2023-2024 Season

[BalanchineFan]

On 4/28/2024 at 8:18 AM, Kathleen O'Connell said:

Arlene Croce observed that she'd like DAAG to be 15 minutes shorter, but not the same 15 minutes every time.

It's really the perfect quote. Though I have also seen certain casts, on certain nights where I would have stayed and watched it again.

[cobweb]

12 hours ago, nanushka said:

The piece was made as an early large-scale work for their new home and larger stage at Lincoln Center. It’s so rich and lush and (IMO) overstuffed, I don’t think it could possibly work with less than full orchestration. Stravinsky recommended the Schoenberg to Balanchine, I believe.

Thanks for the info, nanushka. I agree that the ballet is so rich and lush that it could only work with full orchestration. I find the quartet itself quite lovely though. But, if Balanchine wanted something large scale for the larger stage, and especially if Stravinsky recommended the Schoenberg orchestration, then it makes sense he went for the whole shebang.  

[abatt]

Just a thought.  LaFreniere is injured, per her instagram.  Will NYCB put forth a replacement Diamonds ballerina for the week long run of Jewels at the Kennedy Center, or will they simply alternate the role between Mearns and Phelan.  Enquiring minds want to know.   I would make the trip to DC to see a Nadon or Miller debut in Diamonds.

[matilda]

I remember something on Instagram about Nadon understudying Diamonds in the fall. 

LaFreniere is still currently cast in week three Year of the Rabbit so the injury may not keep her off stage for that long. 

[nanushka]

35 minutes ago, cobweb said:

Thanks for the info, nanushka. I agree that the ballet is so rich and lush that it could only work with full orchestration. I find the quartet itself quite lovely though. But, if Balanchine wanted something large scale for the larger stage, and especially if Stravinsky recommended the Schoenberg orchestration, then it makes sense he went for the whole shebang.  

I agree about the original Brahms as a work. Even the final movement seems paradoxically more exciting, I think, with the smaller-scale instrumentation (given a skilled enough ensemble, of course).

Edited April 29 by nanushka

[cobweb]

3 hours ago, abatt said:

Just a thought.  LaFreniere is injured, per her instagram.  Will NYCB put forth a replacement Diamonds ballerina for the week long run of Jewels at the Kennedy Center, or will they simply alternate the role between Mearns and Phelan.  Enquiring minds want to know.   I would make the trip to DC to see a Nadon or Miller debut in Diamonds.

Great question! Surely they must have someone else rehearsing it, they can't risk just having two women alternating. My guess would be Miriam Miller. 

[Fernie M]

5 hours ago, matilda said:

remember something on Instagram about Nadon understudying Diamonds in the fall.

Yes, I know she has/had been under studying Diamonds. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if she did a show at the Kennedy Center. I think I might try to go for the three shows over the weekend… I’m sure the casting would be worth it.

I’m wondering about Midsummer… I would love to see Nadon as Titania. I know this field is fairly crowded (Phelan, Mearns, Gerrity and Miller), but she is a Principal.

5 hours ago, abatt said:

Enquiring minds want to know

Love this @abatt, I feel the same way.

[bellawood]

2 hours ago, Fernie M said:

Yes, I know she has/had been under studying Diamonds. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if she did a show at the Kennedy Center. I think I might try to go for the three shows over the weekend… I’m sure the casting would be worth it.

I’m wondering about Midsummer… I would love to see Nadon as Titania. I know this field is fairly crowded (Phelan, Mearns, Gerrity and Miller), but she is a Principal.

Love this @abatt, I feel the same way.

I actually would love to see Mira in the divertissement, though TItania would be great too--

[Fernie M]

7 minutes ago, bellawood said:

actually would love to see Mira in the divertissement

That sounds wonderful as well! 

Ballet Herald and Sara Mearns announced she would be guesting with the National Ballet of Canada for 3 nights at the end of June. Performing in each of the three segments of Jewels. She did post an IG story the other day, watching Emily Kikta rehearse. “tall girl” with the caption preparing my homework or something like that. Love to see that. 

[vipa]

On 4/28/2024 at 8:18 AM, Kathleen O'Connell said:

Arlene Croce observed that she'd like DAAG to be 15 minutes shorter, but not the same 15 minutes every time.

I so agree with @BalanchineFan that this is a wonderful quote. I've read that Robbins had trouble deciding on the order of the sections. So much so, that on opening night the order was posted in several places backstage for the dancers.

In keeping with the Croce idea, leaving out different sections at every show would add a Cunningham-like aleatory aspect to things!! 

2 hours ago, Fernie M said:

That sounds wonderful as well! 

Ballet Herald and Sara Mearns announced she would be guesting with the National Ballet of Canada for 3 nights at the end of June. Performing in each of the three segments of Jewels. She did post an IG story the other day, watching Emily Kikta rehearse. “tall girl” with the caption preparing my homework or something like that. Love to see that. 

How interesting for Mearns, and what lucky audience. Last summer at the Vail Dance Festival she danced with National Ballet of Canada principal, Ben Rudisin. They looked wonderful together. I wonder if they'll do Diamonds.

[Royal Blue]

In art, as in life, there is a fluctuating process in action that cannot or should not be disturbed. One relishes discovering and exploring the portions of music and choreography of an endearing ballet that are deeply moving for oneself. How would excising the less attractive parts, nevertheless, affect our perception and enjoyment of those peaks? Trusting anyone to chop up the music or choreography of a favorite ballet, especially those who dislike it in the first place, is preposterous. 

Despite a few glaring errors, Friday evening's performance of the splendid Dances at a Gathering did not feel long at all, primarily due to the magnificence of Tiler Peck's artistry, glorious dancing by Unity Phelan, a worthy contribution by Alston Macgill, and the fine partnering of all three by the men during key moments.  

No question, Balanchine's Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet is profuse and exuberant. However, his treatment seems perfectly suited to the sumptuous orchestration of the superb yet luxuriant Piano Quartet in G minor itself.  

Dancers spend years in training and preparation in order for their dancing to appear, paradoxically, as natural and unrehearsed as possible when they perform on the stage. On Friday evening, Emma Von Enck and Anthony Huxley successfully created and sustained throughout the Andante section of Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet this imperative illusion. 

One chief reason to view this cast of the ballet again is the desire to re-experience Emilie Gerrity's breathtakingly beautiful performance in the opening Allegro. Another would be to witness Sara Mearns' unforgettable turn in Rondo alla Zingarese again, among the most revitalizing and uplifting one can encounter at the ballet. 

The melodic vigor and dazzling whirl of sound, combined with sublime transitioning to moments of noble solemnity and defiance, lends the music of Rondo alla Zingarese a mesmerizing splendor and character, making listening to it performed live in the concert hall or theater both a tremendous pleasure and an essential requirement. 
 

 

[bellawood]

4 hours ago, Fernie M said:

That sounds wonderful as well! 

Ballet Herald and Sara Mearns announced she would be guesting with the National Ballet of Canada for 3 nights at the end of June. Performing in each of the three segments of Jewels. She did post an IG story the other day, watching Emily Kikta rehearse. “tall girl” with the caption preparing my homework or something like that. Love to see that. 

Did Sara ever dance tall girl at city ballet? If so I have no memory of it!

[volcanohunter]

11 hours ago, nanushka said:

I agree about the original Brahms as a work. Even the final movement seems paradoxically more exciting, I think, with the smaller-scale instrumentation (given a skilled enough ensemble, of course).

The original piece is far superior; I adore it. Brahms' own four-hands piano version is terrific also. I can't abide what Schoenberg did to it. Those bells and whistles are antithetical to Brahms, and the orchestration turns everything into mush. I find it very difficult to enjoy the ballet for that reason.

[volcanohunter]

1 hour ago, vipa said:

How interesting for Mearns, and what lucky audience. Last summer at the Vail Dance Festival she danced with National Ballet of Canada principal, Ben Rudisin. They looked wonderful together. I wonder if they'll do Diamonds.

The locals are less impressed, and there has been backlash against this announcement. So far the shows without Mearns are selling better than the shows in which she's supposed to perform.

[abatt]

41 minutes ago, bellawood said:

Did Sara ever dance tall girl at city ballet? If so I have no memory of it!

No.  She learned the role but never performed it.  

[Xiaoyi]

9 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

So far the shows without Mearns are selling better than the shows in which she's supposed to perform.

Sara has not been a big sale boost, and her shows are on weekday nights (including one Friday.) Most audience of National Ballet of Canada do not know / pay attention to the casting before the show, from my chat with next seat neighbors. They just pick the time slot they are available for.

[Helene]

Without a survey of audience buying habits, it's impossible to extrapolate accurately based on a small selection.  For example, many of the people I know who are PNB fans are very cast-driven.  Many who post in the NYCB forum here are very cast-driven, but we are a subset of the ticket-buying population who may or may not represent most ticket-buyers.

Anecdotally, who draws buyers or doesn't is a double-edged sword that runs both ways:  some people are enthusiastic about seeing new guest artists, which has historically been ABT fans, and some people think it's a stolen performance from their own company members, because there are never enough opportunities to go around.  Sometimes it's about a name -- I personally had never heard grousing when Baryshnikov, for example, or Nureyev (at the top of his game) or Fonteyn, etc. was announced as a guest -- and sometimes there's no name recognition outside of our orbit.

The people who bypass Mearns in anything are losing out, IMO.  I don't necessarily feel that way about everyone.

[volcanohunter]

I could write about the time I watched Mearns dance "Diamonds" from the fourth ring and wept, because she projected so powerfully. I also know that my enthusiasm for her dancing gradually waned, and by the time the company returned to the stage in October 2021 I was sorry to discover that it had largely vanished. What I saw in February 2024 reinforced that impression.

Speaking only for myself, my ticket-buying habits at the National Ballet of Canada are very cast-driven, because there are dancers I actively avoid, and the repertoire typically doesn't knock off my socks. My ticket-buying at New York City Ballet is almost entirely repertoire-driven. There are, of course, instances when I'm sorry to have missed a particular cast, because I admire certain dancers especially. In both instances, I have to travel, so convenience doesn't enter the picture and that, obviously, doesn't make me a typical subscriber.

[volcanohunter]

For context I'll add that the National Ballet of Canada hasn't performed the complete Jewels for 18 years, and there are only six performances scheduled. For most of its dancers, this is likely to be their one and only opportunity to dance the ballet, so every soloist slot is precious. The last stand-alone performance of "Rubies" took place in 2016.

To Torontonians eager to see Sara Mearns in Jewels I would say that NYCB performs the ballet frequently, that New York is a one-hour flight away, and given ticket prices at the National Ballet of Canada and the cost everything else in downtown Toronto, New York may be a less expensive excursion than is usually assumed.

[BalanchineFan]

15 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

The locals are less impressed, and there has been backlash against this announcement. So far the shows without Mearns are selling better than the shows in which she's supposed to perform.

Is the backlash due to local performers missing out on performance opportunities? Or is it general fatigue with guests? Or anti-American sentiment or something else? And where has the backlash been ... observed? Is it people in the streets with signs or just a few friends and balletomanes grumbling online? (I was up at Columbia University recently.) 

I am confident that Mearns will win people over, and that in no time people will be dancing faster, bigger and clearer, throwing themselves into movement with wild abandon, and taking barre in baggy sweats with a cloud of hair covering their face.

[volcanohunter]

Over the past decade, under the previous administration, guest artists (except in character roles, because the company eliminated the prinicpal character artist category, so they're all "guest artists" now) appeared with the National Ballet of Canada only in the case of dire emergency: when injuries left the company with only two interpreters of a principal role. That was the case last season when Emma Hawes returned from English National Ballet to dance the lead in James Kudelka's Cinderella. This season, the only guest artist is Sara Mearns. She also appeared with the company last year, so basically Mearns is the only guest dancers Toronto audiences get to see. And like I say, she's always just a short flight away, and since I see her on trips to New York, I don't also need to see her on trips to Toronto.

Fundamentally I am pissed off because company dancers are being deprived of performances, and Mearns' presence is, at the moment, entirely unnecessary. 

And not to be facetious, but has anyone ever put up an urban encampment to protest anything "ballet"? 

Edited April 30 by volcanohunter

[BalanchineFan]

16 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

And not to be facetious, but has anyone ever put up an urban encampment to protest anything "ballet"?

It was meant as a joke, but there were protests by the NYCB orchestra last fall. They yelled at opening night audiences from behind a barricade and handed out leaflets. No tents though.

I'm sorry to hear you're not excited by the casting. I've flown to Toronto on occasion and I would never do it to see ballet. Customs is a pain in the neck.

Edited April 30 by BalanchineFan

[volcanohunter]

In all seriousness, I've handed out protest leaflets outside theaters, but I didn't yell and basically didn't step outside a two sq. ft. patch of pavement. Definitely didn't hunker down. Not over casting, anyway. 

[Fernie M]

19 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

So far the shows without Mearns are selling better than the shows in which she's supposed to perform.

Just looked on the National Ballet of Canada website and as of right now, only three shows have sold out sections. Two of those shows are with Mearns. 

[Fernie M]

Week 4 casting 

https://res.cloudinary.com/new-york-city-ballet/image/upload/v1714512649/NYCB_Casting_May_14-19_2024_lobby.pdf