As usual, Haglund was no where near "the place to be" last night when Peter Frampton and his band shook the Aronoff Center in Cincinnati to its core and inspired the artists of the Cincinnati Ballet to dance themselves right into the ground as shown below in a photo by Peter Mueller from Cincinnati.com:
Photo: Peter Mueller
Frampton and Gordon Kennedy composed seven new songs for the event. The new music was used for the middle repertory premiere by Adam Hougland. Frampton classics were used for the first and third repertory premieres by Missy Lay Zimmer, Andrew Hubbard, and Devon Carney.
Cincinnati Enquirer dance critic David Lyman was in the middle of it all:
This is full-force Frampton, filled with those masterful solos that wail and caterwaul, that grind and sing and throb and . . . well, raise holy hell on the stage. And the same thing for the ballet. Youthful, powerful, sensuous, athletic. Once they settled into the hyped-up rhythm of a show like this, the dancers proved equal partners to Frampton and his gifted band.
. . . .Near the end of the show, with the entire company dancing so ferociously that it threatens to devour the stage, Frampton lines the front of his platform with a wall of guitars. Five players, side by side. It’s a staggering sight. And an even more staggering sound.
Wow.
Some months ago, Frampton said that the performances – three in all: Friday, Saturday matinee, and Saturday evening – would be filmed with the idea of later releasing a composite on DVD.
Frampton is a long time resident of the Cincinnati suburb of Indian Hill, which is a stone's throw away from Haglund's old stomping grounds, and has been on CB director Victoria Morgan's collaboration radar for many years. How great that she was able to pull it off. More pictures are at the link above.