Josette

The casting has not been posted yet for The Nutcracker and will likely be posted in December.

I have tickets for four performances on December 28 and 29. Last season, SFB posted the casting for the principals for the entire run of performances at the outset.

They are also guesting with Pacific Festival Ballet in Thousand Oaks, California, on December 16 and 17.

I watched SFB's World Ballet Day and was intrigued by how many of the principal women were learning the role of Marguerite in Marguerite and Armand. It was fairly obvious from the start that the leading roles would be performed by Yuan Yuan Tan and Aaron Robison, and the SFB Facebook page has also posted beautiful photographs identifying Misa Kuranaga and Joseph Walsh, and Katherine Barkman and Isaac Hernandez in the roles, but I saw two other principal women marking the role on the side during the World Ballet Day rehearsal with YY Tan and Aaron Robison. FB posts by SFB and World Ballet Day rehearsals have indicated possible principal casting for The Song of the Earth, Frida, and Carmen.

MacMillan?

I agree.

Yes, I know that Mlle Cozette did not dance Sean Lake again (and other matters that are too speculative for discussion). I wish Mlle Cozette great happiness and fulfillment in all she does.

Myriam Ould-Braham - I saw her when she was in the corps de ballet in Diamonds and couldn't take my eyes of her! She was and is exquisite. I am hoping to get a ticket to her last Giselle on May 18, 2024, as I will be on vacation. I also saw Ganio in the Diamonds corps, obviously thrown in and being talked through it and having a good time! About two years later, he was promoted to Etoile. Back to Cozette, yes, she seemed to disappear from classical ballet during a Swan Lake run of performances, probably 2015-ish, when Millepied took over. I have a friend who attended the General Rehearsal, which Cozette danced.

Yes, everything he did had meaning. As it should be.

Go to a bit past 17 minutes for Apollo.

I am thrilled to see that very short clip of Villella. I saw Villella as Albrecht when he danced in with a company at Royce Hall, UCLA, and have never forgotten it.

I saw her perform La Cigarette in Suite en Blanc twice in Chicago during the POB U.S. tour in 2012. She likely danced Myrtha after Marie-Agnes Gillot's Myrtha (with Ciaravola and Ganio on opening night) in a subsequent Giselle during that fabulous week. I ran into her in Chicago and spoke to her for a few minutes about their tour; she was with Amandine Albisson and introduced us. Mlle Cozette was utterly charming.

I read the three novels before seeing Woolf Works last spring in London, but I had already fallen in love with the ballet when I saw it in a cinema several years ago, to the extent that I vowed to go see it multiple times when The Royal Ballet performed it. I saw Woolf Works on a Tuesday evening at the cinema and a few days letter I was at the premiere of Ratmansky's Whipped Cream, which I found unbearable because of where Woolf Works had put me. As much as I loved the film Orlando, the novel was more meaningful, and beautifully written, delightfully witty, and had much more to it than the film. I found having read Mrs. Dalloway did enhance my recognition of what was going on stage, but did not enhance my appreciation of the the dancers and this incredibly human, episodic work. I would not call any of these works difficult reading. Pagapena is right in advising to read the works if you want to read them for themselves. The last act, pertaining to The Waves, will be more meaningful if you know about Woolf's suffering from depression and her relationship with her sister. I saw Ferri, Osipova, and Nunez, and they were each extraordinary and unique, as they each always are.

I attended about 16 performances of the San Francisco Ballet last season and the attendance was high or sold out.

I wonder if Woolf Works will have Gillian Murphy as the lead. Didn’t she dance Fall River Legend with great success?

I saw all three casts in London last spring. I had seen it in a Ballet in Cinema showing several years ago and vowed that I would go to London to see it multiple times the next time it was on. It is incredible. There is a DVD of it for anyone who it is interested. I saw Alessandra Ferri, Natalia Osipova, and Marianela Nunez in the lead role. All were superb and unique. I do hope that Ferri will dance the role that she created. I cannot imagine anyone at ABT who could touch her in the role and only a handful of dancers who could do the other roles on a par with The Royal Ballet. It is a brilliant work. So this will be replacing the Ballet Imperial program originally announced. A much better choice.

What a lovely article to read. I’m so happy for her. Thank you, Terez, for finding and posting the link.

How were the Juliets for the two Wednesday performances?

I will be in the front row with three friends to see Shevchenko as Giselle on Thursday.

Bell performed Juan in one of the OC performances.

Yes, she said in an interview that the ballet was new for her. She had quite a recovery period after her injury, so it is all the more impressive.

Dudamel brought about 12 POB dancers for two performances at the Hollywood Bowl last summer and he conducted. It was a wonderful show, probably for the first time that many, many of the audience had seen ballet, or ballet at a such a high level. I live in L.A. and regularly have watched/heard Dudamel conduct at Disney Hall. I recall a performance where he conducted Apollo, which was performed by Roberto Bolle with Stella Abrera as Polyhymnia. Dudamel had been slated to conduct the first three performances of The Dante Project at the Palais Garnier when POB premiered it this May, with composer Ades to follow, but about six to eight weeks before the performances, the POB website showed that Ades would conduct the ballet for the first two performances, and Dudamel was not conducting. (I was there for the first four performances.) I do not keep an eye on Dudamel's schedule and am not going to research it or speculate, but the baton change is interesting to note. The Dante Project score was a commission or partial commission by the L.A. Philharmonic, which regularly performs Ades's works. Dudamel had conducted The Dante Project, music only, three times at the LA Music Center in April of 2022 (I attended twice, it was brilliant and appreciated by a diverse audience, Ades was in the audience and seemed quite happy, and I had the opportunity to speak with him). It has been recorded, with Dudamel conducting L.A. Phil. Off topic: The Dante Project as a ballet is a co-production by The Royal Ballet and POB. I saw both companies dance it multiple times and will see it again in London in December of 2023. It will be performed by The Royal Danish Ballet in November of 2023.

Guerin, an absolutely gorgeous etoile, coached Teuscher for Giselle.

I saw it a few years ago danced by NYCB and before that by Los Angeles Ballet, as Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, but don't have a firm memory of it aside from the corps groupings. It's always interesting to see the cast lists.

Is there any more to watch online of The Royal Ballet in Ballet Imperial?