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Summer 2014 NYC & Saratoga Tour


mussel

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Thanks so much, FauxPas, for posting this. I’ve been following several sites daily for months waiting for the castings. I called up the ticket office immediately and got the ones that I really wanted, which are Olga Smirnova’s and Svetlana Zakharova’s Swan Lakes (twice for each! and one for Anna Nikulina. There are others that I would really like to see, but its a special trip and I'm limited in what I can do).


Olga Smirnova is already great, in my mind, and she’s just beginning. I’ve only seen her once on stage so I’m really looking forward to NYC. Also as I’ve mentioned, Svetlana Zakharova’s Giselle at last year’s Mariinsky Festival was possibly the finest performance of *Anything* that I’ve ever seen !


I haven’t looked at them recently, but Clement Crisp wrote a series of rave reviews about the Bolshoi’s London performances last summer, which you might enjoy. I was not there, but based on my past Bolshoi experiences and internet videos, I tended to agree with him completely. I recall him highly praising Olga Smirnova, Semyon Chudin, Svetlana Zakharova and Kristina Krysanova.


Olga Smirnova and Semyon Chudin — Diamonds



Svetlana Zakharova — Swan Lake



Kristina Krysanova — Sleeping Beauty





Added:


Ekaterina Shipulina, who’s been around for awhile, quite honestly surprised me with the youthful solidity and lovely excellence of her Kitri (from Don Quixote, which she'll dance in NYC) several years ago. I don’t think that I’d seen her perform as well before (stage or video). I may still try to see her in Swan Lake. In addition, several years ago Maria Alexandrova (who'll dance as Kitri and whom I've also often seen) danced Raymonda as a guest with the Paris Opera Ballet and gave one of the most 'magically' enchanting dance performances that I've ever seen.


[a few words changed in last sentence]


[and correction made in last paragraph, Ekaterina Shipulina danced Kitri, not Nikiya]


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Thank you for the cast posting! I've just purchased a ticket for the Don Quixote on July 23 evening, partially so that I can see Smirnova as Queen of the Dryads. I can't make it down to New York for Swan Lake, and plus I really don't like the Grigorovich production, so this is my chance to see her. I'm happy to see Shipulina as Kitri, too - she's one of my favorite dancers at the Bolshoi.

I was a little sad to see I'm getting the B cast for Spartacus, but maybe Rodkin will turn out to be great.

I can't wait for July!

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Casting for the "Don Q" in Saratoga, an embarrassment of riches, is up:
http://www.oneidadispatch.com/general-news/20140530/bolshoi-ballet-to-perform-in-saratoga-springs

July 29 and August 1: Alexandrova/Lantratov
July 30: Krysanova/Chudin
July 31: Kretova/Lobukhin

I love Alexandrova, but any recommendation from those having seen the company lately, especially these dancers and/or Don Q? I remember Krysanova's Gamzatti vividly, but I can't translate that mentally to Don Q, and I haven't seen Kretova.

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There is a lot of screwy casting on this tour, not least of which is the fact that Maria Alexandrova is crossing the Atlantic to dance a single Kitri in New York, and thankfully a couple more in Saratoga Springs, but no Swan Queens and no Aeginas.

I won't post any links, but there is a lot of amateur footage of Ekaterina Krysanova's Kitri out there, even a couple of complete performances. She's a technical whiz--very light, very fast, with exceptionally speedy hops on pointe, big jumps and fearless fouettés, so even though the roles I've seen her do are very different (Giselle, Aurora, Odette-Odile, Gamzatti, Jeanne), I have every reason to believe she would be terrific as Kitri, even if she is saddled with Semyon Chudin, who has very pretty legs, but who couldn't act his way out of a paper bag.

Of all of Sergei Filin's recruits, I like Kristina Kretova best. She is a superb technician, with excellent balance, rapier-like legs and a big, winning smile. From what I've seen, she is also a fine actress and has an admirably direct and unmannered style. I don't think she gobbles up quite as much space as her colleagues, which was less on an issue on the stage of the Royal Opera House, but I also have every reason to think she would make an excellent Kitri.

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I don't think you can go wrong with any of the Kitris. I have seen Alexandrova before in Don Q, and also Kretova and Krysanova as O/O on the London tour. I liked both ballerinas and preferred them as Odile. While Odile and Kitri are not the same roles, I could easily see either Kretova or Krysanova having the temperament for Kitri. Both certainly have the technical chomps for it.

Among the Basilios Lantratov should be excellent. Chudin seems woefully miscast: he has technique for days but as volcanohunter said has no real acting ability. Even in Sleeping Beauty this was a problem, and while the London audience enjoyed Chudin I felt Krysanova carried the performance. Lobukhin I'm not familiar with. Would others see him as a good Basilio?

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All the Kitris would tempt me if only I weren't the wrong side of the Atlantic. Of the Basilios, Lantratov is so charismatic he would easily be my No 1 choice. Chudin has the best technique & a different kind of stage presence that I think possibly is more suited to Diamonds type lead roles rather than a Basilio. Lobukhin I saw dance an energetic Spartacus in a live relay and a bland Albrecht in Moscow recently (Alastair Macaulay reviewed this performance). I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to see Olga Smirnova and in the subsidiary casting Anna Tikhomirova as a street dancer on 22nd and Kitris friend on 23rd is worth looking out for.

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Casting for the "Don Q" in Saratoga, an embarrassment of riches, is up:

http://www.oneidadispatch.com/general-news/20140530/bolshoi-ballet-to-perform-in-saratoga-springs

July 29 and August 1: Alexandrova/Lantratov

July 30: Krysanova/Chudin

July 31: Kretova/Lobukhin

I love Alexandrova, but any recommendation from those having seen the company lately, especially these dancers and/or Don Q? I remember Krysanova's Gamzatti vividly, but I can't translate that mentally to Don Q, and I haven't seen Kretova.

In all honesty, I’d never heard Kristina Kretova’s name before, so I went to the videos, The Bluebird duet and the duet from Coppelia.

I’m Smitten ! — Based on these — She’s An Absolute Gem !

I’m hoping to see some of the NYC Swan Lakes, so I immediately checked to see what she’s doing, considering the possibility of extending my visit if she were to do a Don Quixote. She isn’t, but I’ll hopefully be able to at least see her as one of the Prince’s Friends in Swan Lake. I think that staying until her Saratoga Don Quixote wouldn’t be feasible, but I’d love to !

[typo corrections made]

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If anybody managed to get tickets to this event with Sergei Filin, you'll have to tell us about it:

Events Related to Bolshoi

Discussion with Sergei Filin
Wednesday, July 23 at 6:00
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

A discussion with Sergei Filin, artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, and former New York Times chief dance critic Anna Kisselgoff will take place at 6:00 in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse. This ticketed event is free and open to the public. Please reserve your tickets in advance. NOTE: Tickets will be will call only. Will call opens at the venue one hour prior to the event. Tickets are valid until 15 minutes prior to the event, at which point they will be released to the stand-by line. Seating is general admission on a first-come, first-served basis.

SOLD OUT

Meanwhile, add this to my list of complaints with the management of the Lincoln Center Festival. I first learned about this in an e-mail as I was getting ready to board a plane home from NYC. I tried to grab a ticket via my Smartphone, but their site wouldn't accept the Friends code they had sent. By the time I got home and could try again on a regular computer, it was "sold out." For special events like this, especially those that will go quickly, we should get a "heads-up" e-mail at least a few days before tickets become available. I guess that didn't occur to the LCF staff.

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The code they posted in the email (LCFREE) was wrong. The correct one is LCFFREE (double F). I got it when I called them. They said they will send a corrected email. Obviously they did not.

As I've said before, the incompetence of the management of the LCF never ceases to amaze me. I thought they had hit a low water mark with the ticket fiasco earlier this year...This is the kind of amateurish error you expect from the community theater in Podunck (with apologies to Podunck...).

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My experience was identical to California's--well I wasn't getting on a plane, but I couldn't figure out why my code wasn't accepted--thought it was because I was on my Ipad. By the time I got to my regular computer it was sold out. Thank you Speed100 for the explanation but, if what you say is correct, then to say I am infuriated doesn't begin to capture it. If Lincoln Center is going to offer special "treats" to members, then ... uh... they should get the information to us correctly.

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I also missed out on the opportunity because of the aforementioned snafu. ABT should coach LCF how to conduct event like this. When the responses are overwhelming to it's free insight talks, like the upcoming one with Hallberg, ABT moves the event from the usual List Hall to the main auditorium, and everyone gets tickets.

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I also missed out on the opportunity because of the aforementioned snafu. ABT should coach LCF how to conduct event like this. When the responses are overwhelming to it's free insight talks, like the upcoming one with Hallberg, ABT moves the event from the usual List Hall to the main auditorium, and everyone gets tickets.

Indeed! Apparently the Kaplan Penthouse only holds 250 people in a performance set-up. It's pretty amazing the LCF management didn't anticipate the huge demand for tickets for this event: http://yourevent.lincolncenter.org/venues/stanley-kaplan

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Bringing this thread forward in the hope that any of you who are Bolshoi knowledgable will provide opinions about the castings for Don Q here in Saratoga. I'm likely to fork over the $ for only one performance. Any guidance most appreciated, and thanks to those who have posted. From what I've read it seems that you can't really go wrong with this bunch.

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I am not terribly "Bolshoi knowledgeable" but will say anyway...Alexandrova! She is a major ballerina--for many Bolshoi fans, she is the company's true prima and I would say simply that she is always a class act. Also, Kitri is, so to speak, one of "her" roles. She is coming back from a serious injury, but I still would recommend you try to see her if you can.

But I agree that you are likely to see an excellent performance whoever dances...

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Casting for the "Don Q" in Saratoga, an embarrassment of riches, is up:

http://www.oneidadispatch.com/general-news/20140530/bolshoi-ballet-to-perform-in-saratoga-springs

July 29 and August 1: Alexandrova/Lantratov

July 30: Krysanova/Chudin

July 31: Kretova/Lobukhin

I love Alexandrova, but any recommendation from those having seen the company lately, especially these dancers and/or Don Q? I remember Krysanova's Gamzatti vividly, but I can't translate that mentally to Don Q, and I haven't seen Kretova.

Talking about the soloists: all three casts are very well worth seeing. Each will offer a memorable performance. I would attend all three.

Krysanova is a stellar artist, in its own class. With her perfect frame she is truly sparkling on stage. Fabulous as Kitri, and great in everything else as well. I can't really think of any ballerina currently in the West who is technically as brilliant (I am not sure, e.g., Semionova can be as scintillating, light and lightning fast, at the same time never giving any hint of "athleticism" or "gymnastics").

Alexandrova is known to be a great technician. In spite of her much bigger frame, she is fast, precise, and generally remarkably refined. Her Medora in the 3rd cast of «Le corsaire» at Bolshoi a few years ago was a revelation.

Kretova is a Filin's protegé. She had been dancing for 8 years at the «Kremlin Ballet». When Filin was appointed the artistic director of MAMT (the Stanislavsky & Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre), she moved up to MAMT. Not much later, when Filin became the artistic director of Bolshoi, she moved up with him to Bolshoi where she is now occupying the position of a leading soloist. In a company as big as Bolshoi that really means a lot. I like her personally: very pretty and, in private, witty and very intelligent. Charming on stage and possessing a near-ideal body frame, if slightly less capable of 'finesse', but certainly never 'dull'. I haven't seen her as Kitri, but that part suits her temperament well. An excellent dancer, no doubt. I would happily attend any performance featuring her. [All dancers above the corps de ballet level (and many in the corps de ballet) at Bolshoi are generally of very high quality.]

One should not forget that with the companies like Bolshoi and Mariinsky, the real hero is the corps de ballet. What thrills me always most with Bolshoi and Mariinsky are those genuinely rare moments of seeing on stage great corps de ballet in classical repertoire while in the West I got accustomed to seeing only great soloists.

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Bolshoi Ballet at State Theater is completely sold out. There're some wheel chair accessible seats available and they will be released to general public on the days of performances. And they are not selling standing rooms and It's unlikely they will sell them but they may change their mind. I don't know why there're no performances on July 24 Thur. and July 26 Sat. matinee, they could easily sell out 2 more performances.

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I don't know why there're no performances on July 24 Thur. and July 26 Sat. matinee, they could easily sell out 2 more performances.

I thought the absence of a Thursday night performance on 7/24 was probably something as mundane as the need to change out the sets from Don Q to Spartacus and make sure everything fit in that theater. The change-over from Swan Lake to Don Q, of course, takes place on Monday, 7/21, when that house is normally dark anyway. But why they are skipping the matinees on Wednesday, 7/16 and Saturday, 7/26 (especially when they are doing matinees on the other Wednesday and Saturday) is something of a mystery.

Could they add performances at this late date? When they brought Don Q to Segerstrom for a week in 2010, they reportedly brought 100 dancers with them, so they likely will have enough dancers (although perhaps not enough principals?) in NYC to add performances, if they wanted to.

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Bolshoi Ballet at State Theater is completely sold out. There're some wheel chair accessible seats available and they will be released to general public on the days of performances. And they are not selling standing rooms and It's unlikely they will sell them but they may change their mind. I don't know why there're no performances on July 24 Thur. and July 26 Sat. matinee, they could easily sell out 2 more performances.

Why the Bolshoi is performing at the Koch instead of the Met is a mystery to me. Yes, the sight lines are MUCH better at the Koch, but the stage and audience capacity is so much smaller. When the Mariinsky came 2 years ago and the Bolshoi about 7 years ago, they played the Met to, I believe, totally sold out houses. (Of course when the Bolshoi came in, I believe, 2002, they played the Koch.)

Between the lack of casting info early on, the confusion over selling tickets (both to programs & singles) it seems the LCF is incompetent.

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Yes the Koch is smaller, but as also noted by Amour it really is much better for the audience who DOES get in. So, in case anyone from LCF is reading -- let me go on record as delighted the company is performing at the Koch. I definitely bought tickets for something like twice as many performances as I would have if it were dancing at the Met...

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I think the MET may undergo renovations (painting and similar fix ups) during certain summers, so it is not always available. They begin rehearsing their new productions in August, so there is not as much time off to do renovations as one might assume.

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However, one big problem is that the Bolshoi sets don't fit the NY State/Koch Theater stage. The huge Metropolitan Opera House stage is about the same size as the Bolshoi stage. This became evident back in the late 90's when the Bolshoi toured "Giselle" and they played the New York State Theater. I was sitting up in the 4th ring and was bothered by the fact that I could see lighting units behind the painted flat greenery upstage. Don't they realize we can see behind those flats? Then I realized that at the Bolshoi the scenery would have been much further upstage since their stage is way deeper than the State Theater's. So at the further perspective the lighting units would not have been visible in the higher sections of the theater.

I saw the Fadeyechev production of "Don Quixote" at the Met on the last Bolshoi tour and it really is a three-ring circus. Masses of extras and dancers on every inch of the stage. It could look very cramped on the Koch stage...

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