Haglund's Heel

Jared & Yuriko return!

Just for one night. Sunday, October 22nd at the Ailey Citigroup Theater on West 55th Street & 9th Avenue.

Jared Matthews and Yuriko Kajiya are producers of this benefit performance for the victims of Hurricane Harvey in connection with Hearts For Houston. All funds raised will be donated to United Way of Greater Houston's Relief Fund to help with long-term recovery efforts.

Performers include artists from Houston Ballet, Alvin Ailey, ABT, NYCB, Texas Ballet Theater, Pennsylvania Ballet, and Washington Ballet. The promo picture features Jared and Yuriko in Giselle which suggests to Haglund that we might see such a PdD! It would be cruel of them to tease us.

There will be a world premiere by Ben Stevenson O.B.E.

General admission tickets are $150 and will be totally worth it. For more information, see Hearts for Houston and also the Brown Paper Tickets site. This will sell out quickly. Don't delay purchasing!

 

 

Houston BalletMayerling gets set for some Texas-sized insanity

Possibly the most important ballet event of the 2017-2018 season in all of North America will be celebrated tonight in storm-ravaged Houston – and, almost unbelievably, Haglund won't be there. It's true, Hurricane Harvey blew Haglund's well-laid plans to attend into the water. But we have some Haglund'eelers there who are likely to report in to H.H. after their emotional recovery from what is sure to be a theatrical hit in the gut like nothing Houston has seen before.

It is Kenneth MacMillan's greatest theatrical masterpiece - his complex, historically based Mayerling. It will thrill you. It will chill you. It will fill you with hair-raising anxiety. It will kill your will not to believe everything you are seeing on stage.

Mayerling...has...come...to...America.

Houston Ballet is the first company in North America to present this masterpiece that has thrilled European audiences and the most respected critics for decades.

For one of the performances Haglund had planned to attend, he had a front row seat on the right side of the house – close enough that he could have felt the deranged Crown Prince Rudolf's breath as he sat at his table toying with a human skull, fingering his gun, and jamming the needle filled with heroin into his arm. Oh. My. God.

Best of luck to Houston Ballet and congratulations on hustling up a theater at the last moment after the beautiful Wortham Center was so terribly damaged by Hurricane Harvey.

Bring on the insanity.

Mukhamedov, Durante, and the gun (1994)

 

observations 8-28

So sorry to have read the report this morning that flood waters are swirling over the main stages of the Wortham Theater Center in Houston where Houston Ballet was set to open a terrific season in about 10 days. Reportedly the basement is filled with water and all the generators have been turned off. Consequently, the website is down, too.

Haglund had plans to go down for performances of Mayerling later in September. It doesn't look promising now.

If HB has to cancel its upcoming performances, we should invite as many of the dancers as possible to come up and perform during ABT's season. In fact, it could save ABT's season if the rep were changed to include Symphony in C which HB planned to perform in 10 days. We've got plenty of costumes AND Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg will have Symphony in C fresh in their bloodstreams having just performed it in Australia. Also, ABT could dump one or two of the Millepied and Lang pieces in order to insert Symphony in C and also Stanton Welch's Clear - really, who at HB or ABT doesn't know his ballet by heart. Seriously, they all could rehearse it by email.

We hope everyone is safe down there.

 

If we wish for it, it will come . . .

and it IS!!! (Just not to NY.) Our nearly decade long campaign of wishful thinking is about to pay off.

Houston Ballet will become the first American company to present Kenneth MacMillan's masterpiece Mayerling. Oh my gosh. Imagine our Jared Matthews as the crazed drug/sex addict Crown Prince Rudolf. Jared has always done "depraved" so well. And imagine our Yuriko as Mary Vetsera or Princess Stephanie.

September 21st to October 1st are the dates.  Read about the rest of HB's fabulous 2017-2018 season here.

 

observations 8-22

[Whimper Alert]

The daily chore of downloading and clipping coupons off the AARP website would feel less burdensome and depressing if occasionally a coupon from New York City Ballet would pop up under Today’s Hot Deals – just a little ray of hope and light in an otherwise dismal senior citizen existence would mean so much. But woe, we are forgotten.

Payless knows that senior citizens need shoes. Outback knows that many of us can still chew steak. Abington Theatre knows that we can clap our hands. Even GAP recognizes that seniors still want to wear khakis. They all participate in the AARP’s coupon program. NYCB should give it a try, too.

Why this little cry at this time? Here we are one month out from the start of NYCB’s fall season and more than a few of The Most Faithful have not yet received their 4th Ring Society/Society NYCB membership renewals. Who needs this kind of stress when you’re already hanging on by bare threads? The good news is that members can renew over the phone by calling the NYCB box office at 212-496-0600 and begin buying tickets around Labor Day.

Let’s go let’s go let’s go.

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The Royal Winnipeg Ballet will bring its acclaimed production of Dracula to the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in the Bronx on Sunday November 13th. As usual, the Lehman Center puts its tickets on TDF very early; right now, they are posted for $21 and $12. This is a production that has stood the test of time in Canada (and on tour in the U.S) with many repeated performances since its 1998 premiere in Manitoba. The choreography by Mark Godden is mostly based on Bram Stoker's novel (as opposed to the horror in many movies or TV depictions) and is set to music from Gustav Mahler's first two symphonies.

Also, that singular body of dual identity, the Russian National Ballet and Moscow Festival Ballet will present two programs at Lehman this season. These dancers are always very good, are from top-of-the-line Russian and Eastern European schools, and the ladies always embody the classical aesthetic without straining. Sergei and Elena Radchenko, formerly of the Bolshoi, direct the companies.

Romeo and Juliet along with Carmen are on the bill for March 12th while a Tchaikovsky Gala is planned for April 2nd.

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Here's a brief but brightly written article in the September issue of Houstonia Magazine about our own Jared Matthews. It seems that he's the only Houston-born principal dancer at Houston Ballet. You know, the company is a little tardy on getting its Houston Ballet on Tour webpage updated. Would love to see them stop in at Lincoln Center with either their new Giselle or new Romeo and Juliet.

 

observations 6-9

Our own Yuriko Kajiya along with Connor Walsh will premiere the new Giselle at Houston Ballet tonight. What a wonderful clip this is. How lucky the city of Houston is to have these great artists perform in the greatest ballet of all time.

 

observations 6-3

Today's Houston Chronicle includes an informative write-up about Houston Ballet's new Giselle which premieres next week with Yuriko Kajiya in the title role opposite Connor Walsh. This quote should be of interest:

Welch has thought about doing a major reboot of "Giselle" for years.

He committed to it two years ago after he hired the delicate ballerina Yuriko Kajiya away from American Ballet Theatre in New York. When he saw her perform "Giselle" there, he was especially smitten by the quality of "stillness" she brought to the dances of Act 2, along with her amazing sense of balance and her ability to move seamlessly from position to position.

Stanton Welch was so impressed after seeing Yuriko dance Giselle at ABT that she was his inspiration for staging a whole new production?! Of course, he had to have seen her dance the role on tour which she did a number of times as McKenzie would never allow Yuriko to dance it on her home stage because she would show up the guest artists and the dumpy riffraff that he was trying to push down everyone's throats at the time. Haglund and the other Yurikonauts had to fly to Chicago in order to see the best Giselle that ABT could field. When is someone on ABT's board going to start questioning the common sense and artistic values of McKenzie?

Here is a heart-stopping picture from the Houston Chronicle's collection:

Photo: Amitava Sarkar

 

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 In about three weeks New York City Ballet lands on the stage of the Paris Théâtre du Châtelet for 21 performances of a half dozen huge programs of choreography. Parisians are in for big treat. Top ticket price is 109 euros, which is somewhat under the $149 top ticket price being offered to subscribers for next year. Paris is getting a big treat for a bargain.

Then at the start of September, ABT drops into the Opera Bastille in Paris for 10 performances of Sleeping Beauty. Brave or foolish? Top ticket price is 154 euros which is quite a bit more than the top orchestra price at the Met this season ($135) but less than the parterre center ($205). Hopefully, ABT will push its true classical dancers to the forefront. If they don't, let's hope the French balletomanes and critics do not spare their rods. It would be nice if Hallberg were back in action by then. That would certainly help the reception.

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Attention LAers:  Just saw this on Dance Magazine - Robert Fairchild will be "Mike" (I can do that!) in A Chorus Line at the Hollywood Bowl from July 29-31. Who's going and will send us a report?

 

 

Yuriko will be Giselle in Houston Ballet premiere

On June 9th, our Yuriko Kajiya will dance her signature role, Giselle, in the premiere performance of Stanton Welch's new production at Houston Ballet. Connor Walsh will be her Albrecht, Ian Casady will dance Hilarion and Katharine Precourt will dance Myrtha. Here is a link to the full casting for the run, which includes Jared Matthews' Albrecht on June 12th opposite Sara Webb's Giselle. Something tells us that the June 18th matinee where the departing Aaron Robison portrays Albrecht to Sara's Giselle will be a very special performance, too.

Haglund's memories of Yuriko and Jared's Giselle in Chicago  in 2012 and Detroit in 2014 are so vivid that he can still conjure them up when he needs a Giselle fix. No one should miss the opportunity to see them.

Yuriko and Jared - Houston Ballet 2014

 

observations 9-25

Yuriko Kajiya has been chosen as one of Time Magazine's Next Generation Leaders. Watch this video and read the accompanying article in which Yuriko describes the obstacles that she had to overcome to achieve her level of dancing. Her account is refreshingly honest, as is her talent. The video includes a couple of snippets of her and Aaron Robison in Houston Ballet's Manon.

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What or who is holding up the publication of the rest of the casting for ABT's fall season? The longer Haglund looks at a schedule that doesn't have the names Part and Abrera featured prominently, the less interested he becomes in the entire week and a half season.

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And on the last date of ABT's season, David Hallberg will finally get himself back on some kind of a stage - elsewhere in the city.  From the Performa 15 press release:

Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli in collaboration with American classical ballet dancer David Hallberg, principle dancer for the Bolshoi Ballet and American Ballet Theater, will launch Opening Night of Performa 15 on Sunday, November 1, 2015. Vezzoli and Hallberg will use the Renaissance as a point of departure for their commission to create choreography that reflects the origins of ballet in the 15th-century. The result of carefully researched material that begins with written text, Hallberg-Vezzoi will present Renaissance dance in its earliest form, bringing into question the powerful rituals of the courts, the importance of architecture in performance, and the roles of dancer and audience.

This doesn't actually say that Hallberg will be dancing, but it doesn't say that he won't be, either. Nevertheless, the evening sounds like it could turn into a heady affair.

Artists' efforts to intellectualize or politicize the art form and to assume an authority beyond what they can deliver to the stage can be so tiresome when all we want is to see them actually perform. "[B]ringing into question the powerful rituals of the courts" - please, just:

 

 

Houston Ballet 9/13Manon – the swamp is filled with gold

Early Sunday morning Haglund climbed on his auld winged hoss and galloped down to Houston Ballet to witness our own Yuriko Kajiya’s debut as Manon, Prévost’s character as drawn by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, the great 20th Century choreographer.

While all Manons opt for luxury over the richness of love, it’s always interesting to observe whether the interpreter shows any hint of Manon questioning her choice. Over the years, Alessandra Ferri made us shudder at the cold ease with which her Manon wrapped herself in extravagance and turned her back on Des Grieux. Surely, we thought, our Yuriko – the fragile and forgiving Giselle, the one who turned the simple Prayer variation in Coppelia into born-again ballet – would not let her Manon stray far from the moral post without a second thought.

What moral post! At the first distraction of a wide band of bling, this Manon surprised us with her willingness to follow the scent of money. Yes, it’s true. Not even the Apollonian legs and divine charm of Aaron Robison’s Des Grieux, whose Act I pirouette poetically descended to bended knee via a slow, turning plié to reveal the depth of his devotion, were a match for the temptation of fur and diamonds that were soon dangled before Manon.

Through three acts of glorious PdD, tight and energetic ensemble dancing, and superb solos, Houston Ballet brought MacMillan’s masterpiece to vivid life. Every person on the stage was invested in his or her character, whether he or she had a name or was simply anonymously described as a harlot, townswoman, or beggar boy. While there was plenty of indication of the wealthy community's intolerance of the poor, MacMillan’s democratic values yielded some of the richest ensemble choreography for the poor and downtrodden. The beggars and the Beggar Chief, Christopher Gray, danced brilliantly. The harlots who arrived at the penal colony after being deported from France to America were cinematic in their suffering and desperation.

Brian Waldrep from the corps de ballet impressed in his debut as Lescaut. His character’s personality was young and oily and clearly cut from the same cloth as Manon. Sell whatever you have to sell in order to escape poverty - even if it’s your sister. He dispatched the choreography well except for a few early jitters and died dramatically center stage.

Katharine Precourt was a delicious Mistress to Lescaut, bold and saucy. James Gotesky as Monsieur G.M. was Koch-ish in his knowledge of the manipulative power of his wealth. Ian Casady as The Jailer was able to make the PdD with Manon and its climax brutal without too many literal details.

The ballet revolves around the major PdD for Manon and Des Grieux in all three acts with the rapture, the eroticism, and then the desperation all conveyed with daring and musicality that one swears is organic and could never be any other way. Yuriko cast as Manon was against type in much the same way that Antoinette Sibley was cast by MacMillan originally. The viewer could never be prepared for the amoral character that these artists would deliver. The eroticism coming from artists so strongly identified with pristine classicism would be disturbing in itself. But it is the strong classical fundamentals that freed Yuriko to think less about the steps and more about the character. Her first solo upon arriving had a sense of reserve and politeness that one would expect from a girl on her way to the convent as Manon was. Her final desperate steps in the swamp while being consumed by illness conveyed the shocking price being paid for a life filled with wrong choices. She was simply stunning every moment on stage.

Aaron Robison painted Des Grieux with huge brushstrokes that fused the drama and dance. This man’s legs are endless with an uncommon flexibility and purity of line. His jumps are magnificent. His partnering of Yuriko was sensational, particularly those parts that were meant to look like he was losing control. Throughout the three acts his gentle melancholy simmered, then steamed, then boiled over with passion, and finally imploded in grief over Manon’s lifeless body – a riveting performance.

Sunday's audience in the beautiful Brown Theater at the Wortham Theater Center which had started the afternoon a little bit sleepy was overcome with its own emotions at the conclusion. Having Manon and Des Grieux collapse at the foot of the stage brought the front center section of the orchestra to its feet about as fast as Haglund has ever seen. The ovation was truly deserved. Houstonians know real gold when they see it.

The H.H. Pump Award, trimmed in real gold, is bestowed upon Yuriko Kajiya and Aaron Robison for their rich-beyond-words debut performances of Manon and Des Grieux: