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Pam and June at The Metropolitan Opera House |
On a trip to NYC to see some special performances by American Ballet Theatre, I hooked up with June Koizumi for lunch, where the conversation rarely left Bruce. But a casual suggestion lead to tickets for the ballet that night, and June got "hooked" -- with a need to see some alternate casts. I was only too happy to oblige.
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Thanks to Pam and one of her ballet friends who arranged to get student rate tickets for me, I attended not one, but three performances of Eugene Onegin by the American Ballet Theater. It was a most rewarding experience to see how different performers interpret the same roles. I even enjoyed being privy to some ballet aficionado's talk.The first dancer that I saw portraying Onegin rather overdid the haughtiness; the second emphasized the character's anguish. But the third blended the qualities with subtlety, noble bearing and grace. And it so happens that he is Pam's fave! The two ballerinas who danced Tatiana were as different as night and day. The Russian was lovely and emotionally cool whereas the American was more genuinely expressive.
Based on the novel by Pushkin, Onegin is a very romantic, passionate ballet with music by Tchaikovsky and choreography by John Cranko. (There's also an opera version.) You can get an idea of the story and from this review of a performance by the Stuttgart Ballet: http://www.paulb.com/webreviews.htm.
Rounding out my get-togethers with Pam were a lunch and two dinners with some of Pam's friends. And naturally, we managed to work in some conversations about Bruce.
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