Hello, CD Friends! Thought I might start a new thread so we’ll all have a place to stash our notes from San Francisco Ballet’s upcoming appearance at the Dorothy Chandler Music Pavilion (Music Center of Los Angeles). Most likely I’ll catch a show or two:

Website for Music Center of Los Angeles

Some related discussion threads:

San Francisco Ballet at Stern Grove 2003 San Francisco Ballet tour to Edinburgh 2003
San Francisco Ballet repertory season - Programs #1, 2, and 3 (includes "Allegro Brillante" and "Elite Syncopations"
San Francisco Ballet's "Don Quixote"
San Francisco Ballet 2003 - 2004

Individual reviews

San Francisco Ballet at Stern Grove 2003
San Francisco Ballet - 'Allegro Brillante,' 'Concerto Grosso,' 'Polyphonia,' 'Damned'
San Francisco Ballet's new "Don Quixote"

There is a little bit of casting information from the company’s website which I’m sure they wouldn’t mind my sharing here (for some reason Friday's performance isn't even listed):



PRINCIPAL CASTING FOR SAN FRANCISCO BALLET
DOROTHY CHANDLER PAVILION, October 7-12, 2003


TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7 AT 8:00 PM

DON QUIXOTE
Conductor: Andrew Mogrelia
Kitri: Lorena Feijoo
Basilio: Joan Boada


WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8 AT 8:00 PM

DON QUIXOTE
Conductor: Andrew Mogrelia
Kitri: Kristin Long
Basilio: Gonzalo Garcia


THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9 AT 8:00 PM

ALLEGRO BRILLIANTE
Conductor: Andrew Mogrelia
Piano Soloist: Bogas

Vanessa Zahorian, Zachary Hench

Elana Altman, Emily Halpin, Sarah Van Patten, Courtney Wright, Chidozie Nzerem, David Arce, Brett Bauer, Moises Martin

-pause-

CONCERTO GROSSO
Conductor: Andrew Mogrelia
Violin Soloist: Roy Malan
Violin Soloist: Marianne Wagner
Cello Soloist: David Kadarauch
Viola Soloist: Paul Ehrlich

Pascal Molat

Garret Anderson, Jaime Garcia Castilla, Rory Hohenstein, Hansuke Yamamoto

-INTERMISSION-

POLYPHONIA
Pianist: Michael McGraw

Katita Waldo, Yuri Possokhov
Lorena Feijoo, Gonzalo Garcia
Julie Diana, Ruben Martin
Kristin Long, Guennadi Nedviguine

-INTERMISSION-

ELITE SYNCOPATIONS
Piano/Band Conductor: Michael McGraw

Julie Diana, Damian Smith, Muriel Maffre, James Sofranko, Sarah Van Patten, Peter Brandenhoff, Katita Waldo, Gonzalo Garcia, David Arce, Rory Hoenstein, Moises Martin, Liz Miner, Pauli Magierek

Clara Blanco, Margaret Karl, Brooke Reynolds, Amanda Schull, Courtney Elizabeth, Joanna Mednick, Erin McNulty, Courtney Wright

Chidozie Nzerem, Garrett Anderson, Jaime Garcia Castilla, Jonathan Mangosing, Aaron Orza, Pablo Piantino, Kirill Zaretskiy, Brett Bauer


SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11 AT 2:00 PM

DON QUIXOTE
Conductor: Andrew Mogrelia
Katri: Vanessa Zahorian
Basilio: Vadim Solomakha


SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11 AT 8:00 PM

DON QUIXOTE
Conductor: Andrew Mogrelia
Kitri: Kristin Long
Basilio: Gonzalo Garcia


SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12 AT 2:00 p.m.

DON QUIXOTE
Conductor: Andrew Mogrelia
Kitri: Lorena Feijoo
Basilio: Joan Boada

O just a reminder. If any Southern California friends are considering making the trek to the LA Music Center, keep in mind that there has been a bit of construction downtown these past months.

Directions and parking from the LA Music Center's website

If it is available, I myself prefer to park across Hope Street at the DWP (Dept. Water & Power) lot which is both cheaper and less troublesome to get out of than the Music Center's own underground parking.

Thanks for such a comprehensive guide, Jeff!
I'm looking forward to seeing the reviews!!

A preview/feature on SFB in Los Angeles:

more (requires paid subscription)

A preview of SFB's LA shows:

more

San Francisco Ballet in "Don Quixote"
Tuesday October 7
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles

Doing “Don Quixote” well requires a really big sense of humor and heaps of great dancing. In ballet form "Don Q" has always been a silly affair. The plot, only slightly inspired by a portion of Miguel de Cervantes’ book of the same name, is pretty corny and pointless. So, a ballet company has to really shine through with really entertaining performances to make up for that deficiency.

Fortunately, San Francisco Ballet had both – though at times in somewhat uneven amounts – in its opening night performance of “Don Quixote” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Tuesday.

And it lived up to the challenge of making an evening of fun and entertaining ballet, helped in no small part by Lorena Feijoo and Joan Boada’s absolutely fantastic performances as Kitri and Basilio. The stage seemed to brighten every time they were on stage, and when they left, one longed for them to return. Both were outstanding in the dancers in the technical sense – Boada’s huge jumps and Feijoo’s rock-solid balances on pointe defy physics; Feijoo’s fouettes in Act 3 were astounding – but what really made them great was that they were charming and funny as performers as well. Feijoo was hilarious with her antics in the opening scene; and Boada gave it right back to her. Boada feigning death in the Act 2 tavern scene was priceless.

Their youthful spirits make them seem like the characters they are portraying – young lovers having a great time being in love and being young. And they also physically looked like young lovers, something that doesn’t happen all too often when some of the big Russian companies perform “Don Q.” Many of the older ballerinas and male dancers just don’t look like young bouncy lovers. Boada and Feijoo fit the roles perfectly and it adds a lot to their performances.

Of course, one cannot talk about these two dancers without mentioning their stellar dancing, which I’ve only mentioned briefly thus far. From Feijoo’s entrance, with effortless jumps followed by an equally effortless high kick, straight through to the Grand Pas de Deux at the end, the pair never failed to impress the audience with their technical ease and confidence. With appealing characterization layered on top of such fine dancing, Feijoo and Boada made a truly great pair.

Among the corps, there was some great dancing all around. The group Spanish dances were really sharp and everyone hit the poses really strongly, with a certain sense of conviction. Their “crowd” work in the market place scene took a little bit of time to warm up, however, as it looked a bit stilted when the curtain first rose. There was also a bit too much fussing – as opposed to stage flow – with some of the stage mechanics, such as when the group was trying to throw Sancho on the cloth. In general, however, once the company warmed up it was smooth sailing from there on outwards. The aforementioned group dances were truly a joy to watch, and that usually isn’t the case.

In the soloist roles, Vanessa Zahorian and Mayo Sugano were delightful as Kitri’s friends. Zahorian in particular has an easy style with strong technique, and it came out particularly in the Act 3 variations. Sarah Van Patten was enjoyable as Mercedes in the Act 2 tavern scene, with her impressively flexible back.

In a thoroughly entertaining evening, however, there was one major letdown – and that was the Act 2 dream sequence. It is supposed to involve lots of glittery dancing, glittery costumes, and glittery costumes – in both the literal and figurative sense. But here, the set seemed underwhelming, the costumes were more muted than sparkly, and the soloist variations – Feijoo’s aside – were off on Tuesday night. Muriel Maffre was the Queen of the Driads, and was clearly not at the top of her form on Tuesday, slightly flubbing the last bit of in her variation. Feijoo’s variation was the scene’s only saving grace. Just like the rest of the performance, it was fantastic, with her jumps that landed as rock-solid balances – which she held for a breathtaking second or two before moving on and doing exactly the same thing.

Tomasson and Possokhov’s production does well with some of its additons, such as a new pas de deux in Act 2 for Kitri and Basilio. The pas de deux was well choreographed and at the same time, bolstered a plot point. The audience sees that the two are actually, seriously in love instead being involved in what appears to be mere infatuation that love, as the ballet’s normal scheme generally tends to imply. The choreography here is really appealing, if seeming a little bit more melancholic than “Don Q” normally is, and the music is really great, also.

The new finale is a wonderful addition, replacing the odd ending in minor key that usually closes the ballet. It’s much for fitting for a comic ballet – it always seemed odd that after such a joyous Grand Pas de Deux, the curtain comes down in an oddly minor key. The new finale, which uses music by Delibes, is bouncy and involves some more flashy dancing for the whole company as the curtain comes down.

Andrew Mogrelia conducted the orchestra, and did a respectable job considering the hack job that is the score for this production – this production, in addition to the regular Minkus music, uses random material from his other works (“Paquita” is thrown in there somewhere), as well as music from other composers. Not to mention that the curtain comes down on Delibes.

I look forward to seeing the company – and hearing the orchestra – later this week in the contemporary programs, and I’ll definitely be going to see the remaining casting combinations for “Don Q” the rest of this week.

--art

<small>[ 08 October 2003, 06:25 PM: Message edited by: art076 ]</small>

San Francisco Ballet in “Don Quixote”
Wednesday, October 8
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles

What a difference a single night makes. The San Francisco Ballet’s second performance of “Don Quixote” on Wednesday night was quite a marked difference over Tuesday night’s opening performance. And Tuesday night wasn’t a bad performance. Wednesday’s just upped it one more level, even though some of the flaws of the Tomasson/Possokhov production made themselves a bit more evident on second viewing.

Kristin Long was the highlight of the evening. She has an easy, exuberant style that catches the audience immediately when she steps onto the stage. Her stage presence is strong and very clear – once she was on stage, the audience knew that THE ballerina was here. Long was engaging as a character; she made Kitri funny, cute and saucy all at once – the audience simply ate it up. And, her ability to pull technical tricks – fouettes and otherwise – was quite impressive. Despite an unfortunate slip during the final variation of the Act 3 Grand Pas de Deux, Long was a definite audience favorite, coming back in the coda to make her final seduction with those fantastic fouettes. She did a pretty interesting thing in those fouettes – after doing a pretty standard set of them, she suddenly changed her spot point, changing it several times, having them go around in a large circle before finishing towards the audience. Another remarkable thing about her performance was that she looked stunning in both the flashy “Kitri” scenes as well as the very-classical Dream scene. Feijoo, the night before, was fantastic in the “Kitri” scenes and good in the Dream scene, but Long was fantastic in the “Kitri” scenes and positively glittering in the Dream scene. Personally, I fell in love with Long’s performance during Tomasson & Possokhov’s new pas de deux for Kitri and Basilio in the Act 2 gypsy camp scene. She takes a pretty standard dance and turns it into something very relevant for the ballet as a whole, and it is performed beautifully. She’s a very versatile dancer who never seemed to stop for the entire ballet.

Unfortunately, as Basilio, Gonzalo Garcia, did not live up to Long’s standard. There were some perilous moments of partnering (some odd lifts, and some awkwardness in the Grand Pas de Deux fish dive), and Garcia seemed too self-conscious at times to really let himself have fun with the role. Garcia impressed in his solos, however, with flashy jumps and endless series of turns. He will probably grow into the role eventually – it’s a technically demanding role, and Garcia is still a relatively young dancer.

In general, the corps de ballet was much more energized Wednesday night – though the opening scene was still somewhat problematic in that it took them some time to warm up.

The biggest improvement on Wednesday was the Act 2 Dream scene. It was actually a good dream Wednesday – a fantastic dream, in fact – with especially strong dancing from each of the soloists: Julie Diana as the Queen of the Driads, Elizabeth Miner as Cupid, and Long as Dulcinea/dream Kitri. Diana wowed with her virtuosity, Miner induced smiles with her bounciness, and Long continued to impress all the more with additional rock-solid technique.

Stepping back to look at the production as a whole now, while the production is good it lacks something in comparison to other performances of “Don Quixote” that I have seen. Much of the musical orchestration in the opening scene is problematic, and that seems to be the problem: it doesn’t help make the ballet any more interesting than it is without dancing trick after trick. I seem to remember the music in other productions being much more fun and having a much fuller sound every time that I’ve seen it, and this perhaps added to the fun experienced in those performances. With the musical element somewhat lacking in San Francisco’s production, the opening suffers, and the company can only try its best to make “Don Q” leap off the stage.

--art

<small>[ 10 October 2003, 12:57 AM: Message edited by: art076 ]</small>

Segal didn't like Tuesday's performance, though he praised the technique of many of the lead females dancers:

more (requires paid subscription)

(edit: change Wednesday to Tuesday)

<small>[ 10 October 2003, 12:41 PM: Message edited by: Andre Yew ]</small>

But Laura Bleiberg did like the performance:

more

Quick notes from Thursday’s program (where I saw Andre and Jeff, who ended up being seated two seats away from me!):

San Francisco Ballet in "Allegro Brillante, "Concerto Grosso," "Polyphonia" and "Elite Syncopations"
Thursday, October 9
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles

Thursday evening was a mixed repertory program, and the “mixed” ended up being true of both the performances and the repertoire. The dancing shined spectacularly in some parts of the program, and went up and down in others.

George Balanchine’s “Allegro Brillante” opened the program; Vanessa Zahorian and Zachary Hench danced the principal couple. The program notes that there is motion flowing throughout the piece; well, they were moving yes, but there wasn’t very much excitement in all that movement. It looked more like they were just going through the motions Thursday night, and while Zahorian and Hench impressed technically in parts, the performance could have used more punch. Case in point: the piano cadenza in the middle of the piece that is used as a solo for the principal ballerina was danced competently by Zahorian, but it seemed to be lacking the attack that the solo looks like it needs in order to be truly be thrilling. The Balanchine choreography for the corps and principals, in the way it weaves around the stage and plays with the music, was there in all its “classic”-status form, but the spirit of it was lacking. Matters didn’t help in the pit, however. Andrew Mogrelia conducted the orchestra competently, but pianist Roy Bogas gave a rather lifeless playing of the piano part – the heart and soul of any piano concerto, not to mention the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 3 that Balanchine chose for “Brillante.”

From the moment the curtain lifted on “Concerto Grosso,” one could tell that things were going to be much different – in a good way. There was an immediate sense of energy from the five men dancing the piece – Pascal Molat as the principal, with Garrett Anderson, Jame Garcia Castilla, Rory Hohenstein and Hansuke Yamamoto. The choreography is very athletic and virtuosic, and the five men lived up to its challenges – especially Pascal Molat, who impressed with spectacular high jumps. The choreography was a fantastic match with the Baroque-flavored concerto that Tomasson chose to accompany the piece. Even though it was choreographed principally as a gala showpiece, and the constant appearance of technical tricks certain does make it more of a show piece than a super-serious contemporary ballet, “Concerto Grosso” holds its own with Tomasson’s intelligent use of the music and the charisma of the five men dancing the piece.

Christopher Wheeldon’s “Polyphonia” was really intriguing exploration of very modern sounding piano music by Gyorgy Legiti. The opening piece, “Dosordre” from Etudes pour piano, primier livre, sounds like it would be undanceable. But Wheeldon uses a good approach to it with his choreography, with each of the four couples doing separate, assertive movements stepping down stage to complement the assertiveness of the piano piece. I’ll need to see the piece another time to really feel its full effect, but what I saw Thursday night I liked. The Ligeti score is pretty complex, and Wheeldon mines it well, with interesting solos and some really wild partnering. There were great performances all around from the eight dancers in the piece – Katita Waldo, Yuri Possokhov, Lorena Feijoo, Gonzalo Garcia, Julie Diana, Ruben Martin, Kristin Long and Guennadi Nedviguine. They appeared to take the piece more seriously and were more interested in dancing it than the company performing “Allegro Brillante.” That attitude comes right through, and there is a certain intensity that comes with dancing it.

The evening concluded with what I felt was an overall charming but mixed performance of “Elite Syncopations.” It didn’t seem as bouncy as it should have been, what with the loud costumes and the Joplin music. But it was ultimately very charming, especially in some of the solos and pas de deux. The highlight was Muriel Maffre and James Sofranko as a very tall woman and a shorter man dancing a comic duet that involved many jokes about her being much taller. It was like a woman being taken to the dance floor by a little boy – a very cute piece that also involved some complex partnering as well. Katita Waldo was on fire in James Scott’s “Caliope Rag” and Julie Diana was an impressive presence all in white. Otherwise, however, in the large group dances, there appeared to be some sense of quietness, for lack of a better word, in the air; there needed to be a bit more “oomph” in the proceedings to make the whole thing much more exciting. A charming piece, though, and the audience especially liked Maffre and Sofranko’s duet.

I’m going back to see this program again principally to see “Polyphonia.” I’ve only seen two Wheeldon pieces so far (the first being “Mesmerics” this past weekend with George Piper Dances), and I respond to it very well. I have to admit, though, that I’m not as exposed to much of the work that many of his critics say he draws heavily from, so I can’t comment on that. I like what I see, though, and I look forward to x2 of “Polyphonia.”

Andre? Jeff? What did you think?

--art

In addition to the CD.com glitterati, Art neglects to mention that he was a few seats down from Christopher Wheeldon as well, who gave a pre-performance interview to an SFB administrator type (sorry I got there late). Lots of interesting info was revealed, including what Wheeldon claims was one of his reasons for quitting ballet: he's a terrible partner! He thinks this is why he's currently so fascinated by duets and partnering choreography, and that perhaps it's atonement for his past sins. I briefly mentioned to Wheeldon after the interview how wonderful George Piper Dances were, and he said that they are planning another collaboration. Hooray! I hope we get to see it in the US.

Anyway, on to the performance. I agree with Art in that the Balanchine (which, along with everything else on the program, I had never seen before) seemed slack, and somewhat perfunctory. Perhaps they were just dancing the steps, as Balanchine famously asks his dancers to do, but there was no intensity, or intent visible to me. Phrasing was monotonic, which is to say non-existent. Technically, the dancers were good, and the choreography is brilliant. To me, a trademark Balanchine trait is his ability to assemble steps that are simple in isolation into a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts, both spatially as an ensemble, as well as a build-up of tension over time. Breathtaking moments from Allegro Brillante include the opening when the curtain goes up, the first time the 4 girls dance by themselves in a complicated counterpoint movement, the repeated jumps by the 5 boys to a fading repeated phrase in the music, and the really amazing way the choreography fills and defines the stage space while being musical. Everything looks just right without the slightest hint of overpolish or slickness.

Which unfortunately leads us to Tomasson's Concerto Grosso. Again, the dancers were technically fine, especially Pascal Molat's amazingly fast, clear, precise, and huge (!) batterie work, and the dancer in light blue's ballon and ease, but the choreography reminded me of center exercises in class. There didn't seem to be any design in the choreography --- with a single dancer on stage, the stage overwhelmed the dancer, while the ensembles seemed to be a line up for the wonderful dancers to show off more stuff. Perhaps it's unwise to follow one of the 20th century's greatest choreographer's most enduring works with a trivial gala creampuff.

After an intermission, Wheeldon's Polyphonia was up next. Polyphonia has many interesting ideas, but I didn't see a cohesive unifying theme. To me, it's like a very interesting and fascinating experiment. For example, the first girl-boy pas de deux ended with a striking image that logically came out of nowhere. Perhaps that was the intent, but it wasn't as powerful for me as the suprising endings of Wheeldon's Mesmerics were because it was a non sequitur. The dancers performed the piece's Balanchine- and Kylian-like movements well, and I especially enjoyed the slower pieces where there seemed to be deeper things holding the dance together, as opposed to the faster pieces which seemed trivial. The opening and closing pieces with all 8 dancers also used footlights downstage to project shadows onto a white background upstage, and made for a very interesting effect.

After a second intermission was Macmillan's Elite Syncopations. The piece seems like one big outrageous bout of flirting, from the suggest-all-but-reveal-nothing costumes, to the plot and dancing. Given that, it was moderately successful for me --- I was looking for more outrageous behavior and expressiveness based on the stage setting and costumes, and even music, but everything felt held back. Maffre and Sofranko's duet loosened up the dancing a bit, but overall, the dancing was too restrained for me.

I'm hoping the dancers were just a bit tentative on an unfamiliar stage and somewhat early in the run. Hopefully this weekend's Don Q performances will find them in better spirits.

--Andre

From Andre's post: "the dancer in light blue's ballon and ease"

In SF, the dancer in blue was Hansuke Yamamoto. If he was in the cast you saw, then you're probably talking about him. And he does have excellent ballon and ease.

I wrote the above because when I read Andre's comment, I immediately had a mental image of Yamamoto in light blue (and I'm still pretty sure that's the color he wore). But then I tried to picture the other men, and now I'm seeing all of them in light blue! Can someone from the SF area help me out here?

Sorry. I can't even remember what I wore that night!

Interesting impressions, Andre. I'm not sure I enjoyed "Polyphonia" very much either but I felt "Concerto Grosso" was a stylish piece of work for five solo men (as opposed to a ballet for five dancers in ensemble).

djb,

Yamamoto was in darker blue last night, assuming he was the Japanese dancer. I forgot to mention how light Molat's landings were, especially his inaudible petite allegro landings. Do the 4 corps men always dance the same parts? From the writeup of the dance, it sounds like each part was custom-made for a particular dancer.

Azlan,

That's a good distinction to make. If I see it again, I'll see if that makes it work better for me.

--Andre