A review of a recent performance.

I think the orchestra is a bit amplified - you can hear sound coming through the speakers on either side of the change. But beyond that, I'd be stumped - it's not easy because you've got to amplify the whole orhchestra equally so the variations between the sections is properly hear (i.e. trumpets might be soft, but the violins loud). However, you would think there's got to be some bright sound engineer out there who could find a creative solution for that problem.

As to PR - that's probably not the worst thing. From what I understand, Quinn is quite well liked by the dancers and musicians, and so not being totally PR-ideal is probably not a huge issue. Music directors don't tend to be in the forefront of a company most of the time and there's NOTHING WRONG with being nerdy. Sorry, but as a woman in a 'non-traditional] field, I hate it when nerdy is equated with being 'bad'. It's not. And I wouldn't expect a ballet music director to be perfect for PR - her job is to make sure the orchestra is good in performance and with the dancers. Anything beyond that is a bonus.

Kate

Robert Gottlieb reviews Christopher Wheeldon's "Klavier" as well as assorted Winter Season performances of Balanchine repertoire in the New York Observer:

NY Observer

Apollinaire Scherr reviews "Divertimento No. 15" in Newsday:

Newsday

A very descriptive review of "Klavier" by Lori Ortiz in Gay City News:

Klavier Review

NY Times review on last Saturday's matinee performance. It's wonderful to see Tyler Angle getting so many opportunties (this was actually his NYST debut as Romeo, for he performed the role in Saratoga last summer), but it seems that his older brother Jared has been missing from the casting since being promoted to principal. I do hope that the elder Angle is not again bedeviled with injury.



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I just thought anyone who hasn't seen this, SHOULD. Go the the address below and click the video button beneath the headshot.

http://www.het-nationale-ballet.nl/index.php?&cast_id=718

An article on "Union Jack" in the NY Times:



For more, clik here

An interesting look at "Union Jack", though I think the history is a bit blurred. There is no doubt that Balanchine's experiences at the Edinburgh Festival heavily influenced the first part of Union Jack. Anyone who has seen the Edinburgh (Military) Tattoo could not help but to notice the similarities.

To clarify, each 'clan' (there is no such thing as an all male or all female clan - a biological impossibility - clans are linked by a common family name) has a distinct tartan or tartans. Some clans have just a single tartan, others have a number of tartans - plain, dress, hunting etc. The names of the groups in 'Union Jack' reflect the tartan worn by the dancers and thus the name of the clan represented.

At the real Edinburgh Tattoo, the tartans are most notable in the massed drums and pipes (usually 100+ of each) where most of the pipers & drummers from each army/navy/marine/airforce regiment wear the regimental tartan and regalia. Some regiments, often foreign, do not wear kilts, but the majority do and it's a pretty spectacular sight to watch from one's window each night (though by the third week it gets a bit wearying).

Kate

As I recall the Union Jack premier, the costumes for the men in the first ("military tatoo") part of the ballet were created by a military taylor in Toronto and are, in fact, accurate replicas of the dress uniforms worn by the regiments identified in the program. The women's costumes are free variations on actual regimental themes, and the "RCAF" costumes (originally intended for Farrell) were created for the ballet.

For what it's worth, the performance on February 10th was exemplary. The kindest and most concise comment I can offer is that it almost made me forget the original cast.

Except that military groups are not identified by clan name - names come from location, history etc. For instance, these were the groups that took part last year:

1st Battalion Scots Guards
1st Battalion Irish Guards
1st Battalion The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment)
1st Battalion The Royal Highland Fusiliers
(Princess Margaret's Own Glasgow
and Ayrshire Regiment)
1st Battalion The King's Own Scottish Borderers
1st Battalion The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment)
1st Battalion The Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons)
1st Battalion the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
(Princess Louise's)
1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles
Scotland's Universities Officer's Training Corps
The Rats of Tobruk
City of Wellington
South African Irish Regiment

Though generally speaking, yes, the costumes are quite similar to some of the uniforms.

Kate

Peter Martins has finally realized that his role as impressario involves not creating dances that send people home discussing metaphysics -- or simply falling asleep until the ushers rouse them -- but giving audiences a thrill. "Friandises," which he debuted last Friday, is a high-energy firecracker of a ballet that gave a dozen very young, very talented dancers a splendid chance to show their stuff.

The score was co- commissioned from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Christopher Rouse with The Julliard School, which split the commission cost in honor if its centenary. (Adam Hoagland will create a completely different dance for Juliard Dance Theatre.) Rouse found his inspiration in medieval French dance forms, but he chose to take a direction a few thousand kilometers from "Agon."

In the NYCB version, a company fo 20 (half men, half women) displays impressive virtuosity in choregraphy that frequently contrasts very fast movement with a frozen silhouette -- arabesque en efface for instance -- to stunning dramatic effect. The lighting is dim and the costomes are grey, with key highlights in hot colors.

All the dancers performed the technically amazing feats demanded by the work with impressive aplomb. The featured couple, Danel Ulbrecht and Tiler Peck, showed that a triple pirouette could be a mind-boggling trip.

All in all, a welcome curtain number for many future NYCB performances.

And 'Friandises' is reviewed in the NY Times:



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The New York Times has an article on Christopher Wheeldon and his choreography:



Click here for more.

I've been away for a while, so several remarks:

Amplification at the New York State Theater: The City Opera does much more than "hang microphones over the stage." It has installed, at considerable expense, a system devised by a Dutch company that uses scores of microphones, deployed in different patterns for each production, scores of speakers, large and small, and a highly sophisticated computer program that adjusts the balance "on the fly" to compensate for blank spots, avoid echoes, and allow singers to deliver parts of their arias upstage. I'm not sure how it works with the orchestra -- there are no visible microphones or wiring in the pit -- but I doubt that it would be of much use to Cityt Ballet. And given the bad water between the companies -- the Opera has made no secret of its desire to leave the theatre and dump millions in extra costs on the Ballet -- I don't see much co-operation in the near future. The City Ballet does, however, use use amplification for music that requires a solo to sing above the tutti -- Stravinsky Violin Cncerto for example -- but it's more obvious and more useful than Dave Leterman.

PR and the Music Director Like ksneads, I agree that fund-raising is not the primary job of the Music Director. But in a world of very tight money, each part of an organization must participate.

And to other posters, many thanks for your dedication, even if the links you list have expired.

`

The New York Times on weekend performances:



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It's sad to note that the article mentions that Jared Angle is out with a back injury. Angle has struggled with injuries in recent years, but in the last year or so he'd finally seemed to have beaten them and gotten his long deserved promotion to principal. I do hope he recovers quickly and completely!

Kate