Leaving Handel for Bizet

Tuesday April 24, 2007 - Months ago I bought tickets for the Met's GIULIO CESARE for tonight, not realizing this was to be the Opening Night of the NYC Ballet season. I haven't missed an NYCB opening in years. After hearing the Handel opera on the radio Saturday I was really regretting my poor planning, but as there were several cast changes in the CESARE I decided to go ahead.

It was a beautiful evening; I sat outside the NYCB stage door for a while and was  feeling blue thinking that my dancers would be dancing and I wouldn't be watching. Wendy and Albert came by and they were both so nice, making me feel even worse. I peeked into the lobby and was surprised to see Miranda Weese's picture still on display.

Dmitry and I settled into the tiny box at the Met and the tiny orchestra launched the evening.  After the geriatric opening chorus, I was fascinated to hear Lawrence Zazzo singing so well as Cesare. I had not cared much for him on Saturday when he sang Ptolomeo but as Cesare he was really superb. The voice is clear, unforced, seamless, dramatically vivid and never hooty. He looks great, too (photo above). I was beginning to think I hadn't made a bad decision after all. But then Jill Grove (Cornelia) displayed a fruity and lush lower register and a curdled higher range; Alice Coote (Sesto) looked fantastic but her voice was dryish and uninteresting - though later, in 'Cara speme' she sounded better and was very moving. Gerald Thompson (debut as Ptolomeo) went for some high notes that were out of his comfort range. David Pittsinger (Achilla) was very good.

Back in 1998, Danielle de Niese, then still at Mannes I believe, made a strikingly attractive Met debut as Barbarina in NOZZE DI FIGARO. A few years later she was less successful when she replaced Bartoli in Ravel's L'ENFANT ET LES SORTILEGES, her voice seeming unfocussed and dullish. Since then she has been having success at several international venues in Mozart & Handel.  Tonight as Cleopatra, she looked quite dishy but her voice was very vibrant and tending towards edginess as she went higher.

I began looking at my watch after an hour of Handel; I was trying to figure out when I might be able to escape and get over to City Ballet in time for SYMPHONY IN C. Meanwhile, some idiot in the box below us was having periodic hacking coughing spells, always at the worst moments. We packed up and left. I invited Dmitry to come over to the ballet but he decided to go back to work.

Then I went into the State Theatre and the box office was closed. I always assumed the window stayed open thru the second intermission but: no, the ushers on duty told me - they close at 8:30.   I could hear AGON ending over the loudspeakers. I hung around for a bit and the usher called me over, saying someone had turned in a ticket and would I like to go in. Thank you, kind lady!

There was a good-sized audience and it felt good to be 'home'. SYMPHONY IN C started and Maestro Karoui was going a little too fast for my tastes and - it seemed - for the dancers as well. Things had a rather frantic feeling all thru the piece; the adagio was just too pushed to allow the movements to flow. Everyone seemed driven.

Ana Sophia Scheller in a  role debut in 1st Movement was really wonderful; she is an accomplished technician with a radiant quality; her solo passage in the finale was especially brilliant and with a true sense of the musical phrasing. Jon Stafford danced very well and took good care of Ana in the Allegro Vivo; Jon's spiffy turns in alternating directions are impressive. Later, in the finale, he and Ana were not totally in sync. She had come into the role fairly late in the day, replacing Jenifer Ringer, so that maybe she & Jon hadn't worked everything out in rehearsal. I'm sure the pacing from the pit was not helping matters, either. They have two more performances later in the week which I'm seeing and I'm betting they will get better and better.

Maria Kowroski initially seemed a little pallid in the adagio, not totally at ease. But as things progressed she blossomed; I really wish the conductor had allowed her a more expansive tempo. Philip Neal was her fine partner and he was dancing very well tonight. Bouder & de Luz were brilliant though Joaquin at one point went for too many pirouettes and ended with a hand-down as he went to the knee. Tiler Peck was having fun in the opening of the 4th movement, at one point reveling in what looked like a quadruple pirouette. Tyler Angle continues to impress as a partner and a presence.

But the hasty pace of the finale created something of a mish-mash; the four leading women dealt the difficulties but not in unison. There were partnering snares among the demi couples, some of whom were new to their roles. Luckily, everyone finished at the same time.

Kaitlyn Gilliland and Faye Arthurs, who went missing near the end of the Winter season, were beautifully back onstage; Gwyneth Muller looked great (demi/1st movement) as did Saskia Beskow (demi/3rd). In a big ballet like this I'm constantly trying to notice everyone without losing track of the principals. It's not an easy ballet for spot-checking on favorite corps dancers: there's too much going on. It was very nice, however, to see Pauline Golbin back onstage after her maternity leave in her customary place as a demi-soliste in the 2nd Movement.

Comments

[Dmitry]

I'm so glad you were able to get in to the ballet! I listened to the rest of CESARE on Sirius at work and sounded a little better on the radio, but was lacking overall. I can't claim to be a big Handel fan anyway, but "Giulio Cesare" is at the top of my Handel list and this performance was seriously lacking. I think Harry Bicket is a big nothing; I can't understand why he's so highly regarded in Handel. His "Rodelinda" last year was also palid, although Renee Fleming's howling - which he was unable to reign in - did the most damage. I agree with you about Zazzo and Pittsinger. And about the rest. I was disappointed in Jill Grove - perhaps Handel really is not for her at this stage. De Niese looks smashing and has her vocal moments, but the frequently sour top is a turn-off. Gerald Thompson - aside from disastrous embelishments he couldn't actually pull off - was such a queen. And Ptolomeo is staged in this production as a raving homosexual already, so it was a wonder he just didn't skip around the stage and get it over with. The charms of Alice Coote elude me. She looked fantastic and was very manly/masculine, but the voice is so dull and hollow and unattractive. Oh, well. They're set to revive this with Cecilia Bartoli in a few years - let's hope they cast it a bit better (Scholl, Zazzo, Mehta, Blythe - try to beat that!)

[Bob]

Glad you at least got to see Symphony in C. Yes, I thought the timing was slightly off tonight not only for Symphony in C but for the other ballets as well (due either to the conductor's tempo or the fact that it was opening night after a two month layoff). Nonetheless, there were a plethora of excellent performances - not only the ones you mentioned in Symphony in C (Scheller, Stafford, Kowroski - once she got into it, Neal, Bouder, De Luz, Peck and Angle were all superb; it's rare that the leads in the third allegro movement get called back onstage for an extra bow but it happened tonight with Bouder and DeLuz), but also Suozzi, Sylve, Askegard, La Cour and Bar in Four Temperaments, Kyra (of course) in Pavane, and Whelan, Evans, Reichlen and Veyette in Agon. Seth Orza, Amar Ramasar, and Savannah Lowery also stood out in Agon. As you said, things will get sharper by the end of the week but overall, it was a good start to the season and it's great to have them all back. There's a pretty good article in this week's New York magazine on the new wave of young dancers at City Ballet, with focus on the lead roles they have been given in Romeo & Juliet. Robert Fairchild (the opening night R & J Romeo)in particular is given a lot of attention.

[philip]

Thanks, Bob, for the additional info on the ballet opening.

Dmitry, I promise to go see Bartoli's Cleo...maybe they should revert to a mezzo Cesare?

[Sarah]

Phillip:

I am so glad you got to NYCB for a bit last night. I am heading to the State Theatre tomorrow (Thursday) and looking forward to seeing some of my favorites on the same evening. Hopefully, as you pointed out, the orchestra will have it down by then and the kinks will be worked out!

Glad to be back in NYCB season and happy to see you posting again.

Sarah

[tonya]

Ha ha, I LOVE that you abandoned the opera and went to the ballet! I also love Dmitry's description of Cesar -- couldn't stop laughing -- I feel like I need to see it now just to experience the horror of it all!

I read that article too, Bob, and was a bit annoyed by it. The writer seemed to be saying that all these old people (particularly older women) are offended by young dancers perhaps because they're jealous (?)... which doesn't make a lot of sense because why would you go to the ballet anyway if you're jealous of young beautiful dancers?... I think it's more that the dancer develops his or her artistry as s/he ages, which is what makes it so unfortunate, so horrible really, that dancers retire just at the age that they really begin to come into their own artistically. Of the Romeos and Juliets I saw at ABT last year, I was shocked to find that Jose Carreno and Alessandra Ferri were by far, BY FAR, my favorites -- and others have said the same. Jose, as Jennifer said, "oozes boyish charm" like no other, including David, who's far younger than he, and those two at the end brought me almost to tears, which NEVER happens with me! I am so not a softy! Anyway, I know this is a different choreographer and production, but, all I can say, lord help these 18-year-olds to even hold a candle to the two greatest dancers of our time!!!