39 replies to this topic

[Natalia]

Non-subscription sales for the January 22/27, 2008, run of 'Bayadere' performances began today. Casting has not yet been announced but it's a pretty good guess that the 'pre-tour try-out' performances at the Mariinsky in November -- the final performances of the work before the production's sets & costumes are shipped to DC -- portend the casting that we will see here in DC.  They are:

Nov. 10 cast:  Somova as Nikiya/Kosuntsev as Solor (Gamzatti not named)

Nov. 29 cast:  Tereshkina as Nikiya/Novikova as Gamzatti/Sarafanov as Solor

No other Bayadere has been presented at the Mariinsky during the present season. So the above two casts are "it" for Bayadere at the Mariinsky this season, so far. I would assume & hope  that either Lopatkina or Pavlenko (or both) will also essay the role of Nikiya in DC.

Edited to add (one of those 'slow news days' at home):

Performers who have essayed leading roles of Bayadere at the Mariinsky since Sept. '05, from most to least often, are -

NIKIYA

Lopatkina - 5 performances since Sept '05
Tereshkina - 5 (also dances Gamzatti)
Nioradze - 2
Somova - 2 (newest Nikiya - since Sept 06)
Vishneva - 2 (her usually-accurate website does not list DC performances)
Pavlenko - 1 (a lone performance in Sept '05)

GAMZATTI

Osmolkina - 5
Tkachenko - 4
Tereshkina - 2 (also dances Nikiya)
Novikova - 2 (newest Gamzatti - since May '07)
Golub - 1
Tarasova - 1

SOLOR

Sarafanov - 4
Kolb - 3
Zelensky - 3 (no longer with company)
Korsuntsev - 2
Korsakov - 1
Fadeev - 1
Lobukhin - 1
Semionov - 1 (no longer with company)

This is as per the Mariinsky site's playbills which may not reflect last-minute changes in casting.

So there you have it. The soloists in DC will most likely be the dancers who have performed the roles most often, most recently. I might add that there is a possibility that if Lopatkina dances in DC, her Solor might be the newest addition to the male soloist ranks, Ivan Kozlov, who partners the ballerina in Giselle & other recent ballets. There is also a small chance that we may  see the newest female soloist, Anastasia Kolegova, who would be making her U.S. debut with the troupe (should she come). While she has not danced Nikiya or Gamzatti yet with the K-M, she may very well have danced the roles with one of her old companies (St P. Ballet of Tachkin or the Lithuanian Natl Ballet).

[carbro]

Natalia, on Oct 12 2007, 03:55 PM, said:

Zelensky - 3 (no longer with company)

Grrrrrrr.   I was looking forward to seeing him during the City Center season.

He's still on the company's website, for what that's worth.  For that matter, so is Ayupova.

[Waelsung]

This is a very disappointing analysis. Even more so exactly because it does make sense. If the Nikiyas are limited to Somova and Tereshkina, I will have to   cancel my hotel reservation and sell my tickets. I do want to see Tereshkina, but she alone does not justify a trip to D.C. for me. And I'm not interested in seeing Somova at all.

[chrisk217]

carbro, on Oct 13 2007, 12:28 AM, said:

Natalia, on Oct 12 2007, 03:55 PM, said:

Zelensky - 3 (no longer with company)

Grrrrrrr.   I was looking forward to seeing him during the City Center season.

He's still on the company's website, for what that's worth.  For that matter, so is Ayupova.

For what it's worth he was dancing with the Mariinsky on a tour less than a month ago. He closed all nights with Corsaire pdd, partnering Terioshkina. He's in very good form, much better than 2003 when I last saw him dance. I don't know what he'll be doing in 3 months though...  

[Natalia]

Thanks for the additional feedback, folks. Zelensky has been the A.D. of the large troupe in Novosibirsk, Russia, for the last year-and-a-half and, yes, he occasionally dusts-off his tights for guest appearances on tour, usually to partner 'the tall gals' such as Lopatkina. However, now that Lopatkina has brought-out Kozlov to be her main classical partner, I would bet that we'll see Kozlov or Korsuntsev as UL's most likely Solor in DC.

Just because Lopatkina has not danced Nikiya since last May/June means nothing. She has been known to 'miraculously' jump into old roles, a-la Fall 2005 when she danced Lilac Fairy for the first time in years in the USA....or, even more dramatically, this past spring, when she returned to the title role of Giselle after over a decade! So a nine-month gap between performances of a role is no big deal in Mariinsky terms.

I would bet on four Nikiyas in DC: Lopatkina, Somova, Tereshkina and (yes) Nioradze, who is having a 'renaissance' of sorts this fall at the Mariinsky.

[Waelsung]

Diana Vishneva has confirmed on her website that she's planning to dance Nikiya with the Kirov in Washington D.C. on Jan. 22.

[sz]

Waelsung, on Oct 13 2007, 01:08 AM, said:

And I'm not interested in seeing Somova at all.

Why?

[sz]

>>And I'm not interested in seeing Somova at all.
>Why?


Ok.... I just read many comments re Somova's dancing under BT's Kirov coming to NYC section...

Somova doesn't seem ready yet for all the attention and parts she's getting... And I'll never understand why Pavlenko has received so little.... I thought Pavlenko was a dream-come-true when I last saw her in Jewels at the Met.

[carbro]

sz, on Oct 31 2007, 12:18 PM, said:

>>And I'm not interested in seeing Somova at all.
>Why?

Ample evidence on YouTube, too.

[richard53dog]

Waelsung, on Oct 13 2007, 05:08 AM, said:

This is a very disappointing analysis. , I will have to   cancel my hotel reservation and sell my tickets. I do want to see Tereshkina, but she alone does not justify a trip to D.C. for me. And I'm not interested in seeing Somova at all.

I've never seen Somova and sort of thought, "oh she can't be that bad" I watched a couple of clips and , yes , she is THAT bad


I hope she ends up as the last act in any of the Kirov performances I see next  Feb..... at least I can get out early.


A while back, something asked for a description of "line". Well to take it from a negative side, here's a dancer that has NONE  

[bart]

I have never seen Somova and was assuming that these criticisms involved some sort of subtle or esoteric question of technique,  or were basically a matter of personal taste.  That is, until I saw the clip from a 2007 performance of Sleeping Beauty ("Rose Adagio," on YouTube).    

I almost never criticize dancers, preferring to ignore them if I don't like their work.  I also assume a certain level of technical proficiency from dancers in major companies.  I did not expect, however, to see a performance that reminded me of the painful opera debut of Susan Alexander in Citizen Kane.  I was embarassed for the dancer and had to stop watching.  I also decided not to watch any of the other available clips.

What explains something like this on the stage of a great international company?  Favoritism can't be a sufficient explanation.  Can it?  It seems dreadfully unfair to the dancer, not to mention the audience.

[zerbinetta]

I just watched the Rose Adagio bart mentions. Yes, pretty ghastly. To stabilize my karma, I watched some Lopatkina.

Most ballerinas with extreme extensions have good to great jumps (Guillem, Zakarova, Vishneva) but this girl barely gets off the ground.

So distorted.

[Waelsung]

sz, on Oct 31 2007, 12:04 PM, said:

Waelsung, on Oct 13 2007, 01:08 AM, said:

And I'm not interested in seeing Somova at all.

Why?

Well, I saw her O/O last year in Boston and thought it was an abomination. I also saw quite a few video clips on youtube and on Russian TV and really don't feel like watching them all over again. Especially when I have to travel to a different city, pay for hotel and incur other expenses, not to mention the cost of my ticket.

Somova is being pushed down our collective throat by the Kirov mangement because they think she's exactly what we want and what we will pay to see. There's only one way to prove them wrong.

[Mashinka]

It seems to me that by casting her on the first night, the Kirov is lining her up to be shot down by the New York critics.  Perhaps it will prove to be the reality check for the company that it so badly needs right now.

[bart]

Waelsung, on Oct 31 2007, 11:06 PM, said:

Somova is being pushed down our collective throat by the Kirov mangement because they think she's exactly what we want and what we will pay to see.

And is this working with the ticket-buyers?  I realize that some audiences crave extreme extensions, contortions, and possibly a bit of bizarre arm-waving, etc..  But even these were not done particularly well.  It looked like parody.  Who IS the audience for this?  And how do the traditional audiences respond?  

I'm sorry for my puzzlement, but I have not seen the Kirov live for quite a while, and I cannot square the images I saw in this clip from Rose Adagio with what I read about the company elsewhere (including Ballet Talk) and have observed on relatively recent dvds.  

Are there two Kirovs, operating in parallel but non-connecting universes?