A festschrift in honor of the New York City Ballet on its 50th birthday, incorporating reminiscences and testimonial essays with photographs of George Balanchine and his dancers and reproductions of set designs, programs, and other such memorabilia. Making best use of the legion of distinguished artists and performers who have worked with the NYCB, editor Christopher Ramsey has included photography by Richard Avedon and Henri Cartier-Bresson, essays by Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, John Guare, and George Plimpton, and artwork by Marc Chagall, Isamu Noguchi, and Keith Haring. In his foreword, Baryshnikov credits NYCB co-founder Lincoln Kirstein with introducing Russian ballet to America, which Susan Sontag claims thereby made New York the undisputed capital of American dance. Informally arranged, with essays interspersed randomly among the reproductions, this looks more like a nicely bound scrapbook than the usual coffee-table volume, and the intimacy of tone which this creates should appeal to those whose interest in ballet surpasses their familiarity with it. Devotees, of course, will want the book as a matter of course.
Pub Date: Nov. 4, 1998
ISBN: 0-688-15751-3
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1998
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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