Wednesday, May 4, 2022

a weekend in the smallest world: 2 ballets

I've seen 3 ballets in my adult life. The first time was maybe 4 years ago at the Lincoln Center, and the other 2 times were this past weekend. 

    I'm not a connoisseur of ballet, nor am I a regular though by the second evening I felt like I was. The first evening was 4 short ballets with an intermission right in the middle, and I was only somewhat into the performances themselves. They were contemporary, experimental, and at times dull. The most exciting of the 4 acts was the final one. My friend having done the set design stage piece holds no weight in my bias, but the music did. Caroline Shaw's Partita, which won the Pulitzer Prize some years ago, has always snuck into my life in odd ways and finding something recognizable in a setting you don't find yourself in often is always a good way to be swayed. 

    The second evening was a much more classical lineup, also in 4 parts though this time with 2 intermissions. Debussy, Tchaikovsky, and some other heavy hitters that I can't recall off the top of my head. To be entirely honest I was not dreading the second evening but I felt a bit 'ballet-ed out'. I was hoping it would be quick but when we sat down in the Orchestra left seats, I noticed in the Playbill that it was going to be a long evening. The orchestra tuned and the curtain rose to unveil a large blue screen, facing the audience. It was a mystifyingly deep shade of royal blue, illuminated at just the most comfortable level for the human eyes. The second act had me crying, a riveting duet by two of the company's biggest stars, the stage set to look like a dance studio made of linens, with the blue screen still behind it. The two dancers were in love and for some reason that made me cry. Debussy blaring. It was pure magic! I was moved, you could say. 

    I got to the Whiskey Tavern down by the jail just 30 minutes after the performances had ended. It was a startling change of scenery after 3 hours of classical hypnosis. I ordered a gin and tonic that was served in a tall heavy pint glass. The Whiskey Tavern wasn't nice at all but somehow they have nicer glassware than The Met. I used to order champagne at intermission when I would go to opera with my best friend but the plastic champagne flute was too bruising to my vision of a glamorous night uptown. 

    I don't remember the first opera I saw at The Met but me and the man I loved most at the time left at intermission to have a drink somewhere else. On the way down the winding red steps, we saw Joan Didion inching her frail way down heading towards the ladies room.

    In December of 2019 me and my friend saw the final matinĂ©e performance of Phillip Glass' Akhnaten. It was horribly boring and tediously long, so we left at the 2nd intermission and got drunk at the diner behind Juilliard. We ate burgers and cursed that opera like it had personally done something deplorable to us. Later that week, on Christmas Eve, we ended up meeting the actor who played Akhnaten (the lead and pretty much only person in the 4 hour slo-motion string heavy bore). Ethan had told him we watched the whole thing and later on I told him we left at intermission and that it was boring, but that was an accident. 

    This past weekend though, on Friday, I did see Mikhail Baryshnikov in the lobby. He was stunningly old. I couldn't believe it! Most people know him as "the Russian" Carrie Bradshaw, of Sex and the City, dates in the series' final seasons. Weirdly, I met his ex-wife's daughter a month ago at a bar somewhere upstate. The world is so small. 

    As I sat through these performances, I was thinking so many things. I always drift off mentally at operas, symphonies, and ballets! It's a wonderful way to go about things. I always think about how lucky I am to not be anxious at a ballet, opera, or symphony. Nicole Kidman in Johnathan Glazer's Birth, cries in one scene while attending the symphony. Her character is so terribly anxious. Her dead husband is in the body of a 10 year old boy and she just came to terms with the fact that she wants to fuck him. It's crazy. 

Anywho, hope you all have a wonderful weekend and make sure to go to the ballet, but only if you are not anxious.