News Clippings 74

The New York Times Sunday, January 6, 1974 Some Notables Name Their Bests	Tennesse Williams, Playwright. Last Tango in Paris, Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Bang the Drum Slowly, The Homecoming, Nureyev's Don Quixote, Fat City, Tis Pity She's a Whore (Italian Version), O Lucky Man!, Cabaret, Where's Pappa?
The Daily Telegraph Thursday, April 25, 1974 By K. Sorley Walker	New York - As a reviser of traditional ballet, Rudolf Nureyev is always ingenious and interesting and his staging of "The Sleeping Beauty" for the National Ballet of Canada, with which they opened a season at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, is full of lively and challenging ideas... Much of the dancing is fully or partly re-choreographed with varying degrees of success, but the great set pieces are maintained and well displayed...Carabosse, played by Celia Franca, is regally feminine; and there is a good arrangement for five Jewel Fairies, crisply led by Mary Jago and Winthrop Corey, in the last act. The company supporting Nureyev himself as guest artist, gave a smooth and confident performance. Karen Kain, the princess Aurora, has impressive balance and an attractive buoyancy in allegro passages...
The New York Times, Saturday, May 18, 1974 By Anna Kisselgoff	Ballet: 'Fille Mal Gardee' Sir Frederick Ashton's 'La Fille Mal Gardee' has the quality of a series of changing pretty pastoral pictures. Thursday night Ann Jenner and David Wall - an ideal leading cast - brought those pictures beautifully to life with the Royal Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House. On the same program, Rudolf Nureyev and Monica Mason made their first appearance in 'La Bayadere,' and Brian Shaw was seen in the part of the Widow Simone in Sir Frederick's delicate and subtle ballet. This was Mr. Wall's first New York appearance in the role of Colas, and if the part was not created for him, he was certainly tailor-made for the part. Here was one of the finest blends of acting and classical dancing the Royal Ballet has offered. Miss Jenner is a perfect Lise-vivacious and demure, sly and tender, mischievous and quick. The famous mime scene in Act III, when Lise imagines her wedded life with Colas and their future offspring, was marvelously expressive in its detail. Feeling was the keynote of this performance, and the three love duets that mark each act were colored by the very real emotions Mr. Wall and Miss Jenner always communicated to the audience. The dancing was consistently excellent. In his drag part, Mr. Shaw made an effective Simone. The clog dance in Act II came across with vigor and punch. Surely this Widow Simone had been practicing for the regional sabot-dancing competition. 'La Bayadere' also had three new soloists - Marguerite Porter, Leslie Colier and Anita Young, but neither Miss Porter nor Miss Young could match Miss Colleri in technique or style. Nor could one believe the inital partnering problems between Miss Mason and Mr. Nureyev really had to be as rough as they seemed. Luckily, the remainder of the performance ran smoothly. Miss Mason's solos had a hard, diamond-like classicism. Mr. Nureyev's solos - always giving more than is expected - demonstrated why Rudolf Nureyev is Rudolf Nureyev.
Ballet 390 By Mary Cambell Associated Press Writer May 19, 1974 New York AP	The New York dance public saw Rudolf Nureyev dance 'Apollo' for the first time on Sunday afternoon. This is the first time that choreographer George Balanchine has allowed the British Royal Ballet, and Nureyev, to dance his 1928 masterpiece in New York. Nureyev, who always makes his stage presence felt by the audience, positively acted his way through 'Apollo.' He seemed to be suffering, agonizing, striving, straining, enjoying and exulting as the dance progressed. At the New York City Ballet, where Balanchine is company director, Jacques d'Amboise has most often dance this role in recent years. He does it as a dance work, dancing with noble bearing and smoothness. Nureyev's presentation sometimes broke up the smoothness. We prefer the way d'Amboise does it, but never could say that Nureyev's more acted approach was invalid. Georgina Parkinson, who seemed uncomfortable in the style, Laura Connor and Diana Vere were the three Muses. The company also did a 10-minute American premiere, 'Pavane,' to music by Gabriel Faure. Kenneth McMillan, Royal Ballet director, created this pas de deux for the Fanfare for Europe Gala Jan. 13, 1973. A good, new, romantic pas de deux always is welcome, and this is a lovely one, with individual touches. It was danced by Antoinette Sibley, precise and at the same time very sweetly feminine. She had as her partner Anthony Dowell, looking a bit softer than one would wish. Dowell also designed the costumes, which were beautiful, in warm beige and white. The backdrop has peacock blue and soft beige draperies frame the top and sides of the stage. The afternoon also included 'La Bayadere,' in which the corps de ballet was exquisite. Monica Mason was splendid as was David Wall, in the leading parts. Wall doesn't have the wonderful stage appearance of a sheik with the soul of a panther that Nureyev brings to 'Bayadere,' but he can do the spectacular dancing, the leaps and double beats in the air which always get strong applause. Last was 'Symphonic Variations,' with Sir Frederick Ashton's 1946 choreography, looking very neoclassic and just right for Cesar Franck's 'Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra.' The company will dance at the Metropolitan Opera House through next Sunday, then to to Kennedy Center in Washington.
The New York Times Monday, May 20, 1974 By Don McDonagh Ballet: Merle Park Stars	To transform herself from a virginal teen-ager into a young widow is the least of the difficulties an interpreter of Juliet must face in the Royal Ballet's 'Romeo and Juliet.' Merle Park, dancing with Rudolf Nureyev as her Romeo on Saturday evening at the Metropolitan Opera House, traversed the emotional distance and the intricacies of her grand duets with Mr. Nureyev with striking grace. The warm sunshine moods of the young Juliet - larking about with her doll, playing little tricks on her nursemaid and generally evading her nubile destiny - were sketched in easily and brightly by Miss Park. She had a wealth of gestural skills that express childlike temperament, especially astonishment when faced with the eligible young man her parents have chosen as her future husband. She is at first puzzled and mistrustful then hesitantly accepts his polite courtship. Deepening her characterization, she becomes glitteringly charming at the great ball her parents have arranged at which to present their matured daughter. The infatuation that begins with Romeo throws her momentarily back into her previous childishness, but then she returns to her new-found adulthood. Miss Park's strength at showing the vacillations in her feelings was impressive. The balcony duet that confirms her love was movingly wrought by both Miss Park and Mr. Nureyev. He danced like a tiger at her gate, and she responded enthusiastically. David Drew did as much as one can with the essentially one-dimensional role of Tybalt. He was surly, hotheaded and convincingly brutal. Of course, he is a contrasting figure to the lighthearted Romeo and his friends, but then he must have had at least one redeeming feature that the choreographer could have humanized. The grieving of Lady Capulet over Tybalt's corpse merely makes one think that he was a son whom only a mother could love. Wayne Sleep led the mandolin dance as trippingly as if sprinting across live coals. The liveliness was appreciated amid the somewhat humdrum commerce of the citizens of Verona who are constantly milling around to little effect. The climactic crypt duet by Mr. Nureyev and Miss Park splendidly capped the tragedy of the ill-fated lovers.
WVOX Westchester Review of Royal Ballet Wednesday, 22 May 1974 Written/Broadcast by Don Spoto, Arts Editor	The Royal Ballet, now in the last week of their engagement at the Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, shows no surcease of the excellence we've enjoyed in their art these last days. On Wednesday evening Rudolf Nureyev and Monica Mason were the principal dancers in Mr. Nureyev's revised version of the Petipa La Bayadere. If it is not particularly exciting choreography, it was certainly a study in line and form. You get a very good idea of this company's careful training and high ideals when you see the opening scene of this ballet; a corps of 28 slowly enters in a series of slow attitudes. The precision is richly, lavishly but elegantly executed. As for Miss Mason, she was wonderful to watch in her absolute control and surety. She is a dancer who clearly has achieved a kind of personality integration with the role of Nikiya, and there is even pathos when she remains on the point. Mr. Nureyev's presence and force were indisputable, but he seemed tired and weighted at the end of his broadest leaps. The two-act La Fille Mal Gardee delighted everyone, with its infectious fun and virtuoso dancing. Lesley Collier and Anthony Dowell were entirely winning as Lise and Colas, executing the most difficult entrechats and croisée de jambes with a delicious ease and style. Stanly Holden, as the widow Simone, pulled off a hilarious tap dance with wooden shoes, and Alexander Grant was properly foppish as Alain. This production of Fille is a real delight.
Washington Star-News Wednesday, May 29, 1974 By Louise Lague	Sometimes it can be pretty bad being Rudolf Nureyev. Say it's your opening night at the Kennedy Center with the Royal Ballet and you have to dance an hour and 36 minutes of "La Fille Mal Gardee" looking like an exuberant young lover all the time. Then you're exhausted and famished but the people from the Alcoa Foundation are having a wingding upstairs to celebrate the fact that they have sunk about $75,000 into the production just to make it possible to afford you. So you get yourself up in a black wool Russian suit and for some whimsical reason tuck a brown fur hat under your arm, although it's lat May. Upstairs you are accosted by reporters, congressmen, cabinet members, and women in chiffon, some of who offer to feed you but get upstaged by other women in chiffon. The names mean nothing to you, but you nod and say "Yes, yes, lovely people" to everyone you meet, and answer all their questions about what you eat and how you feel and can they have your autograph. But you are very graceful in manner and so short that once you sit down, surrounded by more women, you fee don't even touch the floor. As the evening wears on, you get to devour two cheese omelettes, a plate of roast beef and two glasses of white wine with soda, saying "Yes, yes, lovely people" between bites...
Washington Star-News Wednesday, May 29, 1974 By George Gelles	Royal Ballet, Still Nonpareil in Ensemble The return of Britain's Royal Ballet after almost a decade is signal event. Its fortnight engagement in the Kennedy Center Opera House, which began last night with brilliance, brings us the company richest in classic traditions and continues a recent conspectus of international styles. As an ensemble, the Royal is nonpareil. For almost four decades, ever since Makarova left the progenitor Vic-Wells Ballet in 1935, the focus of the troupe has been the achievement of a collective excellence. A constellation of stars lends the group a special luster, yet the consistency of the corps is a wonder in itself. In comparison with the dancers of the New York City Ballet, the English artists show singular humanity. Their grooming, in general, makes less display of hard-edged virtuosity and lightning articulation than the Balanchine performer; the Royal's forte is, instead, spacious graciousness that admits an amplitude of feeling. It's a flexible technique, syntactically fluid, unlike the current Russian style we saw when the Bolshoi was here. Softer in attack than their American coequals and smoother in line than the Russians, the dancers of the Royal show a breeding rich in classical comeliness. Perhaps no work in the repertory speaks with the simple eloquence of "La Bayadere," Rudolf Nureyev's restaging of a divertissment from the Petipa production of 1876. It's the sort of piece in which the Royal has no peers, a showcase of shared attainments, symmetrically clean, musically well-balanced and academic in impulse.