La Fille Mal Gadee

[bingham]

Marcelo Gomes will be doing Mother Simone in some performances( Roman Zhurbin is doing it too) according to ABT schedule. He will be something to see. Too bad i'm not in the NYC area at that time. Looking forward for reports. Surprised that D Simkin was not cast as Alain. I think he would have been wonderful in that role.

[choriamb]

I'm pleasantly surprised that Gomes is getting to do it, too. But can anyone guess why they decided to have only two casts (other than that learning the clogging takes time)?

It must have been absolutely miserable deciding which role Salstein would play...he would be so great in either role.

[sandik]

Now that Alexander Grant is gone, who holds the rights to this?

[Ashton Fan]

The copyright to Fille now belongs to Jean Pierre Gasquet who was Alexander Grant's partner. This of course means that he has full artistic and financial control over it. I imagine that he uses someone connected to the Royal Ballet or the Frederick Ashton Foundation to stage and coach the work.

Full details of the current rights holders can be found on the Frederick Ashton Foundation website. The Foundation, I believe,hopes in due course to acquire the fights to the other ballets. It now owns the rights to Daphnis and Chloe and to Les Patineus and Les Rendezvous. However it does not get the income from revivals of Les Patineurs or Les Rendezvous as that was left to the Royal Ballet School by Dereck Rencher . As it would seem that Rencher succeeded in separating the ownership of the ballets which Brian Shaw left him from the rights to the income generated by their revival it is to be hoped that the owners of the rest of Ashton's ballets will make similar provisions in their wills.

[sandik]

As it would seem that Rencher succeeded in separating the ownership of the ballets which Brian Shaw left him from the rights to the income generated by their revival it is to be hoped that the owners of the rest of Ashton's ballets will make similar provisions in their wills.

Thanks so much for the information -- I'd lost track of the "ownership" aspect. I'm very curious about this bifurcation that they've made between artistic control and income. I suppose it is a variation of a trust, but I don't know that I've heard about it in the dance world before. Does anyone know any other examples?

[Amy Reusch]

It would help a lot if this could be the new model... artistic integrity upheld but artist allowed to give financial benefit to whomever seems right.