43 replies to this topic

[Mme. Hermine]

i recall a performance of ruth page's 'bolero', a somewhat unusual staging which involved a young man taking his pick of comely ladies in a brothel and a mysterious young woman who enters at first all covered up, being greeted after one performance with *literal* vegetables being thrown at the performers!

[Roma]

Well, apparently there was plenty of booing, hissing, stomping and screaming at the Bolshoi Theatre during the Benois de la Danse Gala last Saturday. When one of the ballets up for The Best New Choreography (or some such thing), a piece by Belgian Jan Fabre (sp?), called something like "My movements are as lonely as stray dogs", turned out to be a prolonged session of, I don't quite know how to put it, self-love, complete with drooling, screaming, and actual stuffed dogs (don't ask), the audience erupted in loud boos, began to stomp it's feet, screams of "get off the stage", "Shame", "Shame, Grigorovich" (it's basically his show) were heard, and the Minister of Culture actually walked out, as did many other people.
The second scandal of the evening occurred when it was announced that the much reviled Anastasia Volochkova was being presented with the Benois de la Danse prize for the Best Female Performance (for her turn as Odette-Odile in Grigorovich's Swan Lake). The entire audience fell into a deafening silence and then again came the booing, the stomping, and screams of protest.
Aurelie Dupont (the co-winner of the dubious prize) was greeted by loud cheers, bravas, and very vigorous applause.
The other nominees were Kirov's Svetlana Zakharova and Natalia Sologub.

[Estelle]

I haven't seen any work by Jan Fabre, but what I've read about his works (often performed in France) looked a bit similar to what you depicted.
Recently, one of his works in Avignon was called "Je suis sang" (I am blood) and included quite a lot of (fake) blood, nudity, people doing a (fake) circumcision, etc. Not very surprising if some people booed! Actually, the Benois de la Danse look a bit odd: isn't it a bit strange to mix classical productions and such modern works?

[sylvia]

I haven't ever felt the need to boo (yet) and on occasion I'll withhold applause. I do feel catty about the ROH orchestra though, which can be exceptional on opera nights, and truely awful, not even trying on ballet ones as was evident in the last couple R&Js I've just seen. The rest of the audience just loves them though. Didn't they hear those duff notes?!!

[Jane Simpson]

The only time I can remember more than an isolated boo at the Royal Ballet was at the first night of Kenneth MacMillan's full length Anastasia, and it was rather pointless as no-one knew if it was directed against the 2 new acts or the existing 3rd act, or both.

I do sometimes boo myself, but only very, very quietly.

Sylvia, I do agree about the ROH orchestra - they sounded far better at Trovatore on Wednesday than at R&J on Tuesday.

[Morris Neighbor]

Roma's comments are a warning about audience expectations as defined by style. If people are expecting classical dance -- with technique, style, musicality, and emotion -- they are likely to reject self-indulgent displays. Classical companies who stray into avant-garde non-dance have earned the scorn they get. But we do need to keep an open door here, and classic technique is unquestionably essential.

There are many ways to legitimately expand the classical vocabulary.  (NYCB's Diamond Project is a case in point.)  There are differences in national styles and tastes (truth be told, I have never understood the parallel that Nureyev saw between Henry James and Charles Ives), but we can all benefit from exploring the differences, the simililarities, the drama, and the humor of this situation, and from exchanging our views.

[Farrell Fan]

In today's New York Times, there's an interesting article by Anthony Tommasini on Luciano Pavarotti, whose great career is coming to a somewhat ignominious end. Pavarotti withdrew from a scheduled performance of Tosca on Wednesday night. a fact posted on bulletin boards in the lobby of the Metropolitan Opera House.

"But when Joseph Volpe, the Met's general manager, went onstage before the performance to make it official, the pent-up anger spilled out and he was greeted by vociferous boos. Looking just like a modern-day operatic villain in his stylish suit and trim goatee, he said, 'Boo some more, if it makes you feel better.'"

[Moonchilde]

I have never really booed anyone during ballet. In fact, I am a very quiet and hmmm... timid person. If I really think a ballet is aweful or worse boring (i rather sleep at home), I choose not to applaud.

One memory I have of someone booing at someone I know was during my early days at the opera for youth (actually, its operette, a bit of a mix between a musical and a play with lots of dance). One of our lead singers, who had a really gifted voice, got sick during performing and she could not make most of the high notes. The poor girl was booed of stage and it really devastated her. We had to look for an alternative singer because she was in no shape to perform the 4 days we had left.

I guess that has really affected how I react to either performers or producers. Perhaps I am just a wee bit too sensitive

Peace,
Farieda

[atm711]

I don't think I have ever booed a ballet performance--in fac t, I saw the 'Pied Piper' last year at ABT and did not Boo---I never realized I had that much restraint.

[Morris Neighbor]

I, too, cannot recall actively booing a professional dance or theatre performance, though I do engage in selective applause and cheering, to give credit to artists who gave exceptional performances. While every performer deserves polite applause for a professional effort, those who go further deserve special recognition. On the other hand, there's what a friend calls "The Hamburger Test": would you rather see the next act or get a hamburger?  Every few years, I do walk out, discreetly, at intermission.

When it comes to slips and falls -- well, they can happen to anyone.  Every great dancer is pushing the laws of physics and biology to the limit, and I've seen many of them hit the deck. (Peter Martins once described the act of partnering Suzanne Farrell as "utterly terrifying," since he had no idea what she might try, though he could almost always rescue her, with gallant grace.)

Maybe it's just a New York phenomenon, but when a dancer falls here, there is always a gasp from the public.  If she returns (as is usually the case; a dancer smart enough to just collapse on her tusch will do much less harm to herself than one who tries to fight gravity), she will get a round of applause, and extra applause at the curtain call. I guess we value resilience, this year more than ever.

[Morris Neighbor]

I, too, cannot recall actively booing a professional dance or theatre performance, though I do engage in selective applause and cheering, to give credit to artists who gave exceptional performances. While every performer deserves polite applause for a professional effort, those who go further deserve special recognition. On the other hand, there's what a friend calls "The Hamburger Test": would you rather see the next act or get a hamburger?  Every few years, I do walk out, discreetly, at intermission.

When it comes to slips and falls -- well, they can happen to anyone.  Every great dancer is pushing the laws of physics and biology to the limit, and I've seen many of them hit the deck. (Peter Martins once described the act of partnering Suzanne Farrell as "utterly terrifying," since he had no idea what she might try, though he could almost always rescue her, with gallant grace.)

Maybe it's just a New York phenomenon, but when a dancer falls here, there is always a gasp from the public.  If she returns (as is usually the case; a dancer smart enough to just collapse on her tusch will do much less harm to herself than one who tries to fight gravity), she will get a round of applause, and extra applause at the curtain call. I guess we value resilience, this year more than ever.

[Paul Parish]

I once yelled "demasiado" at a dancer who was battering an (already dead) chicken onstage at tTheater Artaud here... He''s a famous surrealist from mexico, and , I don't know whether he understood me or I understood him, I actually felt like he was ASKING for the audience to tell him to stop, so I did, and he DID stop.....

I dont know how I kept myself from booing Preljocaj's ROmeo and Juliet, which was set in a concentration camp and was patrolled by a Doberman Pjinscher (a very beautiful DOberman) on a leash on a guard-tower sort of catwalk; the whole production was dazzling and horrifying and fantastically well danced..... all my female friends thought it was great, and was all about the war in Bosnia, and I felt like I'd been beaten up.......

with respect to falling, Elizabeth Loscavio, whom I adored, used to fall all the time, and bounce right back up, and never stop dancing...... she fell once outdoors, in the rain, doing fouettes in BAllo della Reginaand was right back up and turning some more, never lost her phrasing-- I LOVE that kind of dancing......

the thing was, it didn't faze her, she wasn't embarrassed, or shocked, or self-conscious about it; she was aljmost like a cartoon character, you know how tom and jerry pancake against the wall, and are right back at it after a beat passes... it really only bothers ME if it bothers them....

[LaFilleMalGardee]

Ed Waffle wrote: So did I. Pet murder to express displeasure is going way  to far.

I agree!!!
I also do not boo at ballets if I don't like them, I just do not clap.

[stan]

At the Closing Night Gala last Saturday, there were no boos directed at Volpe, presumably because the audience was well-prepared for the cancellation and the Met had gone out of its way to Concorde in the up-and-coming Salvatore Licitra from Milan.  Of Licitra, they tell the story that he was booed at La Scala after the "Di quella pirra" in Trovatore which traditionally ends with some ringing high Cs.  Licitra didn't do the high Cs because they're an interpolation and Muti, the conductor, believes in following the original score.  Muti's predilections in this regard are well known so in theory the audience should have booed him rather than Licitra but I guess the Italians didn't see it that way.