Haglund's Heel

On Haglund's Calendar – Stravinskymania with Gergiev & the NY Phil

Attention Stravinsky Maniacs and Gergiev Groupies:

This coming 2009-2010 season the New York Philharmonic will present an eight part, 14 performance Stravinsky festival with all performances conducted by the great Valery Gergiev.  The Russian Stravinsky, as the festival is being called, will cover 17 of Stravinsky's major works including ballet compositions The Firebird, The Right of Spring, Les Noces, Petrushka, Symphony in C, and Symphony in Three Movements. 

The New York Philharmonic has its annual one-week online sale beginning August 16 when all seats will be $59.  The only catch is that you have to buy three performances.  Otherwise, tickets are priced $31 - $119.

The Russian Stravinsky
Valery Gergiev, Conductor

April 21 & 22
Les Noces
Symphonies of Wind Instruments
The Firebird

April 23 & 24
Jeu de cartes
Symphony of Psalms
The Firebird

April 28 & 29
Le roi des etoiles
Violin Concerto
Oedipus Rex

April 30 & May 1
Orpheus
Oedipus Rex

May 1 (11 am)
Insight (lecture) Series
Morgan Library
Guest Speaker Gergiev

May 2
Renard
The Soldier’s Tale

May 5 & 6
Symphony in C
Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
Petrushka

May 7 & 8
Symphony in Three Movements
Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
The Rite of Spring

Tulsa Ballet @ the Joyce

Tulsa Ballet arrives at the Joyce Theater in less than two weeks.  Tulsa, as in Oklahoma.  As in the defunct Roughnecks and other necks.  They’re coming to Chelsea.  And they just might be the hottest ticket of the late summer.

Tulsa, Oklahoma is about 75% white, overwhelmingly Republican, and is getting a new baseball stadium for its minor league Tulsa Drillers (their star pitcher, Jhoulys Chacin, just got called up by the Colorado Rockies for the bullpen).  The mayor recently inaugurated a Mentoring to the Max with Music program where local musicians volunteer to mentor 4th and 5th graders in local schools.  And Paul McCartney will be in town next month for a concert.  While that may not be exactly what it takes to make Tulsa your next vacation destination, the city is not the butt of fly-over jokes it used to be.  And it has a darned good ballet company.

Tulsa Ballet’s dancers hail from China, Sweden, Spain, Venezuela, South Africa, Jamaica, Korea, Brazil, Italy, Russia, Netherlands, Japan, Hungary, and the U.S. (CA, NY, MN, NC).  That’s New York-style diversity.

The company has an extensive repertory of choreography by Nacho Duarto, Lila York, Stanton Welch, Paul Taylor, Christopher Wheeldon, Ben Stevenson, Roman Jasinski, MacMillan, Balanchine, Petipa, Robbins, Tudor, Perrot, Jooss, de Mille and many others.  Again, that’s New York-style diversity.

The program at the Joyce includes Kenneth MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations, Nacho Duarto’s Por Vos Muero, and Young Soon Hue’s This Is Your Life.  Program diversity – New York-style.

Tulsa Ballet has a spiffy website and sports a logo which in some ways resembles a newish moon – Day 2 of the lunar cycle, to be precise.  Astrologers say that new moons are a good time to dream.  But the logo also resembles a solar eclipse – and those have been said to throw electrical disruptions, disorient bees, and make water undrinkable. 

Which ever moon they bring to the Joyce, Haglund is going to be sitting under it – either dreaming or disoriented – or if he's lucky, both.

 

 

Nina Ananiashvili's final reverence

In today's Christian Science Monitor, Iris Fanger reflects on the meaning of reverence and in particular, Nina Ananiashvili's reverence at the conclusion of her final Swan Lake last June:

To me, the most glowing representation of "reverence" is the white-tulle-clad ballerina taking a curtain call when she sinks to the floor in grateful appreciation of the bond between her and her fans. She has danced her heart out; they have responded with admiration, communicated by clapping, often accompanied by cheers and flowers.

And on Nina's tribute to the legendary Irina Kolpokova (why isn't her bio on the ABT website?):

She made reverence to the audience, but the deepest one was reserved for Irina Kolpakova, the former prima ballerina of the Kirov Ballet, now a ballet mistress and teacher for ABT. In bowing to a mentor, Ananiashvili was honoring the foundation of ballet, the handing down of technique and experience over the generations.

There are still ballet traditions which dictate that class begins with reverence as well as finish with it. 

 

 

Michael Kaiser - Reducing the nation's health care costs through dance

No sooner did Haglund recommend Michael Kaiser for a State Department diplomatic post to save the world through culture than there he is on The Huffington Post making important and sweeping statements about how allowing every child to study and learn to love dance will reduce the nation's health care costs.  He's right, you know, especially when he says:

But last, and certainly not least, dance teaches a love of body. Children who dance are far more likely to appreciate their own physical selves. Dance training helps address the obesity problem currently facing our nation. Children who dance regularly are less likely to be overweight; they improve their metabolisms and burn calories. But perhaps most important, children who dance are less likely to participate in the dangerous behaviors that adversely impact the lives of their peers: teen pregnancy, drug abuse, unprotected sex, etc.

And by the way, he has the Pennsylvania Ballet, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Mariinsky Ballet, and Bolshoi Ballet all lined up at the Kennedy Center for the Perfoming Arts for the 2009-2010 season.  

 

 

Poem looking for a ballet

This is one of Haglund's favorite poems.

Poetry Is . . .  is from Richard Snyder's first book of poems "A Keeping in Touch" published in 1971 by The Ashland Poetry Press.  Mr. Snyder [1925-1986] was one of the founders of the Ashland Poetry Festival and the Ashland Poetry Press in Ohio.  He practiced and preached meter and rhyme, and tended to speak in iambic pentameter when lecturing to students at Ashland College.  Unfortunately, his few books are out of print and difficult to locate.   But if you ever stumble upon one of his poems, like now, you will see just how lovely and well-crafted they are.  This particular one begs to be made into a ballet.

POETRY IS . . .

many things, of course,
but since you ask
I'd say it was Orlow Steigerwalt
many dead autumns ago in my home town.
Old Orlow at The Blanchard County Fair
putting on his annual exhibition of horse-shoe pitching,
a sport that has survived dead seasons, I suppose,
but changed, not as it was then, with him,
when a blanket was stretched to mask the pit
and Old Orlow arched the shoes over it.
We had to wait for the clank to tell us how he'd done,
but sometimes he'd nod to himself before the sound had come.
Don't ask me, though, what makes a man a poet;
maybe something trivial as his name
drove Orlow Steigerwalt to blind ringers.
And that I guess is what I mean:
somewhere back there's a metal stake
we keep pitching for,
and forsake other men's concerns
to practice our delivery —
to pause, poised to pitch, let fly by God,
and then to wait a space and nod;
and when iron on iron strike as chime
to nod again a second time.

 

Fabrizio's 3-legged ballerina

Haglund received the brochure for ABT’s upcoming six performance stint at Avery Fisher Hall in October.  It included an array of photographs, mostly by Fabrizio Ferri.  One photo confirmed that a soloist has not had a full meal in a while.  Others reminded Haglund of the just ended but already missed Met season – Marcelo Gomes as VonRothbart,  Veronika Part in Mozartiana.  And then there was the picture of the 3-legged ballerina – with two left legs.

It is a fun and useful exercise to think what a 3-legged ballerina might be able to do – simultaneous en dehor and en dedan pirouettes with a passe retiré to each side comes to mind immediately, followed by attitude turns with two legs in back making a perfect square, and of course the coolest pas de chats imaginable.

ABT’s fall season celebrates their shorter works and more adventurous repertory as opposed to full length ballets, and the company can sometimes use the season to perform painful experiments on its audience.  Somehow we survive.  But please, Haglund is just not ready for a 3-legged ballerina – with two left legs.  Not this year.

Tickets are on sale now, and they’re not unreasonably priced.

NYT's Failure to Cover The Royal Ballet in Cuba

Here is the response from the Office of the Public Editor at The New York Times:

Dear Reader,

Thank you for writing. This office does not direct news coverage but I will make sure the Arts desk sees your message. The Times did cover the initial plans to go to Cuba but does not seem to have followed up on the actual performances.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/arts/dance/25arts-THEROYALBALL_BRF.html

Sincerely,
Michael McElroy
Office of the Public Editor
The New York Times

Note:  The public editor's opinions are his own and do not represent those of The New York Times.

 

Here is our response to that response:

Mr.  McElroy:

We thank you for your reply and for forwarding our complaint to the "Arts desk."   Indeed we saw the preliminary alert in the Arts Brief last May and were eagerly awaiting full coverage from cultural and political perspectives.   Not only did the Times fail to fully cover the events in Cuba, it failed to cover them at all.  Clearly a poorly informed editorial decision was made that The Royal Ballet's visit to Cuba was not news worthy  – a position contrary to that of CNN, Washington Post, NBC News, Reuters, CBS News, Financial Times, BBC News, MSNBC, Associated Press and other national and worldwide news organizations. 

The purpose of writing to the Public Editor was to ask for an investigation as to why the Times's judgment on this story was 180 degrees from all other nationally and world-renowned news organizations.   It is the consensus outside the thick walls of your building that the Times blew it.  While we thank you for forwarding our message on to the "Arts desk," quite frankly, we could have done that ourselves.  

 Hopefully, you will see fit to delve into this matter a bit more seriously. 

Haglund's Heel
http://haglundsheel.typepad.com

 

 

Vanity Fair – current dance items

Over at Vanity Fair, James Wolcott says that we can expect to hear of his appointment as the Obama Administration's Ballet Czar soon.  Haglund predicts that Alaska will try to quash that one, but Mr. Wolcott will prevail.  You can bet you won't read about it in The New York Times, however.

Haglund's internal editor, a.k.a. the Humorless B____, recently wrote to Secretary of State Clinton to make certain that her staff was following the history being made by The Royal Ballet in Cuba.  H.B. suggested a diplomatic appointment for the purpose of formalizing the efforts of U.S. Cultural Diplomacy and she suggested Michael Kaiser for the post.  Kaiser has performed miracles for the arts wherever he has gone.  He's done a fantastic job for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in recent years, but it's time for a new challenge.  A diplomatic post might be just the right thing – for him, for culture, and for the world.

Also on the Vanity Fair website:  Bodies Swayed to Music is a wonderful collection of dance photos that have been featured in past issues, including a smoldering Roberto Bolle pic; and an essay by Laura Jacobs on Bill T. Jones and his upcoming world premiere at the Ravania Festival just north of Chicago.

 

Love Fest - The Royal Ballet in Cuba - part sept / Dear New York Times:

Haglund hopes that the Public Editor at The New York Times, Clark Hoyt,  will get to the bottom of the paper's refusal to cover the story of The Royal Ballet's historic trip to Cuba:

Dear Mr. Hoyt:

Please investigate the apparent censorship  by The New York Times of one of the greatest culture stories of the year:  The Royal Ballet's historic trip to Havana, Cuba.

 

The Washington Post, NBC News, Reuters, CBS News, Associated Press, Financial Times, BBC News, Sacramento Bee, Gary Post Tribune, Miami Herald, MSNBC, San Francisco Chronicle, MSN Malaysia News, CCTV, Arab Times, and others covered this important cultural-diplomatic story from many angles.

 

According to the Cuban-American National Council, 84% of all Cuban-Americans live in four states: New York, New Jersey, Florida, and California.   [http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1b/5a/cd.pdf]

 

The New York Times invests wads of money trying to attract Latino readers and advertisers.  Why should the Latino community consider NYT as a reliable news source when it delivers a slap in the face to Cuban-Americans everywhere by ignoring such important news?   Why should readers of all ethnic backgrounds look to the Times for culture and news coverage when it ignores such important news?  And lastly, it makes one wonder what other news the Times, which proclaims itself a national newspaper with a so-called global edition, holds back from its readers that it shouldn't.

 

It is truly shameful, and we hope that you will be able to make the paper's editors feel their shame.

Haglund's Heel
http://haglundsheel.typepad.com

Their autoreply:

Thank you for contacting the Public Editor. An associate or I read every message. Because of the volume of e-mail, we cannot respond personally to every message, but we forward many messages to appropriate newsroom staffers and follow up to be sure concerns raised in those messages are treated with serious consideration. If a further reply is warranted, you will be hearing from us shortly.

Some messages to the Public Editor may be published in his column or online. Please let us know if you do not want your message published.

Requests for corrections should be submitted to nytnews@nytimes.com. If you are dissatisfied with the response, please let us know.

When referring to a specific article, please include its date, section and headline.

--------------------------------
The Office of the Public Editor cannot do research for the public or provide contact information.
Because of the high volume of comments submitted to The Times on its various blogs, this office cannot get involved in second guessing comment moderation. Send letters to the editor to letters@nytimes.com. Information about letter submissions can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html.

Send Op-ed submissions to oped@nytimes.com. Information about Op-Ed submissions can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/opedsubmit.html.

Love Fest - The Royal Ballet in Cuba - part six / The Orchestra

NBC News is still hard at work covering one of the most important culture stories of the year – The Royal Ballet's visit to Havana, Cuba.  Meanwhile, The New York Times critics are on vacation and phoning in second thoughts about ABT's Met season.

Mary Murray, NBC's Havana Bureau Chief, writes about The Royal Ballet's orchestra conductor, Martin Yates, and the extraodinary results of his efforts to work with the Cuban National Symphony:

The excitement began when he managed to pry open the theater’s orchestra pit, which had been sealed 15 years ago when Cuba’s strapped economy forced everyone in the arts to downsize. The use of the pit was such a novelty that during intermission members of the audience crowded the front of the auditorium just for a look.

Can you imagine – no orchestra pit for 15 years?!  Unbelievable.  Yates went on to describe the effects of the performance on the Cuban people:

"The audience exploded with cheers before I even finished the last few measures of music," said Yates. "Normally, the public is quite respectful. You play the last chord and it’s only on the last bang when the audience explodes. They couldn’t contain themselves on the last five bars when they knew it was the end…The public just erupted into an explosion of unbelievable proportions. The musicians should be proud of that accomplishment."

Wow.  What a story!  Thank you NBC News, CBS News, Reuters, Washington Post, AP, CNN, BBC, Sacramento Bee, MSNBC, and the Financial Times, for such great coverage.  You sure know what news is fit to print!

 

 

Love Fest - The Royal Ballet in Cuba - part cinq / Ansanelli

This historic visit of The Royal Ballet to Cuba is a cultural and diplomatic coup for two older women whose lives are devoted to, of all things, ballet.  Sixty-eight year old Monica Mason of The Royal Ballet and 88 year old Alicia Alonso of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba have pulled off in a week of performances what presidents, dictators, military generals, and Harvard and Yale educated diplomats have not even come close to doing:  literally improving relations and understanding between the peoples of two very different, sometimes less than friendly countries by finding a common substance of their souls –  ballet.  Most diplomats just improve relations between other diplomats. 

While Monica Mason and Alicia Alonso are spreading the love and opening doors, one door is closing seemingly too soon.  Alexandra Ansanelli, a Principal of The Royal Ballet and a beloved former Principal at the New York City Ballet danced her final performance Thursday evening in Havana.   Jeff Franks of The U.S. Daily reports that at the conclusion of the performance Alicia Alonso presented Alexandra with a bouquet on stage - not Cuban to American but legendary ballerina to contemporary ballerina.  The art and artists were what mattered here, not the politics.

Alexandra is leaving ballet to embark on a quest for a fuller, more balanced life.  She told Franks that she hopes to go off to Columbia University or NYU soon.  She seems to have a plan.  Good for her.  But her electric performances will be missed.

Here's Franks' story.

 

Paris Opera Ballet - New Robert Wiseman Film

David Ng reports in the Los Angeles Times Culture Monster  that Robert Wiseman's newest ballet film, produced in partnership with PBS, is scheduled to be released in the U.S. this November.  It's not clear whether "release" means on PBS, in theaters, or available on Amazon.  It's entitled  "La Danse -- Le Ballet de l'Opera de Paris."   Ng writes:

Wiseman spent seven weeks filming the Paris company at work, documenting the process of mounting a ballet production from the costume workshops and lighting design all the way up to public performances. He also spends time with individual dancers to chart the different stages each takes to become a star (or étoile) in the company.

According to Wiseman's production company, the film follows the rehearsals and performances of seven ballets: "Genus" by Wayne McGregor, "Le Songe de Medée" by Angelin Preljocaj, "La Maison de Bernarda" by Mats Ek, "Paquita" by Pierre Lacotte, "Casse Noisette" by Rudolph Nureyev, "Orphée and Eurydice" by Pina Bausch and "Romeo and Juliette" by Sasha Waltz.

Perfect timing for the release.  When you're finally all Nutcrackered out, you can watch the impossibly beautiful, impossibly brilliantly-trained, impossibly talented Paris Opera Ballet in a variety of unseasonal works.

 

 

Love Fest - The Royal Ballet in Cuba - part quatre

Magnificent media coverage of this worldwide cultural event continues with CNN, the BBC, and the Financial Times bringing great stories of The Royal Ballet's historic trip to Havana.

Tony Hall on FT.com writes today:

When the trip was being planned we all knew it was going to be exciting but I don’t think any of us, apart probably from Carlos himself, realised just what a profound impact the Royal Ballet tour would have on the country. It’s the power of art to bring two completely different cultures together. By the time you read this I should be there myself, and, despite a forecast temperature of 35°, I can’t wait.

On Opening Night, The Washington Post posted this report from Reuters.

Still this morning, The New York Times is at loss for words on this historic event.  [Wait ... let's switch to the new GLOBAL edition of "The New York Times with the International Herald Tribune" to see if something's there. Nope. Not a word.]   Pfeh.

 

 

ABT – L.A. Review of Bolle & Dvorovenko in Romeo and Juliet

Here's the first review of ABT's Romeo and Juliet at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in LA that Haglund has been able to find.  Sounds like the kids took the place by storm:

The principals turned the balcony scene, despite its often awkward lifts, into a wondrous spectacle, with Dvorovenko floating on her points and Bolle afire through every spin.

. . . and, it sounds like Stella put some Georgina-Zing into her Lady Capulet while mourning over Tybalt's dead body:

Stella Abrera demonstrated a marvelous abandon in her mourning rant over Tybalt’s body.

Yeh!

 

 

Love Fest - The Royal Ballet in Cuba - part trois

Havana Times photographer Caridad snuck into Tuesday evening's performance and got some extraordinary shots.  The story of how she managed to gain access is reported by Irina Echarry here.

Wow.  Look at this picture of Carlos Acosta from Caridad's collection.

Still not even one picture in The New York behind the Times.   Pfeh.

 

 

Love Fest - The Royal Ballet in Cuba - part deux

Here's another video on The Happenings in Havana courtesy of MSNBC. Fantastico!

The New York Times continues to ignore the story.  What gives with them?!

 

Love Fest – The Royal Ballet in Cuba

Come ooo-on.  Give me a break!  Can you believe that the, pardon me, THE New York Times is ignoring this story?!  And you wonder why ballet is not bigger in this country?  The crappy culture editors at this national newspaper don't know culture news that's fit to print when they trip over it on other media sources. 

So let's go to the videotape.  Or better yet, let's go to a real newspaper of record – The Sacramento Bee– to check out a great, great, GREAT collection of Getty Images of The Royal Ballet's sensational performances in Havana.  Note the final frame of, yes, Alicia Alonso cradling the lilies once again.

What a story ! ! ! !

 

 

ABT – All-Stars Wrap-up

During the intermission of last Saturday’s final performance of ABT's Romeo and Juliet, Haglund and his friend, Warner, were leaning against the bar sipping some very cool Bolle Slurpees.  All of a sudden Warner looked up and howled, “Come ooo-on.  Give me a break!”   There were Mister Steinbrenner and Hal pushing their ways to the head of the line to get their Bolle Slurpees.  They’d just tried to step in front of opera-crossover Lois Kirschenbaum who whacked Hal’s knees with her cane.   Now they were standing directly next to us - bar left.

Mister Steinbrenner:        She’s a scrappy old bird.

Hal:                                     We should have her in the outfield.

Mister Steinbrenner:        Crap, no.  We got enough fluttering and limping going on out there.

Hal:                                     The season is shaping up pretty well, don’t you think?

Mister Steinbrenner:        No doubt we’re the best team, but can we bring it all home this year?  
                                            We got some problems in the secondary.  Stearns, Matthews, 
                                            Hammoudi.  They’re blanks and Stearns can’t throw a decent 
                                            eschappe battu.

Hal:                                    What should we do?

Mister Steinbrenner:       Keep them away from that wus Johnny Damon, that‘s for sure. Bring 
                                            up Hoven, Zhurbin, Stewart and Tamm.  Have ‘em work with Radetsky.

Hal:                                    You don’t have Radetsky anymore.  You traded him to The Dutch.

Mister Steinbrenner:       Crap.  Are you sure?  Didn’t we just have him do several performances 
                                            of Albrecht in Giselle?

Hal:                                    No, that was with The Dutch.

Mister Steinbrenner:      Wha . . . didn’t he just do the lead in Prodigal Son???

Hal:                                    In Amsterdam.

Mr Steinbrenner:            Crap.

Hal:                                   Good thing we picked up Roberto Bolle.  The guy is gold.

Mister Steinbrenner:     But can we keep him happy?

Hal:                                  Drink your Slurpee.

Mister Steinbrenner:    It tastes okay, but what’s in it?

Hal:                                 Crushed Acqua Fiuggi cubes.  Lime.  Mint leaves.

Mister Steinbrenner:    Mmmm.  Thank the lucky stars for celebrity endorsements!

Hal:                                 You said it.

Warner said it best when he first saw Roberto Bolle “This guy can bring the heat!”   Roberto was definitely one of the season’s highlights in  his incredible Swan Lake with Veronika Part and the two Romeo and Juliets with Irina Dvorovenko.  The season’s bittersweet memory will be  Nina Ananiashvili’s  glorious performances, especially her final Giselle with delicious Jose Manuel Carreno.

Haglund went to 32 out of  63 performances – a resounding majority in ballet season terms – and concluded that the company is in superb shape.  On those occasions when it messed up, it was because it was trying to extend itself.

Now on to an abbreviated season at Avery Fisher Hall in October where the company will probably mess up again while it is trying to extend itself with new choreography.  Haglund hates this whole effort of ballet trying to make itself "relevant" to new audiences by dumbing down to hip hop, so-called new music, and street-coolness.

Classical and romantic ballet has stellar reputations and attendance in Europe without having to dumb itself down.  Roberto Bolle and Julio Bocca have drawn rock-star sized crowds to performances of classical and romantic ballet.  Why can’t we manage to do that in this country?

Drink Acqua Fiuggi and hope for a Times Square billboard featuring Roberto Bolle soon.

 

 

Copyright © 2009

 

ABT – Romeo and Juliet – Bolle, Dvorovenko 7/11

ABT danced out the 63^rd and final performance of its 2009 Met season like it was Opening Night.

There were incredible efforts from Craig Salstein, Blaine Hoven, and Gennadi Saveliev. Craig’s Mercutio employed less jester attitude as compared to Tuesday’s performance and blasted through turn combination after turn combination like he could go on for another week.  And Hello Blaine - in full Benvolio character and dancing with full force and confidence (with only 2 or 3 Firebird flips of the wrists)!  Saveliev’s Tybalt was Shakespearean from head to toe, and he carried his arrogant, menacing manner with great smirk. Yeah, he carried himself with great smirk.

Roman Zhurbin and Kristi Boone brought darkness and weight to the roles of Lord and Lady Capulet.  Haglund just loves Lady Capulet’s Act I parade upstage with her arms stretched in that dramatic, sweeping fourth position elonge pose.  It’s one of those things that is perfectly safe to try at home.  Everyone who Haglund saw perform Lady Capulet this week did well, but everyone still needs to give it more Georgina-Zing during the hysteria over Tybalt’s death.  It’s not supposed to look like formal Martha Graham.  Georgina Parkinson really knows how to bring down the curtain on Act II!

The spunky harlots, Misty Copeland, Stella Abrera, and Melanie Hamrick, mixed it up well with the townsfolk, the principals, and each other.  As always, great spitting and jostling, Ladies.   And it was such a relief to see Lovely Stella moving at full speed once again.

Alexandre Hammoudi as Paris was tall, dark, and serious but not particularly interesting.  He needs some Saveliev lessons in that role.  Hammoudi has been dancing impressive steps all season, but is a little blank dramatically-speaking.  He has one good expression that he uses all the time - like poor Nicholas Cage.

Mr. Franklin as Friar Laurence drew the arc of the music so perfectly when he crossed In the name of the Father, the son, and the holy spirit after marrying Romeo to Juliet.  Haglund looks forward to that moment every year.

Roberto Bolle and Irina Dvorovenko as Romeo and Juliet are approaching perfect.  Haglund is jealous of those who get to see their third performance in Los Angeles next Thursday, because it is going to be – in LA-LA-speak – outstoundingly ah-some!

Last night Roberto and Irina danced brilliantly individually and as partners.  It was the most satisfying Romeo and Juliet that Haglund has seen since Alessandra Ferri’s departure.

Irina’s Juliet was naïve, innocent and willful if a bit frightened to be so.  Such a complete characterization coupled with sensational dancing - arabesque turns that lingered on balance without an ounce of showiness; courageous leaps toward Romeo – particularly, the ones that required a half turn so that she finished the leap with her back toward him; a tremendous effort to stretch her pointes to their maximum.  At no time did Irina assume artificial ballerina-mode, as Vishneva did with some of her poses.  All in all, it was the most enjoyable performance Haglund has seen from Irina in a very long time.

Roberto had an exceptional night as well.  His technique was breathtakingly beautiful.  His variation while Juliet played the mandolin was stunning.  When he concluded his solo with a gorgeous, sensual pirouette to a long fourth position, the collective sighs of 2,000 satisfied women could be heard in the opera house.  No lie.  Roberto’s Romeo was deeply passionate and tormented.  The corpse PdD was brilliant with Romeo coming to the very edge of the stage with a lifeless Juliet hanging on his arms.  A tremendous performance!  This guy is gold.

Haglund has to pull out the Golden First Position Pump Bump Award for all of the principals, soloists, and corps who danced to the edge last night:

　

Copyright © 2009

　

　

　

Where the heck is Fiuggi in New York?

Why can't Haglund find Fiuggi water in NYC — not even at Whole Foods or Fresh Direct!  It's a must have in order for Haglund to dance around and lasso himself in a swirl of fizzy like Roberto Bolle does in this. 

 Watch and weep.