65 replies to this topic

[Helene]

What wonderful news -- I'm kvelling for you and your mom!

[cubanmiamiboy]

Helene, on 05 July 2012 - 03:25 PM, said:

What wonderful news -- I'm kvelling for you and your mom!

Merci bien, Mme. Helene! Oh my...what can I say...? My mom is in heaven.  She went to St. Etienne to hear mass last Sunday, and this upcoming Sunday she will do it at Notre Dame.  I was particularly impressed with La Madeleine.  It is such a vast church...very imposing.
Tonight me and my friend will stroll around Le Marais.  A little cafe, a bit of wine and some smoke, and voila!...the night is perfect.

Can't wait to report from Ashton's "Fille...".  The comparisson with the one act  Nijinska's will be interesting...

Au revoir!

[Birdsall]

cubanmiamiboy, on 06 July 2012 - 11:43 AM, said:

Can't wait to report from Ashton's "Fille...".  The comparisson with the one act  Nijinska's will be interesting...

Au revoir!

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Don't go!!!!!!!!!

You are never going to hear the end of it from me!

[Bonnette]

A bientot! : : (Sorry, my keyboard doesn't do French keystrokes )

[cubanmiamiboy]

Bonnette, on 06 July 2012 - 12:23 PM, said:

A bientot! : : (Sorry, my keyboard doesn't do French keystrokes )

Thanks, Bonnette! Today we had a great time visiting la Sainte Chapelle and La Conciergerie...Marie Antoinette's cell, all recreated along with a mannequin and everything was particularly chilling.  La Sainte Chapelle, on the contrary, was a bit weird.  It is the only church I've ever visited that hasn't been handled back to the religious authorities, and so it is full of vending stands and sort of stripped out of its original atmosphere, along with the absence of the relics that once guarded.  It is then sort of a museum, I guess similar in ambiance as the churches back in the Soviet period.  
Tonight we will go to La Madeleine to hear Mozart's Requiem.

See ya..!

[Bonnette]

I so enjoy reading about what you're seeing, along with your impressions. One museum I've long wanted to visit is the Musee des Arts et Metiers (http://www.arts-et-metiers.net/) - any plans to go there? It might not be possible to fit it in, there's so much to see and do in Paris! I am so glad that you're enjoying everything, and I hope you will be transported by Mozart tonight!

(Edited to add that this museum occupies the former priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, fitting so beautifully with the locations you've mentioned.)

[Natalia]

So how was your performance of La Fille Mal Gardee, cubanmiamiboy? Did you see Ould-Braham or Froustey (or another ballerina)?  Other message boards are "hopping" about the wonders of a new Colas, Pierre-Arthur Raveau, who danced with Froustey. Lucky you, if you saw him!!!

Some of the POB's best dancers did not come to America. Our misfortune is your luck.

[cubanmiamiboy]

ok...so in the middle of the chaos that's Cristian's luggage unpacking, I sort of lost track of the costly playbill-($ 12 euros), so I will try to give a round up summarising of my experience at the Garnier.
First things first.  The Garnier is just to die for.  The atmosphere that pours out from the exuberant eclecticism and astonishing opulence of this amazing Second Empire building goes beyond words.  To be honest, it amazed me much more than Versailles.  I took many pictures.  I think my mom though she was Empress Eugenie while climbing up the marble grand staircase..!
Inside, the theater has a very interesting layout.  It gets to be vast, and at the same time very intimate.  My seat at the tiny box , all covered by dark red velvet, was the last one, behind two rows of four seats each, but still, I have a great tunnel vision of the ballet.  I didn't miss a thing.  And let's not even go to Chagall's wonder of ceiling...

Well, about La Fille...humm...mixed feelings I have.  For once, I found it very long.  Once more I remind my fellow BT'rs that I'm just familiar with Alonso's staging of Nijinska-after-Gorsky version to Hertel's score, so this was a completely new thing for me.  In general I found Ashton's vision to be too focused on the comical/character dancing side, whereas Nijinska's feels more like a twin sibling of Coppelia.  There  were lovely moments, of course, like the ribbon sequences, but even those felt way more unballetic to me than Hertel's.  Also, I had my problems with the music.  There were moments in which marching music seemed to go on and on, along with endless character sequences, which brings another weak-(to me)-point to this version.   I couldn't really come to terms  with the whole chicken business, nor with Mama Simone's endless displays of buffo art.  I have read a lot about Ashton's use and exploitation of this comical, often grotesque aspect based in old British theater traditions, but at least translated to me in 2012, an era of balletic longing for historically based, serious reconstructions a la Raymonda, and a strong tendency to show the best of ballet technique and tricks, seeing this got me off guard, so I found it a bit outdated.  The result was that Lissette and Colin's dancing moments seemed diminished after Ashton's real stars of the ballet had their moments onstage.  People seemed to be reacting and responding more to Simone, Alain and the chicken sequences than to the real ballet moments of Lissette and Colin.
I will try to find the playbill.  It contains an AMAZING chronology of the ballet that includes every single important staging and music sources.  For what I remember, Balachova's name seems to be the key for which Nijinska's version was able to take form in the West.

PDD comparison time!

Starting @ 1:28. Annette Delgado and Dani Hernandez.



Carlos Acosta and Marianela Nunez.

[Natalia]

"Chicken business..." ROTFL! Thanks, Christian. I'm looking forward to hearing about Froustey and Raveau, once you have a chance to unpack, relax, etc. Even if you did not love the Ashton version, hopefully the dancers had many admirable traits. And if that failed too, then one can do as Balanchine suggested:  close your eyes and listen to the music.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Natalia, on 16 July 2012 - 01:23 PM, said:

"Chicken business..." ROTFL! Thanks, Christian. I'm looking forward to hearing about Froustey and Raveau, once you have a chance to unpack, relax, etc. Even if you did not love the Ashton version, hopefully the dancers had many admirable traits. And if that failed too, then one can do as Balanchine suggested:  close your eyes and listen to the music.

Oh Natasha...it is not that I didn't like it.  I DID have a great time at the ballet.  After all, this is a warhorse, and a lovely one.  It is just that I've always put Fille somewhere in the same lines as Coppelia, and Mama Simone was never more grotesque or comical than, let's say, Dr. Coppelius, and that was not the case with Ashton's version.  I will write a little more later on.  I found the playbill!

[Jayne]

and how was the Requiem?

[cubanmiamiboy]

Jayne, on 16 July 2012 - 10:09 PM, said:

and how was the Requiem?

I saw two of them, Jayne...Mozart's and Faure's...both at La Madelene...both free.. .  During Mozart's, by the time "Lacrimosa" was being sung, I almost started crying...I couldn't believe I was in such place listening to such monumental work...

[Jayne]

I think I would cry too.  You should write a thank you letter to the chorale's director.  I imagine it would be greatly appreciated.

[Natalia]

cubanmiamiboy, on 16 July 2012 - 02:51 PM, said:

...  It is just that I've always put Fille somewhere in the same lines as Coppelia, and Mama Simone was never more grotesque or comical than, let's say, Dr. Coppelius, and that was not the case with Ashton's version.  I will write a little more later on.  I found the playbill!

So Mama Simone in the Alonso version does not slide across the stage in clog shoes???!!!  Can't wait to read your impressions of the classical leads, Froustey and Raveau, but take your time and wind into it, Christian. It will be worth the wait.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Ok...so I found the playbill and it states, just as Natasha wrote, the following dancers:

Lise: Mathilde Froustey
Colas: Pierre Arthur Raveau
Widow Simone: Stéphane Phavorin
Alain: François Alu

I don't think I got to see the best of what was left behind from the NYC tour.  I strongly believe all connoisseurs were rather cramping the theater for the performances of new etoile-(and highly regarded)- Myriam Ould-Braham as Lissette and Josua Hoffalt as Colin.  Nevertheless, as I said, I enjoyed the soiree greatly.  Not everyday one gets to look up a theater's ceiling and see Chagall all over you, and that, my friend, was enough for me..!   It look as if both Froustey and Raveau are still a work in process in these roles.  One of the things I noticed was that Ahton's choreo. is no short of lifts of all sorts, and Raveau had some problems with them.  At one particularly sad moment he, instead of just give up quickly and do something else, tried for a second time, unsuccessfully, to achieve the lift, and so the moment was very awkward.  There were problems also with his tours en l'air...not always achieving clean, still landings.   What I find is that because of the over use of character dancing/scenes, the few classical parts become even more exposed.  Even the ribbon sequences, as lovely as they are, many times are focused more in the sophisticated paterns of the ribbons rather than the classical steps.  In favor of Miss Froustey, I must say she did great during the terrifying supported promenade in arabesque-(or is it attitude derriere..?)-holding the circling ribbons.  

Natasha, no...Mama Simone does not have a clog dance in Alonso's Nijinska's staging, and Alain uses a butterfly net instead  of Ashton's umbrella.  Also, I noticed Nijinska's Alain is slow, but not as retarded as Ashton's, nor his physical appearance gets to be as altered-(makeup etc...)-as in Ashton's.  

As I said...it looks to me as if in Ashton's it is Mama Simone, her ambitions, her personality portray, even her dancing sequences, the main course of the buffett.  Actually she was the one getting the most applause during curtain calls.  And to make a point of comparison, that was one of the things I always find a little too hard to digest in his Cinderella...the equally highly caricatured steps sisters in travesty, versus Zakharov' ballerinas on pointe, which I enjoy more-(well, with the divine Struchkova on it, it is hard not to anyway... ).

About the music, given that I go ALL THE WAY for the "musique dansante" concept in ballet-(hello, Kshesinskaya..! ), I definitely think Hertel's score has way more potential here.  Let's just take a look at Lissette's variation from it-(I believe this is a Drigo's inerpolation)..