observations 8/5

You can now purchase the live digital stream of ABT's performance of Don Quixote in Minneapolis on April 7, 2021. No casting available yet. The gig is a one-performance "tour" at the Northrop Auditorium on the U of M campus.

The charge for "household" access is $25. AND – you're not going to believe this – there is no service fee. Truly remarkable.

Hopefully ABT will cast carefully with the realization that this performance will appear in bits and pieces all over YouTube for eternity. Will ABT put its best feet forward in casting Kitri? That would mean Christine Shevchenko, without a doubt. But as we've mentioned so many times before, McKenzie doesn't cast based on merit. So we can expect that fans who live for the highest levels of classical ballet will be disappointed – again.

There will also be a free online preview event the day before which requires registration.

Just wanted to get this out there so my friends at BA have something to copy and post.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Unfortunately, old Hag was a little slow in getting out the camera to capture this Hell's Kitchen neighbor's face mask, but the backend tells the whole story.

Please wear a mask.

 

 

Comments

[CarolHydovitz]

Hi Haglund!
I received this notice today and wanted to pass along to you and my fellow followers.
"The Birmingahm Royal Ballet is excited to announce that the film of Sir David Bintley's gorgeous Cinderella made by the BBC in 2010 will be streamed in full, live on our Facebook page and at https://bit.ly/BRB-Watch-Cinderella or facebook.com/bhamroyalballet at 7pm on Tuesday 25 August, and available for 7 days.
Thanks and enjoy!

[Jeannette]

Indeed amazing, this one-stop “tour”! I ordered my $25 virtual seat in front of the Smart TV. (Hoping for Smart Casting, too.) Minneapolis would precede the already-announced tour of Don Qs at the Kennedy Center...but I wouldn’t mind in the least being a part of both. Fingers crossed that these and other ABT (& NYCB) spring 2021 engagements happen.

[Haglund]

Carolyn, thanks much for this.

Jeannette, that Washington week of Don Q could prove interesting. Hopefully, there will be another Skylar debut -- maybe with Simkin as her Basilio. What a competition that would be!

[Eulalia Johnson]

Shevchenko, yes! One of ABT's foremost Realarinas! Let's hope Minneapolis and we are so lucky. A few seasons ago--it seems like eons--what a Gamzatti CS was in New York. And her O/O took my breath away...

[nanushka]

At least in the early months of the pandemic, Shevchenko was one of few dancers getting themselves back into a studio regularly for work with coach(es).

(I assume she's kept it up in more recent months, but don't know for sure.)

[Haglund]

I hope she has. The real danger will come when the dancers return to rehearsals and accelerate the pace too quickly.

[Jeannette]

In the “Now We Can Call Poor Folk to the Table” department:

https://mailchi.mp/8510bf03de97/abts-pointe-of-view-783438?e=d6dbebc522

Through its latest monthly e-zine. ABT decides to allow plain-ol’ balletomanes to watch the 2007 Bocca-Ferri-Cornejo-Murphy MANON film that they “secretly” made available to big donors last month...but was blabbed about over the Internet, resulting in a load of ordinary fans & single-ticket buyers being hurt. So now they’re groveling for donations from hoi poloi? Too late.

[Haglund]

My memories of her that week with Bolle and with Corella are still pretty clear. Too late, ABT.

We poor folks can sit here in our two room shacks by the railroad tracks on the banks of the river with our chickens in their pens. Poor folks livin' in a rich folks' world. I feel so sad...

[Jeannette]

I just find it all so tacky, Haglund. I guess that ABT didn’t make enough during their secret by-Invitation-only showing last month.

The whiff of elitism is so not cool.

Of course, I meant “Bolle” on my earlier post...although I also enjoyed Bocca in the ‘90s. I too live with memories of fabulous performances of Manon.

[Haglund]

Yeah, ABT totes the uber-wokish folk on one arm and the elitist, privileged on the other. No wonder the port de bras seems so confused at times.

What other films have they been holding back?

[Golden Idol]

Has anyone actually seen the Manon video? Is it professionally done with multiple cameras or is it one camera in back of the auditorium? (If the latter, and if it were done as well as NYCB's recordings, that wouldn't be a bad thing.)

[Haglund]

I haven't seen it, and I can't recall from Ferri's live performances during her last two weeks whether there were any extra cameras in the theater.

"and if it were done as well as NYCB's recordings..." 😂😂

[Solor]

The video is very well done. It looks like a two-camera job: one in the back capturing the entire stage, and one doing closeups (but not too close) that might be the camera at the foot of the stage that moves left and right across a track, which means all the closeups are framed in the same proportion, which makes the whole thing easily watchable. The recording appears to have been funded by the Jerome Robbins Archive.

[Haglund]

Thanks, Solor!

[Moya Dorroh]

I gave back my Spring Season to ABT for my R and J performances. I am a widow on a fixed income. ABT was kind enough to provide the 2007 Manon performance with Roberto Bolle and Allesandra Ferri. It was lovely. I saw Roberto’s final performance last June. He is a wonderful Des Grieux. This performance was as I remembered. Herman Cornejo was great as Lescaut. I am not elite. I am a poor widow. Be kind. Thank you.

[Haglund]

Hi, Moya. Indeed, we have been lucky to see such artists as Alessandra Ferri, Herman Cornejo, and Roberto Bolle in our lifetimes. ABT should consider being a bit more generous with the sharing of all of its videos.

[Jeannette]

Exactly, Haglund. It’s not as if the rest of us have not made tremendous sacrifices to get to NY - hotels, train fares, taking annual leave from jobs, etc - with our single tickets to see ABT through the years. And then for some to blab it a month ago on BA. How are the “not inviteds” to feel?

[Balletlover]

Hi, do not forget the vail festival online edition is playing til 8/15

[Haglund]

Thanks, much. Here's a link that will help you find all of them on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/VailDanceFestival/videos

[Laura]

Thank you!
The Minneapolis post-rioting live in-person and online option (see Wikipedia re damage) makes perfect economic and artistic sense. I hope other companies will take note because it will give them a way to grow their audiences and be inclusive.
And let's be honest--people will be avoiding cities where Covid-19 cases and rioting incidents have been high.

This is a solution that has been needed for a long time. It's a scandal that great dancers and companies have not had their performances captured in film or video. It's even hard to find stars like a young Sylvie Guillem, on film.