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Summer 2014 Ballet Review A Conversation with Simon Keenlyside 4 New York – Yaël Lewin 5 Berlin – Darrell Wilkins 9 New York – Karen Greenspan 10 New York – Harris Green Michael Langlois 12 A Conversation with Lourdes Lopez Christopher Caines 29 Ye Sylph Inside Us 48 Joel Lobenthal 39 A Conversation with Simon Keenlyside Bill Kurtis, Francis Mason, Nancy Reynolds 43 Maria Tallchief Jay Rogoff Ballet Review 42.2 48 Childhood’s End Summer 2014 Editor and Designer: 56 Kyra Robinov Marvin Hoshino 53 Kathryn Morgan Managing Editor: Roberta Hellman Harris Green Senior Editor: 56 Balanchine’s Shakespeare Don Daniels Associate Editor: KarenGreenspan Joel Lobenthal 62 Scribbler of Tales Associate Editor: Larry Kaplan Darrell Wilkins Copy Editors: 39 69 Judson’s Legacy Barbara Palfy Naomi Mindlin Don Daniels Photographers: 87 Torchlight Tom Brazil Costas 93 London Reporter – Clement Crisp Webmaster: 94 Music on Disc – George Dorris David Weiss 100 Check It Out Associates: Peter Anastos Robert Greskovic 62 George Jackson Elizabeth Kendall Paul Parish Nancy Reynolds James SuXon David Vaughan Cover Photograph by Dominik Mentzos, The Forsythe Company: Edward Willinger Fabrice Mazliah and Christopher Roman in William Sarah C. Woodcock Forsythe’s I don’t believe in outer space. A Conversation with When I was a youngster, I was taken under the wing by Piero Cappuccilli. He kept saying, Simon Keenlyside “Prima la voce, prima la voce,” and I misun- derstood. I thought, Oh, this is just stand and sing. But if he was speaking to an audience in Joel Lobenthal the language they understood, there was no need to cartwheel about the place and juggle BR: When you starred in Trisha Brown’s pro- and do silly circus tricks for them. ductions of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (18) and If I think of what I was doing standing in Schumann’s Winterreise (200), did you take front of an audience who paid money to see any dance classes? me twenty years ago, I’m a little embarrassed, Simon Keenlyside: No. I always say that it but I daresay every singer would say the same. wasn’tdance;itwasmove- ment.Winterreisewasbril- liant. Tricia is so clever, knowing full well that dancing next to her danc- ers I would have looked like a piece of clay. So the three dancers and I were all one person. It wasn’tas if I was moving and they were dancing. We were all moving. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever been involved with – both the Orfeo and the Winterreise. BR: A lot of times opera performers do almost too much movement now. Keenlyside: Yes, yes. BR:Thehardestthingis for performers to stand absolutely still and ex- tracteverything.Inaway, isn’tit more revealing and exposed to be still? Keenlyside: I think that is the most interesting Simon Keenlyside and trio of dancers in Trisha Brown’s question you could possi- Winterreise. (Photo: Steven J. Sherman) bly have asked. It’s something I feel really As a youngster I was as guilty as anybody else stronglyabout.TheBritishinmylifetimehave of “When in doubt – move.” had a sort of reputation for being so-called But if you are talking to somebody like we “good actors” on the opera stage. Sometimes are talking now, no amount of fatuous move- that’s true, but let’s not mistake mugging and ment is going to bring any more to the con- dumbshowing for an audience that doesn’t versation than we already have. It’s by inflec- speak the language for good acting. tion and focus. Of course, you can internalize ©2014 SimonKeenlyside,JoelLobenthal something so much that you end up just Doing Marriage of Figaro, there’s a certain sort standing still. And you do have to help a bit of physicality that goes with the Count as an with an audience, when they don’t speak the aristocrat. Of course, the older you get, hope- language. fully the more in control you are of what is Movement–likeaset,likelighting–should required, which physicality for which role. in some way reinforce whatever it is you’re BR:Wheredidyoutraininstagemovement? trying to say to people, try to help the focus Keenlyside:Tobehonest,I’velearnedonthe and not dissipate it. hoof, learned on the way. Learned from lis- BR: Certainly today, speaking generally, tening to people, learned from watching peo- opera singers are capable of doing more than ple I admire. It’s always a learning curve. they did in the past. Do you think physically BR: Married to Zenaida Yanowsky, do you you do more than Geraint Evans or Tito Gob- watch her performances at the Royal Ballet? bi did? Keenlyside: Yes! And I watch them dispas- Keenlyside: No, I don’t. It depends on the sionately too. piece, on the director, on the mood on the day. BR: From the wings or from out front? You want to suck people in. If you want to take Keenlyside: Both. She’s one of those crea- them by the lapels and show them something tures, one of those animals – it doesn’t mat- that you’ve lived with for a long time and that ter: dance, mime, singing, theater. In the end, is unbelievably beautiful, then you need all the ones that are interesting are the ones that your concentration to bring them in. Cart- transcend the art form, as it were, and touch wheeling around the place will not help that. you, affect you. My wife happens to be one of There are some roles, like Papageno, where those. She’s a great communicator. part of it is the physical exuberance. BR: And do you give her comments? I’ve done Magic Flute all over the world. At Keenlyside: No. the Met it was a revival, so you have to make BR: Does she solicit them? somethingsup,thinkforyourself.Icamebelt- Keenlyside: No. I learned long ago, you don’t ing on, and ran around the place, and it’s such go back and make comments, certainly after a huge stage that I was out of breath. I had to the show. She’d bite my head off. take myself in hand and say,“Take it easy.You BR: Does she ever say anything to you about can’tdo as much physical chicanery as you can movement? in a small theater because the stage is so vast.” Keenlyside: No. But I ask her opinion of it. It was for that Flute anyway. But it’s so different. I’m strong as a horse, and Or Billy Budd. People used to say, “Oh, you’re I’ve always managed to do things physically, alwaysrushingaroundinBillyBudd.”Itamused but I can’t do a single thing that a dancer does. me, because I had learned by then that if you Not only that. The music for a singer is linear: dooneortwothingsearlyon,bigthings,that’s we do one thing at a time, it goes from A, and all you need to do to show the audience or put there’s an arc, and you’re telling a story. It’s a in their mind, “This is a very athletic, physi- narrative. That’s the nature of our jobs as ac- cal man.” tors and singers. People will remember those moves and But dancers, they’re doing about five things think you did them all night, but you didn’t. at once. They’re moving in three dimensions It’s like a punctuation mark, and then people forastart:theshouldersgoingback,theknees remember the physicality. You say, “This is going forward, the head going forward. That what this character is, and this is the frame is totally impossible for those of us who are of reference I want it to be in. This is the na- not trained in that. Our bodies would not re- ture of the man.” spondanyway,eventothenotionofdoingthat It totally depends on the role. If I’m doing many things at once Wolfram in Tannhäuser, there’s no movement. BR: Of course, the lives and timetables of a 40 ballet review ballerina and an opera singer are very differ- Keenlyside: A lot. But I’m not doing any ent. more. I’ve got about twenty-five Rachmani- Keenlyside: It’s like living with a racehorse. noff, Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Rimsky songs, When she’s working, she’s got to be in Lon- and I did Onegin. I’ll carry on with that. don. She can’t even get out for one day because But I only did them in the first place to doff they have one day off a week and they have to my hat to my mother’s family. I have no rest their legs. I say, “Let’s go out for a walk.” understanding of the language. I’m not com- She can’t do it. It’s totally consuming. You just fortable singing in a language I can’t really have to be patient because their working lives speak. are so short. BR: You were enrolled at St. John’s College BR: Now you are expecting your second Choir School in Cambridge when you were child. [Their daughter Iona, was born on eight. Was your mother interested in music? March 7, 2010.] Keenlyside: She played piano. Keenlyside: If she has any more babies be- BR: But she sensed that you had a voice? yondthatshe’snotgoingtogetanymorework. Keenlyside: I don’t know why. She sent me She’s tall. The company has no really big men to this English boarding-school situation. Bi- for a start. They’ve given her Sylvia in the au- zarre. God, I would never do it to my children. tumn. So she’s coming back with big, heavy BR: But it’s sort of a tradition there.

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