Francis Timlin

Ballet West's 50th anniversary season is 2013-14.

Here is a link to the 2010-11 OBT season: http://www.obt.org/10-11/index.html It's obscured by a busy design on the home page.

You are correct -- Russian is the single holdover from the last Lew Christensen production.

Here is a link to the Stern Grove website: http://www.sterngrove.org Note that there is a pre-performance lecture at 12:00 noon on performance day (July 27).

The Seattle Times devoted considerable space on Sunday, June 22, 2003 to a series of articles on our new Opera House, opening this Saturday, June 28 as Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/ente...rtainment/mccaw

The program is a triple bill -- comprised of three different ballets from San Francisco Ballet's repertoire. The opener is Allegro Brillante, a 1956 work by George Balanchine set to Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 3. There is no plot; the work is brief (13 minutes). The middle work, Waltz Project, was premiered by SFB earlier this season. Choreographed by Peter Martins, it is a collection of 13 different waltzes by as many different composers. The final work on the program is Paquita, a surviving fragment of an otherwise lost work originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and staged for this production by Natalia Makarova. Does this information help?

Yes. If you are in The City that weekend, I highly recommend it.

Yes -- the annual performance at Stern Grove will be held on Sunday, July 27, 2003 at 2:00 p.m. [stern Grove is an outdoor venue in the Sunset District of San Francisco; admission is free, but crowds are enormous. Arrive well before noon to stake out territory.] The program will be Allegro Brillante, Waltz Project (Peter Martins) and Makarova's staging of Paquita.

Yes -- several times. I saw the opening night cast (Noelani Pantastico and Jeffrey Stanton) at dress rehearsal; Patricia Barker and Stanko Milov last Saturday evening; and will return this evening to see Kaori Nakamura and Olivier Wevers. As I mentioned when this production was first acquired by PNB from English National Ballet a couple of seasons ago, I think we are very fortunate to have such a production and the depth of company members to bring it to performance with relative ease. The entire company is performing at such a consistently high level right now that is a pleasure to see all of the casts on offer.

Here is the author's biographical information: http://music.uoregon.edu/About/bios/smithm.html

Incidentally, there will be a *25th* anniversary "roast" for Kent and Francia in April (1977-78 through 2002-03). (Patty's gala was for her *20th*) Cheers!

You might have had that impression because there was a gala presented to celebrate her 20th anniversary with the company (1981-2001). However, she is performing at the height of her powers -- retirement would be altogether premature. Next season's programming has been planned to honor Mr. Balanchine and is balanced heavily in favor of Ms. Barker's best repertoire. It is also the opening of our new performance hall, with galas and special programming -- I am reasonably sure that she plans to be there. She has always been and continues to be one of the hardest working, most committed members of the company.

Happy to oblige! This is a marvelous program -- so much so that I will be returning to see two other casts later this week. I think that the juxtaposition of "Paquita" and "Theme" was a brilliant programming choice. Mr. Campbell is correct in describing it as "didactic without appearing so." The Saturday, February 1 performance featured one young principal (Carrie Imler) paired with a young soloist (Casey Herd) in "Paquita." Ms. Imler, CPYB and PNB trained, is a turner and has rock-solid balance. I counted (yes -- I count!) 34 fouettes (including doubles as ending flourishes) with no hint of traveling. Mr. Herd is a jumper and executed his solos well. I am sure that he will grow as a partner. There were some cast shifts among the soloists due to an injury that occurred on opening night, with some resulting unevenness in quality which should also smooth out during the second week of the run. Louise Nadeau and Jeffrey Stanton were well matched in the "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux." Ms. Nadeau has grown is stature as an artist as she has matured. Her performance appeared to be weightless, effortless and possessed of a very French effervescence -- perhaps as a nod to Violette Verdy. Mr. Stanton is known as one of PNB's most attentive and intuitive partners and did not disappoint. The novelty of the evening was the opportunity to see the "Esmeralda Pas de Deux," set by Kaori Nakamura and Olivier Wevers. Alas, although scheduled, they did not perform last Saturday. (I hope to be able to see them on at least one of the performances this week.) Noelani Pantastico and Astrit Zejnati gave a pleasant and competent performance. The glory of the evening, however, was Patricia Barker, partnered by Stanko Milov, in "Theme and Variations." As often as she has performed this role, it is altogether to her credit that Ms. Barker finds new avenues of exploration and continues to refine additional nuances. On this occasion, it was the new freedom in her control of port de bras and epaulement which impressed me the most. I speculate that these qualities are at least partially the result of increased exposure to roles in "Paquita," and, especially, "Sleeping Beauty," the latter of which she has described as the most difficult work she has ever done, and which she will perform later this spring. The ensemble was in its element -- everyone radiated an aura of "this is what we live to do" confidence and assuredness.

Casting is now available for the complete run: http://www.pnb.org/season/casting3.html

My best recommendation would be to keep checking the PNB website at the following URL: http://www.pnb.org/season/russian.html Casting generally appears on the program information page approximately one week prior to opening (in this case, January 30). Casting for the second week is generally delayed until early in the second week. Cheers!