March 24, 2006...Toronto, Ontario... KAREN KAIN, Artistic Director, today announced that tickets to The National Ballet of Canada’s inaugural performance on June 22nd at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts will go on sale to Patrons and Members on April 6th, April 18th to National Ballet Subscribers and May 1st to General Public. The Illuminata Ball , a gala fundraiser for 500 guests following the performance, is sold out.

Tickets to the performance only portion of the evening are $100 and a limited number at $75 and $50. All ticket holders will be invited to a celebratory cocktail party immediately following the performance in the City Room.

Trying to imagine the possibilities of the new, while stuck in the old, is one of the dilemmas facing anxious opera and ballet fans (the National Ballet of Canada is also moving to the Four Seasons), who have been forced to renew their subscriptions based on websites, brochures and a leap of faith -- all by April 28, more than a month before the gala opening, and nearly six months before the inaugural opera season begins.

A gift of more than $100,000 will give you priority in the "grand ring," the best seats in the house.

FROM THE opening image of two young lovers vigorously and incessantly humping away at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, you know where the National Ballet of Canada's latest blockbuster An Italian Straw Hat is going.

What is missing is in Timothy Luginbuhl's storytelling is he tried to create ballet’s version of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. But clearly, he and choreographer James Kudelka have bitten off more baguette than they can chew. You need a GPS just to keep track of all the coupling that goes on here.