ABT Met Season 2024

[California]

ABT will present the North American premiere of Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works at Segerstrom April 11-14, 2024. If past if prologue, it will be on the Met Schedule in 2024:

https://www.broadwayworld.com/costa-mesa/article/Wayne-McGregors-WOOLF-WORKS-Will-Make-North-American-Premiere-at-Segerstrom-Center-For-The-Arts-20230824

This is a co-production with the Royal Ballet, which premiered this in 2015: https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/woolf-works-by-wayne-mcgregor-details

[matilda]

Interesting. Has anyone on this board seen it in London? 

Judging by how well "The Hours" did at the Met Opera last year, this could be a success. (Granted, the Hours had some big-name stars)

[California]

9 minutes ago, matilda said:

Interesting. Has anyone on this board seen it in London? 

I haven't seen it. And I'm not finding it on the Royal Ballet stream, Medici, or Marquee.

[fondoffouettes]

Interesting. I wonder if ABT will engage Ferri, who danced it as recently as last spring. (Though I loved Ferri, I'm kind of hoping ABT will focus on casting the ballet with its current roster of dancers.)

Edited August 24, 2023 by fondoffouettes

[volcanohunter]

Woolf Works is available on disc from Opus Arte.

https://www.opusarte.com/details/OA1282D

 

[Josette]

I saw all three casts in London last spring.  I had seen it in a Ballet in Cinema showing several years ago and vowed that I would go to London to see it multiple times the next time it was on.  It is incredible.  There is a DVD of it for anyone who it is interested.  I saw Alessandra Ferri, Natalia Osipova, and Marianela Nunez in the lead role.  All were superb  and unique. I do hope that Ferri will dance the role that she created.  I cannot imagine anyone at ABT who could touch her in the role and only a handful of dancers who could do the other roles on a par with The Royal Ballet.   

It is a brilliant work.  

So this will be replacing the Ballet Imperial program originally announced. A much better choice.  

[abatt]

I've never seen it, and intend to watch the materials posted above. However, if Ferri danced it last spring, I guess it is fair to say that it is not particularly difficult in terms of required technique. 

[California]

29 minutes ago, Josette said:

So this will be replacing the Ballet Imperial program originally announced. A much better choice.  

I had forgotten about that! In April they announced Ballet Imperial and commissions by Gemma Bond and Kyle Abraham for the Segerstrom engagement!

https://www.broadwayworld.com/costa-mesa/regional/American-Ballet-Theatre-3825803

[volcanohunter]

Wayne McGregor rehearsing Alessandra Ferri and Federico Bonelli

An intermission feature from the cinema broadcast.

 

[nysusan]

I would like to see Wolf Works but with their Spring season reduced to only 4 weeks this is a mixed blessing. I want my Petipa! Now that the big European companies do not perform in NY anymore ABT is the only option here for full length classical ballet. I have to think they will do LWFC again, so add Wolf Works and that only leaves a maximum of 3 weeks for Swan Lake, Giselle, DQ, Bayadere, Coppelia, Raymonda et al ( I know Bayadere & Raymonda are wishful thinking and I didn't even list Corsaire). Not much room for MacMillan & Ashton either. Hopefully they will do a couple of weeks across the plaza 🙏🙏🙏

[coffeelover]

I’m really hoping Manon or Onegin will be in their MET season! Realistically, I think it will be SL, R&J, Giselle and a mixed rep program of some sort. 

[MoMo]

I am hoping they will find an additional venue for the three weeks the lost at the Met. 

[ABT Fan]

1 hour ago, coffeelover said:

, I think it will be SL, R&J, Giselle and a mixed rep program of some sort. 

This would be 2022 and 2023’s  Met season all over again. Please, ballet gods, no.

[pirouette]

R&J three years in a row? I hope not  Agree that Manon would be lovely. 

[Helene]

2 hours ago, coffeelover said:

Realistically, I think it will be SL, R&J, Giselle and a mixed rep program of some sort. 

I'm across the country and pretty far north of Segerstrom, but that almost made me weep, and not in a good way.

[Josette]

I wonder if Woolf Works will have Gillian Murphy as the lead. Didn’t she dance Fall River Legend with great success?  

[FauxPas]

Cathy Marston's "Summer and Smoke" seems to have gone by the wayside.  At least from what we have heard.  Perhaps, not an unfortunate circumstance...

The Metropolitan Opera is shutting down for approximately four weeks in February, the Met could use those empty weeks renting out the theater to ABT for a winter season.

Evidently later in the summer and early September are out because the Metropolitan Opera uses that time for tech rehearsals for new productions for the upcoming season.

Given the amount of tourism during the summer and a lot of tourists wanting to see a show at the Metropolitan Opera House, I wish another week could be managed in late July.

The other option (which I have suggested before) is that one of the only benefits of the pushing forward of the ABT Summer Met season into June-July (formerly it was mid-May to July 4) is that ABT no longer overlaps for two weeks with the New York City Ballet across the plaza.  However, given that the Theater formerly known as New York State is empty by June 1st, why not do the whole summer season there?  They are open and available.

Edited August 25, 2023 by FauxPas
New York State Theater (don't say K*ch)

[ABT Fan]

8 hours ago, Josette said:

I wonder if Woolf Works will have Gillian Murphy as the lead. Didn’t she dance Fall River Legend with great success?  

The Accused in Fall River is one of Murphy’s best roles.

[California]

22 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

Cathy Marston's "Summer and Smoke" seems to have gone by the wayside.  At least from what we have heard.  Perhaps, not an unfortunate circumstance...

Marston's "Summer and Smoke" was a co-production with Houston Ballet, which premiered it in March 2023: https://www.houstonballet.org/seasontickets/pdps/2022-2023/summer--smoke/

It's certainly possible that Jaffe travelled to see it and decided to look at alternatives.

This wouldn't be the first time that a partner in a co-production bailed. The Tempest was a co-production with ABT and Canada. https://www.abt.org/ballet/the-tempest/ Canada to this day has never performed it but instead showed Ratmansky's Trilogy. ABT premiered it in October 2013. I saw it twice that month and swore: never again! I vaguely remember that some on this site like it and I think it was shown one more time at the Met. We don't know what's in those co-production contracts, but I'm guessing there is a way to bail out, although it probably isn't cheap. 

[Helene]

I’d assumed since the Met went to almost a full dark month that they’ve been using the stage for tech rehearsals and set-up for the second half of the season.  Otherwise, it would seem like an opportunity lost.

[fondoffouettes]

Based on how full the house was for ABT's last couple weeks this summer, I, too, wonder if they'd consider adding on an additional week in July (I realize, of course, that it helped to program the warhorses at the end of the season).

I wonder if taking on an additional season, such as a winter season in the Met, is viewed by Jaffe et al. as too risky from a financial perspective. 

I was feeling pretty down this summer about ABT's reduced season. But I fear it's indicative of an overall contraction of the performing arts right now. Speaking of the Met Opera, their house was half-empty for much of last year (apart from select productions that galvanized audiences); and they just dissolved their guild and killed Opera News (despite spinning it as an editorial reorganization). Opera Philadelphia slashed their staff and budget and canceled a production for next season. Attendance is still way down across the arts, and institutional funders are shifting their attention away from the arts and toward social/environmental/humanitarian causes.

I'm just very grateful NYCB has been able to maintain their robust performance schedule, and I hope to see some full houses this fall. 

Edited August 25, 2023 by fondoffouettes

[nanushka]

ABT used to take over the Met just a day or two after the final opera performances of the season. I don't know a reason why that would no longer be possible, and doing so again could allow them to lengthen their season without overlapping with NYCB.

[FauxPas]

2 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:

Based on how full the house was for ABT's last couple weeks this summer, I, too, wonder if they'd consider adding on an additional week in July (I realize, of course, that it helped to program the warhorses at the end of the season).

I wonder if taking on an additional season, such as a winter season in the Met, is viewed by Jaffe et al. as too risky from a financial perspective. 

I was feeling pretty down this summer about ABT's reduced season. But I fear it's indicative of an overall contraction of the performing arts right now. Speaking of the Met Opera, their house was half-empty for much of last year (apart from select productions that galvanized audiences); and they just dissolved their guild and killed Opera News (despite spinning it as an editorial reorganization). ... Attendance is still way down across the arts, and institutional funders are shifting their attention away from the arts and toward social/environmental/humanitarian causes.

I'm just very grateful NYCB has been able to maintain their robust performance schedule, and I hope to see some full houses this fall. 

I also have been down this summer about the lack of summer events in the classical arts.  The Metropolitan Opera is also presenting fewer revivals next season, concentrating on new productions of new (or new to the Met) contemporary operas.  The overall number of performances has been reduced drastically.  

Also, this year was the last year of Mostly Mozart which was designed to keep the empty halls of Lincoln Center filled with music during the summer months.  The new regime at Lincoln Center wants to concentrate on more inclusive, racially diverse programming including Hip-Hop festivals and the like.  A lot of my friends have said that the audience for hip-hop music isn't coming to Lincoln Center for that - they have their own venues with their own audiences.   Supposedly, Mostly Mozart will be replaced with something else but we aren't hearing what that is.  

The other thing is that Lincoln Center and the Met used to host summer tours from the Kirov-Mariinsky and Bolshoi Ballets (thanks Putin... not happening), the Royal Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet and also the Stuttgart Ballet et al.  That hasn't happened for over a decade or more.  The Lincoln Center Festival used to host some of these tours but now we must go to the Kennedy Center in DC to see foreign companies.  

Edited August 25, 2023 by FauxPas

[California]

13 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

The other thing is that Lincoln Center and the Met used to host summer tours from the Kirov-Mariinsky and Bolshoi Ballets (thanks Putin... not happening), the Royal Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet and also the Stuttgart Ballet et al.  That hasn't happened for over a decade or more.  The Lincoln Center Festival used to host some of these tours but now we must go to the Kennedy Center in DC to see these companies.  

They're not at the Kennedy Center either!  Nor Segerstrom! I can't imagine the Russians will return for many, many years. And I assume the other international companies require major subsidies. The visit in February from the Ukrainians was made possible by a million dollar gift from Warren Buffett's son.  There isn't a single thing on the KC schedule for the next year that I'll bother with.

[abatt]

Yes, Kennedy Center offerings for next season are unimpressive.  I might instead head to Florida to see Miami City Ballet, or possibly to Philadelphia to see Philadelphia Ballet.