New York!

Went into NYC quite late today, having no matinee show to catch. I'm already quite tired, so it was good to have an afternoon off. I'm having a blast though!

Got in at 6 p.m. for a lecture on Balanchine's Music at the New York State Theatre; the lecture was being put on by New York City Ballet's education department as part of the George Balanchine Centenial celebration this year. The lecture was pretty bad - they had two older gentlemen who had worked with Balanchine on the music he used for his ballets, and it was basically an ego competition up there. Both of them rambling on about idiotic stuff tangentially related to Balanchine's working with music. I learned nothing new, a waste of 1.5 hrs. Oh well - you win some you loose some.

The show of the evening was AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE in La Bayadere at the Metropolitan Opera House. The Met is a huge house, larger than the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. It is much more elegant though, and the balcony doesn't feel so far away - at first. The proscenium and curtain go up really high along the stage wall, so you think that the stage won't be quite so big. Then the curtain parts, and you suddenly realize that they only use about half the height of the curtain; thus, this achieves the effect of having the show look like it is being performed in a little hole at the bottom of the gigantic wall - and suddenly you do feel quite far away in the balcony. Not much to complain about though - it is ultimately a good view, and you do see everything quite well from up there.

This production of La Bayadere was staged by Natalia Makarova in 1980 as the first full length La Bayadere in the West. It's a grea production because it shaves away all the excessive character dancing that full Russian productions of the ballet have, and it moves briskly along to the good stuff - and the good stuff being a big grand Pas de Deux in the middle, and the famous Kingdom of the Shades scene at the end.

What made Monday night's performance news though, was the appearance of special guest star Svetlana Zakharova as Nikiya; she is principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet, formerly with the Kirov but then she moved. Zakharova was beautiful as Nikiya on Monday night. She was passionate and communicated with her entire body throughout. The adagio in the Kingdom of the Shades was thrilling, nary a wobble throughout the whole thing, just a very placid, very clean perfection. I love it when Nikiyas can pull off a very smooth adagio, making it look completely effortless and holding poses and balances for ages - it makes the part appropriately otherworldly and magical. Only thing that bugged me though was how high Zakharova was able to lift her leg; it looked un-human in a distracting way - made it seem like I was watching a Cirque du Soleil performance at times. In fact, much of her Shades act was like this - almost as though she were showing off her technical skills, great as they are. Since we're talking about Kirov-trained dancers here, I guess I'll mention that my absolute favorite Shades act came from Diana Vishneva, with whom Zakharova used to be colleages with at the Kirov. SHe pulled off the smoothness, showed off as much rock-solid technique, but did it with more character and without having the technique be a distracting side show.

But back to ABT, Zakharova's Acts I and III were quite good - she knows how to inject drama into a role and keep dancing at the same time, something her counterparts in the main company have a bit of a ways to catch up to still. Michele Wiles did an excellent job as Gamzatti, though admittedly much of the role is technical fireworks. When required to act, I felt she faltered a bit - clearest example of this is in Act III, when she has a marvelous solo during the wedding scene. She dances the solo marvelously, but then, just a bit later, when a girl toting a flower basket reminiscent of Nikiya's killer flower basket runs on, Wiles fails to react with the appropriate fear and apprehension that the moment should bring. She goes through the motions of the moment with too much grace and lightness, moving her arms softly as though she were bowing, not running away scared. No one can deny, however, that Wiles is a great stage presence in her current form - just needs to work more at the dramatic.

Jose Manuel Carreno made the most of Solor; he's not in the spotlight all to often, it's more a ballerina's show, but boy did he grab a hold of and make full use of the spotlight when he was in it. Herman Cornejo - stunning as the Bronze Idol. The audience ate it up. The corps danced the Kingdom of the Shades very well tonight. Reading early reports from Washington and otherwise, I was expecting disaster - but the corps exceeded my expectations. THey're not the Kirov, but they're not second rate, either.

This is my first time seeing ABT in Makarova's production of "Bayadere" live (seen it once in London and then on the Asylmuratova/Zelensky/Bussel video); I don't particularly like John Lanchberry's alterations to the score and orchestrations - particularly in the Grand Pas Classique. It sounded just find in the original Minkus orchestrations, I do'nt understand why he felt the need to make it either more diddly, or mess up the orchestrations to make the music sound more flat and thin. But that's just me being used to the way it's played in the Russian versions.

Tomorrow: TBD, but hopefully we'll see Movin' Out, the Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp dance musical on Broadway.