimes seemingly unconscious, or going in and out of consciousness. I think there are ballerinas who could have brought some anguish or rage to those pas de deux, but Hurlin dances Callirhoe very sweetly and girlishly pretty much all the way through. It’s a one-note characterization. There are points where she’s clearly conveying that Callirhoe is -uncomfortable-, but I did not get the “strong woman using her brains and beauty” vibe that Ratmansky claims this role represents. 

We’re supposed to feel delighted when Chareas and Callirhoe reunite in the end, but, seriously? He almost murdered her in Act I! I could not feel any emotional investment in this couple’s story together, so the ending fell really flat for me. 

Bell has some bravado moments, which he did quite well, and he and Hurlin of course have chemistry. She is very pretty in this role, and technically accomplished, but one-note in her characterization. 

l think this was misstep for ABT. The subject matter, in 2022, feels thoughtless and in poor taste. And even putting that aside, the plot is incredibly repetitive. Man wants Callirhoe, she’s kidnapped by another man, rinse and repeat three times. It’s also a very similar story to Le Corsaire. All for new work at ABT, but not like this. 
 

 

Edited June 21, 2022 by MarzipanShepherdess
Typo

[vipa]

Filling seats might be a topic unto itself. The Met is huge. Back in the day, the Royal Ballet came to the Met  and was often standing room only for Fonteyn and Nureyev and even Sibley and Dowell. Everyone knew who Nureyev was. He was in the news, in gossip columns etc. Over at State Theater, there was an audience eager to see what Balanchine had up his sleeve. At the same time ballet dancers were on magazine covers, and on TV variety shows. Twyla Tharp was part of the fashion scene. Now, the media landscape has changed significantly. Filling the Met seems daunting, and NYCB rarely opens the fourth ring, and sometimes even has the 3rd ring closed. It's a complicated issue with a lot of factors. The world has changed.

[volcanohunter]

This is a co-production with the National Ballet of Canada, and its brass attended the premiere. I wonder whether it will cut its losses and present some alternate Ratmansky, as it did in the case of The Tempest.

[Drew]

1 hour ago, volcanohunter said:

This is a co-production with the National Ballet of Canada, and its brass attended the premiere. I wonder whether it will cut its losses and present some alternate Ratmansky, as it did in the case of The Tempest.

The initial 2020 run in California garnered some good responses. The video bits posted at that time looked rather fun. I'm nervous but my fingers are crossed that it will work as a ballet and that it will find its audience. I'll find out what people who post on Ballet Alert think soon enough.

As far as box office goes, the Four Seasons Center in Toronto lists its capacity as 2,071 -- that's just over half the capacity of the Met. It's not an apples to apples comparison because of all the other variables, but you can sell a lot of tickets at the Met and it still looks depressing.

(The Tempest was interesting enough in its own weird way --and, in passages, beautiful enough--that I think it deserved a chance with a new and different audience even if I understand why the National Ballet of Canada didn't want to take the risk.  But that opinion is so much an outlier as to be safely ignored!)

[volcanohunter]

3 hours ago, Drew said:

As far as box office goes, the Four Seasons Center in Toronto lists its capacity as 2,071 -- that's just over half the capacity of the Met. It's not an apples to apples comparison because of all the other variables, but you can sell a lot of tickets at the Met and it still looks depressing.

Even so, for most programs the top ring of the Four Seasons Centre is closed off, which eliminates another 400+ seats. (Just as well, because it's a horrendous place to sit.) The Nutcracker and Swan Lake were the exceptions this season.

Although it wasn't a new edition to the repertoire, AD Hope Muir hired an intimacy consultant this season to help dancers negotiate the depictions of sex and sexual violence in Neumeier's A Streetcar Named Desire. It's fair to say she's sensitive to the issue of depicting violence against women in particular. I can't speculate on how she feels about inheriting Of Love and Rage from her predecessor. But she probably doesn't want to spoil relations with Ratmansky either. 

Edited June 21, 2022 by volcanohunter
link

[California]

I went to the Friends dress rehearsal Monday afternoon with Tuesday's cast (Shevchenko and Forster) and then read the long, detailed synopsis, so I had a better idea what to expect Monday night. Very long, complicated plot, to put it mildly. One performance was enough for me.

As a Ratmansky fan, I was mainly interested in the choreography but suspect that won't sell tickets for most. Some complicated, interesting partnering for Bell/Hurlin. E.g., not one but two torch lifts, one in each act. [This is the monster lift that so many had trouble with in his Nutcracker but finally seem to be getting the hang of. I remember a rehearsal clip when Ratmansky is heard saying:  I knew if you worked at it, you could eventually get this lift (or some such). ]  He also included a throw double twist lift in Act I of the sort MacMillan loved in the final PdD of Manon. Ratmansky seems to favor Bell, as we saw in Bernstein in a Bubble during COVID, which is fine. Bell had several flashy solo variations and it was nice that he could show off.

But otherwise...nothing I really want to see again. 

Ratmansky has had his share of clunkers. I saw Tempest twice and completely understood why Canada opted out. The restoration of Coq d'Or was a big (and probably very expensive) bore. Songs of Bukovina wore thin in a hurry. Bright Stream was a cute novelty not worth seeing again and again. Of course, he's had many great works, too. Symphony #9 from the Trilogy remains one of my favorites.

Note that this era of Greek literature (400 BCE) is the same one that produced Plato, the inspiration for his Serenade after Plato's Symposium. 

 

[abatt]

What a confusing and frustrating plot.  Even though I now understand the plot better I agree that this choreography is far too repetitive.  Also interesting that they have banned Raymonda and other ballets as being offensive, but management finds female abuse and enslavement a fine topic.  Everyone danced well, but this just seemed to go on forever.  Maybe Ratmansky needed a good editor.  Hurlin's more lyrical side is allowed to shine, and this made me interested in seeing her as Juliet one day.  By the end did anyone really care that Bell and Hurlin were reunited?  I didn't  because none of the relationships are developed enough for the audience to have a vested interest in the characters or the outcome.  You never really get to know any of these characters because there are simply too many characters and events populating the story, and most of the choreography fails to develop characterization or character driven drama.  As soon as the Bell-Hurlin relationship gets going in the beginning, it's time for Bell to get angry and for Hurlin to faux die.  The only person who made any kind of emotional impact was our guest artist, Camargo.

 

I never got the sense that Hurlin's character was using her intelligence to navigate her circumstances.  She was a victim throughout the ballet.   Coppelia, Juliet and Kitri - all well developed in their ballets - do use their intelligence to move the plot forward.   That never happens in this ballet.

I'm seeing this ballet one more time (Shevchenko cast) due to a prior commitment to a friend who wanted to see it.  I hope I have a better reaction the second time around.

 

Edited June 21, 2022 by abatt

[California]

Interesting costume detail: In March 2020 at Segerstrom, Bell was all in white, like Hurlin: https://www.scfta.org/events/2020/american-ballet-theatre

Last night he had wine pants, varied colors for the tunic. At one point in Act II, it looked like that one-armed tunic was going to fall off entirely - very distracting for us and probably him. 

https://www.balletherald.com/event/american-ballet-theatre-of-love-and-rage-june-2022/?occurrence=2022-06-20

I know the corps women were supposed to look like a Greek vase, but I kept thinking of Steve Martin's Walk Like an Egyptian in the 70s.

[abatt]

1 minute ago, California said:

I know the corps women were supposed to look like a Greek vase, but I kept thinking of Steve Martin's Walk Like an Egyptian in the 70s.

LOL.  If you want to see dancers who look like they have come alive from an ancient vase, go see Robbins' Antique Epigraphs, which NYCB rarely revives. 

[nanushka]

Interestingly, Gia Kourlas seems wholly unbothered by the sexual politics of the work ("a meditation on love, loss and forgiveness") in her very positive Times review:

Quote

But in Ratmansky's adventure, rage isn't what triumphs. Forgiveness and redemption do. And love.

[abatt]

8 minutes ago, nanushka said:

Interestingly, Gia Kourlas seems wholly unbothered by the sexual politics of the work ("a meditation on love, loss and forgiveness") in her very positive Times review:

I also found Kourlas's indifference regarding the sexual politics issue quite interesting and inconsistent with her prior writings.  She refers to the ballet as a goofy romp, as though enslavement of women was  just part of the overall fun.

Edited June 21, 2022 by abatt

[Helene]

The Little Humpbacked Horse that the Mariinsky brought to NYC was a delight, but the story was incomprehensible if you didn't grow up with the tale and could fill in the blanks.  It didn't really matter though, if you went along for the episodic ride.

[choriamb]

14 hours ago, California said:

As a Ratmansky fan, I was mainly interested in the choreography but suspect that won't sell tickets for most. Some complicated, interesting partnering for Bell/Hurlin. E.g., not one but two torch lifts, one in each act.

Ratmansky has had his share of clunkers. I saw Tempest twice and completely understood why Canada opted out. The restoration of Coq d'Or was a big (and probably very expensive) bore. Songs of Bukovina wore thin in a hurry. Bright Stream was a cute novelty not worth seeing again and again. Of course, he's had many great works, too. Symphony #9 from the Trilogy remains one of my favorites.

It's interesting. Setting artistic merit aside, Ratmansky's ballets are absolutely masterful as vehicles that increasingly ease dancers into dramatic/technical exposure without the white-hot heat of carrying a full-length. Each one has been tailored to develop whichever artists were next in line. To a degree that it would be interesting to learn if that was in fact his remit from the AD over audience appeal and marketability.

Here's my take.  ABT's core is the full-length story ballet warhorses. But they all require dancers with the stamina, nerves, and dramatic ability to carry three full acts.  And there's a HUGE gap between the pressures of those ballets' minor roles and their lead roles.

Tall women have the easiest transition from minor to lead roles:  Myrtha, Lilac Fairy, Gamzatti, and Gulnare all offer ways to ease into more dramatic command. But it's a enormous leap from a Flower Girl #1 to Kitri. And an even bigger leap from Benno to Romeo. Purple Rothbart (and maybe Hilarion) are the only major "midpoint roles" for a tall guy...and ABT's Purple Rothbart was tailored for a fluke who was already a strong dramatic presence.

That's what Ratmansky has given them.

• The Tempest wasn't anyone's favorite. But as a vehicle for logically getting 3 young short technicians (Simkin, Lane, Gorak) who weren't known for their partnering or dramatic experience interacting onstage with the company's one in-house dancer (Marcelo) who was world-class in both respects...?
• Have two cohorts of short female technicians (Lane, Brandt, Trenary) who lack stamina/experience or the dramatic nous to carry a full-length; a bevy of short male technicians with stamina/experience but who aren't really romantic leads; a few unknown, less-experienced tall dancers (Forster, Royal, Shevchenko, etc.) whom one wants to pair with well-known, very experienced taller dancers (Murphy, Abrera, Gomes) in a light-weight role without getting the latter injured? It's hard to imagine how one could have done better at developing one's resources than Harlequinade, The Golden Cockrel, and Whipped Cream.
• Have you finally developed a cohort of men of various heights who are increasingly comfortable presenting/interacting on stage...but still don't have any new ones who look believable opposite a female partner? See Plato's Symposium.
• Ratmansky has just produced a ballet seemingly specifically tailored to building a tall, technically-competent female lead's stamina and believability as a partner. Miss Hurlin and Miss Shevchenko, please step forward.

Sometimes this development hasn't worked out for the artists that seem to have been targeted.

But 10 years ago, it would been unthinkable for recently-promoted dancers like Trenary, Royal, Forster, and Bell to give the assured dramatically-believable, well-partnered, performances like they gave in Giselle and the short programs last Fall. If the price for 1-2 less well-attended ballets each season is a steady stream of artists like Trenary or Bell in R+J, Giselle, Swan Lake, and the other warhorses, ABT has struck a very good deal.  (And all of those ballets are now in the rep, ready to turn Coker, Granlund, et al. into Auoras.)

Technique was never the real problem for ABT's past dancers once they got past initial nerves:  it was acting and partnering.  Cornejo was always a commanding technician and stylist, but it took 8-10 years for his dramatic and partnering abilities to bloom. Would it would have been different if he'd done hard time as a dancing bottle of liquor in Whipped Cream?  At any rate, ABT now has artists who are commanding the stage on multiple fronts straight out of the gate.

[volcanohunter]

1 hour ago, choriamb said:

Setting artistic merit aside, Ratmansky's ballets are absolutely masterful as vehicles that increasingly ease dancers into dramatic/technical exposure without the white-hot heat of carrying a full-length. Each one has been tailored to develop whichever artists were next in line. To a degree that it would be interesting to learn if that was in fact his remit from the AD over audience appeal and marketability.

It's not at all strange that Ratmansky should tailor his works to the dancers he actually has before him, or that this process will grow their experience and confidence. Perhaps the Met is not the best venue for pursuing this aim. It does no one - not Ratmansky, not the dancers, not ABT - any good when these ballets fall out of the repertoire, because they fail to sell 4,000 tickets a night.

[miliosr]

9 hours ago, choriamb said:

Setting artistic merit aside, Ratmansky's ballets are absolutely masterful as vehicles that increasingly ease dancers into dramatic/technical exposure without the white-hot heat of carrying a full-length. Each one has been tailored to develop whichever artists were next in line. To a degree that it would be interesting to learn if that was in fact his remit from the AD over audience appeal and marketability.

If the price for 1-2 less well-attended ballets each season is a steady stream of artists like Trenary or Bell in R+J, Giselle, Swan Lake, and the other warhorses, ABT has struck a very good deal.

8 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

It's not at all strange that Ratmansky should tailor his works to the dancers he actually has before him, or that this process will grow their experience and confidence. Perhaps the Met is not the best venue for pursuing this aim. It does no one - not Ratmansky, not the dancers, not ABT - any good when these ballets fall out of the repertoire, because they fail to sell 4,000 tickets a night.

To the extent that Ratmansky does have a remit to do what choriamb describes (and I'm far from convinced that ABT is treating the Ratmansky creations as loss leaders to improve its dancers), here's the down side: Eventually, Ratmansky will be out of the picture and, as volcanohunter describes, there will be little or no Ratmansky repertory left for future performing or training as there's really no audience (at least at the Met) for it. 

[nysusan]

On 6/20/2022 at 11:36 PM, vipa said:

Filling seats might be a topic unto itself. The Met is huge. Back in the day, the Royal Ballet came to the Met  and was often standing room only for Fonteyn and Nureyev and even Sibley and Dowell. Everyone knew who Nureyev was. He was in the news, in gossip columns etc. Over at State Theater, there was an audience eager to see what Balanchine had up his sleeve. At the same time ballet dancers were on magazine covers, and on TV variety shows. Twyla Tharp was part of the fashion scene. Now, the media landscape has changed significantly. Filling the Met seems daunting, and NYCB rarely opens the fourth ring, and sometimes even has the 3rd ring closed. It's a complicated issue with a lot of factors. The world has changed.

Fonteyn/Nureyev- ah, those were the days! But you don't have to go back that far for ABT Met SRO performances, you don't even have to go back to the days of Makarova  or Kirkland and Baryshnikov. Didn't Vishneva & Gomes sell out the Met? Ferri/Bocca? Ananiashvilli? Cojocaru at her guest appearances? If they didn't completely sell out the Met, I recall those performances being extremely well sold, it was very hard to get a good seat.

Now you can have any seat you want, except for Swan Lake. Those performances are selling well, though not near to sold out. But when tickets first went on sale you still could have gotten any seat you wanted for any Swan Lake.

Re: L&R not selling well - I'm not surprised. Its an unknown quantity, with dancers who are unknown to the general public and Ratmansky has a very mixed track record at ABT. If I was a casual ABT goer or subscriber who sat through The Golden Cockerel or the Tempest I certainly wouldn't be rushing out to buy tickets to L&R. But if it got a great review (it did) and great word of mouth (not so far, at least not here) I might buy a ticket next time around. That's what I recall happening with Whipped Cream, which I loved.

I'm going to see L&R tonight and hoping for the best!

Did anyone see the Shevchenko/Forster cast?

[abatt]

8 minutes ago, nysusan said:

Fonteyn/Nureyev- ah, those were the days! But you don't have to go back that far for ABT Met SRO performances, you don't even have to go back to the days of Makarova  or Kirkland and Baryshnikov. Didn't Vishneva & Gomes sell out the Met? Ferri/Bocca? Ananiashvilli? Cojocaru at her guest appearances? If they didn't completely sell out the Met, I recall those performances being extremely well sold, it was very hard to get a good seat.

 

 

Yes, when the roster had Vishneva, Gomes, Ferri, Bocca, Carreno, Corella, Ananiashvilli and so on, the house was almost always well sold.  All of those dancers were full time ABT principals, not guest artists.  None were celebrities outside of the insular world of ballet, but the ballet audience understood the quality of the work of these artists and showed up in droves to see them. So maybe poor sales are attributable to the general lack of high level dancers at the company, and not the rep itself.  There are some wonderful dancers now at ABT, but many are untested in major lead roles. Truthfully, these days only Copeland sells out the house, and that is due to her celebrity and her status as a role model for certain audiences.

Edited June 22, 2022 by abatt

[nanushka]

We should also keep in mind the disruptions of the past 2+ years, including the fact that ABT has not had a Met season since 2019 (and now that season looks and feels rather different, shortened and starting up in June rather than May); plus, Of Love and Rage is not benefiting from any momentum that could have been gained after its CA premiere two years ago. So while Of Love and Rage itself is certainly somewhat to blame for the poor ticket sales — and, as @abatt notes, the overall state of the roster, in comparison with the (most recent) "golden years," may also be somewhat to blame — there are also numerous other factors compounding the problem.

[canbelto]

Here's the review I wrote for Bachtrack:

https://bachtrack.com/22/296/view/23195

[Roberta]

56 minutes ago, nysusan said:

.....

Did anyone see the Shevchenko/Forster cast?

I did, in Costa Mesa (Mar 2020). While both dancers were magnificent individually, their pdd-partnering work was a bit shaky, especially in the two high torch lifts. Both were aborted early, to some degree. Hopefully this has been resolved (weight training and such) in the run-up to this Met season.

22 hours ago, nanushka said:

Interestingly, Gia Kourlas seems wholly unbothered by the sexual politics of the work ("a meditation on love, loss and forgiveness") in her very positive Times review:

Brava to Kourlas, not invoking Woke narratives! I totally agree with her review!

[abatt]

Bell had no trouble with the torch lifts on Monday. 

[Roberta]

58 minutes ago, abatt said:

Bell had no trouble with the torch lifts on Monday. 

Indeed, Bell had no problems lifting either Hurlin or Seo in Costa Mesa. Remember - Bell did double-duty back in March 2020, when Calvin Royal III had to bow out. Calvin's debut will be in NY.

[Papagena]

2 hours ago, Roberta said:

I did, in Costa Mesa (Mar 2020). While both dancers were magnificent individually, their pdd-partnering work was a bit shaky, especially in the two high torch lifts. Both were aborted early, to some degree. Hopefully this has been resolved (weight training and such) in the run-up to this Met season.

Whenever I've seen Forster/Shevchenko he almost seemed a bit ... overpowered by her? It was first evident to me when they did Firebird together, although initially I wondered if it was a stylistic choice. I was never worried for her as Forster can always save and recalibrate an 'off' lift (from what I've seen), but I'm curious to see how they've improved since then. @canbelto 's  review seems to indicate major improvements. 

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by Papagena