The company presents a polished new production of the classic piece, with choreography by Coralli, Perrot, and Petipa, and staging by Charla Genn and Septime Webre. Michele Jimenez, sharp as always, has a good mad scene at the end of Act I, her hair come unbunned. The second act set by Simon Pastukh is a stunner, perfectly fogged—and Giselle's grave, set prominently upstage right, looks great. A clever bit of stage machinery whisks away the veils of the Wilis, and there is a ruddy glow in the closing moments of the act to signal dawn's arrival. Erin Mahoney is an imperious Myrtha; Rasta Thomas (Albrecht) has some serious vertical.

One of the recorded music passages is marred by what sounds like surface noise from an vinyl recording.

posted: 9:56:55 PM  

Listen to some indie rock and download for free anything in the catalog that pleases your fancy. It's a sociology experiment conducted at Columbia University.

(Thanks to kottke.org.)

posted: 6:50:12 PM  

Something I never realized: the Moon's distance from the Earth varies approximately 12% between between apogee and perigee. The difference in distance, and therefore in apparent size, is enough to be photographically detectable. A visual artist with impeccable sense memory might be able to detect the difference without special equipment.

posted: 10:39:07 AM