ABT – All Ashton Program 6/30

The last of the All-Ashton Programs Wednesday evening had almost too many stand-out performances to cover, but Haglund will do his best.  However, he wants to take a moment to recommend to the Met Opera House staff that their intital announcement to the audience to silence phones and pagers be amended to include that patrons should clear the phlegm from their throats before the music starts.  Wasn't that the most annoying, disgusting display of lack of restraint by an audience this season?  And it seemed that as soon as one person started, others joined in.  The ushers should be equipped with throat trowels in order to address this problem in the future. 

 

Birthday Offering's cast led by Stella Abrera and Eric Tamm was gorgeous.  Stella was glorious and confident in the role originated by Margot Fonteyn and made all of those fast cabrioles in her variation look light and easy.  As she slowly lowered into a penche arabesque in their PdD, Tamm took a look at her and then looked out to the audience as if to say "Have you ever seen anything quite so beautiful?"  Preciseness in the footwork and beautifully correct style in the upper body are Stella's calling cards now.  Ashton, Petipa, Tharp, Tudor, MacMillan, Balanchine – whatever the style, she captures the true accent and is one of the most versatile interpretors of the company's repertory today.  Haglund's fingers are crossed tightly in hopes that we will finally get to witness her debut as Giselle next year – which is possible unless McKenzie gives her performance away to some guest artist.  Tamm has got so much going for him in the elegance, technique, and theatrical departments that it is hard to be patient and wait for him to get some more meaningful opportunities.  Haglund hopes that he is giving a lot of thought to Albrecht even though he may have to wait a while for the performance opportunity.  We're certainly already thinking about it.

 

The other ladies in Birthday Offering were Misty Copeland, Isabella Boylston, Melanie Hamrick (subbing for Veronika Part), Simone Messmer, Maria Riccetto and Leann Underwood.  All were beautiful and each truly looked like a principal ballerina.  The gentlemen in the Mazurka were Craig Salstein, Daniil Simkin, Tom Forster (subbing for Gennadi Saveliev), Blaine Hoven, Jared Matthews, and Alexandre Hammoudi.  They all acquitted themselves handsomely.

 

If you missed either last night's or Tuesday night's performance of Thais PdD with Hee Seo and Sascha Radetsky, then you missed one of the highlights of the two repertory weeks.  Of course, Massenet's "Meditation" enters the nervous system like the highest quality Egyptian pharmaceutical, and Anthony Dowell's costumes are a dream of a combination of just the right amount revealed with just the right amount covered up in a glorious orange.  But the dancers turned their five minutes of pas de deux into the event of the evening.  Radetsky's partnering made Seo look like a miracle, and she exploited every opportunity to fill the music with her plush lines.  This is a tough PdD that required enormous sustained strength from Radetsky and complicated balancing by Seo on top of his back and shoulders.  The lighting, still uncredited in the Playbill, contributed much to the fantasy.  The audience was overcome by what it saw and insisted that Seo and Radetsky appear again and again to receive its sustained and well-deserved applause. 

 

The Awakening Pas de Deux by Paloma Herrera and Cory Stearns seemed like a loud snore after Thais.  Haglund just wanted to get to the bar and sip a little champagne while he thought over what he'd just seen Seo and Radetsky perform.  Awakening is another piece that isn't strong enough to stand on its own in a mixed repertory bill.  Herrera dispatched the steps as well as could be and was in full Sleeping Beauty character.  Stearns kind of shuffled through some of his variation and looked tired.  He was trying to lift the right leg into a weak arabesque using his hip instead of his back.  Gotta place the blame squarely on teachers and staff for letting him get away with that.  This guy is still young – where is the remedial arabesque training for him?  Remedial effort now or rehabilitate later is kind of no-brainer choice. 

 

The Dream was repeated with Gillian Murphy, David Hallberg, Herman Cornejo, and Julio Bragado-Young along with Riccetto, Abrera, Radetsky and Matthews as the mixed up lovers.  Everyone was even better than on opening night.  Murphy's Titania was a more willful and silly fairy queen.  Oberon had his hands full when Titania went a little nutty, but they managed a sublime and truly magical pas de deux to complete the evening.  Cornejo's Puck - what is there left to say about it?  It's undeniably brilliant and masterful.  Julio Bragado-Young's Bottom - another brilliant stroke.  Riccetto and Abrera's little lady feud was hilarious.  Haglund got into watching the little fairies' faces as they scurried around, froze for an instant and then sped off on their important fairy business.  Every one of them was in full character and an individual, as well. 

 

What a great fantasy The Dream is!  ABT should tour this across America.  By the way, the ABT calendar has been updated to include all of the new Nutcracker performances as well as the Washington D.C. and London tours and the one-night stand in Newark in November.   There appear to be a lot of performances of Theme and Variations.  Here's hoping that Stella Abrera and Eric Tamm get a crack at that piece, because they are both definitely ready for it and would bring a grown-up elegance to T&V that we haven't seen for a while.  There is a PdD TBA, and if Washington and London are lucky, they'll get the Thais.

The Haglund's Heel Pump Bump Award, a Marc Jacobs beauty, must be bestowed once again upon Hee Seo and Sascha Radetsky for their stirring performance of the Thais Pas de Deux:

 

Comments

[michael]

agreed re sascha and hee. truly sublime. and gosh, cory stearns was a shocker that night.

[Haglund's Heel]

Michael, thanks for finding your way to Haglund's Heel.

Too bad the Thais PdD is only 5 minutes long! Haglund was ready to hit the "Replay" button as soon as it was over.