Well, we had ourselves one heck of a Fall Gala performance at NYCB last night. The company's first fall season has been one of strength and smarts. Night after night it has delivered performances of high content and quality at affordable prices. The theater has become a refuge where the public can get a little respite from the crappy economy, crappy politics, and crappy news of the day and just chill out in a comfortable chair and be inspired and transported by masterful music and outstanding dancing. Rx = NYCB.
Haglund has said this before – Listening to Bernstein in Lincoln Center is almost a holy experience. Last night's program opened with a rousing rendition of his Candide Overture. Usually performed across the Lincoln Center plaza by the New York Philharmonic without a conductor in deference to Bernstein's memory, last night it was splendidly led by Faycal Karoui. The orchestra literally rose from the pit for the occasion and seemed inspired through every note. Haglund must commend Maestro Karoui, not just on the conducting, but also on the shine of his shoes which could be seen from mid-house. No details were overlooked last night, that's for sure.
Not one boring, pandering speech was part of the program. The company launched right into Jerome Robbins' I'm Old Fashioned. No surprise - Haglund loves I'm Old Fashioned. Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth glided and swooned across the floor bigger than life followed by mere mortals Rebecca Krohn, Jenifer Ringer, Maria Kowroski, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Jonathan Stafford, Tyler Angle who connected beautifully with the music and each other. The women were ravishing; the men were in Fred's image but with more hair; and the swirling corps was mesmerizing.
Following the single intermission of the evening, Plainspoken, a new piece set to a boring commissioned score by David Lang with boring choreography by Benjamin Millepied was performed by Sterling Hyltin, Teresa Reichlen, Jennie Somogyi, Janie Taylor, Tyler Angle, Amar Ramasar, Sebastien Marcovici, and Jared Angle. A few years ago when Millepied created a piece called From Here On Out for ABT, he must have meant that literally. Ever since – pardon the plainspeaking – he's been feeding us the same gruel: the same walking/marching/running around, the same poses, the same jumps, the same angst, the same lighting, the same type of music, the same type of costumes (excepting the really bad costume choices of Why am I not where you are), the same gobbledygook. Millepied has run out of good new ideas and has returned to marginal ones that were never fully developed, never bothered to be revised, but received enough attention to garner him another commission or two. He needs a new idea or two. Despite the strong cast, this piece had little to offer but more of the same gruel. As usual, there were many in the audience who received comp tickets who hooted and hollered in approval at the end. What a waste.
Ashley Bouder and Daniel Ulbricht blew through Balanchine's Tarantella with huge performances including a mindboggling supersonic circle of coupe jetes from Ulbricht. You can't ask for anything more when these two perform this dance. It doesn't get any better than what was delivered last night.
The black hats, black stockings, and high energy of the final movement and finale of Balanchine's Western Symphony closed the evening with Miss Kitty and Matt Dillon smoking and smoldering across the stage pretending to be Sara Mearns and Charles Askegard. Can't fool the audience one bit with that act. No sirree. My, they were sassy!
Bernstein, Gould, Gotttshalk, Kay, Robbins, and Balanchine made for a very fine evening indeed. Haglund awards this lovely golden bling Pump Bump to I'm Old Fashioned for bringing back the old time glamour:
wow! finally something else we've seen in common. :) i saw "i'm old fashioned" in the spring season of nycb in 2010 and i loved it. it was the first time i saw it, and it was the finale in an otherwise lackluster evening, with a nearly empty fourth circle in the theater, so seeing that piece in the end was a revelation! everyone seemed so happy doing the piece, and it was a great juxtaposition of film and live performance, recorded music and the orchestra playing, and of course the old choreography and the updated one with ballet.
Posted by: michael | October 11, 2010 at 12:29 PM
A beautiful timeless piece - though set in a time that perhaps wasn't so beautiful or remembered for its peace.
Posted by: Haglund | October 12, 2010 at 06:30 AM