Over the next few weeks, the night skies will reveal five planets shining brightly simultaneously. It’s a rare occurrence that last happened more than a decade ago. Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter will all be lined up in a row and visible with the naked eye. From now until about February 20th, you should look in the southern sky beginning about an hour before dawn. Venus and Jupiter are almost always easy to spot from the far West Side of Manhattan even with all the city’s lights; so, this should be a quite a striking display of celestial twinkling.
But let’s talk about the celestial twinkling that was hotter than blue blazes last night. New York City Ballet's opening performance of its Winter Season raised the city’s bitter cold temperature several degrees. Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild led a sensational cast of Balanchine’s Who Cares? that included a sparkling Ana Sophia Scheller and a sultry Savannah Lowery. It’s possible that Haglund has never missed a local performance of Peck & Fairchild in this ballet. Back in 2012 when the two opened the Winter Season dancing these same roles, Haglund wrote that “The chemistry between the two was as grand as that of Leslie Caron and Gene Kelly” and again later that week “ Peck and Fairchild were like a spark and accelerant flirting beneath the kindling.” Well, here we are four years later. They’re now married and he has brilliantly re-defined on Broadway one of Kelly’s most famous movie roles with Leslie Caron. Back in 2012, it was all there in the stars for us to read.
The bliss of romance, true love, and passion fired up these two again in Gershwin’s The Man I love. She launched turns joyously and he joined in with his hand to her waist — not so much to steady her revolutions but to make sure that she didn’t simply take-off into another world without him. Their musicality together was on the order of divine. In Fascinatin’ Rhythm, Tiler propelled the phrases forward sending the audience into the balletic equivalent of religious fervor. Meanwhile, The Man seemed to relish being back dancing in front of his home audience. His solo to Gershwin's Liza felt like we were meeting up with an old friend who we hadn’t realized just how much we missed. His dancing was generous, on the mark, and engaging from start to finish.
It sounded like Maestro Litton had the orchestra on a short leash last night. We would rather have heard more big band quality and New York energy than classical refinement in the Gershwin, but that’s our preference. The Bernstein music for Fancy Free sounded polite. The Candide Overture that opened the evening was lovely but restrained. We couldn’t feel Lenny's groove in it.
Joaquin De Luz, Tyler Angle, and Amar Ramasar were fabulous as the sailors lookin’ for fun on a hot, summer night in 1944 New York. Fancy Free is probably Jerome Robbins’ best known stage ballet and, thanks to both local ballet companies who always field great casts, we get to see it here on a fairly regular basis. The Passers-by Georgina Pazcoguin, Sterling Hyltin, and Stephanie Chrosniak showed just the right amount of “experience” in dealing with these guys.
The program opened with a tremendous performance of Martins' Barber Violin Concerto – one of his most inspired choreographic creations. By the way, the orchestra and soloist Kurt Nikkanen sounded glorious in this piece. Megan Fairchild, Sara Mearns, Jared Angle and Russell Janzen (subbing for Ask la Cour) were the ballet and modern dance couples who tangled with one another – comfortable in who they were while needing to change in order to get want they really wanted. We cannot recall a more compelling performance from Sara and Jared in these roles. Their mutual trust and love for one another was evident throughout their PdD.
Okay, let’s get to the grand disappointment of the night which was the new art installation by Marcel Dzama. What a let-down after seeing such great work by the first three artists in NYCB’s annual Art Series. Huge video screens at either end of the promenade flash enough chaos and nonsense to bring on an instant headache, if not an epileptic seizure in those so predisposed. Rotating metal figures are centered on the promenade. Some framed artwork around the perimeter and miniature set models on tables on the main floor offer individual examples of interesting stuff, but there seems to be no concept to this installation. Apparently, it was the artist’s funny bone that drove him to put large polka-dots on the huge statues at either end of the promenade, and it must have been his youthful defiance that made him feel entitled to deface someone else’s longstanding and respected art work. This was a real let-down. The flashing screens are likely to cause people to make fewer trips to the concession stands because it is all so annoying. So, there ya go. Every creative act is not art.
This little carousel is cute, however. You can see some of the other stuff on this brief vid:
Our first H.H. Pump Bump Award of the season, a Via Spiga gold work of art, is bestowed upon Tiler Peck for her brilliant interpretation of Fascinatin’ Rhythm and The Man I Love.
Alistair Irrelevant agrees with your opinion of the foyer display.
I will be visiting NY the week that NY City Ballet is presenting La Sylphide. I loved Sterling Hyltin and Joaquin de Luz in this ballet when I saw them last summer. Do you (or other HH readers) have a favorite cast that you recommend I try to see next month? Thanks for your advice.
Posted by: Jennifer | January 21, 2016 at 11:03 AM
Hi Jennifer. Yes, I noticed how Alastair agreed with our review. We're always happy to be of help to him.
While we don't know yet what the La Sylphide casting will be and can't assume that the pairings will be the same as last year, if Lauren Lovette and Anthony Huxley show up in the same cast, don't miss them. I was absolutely thrilled with the authenticity and artistry that they delivered on their debut. I don't think that there was a weak cast at all last year.
Posted by: Haglund | January 21, 2016 at 11:26 AM