The opening night of New York City Ballet's 40th anniversary last week made for a fine old beano. For one thing, it inaugurated the company's ambitious American Music Festival, three weeks of patriotic programming involving 21 new ballets, five specially commissioned scores, with a total of 41 U.S. composers featured. For another, the evening had a real family feeling that bound the company and its intensely loyal following. Both Suzanne Farrell and Patricia McBride, the troupe's senior ballerinas, appeared in special numbers, and both danced with a radiance and glamour that brought the audience to its feet.
Onstage, City Ballet justified...
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