140 replies to this topic

[Tara]

More great news, in Moscow: Obraztsova debuts as Nikiya in Bayadere on the 30th, at the Bolshoi! She is also preparing to debut as the lead in Balanchine's Diamonds, later this winter (no date yet)...I'll also post this in the Obraztsova thread, if not already there. Woohoo!!!

http://www.evgeniaob...a.com/news.html

Oh thankyou, thankyou for this bit of news! She is my current favorite of all the still working ballerinas and I am on pins and needles to see/hear about her debuts as Nikiya.

[Cygnet]

Having seen Osmolkina dance O/O at Covent Garden, I really feel her uniquely soulful and deeply moving interpretation of the role should be available to eveyone but I fear Natalia's gloomy casting prediction will prove correct.

I hate gloomy and would much prefer Osmolkina (or anyone but the 3 Odd-alisques). Hey, I see that Osmolkina has just been announced as Odette-Odile for one of the Swan Lakes at the MT,later this month...Lopatkina does the first & Osmolkina the 2nd. So maybe bright days are forthcoming?

More great news, in Moscow: Obraztsova debuts as Nikiya in Bayadere on the 30th, at the Bolshoi! She is also preparing to debut as the lead in Balanchine's Diamonds, later this winter (no date yet)...I'll also post this in the Obraztsova thread, if not already there. Woohoo!!!

http://www.evgeniaob...a.com/news.html

Katya Osmolkina's upcoming O/O will be her first follow-up performance in her home theatre with her home company since her debut several years ago. Her second and third performances of O/O were given with the Royal at Covent Garden after her home debut. I don't believe she's outsourced the role elsewhere. So, if this casting holds, this is tremendous news for her because know this: If things were "normal" in the company right now, she and many other deserving ladies, wouldn't be getting these opportunities. At this point Fateev must feel that he doesn't have a choice but to cast these women, *(against his "better" judgement). Isn't that ironic? The fact is he has always had a treasure trove of talented and gifted -but criminally under-utilized dancers to choose from.

I too am totally ecstatic about Obraztsova's upcoming and long overdue Nikiya and Diamonds debuts
with the Bolshoi! Her Solor will be fellow refugee Mikhail Lobhukin, who also couldn't promote to Principal in
Gergiev's House of Blues. During Makhar Vaziev's and the current Regime, Evgenia was consigned to the Danse Manu in Act 2 and the first Shade variation in Act 3 of "Bayadere." Apart from her officially approved emploi of roles such as Aurora, "Romeo & Juliet," "Nutcracker," "Giselle," "La Sylphide," countless dolls, obscure pdds from obsure Petipa works, supporting cast Balanchines, the occaisional Kitri, Forsythe, Ballerina in "Petrouchka," Ratmansky's "Cinderella," and other quaint vignettes, Obraztsova was systematically denied Nikiya, O/O, Raymonda, Medora and the lead in all three segments of "Jewels."

[Tiara]

Having seen Osmolkina dance O/O at Covent Garden, I really feel her uniquely soulful and deeply moving interpretation of the role should be available to eveyone but I fear Natalia's gloomy casting prediction will prove correct.

I hate gloomy and would much prefer Osmolkina (or anyone but the 3 Odd-alisques). Hey, I see that Osmolkina has just been announced as Odette-Odile for one of the Swan Lakes at the MT,later this month...Lopatkina does the first & Osmolkina the 2nd. So maybe bright days are forthcoming?

More great news, in Moscow: Obraztsova debuts as Nikiya in Bayadere on the 30th, at the Bolshoi! She is also preparing to debut as the lead in Balanchine's Diamonds, later this winter (no date yet)...I'll also post this in the Obraztsova thread, if not already there. Woohoo!!!

http://www.evgeniaob...a.com/news.html

Katya Osmolkina's upcoming O/O will be her first follow-up performance in her home theatre with her home company since her debut several years ago. Her second and third performances of O/O were given with the Royal at Covent Garden after her home debut. I don't believe she's outsourced the role elsewhere. So, if this casting holds, this is tremendous news for her because know this: If things were "normal" in the company right now, she and many other deserving ladies, wouldn't be getting these opportunities. At this point Fateev must feel that he doesn't have a choice but to cast these women, *(against his "better" judgement). Isn't that ironic? The fact is he has always had a treasure trove of talented and gifted -but criminally under-utilized dancers to choose from.

I too am totally ecstatic about Obraztsova's upcoming and long overdue Nikiya and Diamonds debuts
with the Bolshoi! Her Solor will be fellow refugee Mikhail Lobhukin, who also couldn't promote to Principal in
Gergiev's House of Blues. During Makhar Vaziev's and the current Regime, Evgenia was consigned to the Danse Manu in Act 2 and the first Shade variation in Act 3 of "Bayadere." Apart from her officially approved emploi of roles such as Aurora, "Romeo & Juliet," "Nutcracker," "Giselle," "La Sylphide," countless dolls, obscure pdds from obsure Petipa works, supporting cast Balanchines, the occaisional Kitri, Forsythe, Ballerina in "Petrouchka," Ratmansky's "Cinderella," and other quaint vignettes, Obraztsova was systematically denied Nikiya, O/O, Raymonda, Medora and the lead in all three segments of "Jewels."

Yes, you hit the nail on the head - Fateyev has a secret treasure trove or a real Aladdin's Cave full of wonderful ballerinas and he just needs to let them out of their dingy corps dressing rooms and give them a chance to dance. In a normal world many of them would be stars already and he would have no need to bring in foreign ballerinas, or over-use the favoured few, or to seek sponsorship to boost the Mariinsky coffers: he has all this wonderful depth of talent within his company and why doesn't he have the vision and intelligence to be able to use it correctly? It really is time for a change in Mariinsky management.

[Waelsung]

Our collective prayers have been answered!

[AlbanyGirl]

So, being a commercial film, how does one find a movie theater showing it? Or is it being live-streamed and you have to see it on the computer? I checked Emerging Pictures and my two local theaters that show such events and nothing. I also googled it but no info as to a list of movie houses that will show it on Feb 14 (or will it have a loner run....?) Thanks for any addl info.

[PeggyR]

So, being a commercial film, how does one find a movie theater showing it? Or is it being live-streamed and you have to see it on the computer? I checked Emerging Pictures and my two local theaters that show such events and nothing. I also googled it but no info as to a list of movie houses that will show it on Feb 14 (or will it have a loner run....?) Thanks for any addl info.

MovieTickets.com has it listed, but putting in my zip code returned a commercial for M&Ms, in Spanish

But at least they seem to know it exists, even if there's no specific information yet.

Edited to add: Sorry, just realized the link is for my zip code, which refuses to go away. I was trying to post the general Movie.com site. Be sure to change the zip to your own.

[Laura]

More great news, in Moscow: Obraztsova debuts as Nikiya in Bayadere on the 30th, at the Bolshoi! She is also preparing to debut as the lead in Balanchine's Diamonds, later this winter (no date yet)...I'll also post this in the Obraztsova thread, if not already there. Woohoo!!!

http://www.evgeniaob...a.com/news.html

Oh thankyou, thankyou for this bit of news! She is my current favorite of all the still working ballerinas and I am on pins and needles to see/hear about her debuts as Nikiya.

Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but there's a youtube video of her preparing for La Bayadere. She looks great!

[abatt]

I couldn't find any movie theaters in New York City showing Swan Lake on Feb 14. Oh well.

[Natalia]

I couldn't find any theaters in the Greater DC and Baltimore metropolitan area. Even the Worldgate in Reston, VA, which seems to show everything from Emerging Pictures, doesn't have this.

Then I Googled this series of phrases together: "Emerging Pictures" and "Swan Lake" and "Mariinsky" and....all of the links indicate theaters West of the Mississippi River (Denver, Phoenix, L.A.). Also, they all indicate that the film stars Lopatkina and Korsuntsev. For example, for Phoenix:
http://www.phoenixne...heatre-1267914/

I sure hope that it will indeed be Kondaurova as Odette-Odile. (Waelsung, what is the provenance of the ad? Did it come from a US-based site? Other country?) Well, the above advert would not be totally wrong, as Kondaurova was a demi-soloist among the Six Fiancees in the Lopatkina 2006 film....but it would be a stretch to indicate that Kondaurova "stars" in it!

Ross McGibbon was the film director of the 2006 Lopatkina film and, according to the above ad, is also the director of the new film. Gergiev was/is conductor of both.

p.s. The Mariinsky's own web still shows the opera Electra for Feb. 14. There are 3 perfs of Swan Lake scheduled in Feb (6th, 10th & 23rd), without announced casting, but these happen in the midst of preparations for/during the long-known filming of Romeo & Juliet (Vishneva/Schklyarov/Gergiev)...and commercial ballet filmings are a rarity.

p.s.s. Laura, what a great little film on Obraztsova's preparations for her Nikiya debut! I gives me goosebumps of joy.

[Cygnet]

The current scuttlebutt is that the upcoming 3D "Swan Lake" is apparently going to be a makeover of the most current 2006 Gergiev/Lopatkina/Korsuntsev performance already available on dvd. Yes - that's the live performance with the roving camera.

Having seen Osmolkina dance O/O at Covent Garden, I really feel her uniquely soulful and deeply moving interpretation of the role should be available to eveyone but I fear Natalia's gloomy casting prediction will prove correct.

I hate gloomy and would much prefer Osmolkina (or anyone but the 3 Odd-alisques). Hey, I see that Osmolkina has just been announced as Odette-Odile for one of the Swan Lakes at the MT,later this month...Lopatkina does the first & Osmolkina the 2nd. So maybe bright days are forthcoming?

It was too good to be true. Katya Osmolkina has been replaced with Nastya Kolegova for the Jan. 23 "Swan Lake."
Volodya Shklyarov will dance Siegfried.

http://www.mariinsky...13/1/23/1_1900/

Fateev has invited former Mariinsky 1st soloist, now prima ballerina of the Dresden Opera Ballet, Natalia Sologub to
return and dance a subscription performance of "Cinderella" this Friday, January 18.

http://www.mariinsky...13/1/18/1_1900/

I have the greatest respect for Nastya Kolegova, as well as recent guest Maria Kochetkova (SF Ballet prima), and Natalia Sologub (yet another Mariinsky refugee). However, these outsourced acquisitions for what appears to be only one or two performances of regular rep. work, perfectly illustrates my point in a previous post in this thread. Fateev already has the talent depth in the company, but he chooses to ignore it and outsource opportunities that many have been waiting years for.

[Natalia]

<sup>Thanks, Cygnet. And still the Mariinsky playbill shows no Swan Lake for Feb 14, 2013 -- the date of the supposed 'live' HD and 3-D broadcast!

Maybe Maestro Gergiev will conduct Swan Lake behind closed doors (no audience) during the day, then switch gears for Elektra (with audience in the auditorium) at night? He's done worse -- attend two events on the same day in different countries!</sup>

[Cygnet]

<sup>Thanks, Cygnet. And still the Mariinsky playbill shows no Swan Lake for Feb 14, 2013 -- the date of the supposed 'live' HD and 3-D broadcast!

Maybe Maestro Gergiev will conduct Swan Lake behind closed doors (no audience) during the day, then switch gears for Elektra (with audience in the auditorium) at night? He's done worse -- attend two events on the same day in different countries!</sup>

There's no telling what's going to happen or what the Maestro is going to do. As far as the 3D "Swan Lake" is concerned, if this is true, that recording is 7 years old when Vaziev was still the Ballet Director. It's out of date. Moreover, IMO the company was not on it's best form that night, in spite of Lopatkina's sublime O/O. Gergiev gesticulated like an aircraft carrier navigator in the pit driving the Orchestra to Nascar speeds in Act 1 Scene 2 and Act 3. The corps de ballet could barely keep up with his tempi. Fortunately, he took Uliana's tempo for the white pdd. Somova was consistently out of line as one of the Big Swans. The pdt was lackluster as well as the character dances in Act 2. The only saving graces were Uliana, Korsuntsev the cygnets and the resiliency of the corps.

If Gergiev is going allow old performances (i.e. +3 years old like "Jewels"), to be "3D'd" then what's the point? This is very frustrating because Gergiev thinks he's on the cutting edge in how he markets his Ballet company and he isn't. The major companies that are simulcasting performances for Emerging Pictures and Ballet in Cinema are doing the international audience a great service in that these performances are live performances. If he wants to keep his Ballet company relevant in this mode, he needs to get cameras in the Mariinsky Theatre for ballet performances ASAP and not rely on the past or past recordings. Every major ballet company that's using this medium has left the Mariinsky in the dust.

[angelica]

Fateev already has the talent depth in the company, but he chooses to ignore it and outsource opportunities that many have been waiting years for.

This must be a contagious disease. I've heard the same thing said about the artistic director of another major company, this one in the U.S.

[Natalia]

Fateev already has the talent depth in the company, but he chooses to ignore it and outsource opportunities that many have been waiting years for.

This must be a contagious disease. I've heard the same thing said about the artistic director of another major company, this one in the U.S.

You're right Angelica. Interestingly, both ADs have a 'link' to Ardani. Hmmm....

[angelica]

You're right Angelica. Interestingly, both ADs have a 'link' to Ardani. Hmmm....

Now that is interesting, Natalia. Have you any idea whether these "link[s]" are via the dancers in the company who are Ardani artists, or are they more direct? I would love to get to the bottom of this.