56 replies to this topic

[Jayne]

Here is a youtube video of the full event, including the red carpet



in case you couldn't watch it live...

[cubanmiamiboy]

I was just reading this article in "The Telegraph" and thought it would be interesting to share it, sInce the absence of Tsikaridze in the gala was so obvious.

"Bolshoi Theatre refit like Turkish hotel says top dancer"

"Speaking ahead of a gala concert on Friday evening meant to celebrate the world famous theatre's six year restoration, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, a veteran Bolshoi principal dancer, said the newly restored theatre reminded him of a Turkish hotel, alleging its costly facelift had been done on the cheap.
"The problem is that you cannot recognise the theatre anymore," he told the Zavtra newspaper. "Any visitor can see the (new) auditorium. He will see for example that instead of original mouldings there are plastic or papier mache mouldings glued together and painted with gold paint. Not a single bronze candelabra is left."
The senior dancer claimed that rather than being a restoration, something new had been created. "It is a new creation," he said in a separate interview with Russian TV. "You have the feeling that you are in a hotel in Turkey that has been built in the shape of the Bolshoi Theatre."
Mr Tsiskaridze, who has been one of the theatre's brightest stars, insisted that the restoration had been botched. "I understood that restoration was needed and that the work would be complicated but not that the work would end up being so pitiful," he said.
Calling the refit of the backstage area "a crime," he complained that the theatre's rehearsal rooms had been ruined, that ballerinas would knock their heads on the ceilings if lifted too high, and that one of the rehearsal rooms was like "a windowless bunker".
Mr Tsiskaridze, 37, predicted the theatre would face a squall of criticism once people had looked at it properly. "There will be many TV programmes made about the vandalism of a historical monument," he said.

His criticism appears to have caused a rift. He will not be performing in the opening concert. When asked to comment on his criticism, a spokesperson for the Bolshoi curtly declined. "

http://www.telegraph...top-dancer.html

[Birdsall]

Natalia, on 28 October 2011 - 02:59 PM, said:

abatt, on 28 October 2011 - 01:54 PM, said:

Here is a link to a NY Times article on the re opening of the theater, with a slide show and audio feature.


http://www.nytimes.c...st-century.html

Thanks; lovely slide show. However, this article was obviously written before the gala, as it mentions Placido Domingo's scheduled appearance. I am curious - What happened to Placido? Did his plane not make it on time? Or did he go to Gergiev's 'alternate gala' for the opening of the new Opera & Ballet Theater in Astrakhan yesterday? http://www.mariinsky...2/26_229october

EDITED TO ADD: OK, I'm answering my own question. Domingo's own website shows that he was in London last night, at the first of two galas in his honor at the Royal Opera House. The 2nd gala is on Sunday. It sounds like he was unable to hop over to Moscow in between his London galas.
http://www.placidodo...7&id_kunden=196

Domingo is always over-extending himself. I think Deborah Voigt told a story in an interview where she sang Sieglinde to his Siegmund in Die Walküre at the Met, and as soon as Siegmund died in Act 2, Domingo left the Met and flew to San Francisco and called Voigt after the opera was over to find out how the rest of the evening had gone. He was already in SF (private jet). Most of his colleagues tell similar stories. He's been known to sing something in LA and in between each performance flies to DC to conduct or vice versa. He probably had every intention of squeezing in the Bolshoi gala in between the two London ones. But probably sheer exhaustion or illness stopped him.That is how he lives. He must be a workaholic. He will probably die the minute he ever stops being like the Energizer Bunny. He sings, conducts, until recently helped manage 2 opera companies (Washington National Opera formerly and still LA Opera). Now he is taking on baritone roles since he is 70 and can no longer sing the high lying tenor roles he was so good at. I don't think he is a very good baritone, but the man must have an intense need to work, work, work.....he certainly doesn't need the money or fame anymore.

[Mme. Hermine]

one-hour documentary?  is it available anywhere?

[Natalia]

The doc is supposed to be an 'extra' in the Bel-Air Productions DVD of the opening gala, according to a French-lang ballet forum. Not sure if said DVD will be out in time for holidays or in 2012.

I was wondering why Tsiskaridze wasn't there....or his top pupil, Ovcharenko. It wouldn't be 'Bolshoi' without a little 'melodrama'!

[Ilya]

Natalia, on 04 November 2011 - 02:31 AM, said:

I was wondering why Tsiskaridze wasn't there....or his top pupil, Ovcharenko. It wouldn't be 'Bolshoi' without a little 'melodrama'!

Ovcharenko hasn't been his pupil since 2009.  Ovcharenko's teacher is N. Fadeyechev:
http://bolshoi.ru/persons/ballet/1317/

[Natalia]

Ovcharenko was Tsiskaridze's highly-publicized 'protege' for the longest time. In light of Tsiskaridze's bratty behavior of late, I am pleased to learn that Ovcharenko has distanced himself from his earlier mentor.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Natasha...about Tsikaridze's claim on the Bolshoi reconstruccion,  I will wait for the next time you go to Russia-(and I KNOW you will go to the Bolshoi at some point )-to have an accurate assesement.  I still remember your valuable observations on the Mkhailovsky's ceilng a while ago.

[Jayne]

follow up thoughts:

1.  the violinist for Swan Lake was sublime.
2.  If the people who planned the Bolshoi re-opening also are in charge of the Sochi opening / closing ceremonies - they will be in great shape.

[moushka]

I noticed that Vasiliev danced in the opening but not Osipova. Anyone know why?  I love Alexandrova who danced Kitri but I really missed Natalia.

[moushka]

Oh, I see that Osipova was there. Sorry, the excerpt from "Flames" went by so fast that I missed it!

[Birdsall]

I finally sat down and watched this gala. I have to say that although I love the idea of giving time to show the workers (in the opening and the Usher Dance and the final march at the end) stage time, I am glad I didn't have to sit through it in the audience. Yes, there are many behind the scenes people who make everything happen on stage each night, and they are a pivotal part of the entire theatre, but give them a decent pay. I think it is a little pie-in-the-sky to think we really want to see them on stage. Maybe I am speaking for myself, but I found it incredibly boring to watch the workers on-stage.

Overall, it was an entertaining gala, although it reminded me why I have abandoned opera after 20 years. Hvorostovsky and Gheorghiu were the best singers that night, although both even botched a high note in their arias. I love Gheorghiu for the most part, and feel like she and Hvorostovsky were the only singers on that stage still singing at a professional level. Urmana used to be a great mezzo, but her switch to soprano seems to have left a vibrato that a truck could drive through! Dessay sounded screechy and in dire straits to me.  During the Polovtsian Dances the male chorus was off pitch.

I don't know why the state of opera singing has fallen into complete ruin! It makes me so sad. Is it the voice teachers? What is going on?

How do you all feel about the dance segments in this gala? I have watched ballet over the years not really knowing much about the technical aspects and just recently started getting more into ballet (due to my total disillusionment about opera). Is the dancing at this gala still considered great dancing? To me it seems wonderful, but the singing is terrible. I wonder if I am just too jaded about opera and maybe I would feel the same about the dancing if I had been a hardcore balletomane for 20 years as well. But to me ballet seems to wonderful. Are the old time balletomanes jaded and find today's dancing horrible?

I am hoping I don't get jaded with ballet. I don't want to. It is still so pleasurable. Opera not so much.

Basically, the dance segments were the best part of the gala.