Sometimes wishes come true – just not in the order you want them.
Back in November 2009, ABT teased its audience to design the 2011 season. Haglund took it to heart here and listed his 1-2 wishes as Mayerling and a new production of Stravinsky's Firebird that makes good dance-use of the final five-minute musical orgasm.
Well, we haven't gotten Mayerling YET (Come on, Lady MacMillan. We truly, truly need your help on this!!!), but it seems that we will see a new Firebird by Alexei Ratmansky in 2012. At least, that's what the local paper is reporting. This is all assuming that Mr. Ratmansky doesn't burn out by then. He has set an unimaginable pace for himself in choreographing new full length ballets. He just finished ABT's Nutcracker. Now he's in Moscow working on a new full-length ballet Lost Illusions with music by Leonid Desyatnikov for the Bolshoi. Soon he'll be at The National Ballet of Canada working on a new full length Romeo and Juliet to Prokofiev. Then comes the new ABT Firebird. Throw in a few assignments for short pieces – like the one this spring for ABT at the Met, and you have a manufacturing and creative output rate that rivals Apple's.
But this is pretty exciting news. Several years ago, many cried their eyes out when a planned production of Firebird had to be cancelled by ABT for bugetary reasons. Can't wait to finally hear that big Stravinsky music in The Met. How wonderful it would be if Mr. Ratmansky incorporated just an itsy-bitsy amount of the Fokine choreography into his version – otherwise, we may never see it performed again. Odds are good that Mr. Franklin could help with the steps.