Haglund's Heel

ABT – Angel Corella's Farewell 6/28

At the end of last night's performance of Swan Lake, the customary retirement ceremony of confetti, flowers, and heartfelt congratulations spilled onto the stage where Angel Corella danced his final performance for ABT and, according to him, his final full length ballet.  The audience refused to stop adoring him at the top of its lungs for about a half hour.  He kept coming back out in front of the curtain to be pelted with flowers and cheers while beaming at the audience, waving, and clutching his heart in thanks.  How can anyone be sad around this guy's smile?  It's kind of hard. 

Angel's colleagues formally saluted him with individual bouquets and big horseshoes made of flowers.  They each walked out, one at a time, and made a presentation.  Herrera, Murphy, Kent, Reyes, Dvorovenko, Beloserkovsky, Stearns, Stiefel, Cornejo, Hallberg, Gomes – authentic ABT principals – plus Jose Manuel Carreno, Angel's sister, Carmen, and artistic staff all thanked him and congratulated him.  When Stiefel walked out to do his turn, the images on the stage sort of coalesced into a single image of the future of ballet instead of its recent past.  Corella, Stiefel, and a few of the others - these are the people who we know will be among those guiding our beloved art form for the next few decades in their positions as directors, coaches and teachers.  While we may not see Corella and Stiefel dance again after this season, we will, probably for the rest of our lives, continue to feel their impact.  Corella's intensity, Stiefel's dynamic will be cultivated in others - in fact, we've already seen it happen.  In a sense, it's time for Act II.

From a technical standpoint, everyone gets "a pass mark" for last night's performance.  Emotions were strong; concentration, not always.  Paloma Herrera as Odette/Odile was a basket case from her first step onto the stage.  She soldiered through each variation and PdD when it was apparent that she just wanted to stop, throw her arms around Angel, and hold onto their partnership a little longer.  Her Odette was soulful and her bourree exit at the end of Act II under the spotlight was very dramatic but her arms were not especially fluid.  Her shapes in the White Swan PdD and the Act IV PdD were beautiful, bird-like; those PdDs have become the best parts of Paloma's Swan Lakes.  Her lapses of form in the Black Swan PdD were a little surprising; in the fouettes she held her arms and fists like she was marking the turns in a class.  She opted out of the attitude turn that usually follows the double pirouette and ends in plie.  Instead she tried to crank out an initial triple pirouette, plie, and then pull in for another double pirouette.  Haglund has seen her try this before and has always been disappointed with her choices.  Occasionally throughout the night, the lighting caught her teary eyes.  At the first bows, she finally lost her composure and had to drop her head. 

The Act I Maypole Dance took on increased significance as the corps men threw off double tours to the knee with their arms saluting Corella who was perched atop the shoulders of two of them.  Their salutes could not have felt more real.  No doubt every one of them realized how he has benefited from working with Corella and how he might benefit from working for him, and there were those on stage who were grateful for having had the opportunity to do so.  As the corps danced in its lines in Act I, Corella watched intently and approvingly as Alexandra Basmagy confidently executed her double pirouettes in unison with the other women - she was an inaugural member of the Corella Ballet in 2008.  Alexandre Hammoudi had the opportunity to work for him as well.  And in a most generous act for which Corella will be forever loved, he chose Sarah Lane as his Odette/Odile when his Barcelona Ballet premiered at el Gran Teatro del Liceo de Barcelona.  Last evening, she was the Spanish princess for his final performance.  When the Corella Ballet premiered its production of Swan Lake in 2010, Angel chose the great Herman Cornejo to dance Siegfried, a role denied him by the contemptible littleness of Kevin McKenzie.  Thankfully we have video that proves just how great a Siegfried Cornejo is, and shows just how wrong and little McKenzie continues to be.

Last evening's Benno was Gennadi Saviliev who joined ABT a few months after Corella and who, himself, is retiring this year.  All night long, the two of them gave lesson after lesson on the importance, value, and delivery of mime and how you simply cannot have Swan Lake without it.  Haglund hopes that when Saviliev leaves the stage, he doesn't stray far.

Corella gave a complete and nuanced theatrical performance.  He so knows how to use that handsome face of his to convey the at-the-crossroads-of-life-with-my-crossbow predicament or anything else he wants to convey.  It's been his ability from Day 1, as it was with Bocca.  As it was with Baryshnikov.  As it was with Gomes.  These guys didn't plead that they needed 3, 4, or 5 years as principals in order to mature and cultivate their theater skills. 

Angel's technical performance last night reflected that he had been robbed of the stage time he deserved and needed in recent ABT seasons.  His energy was high but the past crimes against him took their toll on his elevation and form. But overall, he showed that he was still a cut above a number of non-retiring principals and a certain aged guest artist.  The speed and acute sharpness with which he once danced the roles of Ali and the Bronze Idol will remain in our memories forever - standards by which all future comers will be measured.  Angel sold an awfully lot of tickets and filled an awfully lot of theaters for Kevin McKenzie, and he deserved better treatment these past few years.

The end to the performance saw Odette and Siegfried each drop off the end of the cliff with quiet resignation.  It seemed especially tragic – sadly realistic. 

A note of thanks to ABT for engaging the NYCB's Arturo Delmoni as the concert master for Swan Lake so that no one in the audience was driven to commit a Bantcho Bantchevsky off the balcony during the violin solos.  Do you think ABT could acknowledge Mr. Delmoni with a slip in the Playbill since he's not listed in the program?  Apparently not. 

The H.H. Pump Bump First Position Award, Christian Louboutin's tribute to Spanish style, is bestowed upon Angel Corella with deep thanks for 17 years of greatness.

 

. . . because it bears repeating.

 

The Great Cornejo as Siegfried  

 

(2010 Corella Ballet)

ABT – Veronika Parts the Waters of Swan Lake

Season saved.

It doesn't matter how corrupt ABT's seasons are – and this season brought new record levels of corruption with one imported guest artist after another – we can always depend on Veronika Part's Swan Lake to wash away the impurities and give us a short respite, a little time to restore our faith in and devotion to the ideals of classicism and good taste.

Last night's opening performance of Swan Lake saw Veronika in fetching form as she captivated us with the sorrow and beauty of her Odette and the seductive cunning of her Odile.  The poetry and purity of line in the Act II PdD silenced the audience who by then had thought they had died and gone to heaven – thus, no need to breathe any longer.  But then, Odile arrived on the arm of Marcelo Gomes' Von Rothbart and she proceeded to mock and sin her way through the cruel deception with tantalizing balances in arabesque and whipping fouettes that with each revolution teased, "You like it?  You like it?  You want some more?" 

Cory Stearns' Siegfried had his good moments last night.  Much of his solo dancing was strong and clean with nothing really being remarkable.  His overhead lifts of Odette were impressive.  He pressed Veronika in arabesque high over his head in Act II, and managed the overhead lifts in Act IV admirably.  But his inability to convey Siegfried's feelings and emotional predicament continue to be a disappointment; he's just not there for his partner.  Haglund saw an instance of raw emotion that registered not just in Stearns' face but in his entire body in Act III when he raced downstage after Odile who had just disappeared into the wings.  Most other times, his face would scrunch up with intense emotion while he very casually presented an arm forward.  The body has to act, too. 

Meanwhile, Marcelo's Von Rothbart was putting the moves on all the princesses - Zhong-Jing Fang, Luciana Paris, and Hee Seo – and then he clearly crossed over the criminal line when he picked up the tiny Italian princess, Renata Pavam.  It was good to see Renata back after such a long absence.

The PdT was expertly danced by Sarah Lane, Yuriko Kajiya, and Daniil Simkin.  The two Big Swans, Hee Seo and Stella Abrera, were lovely and proficient except that Hee Seo couldn't manage the entrechat six - a weakness that also shows up whenever she dances in the PdT.  Stella's sixes were effortless.

The Corps de Ballet and Cygnettes were nearly flawless and all were absolutely beautiful.

The performance was slightly marred by the audience when someone's child started to cry during the Act IV PdD and by some idiot who allowed a child to wear flashing sneakers to the theater.  All evening there were little flashes of green light coming up from the Orchestra level every time the little one moved his or her feet. 

The Pump Bump Award, the Odile tickler, is bestowed upon Veronika Part with the hope that this will persuade ABT to give her one more Swan Lake before the week is over.  We really can't wait another year to see it again.

Acosta overseeing renovation of Cuban National Ballet School

Carlos Acosta is guiding the renovation of the Escuela Nacional Cubana de Ballet with designs by London architect Lord Norman Foster of Foster + Partners.  According to World Architecture News, 

In the ultimate rags to riches story, Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta is preparing to return to his roots in Havana and transform Fidel Castro’s unfinished School of Ballet on the edge of the city into a flourishing Cuban School of Dance with a little help from globally-renowned architect Lord Norman Foster.

Here's Nigel Young's rendering of the finished site:

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Foster explains his connection to the project: “Carlos is a great dancer, who is inspiring the regeneration of an iconic ruin of early modernism outside Havana.” Acosta’s motivation is more businesslike however, as he details: “I see myself going back not just because it is where I was born but because the country is going in the right direction. The changes of the past two or three years are positive, in particular the incentive to create more of a market economy.”

Sounds like a good plan.

Here's the link.

ABT – Dream Analysis – 6/23

Haglund spent all Saturday in Dream World - not the porn house in Midtown - but rather, at Frederick Ashton's perfectly wonderful ballet, The Dream.

The afternoon cast of Gillian Murphy, David Hallberg, and Craig Salstein was terrific.  Murphy's Titania was saucy and boldly pert. She etched out the multiple layers of the character with wit and her quill pen pointes.  For Haglund's money, it's her best role and one that he never misses. 

Hallberg's Oberon was danced with near technical perfection, although some of the characterization seemed imbued with Kaschei and Von Rothbart.   Where Marcelo Gomes used precisely calibrated theatrical motion to grand effect when portraying Oberon, Hallberg used excessive gestures that occasionally came off as jester-like.  And if Ashton had ever seen his Oberon walk downstage with a dropped chin, looking out under the eyebrows while effeminately swinging his shoulders from side to side, it might have made Sir Fred plunge his cigarette into his own eye. 

Craig Salstein's Puck hit the mark, but Haglund much preferred seeing him cast with Gomes the last time ABT presented the ballet.  And Simkin would have been matched more appropriately with Hallberg.  While Salstein may not have had the brilliance of Cornejo, he certainly had his priorities right.  He kept shooting for those instant positions in the air and he achieved many of them.  The speediness of his Puck around the stage was very good.  While his plant & pirouette moments were not as exciting as Cornejo's or Simkin's, his chaine turns across the front of the stage were far faster and more controlled than Simkin's awkward ones on Friday.

The evening performance was a repeat of Thursday's cast of  Xiomara Reyes, Cory Stearns, and The Great Herman Cornejo.  The difference was that Stearns improved ten-fold, Reyes decided to stop worrying about Stearns and just dance her heart out, and Cornejo somehow, some way, took his most brilliant of all performances to yet another level.  Gotta report that the moments in the final PdD where Titania and Oberon clasp hands to execute mirror image penche arabesques while twisting their torsos to face one another, was the prettiest and most perfect of all the performances.  Stearns let the lead out last night.  There was still some sputtering now and then – most notably with the various types of turns where the arms were required to be in motion – but for the most part he danced aggressively, trying hard to live up to the greatness with whom he shared the stage.  The last time Haglund saw him do this was years ago in a performance of Etudes where he had to dance opposite Corella.

The Great Cornejo - what is there left to say.  Perhaps we need to install a bronze statue of his mid-air Puck by the reflecting pool next to The Met so that everyone can relive the moments whenever they're at Lincoln Center.  Last night he managed even more clarity, more perfectly formed positions, more speed, more height, more charisma, and more Puckishness than ever.  Haglund will forgive the handstand at the end; Puck will be Puck. 

The Dream was the first part of the program and was followed by Firebird, but Haglund had obligations and couldn't stay for the second ballet at either performance.

The Pump Bump Award, a bronze platform stiletto by Betsey Johnson, goes to Saturday evening's cast of The Dream for its fine reading of this ballet masterpiece.

ABT – Dream Analysis – 6/22

The Dream was not as vivid as hoped for this evening. 

While Daniil Simkin's Puck was more than just serviceable, it did not approach the brilliance of Herman Cornejo's last night.  Tonight there was too much cute mugging toward the audience along with a display of inflated ego during bows.  The dancing was better than the last time Simkin attempted Puck, but some of the speediness required in the jumps and traveling movements came off with an awkward immaturity.  One saw the process of the positions forming in the air as opposed to instantly getting there - a requirement for Puck and for the Bronze Idol in La Bayadere where Simkin had similar trouble.  Of course, his plant & pirouette moments were utterly spectacular and brought loud cheers from the house.  However, no part of the performance warranted Simkin coming before the curtain during bows and traveling the width of the stage tastelessly milking the audience for applause.  When one has just given a performance of Puck that is second best and possibly could turn out to be third best, it's better to show some humility. 

Marcelo Gomes' Oberon ran the show this evening with brilliant mime and strong dancing that included pearls of improvisation.  Clearly, here was an Oberon whose unchecked temper could summon bad weather or a dense fog.  Throughout the night we not only saw Oberon's mental wheels in motion but we heard the whoosh of exhaled air that punctuated his thoughts.  Sure, he was the King of the Fairies – but, still, his plans occasionally went awry.  The dancing technique was very secure with emphasis on the right places musically as opposed to emphasis on what the dancer might do best.  He achieved some very handsome arabesque lines out of the turns, nearly all without any hopping.  Of course, his Oberon's skulking around on the rocks and behind the trees was played to the hilt.

Julie Kent's Titania was a little sleepy from a technical standpoint.   When compared to other ABT Titanias such as Ferri, Murphy, and Reyes, she lacked spunk and verve.  The solo technique was at times on the verge of being plodding.  However, we may have seen Julie Kent's career best balance on pointe in arabesque (or was it a long attitude?) which was set up by Gomes who then turned his back and walked away leaving Julie to perch for about ten or so seconds.  The audience rewarded her warmly.  Haglund paid close attention to the PdD between Kent and Gomes all the while remembering the hilarious moments some seasons back when Julie's hair got royally entangled in Marcelo's crown and she had to improvise an upstage bourree while the two of them figured out how to untangle themselves.  No such charming moment tonight.  The PdD was carefully correct but slightly dull.

Kenneth Easter was a fabulous Bottom whose final joyous solo made it clear just how happy he had been as an ass loved by Titania.  The other Rustics – Sterling Baca, Roddy Doble, Luis Ribagorda, Arron Scott, and Sean Stewart – seemed to be channeling their inner Shakespearian Clem Kadiddlehoppers.  There was a lot of funny stuff going on at the back of the stage.

Adrienne Schulte, Kristi Boone, Gennadi Saveliev, and Roman Zhurbin were wonderful as the mixed up lovers.  Saveliev is dancing so well in everything this season and seems so happy.  Is he this happy to be getting out?  If not, then he should think twice about leaving after this season.

Gemma Bond, Cassandra Trenary, Simone Messmer, and Nicole Graniero were listed as the main fairies although it looked like lovely Sarah Smith dancing among them instead of Simone Messmer.   Maybe it was the bad binocs.  They all danced very well, but Gemma Bond just looks more perfect in every production this year.  Whenever she is dancing, so often it seems like others around her are ever so slightly sharp or ever so slightly flat to Gemma's perfect note.  Dancers should be following her lead for taste and style, that's for sure.

The Dream was the first part of the program and was followed by Firebird, but Haglund had an obligation and couldn't stay for the second ballet.

The Pump Bump Award, Alejandro Ingelmo's embraceable genius in stiletto styling, is bestowed upon Marcelo Gomes for his Oberon this evening.

Ici, ils viennent!

Nous aimons Le Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris and all things French!  Bienvenue à New York!  Well, soon, that is.

 

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.

 

 

ABT – Dream Analysis – 6/21

ABT delved into The Dream tonight with the first of a measly four performance run of Frederick Ashton's treasure.  It was all very enjoyable even though not everyone's performance was at the same high level as Herman Cornejo's Puck.  Herman's Puck, of course, has been the centerpiece since ABT premiered its production ten years ago.  His brilliant dancing and equally brilliant characterization are always a masterpiece within this masterpiece. 

Tonight Herman's Puck sprinkled his mischief all over the stage with effortless bounding and batterie.  He seemed to spend more time in midair than on the ground.  His aerial shapes were perfectly clear and he was suspended long enough for all to notice the strongly pointed feet, the nicely shaped legs, the balletic form, the dark curls on the top of his head, and his playful smile.

Oberon and Titania were danced by Cory Stearns and Xiomara Reyes.  A few years ago these two delivered a surprisingly strong reading of The Dream with much of Cory's theatrical manner similar to Anthony Dowell's.  But tonight he looked tired, end-of-the-season tired with two weeks still to go.  This kind of character acting is not one of his strengths, but he has done it much better than tonight.  One couldn't really tell why Oberon was arguing with Titania over the Changeling Boy or even that he was jealous of all the time Titania was spending with the kid.  It seemed like some of the turn combinations took so long to get started that they must have been preceded by prayer – which really did nothing to help stabilize them.  Things got better as the evening went along and we finally got a very committed series of pirouettes and some strong jumps toward the latter part.

Xiomara's Titania was freshly independent and slightly sexy.  No technical problems whatsoever and she had character to spare.  The lack of chemistry with her partner was not for lack of her effort.  Haglund wants to see these two take another crack at it on Saturday night.

What a treat it was to see so many of Haglund's favorite dancers on the stage at one time.  Maria Riccetto & Sascha Radetsky as Helena & Demetrius, and Stella Abrera & Jared Matthews as Hermia & Lysander were a tight theatrical unit with especially good comedic timing in demonstrating just how difficult love can be.  Yuriko Kajiya as Mustardseed, Sarah Lane as Peaseblossom, Luciana Paris as Moth, and Christine Shevchenko as Cobweb each had a little bit of Titania's wit and sparkle.

Alexei Agoudine as Bottom was engaging in both human form and as an ass.  The slight stumbles in the pointe work seemed to enhance the character rather than detract from the performance.  It's got to be so much fun to play one of those Rustics.  Alexei along with Gray Davis, Tobin Eason, Jeffrey Golladay, and Patrick Ogle scared up some characters straight off the back roads of the interior Blue Ridge Mountains.  Could almost smell these guys.

The Corps de Ballet was top notch tonight.  Everyone was very pretty and very well prepared.  But is there nothing that can be done to deaden the shoe noise in the opening moments – perhaps play the music a little louder?

The Dream was the first part of the program and was followed by Firebird, but Haglund had an obligation and couldn't stay for the second ballet.

The Pump Bump Award, Christian Louboutin's Puck Boot, which he designed as his tribute to the "shrewd and knavish sprite" in Shakespeare's tale (not kidding, read it here), is bestowed upon Herman Cornejo who is the best Puck anyone could ever dream up.

Australian Ballet @ Lincoln Center

The Australian Ballet's repertory is as rich or richer than American Ballet Theatre's.  In addition to most major full length classics, AB's rep includes Billy the Kid, Ballet Imperial, Birthday Offering, Concerto, Facade, Fall River Legend, Forgotten Land, Gala Performance, Hamlet, Kettentanz, Paquita, Song of the Earth, Song of a Wayfarer to name very few of the nearly 400 ballets by over 140 choreographers that it has at its disposal.  The company dances Cranko, Bejart, Robbins, Petipa, Ashton, MacMillan, Kylian, de Mille, Tudor, Welch, Ratmansky, Tetley, Balanchine, Wheeldon, and many other choreographers.  

With good planning, AB could have landed in New York last week  like a visiting team and slam dunked its way to victory.  It could even have made us forget that year when we had to put up with Luc Longley.  But instead of coming to town to win, AB came to town simply to play its version of an interesting game.  It turned out not to be such a good game plan at all.

It's been a long time since NY saw a performance of Eugene Loring's Billy the Kid. AB has as its Associate AD Danilo Radojevic an acclaimed Billy during ABT's Baryshnikov era.  Haglund would have loved to have seen how that character was passed down to the Aussie dancers.  Instead, AB annoyed us with Wayne McGregor's Dyad 1929 during its repertory program.  

It would be a mistake to refer to Dyad 1929 as a ballet – a mistake made by the NYT.  The only reason anyone would call it a ballet would be to try to give it unearned respect or credibility.  It is choreography of some sort and was performed by a ballet company, but it is not a ballet.  Ballet is defined by a vocabulary that is rich and extensive with precious few dialects.  It's a language that doesn't hold an annual conference to decide which new pop culture words will be added to its latest edition.  It's a language that allows exploitation only after it has been mastered.  Without that all-important initial mastering, the variations on pronunciation and reduction of vocabulary and grammatical structure turn the language into pidgin ballet. 

McGregor's Dyad 1929 was full of quirks and choreo-morphemes with little meaning.  It needed a singer standing in front of it. 

The company opened the program with Luminous which was a selection of divertissements from its repertory that were cleverly woven together with a film about AB's history.  Each piece taken out of context of its whole ballet looked like the stuff one sees at competitions.  However, Haglund still retains the image of Rachel Rawlins' lovely feet engaged in a flurry of low entrechat quatre and tiny saute passes from Act II of Giselle which served as a reminder of the beauty of doing things the right way. 

The final piece on the repertory program was the aboriginal based Warumuk––in the dark night.  Choreographed by Stephen Page for a collaborative performance of his Bangarra Dance Theatre and AB, Warumuk relayed in contemporary dance language some of the myths of aboriginal astronomy.  Aspects of it were interesting.  The major problem was the dull modern choreography.  There are only so many ways one can spiral the upper body and sweep the arms around on the floor while kneeling or seated.  However, the music, lighting, costumes, and scenery did much to sweep this New Yorker into a different time and place.

Haglund would report on AB's re-telling of Swan Lake except for the fact that he left at the first intermission on Sunday.  Swan Lake doesn't need continual rebuilding like a better mouse trap.  There are more than 4400 U.S. patents issued for mousetraps.  Still, after all these years of innovation, tweeking, and uber science, the best mousetrap is still the cat.  Leave the cat alone. 

The AB used the NYCB Orchestra for all of its performances.  What beautiful music they made under the baton of AB's music director, Nicolette Fraillion.  The musicians really seemed to enjoy playing music from Giselle, and it was downright frightening just how well they played it.  Yes, it could happen and we all know it could - Giselle could be on Peter Martins' top secret agenda.  At least we know the orchestra would sound wonderful.  Arturo Delmoni's violin solo during Swan Lake on Sunday was beautiful enough to bring tears.  It almost made Haglund stay for Act II.

It's great that AB came for a visit.  They are cordially invited to return but they should bring a better game plan.

Sorry, no Pump Bump Award.

 

ABT donations are down - with good reason.

Under Kevin McKenzie, ABT has become the McDonald's of Ballet with its high calorie, low nutritional value guest dancers who are quite literally plugging up the arteries of the company.  ABT donations are down - for good reason. Donors have started skipping dinner rather than pay for the greasy Big Macs served up by ABT.

In recent days on film and in print, McKenzie has acknowledged that donations this year are way down, that his business decisions have been bad artistic decisions, that he treats ABT's dancers like children in a family, and that he sees nothing wrong with forcing dancers to remain as soloists when they deserve to be principals.

In the new issue of the New Yorker, Joan Acocella calls for the promotion of Misty Copeland based, in part, on her performance in Firebird which Acocella viewed as superior to Osipova's  These remarks are from the free synopsis.  The longer version comes with a paid subscription:

A.B.T. has long been known for bringing in foreign guest stars. The fondness for guest stars ruled out any unity of style within the troupe. You may see some spectacular performances but never a single picture. When Mikhail Baryshnikov took over as director of A.B.T., in 1980, he tried to reverse the guest-star policy. The artistic director for the past twenty years, Kevin McKenzie, is quite content to have foreign guests.

She concludes with:

The problem with Osipova is that she doesn’t appear to have much to say. Osipova starred in Alexei Ratmansky’s new “Firebird,” which had its New York premiere last week. Ratmansky has kept the old plot but shorn it of its old-time glamour. A Firebird has to be like a bird, but to move us she also has to be like a human being. That didn’t happen until the second night, when the role passed from Osipova to Misty Copeland, an A.B.T. soloist. Copeland is the only highly placed African American woman in ballet in the city. Now they should promote her for artistic reasons as well as political ones. She deserves it.

Haglund agrees that Misty should be promoted based on what she has already brought to the table and what she could bring given the opportunity, but recognizes that there is still work to be done before she should dance the more high profile classical roles - roles now given undeservingly to Osipova and Semionova who substitute repulsive gymnastics for artistry.  However, there are at this very moment other female senior soloists who have for many seasons delivered such high quality classicism in principal roles that to deny them principal status is like keeping their shoes away from them so they will stay slow and silent on the plantation. 

It costs ABT precious little to promote the deserving senior soloists who have been performing as principals season after season.  There is very little difference between the wages paid to a senior soloist compared to a first year principal.  It costs little, but it means a lot.