Maria AND José Carreño in The Merry Widow

Wow, did Maria Riccetto's opening stint as Principal Ballerina just get better! 

José Manuel Carreño has signed on as well for The Merry Widow at Julio Bocca's Ballet Nacional Sodre.

Gotta love these guys – Bocca, Carreño, Corella, Stiefel – for so strongly supporting the supremely talented ABT ballerinas who McKenzie has pushed off to the side like roadkill.

Comments

[Out Looking In]

Haglund: The idea sounds delicious. I wonder what the production values are like in Uruguay. BNSodre, I would think, ought to be able to compare favorably with most Western European companies. What do you think?

[Haglund]

Hi OLI! Don't know about the production values in Uruguay for The Merry Widow. The country is so blissed out that Maria has returned that I imagine whatever needs to be spent on the production will be spent. Add Carreno to the mix and they may need to add performances.

The promo poster is stunning - much better than anything ABT ever did for this ballet.

[Kallima]

This is really great. I also agree with Haglund regarding the poster - very classy. I can totally see Maria in this, I bet she is stunning (also regarding the visual part of it).
It is good to see how these guys give support to those ballerinas like you mentioned and how they manage this while they don't do it at the expense of their own local talent - see Lucy Green in Cinderella with the RNZB at the moment for example.

[Haglund]

Hi Kallima. Maria will be fabulous - no doubt. She's danced the second lead in The Merry Widow, but this will be her first time as the widow, herself.

You're so right about these guys (Stiefel, Bocca, Corella) taking care of their own dancers; no guest artists are going into their companies and bulldozing over everyone else as is happening at ABT.