ABT Met casting: Guest stars continue to bar company dancers' progress

Not much on the ABT calendar that encourages subscribing for the Met Season.  But it sure encourages resentment.  Big disappointments.  Big, big, big.

 

Far too many opportunities are being given to guest artists when the company should be promoting its long time servants.  Osipova has been handed five performances on the silver platter with no doubt a Don Q as a sixth.  It doesn't matter how good her Bolshoi Coppelia is, should she be handed 40% of ABT's Coppelia performances in lieu of the company's own dancers getting a shot at it?  It's remarkable that little Maria Riccetto was able to steal a performance away from her.

 

Only ONE Corella performance.  ONE.  Maybe we'll see him in one of the DonQ TBAs.  Hey, maybe McKenzie will match him up with Osipova so that his performance will be COMPLETELY OVERSHADOWED by the media's pathetic and predictable goo-goo-gaa-gaa over the Bolshoi ballerina.

 

Once again, we are being denied Abrera's Giselle – something for which we've been waiting many, many, many years.  Whereas before it was due to her unfortunate injuries, now it's because McKenzie wants to advance Hee Seo fast and furiously even if it means trampling over the other soloists who have earned their opportunites.  The Senior Soloist should be given her Giselle to dance.  Midlevel soloist Sarah Lane has already shown that she has a compelling Giselle to offer, having blown away a Texas audience with her portrayal a year or two ago.  We'd really like to see her as well.  Ms. Seo, the junior most soloist in the company, has plenty on her plate already.

 

STILL NO CORNEJO IN SWAN LAKE.  WTF?!  No Corella either.  Oh, but there is that teasing TBA on Saturday night.  Maybe McKenzie will invest in a guest artist to dance with Cornejo at his debut thereby COMPLETELY OVERSHADOWING his ten year battle to win the opportunity to dance the role here.  Wouldn't want to give Xiomara Reyes or Sarah Lane the opportunity to dance Odette/Odile, would we.  Screw that. 

 

And after beautifully carrying three performances of Cinderella during her debut season in the role, Abrera now gets one matinee performance with the tall glass of water as her prince.  Can't wait to see him try to hoist the feather light Abrera in those Kudelka lifts.  Sounds like another injury to Abrera waiting to happen.

 

Last bitching for the evening:  No MacMillan this season but we have to sit through McKenzie's Sleeping Beauty AGAIN?!  Gad Almighty, give us break.

Comments

[K]

Truly ridiculous casting...even Vishneva (who like Nina A seems to be more a part of the company now than a guest) has fallen out of McKenzie's favor it seems for younger and hotter tickets.

[Haglund]

It's all too pathetic, isn't it?

Note that once again, McKenzie has loaded Guest Stars into the weekend performances instead of using them to improve weeknight attendance. If a Guest Star can't draw the weeknight crowd, what good is she/he?

[Marie]

"The tall glass of water." ;-) I keep hoping he'll turn out to actually be a good dancer.

Interesting--few mixed programs. This is too bad. I liked the mixed programs, though I know that they did not fill seats.

Also-no Romeo and Juliet.

[Haglund]

I hope he wakes up too, but what is his motivation if everything is simply handed to him because he is tall? To see him receive opportunities beyond his abilities just so Wiles has someone to dance with, while the brilliant-for-all-ages Cornejo sits on the sidelines in Swan Lake is heartbreaking. Multiply the composite talent of a Stearns & Wiles duo by 100, and you still would not approach what Cornejo has to offer. It's criminal.

[ana]

The only promising thing was letting Yuriko Kajiya do her first Don Q. Her excerpts have been sparkling and lovely. More Yuriko AND Stella is just what ABT really needs. And much less Michele Wiles. She puts me to sleep.

[Haglund]

Hi Ana. Yes, it will be wonderful to watch Yuriko in Don Q! It would be even better if ABT would switch the matinee and evening casting for that Wednesday so that Yuriko and Simkin would dance in the evening. Also, let's not forget that Nina Ananiashvili made a special gift of her Don Q tutu to Maria Riccetto upon her (Nina's) retirement. The audience deserves to see how that tutu could inspire Maria in the role of Kitri!

[michael]

really sad that i won't be catching any of these performances! anyway, i think there are some misplaced castings. how is it that on june 4, gomes and vishneva take the matinee then dvorovenko and stearns take the evening performance?! on july 2, kent and gomes take the matinee, and evening performance is tba?! shouldn't you be putting your top guns at night, for the "serious" viewers, and maybe leave the more junior cast in the matinee for the kids?

and on july 9, the final day of met performances -- murphy and stiefel for matinee and herrera and stearns for the evening performance?! herrera and stearns have zero chemistry. their sleeping beauty pdd last season was really sad (stearns was hopping when he should have been turning, and he did nothing for herrera) and was so sparsely applauded. maybe seo and stearns, if kevin really wants stearns to have the final performance, or maybe take out stearns and replace him with corella? herrera and corella -- now that's a partnership!

it's like the casting was done for the convenience and availability of the dancers (maybe gomes likes to catch greys anatomy shows at night, and made a special request?), and not to get maximum impact from the buildup of talent from one night to the next, leading up to the final night. last season, i thought that the casting was logical and structured.

[Haglund]

Hi Michael.

Have to agree with you that Herrera and Corella are a wonderful partnership. Their Swan Lake is divine, and Herrera is a much more elegant dancer in his hands.

The 2011 Swan Lake week is a disaster. Kent and Murphy are splitting the final Carreno performance with each doing her strong suit; but then, they each are doing a second S.L. performance. With the limited number of performances available and the great number of dancers available to do them, there's no way that either Kent or Murphy should get another performance in order to illustrate their weak suits.

That Saturday night performance SHOULD GO to Cornejo and Reyes; Hallberg and Part SHOULD dance Friday night; Corella SHOULD dance with Vishneva on Tuesday night; and Wiles and Stearns should be completely eliminated from the S.L. because they are mismatched physically, are boring, and lack chemistry. It's time for Abrera to get her Swan Lake; but most likely, McKenzie has already written her off for that role, too, just the way he's written off Cornejo and Reyes. It really is time for a new director at ABT.