zerbinetta

You might consider listing this in the "Announcements" section.

It's the second topic on the Home Page.

This is the version making much use of chairs & the bull gets to dance, yes?

I saw it at the Met years ago. Whether it was Ballet Nacional de Cuba or one of Alonso's guest appearances with ABT, I don't remember but I do remember Martine van Hamel as The Bull.

It was somewhat more interesting than the Petit version & at least Jose & Escamillo were 2 distinct characters as opposed to Petit's having a single male dancer doing a solo as Escamillo & then morphing into Jose for the pas de deux.

As this link doesn't connect me to the Michener article & a search didn't find the article, I can only take the quote out of context as presented. It seems

that Mr Michener's question & Mr Jonas' reply deal with the "producing" of opera, the how of it & not the what; otherwise Mr Jonas' reply doesn't make much sense as American opera companies (Chicago, Houston, San Franciso, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Opera Company of St Louis to name a few; the Met being lax in this department) are regularly producing new works by American composers.

In defense of the Met, however, I would point out that approximately 20% of the 2004-05 repertoire consists of performances of operas such as Kat'a Kabanova, Pelleas et Melisande (hardly knee slappers these), Cyrano de Bergerac, Rodelinda, & the seldom performed Vespri Siciliani & Clemenza di Tito. The Met knows these likely will not sell out but feels a responsibility to keep them in the repertoire.

If Mr. Jonas is referring to a certain reluctance on the part of American opera companies to stage an "unusual" production of any given opera, he is quite correct but, given the fact that funding for the arts in the US (as opposed to Europe, for now anyway) is primarily beholden to private & corporate donors, rather than government subsidy, this should not be surprising. There is a smaller window of failure & the economic reality of needing a production that will age gracefully over many seasons.

While the funding situation for ballet remains the same, it is otherwise rather different as a far greater proportion of new ballets than new operas are produced on a regular basis. Most ballets are also a great deal less expensive to produce both from the physical aspect (sets, costumes, stage furnishings, props) & the personnel aspect (# of principal singers needed at high fees, conductors likewise, size of orchestra, size of chorus, length of rehearsal period, etc.)

Now, as to the question of our national tendency to feel inferior in some way to Europe when it comes to the arts .. well, that's something we need to get over. Just remember where Mr B chose to work.

Armin Mueller-Stahl. Yes, I know he's ... erm ... not young but those eyes, those lips, mercy me! Turns me into a puddle.

Runners up: Henry Simmons & Goran Visnic. Younger, gorgeous, but less charismatic, less powerful, less ... (fill it in)

Oh never fear, hockeyfan. They still do that, too!

I did some online research on various ticket pricing & think this may deserve its own topic (epecially as we/I've wandered far afield from your original questions & all the helpful answers) but where to put it? As it involves opera & sports as well as ballet, it doesn't really belong in Anything Goes.

Any suggestions?

My ticket for Carmen on October 30 was exactly $250 including tax & s/h. It's an old production (the Zefirelli) but because the opera was Carmen &, perhaps, because the conductor was Domingo, the prices were such. It wasn't even a center-orch seat but in the right-orch block. Excellent show. My husband & I aren't complaining...but it was incredibly pricey for an older production.

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I just looked up the Oct 30 performance in the Met brochure & the top ticket price was $215. As tax is included, this must mean you paid $35 per ticket shipping & handling. That is, indeed, outrageous. Were they ordered from the Met? Could they have been left at the box office for that evening's pick-up for less, do you know?

As far as "prime", the side sections, first 6 or 8 seats off the aisle are considered still prime. Personally, I prefer them to the center of a row in the middle section as there are generally fewer heads in front.

As far as charging more for an individual artist, no company can do this as it would mean a statistical nightmare should that artist cancel.

If they don't charge more for a great conductor like Levine, de Billy, Thielemann, they certainly can't charge more for Placido. Great singer & musician though he is, he has yet to become a great conductor.

In the March issue of Santa Fean magazine is an advertisement for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet's April 1 & 2 performances at the Lensic Theater (SFe). First mentioned ballet is "a world premiere" of "Flight of Angels" by Edwaard Liang. No composer is named.

Also in the same issue is a salute to Catherine Oppenheimer (NYCB alumna), artistic director of National Dance Institute - New Mexico. Jacques d'Amboise, founder of the Institute, is a part-time resident of Santa Fe & established this branch of the Institute in 1990 & it was incorporated in 1995 with Oppenheimer as director. "This year the program will reach 5,000 students in 72 schools throughout the state".

The article honors 5 Santa Feans "who give back".

Brava Cathy!

This is a curious situation for Americans because, in our country, the reverse is true (opera costs much more than ballet...$250/ticket for a standard orchestra seat at the Met, for opera).

A bit off topic but worth mentioning, I think, lest someone might be discouraged by this from attending the MET opera. Here are the actual MET prices:

Location M-Th Fri SatM&E

Prime Orch: 170 200 215

Orch Bal 110 135 145

Orch Rear 95 100 115

New productions are higher priced for the first season.

[quote name=sandik' date='Feb 21 2005... the example he used was a description of Donald Rumsfeld "circumventing the globe."

[/quote]

Rummy circumventing?

Naaaaaah .. :rolleyes:

Thanks, Natalia. I do follow the opera world here & have heard Maestro G in NY (both at the Met & the Philharmonic) & in San Francisco (a truly bizarre Herodiade), but what I was really curious about was his reputation in St. P.

The problems with his ballet conducting hold true for his opera conducting: erratic tempi; varying tempi radically from performance to performance. He can go into slow mo as well as speed demon mode.

Natalia, what is Gergiev's reputation as a conductor in St P? When he first came here (NY) with the Kirov Opera, he was a sensation & was quickly hired as resident guest conductor at the Met Opera.

After hearing him conduct less than stellar performances in the Italian, French & German repertoire, however, many of us have become disenchanted.

His conduct at last year's Parsifal dress rehearsal didn't help: he showed up 15 minutes late & missed the Prologue entirely & took the baton from his stand-in as the curtain rose.

It has been noticed in the press that he is habitually late (both arriving in town & at rehearsals & performances) & has little enthusiasm to rehearse.

Now the question is: is he just a great conductor of the Russian repertoire or is it just that the Russian works have heretofore been less familiar to us?

Sadly I must agree that Ansanelli was out of sorts on Monday night but it was apparent that she was favoring her left side. The left foot had no turnout & forget about developee a la seconde. I would not judge her ability to dance classical works on this one outing. Remember her wonderful Coppelia?

Perhaps she felt she couldn't cancel because it would have left Corella in the lurch. (Although I do wish he'd come up with another party piece besides Corsaire.)

I would have thought Abbognato & Carbone were the least known of the dancers. Lacarra & Pierre have done this gala every year for ten years & very rarely do anything classical. The works they prefer relate more to gymnastics & plastique than classical pieces.

I adored Vishneva in the Rubies when the Kirov last came with Jewels & didn't think Monday worked as well but I blamed it on the dreadful recording. It was poorly conducted & washed clean of "Stravinskyisms" & full of blatting brass. It reminded me of a performance of Apollo conducted by Karajan with the Vienna some years ago. It sounded gorgeous but was only that, beautiful with no soul; didn't sound like Apollo at all. Except the Rubies recording wasn't beautiful.

Two nights ago I dreamed about ducks in a pond.

Does that count?

Random thoughts on the gala:

1) Might it be possible to declare a moratorium on all Roland Petit ballets in the Greater NY area for a period of not less than 5 years?

2) I never thought a manege of barrel turns would bring me to the point of tears. Herman Cornejo managed to do this last night.

3) Could we gently kidnap Alina Cojocaru & keep her in NY forever? or until she really really wanted to leave? at which point, who could say no to this girl?

Fritz Scholder. great artist, died Thursday at his home in Scottsdale AZ. He was 67.

Generally considered the Father of the contemporary American Indian art movement, among his students were T.C. Cannon, Dan Namingha & Doug Hyde.

Painter, Poet, Teacher. An ascerbic & funny man. He did love to party.

Antony Tudor choreographed "Dark Elegies" in the late 1930s, I believe. He used Gustav Mahler's 5-song cycle, "Kindertotenlieder" which translates to "songs on the deaths of children".

Mahler used 5 of the many poems on the subject written by Ruckert, who had lost his son, Ernst. Mahler, who had recently had a serious health situation, had lost many siblings in his youth, including his favorite brother, also named Ernst.

The ballet concerns a group of parents mourning their children & ends in the sad resolution "they rest, they rest, as in their mother's home, as in their mother's home". The repeats are Mahler's not Ruckert's.

Hope this helps.

Oh, so sad.

An elegant & musical dancer & a funny & charming man.

Alessandra Ferri was never known for her techical prowess. Her beauty lies, rather, in her musicality & poetry & the warmth of her onstage presence. She is truly a dancer who gives her heart to her audience in each performance.

Because of her technical shortcomings it took me a while to "get" her, but, once I did, she became a favorite.

Her feet are indeed beautiful but tend to be weak. But oh such beautiful feet, so articulate & expressive.

In watching the twilight of a career of a remarkable performer, it seems to me we need to focus on what is still there, or even newly there, rather than that which is missing. So often a dancer or singer whose technique may be somewhat compromised can bring expression they would have been incapable of at a younger or stronger period in their onstage lives.

At 41, Ferri is still giving us poetry.

Now, Washingtonians, any Misty Copeland appearances to remark upon?

Ms. Dee & Mr. Davis were married for 56 years. To an outsider it seemed a union of soul mates.

Sustaining a marriage takes patience, wit, courage, sensitivity & creativity. (Love being a given.)

To sustain it for 56 years is a work of art.

While very much in favor of music conducted/played/sung "come scritto", I do feel there needs to be a bit of leeway when it comes to dance, especially when choreographed to an existing work. Quinn's T&V Wednesday night robbed the section of its romance & robbed the magisterial Sylve of the ability to completely finish one phrase before beginning the next.

It always seems as though Quinn has a fast approaching dinner reservation in mind.

Yanowsky is a knockout Swan. I saw her do it in Boston .. mm .. 3 years ago, maybe. Very strong, clear, supple, musical

We look forward to your post.

Thank you!  I had already planned to go, and now I will do so with even more excitement.

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Treefrog: please let us have a report after you go.

Carbro: was the last piece the one with Sally Rousse (Mrs. Sewell) on film, 8-3/4 months pregnant, playing Sylph to the onstage cast? I LOVED that piece; thought it was hilarious & weirdly sweet.

Has anyone here seen this company?  Know anything about it?

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Yes, Treefrog, I have seen the company & urge you to go at least once, if there is more than one performance.

I have been privileged to see James Sewell's choreography from the very first piece he did, perhaps 20 years ago. It was a pas de deux based on the Abelard & Heloise story. He danced it with Zippora Karz at SAB while they were still students there. Lincoln Kirstein was very supportive of James' work.

James is perhaps the most all-around talented young choreographer working today. He can do sad, happy, serious, comical, thought-provoking & just plain delightful. The company is strong & disciplined & totally in tune with James' creativity & rare musical gifts.

HIGHLY recommended!!!

by then, I should be able to say hello/goodbye/please/thank you/I'm sorry I was such a clod and stepped on your foot.

"Where is the bathroom" can also come in handy.

I'm concerned about that poinsettia in the kitchen. It's a poisonous plant. May we suggest they move it to another room?