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mnacenani

Inactive Member
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Everything posted by mnacenani

  1. No denying she has her admirers !
  2. In case you do not know about this it's a website offering HD digital downloads for just a few dollars : https://iconicartsintl.org/collections/frontpage Ballets on offer : https://iconicartsintl.org/collections/ballet One has to register and for some of the downloads pass vetting which takes a day or two. For old-timers like myself who used to see opera and ballet at the ROH in the Nineties I recommend the following docu to revive memories of those golden Jeremy Isaacs years, when one could see two operas and one ballet over a long weekend : https://iconicartsintl.org/collections/documentary/products/the-house-royal-opera-house-documentary-all-episodes
  3. It's a bit difficult for me to understand why some people take it personally when someone says Stepanova is a poser - I thought so too, and when I streamed a performance for my wife (who does not follow any ballet) to elicit an opinion she said "Quelle poseuse" !! Other ballet lovers may have a totally different opinion, fine by me.
  4. This evidently is additional to the more well-known one in Perm. Scheduled for November 16-27 : https://www.diaghilev-ps.ru/en/ Yekaterinburg Ballet will present Vikharev's Paquita reconstruction. Preliminary festival program (Word file) : https://www.diaghilev-ps.ru/programme-diaghilev-p-s-2018-engl/
  5. There is only one original, the motherlode - Lavrovsky's R&J. A spiritual experience, an exceptional amalgam of story, composition and choreography. Regrettably, my Juliet, Diana Vishnyova, has hung up her pointes.
  6. Posted on Medici TV site - free upon registration : https://www.medici.tv/en/operas/tchaikovsky-queen-spades-salzburg-festival-jansons/
  7. Arte Concert has put this in archive free-to-web, probably for a limited time. It's also being telecast by Mezzo from time to time. Am I right in thinking that there are allegations that Macmillan blatantly copied some scenes from Cranko ?? https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/080539-000-A/romeo-und-julia/
  8. Could anyone post any reviews please ?
  9. https://www.wsj.com/articles/pushkin-a-life-played-out-review-the-poet-and-the-pistol-1533853576 I have no chance of seeing it but maybe some members would like to. Depiction of Pushkin by a white actor is historically incorrect !
  10. No problem - it's OK by me !! And so is women being bought and sold in Corsaire - I love it !! These works were created in Imperial Russia - too bad they made a gross oversight in not considering possible American reaction 125 years in the future.
  11. Dear Buddy after 3½ years of seeing ballet at the Bolshoy I have come to the irrevocable conclusion that classical ballet, as staged by the Bolshoy, loses at least half its impact if not seen on location. Pharaoh's Daughter thought beautiful to see has zero dramatic value, imo it's just a grand divertissement with the silliest of story lines, but inevitably there is great loss of detail when captured for tv : having to do close ups leaves much of the stage out of sight. And in ballets with a workable story line one does not see some important details : in Corsaire there is so much characterisation all around which tv shots do not capture, in Bayaderka one usually does not get to see the Rajah having a word with Aya and/or Gamzatti recoil and step down when Nikiya is bitten .... one can go on and on. Take Bolshoy's Coppelia : I saw three casts in April and also the cinecast in June : the cinecast in no way had the impact of the real thing : close-ups kill the richly cast, richly characterised, exquisitely detailed classical ballets staged by the Bolshoy. But if they were to show the full stage then again detail would be lost as everyone would look like ants scurrying around. (For me ballet is a high drama form as you know, others may have a different take).
  12. As I had written I saw Zaharova live last month but after seeing the Smirnova video/s I regret not being able to see her too - she is great imho. The problem with the Bolshoy, as always, is having to buy tix blind at advance sale - I could only guess (correctly) that Zaharova-Rodkin would probably do the opener.
  13. "The unspeakable in pursuit of the unwatchable" !
  14. Now that flights and hotels are within, or are about to enter, booking range I would like to remind membership that Bolshoi Ballet will be in London for a three-week residency at the ROH between 25th July and 17th August. Programme and casting info should be posted around Christmas time. I do very much hope that they will bring the Vikharev Coppelia which I understand was last presented in London in 2010 - no cinecast or video can do justice to the real thing. Another production on the shortlist could be "La Fille du Pharaon" which I understand last came to London in 2006 - quite some while. But if I had any say I would opt for Coppelia : not only is this great classic ballet but great comedy too. As with any stage work it's the "book" which makes or breaks it : a great story + gorgeous music + Bolshoy's dancers ...... a night to remember !
  15. Link to pdf file : http://email.wordfly.com/click?sid=ODBfMzY5OThfMzE4NTk4XzY5Mjk&l=61bd1c22-0197-e811-bcb0-e61f134a8c87&utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018_aug_ballet_casting_friends&utm_content=version_A&emailsource=40179 Osipova to dance only twice : as Kitri on 25th and 30th March ...... Acosta staging !
  16. Aw schucks ! Am sure it will have been roundly condemned by the time I get to see it at Stasik.
  17. Thank you Volcano - I could not find the link you posted. I forgot to post the link for the castings of the current revival, am posting it now : https://www.bolshoi.ru/en/performances/181818/roles/#20180719190000 Just returned from Moscow and first thing will watch the Zaharova-Filin dvd from October 2003 (with Alexandrova as Ramzé and Yanin as Passiphonte) - last night I thought I saw some changes in Act 1 and want to test my memory. PS : watched it - there was no change. I must have puffed too much opium !!
  18. "LA FILLE du PHARAON" revival Thursday 19th July (Zaharova-Rodkin) : after many years (no info on Bolshoy website re when it was last staged) this rarity was back on stage last night - three acts, eight scenes, 2:45 hours with two intervals. "Recontructed" by Lacotte for the Bolshoy it had premiered in May 2000. I first saw it on Mezzo some years ago starring Zaharova-Filin and later got the dvd for my collection. Now, this silliest of ballet stories most probably will not make anyone's top five list, and the music is no match for say Coppelia, but you have to give it to the Bolshoy : only they can mount this kind of "grand spectacle" with myriads of dancers, countless costume changes, countless PdD , variations and ensembles - no other company I have seen or know of has the human and financial resources. For me it has zero dramatic value and as such I would never see all performances of a particular run anytime, but seeing it once was good - continuous action keeps you alert throughout. Zaharova and Rodkin were technically very good, although I again will say that Zaharova has started to look a bit aged for some roles. Does this production merit a special trip to Moscow ? I would not say so, unless you live close by. If you would like to make a special trip to the Bolshoy to see something grand, I recommend Corsaire !
  19. "Isadora" incidentally will premiere at Stasik in Moscow on 21st September and is already sold out. I am due to see the mat and eve performances of Don Kixot at the Bolshoy on the 22nd so booked my flight for the 21st in the hope of finding a ticket for Isadora ...... pulled by the stellar gravity of Natasha. Will probably end up regretting it once again, as I did going to the Bolshoy "Petipa" galas .....
  20. Are we referring to Denis Matsuyev ?? Surely his distinction can't only be being close to Gergiyev and Putin 🙄
  21. Talent shows within 10 seconds. Am sure Naghdi has loads of it, not so sure about Ball but will keep an open mind.
  22. As I had written earlier under some thread, I saw this Tshetnaya (FMG) when Yekat performed it at the Bolshoy in 2016 as their Z. Maska entry. Cannot comment on steps, costumes or scenery which to me looked like the good old FMG we all know. The striking difference was the addition of a "Ballet Class" as prologue and epilogue which struck me as rather odd. At the time I could not read Russian but have just looked at the program (Russian only) again and it actually credits these to "Conservatory" by Bournonville. So what's the big deal - I still don't get it !
  23. According to Yekaterinburg Ballet website (Russian) the program of the July 7-8 galas is as follows (Google translation) : "Two evenings on the stage of the theater - the festival of virtuosic dance - a parade of fragments of classical ballets and premieres of the Ural choreographers loved by the public. Both concerts will open the second act of Swan Lake: Prince Siegfried has reached the age of majority and should choose a bride, but the bridesmanship violates the arrival of unexpected guests, Baron Rothbart and his daughter Odile - the Black Swan. A lavish palace feast, a defile of luxurious medieval dresses, a series of brilliant national dances, a whirlwind of thirty-two fueta ballerinas - all that is so dear to the audience heart for the second century already. The program of the second and third departments is composed according to the applications of the artists. It was based on classical numbers from among the most popular and most performed in the world: pas de deux from the ballets Don Quixote and Corsair, duets from the ballets of this year's jubilee, Marius Petipa - Talisman and Millions of Harlequin, masterpieces of Soviet ballet heroics - "Veshnie Vody" and pas de deux from the "Flame of Paris". After a long break, the classic from the classics Grand Pas to the music of Aubert will return to the Ekaterinburg scene. New numbers are presented by Anton Pimonov and Igor Bulytsin, well known to the public (the program of their new ballets MADE IN URAL, shown in the outgoing season, was a great success for viewers and metropolitan experts), as well as Konstantin Khlebnikov, the troupe artist and the participant of the project "Dance Platform" . The intrigue of gala concerts will be the participation of famous Yekaterinburg designers of clothes. Details of the project will be announced later. The commonwealth of ballet companies and fashion designers is becoming fashionable on the world stage, and in our country the Ural Opera Ballet was the first to make such a move: before our eyes Ekaterinburg becomes the legislator of theatrical fashion - in every sense of the word"
  24. I feel doubly sorry since pulled by the gravity of the constellation I squandered away the steep price of two tickets ! Thanks for the time and effort you put into your comprehensive review - setting an example really. I am generally in agreement with your takes, just a couple of points : I thought Kovalyova and Tissi looked very elegant, but I may not be attuned to the finer details of execution. Re Novikova will repeat my view that her sissones on both evenings were badly executed. Re Park : OK the sync was not millisecond-sharp but I thought she was very good, and after all she won the Benois didn't she ?? Re the Bana and Pastor pieces : can't even recall how these went - the second one a classic case of "Wagner having its glorious moments and long hours in between" ! The "perpetrators" of these two "Petipa Galas" could be prosecuted for misleading consumers if RF has anything like a "Trade Descriptions Act". What these could have been, and what they turned out to be ...... sad !
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