270 replies to this topic

[Natalia]

The season began on Wednesday night with K. Sergeev's Raymonda, starring Novikova and Schklyarov (a debut for him). Russians are 'quick on the draw' with YouTube vids, including curtain calls:



The MT website has published the annual season's-start announcement, with details on the upcoming ballet & opera season:
http://www.mariinsky...liz_2012_09_19/  (so far only in Russian, sorry)

Highlights/Interesting Notes on the Ballet season:

- the season's first premiere will be soon -- Sept. 27 -- with Jiri Bubenicek's ballet 'Tender Memories' for Ekaterina Kondaurova, also featuring I. Baimuradov, A. Sergeev and A. Pimonov.

- the 13th International Ballet Festival 'Mariinsky' will occur earlier than normal this season:  28 Feb - 10 March 2013.  The festival will open with Lavrovsky's Romeo & Juliet, starring Vishneva, and directed by Gergiev. Company premieres will include Lifar's Suite en Blanc and Alexei Ratmansky will stage the company premiere of a ballet to Shostakovich music [interjection: this may be [i]Concerto DSCH[/i], created for NYCB? just a guess]. The festival will also see the revivals of the mixed bill of William Forsythe ballets that have been out of repertoire for some time.

- Gergiev announced that the 'Mariinsky II' opera house is on schedule for a grand opening at the start of the annual White Nights Festival, beginning early May 2013. Among the ballet offerings at the summer festival will be the premiere of a new Rite of Spring by modern choreographer Sasha Waltz, to be shown on a triple bill to also include the Nijinsky-Hodson Rite of Spring and Balanchine's Prodigal Son. This 3ple bill will honor the 100th anniversary of the premiere of Nijinsky's work in Paris. Thus, there will be 'dual premieres':  on May 14 in St petersburg, then the troupe will travel to Paris to dance the same 3ple bill at the end of May!

- "...many DVDs will be issued of ballets and operas..." according to the article....but all of the titles cited are only of operas, including a Wagner Ring Cycle, Iolanta, Khovantschina, etc.

- Other Tours during the season will include the USA - California and DC -- in early/mid October; Asia fm late Oct to early December; Abu Dhabi in March 2013, Moscow, for the Golden Mask Festival, to show Balanchine's Midsummer Night's Dream (so I guess that it has been nominated?); and the troupe's first-ever visit to the Salzburg "Whit-Sun" festival in summer 2013 [according to Wikipedia the 'Whitsun Festival' is an extension of the usual Salzburg Summer Festival]. The Salzburg run will present works by Igor Stravinsky, exclusively. [Interjection:  Although not mentioned in the press release, I believe that the troupe is also scheduled for their annual December season at Baden-Baden.]

- Foreign companies visiting the Mariinsky during the 12/13 season will include Israel's Batsheva Dance Company and Nederlands Dans Theatre.

- Finally, the news that the ranks of the Mariinsky Ballet's corps now boasts no less than FIFTEEN (15) graduates from the Class of 2012. [Names of the lucky grads not cited but we will see them soon enough on the website roster.]

[ksk04]

There will be a triple bill with TWO versions of Rite of Spring?

[Natalia]

ksk04, on 19 September 2012 - 02:47 PM, said:

There will be a triple bill with TWO versions of Rite of Spring?

That's what it says, ksk04!  Somehow this brings back memories of 'Shostakovich Festival' bomb at the London Coli ca 2006. I hope I'm wrong. No disrespect to the individual works but...is the Mariinsky trying to blow itself out of existence?

The miracle, I suppose, is that Gergiev isn't going for a "Rite Three-peat" with the Nijinsky-Hodson, the 1990s Ratmansky, and the Sasha Waltz! Instead, there will be some 'light entertainment' in the form of Prodigal Son, in between the two Rites.

Their one big summer tour, according to this, will be the Salzburg Festival, featuring ballets to the music of Stravinsky...so more Rites of Spring?

[kbarber]

Whitsun Festival in Salzburg is May 18 and 19, program is:
IGOR STRAVINSKY • Les Noces (The Wedding)
featuring the choreography of the world premiere (1923) by Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972) with stage sets by Natalia Gontcharova (1881-1962)
IGOR STRAVINSKY • Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring)
featuring the choreography of the world premiere (1913) by Vaslav Nijinsky (1889/90-1950) with stage sets by Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947)
IGOR STRAVINSKY • L'Oiseau de feu (The Firebird)
featuring the choreography of the world premiere (1910) by Michel Fokin (1880-1942) with sets and costumes based on designs by M. Fokin, A. Golovin and L. Bakst

[Natalia]

Thanks for this clarification, kbarber. Meh...but not as bad as the 'two Rites + Prodigal Son' to be presented at the Mariinsky and at the Elysees Theater in Paris at the end of May.

So if Whitsun Festival in Salzburg is in May (not summer, as Wikipedia states), then perhaps the troupe would be free for a London tour in July/August? However, I seem to recall that the Bolshoi will be in London during that timeframe (end July/mid-August 2013) and, as history shows us from the 2006 experiment, it's not wise to program the Bolshoi and Mariinsky at the same time in London, in neighboring theaters.

I suppose that my $64,000 Questions are:  

Where is Petipa?

and

Where is classicism?

Other than the fact that the season began last night with a Raymonda -- thank goodness for that! -- the company isn't exactly showcasing its heritage this season, back home. At least not in the spring events and festivals.  Californians are lucky - they get two weeks of  Swan Lake.

[Drew]

If all goes well, then I will be able to visit St. Petersburg around the 31st of May/1st week of June--I hope that while the company is on tour with Rite they leave behind a decent contingent (preferably dancing some classics)...too much to hope?

Such is life, but I would be rather broken-hearted if my one opportunity to visit St. Petersburg corresponded to a time when I couldn't see the company at its home theater...Timing of potential trip can't be changed as it corresponds to my partner's work exigencies in Europe.

I can live without the Rite program -- especially as I can imagine my partner's face when I try to explain it to him. He likes "the one where the swan dies." (Okay: it's not really the only one he likes, but you get the idea...)

[Natalia]

The ballet company should be back to 'full strength' in StP by the time you are in town, Drew. With three theaters in full play simultaneously, you are virtually guaranteed several opportunities to catch 'ballet evenings' during your stay...not just Gergiev's pet projects for opera and symphonic concerts. Of course, if you can see the ballet in the grand old Mariinsky theater ("Marinsky I"), that would be optimal.

I am hoping that, once all 3 theaters are in operation, the old Petipa classics will be performed in the grand old theater, with modern works in the 2 modern venues. They cannot dump Petipa totally; if anything, that's what tourists love to see (traditional tutus-and-tiaras works)...and a heck of a lot of 'local balletomanes' love to see that too. I'm wondering, for example, what the 'local babushkas' think about the return of the Forsythes or a triple bill to feature not one but two Rites. They don't even fill the theater for Balanchine, let alone Forsythe. I'll never forget being in a half-full auditorium during a Mariinsky Ballet Festival, no less, when Rite of Spring was programmed. Gergiev's conceits do not all sell, sorry to say.

[Natalia]

Multiple videos of last night's opening Raymonda are now available on YouTube. This one of Novikova dancing the Act II variation is noteworthy, as she reinstates a bit of the 1898 Vikharev-after-Petipa reconstruction to the Mariinsky:  the sequence of multiple entrechats-six, here only 24 (instead of the 30+ at La Scala) but still mighty impressive. Also, you will notice that she performs the sequence in a diagonal, rather than the La Scala positioning straight down the stage (backstage to front).

[Cygnet]

Olesya looks fabulous!  Brava !  I've never seen her more confident:  This is her's.  Re the Act 2 variation, she made an artistic choice, (perhaps even a tactical and political choice), given what the Management thinks about Petipa reconstructions.  We all know what she's capable of.  Minor point of clarification: The Mariinsky site's write up made a slight mistake. This opening night performance wasn't her debut as Raymonda in the Mariinsky Theatre; that occured about 5 years ago.  This was her first follow-up performance at home, and it's been long overdue.  Moreover, this is her first season opening performance.  This is a great accomplishment for her as well as a milestone.  However, this was Volodya Shklyarov's debut in the role of Jean de Brienne.  The company performs "Raymonda" again on March 28.

[Natalia]

Thank you, Cygnet. I did not realize that the MT web called this her company debut in the role. There's 'revisionist' Soviet-style history for you!


The English version of the season's-start press release is now out.  http://www.mariinsky...liz_2012_09_19/
Ksk04, my translation was correct; it will indeed be a 3ple bill consisting of two versions of The Rite of Spring + Prodigal Son!

Sasha Waltz will be staging her original version of Le Sacre du printemps to music by Igor Stravinsky for the Mariinsky Ballet Company as part of a joint project between the Mariinsky Theatre and Paris’ Théâtre des Champs Élysées. The project marks one hundred years since the premiere of Le Sacre du printemps with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky which took place at the Paris theatre. The premiere of Sasha Waltz’ ballet in St Petersburg will take place on 14 May, followed by the Paris premiere in late May in a programme also including Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre and another famous ballet of Diaghilev’s Saisons russes – George Balanchine’s Prodigal Son.

[Birdsall]

I am not 100% sure, but 90% sure that the Mariinsky's Raymonda has always had that particular choreography in that variation. I have seen it done, and I believe it is always like that. But maybe I am wrong.

[kbarber]

Natalia, on 20 September 2012 - 05:10 AM, said:

the sequence of multiple entrechats-six, here only 24

"ONLY" doesn't seem to be the right word, somehow.

[Natalia]

Agreed, Karen. Everything is relative.

[ksk04]

Beautiful, wish we were seeing her on tour!

[Birdsall]

Not sure if anyone cares (these details interest and intrigue me but maybe not others). I double checked, and Novikova does indeed dance the variation the way Lopatkina, Tereshkina, and Kolegova dance it at the Mariinsky. This is the variation how it is done at the Mariinsky.

The only difference is that the others alternate legs during each entrechat. Novikova switches a couple of times but seems to keep the one leg in front most of the time. Not sure if that matters. You guys can tell me if this is bad or good to do or maybe doesn't matter.

A side note:  Lopatkina does not go past 90 degrees on her extensions either which is an artistic choice, b/c she has that ability. All the others lift higher in this variation.