Josette

The last time I saw Kondaurova was in fall of 2019 in La Bayadere and Diamonds. She was breathtaking.

I would love to see Scarlett's Hummingbird again. I remember how beautiful Lorena Feijo and Victor Luiz were in the pas de deux, and later saw YY Tan dance it. The ballet was removed by SFB from the announced season's repertoire when the Scarlett controversy surfaced. I knew that the Joffrey danced it in February. Ashley Wheater has been steadfast where the Scarlett ballets are concerned.

I was there. She was superb and had the most successful characterization in making the two roles different that I have seen.

The director's husband is featured disproportionately in photographs by SFB online (there's a new one from Mere Mortals that I could not believe had been chosen) and on Facebook, and, if you add the director's brother-in-law, it's even more disproportionate in comparison with the other male principals. And I. Hernandez is dancing Swan Lake with Osipova. Houston Ballet is performing The Sleeping Beauty, Raymonda, and Theme and Variations next season - all perfect for Angelo Greco. He will be missed in SF and has a devoted following there. I especially loved him in Rhoden's Let's Begin at the End and Robbins's Other Dances, both of which he was paired with Frances Chung.

I think that Manon would have been a better encore program than Frankenstein. Audiences love it and word-of-mouth would work in its favor. However, there are ten Manon performances already scheduled in January/February.

I love this! Thanks so much for posting it.

Both Aaron Robison and Joseph Walsh have danced Des Grieux in Manon with Houston Ballet. Lescaut, Manon's brother, is another plumb role.

Madrid may need a dose of Swan Lake. I know that Los Angeles certainly does, as the last time we had Swan Lake at the Los Angeles Music Center or Segerstrom Center of the Arts was around 2012. I was advised by an excellent source that we would have Swan Lake in 2025, but that season has not yet been announced officially, so we wait a bit longer for confirmation ....

Thank you for providing the links to the new soloists moving from ENB to SFB. They have both performed principal roles and Victor Prigent was a trainee with SFB in 2015/2016.

Aaron Robison also danced with Houston Ballet.

Especially interesting in light of the huge donation announced, with quite the majority chunk to be for new works. Maybe this will come to fruition in 2025-2026.

I agree as well about wishing there were a program with something lighter for the audience and the dancers.

Akram Khan. And I did like his Giselle very, very much, which I saw twice danced by ENB.

I am intrigued by who will be cast as Monsieur GM and the Gaoler in Manon, having seen The Royal Ballet’s great dance-actor Gary Avis in these roles in February in London. Manon will be a good ballet for audiences and the dancers. Within the Golden Hour is my favorite Wheeldon work. sf herminator, have you seen Creature? I saw ENB dance it in Chicago two years ago and disliked it intensely with its horrid treatment of the female protagonist devised by its choreographer- as bas an experience I have ever sat through in dance or opera. It would not go over well in SF. I had a ticket for a second show and gladly did not attend a second time. Glad to hear that Max and Dores are returning.

Gillian Murphy was a great improvement over Teuscher. Hee Seo was also very moving and had a beautiful expressive range throughout. Loved Shevchenko and Forster’s intensity in the Orlando section. I have never been a Boylston fan, but her exit in The Waves after Woolf kisses her forehead (Boylston as Woolf’s sister) moved me to tears.

I am attending the Friday Osipova and the Saturday performances. I just saw ABT’s premiere of Woolf Works and Camargo was the expressive standout, unsurprisingly so as he was a principal with the Stuttgart, so I look forward to seeing him in Swan Lake in three weeks.

The cast list shown on the link for the Woolf Works general rehearsal cast shows the cast for The Royal Ballet's general rehearsal last season and not for ABT's general rehearsal occurring in two days on Wednesday. I attended The Royal Ballet's general rehearsal and it was wonderful.

I saw both casts on Saturday. I was unimpressed with Carmen, and thought that Jimison was one-dimensional in the role and her pretty lines did not overcome her one-note, angry face exhibited throughout the work. There was no development or understanding of the role. Sasha De Sola fared better; she started off with the same angry face but managed to interact more successfully with her colleagues, and the work actually made some sense, I guess. Joe Walsh stole the show, he was a real person, and danced and acted brilliantly. What bothers me about this work is all the hype and interviews about it being based on the Merimee novella or using the novella as a point of departure, and in no way, shape or form did it. The Merimee novella and the opera have fate as a theme, and Carmen is very much in control of her fate and makes her own decisions. She expects Don Jose to kill her. I did not expect the ballet I saw yesterday to mirror that theme or have gypsy references, but this ballet lapsed into a plot about an angry, married woman who lost her mother, and hired a female chef for the family restaurant/diner, which was pitifully run-down, and became infatuated with the chef, leading to an affair. "Carmen's" husband finds the two women together, brandishes a knife at but does not kill his wife, and the chef decides to abandon the job and "Carmen," leaving "Carmen" looking unsure about her life/identify, and then there's a sort-of apotheosis at the end where other women come on stage, hold hands, and look out at the audience. The dancers did their best with what they were given. Jimison had the same problem in the ballet on Salome last season on not developing a characterization. Pretty arabesques do not a characterization make. However, Broken Wings, was utterly brilliant, and Isabella De Vivo a revelation. Her opening scene as the young Frida took my breath away (I've seen the Dutch National Ballet dance the two-act version), and her dancing and acting were extraordinary as the ballet progressed. She was living the role and gave a seamless performance. Nikisha Fogo was also excellent in the matinee but she did not make the same impact and lacked the vulnerability that De Vivo had in the role. But both dancers are worth seeing. John Paul Simoens and Nathaniel Remez were each excellent as Diego Rivera. I love this ballet and could see it again and again.

The email also said that the company will be performing this fall in Madrid: "SF Ballet will tour to Madrid this October with eight performances of Helgi Tomasson's Swan Lake at the historic Teatro Real, one of the most prestigious opera houses in Europe. This is SF Ballet’s first international tour since 2019, and its first visit to Madrid."

This morning, after the announcement, I got a fairly good ticket for Osipova's Friday night performance in row K. I do like Daniel Camargo very, very much but wish they would announce which San Francisco principal dancer will dance Odette-Odile. The guests are dancing in three out of seven performances of Swan Lake. I hope that lovely Misa Kuranaga will dance at least two of the non-guest performances, maybe with Angelo Greco, if he is fully recovered.

Yes, I am aware of that. POB does not dance Swan Lake every season.

Swan Lake is being performed June 21-July 14, 2024. The casting is posted online, subject to change.

The beautiful Bleuenn Battistoni was promoted to Étoile on March 26, 2024, after dancing Lise in La Fille mal gardee with Marcelino Sambe (superb Principal with The Royal Ballet) as a guest Colas. (Sorry about the missing accents.) https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=962940948529386&set=a.811478167008999

He is obviously playing Peter Quince, though not listed as a character for the ballet, and dear Mr. Bustamente is wonderful in the role. I saw the performance on March 22 and found it in every way delightful and was thrilled to see the company dancing with joy and brilliance across the board. I am attending the two performances today, March 23, as well.

He loves to be on stage?