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Mom and I saw La Sylphide at the PA Ballet yesterday (Sunday June 7, 2009). It's a full-length story ballet. The plot: a young Scottish farmer, James, is scheduled to marry his sweetheart, but on the eve of the wedding he falls in love with a beautiful sylph instead. He chases the sylph out into the forest, where he buys a magic shawl from a witch to give to his beloved. The witch totally has a grudge against James because he tried to kick her out of his house earlier in the story, so of course, as soon as he puts the shawl on the sylph, she dies. The other sylphs carry her body away; we see James's fiancee heading off to church with his rival instead; and James laments in the forest while the witch laughs. (Moral of the story: Never turn a crone away from your warm fire!)
The ballet was good. I enjoyed the costumes--all the men were in kilts. The dancing villagers were really fun. This ballet is from 1832, so it's an oldie, I think the first one to do a full-length story, so that's neat. The ballet style is a bit different, too--no lifts at all, and it looked different even to my untrained eye than something like Swan Lake would look.
There was also an unrelated opening ballet that was really cool: Peter Martins's Barber Violin Concerto. I was totally expecting this to be a Ballanchiney white tights sort of thing, but it was actually really awesome! It opens with one pair of dancers in formal ballet attire (he wore a long-sleeved shirt, she had tights and toe shoes and her hair in a bun); then another more modern couple enters, dressed more casually, barefoot, with the male dancer shirtless. At first each couple danced only together, and then they mixed it up. The modern man danced with the traditional woman, and by the end of their dance her hair was down and loose and she was mimicking some of his awkward movements (crooked arms like the way you'd draw far away birds in the sky). Then the modern woman danced with the traditional man--she was so fast and quick! At first he danced as if he was annoyed and trying to get away from her, but then she sucked him in and made him participate. This was a really cool piece; Mom and I both really enjoyed it.
And now we are done with ballet for the time being! Mom got a call from the PA Ballet Co asking why we aren't renewing our subscription. Mom said, "Do you really want to know?" and the girl on the phone said, "Yes, I do," so Mom told her the whole long saga about the tickets and the terrible seats. The ballet person was very apologetic and offered to renew us at 20% off and to sit down and pick out the seats by hand right that minute, but Mom told her it was already a done deal and we'd decided to go with the opera for next year. The ballet person also told her that the ticketing is all done by a service, not by the ballet itself, so that when Mom was calling and complaining, she was getting the ticket service. Mom said, "Well, you should know that they lost you two subscribers for next season," and the ballet person said she was glad Mom had told her so she can now go deal with the service accordingly. So, at least there's some closure there now. If we don't like the opera next year, we can go back to the ballet happily, which I don't think Mom would have wanted to do before she got that phone call. So at least the ballet person opened the door for us to come back someday.
Next season: exciting opera!
The ballet was good. I enjoyed the costumes--all the men were in kilts. The dancing villagers were really fun. This ballet is from 1832, so it's an oldie, I think the first one to do a full-length story, so that's neat. The ballet style is a bit different, too--no lifts at all, and it looked different even to my untrained eye than something like Swan Lake would look.
There was also an unrelated opening ballet that was really cool: Peter Martins's Barber Violin Concerto. I was totally expecting this to be a Ballanchiney white tights sort of thing, but it was actually really awesome! It opens with one pair of dancers in formal ballet attire (he wore a long-sleeved shirt, she had tights and toe shoes and her hair in a bun); then another more modern couple enters, dressed more casually, barefoot, with the male dancer shirtless. At first each couple danced only together, and then they mixed it up. The modern man danced with the traditional woman, and by the end of their dance her hair was down and loose and she was mimicking some of his awkward movements (crooked arms like the way you'd draw far away birds in the sky). Then the modern woman danced with the traditional man--she was so fast and quick! At first he danced as if he was annoyed and trying to get away from her, but then she sucked him in and made him participate. This was a really cool piece; Mom and I both really enjoyed it.
And now we are done with ballet for the time being! Mom got a call from the PA Ballet Co asking why we aren't renewing our subscription. Mom said, "Do you really want to know?" and the girl on the phone said, "Yes, I do," so Mom told her the whole long saga about the tickets and the terrible seats. The ballet person was very apologetic and offered to renew us at 20% off and to sit down and pick out the seats by hand right that minute, but Mom told her it was already a done deal and we'd decided to go with the opera for next year. The ballet person also told her that the ticketing is all done by a service, not by the ballet itself, so that when Mom was calling and complaining, she was getting the ticket service. Mom said, "Well, you should know that they lost you two subscribers for next season," and the ballet person said she was glad Mom had told her so she can now go deal with the service accordingly. So, at least there's some closure there now. If we don't like the opera next year, we can go back to the ballet happily, which I don't think Mom would have wanted to do before she got that phone call. So at least the ballet person opened the door for us to come back someday.
Next season: exciting opera!
