The New York City Ballet presented Coppelia, music
by Leo
Delibes,
choreography by George
Balanchine and Alexandra
Danilova.
It is, without doubt, one of the loveliest
ballets ever produced, dating from 1870. The
two leads, Tiler
Peck and Joaquin
De Luz,
were superb, and it was a joy to watch their
spectacular dancing. And one must
congratulate the adorable children, students
of The School of the American Ballet, who
appeared in the third act. They were so
disciplined and prepared, that they almost
stole the show. Ballet has never been so
more enjoyable than this charming
production.
American Ballet Theatre (ABT) presented La
Bayadere, choreography by Natalia
Makarova, music by Ludwig
Minkus. It is one of the most beautiful
ballets in the repertoire of the company. I
saw the first production in 1980 and I was
overwhelmed, especially the Kingdom
of the Shades scene in the second act.
The dancing could not have been better, and
the audience granted the two leads, Sarah
Lane (Nikiya) and Herman
Cornejo (Solor), a tumultuous, well
deserved ovation after their solos and pas
de deux. Skylar
Brandt as (Gamzatti) and Joseph
Gorak as The Bronze Idol in the last act
also deserved well merited applause. David
LaMarche conducted the orchestra, which
played the score splendidly to close a
memorable night.
Devil of Choice, by Maggie
Diaz Bofill, at the Cherry Lane Theatre,
is a production of LAByrinth Theater
Company. Three actors are directed by Shira-Lee
Shalit, and a violinist introduces a
series of short scenes.
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A smug married English professor gets
involved with a colleague. He teaches Goethe's Faust, and
we in the audience are subjected to portions
of his lectures, sprinkled with profanity. I
studied Faust in
my World Lit class at Indiana University in
the spring term of 1949, with a brilliant
teacher, and Faust, by Gounod,
is one of my favorite operas. I enjoyed them
more.
Tchaikovsky: None But The Lonely Heart,
by Eve
Wolf, is a production of Ensemble
for the Romantic Century at Pershing
Square Signature Center. Two actors, a
tenor, a ballet dancer and three musicians
are directed by Donald
T. Sanders. Joey
Slotnick as the composer reads letters
he wrote his benefactor Nadezhda von Meck (Shorey
Walker), who admires him. They never
meet, but she replies for a number of years
and sends him money. They have a strange
friendship. It is an interesting production
with talented actors and musicians. The
opening night party took place at West Bank
Cafe.
Loretta Swit (photo below) was given
a cocktail party and dinner for her book
SwitHeart which feautres her watercolors and
her animal activism at Jue Lan Club, 49 West
20th St. Among the guests enjoying the
party were Mark Kostabi, Grammy
winner Desiree (photo below) and
David Allen
On the cover of the Beauty Issue of Bella Magazine
is Alexa Ray Joel and we celebrated the
occasion with her at a cocktail party at La
Pulperia, 151 East 57th St.
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