California

Question: Are people discussing a version by the Russian Makarova or English woman Markova?

The online purchasing system for tickets was available at 8:30 am EDT, not 9:00. Perhaps it was available even earlier. I had logged into my account just to be ready to pounce for favorite seats and was surprised that I was able to start selecting seats and purchase tickets right away. I've gotten the correct e-mail receipts, etc., so everything seems to be working. Predictably high-demand performances didn't have the greatest selections, but still pretty reasonable choices. Unlike previous years, the system seems to be able to handle this high demand day.

For the last few years, they have done a big production in the fall/October (Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Midsummer Nights' Dream-Wheeldon) - 8 performances. These are well-attended and very well done. Their Nutcracker runs all of December (about 26 performances) and has done very well, at least in recent years. The winter program in February is the opportunity for a mixed bill they call Ballet Masterworks. In 2015 last month, they did 8 performances of Concerto Barocco, In Pieces (Caniparoli/Ruders), and Fancy Free. But they closed off the top two tiers of the Opera House and it still seemed to be a tough sell. I told friends that even NYCB closes off top tiers for some of their mixed bills, so this wasn't surprising. I thought it was spectacular and went to every performance, by far the best of the year for serious ballet lovers. In 2013 their Masterworks program in February was also quite wonderful: Theme and Variations, In Pieces (the premiere - Caniparoli made the work on them), and Tetley's Sacre du Printemps. But it seemed to be another tough sell, at least judging from the audience sizes. Alternating in the winter is full-length work that seems to sell better. 2016: Alice (in Wonderland). 2014: Cinderella (Stevenson). 2012: Peter Pan (Michael Pink). 2011: Romeo & Juliet. I enjoyed these (especially the R&J), but the mixed bills in 2013 and 2015 were just wonderful; it's sad that ballet audiences don't seem to grasp how much great choreography and performance they'll see. And it seems to me that the dancers love those mixed bills. I like seeing some of the best soloists and corps members getting opportunities to shine in the Masterworks programs. But if NYCB and ABT have trouble selling mixed bills in New York City, it's no surprise that Denver has the same issue. The Ellie Caulkins Opera House seats 2,225: http://artscomplex.com/Venues/EllieCaulkinsOperaHouse/tabid/74/Default.aspx The Kennedy Center Opera House seats 2,350. The State Theater in NYC: 2,586

There are also a couple of YouTube clips of Gomes with Ferri: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fTbFsZ6mm4&list=RDdz30Pdn-_Jg

Gomes made that comment in an interview for the documentary Anatomy of a Dancer. The final version has not been released. Perhaps others saw that rough-cut and could confirm that I was not hallucinating. And it's possible he could change his mind. But I don't see him on the cast list for 2015.

I can't find this on the Kennedy Center site. Do you have a link? (I'm a little annoyed -- I'm a Friend of the Kennedy Center -- albeit at a pretty low level -- and we haven't gotten an e-mail about this yet.) Here it is: http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/newseason/

I can't find this on the Kennedy Center site. Do you have a link? (I'm a little annoyed -- I'm a Friend of the Kennedy Center -- albeit at a pretty low level -- and we haven't gotten an e-mail about this yet.)

Gomes said last year in an interview that he could no longer do Bayadere. I'm afraid he'll be "retiring" many other roles in the next few years.

Many of you probably got the same e-mail last night: "last chance to subscribe..." At the end of the message: Over on the Met/ABT site, it says that prices might go up on March 29, depending on demand. I guess they'll see what's popular during that first week of single ticket sales.

I assume you know about John Butler's version, staged for the Pennsylvania Ballet in 1966? I saw this once in the early 70s in Philadelphia, but confess to almost no memory of it at this point in time. I do remember thinking: what will they think of next in terms of music for the ballet? http://www.paballet.org/tags/2013-2014-carmina-burana

The English National Ballet announced its 2015-16 season earlier today: http://blog.ballet.org.uk/201516-season-announcement/ They are bringing back the wonderful "Lest We Forget" commemoration of World War I, which I saw at the Barbican last spring and recommend highly. They are also planning an evening of choreography by women, which sounds intriguing.

I vaguely remember watching the Martins R&J on PBS many years ago and thinking it would not be worth the trip to see it in the theater. Reading the numerous reviews here makes me conclude that was the right decision, then and now! But I'm curious: what does the house look like? Are the top two tiers closed off, as I understand they are for most of the rep? If it sells, that might be the main (only?) reason to keep performing the thing.

In fall 2009, Colorado Ballet did Rodeo as part of a four-city tour within Colorado. It's a great piece for cities that are not known for their love of ballet, and people have probably heard of Copland, even if they haven't of de Mille.

Rodeo was made in 1942, decades before "choreographic works" was added as an eligible category for copyright in the Copyright Law of 1976. She famously testified before Congress on the importance of adding that category. It's possible that pre-1976 she copyrighted some of her work under the category "dramatico-musical" work, which I understand Balanchine to have used. And, of course, the Copland score was copyrightable. It's interesting that on the DeMille web site, there is no mention of the copyright status of Rodeo. Does anybody know? http://www.agnesdemilledances.com/rodeo.html

The new season has just been announced: http://national.ballet.ca/Tickets/Upcoming Here's the press release: http://national.ballet.ca/Media-Room/News/Karen-Kain-Announces-2015-16-Season?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2015/16SeasonAnnounced&utm_content=version_A&sourceNumber=16584 And a video of Karen Kain's announcement: http://national.ballet.ca/Tickets/Season-Announcement?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2015/16SeasonAnnounced&utm_content=version_A&sourceNumber=16584

For those of you who contributed support to the making of the film and were wondering where your promised DVD is, this message just arrived. Sounds like it will be awhile!

POB used Serenade for the season "tickler" that's linked on another thread here. Seems to be an all-purpose theme that people associate with ballet - but not as clichéd as Swan Lake or Nutcracker, which I regularly hear in commercials. Even for musical scores that are in the public domain, there are separate copyrights on sound recordings now, which limits their use. The U.S. copyright law prohibits copyright of any work by a Federal government employee (in their capacity as an employee). I've sometimes thought that all those military bands and orchestras (with a budget larger than the entire NEA) would do a real public service by recording classical music, free of any copyright on the sound recording, that the public could use royalty-free.

I have Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins by Greg Lawrence (Gelsey Kirkland's first husband): http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Demons-Life-Jerome-Robbins-ebook/dp/B000OCXGI2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1423436855&sr=1-1&keywords=dancing+with+demons+jerome+robbins I believe it was criticized at the time for sourcing, but it does go into the controversies early in his adult life, when he "named names" before Joe McCarthy's HUAC committee, destroying many careers. McCarthy reportedly threatened to "out" him as a closet homosexual, which would have ruined his career in the early 1950s. The episode apparently haunted him for the rest of his life.

Baryshnikov also said T&V was the hardest ballet he'd ever danced and that he felt his "legs would fall off" when he was done.

Interesting tidbit...thank you! It must have been fun for him to see his old company performing the kind of work they never would have done in the 1970s when he defected. (I'm thinking of the Millepied. Were they doing any Robbins back then?) I remember him saying in an interview a few years ago, when asked if he was going to see a certain production of Swan Lake, that life is too short to sit through any more Swan Lakes. (It would take a lot of googling to find that quote back -- please trust me on this one.)

But both Dancers and (to a lesser extent) Nijinsky give us footage of performances we otherwise don't have. Dancers has considerable footage of Baryshnikov and Ferri in Act II of Giselle and Nijinsky has some of the reconstructed Sacre and Faun. Given the paucity of recordings of legendary dancers, this alone makes them worthwhile.

Ah, but Ric Burns is showing his film on PBS - nationwide. When is the last time NYCB toured anywhere (other than DC) in the US? I can't even remember. ABT still has a limited touring schedule to Chicago and southern California, along with DC. And, as Congress once said, ABT is our "national" ballet company.

Have people noticed that tickets are already on sale? http://www.davidhkochtheater.com/moreinfoRB.html Unfortunately, you can't use seat selection on-line. I wonder if that's available if you go to the ticket office. Pricing is a puzzle. For the opening night gala, it looks like the prime seats in orchestra and first tier aren't listed. Perhaps those will be sold at super-premium prices later. The remaining seats actually look a little cheaper than the rest of the week. Odd. Another puzzle: in the several notices about their visit in the last couple of days, there hasn't been any mention of the Lincoln Center Festival. I wonder if it's possible the Festival is bringing another company in July. I have googled "Lincoln Center Festival" every which way and haven't been able to turn up any hints.

Royal Ballet just sent out a Tweet with a link to a new story on its web site.Quite a bit more information about the NYC programming: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/the-royal-ballet-to-tour-the-usa-in-june-201 E.g., The Dream and Song of the Earth. And now a notice in the NY Times: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/royal-ballet-adds-lincoln-center-to-its-american-tour/?_r=0

Covent Garden just sent out its January e-newsletter, which includes this information about the NYC engagement: I don't know if this is part of the Lincoln Center Festival. The Festival plans to announce its summer programming on Friday, January 23 and priority tickets for Friends will go on sale that day. Let's hope they got the bugs out of their ticketing system, after last year's fiasco with the Bolshoi!