Wednesday June 6, 2007 - This performance of ABT's new SLEEPING BEAUTY was my birthday gift to Wei. When you give someone a book or a sweater as a present, it has the advantage of being returnable. But once the ticket-taker tears your tickets at the Met, there are no exchanges/no refunds. At Tower, you could always return something if it was defective; however you can't do anything about a defective ballet/opera performance. You have to either suffer or leave. Having sat thru about a thousand operas and six hundred dance performances over the years, I have to rate this as one of the worst: just slightly less hideous than the NYCO FREISCHUTZ many years ago.
Don't get me wrong: there was some beautiful dancing from Diana Vishneva, David Hallberg, Stella Abrera, Herman Cornejo & Xiomara Reyes. And there was the delight of seeing Martine van Hamel and Susan Jaffe onstage again. But it all was defeated by the garish costumes, uninspired staging, the lumbering narrative and the odorous pyrotechnics with which ABT filled the Met stage.
The phrase 'mediocre salade Russe' was used by Walter Nuvel during one of Diaghilev's committee meetings as they were planning new ballets. It's the impression I got from this BEAUTY: everyone throwing ingredients into the pot helter-skelter and stirring it, hoping something tasty is the result.
Instead it was a long, tedious and visually unpleasant night.
My catalog of complaints starts with Craig Salstein's Catalabutte: why use a young dancer in 'old' makeup when any major ballet company has old-stagers and retired danseurs hanging around? Craig did what he could with the role. About 30 seconds after Susan Jaffe made her entrance as the Queen, someone in the audience realized who she was and started to applaud; a few others joined in feebly. The baby was passed around: the Lilac Fairy at one point seemed about to provide wet-nurse services.
The prologue's fairy set-piece was disorganized; the girls danced their variations well but in ensemble pieces they came and went at random, jostled by the too-numerous Lilac Fairy attendants and partnered by anonymous knights. The hideous, spangled crayola costumes for the fairies seemed to have been salvaged from last year's recital at the Mary Beth School of Ballet, Tap and Jazz.
Poor Martine van Hamel as Carabosse was done up like a medieval bag-lady who had crawled out of the castle moat: her dull brownish-green dress really uninspired. No feeling of evil, no suggestion of power: she reminded me of a pan-handling nuisance on the subway who won't leave you alone. The smoke from her 'meteoric' entry filled the Met with a mild stench for the rest of the evening.
A long scene folllows involving some innocent women who are discovered with a spindle (which Martine had given them); the King decides they must be beheaded - along with Craig and his assistant, for having let this weapon of mess destruction infiltrate the castle on their watch. After filibustering himself endlessly, good King Florestan decides that extraordinary rendition to Gelsey Kirkland Master Classes is a more appropriate punishment. They commit suicide instead.
Garland Waltz: hideous mustard-yellow costumes for the very small group of celebrants. Non-existant choreography. Two kids, Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Drew Nelson are featured. Once you've seen the Balanchine Garland Waltz at New York City Ballet, any other version looks lame.
Vishneva's line and balances in the Rose Adagio were well-nigh perfect, but no feeling of interacting with her parents or her ill-costumed suitors. The princes were equally indifferent to her: just there in a support function. The roses didn't seem to mean anything to this Aurora. Nice long legs, though.
It's fine to present more of the Hunting Scene than NYCB does, but the choreography was vapid. David Hallberg, immaculate prince that he is, is not allowed to show us his loneliness or the poetic depth of his romantic longing. His supposed drinking from an enchanted river (actually inhaling noxious fumes) grants him his vision of Aurora.
Instead of dreamy nymphs in the Vision Scene, we have the Lilac Fairy attendants, which saves on additonal costume expense. Why have the fairies and cavaliers from the prologue flit on and off here? Are they supposed to be 'helping' the Lilac Fairy? If there is one character in ballet who does not need any help, it's the Lilac Fairy - thank you very much. And who knew that the Lilac Fairy was Lohengrin's kid sister? She has borrowed big brother's swan boat, dusting it liberally with glitter. Later, in a fussy and ill-staged scene set on Amsterdam Avenue, David is woven into a spider web by Carabosse and cut free by Sam Gamgee. No, wait, that's a different story.
Finally we get to the kiss and the awakening. But the king and queen have overslept (they never make it to their daughter's wedding), and there is no final confrontation between Lilac and Carabosse. The courtiers seem to have taken advantage of the long sleep to move to Fort Lauderdale; only a handful remain to dance at the wedding. It was pointless to bother with costumes for Puss-in-Boots, the Cat, Red Riding Hood, the Wolf, and Cinders & her prince; their numbers were eliminated and they stood inexplicably about while Herman Cornejo delivered the evening's one real firecracker with his Bluebird. In a seeming mis-reading of the backstory, they put Florine (the pretty Reyes) in a cage. Diana & David looked fine in the pas de deux; though the mechanics of the fish dives were evident, the climactic of pose of each was very attractive. At the end, Abrera looked mighty uncomfortable forcing a smile as she was hoisted shakily over the final tableau.
All this and I didn't even mention the shower curtain in the Prologue!
The house was not nearly full and only Herman got a real blast of enthusiasm; the dancers tended to milk applause, lingering too long and bowing to keep the clapping going rather than letting audience demand dictate the curtsies. Nice flowers for all the gals...
As always I found the Met too large for dance and the toe shoes noisy in a house built to project sound from the stage. The usual audience distractions: the Russians behind us could not get comfy all night and kept kicking our seats and rearranging themselves. The overly-perfumed girl next to me started rummaging through her bag during the Rose Adagio, finally pulling out her phone to take a picture of Diana. Then she rummaged some more while putting it away.
The interminable evening was brightened at intermission when we spotted Darci Kistler on the grand staircase. In a striking black and white frock which beautifully displayed the Kistler legs, her legendary hair tossed with a star's effortless artistry, we thought seeing her compensated for the dull proceedings onstage.
Haha, great review! I'm glad to see Drew Nelson is getting some big parts. He was one of my favorite kids in "My Life as a Child."
Posted by: Dmitry | June 07, 2007 at 12:44 PM
I'm going to blog on it later when I've seen it a second time, but I pretty much felt the same way. I had a different cast, but I pretty much agree -- the dancing in mine (Part, Gomes) was close to perfection; the production itself just didn't really do that much for me. Herman and Xiomara were fantastic but yeah, I felt like the rest of that scene was odd with all of the others standing on and watching. I had an older guy -- Wes Chapman I think -- in Craig's character, so that made more sense in mine. And Gelsey was my Carabosse, and I have say, whoa, she blew me away. As much as I complained about her a-little-too-harsh treatment of dancers at the Works & Process thing at Guggenheim ... she was a powerhouse performer. She must have been quite the ballerina when she was still dancing, and watching her now made me sorry to have missed that era in ballet.
Posted by: tonya | June 07, 2007 at 10:24 PM
I've been debating whether to see the ABT Sleeping Beauty so I very much welcome your review because I think it has saved me from a very dreary evening. Having read the Macauley and Barnes reviews, I was already leaning in that direction but your comments sealed the deal for me. Yes, as Tonya notes, Gelsey Kirkland was and apparently still is a powerhouse performer but let us not forget that she was the key artistic advisor on this whole project and probably threw more ingredients into the pot than anyone - if there is blame to go around for this production, it most likely should start with her. Hey, at least you had a Darci sighting - that would be enough of a birthday present for me.
Posted by: Bob | June 08, 2007 at 12:39 AM
I saw Kirkland dance many times; most notably, she attained perfection in two very different roles: Swanhilda and Giselle. But being a great dancer doesn't make you a great coach or stager.
From what I have heard, getting this BEAUTY onstage was a nightmare...and it shows.
Posted by: Philip | June 08, 2007 at 06:56 AM
Update: On Thursday I ran into two friends, big ABT fans who had planned to see BEAUTY several times. They had both gone to the opening and were sorely disappointed. Despite their devotion to the ABT dancers, they both said they never wanted to see the production again. Really sad - a waste of time, money and energy. Even sadder: the dancers are stuck with this production for years to come.
Posted by: Philip | June 08, 2007 at 08:25 AM
Oh Phillip, fire the new guy from the Times, and get that gig; you deserve it for this classic review. I LOVE "Sleeping Beauty," but I wisely chose the June 7 bill you too saw with Darci as divine and rapturous as I've ever seen her. Ashley is s wunderkind. And "Union Jack" shot me filled with adrenaline. Why the hell haven't Pauline and Savannah and Glenn made it out of the corps? My two faves (see he shot in Sunday Styles?) are Gina P., and Katie Morgan. I yearn for Janie. Our friend Bob said she should be a model after he saw her at The SAB Gala Monday night. I will gladly act as her agent.
Posted by: jim | June 08, 2007 at 02:21 PM
Many of the dancers in the NYCB corps deserve to be soloists...but then, we wouldn't have a corps. If I was a dancer, I think I'd be pretty happy in the corps dancing Balanchine and Robbins every night and working on new choreography. Imagine getting paid to do something you love, and something that brings other people so much joy.
Posted by: Philip | June 08, 2007 at 02:43 PM