Last night was the second ballet in my ABT subscription series - it was an evening of three short pieces: Mark Morris' Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, Frederick Ashton's A Month in the Country, and Balanchine's Symphony in C. Of the three, I believe I've only seen Symphony in C before, and that was ages ago. I was definitely excited to see these three ballets. Bear with me, though, because this will be a loooooooooooong post...The weather was humid, but I was happy to make it to the Met between downpours. I got there early enough to engage in my personal pre-show routine - photos, restroom, early in seat to read program to see who's dancing. Once I got to my seat, I noticed a group of youngsters seated in my section in the balcony. A few were in my row. They were rambunctious, but I thought, oh good, young people at the ballet. That can't be a bad thing. It turns out this was a group of students from one of the local dance schools - I can only assume they were from the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, since they referred to many of the ABT dancers by first name. But I can't be sure. Anyway, yes, young people at the ballet CAN be a bad thing and these kids were the poster children of BAD. They got on my bad side, quickly, by stating that my Julie should retire because she's old. And slow. Imagine my head exploding. I almost missed the happiness of the beautiful chandeliers rising to the ceiling...
I'll get back to them in a minute. First, the wondrous dancing. Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, commissed by ABT in 1988, is upbeat and good-humored. There are wonderful stage pictures formed, with twelve dancers constantly in motion. There are moments that are textbook classical ballet, with moments of modern whimsy. I really enjoyed the piece. I especially liked that there was an onstage pianist, Barbara Bilach, who played the Virgil Thomson pieces with spontaneity and verve. I liked how the music was arranged, with a natural build in energy, then, as the ballet was coming to an end, the music got slower, dreamier, the lights dimmed, and then it ended as it began. Really lovely. I just wonder - why are there always white costumes?! They're terrible in my pictures! ;) 
I thought all twelve dancers were terrific and especially enjoyed Joseph Gorak (if the blogs are to be believed) in the part originally danced by Baryshnikov. He has a lovely airy quality to his dancing - he never seems rushed or forced. His jumps and spins were clean and crisp and very in tune with the music. I'm definitely going to keep my eye on him. But all of the dancers were terrific, but because I didn't use my binoculars, I couldn't really tell who was who. If I haven't seen a piece before, I don't use my binoculars, because I like to see how the choreography fits in the space. Once I know a piece a little better, then I'll use the binoculars to see specific details. Yet another of my dainty quirks. I borrowed the photo at right from ABT's Facebook page - it was taken by Gene Schiavone and will, of course, take it down if asked. My pictures are so terrible, I wanted something pretty to make up for them.
At the first intermission came the first indication that I was sitting next to bad children. They immediately started shouting about how bad the dancing was in the previous piece. I'm sorry, what?! They began trying to replicate the dance moves that they found particularly egregious. And one young moron decided that Morris is a bad choreographer. Oh, really?!! I beg to differ, young idiot. I wanted to say something to them so badly, but didn't. Grrrrr. But just imagine, if you will, a twenty-minute intermission, filled with screaming teenagers, who know so much more about dancing than anyone else, trying to tear down their elders. I did not find them charming, or filled with youthful exuberance, or anything like that. I found them rather repellent. Before the second piece started, the young moron cried, "I hope the next one is better!" God help me. Oh, and to top off the delight that were my seat neighbors, the gal on the other side of me was snoring. She did wake up when we applauded the conductor, which reminds me of another travesty. When the conductor came out, the repellent children of the d*mned had the nerve to say that the conductor didn't deserve the applause, that it was an antiquated ritual, and he wasn't actually really any good. Oh. my. god. Well, yes, all that may actually be true, but SHUT UP. Rituals do have their purposes at times. Now imagine the steam coming out of my ears. I had to breathe deeply to find my happy ballet place...
The second piece was an ABT premiere, Frederick Ashton's A Month in the Country. The ballet has been 'freely adapted' from Turgenev's play (that's how it's described in the program). Ashton choreographed the piece in 1976 and it has apparently been in the Royal Ballet's repertory for years, but has finally made it to ABT. And I'm so glad it has. It's SO lovely. The physical design is gorgeous, and they beautifully use Chopin's music for piano and orchestra, to set up mood and tone. The melancholy and spareness of Chopin's music matches the ballet's portrayals of love and loss.
David Hallberg, one of my uber-favorites, as you may recall, is Beliaev, the young tutor with whom all the female occupants of the household fall in love. David's gorgeous line and pristine technique are on display here. His acting is also first-rate. You can see a man who is bewildered by all the attention given to him, but his ardor for the lady of the house takes him by surprise. As all of these emotions happen, his dancing changes and grows. The way he partners each of the ladies changes as well. It's really a wonderfully danced, wonderfully acted, just wonderfully fully-realized performance. And the heartbreaking ending crushed me.
Hee Seo, as the object of his affection, is also fantastic. She's the lady of the house and is supremely bored with her life. She's married to an older man, and has an admirer who just hangs around to be near her. She's a woman who clearly needs to have the attention of every man in the room - when she discovers she has real feelings for this tutor, she is shocked out of her complacency. Her dancing is also exquisite - delicate and fluid, with stunning feet and extension. She was really lovely. Sarah Lane, as her ward and rival, was a great contrast - all bubbly impulsiveness. Her light quick footwork was engaging and she really expressed her youthfulness beautifully. The other gents had much less dancing to do, but their acting was grand and the whole picture of this house was wonderfully depicted. I just thought the whole thing was gorgeous. Can't you tell?
Happily, my photos are marginally better, thanks to the non-white costumes. Anyway, when the lights came up and the dancing morons began their critiquing onslaught, I got up and went out to the lobby. I just couldn't stand to listen to them for one more minute. I tried to return to my seat at the ultimate last minute, but I couldn't avoid hearing the head moron criticize the tempo for the UPCOMING piece. So...now he's psychic! Ugh. I just plugged my ears. Literally. I finally heard a woman behind me tell the kids to keep it down. Perhaps my oncoming insanity scared her.
The third piece was Symphony in C, choreographed by Balanchine in 1947. The score is by Bizet, which he apparently wrote when he was 17! That's rather amazing. Anyway, the ballet is in four movements, with each movement featuring two principal dancers, along with soloists and members of the corps. Each movement has its own flavor and tempo. The first movement has Stella Abrera and Eric Tamm, all sprightly and energetic. The second movement has the divinely sublime Polina Semionova and Marcelo Gomes (hey, I finally saw Hallberg and Gomes on the same program - woo hoo!) in a splendid adagio. Polina seemed to be en pointe for the entire movement, I don't know how she does it. And Marcelo is just a glorious partner, strong and sure. He didn't have a lot of solo dancing to do, but you knew he was there (he gave good curtain call, too). The third movement was all leaping and charged personality by Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev. I will say that the black danseur costume was oddly unflattering on poor Vasiliev, but my goodness, he was levitating all the same. Gorgeous. And the last movement was Simone Messmer and Jared Matthews, with crisp and precise turning. Then, the ending, when all the principals, soloists and corps dancers come on stage for a thrilling finale! It was spectacular! The ladies were a tiny bit out of unison at one point, but I could live with it thanks to the sheer excitement they were generating. The audience leapt to its feet and shouted their bravos before the curtain even came down. I've read on some blogs that the ABT dancers don't compare to the NYCB dancers when they do Balanchine. OK, that's reasonable. But I found this production pretty darned terrific anyway. There was an electric current and a verve about the dancing that was contagious, so bravo from me too.
Thankfully, the child dancers of the d*mned ran out of there during the curtain calls, presumably to go perform somewhere else and clearly perform much better than anyone currently dancing at ABT, so I didn't have to hear their post-show nonsense. Thank heavens. Though, during the last piece, I could hear the head moron humming aloud, presumably to help the conductor with the tempo. I very nearly said STOP IT, but I just let it go and tried to lose myself in the ballet (which I generally could do). I was happy to gather my thoughts afterwards, gather my belongings, and keep my cloud of ballet beauty around me until the next time. But if I'm seated near ballet kids again, I'm going to ask to change seats. Part of me wants to send an e-mail to managment to tell them about the bad behavior of their students, but since I'm unsure of which school they actually attend, I guess I'll refrain. But I have Mr Super Moron's face emblazoned in my memory. If he should ever make it to ABT, I'll know who NOT to be a fan of, because, as I'm sure you also recall, I can certainly hold a grudge...
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