Haglund's Heel

UIEX Update – NYCB reality TV series for real

LAST AUGUST, the H.H. Unofficial Information Exchange (UIEX) tickertape was whirling around chasing its tail in a frenzy after getting a tip on Sarah Jessica Parker's new idea to produce a reality TV show based on NYCB.

Well, folks, once again, the UIEX is the first ballet news source to get to the market with the official word.

TODAY, AOL announced at its 2013 Digital Content NewFront event that in conjunction with its mandate to conquer online video content through its ON Network, it will develop 15 original unscripted shows one of which will be Sarah Jessica Parker's City.Ballet - "covering the cut-throat world of the New York City Ballet." 

Man oh man, this is exciting. Tonight at the first performance of NYCB's fabulous spring season, Haglund will keep both eyes peeled for any of that cut-throat business that we just know is going on. Anyone who thinks hanging around the water cooler will get you an earful hasn't hung around the rosin box.  Cut-throat through and through.

 

What to do with Symphony No. 2

It's kind of unbelievable that somebody hasn't created a full length story ballet to Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2.  It's only an hour long, but who would object to a double dose of that beautiful adagio that first appears at the halfway point – you know, the one that someone stole for a pop ballad back in the 1970's – Never Gonna Fall in Love Again. 

There wouldn't necessarily have to be any dark Russian political undertones in the choreography since Rachmaninoff wrote the whole thing while living in lovely Dresden, Germany far away from the turmoil of the time.

A rich performance of the entire symphony by the New York Philharmonic is uploaded on the NYPhil website for listening, although the link could expire this week or next. 

What a gorgeous, danceable, emotion- and drama-packed piece of music.

 

Frampton boots it up with the ballet

As usual, Haglund was no where near "the place to be" last night when Peter Frampton and his band shook the Aronoff Center in Cincinnati to its core and inspired the artists of the Cincinnati Ballet to dance themselves right into the ground as shown below in a photo by Peter Mueller from Cincinnati.com:

Photo: Peter Mueller

Frampton and Gordon Kennedy composed seven new songs for the event.  The new music was used for the middle repertory premiere by Adam Hougland.  Frampton classics were used for the first and third repertory premieres by Missy Lay Zimmer, Andrew Hubbard, and Devon Carney.

Cincinnati Enquirer dance critic David Lyman was in the middle of it all:

This is full-force Frampton, filled with those masterful solos that wail and caterwaul, that grind and sing and throb and . . . well, raise holy hell on the stage. And the same thing for the ballet. Youthful, powerful, sensuous, athletic. Once they settled into the hyped-up rhythm of a show like this, the dancers proved equal partners to Frampton and his gifted band.
. . . .

Near the end of the show, with the entire company dancing so ferociously that it threatens to devour the stage, Frampton lines the front of his platform with a wall of guitars. Five players, side by side. It’s a staggering sight. And an even more staggering sound.

Wow.

Some months ago, Frampton said that the performances – three in all: Friday, Saturday matinee, and Saturday evening – would be filmed with the idea of later releasing a composite on DVD.

Frampton is a long time resident of the Cincinnati suburb of Indian Hill, which is a stone's throw away from Haglund's old stomping grounds, and has been on CB director Victoria Morgan's collaboration radar for many years.  How great that she was able to pull it off.  More pictures are at the link above.

 

If you missed Carousel last night

... it looks like it will replay on Channel 13 in NYC on Sunday at 12:30 pm, and it appears that PBS plans to eventually upload the whole stunning Live From Lincoln Center presentation at this link.  It's not up yet, but the icon is there.

Mayerling – not here

From London's Daily Express today:

WHEN it comes to exploring the darkest corners of the psyche through ballet there is nobody to touch the late choreographer Kenneth MacMillan. And they don't come much darker than Mayerling.

Based on the true, if veiled, account of the tragedy that befell Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary and his semi-psychotic son, Crown Prince Rudolf, who ended up shooting his 17-year-old mistress before turning his gun on himself, it is replete with sex, death, guns, drugs and politics.

Not the usual subjects for dance but Mayerling isn't your usual ballet.

MacMillan's last great narrative work goes far beyond the customary tropes of classical dance to produce one of the defining masterpieces of 20th century ballet and remains one of the crowning glories of The Royal Ballet.

. . .

If the narrative complexity requires foreknowledge of the story, it is a small price to pay for an evening that goes way beyond polite appreciation.

A rare and precious night of dark alchemy.

Many believe that Mayerling is one of MacMillan's "greatest narrative works" but ABT has never performed it despite having an embarrassment of wealth of dramatic heavy-weights who could deliver Crown Prince Rudolf's character with such complex darkness that it would make the ballet one of ABT's "crowning glories," too.  The company completely wasted the opportunity to have one of MacMillan's hand-picked original cast members pass down her principal role and historical knowledge to ABT's dancers when it had Georgina Parkinson as its ballet mistress.  Today, in its ranks, it's lucky enough to have a dancer who has actually prepared and performed the principal role of Princess Stephanie in the Royal Ballet's production of Mayerling, but that is going to waste, too.

Lady Deborah MacMillan wants ABT to perform Sir Kenneth's masterpiece, but Kevin McKenzie doesn't think the New York audience would understand the story.  No doubt, he's also afraid of critic Alastair Macaulay's certain scathing reviews, because Macaulay is on record as despising Mayerling and carries a disrespectful attitude toward most of MacMillan's work. 

We're missing a lot by not seeing this fine work performed by an American company.  Someone needs to do it:  ABT, Joffrey, San Francisco Ballet. 

If we wish for it, it will come ....

Mayerling

 

RNZB getting closer to NYC

In addition to the January 31 - February 2 dates in LA, the Royal New Zealand Ballet will perform a mixed rep program in the Twin Cities on February 8 as part of the Northrup MOVES Dance Season. 

Anticipating some NYC dates.

Program ReminderLive From Lincoln Center: Carousel

This Friday, April 26, at 9:00pm (Eastern) PBS's Live From Lincoln Center will broadcast the New York Philharmonic's production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel in which NYCB's Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild dance.  It also stars Kelli O'Hara, Nathan Gunn, and Stephanie Blythe.

Check local PBS listings to confirm time in your area.

 

Update Apr 26

Wow, Live from Lincoln Center, what a fabulous presentation. Wow. Thank you.

 

ABT – More Onegin casting

The secondary casting for Onegin was just posted, and it shows promise, mostly because it's all ABT dancers.  It looks like we are going to finally get to see Blaine Hoven's Lensky opposite Gemma Bond's Olga for Irina Dvorovenko's final two performances. 

You know, Blaine's another one.  Haglund has a whole decade invested in this guy.  That's ten years of dragging the old caboose to the theater to see all of his performances.  Ten years of scraping together the cash and loose change for tickets.  And for what.  A few world-class PdTs in Swan Lake, a major success as Des Grieux in Lady of the Camellias, a career-defining PdD with Maria Riccetto in Ratmansky's Seven Sonatas (pictured right), and a few other things.  Injuries kept us from seeing him in Onegin last year, and a geriatric guest artist stole his role of The Ballet Dancer in The Bright Stream, although Blaine did get rave reviews from the audience when he performed it in California.

So maybe this will be the year that Blaine gets back on track.  We're all getting old waiting for it. 

Blaine and Gemma will dance the Wednesday Mat and Saturday evening.

Sarah Lane and Daniil Simkin have Tuesday and Thursday.

Yuriko Kayjia and Joe Gorak have Wednesday evening and Saturday Mat.

Jared Matthews and Isabella Boylston have Friday and Monday.

ABT just couldn't bear to put Jared and Yuriko together in the same cast.  That would be too much pleasure for the audience.

 

Jennie Somogyi is back!

NYCB confirmed on its FB page that Jennie is back in the lineup. 

What a joyous celebration that will be, particularly for those of us who watched her limp from the stage after rupturing her Achilles tendon 16 months ago. 

The company posted a picture of her with Sebastian Marcovici in Sonatas and Interludes with the dates May 29, June 1 Mat, June 4 & 8 Mat and then confirmed 45 minutes ago that yes, she is back.

Can't wait to see her leading those rough & tumble Sanguinistas this fall in The Four Temperaments.

 

. . . and we're live

. . . from the couch in trendy Hell's Kitchen awaiting the introductions for the Guggenheim's Works & Process which tonight will be presented by ABT.

 http://www.ustream.tv/worksandprocess

✔ pencils sharpened

✔ erasers cut off

✔ Mac cache emptied

✔ cell phone silenced

✔ wine poured

7:35    It seems things are off to a tardy start.

7:38    John Meehan would make a very good director for ABT.

7:42    Why does ABT keep torturing us with this Morris nonsense?  Yes, the dancers have nice feet and legs.  It's as elementary and unsubstantive as it can be.

7:44    McKenzie managed to say plenty of nothing in that little interview.

7:51    Gray Davis and Stella Abrera are sublime in The Leaves Are Fading in one of the secondary PdDs.  That McKenzie took away the leading PdD from this beautiful ballerina in the prime of her career is criminal.  It was kind of cruel of John to suddenly bring up Giselle when everyone knows that is exactly the role Stella should be dancing but hasn't been allowed.  Her grace and demeanor while being interviewed were exquisite as well.

8:10    The Swan Lake excerpt was not very encouraging.  What is wrong with Hee Seo's back that she can't bend it more?  No expression.  Fine feet and legs.  The only way to describe this is the "Stepford ballerina syndrome."  One compliment for her:  the mime about the tears looked similar to Nina's in that the tears went all the way down over the edge of the tutu. 

8:15    It's very nice that the pre-professionals in the JKO are learning to dance completely without affectations.  The problem is that they are turning out dancers without perfume, without lovely organic qualities in their dance-speech.  It's like computer-speech.  ABT should stop all this pretense and just teach Vaganova in the upper body and POB in the legs and feet.

8:27    If you look at videos of Veronika Part and others as students at the Vaganova school, you see immediately that they already had that special perfume.  While they didn't have affectations, they did have something special.  These young students are plain toast.

8:30    Joe Gorak is a little too lovely in that Bournonville.  Maybe it's the small stage.  Bujones.  Bujones.  Bujones.  Bujones.  That's what we need. 

8:32    Isabella Boylston in the Kitri solo was like something from Amateur Hour.  No spark.  Horsey.  Muddled.  No expression or worse an unpleasant one.  ABT shelved Yuriko's brilliant and charming Kitri for this?

8:33    Arron Scott's ball dance pretty darned good.

8:50    The Moor's Pavane registered well on this stage.  Alex Hammoudi is not a natural choice for The Moor and his character was much less developed than Tom Forster's Iago.  Stella, intensely dramatic.  Hee Seo, a fish out of water: steps, yes; character, no.

8:58    Ratmansky's Carnival of the Animals is a nice piece for students, but it tends to get a little too precious. 

More than ever, Haglund intends to pay to see only the dancers he wants to see at ABT and will not pay to see amateurish or half-baked interpretations.  If it turns out that he only goes to a couple of performances at the Met this year, then maybe he'll be able to afford this little Chesterfield that he wants so badly.