Whatever crimes ABT may have committed through the years–however many Cinderellas, Ladies of the Camellias, Snow Maidens, Pied Pipers, gimcrack Swan Lakes and Sleeping Beauties–they’ve made up for it this season by giving us another brief taste of the Royal Ballet’s supremely gifted Alina Cojocaru in her greatest role, Giselle. Her one performance of it Read More
The Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Verdi’s La Traviata may be starkly modern and minimalistic, but the nearly 400 lucky attendees of its New Year’s Eve opening-night gala were fortunate to find a party that was anything but. Held, per tradition, on the Mercedes T. Bass Grand Tier in the storied Lincoln Center opera house, Read More
“It’s been my dream since I was a little boy to play at the opera,” Julian Casablancas, lead signer of The Strokes, told the attendees of the Tommy Hilfiger after party held in the lobby of the Metropolitan Opera House. The Strokes had not played a show in New York since 2006, and in that Read More
In last week’s column I argued in favor of the awesome simplicity of Peter Brook’s production of The Grand Inquisitor—that its complete lack of video effects amounted to a revolutionary statement nowadays. Mr. Brook has steadfastly avoided using the fashionable technological stuff (the computer-generated illusions, film projections, video images, infrared cameras, scrims and so on) Read More
