Cynthia Dragoni 🪬

I am still processing the performance, which was one of the best I’ve ever seen, of Gillian Murphy’s last performance. Below is a quote (full article on my free Substack):

Imagine the playoffs of the World Series when your hometown team is playing, the Beatles at Shea Stadium or opening night of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. This level of rabid fan excitement was in the house at The Metropolitan Opera for the final performance of one of America’s greatest of all time ballerinas.

Her first entrance was enormous. Murphy entered as the maiden Odette before she’s put under the evil curse. Her spell was cast on us with the profundity of all her love and all her years onstage. As if the last three decades collapsed, enveloping her and us. Her maiden was translucent and pulsing with purity as always, but there was an urgency even in her innocence. When Rothbart kidnapped her—a scene that always upsets me (and out of respect for the occasion we won’t get into the DIY swan puppet)—we watched her disappear into the dark.

The first heartbreak of the night—we’ll never have her maiden again.

The first act was enjoyable in its usual way, and thankfully Jake Roxander was cast in the peasant pas, bursting onto the stage with his freshness, his adorable attack. Each entrance feels like a child flying from a rope into the middle of the lake. He reminds me of Baryshnikov in his disarming charm, good looks, height, and wild technique. Interesting to note: in the Soviet Union, Baryshnikov was also not cast as the leading male roles in the classics…
FULL REVIEW ON SUBSTACK LINK IN BIO ✍️ 🩰

Video and Photo #6 (Gillian Murphy & Irina KOLPAKOVA) by @bstigler