105 replies to this topic

[87Sigfried87]

Ray, on Aug 13 2007, 05:09 PM, said:

JMcN, on Aug 13 2007, 11:03 AM, said:

Balanchine's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", which I had the misfortune to sit through twice at the Edinburgh Festival a couple of years ago.  I nearly fell asleep!

Noooo! I like that ballet so much!I admit that for the first act It is almost all pantomime,and It can be boring.But the story,the costumes,all those fairies strolling around the stage...make me dream!And then It's Balanchine...If the Aestethic sense had a name,It would be Balanchine's.All those beautiful portraits of ensemble He makes with the dancers on stage....It's superb!In anything He does.

[canbelto]

I think Diamonds is boring. There. I said it.

[carbro]

canbelto, on Aug 13 2007, 12:39 PM, said:

I think Diamonds is boring. There. I said it.

I agree, except the ballerina's choreography.  That's enough to redeem it.

[richard53dog]

I would say Watermill. I just couldn't get it and I thought it would never end

[papeetepatrick]

carbro, on Aug 13 2007, 12:42 PM, said:

canbelto, on Aug 13 2007, 12:39 PM, said:

I think Diamonds is boring. There. I said it.

I agree, except the ballerina's choreography.  That's enough to redeem it.

That's another one I see mostly in terms of Suzanne Farrell, but I don't think it's at all boring as a work the way I do 'In Memory Of...' , especially if you're seeing the whole 'Jewels'.  I don't think it works nearly as well by itself, whereas 'Emeralds' does, but not if it's badly cast, as on the DVD using Merrill Ashley, who looks so strange and struggling-so-hard-to-reach-it dewy-eyed student in it.  Farrell has a hard balancing act (I don't mean when she was dancing), one might say.  There's wanting to be devoted to the Balanchine work, which she never abandons her faith in, and there's the fact that she's a star no matter what.  There's a singularly non-commercial integrity that she's supposed to represent, but I used to go to see her a good bit in the 80s, so it could be said that 'Farrell sold me more tickets than any other dancer did.'  Why not?  Somebody had to sell them, and I wanted to see her at that period, and did.

I think 'Diamonds' gives the impression of beginning to exist outside time so that extremely intense space begins to become more emphasized than time.  This idea is found in many places, and one of these is in 'Parsifal', where Gurnemanz sings about it.  I don't believe anybody will ever be fully inhabit 'Diamonds' the way Farrell did.  Instead, there needs to be a new choreographer and some new works and new dancers that get up to that level on their own, instead of expecting Balanchine to ever reach the heights he did when both he and Farrell were working together.  Farrell and Balanchine and Diamonds are too singular a thing to be able to reproduce truly fully--although I certainly think it should be attempted, and that some of the failures may be wonderful.   I probably see their 'Diamonds' as like a piece of unique sculpture, almost, maybe more than other ballets--even more than 'Mozartiana', which I can imagine someone else finally ascending to.

[Ray]

dancerboy87, on Aug 13 2007, 12:17 PM, said:

All those beautiful portraits of ensemble He makes with the dancers on stage....It's superb!In anything He does.

Funny, that's the reply I would make to Klavier when he said that Liebeslieder was boring!

[cubanmiamiboy]

Those who have read my posts know that Mme. Alicia Alonso   is my idol.  I also usually admit all the critics regarding her political oriented position in Cuba. I know...    But there were also political oriented ballet creations...oh, God, they were SO BAD...and those old enough to remember this kind of phenomenom in the Soviet Union before 1989 can give testimony of what i'm tallking about.  I remember, particulary, one HIDEOUS creation during the 60's and 70's..."AVANZADA", that had Alonso and some other female dancers dressed in green cuban militar uniforms to describe the "new"  woman/comrade in the socialist society.. on pointe...IT WAS AN ABOMINATION, TOTALLY  HORRIBLE AND BORING TO DEATH...
Mariano should know what i'm talking about...

[Hans]

Canbelto, thank you.  Diamonds puts me right to sleep.  

I know a lot of dancers love it, but I find Remanso a total snooze, along with several pieces by Kylian and Duato (can't remember the names).

[carbro]

Hans, on Aug 13 2007, 06:42 PM, said:

. . .  several pieces by Kylian and Duato (can't remember the names).

They're pretty much the same, though, aren't they?  Names aren't necessary.

[cargill]

For a long time, I thought Emeralds was unbelievably tedious, but I have seen the light.  I read somewhere that even Balanchine said that Diamonds, except for the pas de deux, was a big bore, which I agreed with, until I saw the Kirov corps dance it.  There was one moment, when they raised their legs in unison, that I actually felt chills run down my spine, it was just so indescribeably magnificent.  But it back to being the real bore now, without the Kirov.  As for the most boring thing I have ever seen, I think it would have to be the short-lived ABT full-length, The Snow Maiden, by Stevenson.  It had beatiful designs and very good dancing (Ananiashvilli and Corella), and I thought I would die.  It was a three-act poisonous pancake.

[Helene]

cargill, on Aug 14 2007, 09:47 AM, said:

I read somewhere that even Balanchine said that Diamonds, except for the pas de deux, was a big bore, which I agreed with, until I saw the Kirov corps dance it.  There was one moment, when they raised their legs in unison, that I actually felt chills run down my spine, it was just so indescribeably magnificent.

I had a similar experience viewing the Paris Opera Ballet DVD -- the combination of energy and classical placement of the women in the third movement gave me chills, and I had always snoozed during that movement before.  My POB experience made me sit up and take notice when I next saw it live.

[bart]

Helene, on Aug 14 2007, 02:16 PM, said:

I had a similar experience viewing the Paris Opera Ballet DVD -- the combination of energy and classical placement of the women in the third movement gave me chills, and I had always snoozed during that movement before.  My POB experience made me sit up and take notice when I next saw it live.

Helene, you raise the possibility that when we are bored we are sometimes (though obviously not always) just not paying enough attention.  Thanks for that insight.   I'm currently looking very closely at the POB Jewels as a kind of visual training for performances by Miami City Ballet in November.  There's much more there than met THIS eye in the past.   And, as we begin to look closely at the kind of detail that Cargill found in the Kirov's production, it occasionally happens that we also come to appreciate the ballet as a whole.  And look forward to seeing it again.

[artspatron07]

I am not particularly fond of Peter Martin's choreography.  It has a tendency to lull me right to sleep.

[aurora]

cargill, on Aug 14 2007, 01:47 PM, said:

As for the most boring thing I have ever seen, I think it would have to be the short-lived ABT full-length, The Snow Maiden, by Stevenson.  It had beatiful designs and very good dancing (Ananiashvilli and Corella), and I thought I would die.  It was a three-act poisonous pancake.

oh! I had blocked that out totally. I saw it with ananiashvili too and wow. I never thought i would hate something she was in but it was soo tedious and terrible.

SNow Maiden gets my vote as well, and i love your description!

[Natalia]

What's freshest on my mind after recent Bolshoi-London tour:  Wheeldon's 'Elsinore' a.k.a. 'Misericordes.' Dark - brooding - blah costumes - yet another depressing Arvo Part score and, worst of all, a nonsensical quasi-plot. This is supposed to be a reflection on 'Hamlet'? You could have fooled me! Storytelling is definitely not Mr. Wheeldon's forte.  Pack the No-Doze before watching this one!