Writer Debra Cash looks at "Manon" for The Boston Phoenix

Debra Cash writes in this week's Boston Phoenix about The Royal Ballet's production of Kenneth MacMillan's Manon, opening one week from yesterday at The Wang Theatre and running for four performances (June 15-17). Some samples from her story:

On Manon the story:
"You think poverty and desperation in New Orleans is news? Wait till you see Manon, the conniving Parisian courtesan, reduced to degradation in the Louisiana swamplands and dying in the arms of Des Grieux, the student she once scorned. Crime, prostitution, betrayal: the story is replete with flawed characters and dark intimations."

On Manon, the role:
"The title role is a juicy diva role that a dewy ingenue just can’t pull off. Manon’s mix of hauteur and desperation calls for a ballerina with acting chops and some life experience in her pointe shoes."

Read all of New Orleans Story.

Read about The Royal Ballet's Manon engagement in Boston June 15-17.

Royal Ballet's 1957 Boston visit remembered

 
         Our logo in 1957

This just in from former Celebrity Series Executive Director Walter Pierce, a little missive on some of the not-so-good old days. I wonder if Walter tells us these great old stories of trials past to make us feel better about ourselves somehow . . . well, it works. I, for one, am relieved I wasn't present!

Dear Jack:

How is the Royal Ballet doing at the box-office? I am so looking forward to seeing that great company again -- my first attraction at the Celebrity Series when I joined Aaron Richmond in the fall of 1957. Total staff including me at the time: 4. What a nightmare for a first timer. The company was scheduled to play at the old Opera House on Huntington Avenue the first week of October, and tickets had been on sale beginning in the Spring with the mailing of the series announcement. The Shuberts, who owned the theatre, were facing mega-repair costs (rumor had it the facade was about to descend into the street below).

We had to request the return of tickets from the public while we sought an alternate site. We ended up renting a movie house, the Loew's State, on Mass. Ave. now a condo owned by the Mother Church. Terrible conditions. Shallow stage, no dressing rooms, minuscule orchestra pit. We rented the Fine Arts Theatre around the corner for dressing rooms. The dancers ran through an adjacent alley to enter the Loew's State.

Not everyone returned tickets, so people were showing up at sold out performances with tickets for the Opera House and I had to scurry around trying to find places for them. It was like Jesus and the loaves of bread as I shoe-horned people into two boxes I had at my disposal. Somehow we got through the engagement of "Sleeping Beauty" which at the time was the Royal's signature piece.

Anyway, that's the news from Lake Wobegon where the impresarios are pretty and the children are strong.

Best Wishes,
Walter

A subscription brochure from the fall of 1957 indicates that the roster of stars for that engagement included Margot Fonteyn, Michael Somes, Beryl Grey and John Field. The thought of those dancers sprinting across alleys off Mass. Avenue is horrifyingly funny. Or is it hilariously horrifying?

Esperanza's singalongs and Udden's "Torchsongs" CD

Esperanza Spalding

In this week's Boston Phoenix, Jon Garelick profiles a couple of young jazz musicians that graced Celebrity Series stages in 2005-06. The first is bassist Esperanza Spalding, who anchored saxophonist Joe Lovano's quartet at our Sanders Theatre concert in March. The date was a double-bill that also featured vocalist Luciana Souza, who is a particular favorite of Spalding's, as Spalding plays bass and sings. Spalding is back for some Boston dates as a headline act.

From Jon Garelick's feature, The Natural:

"It’s getting late on a Tuesday night at Bob’s Southern Bistro in the South End and I’m searching my memory for the last time I’ve heard and seen what’s happening now: a jazz singalong. Onstage is Esperanza Spalding, 21, the petite bass player with the towering Afro who came to Berklee as a 17-year-old and has since not only become, quite literally, the poster girl for the college, with a giant silhouette of her painted on the side of the Performance Center, but also a fixture around town, now teaching bass at the school where she was so recently a student, and showing up as a leader and sideperson in any number of local bands." Read the full text of The Natural.


Jeremy Udden

Also profiled in Garelick's article is saxophonist and Wrentham native Jeremy Udden (pronounced you-deen), who fills the alto saxophone chair with the Either/Orchestra, which celebrated its 20th anniversary with a Celebrity Series concert back in January. Udden is releasing a new CD, Torchsongs, this month, he talked with Garelick for part two of the article:

"The two jazz albums that Udden cites as models are Joe Henderson’s 'Lush Life' and Joe Lovano’s 'Rush Hour' — the equivalent of jazz concept albums. 'But I wasn’t listening to those when I did this. I was listening to rock records like Wilco’s 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' and Beck’s 'Sea Change.' I suppose ‘Fish Lake’ is the most Beck-like. I’m still holding a saxophone, but it’s got more layers — guitars and Rhodes and saxophones fading in and out. There’s no saxophone solo on it because I didn’t want one.'"

Read the full text of The Natural.

Udden also gets a nice profile from Bill Beuttler in Friday's Boston Globe. Read In apartment, Udden had room to grow.

Kapilow and company tackle Sondheim

Early in last night's Sondheim program, Rob Kapilow described the Broadway master with a definition of art by W.H. Auden, "Art is clear thinking about mixed feelings." Ambivalence, a hallmark of Sondheim's art, was indeed the analytical theme of the third and final What Makes It Great? outing of 2005-06. Among the nhighlights were Terri Klausner's thrilling rapid-fire vocals on "Not Getting Married" - which featured a nice comic/operatic turn by Carrie Cheron (if we do say so ourselves), and Michael Winther fully inhabiting his role, pointillistically painting his way through "Finishing the Hat."

After a full 80-minute program of songs by the great Broadway songster followed by a lively question and answer session, Winther, Klausner and Kapilow added one more number - unanalyzed, this time - from the Sondheim songbook: "No One Is Alone" from Into The Woods. Once again, Kapilow's audience went home humming.

What Makes It Great? is at Sanders

Just to keep you on your toes, Rob Kapilow and What Makes It Great? The Songs of Stephen Sondheim are both at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge tonight, not at Jordan Hall or the Tsai Performance Center. Just thought some of you could use the reminder.

The Royal Ballet to perform for Her Majesty The Queen during busy June

The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, home of The Royal Ballet

The Royal Ballet will be in Boston soon (June 15-17 at The Wang Theatre). In the days leading up to their arrival on our shores they are keeping busy. Their London production of Sleeping Beauty drew a rave review from Ruth Leon, who reviewed for Bloomberg.com. In fact, all of June is busy for the Londoners, with multiple performances and events (schedule) including a 75th Anniversary Celebration in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen on June 8 (program). You can only turn 75 once, it looks as if they intend to do it right.

Carlosacosta.com

Royal Ballet Principal Guest Artist Carlos Acosta will dance the role of Des Grieux in Kenneth MacMillan's Manon on June 15 (Thursday evening) and June 17 (Saturday evening) at The Wang Theatre in Boston. Mr. Acosta has a short biography provided by the company, as do all the principal dancers. But the renowned Cuban dancer also has his own web site (he is not alone among the Royal Ballet dancers, more on that later) complete with his own logo, photo gallery, news section and an online gift shop featuring Carlos Acosta logo t-shirts, "city tops," a baseball cap and the CD, DVD and book of his Olivier-nominated show, Tocororo, A Cuban Tale. Tocororo has its own site, too, of course.