Yes, Ulyana Lopatkina is coming back. She and Diana Vishneva will be featured somewhere within "four distinct ballet programs dedicated to Maya Plisetskaya," the great Bolshoi icon who expired last May.
BAM's press release is a little vague on what we should expect, but Dying Swan and Woman in a Room are definitely on the bill. Nor do we know how many other Mariinsky dancers will be on the program.
Tickets go on sale to BAM members on November 7th and to the general public on November 16th. Prices are especially high (35, 70, 110, 150, 175) for the ballet performances and are subject to increases after November 29. Considering what they are charging, they'd better bring a whole lot more dancers with Lopatkina and Vishneva.
The major problem that we see is that the dates of the BAM engagement overlap with the Raymonda dates at the Kennedy Center. So it would seem that New York will get the Mariinsky Orchestra while the Kennedy Center dates will probably involve the house orchestra as has happened previously. Of course, the Mariinsky Theatre has enough dancers to run performances simultaneously in NY, DC and a few other places, but what about those of us who want to be in two places at one time?
Adding to our anxiety over these conflicting dates in NY and DC is the final week of NYCB which includes Agon, Symphony in C, The Four Temperaments, and Mozartiana. Oy....
Valery Gergiev will conduct in New York including on the evening of February 24th when there will be a marathon concert consisting of all five of Prokofiev's piano concertos played in chronological order by four different pianists.
Interesting.
I hope the company gives Corphyee Anna Lavrinenko a chance to shine. I was so impressed with her in Cinderella last year. She deserves more chances to dance.
The Conflict with NYCB is inconvenient but I think the Mariinsky dancers like the chance to see NY dancers in action. Which probably contributes to the dates set as well as availability at BAM.
Posted by: melponeme_k | October 20, 2015 at 08:57 PM
True – it was quite the thrill during last year's Mariinsky visit to BAM to catch Lopatkina at the champagne bar at an NYCB intermission in Manhattan.
Posted by: Haglund | October 20, 2015 at 09:02 PM
Its going to be a tight schedule that week indeed. The Pacific Northwest Ballet is at the City Center too. I already have a ticket to one of their performances.
Posted by: melponeme_k | October 20, 2015 at 09:22 PM
Unless the Mariinsky Orchestra is in the pit - highly unlikely, as this is their gig - then only solo dances or perhaps a pdd will be danced on a small space in front of the orchestra. Sounds like a marketing ploy to get balletomanes to buy tickets to an orchestral concert. I hope I'm wrong.
Posted by: Jeannette | November 01, 2015 at 07:16 AM
I think you are right, but I'll bet the Mariinsky Orchestra plays in New York while the Mariinsky dancers suffer through the Kennedy Center Orchestra. It's a Gergiev-ploy to get the New York ballet audience to attend a Mariinsky orchestra concert and an Ardani-ploy to get the very resistant ballet audience to attend that crappolla that he presents around the world with Vishneva as the headliner. That said, I will probably go to the marathon Prokofiev concert and skip ALL of the ballet programs. NYCB will be in session with a FABULOUS week of some of Balanchine's greatest works while the Mariinsky's Raymonda will be in DC.
Posted by: Haglund | November 01, 2015 at 07:26 AM