Love Fest – The Royal Ballet in Cuba – part six / The Orchestra

NBC News is still hard at work covering one of the most important culture stories of the year – The Royal Ballet's visit to Havana, Cuba.  Meanwhile, The New York Times critics are on vacation and phoning in second thoughts about ABT's Met season.

Mary Murray, NBC's Havana Bureau Chief, writes about The Royal Ballet's orchestra conductor, Martin Yates, and the extraodinary results of his efforts to work with the Cuban National Symphony:

The excitement began when he managed to pry open the theater’s orchestra pit, which had been sealed 15 years ago when Cuba’s strapped economy forced everyone in the arts to downsize. The use of the pit was such a novelty that during intermission members of the audience crowded the front of the auditorium just for a look.

Can you imagine – no orchestra pit for 15 years?!  Unbelievable.  Yates went on to describe the effects of the performance on the Cuban people:

"The audience exploded with cheers before I even finished the last few measures of music," said Yates. "Normally, the public is quite respectful. You play the last chord and it’s only on the last bang when the audience explodes. They couldn’t contain themselves on the last five bars when they knew it was the end…The public just erupted into an explosion of unbelievable proportions. The musicians should be proud of that accomplishment."

Wow.  What a story!  Thank you NBC News, CBS News, Reuters, Washington Post, AP, CNN, BBC, Sacramento Bee, MSNBC, and the Financial Times, for such great coverage.  You sure know what news is fit to print!