ABT - Le Corsaire

Last night was the last ballet in my ABT subscription series.  And there was much sadness.  But at least I went out on a high note!  Last night's Le Corsaire was off the charts awesome!!  :)

I haven't seen Le Corsaire in years.  I'm pretty sure the last time I saw it, my Julie danced with Ethan Stiefel as Conrad and Angel Corella as Ali.  How scary is it that two of those three are retiring this season.  Well, Angel is already retired - I'm so sorry I didn't get to see him dance one more time.  His performances were always spectacular.  But I'm glad I got to see Ethan last night - the crowd was ready to cheer lustily for him and he didn't let anyone down.

Le Corsaire is a goofball ballet, in my opinion.  It's got a wackadoodle plot that is filled with sublime choreography.  How they made that happen, I'll never know.  But, hey, there are pirates and harem girls.  Something for everyone.  The show last night didn't get off to a great start - the ballet opens with the character of Lankendem, owner of the bazaar and seller of women, alongside his merchant pals.  Well, one of the merchant pals took a tumble in the first bit of dancing, which was scary.  To his credit, he got up and pushed another guy as if to say 'hey, no pushing!'  But still.  And Lankendem was danced by Sascha Radetsky, who, again, was perfectly fine, but did nothing for me.  Sigh.  I know I'm a broken record here.  I wish I could put my finger on what it is about his dancing that doesn't excite me, but I can't.  I tried to really watch him last night to pinpoint something, but couldn't.  Oh well.  But, at one point when Ethan raised his arms and took over the entire room, I thought, you can't teach that.  You either have it, or you don't.  Ethan has it.  Sascha...doesn't.

Gillian Murphy danced Medora and was lovely, as usual.  I don't know why I don't warm to her either, because she is a fantastic dancer.  I need to put her in rotation more next year, because she knocked my socks off last night in the second act.  Stella Abrera was a lovely Gulnare and her dancing got better with each solo.  Her pas de deux with Sascha, who, incidentally, is her husband in real-life, was again wonky.  He just must get nervous partnering her.  But she has a lyric quality that is quite nice, and she showed her playful side in the garden dream ballet.  Craig Salstein was a very charismatic bad guy, and Victor Barbee was a nicely goofy pasha.  The gals who were the odalisques in the first act were terrific, as were the corps playing the pirates.

Saving the best for last - Marcelo Gomes as Conrad and Ethan as his slave, Ali, ROCKED THE HOUSE!  Seriously, is there anything Marcelo Gomes can't do?  He's gorgeous, a fine actor, a spectacular dancer and a wonderful partner.  The pas de trois in the second act was AMAZING!  Seriously, completely and utterly fantastic.  I'm pretty sure Gillian Murphy did quadruple pirouettes.  I've never seen quadruple pirouettes before!  The audience gasped!  And then, during Ethan's solos, I gasped!  I don't think I've ever made an out loud noise at the ballet before, but he did a variation that I'd never seen before and it was fantastic!  The crowd roared!  It was truly spectacular.  And then, the bedroom pas de deux between Marcelo and Gillian was out of this world.  Gorgeous height and extension, great passion and musicality.  Sooooooo wonderful.  The rest of the ballet is a bit of an anti-climax after that, though the garden dream ballet was lovely and the little tiny ballerinas were adorable.

The audience went absolutely insane during the curtain call.  Clearly, everyone knows that Ethan is only dancing one more time at ABT after this, so no one wanted him to leave the stage.  Gillian Murphy, his off-stage fiancee, gave him one of her flowers and he was so touched.  And the way everyone was so happy for him was lovely.  I didn't get a very good photo of his curtain call, darn it, but I like the one of the five of them.  I think it shows the nice rapport the dancers have with one another.  I can only assume that Saturday night, Ethan's final performance, will be insane.  I've been at two final performances before - Julio Bocca's and Susan Jaffe's.  They were both amazing nights and I'm very sad I missed both of this year's special tributes.  May both gentlemen go on to bigger and better things.  They will be missed at ABT. 

Seat neighbor report - the lady sitting on my right was, conservatively, 97 years old.  God love her.  She was so excited to be there, she was practically levitating.  And she levitated and bobbed her head and tapped her feet through the entire performance, as if the percussionist needed a little help.  It was a little annoying, but I took a deep breath and let it go.  :)   The guy on my left was intent on his program before the show.  Then, when the lights started to come down, he got out his phone.  To use it.  Uh, no.  He leans to me and whispers "what's the name of this building?"  WHAT?!  I told him and he mainly behaved through the first act, though he did get his phone back out to read his program.  Sigh.  Anyway, at the first intermission, he turns to me and asks if it's over.  Uh, no, this is intermission and there will be another one later.  He says "was that question stupider than my other question?"  I laughed and said, oh no, there aren't any stupid questions.  He said, "There aren't?"  I said, ok, there are some.  He then left for intermission, to smoke, I presume, because he reeked of smoke when he came back.  At the second intermission, after the audience went insane for the pas de trois, he says, "This must be a really knowledgeable audience.  Was that dancing particularly good?"  I tried to explain to him about the quadruple pirouettes and Ethan's retiring.  He said oh and wondered if the last act had another section like that one.  I said, no, the exciting dancing is over.  The pretty dancing is coming.  Then, he left.  I hope it wasn't something I said.  But I wish I had asked him what on earth brought him to the ballet last night!  Is. A. Puzzlement.

It was a wonderful season, in my opinion.  I'm so sad it's over.  They've announced what they're doing at City Center this fall and I absolutely have to find the money to go.  Ratmansky is choreographing a new ballet to Shostakovich music.  That sounds divine.  In the meantime, I'll keep dreaming of my princes, David Hallberg and Marcelo Gomes, and hoping that the whole world can somehow be just as beautiful as the ballet...