Haglund's Heel

observations 3/30

Whoaaa. Some Haglund'eelers are up early this bright Saturday morning.

Thanks to yukionna for the link to the entire Carmen on Rai 5 Cultura that features Amar Ramasar and the Rome Opera Ballet in Jiří Bubeníček's brand new production. Registration is required, but it is FREE.

https://www.raiplay.it/video/2019/03/Balletto---Carmen-1ef615a7-de9b-4de1-be5a-4baecca6d591.html

Edited to add: This is a terrific video production. Wow! Hats off to Bubeníček, the Rome Opera Ballet, and especially to our own Amar Ramasar who gives perhaps the biggest performance of his career. Just wow!

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Thanks to the eagle-eyed HH'eeler who spotted Herman Cornejo's 20th Anniversary Celebration on October 19th during ABT's fall season. Apparently it's going to be a program of contemporary works. Stay tuned.

De Luz departs for de homeland

It's nearly unfathomable that Joaquín de Luz will be leaving New York. He's been such a fixture in the community for twenty years, showing up everywhere on and off the stage, celebrating both Spain and America like they were one in his heart.

We wish him well in his new role as Artistic Director of Compañía Nacional de Danza in the notoriously difficult cultural landscape of Spain.

José Martinez has assembled a company of beautiful dancers who excel in POB type programming. Let's hope that soon they will be adding to their Balanchine works of Allegro Brilliante and Who Cares? although it seems that the 40th Anniversary Season has already been planned.

Best of luck to Joaquín. We'll all be watching.

 

observations 3/28

It's hard to keep track of all the opportunities that Zachary Catazaro has discovered since landing as Principal Guest artist at Bayerische Staatsballett in Munich. Director Igor Zelensky has cast him in the opening night Jewels performance of Diamonds opposite the lovely Kristina Lind. He's also been cast in several performances of Onegin including the upcoming one that is supposed to feature Hallberg and Osipova. Also on his plate are several performances in Grigorovich's Spartacus and Neumeier's The Lady of the Camellias.

Meanwhile, in addition to Hallberg bailing out of his Bolshoi performance of Giselle a week or two ago due to a calf injury, Miss O. walked away from a Don Q performance at the Mariinsky this week. No apparent claim of injury or illness, just cancelled. The Mariinsky literally backed her against the wall and into a corner and had her create a little I-gram video expressing her regrets for not performing. Take a look here. She's like a guilty character out of a Dostoyevsky novel. Some of those commenters are fairly angry particularly since the Mariinsky apparently charged more for the tickets for the Miss O. performance.

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More documents have been added to the Waterbury court folders. Her attorney has responded to Longhitano's request for the judge to reject a motion for a delay by continuing on his path of trying to confuse the judge and make him think that Waterbury and Longhitano were somehow employed by NYCB.

New, however, is a Waterbury affidavit which indicates that she did not necessarily have permission to use Finlay's laptop to check her email on the occasion when she discovered the photographs. Rather, she had obtained permission on previous other occasions and just went ahead and proceeded to open up his device. Very interesting development.

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One of Haglund's all-time favorite Auroras, Viviana Durante, is restaging Kenneth MacMillan's Seven Deadly Sins at Wilton Music Hall in London May 8th through May 18th. The project has been developed by Durante and Lady Deborah MacMillan. Among the cast are Royal Ballet's Laura Morera, Melissa Hamilton, and Nehemiah Kish, along with Ballet Black's Jose Alvez.

 

Food for thought From Soup to Nuts

These are Campbell's tomato and chicken noodle soups in 1948, the year that New York City Ballet was founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein.

These are Campbell's tomato and chicken noodle soups 71 years later in 2019:

Not much tinkering there in 71 years, is there?

Despite product managers' efforts to come up with the next biggest thing, that is, the next soup that will make everyone forget tomato and chicken noodle, and despite their most dedicated efforts to move the art of soup forward into the next century, everyone still buys more tomato and chicken noodle soup than any other Campbell soup. 285,000,000 cans each year (200 million chicken & 85 million tomato).

Campbell knows that these core products are the pillars of its master brand. It doesn't expect people to conclude that it's time to try something else and to be daring, e.g., white cheddar tripe soup or chunky suspicious mushroom soup, just so the food critics will have something to write about. They don't take risks with their master brand core product, and they don't try to force people to buy something in its stead. These two soups are on the shelf wherever Campbell products are sold. And that's been the story for a lot longer than 71 years.

When the day comes that the only way one can buy Campbell's tomato or chicken noodle is in a three-pack with white cheddar tripe and chunky suspicious mushroom soups, that will signal great trouble for Campbell's and a great disregard for its loyal customer base. In a nutshell, it would be nuts.

Likewise, a spring program audaciously entitled Peck Meets Balanchine, with its irreverent implications and which sandwiches a single tasty patty between two big highly-processed nutritionless buns, has summoned ballet's Clara Pellers to sound off "Where's the beef? Where's the beef?!" As much as we admire and love Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements, we're not going to plunk down money for a Clara Peller program that is two-thirds bread. Just sayin' ...

More beef, please.

 

 

 

 

observations 3/21.02

Zachary Catazaro's I-gram has some footage of him rehearsing Balanchine's Diamonds with Bayerische Staatsballett's lovely & long-limbed Kristina Lind (formerly of SFB and Dutch National Ballet). He looks fantastic. Those turns a la seconde and the final pirouette have great speed and authority. Diamonds cast (and most all of the Jewels cast) has not yet been posted. How great it would be if Catazaro nabbed the date on which the performance will be live-streamed on the internet -- April 11.

Also glad to see that Catazaro has turned up in Grigorovich's Spartacus cast as the featured Gladiator for two evenings.

 

observations 3/21

Glowing. Totally filled with light.

What a remarkable debut last night for Sara Mearns in her first speaking role on the stage. Dialogue, dance, charisma – she delivered it all with vitality and panache. Who knew that Sara has such a fabulously unique stage voice? In a time when nearly every voice in town sounds like it came out of the same Broadway U., hers was freshly articulate. The highly entertaining cast of I Married an Angel which included Mark Evans, Nikki M. James, Phillip Attmore, and an utterly brilliant Hayley Podschun made this nearly forgotten Rodgers and Hart musical hum again.

If Mearns can ever use that deep, strong voice to sing -- oh boy oh boy oh boy, watch out!

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Filed moments ago were Plaintiff Waterbury's attorney's request that the defendants' motions to dismiss by NYCB, Chase Finlay, and Amar Ramasar be adjourned until May 20th, the proposed new court date. However, the plaintiff's answers to the motions to dismiss are due by April 12th. (Note that the plaintiff's attorney claims that the attorneys for NYCB, Finlay and Ramasar all agreed to the adjournment, but Finlay's attorney did not sign the document.)

The judge's decision on Longhitano's request that the plaintiff's last minute adjournment request be denied has not yet been published.

observations 3/20

Maria Kowroski seems to be doing very well with her new Mariinsky partner, the elegant and noble Yevgeny Ivanchenko, with the help of the world's primary steward of the Balanchine legacy. Lucky Mariinsky International Ballet Festival! It's very good to see Peter Martins back at work! How many minutes will pass before NYT's Irrelevant & Klueless have to write something nasty, or as one Haglund'eeler suggested to us, orchestrate a backlash?

 

Meanwhile, here's a little video of today's excursion to the Vessel at Hudson Yards. Come on down, people!  Get your free reservations here beginning each morning at 8AM. The place is buzzing with excitement. The whole complex is beautiful.

 

 

 

observations 3/18

Just reminding everyone again about the cinema presentation of the Royal Ballet's Don Quixote at Landmark Cinemas in Manhattan and elsewhere on April 2nd. There are still some seats left although they seem to be selling at a good clip. Tickets here.

On the other hand, there seem to be thousands of seats still available for Natalia Osipova's PURE Dance with David Hallberg bonanza at NY City Center April 3rd through the 6th. Buyer beware, however, since Hallberg cancelled last night's Giselle at the Bolshoi due to another, or perhaps the same, calf problem. Tickets here. Las Vegas odds don't favor Hallberg being able to meet all of his commitments this spring which include an Onegin with Osipova in Munich as well as a handful of performances at ABT.

However, Russia is about to experience some wonderful talent from the U.S. when Maria Kowroski performs in Balanchine's Serenade and Robbins' In the Night at the Mariinsky's International Ballet Festival this week. Also on tap will be Joaquin de Luz, Erica Pereira, and Daniel Ulbricht who will be joined by Igor Kolb and Tatiana Tkachenko for the premiere of Melanie Hamrick's new Porte Rouge set to Rolling Stones tunes.

Melanie is the only woman among the eight choreographers invited to participate in this year's Creative Workshop of Young Choreographers AND the only one without a Mariinsky performing affiliation other than Alexander Chelidze who is a co-choreographer with Vladimir Shklyarov. It's nice to see Melanie featured in the very center of the Mariinsky's photo of the participants:

Meanwhile, Haglund is just hanging out waiting for Wednesday night's Encores premiere of I Married An Angel at NY City Center which counts among its stars Sara Mearns in her first speaking (and dancing) role. Tickets here.

 By hanging out, we mean hanging out in the 'hood at the new Hudson Yards shopping heaven that includes the public art sculpture, The Vessel - a curious climbing experience that leaves one feeling a bit like a mouse in a maze. But it's very cool.

Looking upward from the center of the sculpture before starting today's climb:

At the top:

People, come on down (or up or over) to Hudson Yards. The Dior and Tiffany shops are not open yet, but the Neiman Marcus is in full blooming glory. If you're interested in the Mercado Little Spain, be advised that it hasn't been opening until 5PM since Friday, and there is usually a very long line stretching out to 10th Ave and northward of people waiting to get in.

 

observations 3/13.02

Just a little more info regarding the upcoming screening of the Royal Ballet's Don Quixote. Tickets for the April 2nd, 7PM presentation at Landmark Cinemas can be purchased here. In addition to the fabulous trailer below, we call your attention to a recent review of the production by a writer who didn't care for it the first time around, but adores it now -- and is particularly enthralled with Akane Takada and Alexander Campbell who will be our Kitri and Basilio on April 2nd.

"I had originally wanted to see Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov in the leading roles. That had not been possible, but when the evening ended there was no one I would have rather seen than Akane Takada and Alexander Campbell as a feisty Kitri and a laddish Basilio. Her skirt flicks were as impressive as her backbends were stunning."

Trailer: ⬇︎  Tickets: Landmark Cinema

 

 

observations 3/13

3/13 UPDATE 2:10 PM  to the update below:

Defendant Longhitano has filed a written letter to the judge calling out Waterbury's attorneys for questionable behavior and asking for the requested adjournment to be denied:

 

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Here's an interesting update.

Jared Longhitano's motion to dismiss the Waterbury lawsuit was scheduled to be heard in court this morning at 9:30 AM. Waterbury's law firm suddenly filed a request for a delay until April 3rd with the explanation that the law firm is down to one attorney, who is "new to our firm and multiple motions came in on this case at the same time. We have not contacted Jared Longhitano because we were told he was out of the country and we do not have his contact information."

What a load of crap.