dave23

Thank you for the link its the mom. I couldn't see if anything was available recorded though. Anyhow, I went back to the opera to see it again and even though it's the only piece from her I've seen (and the only "great classical ballet" I've seen live is The Nutcracker ) I'll have to agree with your son and say that her work seems to be amazing. Best regards David

I stumbled onto this 2min youtube clip of Pär Isbergs Nutcracker. I assume it's the one Pamela was talking about. As for the Royal Swedish Ballet I've recently seen their triple bill Christe, Matthews, Ek and liked it immensely. So much that I went back a few days later. Was especially fond of the two court dancers Marie Lindqvist and Jan-Erik Wikström in Quondam by Sabrina Matthews. Christe, Matthews and Ek are the choreographers though so no Isberg. Also, I'm far from an expert so I can have been duped by the dancing, opera singers on stage, professional violin solists et al. Jurgita Dronina didn't perform and shouldn't according to their webpage but theres a picture of her in Christes piece in the program but maybe that's from last year. Too bad, would have liked to see her after Pamelas comment. Still, wouldn't be the only typo in the program since I could swear Quondam was over in 23 seconds. /David

I saw Quondam recently, from last year by Sabrina Matthews, and I wondered if anyone else has seen anything by her? And if so, any recommendations as to what else to see and how to get a hold of it (preferably better quality than youtube)? Thanks in advance David

I had never heard of the Feast of the seven fishes before. Sounds like something I'll have to try, if only to do something different from the traditional christmas ham. Makes sense that the seven fishes represents the seven sacraments if it's Vigilia di Natale. Me, I wasn't with my family for once ands thus in charge of my own food. Ended up having champagne & foie gras followed by a chateaubriand and some cheese, snacks and wine. Not very christmasy, but nice. Best of all, not having to see the 3 o'clock Donald Duck! Horrible, horrible Swedish tradition. Every year you have to watch the same compilation of Disney cartoons. 30 years of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse on vacation. 30 years of Ferdinand under his corktree. No more, please!

10 minutes left of Christmas Day local time (CET) so, Merry Christmas all! And Helene, do you know which countries celebrate on the 24th? Unless you were referring to people who don't celebrate Christmas at all. //Dave

A late thanks for the info rg. I've been hiking in the Ardennes and not keeping up with BT. A search for Hoffman showed me what you were talking about, Nutcracker had too may hits though... It seems Marc or other Belgians didn't go, too bad, I would've liked to hear what they thought. For me, hearing that these guys are third in St Pete makes me really want to see Mariinsky, but I think I'll wait until spring/summer, St Pete gets very, very cold in the winter (or so I'm told). If you happen to read this rg and don't mind answering, do you know the story behind the snowflakes? Are they too from the ballet-version? Anyways, Merry Christmas all!

Well, as usual, I've posted before I thought things through. Being back home with the program I answered some of my questions but a few new ones arouse. Apparently they have the short name of: "The state opera and ballet theater Rimsky-Korsakov of Saint Petersburg" Which raises a new question for me: No mention of Conservatory? Is that a separate part or is it connected somehow? I seem to have read that several Russian dancers have "graduated from the conservatory", so is there a school too? Also, there is indeed no Clara in the cast, but there is one "Marie Stahlbaum", is that her? Which again makes me wonder. On their website (which doesn't seem to be working anymore) I read about the Artistic Director Nikita Dolgushin and as I recall it it mentioned that he wants to "bring back" the russian ballets including the atmosphere if you understand me. Without the english text I'm not 100% sure, but for those of you that speak french I can quote this from the programme: So, if he really is dedicated to making the ballets "true" to the originals (as I interpreted what I read, I could be wrong of course) what does that make of his version of the Nutcracker? The two main things I saw (where the program contradicts itself) is 1) Clara apparently being called Marie. 2) The Nutcracker keeping his toy-costume throughout the performance. There were also other discrepancies (as far as I can tell, the best reference I have is, well, wikipedia, the online dictionary that anyone can edit) among them, as stated above, No snowflakes, but 5 pink fairies. Is this version "his own" or has he adapted someone elses, and if so, whos? And which one is truer to the original? If anyone has an idea it'd be nice to know, always interesting to know more about what you've seen.

First things first: Does anyone know what they are called? The Rimsky-Korsakov Ballet? Because, to me at least, the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory is the building across from the Mariinsky. Anyways, they are on tour with the Nutcracker and performed in Brussels this past weekend. Did anyone go and see it and feel like posting a review? (I'm counting on you Marc!) Being my first Casse-Noisette as they call it over here, I had some questions. Like, uhm, why no Clara in the cast? Was the fairies a substitute for the snow flakes? Isn't the Nutcracker supposed to become a prince, or at least human? Am I the only one who thought the Sugar-Plum Fairy looked slightly peeved when she didn't get any flowers? But mostly: How good/bad was it? And on a side note, I seem to have misplaced the thread about cast-lists in the program for the Russian Companies and can add that this cast-list did indeed show who danced at which performance. (Well, except for Clara as stated above... She seemed to be missing.)

Oh, and also, if you'd like to see the totally unbiased reviews posted on, uhm, The Royal Ballet of Flanders homepage, it's rigt here (PDF): reviews WARNING: It's all in flemish. But it says stuff like: "Bruid met ruggengraat" (Bride with a spine?) and Basically, Spuck has earned his reputation as one of the most interesting new choreographers with this piece. And, ballet can be wonderful. And as for me not calling it ballet, remember, I've never been to a ballet. This one skirts the edges, but I'll keep that position until I've seen 12 girls in white tutus doing pointe-work in perfect unison!

Yes, I did go. I went to the Saturday matinee. And I enjoyed it. A lot actually. EDIT: Ok, taken a sick-day, fevers gone, I think I can be more articulate than that! To sum up: Me go, me like. Not great but a good way to spend a saturday.

Thanks for the replies! Sorry about the late answer, got swamped at work. leonid: Thanks for the links, can't believe I missed the link to his homepage! Anyway, I think Spucks homepage is quite telling, in both style and content. Leigh: Modern in outlook? That sounds like an understatement, it's even supposed to be a multimedia experience! Mark: Thanks for pointing that out, I might have missed it. I checked the maps and it's only a few blocks from the station, though I get different adresses when I search for Theaterplein or Stadsschouwburg... Anywho, not exactly the ballet blanc I was looking for but sounds interesting, I'll consider it a contemporary dance-piece and go. Besides, sundays Zlatan vs palermo so that weekend can't go wrong.

Royal ballet of Flanders is performing The Return of Ulysses 24th-26th november. "A new full-length ballet created for the Royal Ballet of Flanders Choreography: Christian Spuck" And with an orchestra! Since when do they have one? Anyone familiar with this ballet or the choreographer? I wonder what style it is? Link: http://www.koninklijkballetvanvlaanderen.b...te/seasonru.htm And if there's any belgians here, can you make the train back to Brussels after the show? It's a long walk from Antwerp... Found this about his first ballet, from Financial Times (well, actually from here...) EDIT: To clarify, I found this: "Christian Spuck geeft met veel groteske humor in deze schitterende balletvoorstelling uitdrukking aan het moderne (absurde) leven." Now I don't speak flemish, but to me that looks like : Christian Spuck gives with very grotesque humour, in this brilliant ballet, expression to the modern (absurd) life. How does one interpret that?

Thanks for all the replies! Guess it's pretty much like I expected then, unfortunately. I'll just stick to my DVDs for the time being then (which I had forgotten include on of La Scala - Giselle with Alessandra Ferri). Funny thing this whole ballet-business, all my ballet-loving friends (well, both of them) say "just go see one" but it's not that easy, now is it? And about the Giselle choregraphy, La Scalas homepage actually says: "Choreography Jean Coralli - Jules Perrot"... (http://www.teatroallascala.org/public/LaScala/EN/teatroPiermarini/complessi_artistici/corpo_di_ballo/repertorio/pagina2.html) The program says Yvette Chauviré though. (http://ballets.soft-ages.be/doc/InfoEtoilesFR.pdf) Weird. It also says that La Scala are sending their Etoilés (Primi Ballerini)!! Their homepage doesn't even mention this tour... Somthing's very strange about this show. Anyway, looks like I'll be going to the opera instead, again. Seems to end up there every time I'm thinking about ballet... Thanks again!

Thank you for your reply Helene. I did a bit of digging and none of the names you mentioned are in the cast, unfortunatly. The cast is: Sabrina Brazzo Gilda Gelati Marta Romagna Riccardo Massimi Mick Zeni Alessandro Grillo Antonino Sutera Deborah Gismondi The pieces include: The Cage - Jeremy Robbins La Chauve-Souris - Roland Petit Apollon Musagete - Balanchine Casse-Noisette - Rudolf Nureyev The River - Alvin Ailey Le Corsair - Marius Petiba Excelsior - Ugo dell'Ara Giselle - Yvette Chauviré Lots of new stuff for me, out of those I've only seen Le Corsair and Giselle. Though I understand that The Cage is (perhaps) Giselle? I might have seen Apollon Musagete, I saw a tape of "ABT does Balanchine" or some other name which included a piece from Apollo. Anywho, it seems like a rather small cast and nowhere can I see a corps being mentioned, is it going to be only solos and pdds? ugh, I'm feeling kinda cheap here but 175€ is alot to fork out when I have absolutely no idea what I'm getting. But it feels like I haven't done anything in a long time and I'm getting desperate! Also angry with La Monnaie as usual, they're doing La Traviata in dec. which I have never seen and would like to see, but the whole "sung in Italian, subtitled in french/dutch"-part is not something I like when I see an opera for the first time. I'm just gonna stop bothering you now. /Dave

Hi all, new member, first post. La Scala will be performing in Brussels 23rd-26th november with a show called "Les étoiles de la danse". Now, having already searched the site for info and finding nothing (except for the weird fact that you have to register in order to use the search functionality) I'll ask about it here. (The forum said "Galas" so I hope it's in the right place) Thing is, I've never been to a ballet. I've been planning to though, for like the past 15 years or something, but seeing as I've hit 30 now it's time to get sophisticated and cultivated (either that or a Porche and a 18-year-old blond girlfriend). There are however not many ballets in Brussels, we don't have a company as far as I know. So now I see this gala coming up, and there's still tickets (albeit expensive) and I'm thinking, why not? So can anyone tell me if this might be a good ballet to go see? The search found some posts regaring La Scala from 2005 saying that they weren't really that good. Also, if I'm reading the info right (can be found on www.ballets.be) it says there will be pieces from 16 different coreographies. At one night? Is that 16*10min? Anyone seen La Scala perform recently? And do you like these "show-off"-ish galas or recommend holding out for a full performance? Because I guess I do have the alternative to hop on the TGV and see the POB. That would require some planning though and knowing me it won't happen. Anyways, thoughts would be appreciated and best regards and such /Dave