Lobenthal.com

Alex Ross cheers on John Oliver’s brilliant excoriation of the state of journalism in this country, and Alex focuses on the devastating downgrading (as in elimination) of arts criticism.

Laura Jacobs and I went to the Sarasota Ballet’s all-Ashton program at the Joyce last night–and we loved it. We’ll rap some about it later. The company’s there through the weekend.

Patricia Wilde may have done it all, but has she ever been an inductee before?

The National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs is taking care of that this weekend, when she’s inducted into their Hall of Fame.

If we cannot curb our government’s bomb -first- think -later-then-bomb-some more-when-the-initial–bombing-blows-back-at-us foreign-policy.

Dr. Strangelove is us: the movie can no longer be interpreted as parody but as prophecy.

We are now adding (what’s left of) Libya to our bomb card, the fourth country to be so buffeted in the war on ISIS, an organization born out of the foreign policy Aarmageddon which that really, really good man, as Obmaa characterizes him, willfully and deceitfully launched in 2o03.

Adam H. Johnson in The Nation wants to know why no one is asking WHY?

Btw, while there’s probably no way that Sheryl Sandberg could be a worse Treasury Secretary than Timothy Geithner, has anyone in Hillary’s camp actually looked at Sandberg’s CV?

Do they realize that she’s a disciple of ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, a lieutenant of his during the 1990s when he executed Bill Clinton’s disastrous financial deregulation schemes?

Sandberg was actually, not too long ago, defending her old boss.

What reality is Hillary in?

Over the last twenty years we’ve seen the neoliberal elite re-brand words like “creativity” to mean anything but artistic endeavor and in fact to be applied almost solely to refer to business acumen. And that alleged acumen is portrayed as automatic qualifier for the shaping of major public policy.

Can you imagine someone going to Washington and saying, “I’m a ballet dancer. I’m creative. I want a cabinet position.” That would be kind of ridiculous, but no more so than the sight of Bill Gates declaring his zeal to throw chickens down Bolivia’s way, or the readiness of Hillary Clinton handlers to float the rumor that she wants to bring Sheryl Sandberg into her cabinet.

I will accept that Sheryl Sandberg is good at what she does, but I don’t want her or anyone like her near positions of governance. What is her qualification or expertise in establishing public policy? What has being a mogul got to do with suitability for public service? What has maximization of profit by any and all means got to do with advancing the public welfare?

The question never posed is, “Creativity at what?” Shoveling as much cash offshore as you can? Outsourcing as many jobs as you can? Like another favorite neoliberal shibboleth, “innovation,” creativity is a value-neutral word  when it lacks object or correlative. These terms are routinely touted and made meaningless by political, corporate and media elites.

I’d seen the 1951 La Valse tape in 2012 and thought, Oh, there are things in there that we no longer see on stage, but I liked NYCB in La Valse in 2014. Nevertheless I totally agreed with Macauley. Original source material needs to be studied. It is the nature of ballet that details fall away with time and works are diluted.

I don’t know what Hyltin looked at, what whomever at NYCB rehearsed her looked at, etc. That backbend by Le Clercq as she is mesmerically drawn to Moncion’s Death that enthralled me seemed to be more present in Hyltin’s performance than it had been previously on stage at NYCB.

But anyway, I was interested watching her performance to notice, oh, she did it that way, rather than that. . .instead of thinking what the F–is s/he doing?, as I sometimes do when I see the old ballets revived.

And no, she didn’t look like a facsimile of Le Clercq, and whatever study she’d done didn’t make for what looked like a “calculated” performance, as carefully calculated as it may have been.

If Renata Tebaldi could study a score, these young dancer squirts can. And should. And did?

BOTTOM LINE: I liked Sterling Hyltin’s performance in New York City Ballet’s La Valse, transmitted live during their Paris season earlier this month.

FULL ENCHILADA, Part 1:

Of course in dance, the only actual score that exists would be a notation score you’d have to be trained to read–and in some dance syllabuses overseas you are.

But there are videotapes, there are dancers from the past, there are all kinds of resources a performer can and should seek out.

Let’s face it, in a vintage ballet of mood and evocation like La Valse, today’s dancers need as much help as they can get it. No, you don’t just find it in yourself–don’t make me laugh. Dancers of 1951 had a wealth of theatrical resource at their disposal that today’s dancers do not. Today’s dancers have other things–exceptional technique and physical articulation.

Alastair Macaulay rightfully criticized NYCB last year for performing La Valse minus telling details that are in the tape at the Performing Arts library–1/8 of a mile from the Koch theater stage door–of the original cast.

Astonishing but not —

the former site of the Ballet Shop on Broadway remains unoccupied.

It would be interesting to know what extortinate rate is being charged–

Let’s not forget that this is a town where landlords can hike a commercial rent as high as the sky, then receive a tax deduction for not being able to rent that very same space.

IMPORTANT DOUBLE BLOG:

At the Mostly Mozart opening night earlier this week, we were treated to a spectacular evening of voice. If you missed hearing Pinza live, or Siepi, or Sotin, or Raimondi, stop beating yourself up. We are living in the Age of Mattei. His effortless, almost conversational tone ranks him with other masters of sprechgesang, like Dean Martin.

As for Geffen Hall, well the folks at Mostly Mozart built a white wooden shell and placed it on stage. The effect was transformative. The sound was enormous, clear, warm. Was this a dry run for the Big Renovation? I hope so. This is the same technique used at the masterful Fisher Center mainstage at Bard College — there the stage walls and ceiling are sprung wood panels, not attached to the building but hung on cables and free to vibrate.