Humbled and Overwhelmed

The two-week non-stop Tchaikovsky Festival at the NYCB came to a close today with a rather eclectic program of Le Baiser de la Fee (Stravinsky's orchestrations of some of Tchaikovsky's melodies, including "None But the Lonely Heart,"), Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux , Peter Martins' Bal de Couture , and Diamonds . The afternoon ended on a disturbing note as the scherzo section of Diamonds was omitted and Sara Mearns tweeted immediately after the performance that she had injured herself and apologized. Get well Sara!

La Rondine January 26, 2013 Metropolitan Opera

January 22 is Mr. B's birthday, and what better way to celebrate Mr. B's birthday than another triple bill of Balanchine/Tchaikovsky works. Last night plenty of NYC balletomanes braved the sub-zero temperatures to see this wonderful performance.

Ah, so wonderful to see the NYCB's Winter Season again! I always itch for the Winter Season to start after months of nothing but the Nutcracker. It started on Tuesday but tonight was my first chance to go and all I can say is ... Welcome back Sara! Mearns has been sidelined with an injury for about 8 months, and to see her back in business was such a joy. Actually the whole program was a joy -- three Balanchine/Tchaikovsky masterpieces, all strongly cast. Bravo to the NYCB!

Maria Stuarda January 12, 2013 Metropolitan Opera

Ugh, December was not a good month. Had to cancel several plans. But I'm back in business and yesterday I went to the OONY's Andrea Chenier. My review can be found  here  at parterrebox.

Every year I splurge once for a NYCB Nutcracker performance. Balanchine's nostalgic recreation of the ballet he danced as a child in the Imperial School of Ballet remains the sweetest, richest, and best choreographed version of the ballet in existence. No matter how many times I watch this ballet, there's always a new detail that touches me as particularly beautiful and tender. In this case, I noticed the delightfully comic treatment of the mice by Balanchine. They're not just enemies of the soldiers -- most of them are just followers, sitting bleacher style watching the fight. When they drag off their mouse king I even felt bad for them.