Tag: BAISER DE LA FEE

NYCB Tchaikovsky Festival 2013 #6

Saturday evening January 26, 2013 – This evening’s performance at New York City Ballet was filled with wonderful dancing (and playing from the pit) and went a long way to compensate for the previous evening’s late-seating debacle.

The programme was the same as the night before, but what a difference! Tonight we were able to fullly enjoy the delicate mysteries of BAISER DE LA FEE, led by Andrews Sill. I have a special fondness for this ballet since it was the first work I ever saw at NYCB lo! these many decades ago. My ‘premiere’ cast featured Patricia McBride and Helgi Tomasson and it is pleasing to report that Megan Fairchild and Andrew Veyette made just as fine an effect in the ballet as ther illustrious predecessors. Megan and Andrew caught the quality of rhapsodic youthfulness right from the start, abetted by the very nice dancing of the corps ensemble. Andrew’s solo had a dreamy feeling, but it’s one of those restless dreams (we’ve all had them) where you are seeking something that seems to elude you; his dancing was so expressive, making me want to see him as Jerome Robbins’ Dreamer in OPUS 19. Megan’s solo, set to the birdlike song of the flutes, was fetchingly spun off by the ballerina. The couple then brought a lovely feeling of quiet ecstacy to the magical backing-away which brings this Balanchine jewel to a close. Erica Pereira and Mary Elizabeth Sell led the corps to charming effect.

Tiler Peck and Joaquin de Luz then went to town, pulling out all the stops for an exciting Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux in which Tiler scintillated with her magical pirouettes whilst also capturing the warm lyricism of the adagio. Joaquin fills the stage and the theatre with his generous dancing and genial smile; if there’s a dancer with a bigger heart than Joaquin de Luz I haven’t met him. The two dancers swept thru the bravura fireworks of the coda to the audience’s delight, and if the fish dives took on a risky quality tonight, that’s part of the fun. They swept off as the curtain fell, igniting a full-house ovation which made them smile all the more as they stepped out to take their bows.

Now being in a really good mood, I even decided to give BAL DE COUTURE another try and strangely enough I liked a lot of it tonight, or maybe I should say that I saw where it might – with a few alterations – become something to enjoy. The music’s wonderful for one thing, but my first change would be getting rid of the women’s bizarre, fanciful costumes. And since the costumes are the whole point of the piece my other ‘fixes’ wouldn’t matter. It’s nice to see all that star-power onstage even though – as a friend pointed out – turning principals into a corps tends to make them anonymous. Despite its drawbacks, I found I could sit thru it, and could again – if the need ever arises.

In the concluding DIAMONDS, Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle were elegant, and they seemed to filter the melodies of the score directly into their dancing. Maria’s magical way of sculpting her long limbs into the regal poses of the adagio was finely echoed in Tyler’s handsome and ardent partnering. There’s a lovely simpatico quality between these two dancers and it was shining brightly tonight. The demi-solistes and corps filled the stage with Mr. B’s grand patterns in the finale; the audience loved it.

Andrews Sill conducted the first two ballets tonight, then passed the baton to Daniel Capps for the rest of the evening. The NYCB musicians played the entire programme very appealingly and they well-deserved the audience’s warm cheers as they took a spot-lit collective bow at the end. The players were recently chided in the press for playing too many wrong notes. Yes, musicians – even the finest ones – do sometimes hit wrong notes, especially the wind players. Anyone who has ever played a musical instrument knows that the best intentions and plenty of rehearsal can still be undone by fatigue or plain old bad luck. It’s nothing to write home about since it tends to happen randomly, even among the excellent players of at the NY Phil or the Metropolitan Opera (where the orchestra is considered one of the best ‘pit bands’ in the world). For myself, having played piano, guitar and French horn, I always have a sympathetic ear and am grateful when things go as well as they do on a given night. The NYCB musicians work hard and it’s nice when the audience acknowledges their nightly contributions to the success of the ballet.

Heading home on the A train, I met the three people who’d been sitting behind
me at the performance. Students at Columbia, they drew out a season brochure and began asking me questions about what they should see next. “Who was that woman with the long legs in the last ballet?” the girl asked. “She was awesome!” I could only agree.

DIVERTIMENTO FROM ‘LE BAISER DE LA FÉE’: M. Fairchild, Veyette, Pereira, Sell

TCHAIKOVSKY PAS DE DEUX: T. Peck, De Luz

BAL DE COUTURE: Lowery, Reichlen, Krohn, Scheller, Hyltin, A. Stafford, T. Peck, M. Fairchild, Bouder, Taylor, J. Angle, la Cour, Danchig-Waring), Veyette, R. Fairchild, Ramasar, Finlay, De Luz, Carmena, Marcovici

DIAMONDS from JEWELS: Kowroski, T. Angle

January 26, 2013
NYCB Tchaikovsky Festival 2013 #5

Friday January 25, 2013 – There nothing like a late seating to ruin an evening at the ballet. And it’s particularly maddening when the opening ballet is BAISER DE LA FEE: a ballet where atmosphere is everything. Yet conductor Andrews Sill had no sooner begun to spin this delicious score when the ushers began tromping up and down the aisles with their little flashlights and urgent stage whispers and their footfalls on the uncarpeted floor: the magic of the Tchaikovsky/Stravinsky score went out the window. Once the spell of a ballet has been broken there’s no redeeming it, and so despite truly gorgeous dancing from Tiler Peck, Robert Farchild, the lovely demi-solistes Alina Dronova and Erica Pereira and the pretty flock of corps ballerinas, BAISER went for nought tonight.

There’s really no excuse to seat people after the conductor enters the pit: there are closed-circuit screens on each level where latecomers can watch the first ballet. Excuses like “the traffic”, “the MTA”, “the weather” don’t fly: that’s life in Gotham. Why should the seating of a score of stragglers infringe on the enjoyment of the vast majority of people who have made the effort to be there on time? I suppose there’s no point in kvetching: no one cares anyway.

Unfortunately, the bad vibe stretched into Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux also, and despite the charming dancing and daredevil flourishes of the beloved Megan Fairchild/Joaquin de Luz partnership, I was feeling grumpy. Soon the two dancers cheered me up, and Megan’s marvelous fouettes in the coda were a real treat. Joaquin’s solo drew sighs of admiration from the crowd, and even though the second fish dive in the coda was a bit off-kilter, this delightful duo already had their success sewn up.

BAL DE COUTURE is a Peter Martins ballet created to show off costumes designed by Valentino; it is a sort of pageant in which twenty principal dancers promenade and waltz to Tchaikovsky. A dreamy adagio for Janie Taylor and Sebastien Marcovici seems unrelated to the rest of the ballet, and their romance is intruded upon by Rob Fairchild who momentarily lures Janie’s attentions. The choreography throughout is formulaic with ballroomy touches. The women’s costumes are singularly unflattering, with Janie’s wafting pink a la SONNAMBULA bearing no relation to the black-white-and-red get-ups the other girls are wearing. The dancers went thru the motions sportingly, the music is so much more-than-pleasant (both dance numbers EUGENE ONEGIN are played) but the sum total effect of the piece is negligible: the time, expense and talent involved could have been better put to use elsewhere.

At last the evening bloomed in full with DIAMONDS; I don’t like the gaudy tinsel-town decor of the current setting but from a musical and choreographic viewpoint DIAMONDS always glows. Sara Mearns danced with meltingly magical style in the adagio passages: she gracefully incorporates the allusions to Odette and Raymonda into the ballet, and she is simply gorgeous to watch. In the allegro section, her bravura dancing did not quite have its usual impetuosity but in the finale she was grand in every way. Ask LaCour made his debut in this ballet tonight: his partnering was very supple, his expression noble and poetic, his sense of the underlying courtly romance of the piece right on the mark. Long-legged danseurs do not always command the allegro footwork in a given ballet, but Ask came thru very nicely in the showy moments. As the ballet drew to its final minutes, Sara beamed her luxuriant smile on Ask and it seemed this rather last-minute partnership had worked out well in every regard: Sara and Ask basked in a very warm ovation and took and extra curtain call, very well-deserved. The demi-soliste quartet of Lauren King, Ashley Laracey, Gwyneth Muller and Megan LeCrone and the excellent work of the corps helped to compensate for the evening’s unsavory start: thoughts of the late seating were gone. But not forgotten.

DIVERTIMENTO FROM ‘LE BAISER DE LA FÉE’: T. Peck, *R. Fairchild, Pereira, Dronova

TCHAIKOVSKY PAS DE DEUX: M. Fairchild, De Luz

BAL DE COUTURE: Kowroski, Reichlen, Krohn, Scheller, Hyltin, A. Stafford, T. Peck, M. Fairchild, Bouder, Taylor, J. Angle, la Cour, Danchig-Waring, Veyette, R. Fairchild, Ramasar, Finlay, De Luz, Carmena, Marcovici

DIAMONDS from JEWELS: Mearns, *La Cour

January 25, 2013
Balanchine/Stravinsky @ NYC Ballet

Thursday September 27, 2012 – The third programme in the New York City Ballet‘s 2012 Stravinsky festival included the first ballet that I ever saw the Company perform: BAISER DE LA FEE. This work of pure enchantment holds a special place in my heart and while the memory of Patricia McBride and Helgi Tomasson dancing the ballet’s principal roles on that first night roles stays strong in the memory, I was particulary keen to see tonight’s pairing of Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia making their BAISER debuts.

But first a zesty appetizer: SCHERZO A LA RUSSE was performed by students from SAB. It’s always fun to see, with it’s unfinished sentence at the end.

BAISER with its intoxicating score (conducted by Jayce Ogren, who at the end of the evening gave us a delicious reading of FIREBIRD) always weaves its dreamy spell. And under that spell, Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia danced superbly: Tiler’s pirouettes so swift, soft and fair, and Gonzalo brushing the floor with his fingertiips in his mysterious solo. Their artistry, individually and in unison, is thoroughly satisfying to experience. As the melody of ‘None but the lonely heart’ pulses in the orchestra, the dream ends – or does it go on? – as the lovers back away from one another, eyes heavenward. Alina Dronova and Faye Arthurs were very agile and lovely in their demi-soliste roles.

DANSES CONCERTANTES with its fussy Eugene Berman costumes, old fashioned ‘flats’ setting and entr’acte curtain, has a music hall flavour. It seems a bit dated, and the score – perfectly pleasant – is unmemorable in the long run. Brilliant dancing from Megan Fairchild, Andrew Veyette and a dozen premiere corps dancers (forming four colour-coded pas de trois) showed the ballet to its best advantage, but tonight it seemed longish and very much of a theatrical era that has vanished.

But FIREBIRD seemed like solid gold tonight, with its glowing score – Stravinsky’s most marvelous, in my view – and its ever-entrancing Chagall designs. For me this is a ballet that never ages. Teresa Reichlen is an elegant vision in her fiery tutu, and with her fluttering gestures, her lovely stretched-out leaps and the gentle hush of her Berceuse, she was perfect. Ask LaCour and Savannah Lowery as the prince and princess were likewise impressive. And to the gorgeous melodies of their ensemble, a dozen fetching ballerinas in their Chagall peasant-gowns wove a particularly enchanting spell: Anderson, Arthurs, Brown, Hankes, King, Laracey, LeCrone, Mann, Pazcoguin, Pollack, Smith and Wellington – a fine corps-watchers opportunity. If the girls take the whole thing a bit tongue-in-cheek, that actually makes it all the more fun. Thank you, my beauties.

SCHERZO À LA RUSSE: Students from the School of American Ballet

DIVERTIMENTO FROM ‘LE BAISER DE LA FÉE’: *T. Peck, *Garcia, Arthurs, Dronova

DANSES CONCERTANTES: M. Fairchild, Veyette

FIREBIRD: Reichlen, la Cour, Lowery, Scordato

September 27, 2012