ABT – Swan Lake – What a finish!

A Red Velvet Cake Conspiracy has been victimizing Haglund all summer to the point where he has been worried  whether he would continue to fit in his red velvet seat at the Met Opera House.  Unlike with the seats on the subway, you can't spread across two seats in the opera house and just say, "Sorry Bud, go to the next car."  Nor is it well-received when your anatomy spills over into the next person's space - especially when it's hot and muggy.  So, Haglund was not put out at all last night when some of the higher calorie lifts were omitted from the Act II Pas de Deux at Swan Lake.  The lower calorie substitutes were all quite delicious and nutritious.  By Acts III and IV, Haglund's gut was ready for the big old dessert tray once again.  And boy was it loaded last night.

 

Let's stop all this silly food talk and get to the meat of the matter.  Last night's Swan Lake cast had a last minute substitute of Veronika Part and David Hallberg because Irina Dvorovenko suffered an injury and could not perform.  Irina and her husband Max Beloserkovsky have supplied us with some of the classiest and most enjoyable Swan Lake performances throughout the years and so it was just awful to hear of Irina's injury.  Haglund'eelers everywhere wish her a very speedy recovery.

 

With little rehearsal and to Haglund's recollection, not much more than one previous Swan Lake together, Veronika and David closed the week-long run of Swan Lake with a fantastic performance.  They are quite handsome together and if adjustments had to be made during the partnering and a lift truncated, it did not jar the audience out of the fantasy.  Odette had a much more reasonable tempo with which to convey her predicament in Act II than she did on Monday night.  Her final series of supported pirouettes and concluding penche arabesque were the miracle the audience always holds its breath for. 

 

The Act III Black Swan PdD was excellent.  Hallberg is simply unmatched when it comes to beauty of line and those jumps that sail through the air.  The speed with which he gets that back leg into attitude position on his coupe jetes brings the whole shape of the jump into clear view.  Speaking of attitude positions –  last night Haglund observed from both Odile and Siegfried some beautiful, tight, square, 90 degree angle attitudes that were gorgeous.   Haglund loves the perfect square attitudes and wishes they would be used a little more frequently instead of the elongated ones where the knee sticks out past the side of the shoulder and the shape zooms upward.  He would especially love to see perfect square attitudes used in the Rose Adagio.

 

The Act IV PdD was sensational and the lifts were, too.  Siegfried lifted Odette sky-high with seemingly no effort and she arched backwards with stunning beauty.  A fantastic Act IV from these two - just fantastic!  A small however - Odette stepped off the cliff vertically while looking down as if she was unsure where the pond was.  We don't want to see her bounce back up the way Siegfried Carreno sometimes does, but a little more of a horizontal exit would have been nice.

 

Swan Lake is a lot more than just Odette and Siegfried.  Once again last night we were treated to a brilliant PdT from Blaine Hoven, Stella Abrera and Maria Riccetto.  When Blaine positioned himself in the downstage corner to prepare for his diagonal of spectacular, splitting grand jetes entournant, he wore a wonderful, confident expression on his face that said "Watch this, I'm about to make you crazy" – which he did.  Stella belted out entrechat sixes and flying assembles that caused the audience to interrupt with applause.  Maria finished those supported pirouettes with such authority and charm.  Oh, these three are very, very good in this PdT – and they know it – and that makes it all the better.

 

Jared Matthews gave a huge performance as the sexy, dangerous Von Rothbart.  This guy is now attacking every role with a new fearless authority and blistering energy that is making him very exciting to watch.  What a year he is having!

 

The ladies and gentlemen of the corps were superb as well.  There just are not enough thanks for the swans – all of whom were truly beautiful all week long and gave such pleasure to the 30,000 or so people who saw them.  That's a lot of memories made in a short time.

 

And so, we come to the close of another Swan Lake Week.  The fantasy never fails us and it always leaves us aching for more.   Haglund must venture below ground to the secure vault in the saferoom to bring out the Golden First Position Pump Bump Award for this week's grand performances: