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New Ratmansky Swan Lake to premier at Zurich


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Second performance with Anna Khamsina's O/O and Denis Vieira's Siegfried is in the books! Upon 3rd viewing (counting dress reh), I love this production more and more. Khamsina was a little less wondrous than Kapitonova yesterday in the balances and fouettés BUT displayed clearer mime. On the other hand, young Brazilian graduate of the Bolshoi-Brazil school, Denis Vieira, truly wowed in his Black pdd solo...even the Swiss bankers in my box woke up and whispered "Das ist gutt!" My Hungarian Dance hero from last night,Cristian Alex Assis, was in the thankless role of Von Rothbart tonight...but his death flop at the top of the rock was more visible, as we could see his head at the top of the stairs (did not fall into lake).

The same terrific pas de trois performed on both nights but Benno had a tiny slip during his otherwise great solo with high jetes en tournant.

Lou Spichtig and Michelle Willems were superb as the two demisolo swans in A3.

The Village Waltz was not as crisp as yesterday, especially the getting on and off the stools when boys and girls quickly alternate.

Lastly....Fosca was right about the hideous color choices, especially those day-glow Cheapo fabrics on the national-dance costumes. Kaplan must have used cast-off samples from last year's PAQUITA in Munich. That polyester overskirt on the Mazurka dresses looked mighty familiar.

A great experience. Thank you, Zurich Ballett! Now back to DC for the Mariinsky RAYMONDAS..and to work, to pay for the next trip.

- Natalia Nabatova

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Thank you, Natasha for the reviews! Oh, I really LOVE the pictures...the loose hair for Odette and the swans...Rothbart's costume, and even Odile's tutu, which gives sort of a mix in between the original multicolored number and our pre conceived all black idea. LOVE the pointy crowns!!...and the look of the villagers valse. Yes...we have a winner here. Can we have it at ABT..? :happy:

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Jane, thanks for the link to the pictures. I am so glad the black swans are back in the final scene. I just love the contrast. And I must say the Prince looks wonderful! Mary

Actually, black swans are in many current productions, such as Mariinsky and Royal Ballet. Of course, in the current Zurich production they are more involved in the mime. I'm sure that's what you meant. :)

Thanks to whoever posted the mention of Macauley's NYT review, which is mostly positive, as are the two reviews in local German papers today. ("Danke" to Hotel Opera's night receptionist for his kind reading-translation!) However, Macauley needs to correct a few historical inaccuracies, such as the fact that the ending pose in the"Black pdd adagio" (Odile in deep penche with her two hands on Siegfried's knees) has been recently performed in DC by Misty Copeland and Brooklyn Mack, among other casts. It is not a long-lost, never-seen-before, blah blah. :)

Also, I'm surprised that Macauley even refers to the Mariinsky's A1 village waltz...comparing that the MT fields more dancers in the waltz. Doesn't he realize that he saw a totally different composition here in Zurich? Like comparing apples to oranges.

To whoever asked about Benno's involvement in the White pdd: YES. A lot! For example, Benno alone catches Odette whenever she swoons, including the final swoon in the adage. Also, it's Benno who holds-up Odette as she strikes ending pose in the Swans Coda...Odette steps onto a thigh of kneeling Benno & strikes back attitude-arabesque pose, as Siegfried stands and watches in awe.

Off to airport! :)

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Also, I'm surprised that Macauley even refers to the Mariinsky's A1 village waltz...comparing that the MT fields more dancers in the waltz. Doesn't he realize that he saw a totally different composition here in Zurich? Like comparing apples to oranges.

I think in your rush to the airport you mistook his meaning. I understood him to be comparing it, not to the current Mariinsky production, but to the 1895 one that was acting as Ratmansky's template.

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Oh...and how about the fast original 1877 coda in the White PDD..? Did they included it-(just as Balanchine in his one act version)..?

Ratmansky was following Drigo's revision of the score used in the 1895 production. So no fast ending to the Scene II adagio.

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I think in your rush to the airport you mistook his meaning. I understood him to be comparing it, not to the current Mariinsky production, but to the 1895 one that was acting as Ratmansky's template.

In that case his comparison is even less accurate because it appears that the 1895 production---or at least whatever version of it that was notated---called for 20 couples (my source for this is R.J. Wiley's book). This is exactly what Ratmansky has.

Perhaps Macaulay means that at the 1895 premiere there were more than 20 couples. This may be so (it would be good to know his source for this), but the notation (probably made a good decade after the premiere) calls for 20. Obviously Ratmansky has no way of reconstructing what actually transpired in 1895, only what was notated.

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Macauley wrote that the Mariinsky uses even more dancers in the Village Waltz...duh! Ilya is 100% right in that AR followed the 1895 instructions, which is what we saw in Zurich. Forty dancers (20 couples...four of the couples being leads, so not involved in the stools action). It goes without saying that AR used the notes. Otherwise he'd need the services of Long Island Medium.

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Macauley wrote that the Mariinsky uses even more dancers in the Village Waltz...duh! Ilya is 100% right in that AR followed the 1895 instructions, which is what we saw in Zurich. Forty dancers (20 couples...four of the couples being leads, so not involved in the stools action). It goes without saying that AR used the notes. Otherwise he'd need the services of Long Island Medium.

I'm fine with Macaulay being wrong. I don't love him and have no interest in defending him. Nor was my comment as an attack on you, I very much appreciated your review.

You seemed confused as to why he was comparing the waltz to that of the Mariinsky when they are different things, and it appeared to me the answer was that he had not--he was comparing it to the 1895 text.

This is not to say Ilya isn't correct in saying that makes his comment even sillier if he is wrong as to how many couples there were in 1895. But since the only other mentions of the Mariinsky are to the 1895 production I can't see why one wouldn't think that is what he is referring to when he says, using the past tense:

"Along the way, fresh light keeps changing the ballet. A special triumph is the stage-filling celebratory group waltz for the opening scene: Mr. Ratmansky brings Petipa’s formations pulsating to life (20 couples, though the Mariinsky, with its vast resources, had more)."

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You continue to be confused, Aurora. The ballet company that existed in StP before the Revolution was the Imperial Russian Ballet, not the Mariinsky. The Mariinsky is the name of the theatre. A "Mariinsky" ballet troupe did not exist until the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By referring to the "Mariinsky" version, Macauley appears to be writing about the current version of SL by Konstantine Sergeyev.

The company of Tsarist times was the Imperial Russian Ballet. It performed at the Mariinsky Theater...and another tranche of dancers of the same entity performed at the Bolshoi in Moscow.

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Meant to add to my review of Sunday night: Lovely petite blonde Lou Sprichtig shined brightly in the little "jig" solo in sc1, after her "dancing lesson" with the tipsy Wolfgang. Sprichtig has a palpable 1890s/Cecchetti perfume about her.

That's it for the Zurich SL trip. Now I prepare for my next trip, to St Petersburg for THE BRONZE HORSEMAN (Smekalov-after-Zakharov, to Gliere's score). The Mariinsky Ballet - former Imperial Russian Ballet, then GATOB, then Kirov Ballet - will perform. :)

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At the hotel, I picked up hard copies of the reviews in NZZ by Martina Wohlthat (the 2nd of Fosca's links) and in TAGES-ANZEIGER by Marianne Muehlemann. Both quite glowing, as per my personal angel-translator.

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You continue to be confused, Aurora. The ballet company that existed in StP before the Revolution was the Imperial Russian Ballet, not the Mariinsky. The Mariinsky is the name of the theatre. A "Mariinsky" ballet troupe did not exist until the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By referring to the "Mariinsky" version, Macauley appears to be writing about the current version of SL by Konstantine Sergeyev.

The company of Tsarist times was the Imperial Russian Ballet. It performed at the Mariinsky Theater...and another tranche of dancers of the same entity performed at the Bolshoi in Moscow.

He wouldn't use the past tense then.

He never once mentions the current production at the Mariinsky. He uses that word 4 times, 3x clearly about the 1895 production.

I'm not confused. I can read.

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You continue to be confused, Aurora. The ballet company that existed in StP before the Revolution was the Imperial Russian Ballet, not the Mariinsky. The Mariinsky is the name of the theatre. A "Mariinsky" ballet troupe did not exist until the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By referring to the "Mariinsky" version, Macauley appears to be writing about the current version of SL by Konstantine Sergeyev.

The company of Tsarist times was the Imperial Russian Ballet. It performed at the Mariinsky Theater...and another tranche of dancers of the same entity performed at the Bolshoi in Moscow.

Natalia is absolutely correct. The company that performed in the Mariinsky Theatre that was named for the Czar's wife Maria, was known as the Imperial Russian Ballet, (or) the Imperial Ballet. This was the case until 1918 a year after the Revolution. After that, it was named the State Academic Ballet of Petrograd by the communists during the Russian Civil War years in the 1920s. Following the death of Lenin when the city was renamed Leningrad, Sergei Kirov was the Party leader of the city. After Sergei Kirov's hit was ordered by Stalin, (which began the purges of the 1930s), the Theatre was re-named, the Sergei Mironovich Kirov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, and the opera and ballet companies that performed in it were known by the name "Kirov." This name lasted until the early 2000s when the ballet company itself reverted back to it's original name. The Theatre reclaimed it's original name "Mariinsky" in the 1990s, when the city reclaimed it's original name, St. Petersburg. If Macaulay's verbs were past tense, perhaps he should have waited to publish his review before posting this rough draft from his airline napkin.

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