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POB Giselle 2006-7 Season


Ilya

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Does anyone know the casting for POB's Giselles in December 2006? The Paris Opera website of course does not give any information; however, Manuel Legris's site says he and Delphine Moussin are dancing on Dec 9, 12, and 16, which suggests that the casting is already known (at least to the dancers).

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If you click on "Ballets," there will be a list of the season's ballets. After you click on an individual ballet, if there's a graphic with two ballet shoes and the word "Distribution" to the left of the information about the ballet, a cast list will appear if you click it. If this graphic isn't on the page, the casting hasn't been posted yet.

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It is interesting to notice that on Dec 10, Laurent Hilaire will be dancing Albrecht (partnering Aurélie Dupont, with also Wilfried Romoli as Hilarion and Marie-Agnes Gillot as Myrtha). Hilaire officially retired some time ago and now is one of the ballet masters of the company, so opportunities to see him on stage are a rare event- I wonder if it will be a sort of farewell performance ? (Patrice Bart, the current ballet master in chief, had retired in the early 1980s before the age limit to become a ballet master, but still had done a farewell performance a few years later- I think it was in "Petrouchka").

It also is interesting to notice that Laetitia Pujol will be back on stage (she had been absent for some months because of maternity leave).

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Just in case this is of interest to someone, the casting has been updated. Delphine Moussin has pulled off all her scheduled performances ; she's replaced in Giselle by Mélanie Hurel or Aurélie Dupont.

There has been a lot of changes as well for Myrtha ; Abbagnato and Romberg won't dance it at the beginning of the run, they're replaced by Laura Hecquet (it should be a very interesting debut), Emilie Cozette, Béatrice Martel or Aurélia Bellet.

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Just in case this is of interest to someone, the casting has been updated. Delphine Moussin has pulled off all her scheduled performances ; she's replaced in Giselle by Mélanie Hurel or Aurélie Dupont.

There has been a lot of changes as well for Myrtha ; Abbagnato and Romberg won't dance it at the beginning of the run, they're replaced by Laura Hecquet (it should be a very interesting debut), Emilie Cozette, Béatrice Martel or Aurélia Bellet.

I hope you wil share your impressions of the production with us, Azulynn. Those of us far from Paris have to live vicariously through posters like you.

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Hi, nikiya79.

I'm expect some of the members who are familiar with the dancers will offer their suggestions, but in the meantime, if you browse through the many posts in the POB forum, you'll find lots of opinions by many different posters. Of course, it all comes down to a matter of taste.

I'm glad you found your way to BalletTalk. Please tell us a bit about yourself in our Welcome Forum.

And of course, we'll look for your review after (or during?) your Paris trip.

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Nikiya, I would definitely advise you to see Clairemarie Osta. She's been getting better and better recently (she was a truly memorable Dame aux Camélias), and she's petite and light, right for Giselle. She's never danced the ballet in Paris but she did it on tour. Generally speaking she's an excellent actress as well. Agnès Letestu is a great dancer, but Giselle doesn't fit her ; she's very tall, and IMO does not have the lightness one would expect in the second act. Apparently though she has a very personal take on the part, but if you're only going to see one performance, Osta is a great choice.

Beware : the performances are already sold out both on Internet and at the box-office, and it will be extremely hard to get tickets if you haven't already.

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nikyia79: there can be some returned tickets in Paris as well, so sometimes there are some tickets which are sold on the evening of the performance. If I remember correctly, the box office opens 45 minutes before the beginning of the performance (so usually at 6:45 PM as performances start at 7:30 PM), but when a performance is sold out people start queuing long before, so to have a chance to get a ticket one should go there much earlier (sometimes as early as 2 hours before the performance- better bring a book !)

Actually it makes me wonder why the POB hadn't scheduled more performances "Giselle", as the tickets have been sold out so quickly...

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Do try on the day of the performance if you're in Paris, but as Estelle stated, you need to come very early. I'm not even sure two hours before is enough during the holiday season, a lot of people who couldn't book in advance try to get returned tickets (and they will be few I think for Giselle).

It is indeed a shame that only people who are aware of that (mostly regular ballet goers) are able to get tickets in advance... If the POB doesn't want to make a run last for too long, and it's understandable, given how tiring it must be for the dancers, they should do two runs of the same ballet in the season as they used to (split between December and late January/February for instance).

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Not a mystery to me Estelle, the Parisian public is fairly starved of classical works at the POB these days. They probably go crazy when they see Giselle scheduled.

Yes probably... The other performance in the same period is "Coppélia", but it is not Patrice Bart's recent production, not a traditional production (and the next full-length classics this season will be Nureyev's production of "Don Quixote" in February-March and "Cinderella" in April-May). All that makes me think once again about the logic of the programming at the POB, with so many modern works :beg: And also, for example, it seems to me that "The Nutcracker" hasn't been performed for years (in France it doesn't have the same status as in the US for example, however I think it would surely attract quite a lot of audience, especially in the holiday season).

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Now Manuel Legris is injured as well, after Hilaire and Moreau. Aurélie Dupont will dance either with Matthieu Ganio or Nicolas Le Riche. See the POB website for detailed casting...

There's one new injured dancer every day, it seems, and we haven't even got to the opening nights of Giselle and Coppélia - wonder how the company will manage to survive until January ! :mad:

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There's one new injured dancer every day, it seems, and we haven't even got to the opening nights of Giselle and Coppélia - wonder how the company will manage to survive until January ! :(

Do you have any idea why this happens? Should the company be performing at both theatres simultaneously? I realize that with 150 dancers the POB has the numbers to perform at two opera houses at the same time, but it does seem to run out of soloists along the way.

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Yes, the compagny has about 150 dancers, but a lot of them don't perform in classical productions, so even in the corps they aren't enough healthy dancers and school pupils and or/ dancers with non permanent positions are performing in most of the classical productions.

And for the soloists, I guess there can be a lot of possible explanations, but one can wonder if dancing in so many different styles in a very short time is good for their bodies ? And aren't they dancing too much ?

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And aren't they dancing too much ?

That would be my question as well. I don't really understand why the company would schedule two full-scale works simultaneously, especially since the promotion exams also take place in December. Theoretically, the exams shouldn't be a problem, but when injuries to the top ranks force members of the corps to assume larger roles, it becomes an issue. I see that the company has been reduced to 4 Albrechts for 18 performances of Giselle and 4 Swanildas for 17 performances of Coppelia. I suppose that ABT principals would be envious of that work load, since most of them get only 1, maybe 2 performances of a given ballet during their season at the Met, but when etoiles and premiers danseurs begin dropping like flies, there's something very wrong.

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Well, I think that featuring two full scales work in december is a financial issue, but to my mind that can be asserted because it bas been shown in the past that both Giselle and Coppelia always attract wide audiences and are almost always sold out, whenever they're scheduled.

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