76 replies to this topic

[leonid]

Please find herewith a link to the programme (not very exciting) for the Mariinsky Ballet at the Royal Opera House August 3 -15 2009

http://www.roh.org.u...nsky/index.aspx

Details of Gergiev's 'Ring' Cycle is also shown.

[aurora]

leonid, on Mar 3 2009, 03:03 PM, said:

Please find herewith a link to the programme (not very exciting) for the Mariinsky Ballet at the Royal Opera House August 3 -15 2009

http://www.roh.org.u...nsky/index.aspx

Details of Gergiev's 'Ring' Cycle is also shown.

Hooray! one can get a chance to see Somova as the lead in everything they are doing (well the Balanchine as casting isn't up but one can assume she'll be cast in that as well)!

[richard53dog]

aurora, on Mar 3 2009, 09:21 PM, said:

Hooray! one can get a chance to see Somova as the lead in everything they are doing (well the Balanchine as casting isn't up but one can assume she'll be cast in that as well)!

Yep, it looks like it. And London, like Washington DC, is getting the 1952 Sleeping Beauty.

[naomikage]

Here are the daily cast for the London performance

Romeo and Juliet
http://www.roh.org.u...n.aspx?pid=9642

3 August , 19h30
Juliette : Alina Somova
Roméo : Vladimir Shklyarov

4 August , 19h30
Juliette : Olesia Novikova
Roméo : Igor Kolb

5 August 19h30
Juliette : Ekaterina Osmolkina
Roméo : Evgeny Ivanchenko

6 August , 19h30
Juliette : Evgenia Obraztsova
Roméo : Anton Korsakov


Swan Lake
http://www.roh.org.u...n.aspx?pid=9651

7 August , 19h30
Odette-Odile : Uliana Lopatkina
Siegfried : Daniil Korsuntsev

8 August, 14h
Odette-Odile : Ekaterina Kondaurova
Siegfried : Igor Kolb

8 August, 19h30
Odette-Odile : Viktoria Tereshkina
Siegfried : Evgeny Ivanchenko

10 August, 19h30
Odette-Odile : Alina Somova
Siegfried : Daniil Korsuntsev

11 August, 19h30
Odette-Odile : Viktoria Tereshkina
Siegfried : Vladimir Shklyarov


Homage to Balanchine
http://www.roh.org.u...n.aspx?pid=9667

12 August 2009, 19h30
Serenade
Alina Somova
Evgeny Ivanchenko
Ekaterina Osmolkina
Daria Vasnetsova
Denis Firsov

Rubies
Irina Golub
Vladimir Shklyarov
Ekaterina Kondaurova

Symphony in C
Viktoria Tereshkina
Anton Korsakov

Uliana Lopatkina
Daniil Korsuntsev
Olesya Novikova
Filip Stepin
Nadezhda Gonchar
Alexei Timofeyev

13 August 2009, 19h30
Serenade
Daniil Korsuntsev
Ekaterina Osmolkina
Irina Golub
Yulianna Chereshkevitch
Denis Firsov

Rubies  
Viktoria Tereshkina
Alexander Sergeyev
Anastasia Lishyuk

Symphonie in C
Alina Somova
Anton Korsakov
Maxim Zuzin
Ekaterina Kondaurova
Evgeny Ivanchenko
Ekaterina Osmolkina
Vladimir Shklyarov
Evgenia Obraztsova


The Sleeping Beauty　
http://www.roh.org.u...n.aspx?pid=9660

14 August 2009, 19h30
Princess Aurora : Olesia Novikova
Prince Désiré : Igor Kolb
Lilac Fairy : Ekaterina Kondaurova

Saturday, August 15 2:00 PM
Princess Aurora: Evgenia Obraztsova
Prince Désiré : Vladimir Shklyarov
Lilac Fairy: Uliana Lopatkina

Saturday, August 15 7:30 PM
Princess Aurora : Alina Somova
Prince Désiré: Léonid Sarafanov
Lilac Fairy: Uliana Lopatkina

[Natalia]

Good grief - look who opens and closes the season. On the other hand, she will be the one who is reviewed by the London critics, right?  

So the Mariinsky will open the season with a Juliet who has yet to perform the role anywhere...not even at home? [I see that R&J will be danced once between now and the end of May at the Mariinsky, with no casting yet announced - on May 20. Maybe that will be it? But to announce her as leading the London season in a ballet she's never danced?]  Maybe a miracle will happen, eh? Maybe rehearsals are going so splendidly that she is declared to be the obvious choice to open the London season. Right.

On another dancer: So Olesya Novikova will miraculously give birth and recuperate in time for the London season?

One more observation: No Vishneva? Well, not totally a surprise. She now dances more often in Washington, DC tours than in London tours.

[Mashinka]

At a guess I would say that Golub will replace Novikova in R & J and Tereshkina in Beauty, but of course casting is an art akin to necromancy at the Kirov these days.

There is dismay among the London Kirov fans over Somova opening and closing the season, traditionally the last night is a bit like party night in London but this year all the guests will be absent, I imagine the generous floral tributes from the audience will be absent on those nights too.

The critics may spring a surprise over A.S.'s Juliet as most of the critics are too young to have seen any greats in the role and it isn't a ballet they bring that often, her youth and prettiness just might carry the day and if she changes or leaves out passages of choreography (as is her wont) I doubt if many of them will actually notice.

[Natalia]

Mashinka, on Apr 17 2009, 07:04 AM, said:

.....most of the critics are too young to have seen any greats in the role and it isn't a ballet they bring that often, her youth and prettiness .....

I hear you, Mashinka. All excellent points. However, ahem, "prettiness" is not a word I would ever associate with a dancer who possesses a bony face with pointed chin, "flat ski" feet, lemon-yellow rooted hair, false fingernails or 'sickly' skin tone. Or is this the description of "prettiness" for Generation Me? Long skinny legs alone do not a beauty make, IMO. It's all in the eye of the beholder, I realize.

We shall see what transpires.

[naomikage]

Vishneva's absense in the London tour is due to her appearing at the World Ballet Festival in Tokyo, partnering Malakhov.

Somova is opening the Japan tour in November with Swan Lake, and also the Japan premire of Little Humpbacked horse with Gergiev conducting.

But it seems that most Japanese Mariinka fans do not like her, and I think her ticket sales will be a flop.   Who wants to see her Odette when Vishneva and Lopatkina, Tereshkina is also in that role?

And also Aurora with Vishneva and Tereshkina as alternatives.

[Natalia]

Right, naomikage. Thanks for your insights. Interestingly, the Japanese reporter with whom I met last month in St. Petersburg -- the one who first told me about the addition of LHH to the Japan tour -- told me that Somova is a "big favorite with Japanese businessmen. She is very beautiful." [The reporter is a man.] So maybe the businessmen -- not traditional, knowledgeable fans -- will fill the hall? Like I wrote earlier, it is all in the eye of the beholder.

[leonid]

Mashinka, on Apr 17 2009, 07:04 AM, said:

The critics may spring a surprise over A.S.'s Juliet as most of the critics are too young to have seen any greats in the role and it isn't a ballet they bring that often, her youth and prettiness just might carry the day and if she changes or leaves out passages of choreography (as is her wont) I doubt if many of them will actually notice.

I absolutely agree with the sentiment you express Mashinka in respect of the majority of London critics. Every critic has the right to an opinion, but in the major newspapers I expect it to be informed opinion.

I have noted that most seasoned ballet watchers and especially literate female watchers dislike Somova. What is the appeal of this dancer?

Natalia writes, "Thanks for your insights. Interestingly, the Japanese reporter with whom I met last month in St. Petersburg -- the one who first told me about the addition of LHH to the Japan tour -- told me that Somova is a "big favorite with Japanese businessmen. She is very beautiful." [The reporter is a man.] So maybe the businessmen -- not traditional, knowledgeable fans -- will fill the hall?"

In general, I find the over extensions in penchee arabesques and jetes vulgar as the groin area is brought into emphasis. Is this what the casual male ballet attender wants to see? Is this what artistic directors wants to see? For me it goes beyond the aesthetic of the academic classical ballet genre.
I personally would not object if male dancers wore some kind of costume arrangement that could move and not destroy the leg line yet remain somewhat modest.
It is the incarnation of dance and the inspiration of choreographers and dancers that makes me watch dance not the physicality of dancers bodies.
I will see a good number of performances of the Kirov this summer , but none of my money will be spent on Miss Somova.

[canbelto]

Somova's actual hair color is brown, if you see in the movie "Ballerina." She looks much better with that original color. But maybe I'm a bit sensitive about this but "yellowed skin tone"? I am of Asian descent and was picked on as a kid for having "puke colored skin" so I don't think anyone's complexion disqualifies them from being attractive.

[Natalia]

Oh, canbelto, I did not mean that at all. Sorry if I offended you! I meant that her skin tone has been looking (to me) sickly of late. I did not want to write "jaundiced" but that's what I had in mind. Even compared to seeing her live in DC in January. I was, frankly, shocked when I saw her live in StP last month, compared to two months earlier in DC.

p.s. - I just edited the offending post and replaced the "yellow" with "sickly."

[Helene]

The blinding blond hair may be a generational thing -- funny since it is a staple of ballroom dancers and ice dancers, who are as stylized as they come -- like the not-found-in-nature blue/purple/orange hair that older generations of women sport.

(I think the demise of hair dates back to Heather Locklear showing her dark roots on "Melrose Place".  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.)

I think Somova is very, very pretty in the ways many of her film contemporaries are pretty.  She's got the preferred look of her generation, a bit Disneyfied, which can turn vacant, something I noticed and found very disconcerting during the City Center run last April.  Danila Korsuntsev reminded me of Patrick Dempsey in "Enchanted" when partnering her in "Ballet Imperial", with a similar look, but not with other partners or in the "Swan Lake" DVD.  Watching their faces, I thought I was watching a Disney romance movie.

I think that's one of the reasons I like Tereshkina so much: she looks like she knows where's she's going next, and like there's a brain ticking.

[Natalia]

Helene, on Apr 17 2009, 02:04 PM, said:

.....like there's a brain ticking.

BINGO! You said it, Helene. Thank you.

[canbelto]

It's alright Natalia, just something I'm sort of sensitive about.
But anyway Somova as Juliet? Can't picture that. Also, I guess Daria Pavlenko is once again getting shafted? Surprising, considering she had quite a success in London guesting with the Royal Ballet, did she not?