Wednesday June 27, 2012 matinee - Alas that the performance I most wanted to see during ABT's week of SWAN LAKEs fell on a Wednesday matinee. I knew it would be a bad audience experience and I was right about that; actually, considering the vast number of children in the audience it wasn't as bad as it might have been. But of course seated right behind us were a mother and her three kids who whispered and squirmed and ate and drank their way through the matinee. Eventually I gave up my excellent seat and moved to the balcony boxes so I could concentrate.
ABT's SWAN LAKE is overall rather dull; the 'traditional' parts - especially the first lakeside scene - are of course quite lovely but there's a whole catalog of tedious bits that detract from the focus of the narrative. Nonetheless, it serves ABT's purpose as a producton into which each principal ballerina and danseur can be plugged for their annual go at Odette/Odile and her Prince. Today, though, the casting was fresh: soloists Isabella Boylston and Daniil Simkin (photo above) tackled these iconic roles for the first time at The Met and scored a resounding success.
Daniil, point blank, is a dancer I love. Although I don't go to ABT all that frequently, I am always happy to find Daniil dancing on a day that I am there. And so when he was listed for his first Siegfried, I immediately put this matinee on my calendar. Having seen many 30-to-40 year old Siegfrieds over the years (not that I'm complaining: they've been wonderful!) it was really refreshing to witness Daniil's youthful elegance in the role. Carrying himself with inborn dignity, Daniil brought a sense of true innocence to the ballet. Heart on sleeve, he went bravely into the uncharted territory of first love; that his passion would lead to his eventual doom never entered his mind. Throughout the performance, his boyish figure and expressive face kept us strongly focused on Siegfried's story. Daniil's dancing was fleet-footed, immaculate and supremely musical.
Isabella Boylston's Odette/Odile was a lovely creation, beautifully danced. She hasn't quite found the quality of mystery that will eventually make her Odette truly impressive, but her interpretation is already well-formed and she is quite a sparklingly powerful Odile. Boylston had the crowd with her from the start, reaping a burst of cheers for her fouettes and a huge shout of approval at her solo bow.
Jared Matthews was superb in Rothbart's 'hypnotic' solo - an unnecessary passage, but Jared made it eminently worthwile. Kristi Boone and Karen Uphoff were luxuriant as the leading swans, but the idea of casting three soloists among the four cygnets didn't come off: each ballerina seemed to be in her own world and the result was lack of coordination and a rather bumpy traversal of the space. The Act I pas de trois was finely danced by Joseph Gorak, Devon Teuscher and Christine Schevchenko.
In the Black Swan act, the national dances are lamely choreographed but I did very much like Simone Messmer in Spanish and thought - watching her watching the proceedings with her own personal mystique in play - what a fascinating Swan Queen she would be.
Simkin and Boylston taking their bows here.