Let's start with Jared Matthews in his fantastic debut as Aminta at the Wednesday evening performance of Sylvia. No, no, let's start with the power-packed, remarkable performances by the supporting cast of the evening, particularly in Act III.
When Eric Tamm and Joseph Phillips as Jaseion and Pluto arrived on stage with the lovelies Zhong-Jing Fang and Luciana Paris as Ceres and Persephone, it was an essay in how to ratchet up the already high level of the audience's attention. Tamm just grabbed the stage and spotlight with his beautiful and quite enormous jumps and a stage presence that screamed Prince. Haglund hopes to live to see the day when the dream team of Eric Tamm and Stella Abrera are matched up in Ashton's Cinderella, Giselle, or Sleeping Beauty.
Leann Underwood was glorious as Diana in Act III – strongly danced and exceptionally acted. It's odd how she was added as a Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty and then quickly removed and replaced by Haglund's favorite Stella Abrera. It seems that McKenzie needs to tie up Stella's time in secondary roles so that he can avoid applying the finishing touches to her Aurora, the role which she should be dancing. It is a mystery as to why ABT didn't move Xiomara Reyes into the Sleeping Beauty spot vacated by Cojocaru and invest in preparing Stella's debut opposite the marginal exchange artist who isn't selling tickets anyway. Now that Xiomara has added two more performances of the very taxing Sylvia, wouldn't it make sense to take the five minutes that is needed to tune up Stella's Aurora and let her dance it next Saturday afternoon? She's only performed it 10 times already on the international stage after having received better coaching than she'd ever get from McKenzie who seems to be trying hard to make her indispensable in secondary roles in order to keep her career under cap.
Sarah Lane and Joseph Gorak were excellent as the goats. Daniel Mantei and Karen Uphoff were elegant and commanding as Apollo and Terpsichore. Arron Scott in the statue-comes-to-life role of Eros was formidable and had the best petit ronde de jambe en l'air of the week so far.
But really now, Jared Matthews triumphed in his debut as Aminta. The role begins with the extremely difficult promenades in arabesque that conclude in penche plie, and Jared just nailed them. The form and musicality of his pirouettes that evolved into circling port de bras were beautiful. What gorgeous epaulment all evening! The aerial shapes of his sautes fouette during his variation in Act III were crystal clear. His partnering of Paloma Herrera's Sylvia was faultless – not just faultless – they complimented one another and were completely in tune theatrically. His timing in catching Paloma's arm for a very difficult promenade after she had performed a pirouette facing away from him was almost unbelievably smooth and musical. And then they did it again! His own skillful acting was on the mark in every scene. It was, in a word, honest.
Sascha Radetsky gave a huge performance as Orion, and boy, did he ever manipulate Paloma in their testy PdD! Perfect coordination between these well matched dancers. With Cory Stearns now out with an injury and unable to dance in Sleeping Beauty, ABT has both Jared Matthews and Sascha Radetsky who can admirably partner Paloma Herrera and undoubtedly Gillian Murphy. But it appears that Marcelo Gomes will be further burdened with another performance that could be handsomely danced by either Jared or Sascha. And in a truly unfortunate turn of events, McKenzie's new go-to boy, the effervescent blue video star James Whiteside is going to be foisted upon Gillian Murphy for Friday night. There's one to skip.
Paloma Herrera was a lovely Sylvia, if a little underpowered compared to Murphy or the Royal Ballet's Darcey Bussell. Haglund recalls that Paloma conveyed more authority in her dancing when she performed Sylvia several years ago. But Paloma has evolved into a different kind of dancer than she was many years ago when her steely legs seemed to suggest they were powered by 10 gauge wiry tendons running down the insides of her thighs. A lively new partner like Jared Matthews or Sascha Radetsky might be just what is needed to amp her up again.
Haglund also attended the matinee performance of Veronika Part's debut as Sylvia. Due to Cory Stearns' injury, Marcelo Gomes stepped into the role of Aminta on short notice and performed flawlessly. Regrettably, Sylvia is not going to be one of Haglund's favorite roles for Veronika, as much as he adores her. She's simply blessed with too much length of leg to wield her limbs around the way Sylvia must do.
Veronika's opening series of grand jetes were mammoth. Later when she sat next to the fountain to bathe her face and neck and enjoy a cool drink from her hand, the temperatures inside the Met Opera House soared to a scorching 112 degrees. The main difficulty came in complex steps such as when Sylvia had to grand developpe to the front after a half of a pique turn or the rapid renverse turns. It sounded like the conductor took the tempo down a notch in solos to accommodate Veronika, but it sometimes caused her more difficulty in addition to making the orchestra sound like it was flagging. The arabesques sometimes rose slowly instead of with battement authority, possibly because of the tempo. Her pizzicato solo in Act III included fabulous acceleration of her gorgeous feet across the front of the stage. Some of the partnering with Marcelo did not go smoothly, especially that difficult section involving pirouettes and promenades. Veronika's characterization of Sylvia was spot-on in all three acts, and the dramatic exchanges with Marcelo were great theater.
Craig Salstein made such a performance out of Eros playing the musical notes with his fingers over top Aminta's dead body. Then when he shook the magic red poppy over Aminta's face, the shepherd woke up so quickly that Eros almost didn't get out of the way in time. James Whiteside as Orion had one volume the whole performance and that was to be as loud as he could be. He's still pushing his pirouettes past the music just to get in an extra revolution.
Devon Teusher seemed a little meek for Diana and didn't dance with the authority that we saw from Leann Underwood in the evening or Kristi Boone on opening night. Melanie Hamrick and Thomas Forster were striking as Terpsichore and Apollo. It's easy to envision Forster as the Prince in Ashton's Cinderella. That would be nice to see someday. Isabella Boylston was clearly not thrilled with having to dance Persephone to Luis Ribagorda's Pluto. She had minimal jumps to do but still managed to drop her chin and chest in the preparations with the end result being a very horsey quality.
So after a long day of Sylvias – to be repeated on Saturday – Haglund bestows the Pump Bump Award on Jared Matthews and Sascha Radetsky for tremendous individual performances and partnering. Use the spikes wisely.
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