As promised, here are some photos of Ratmansky’s new Nutcracker for ABT.
I forgot to mention in my last post how much I loved the Alice in Wonderland-like high chair for Clara to sit atop to watch the mice / nutcracker & soldier battle scene. Really brilliant sets. Richard Hudson is a genius.
The battle scene and the many-headed mouse king.
The mischievous little mouse (Justin Souriau-Levine) holds the nutcracker doll.
David Hallberg and Gillian Murphy as the Nutcracker Prince and grown-up Clara. I forgot to mention that they do get married in this version.
David and Gillian in the final pas de deux.
Top four photos by Rosalie O’Connor; bottom two by Gene Schiavone, courtesy of ABT.
Those are some vividly-colored costumes. Gorgeous!
I will need to look for the ABT shows. Looks like ABT has revived classics!
Dear Tonya, this is completely off subject (mostly). Last week New York City Ballet hosted a live feed of their Nutcracker. I called up a dear friend, blew forty dollars on two tickets at the movie house, and waited to be enchanted with Mr. B’s immortal classic.
I was, until my friend, who is constantly telling anyone who will listen about how cultured she is, and can only see The Best, fell asleep and snored like a chainsaw throughout the second act.
When she woke up after the bows, she tried to blow off her behavior, acting like it was cute. Maybe on an eight year old. Not a fifty-five year old grandmother of four who sounds like a truck backing up.
I’m still p’o’d about the whole thing. I know that gifts are not meant to given with strings, but this is too much. I know you’ll take the high road. Any advice?
Jeff
That’s really annoying, Jeff! I don’t think I’m the person to ask for advice on how to handle it though … I usually handle such things by not saying anything but never ever inviting the person to another dance performance again. But I don’t know if that’s such a good way to deal with that because then the person really doesn’t ever know what they did wrong, although they should. I’m sure she didn’t know she was snoring, but even just falling asleep throughout the whole thing is just rude.
It’s also annoying how people seem to take performances in movie houses less seriously. I went to a live high def performance of, I think it was the Bolshoi, and the person next to me was talking and noisily shoving popcorn into her mouth constantly. I couldn’t enjoy the music at all because of the noise she was making. It’s still a dance performance!
I definitely wouldn’t ever ask that woman to go to a dance performance again; she clearly doesn’t appreciate them.