Birdsall

It sounds like he is bringing more interesting repetoire to the company. The last two programs sound great!

From friends who were in the house the audience received her in a way usually reserved for Zakharova. Fans waited to get programs signed two hours after Bayadere ended. There was an overall sense that people were witnessing something rare.

MCB did Serenade a couple of seasons ago and will do it again next season, so don't worry, Sohalia. You'll get to see them do it.

More great news! Where did you find out she is doing SL in London? And I assume/hope Odette/Odile. I don't see any Swan Lakes listed for the rest of the Bolshoi's season, so if she does Odette/Odile in London it would be the first time she does it with the Bolshoi. Of course, she danced it at the Mariinsky but the versions are different. It will be interesting to hear how she dances in the Bolshoi production.

Yes, GREAT news! However, Madame P. posted about that earlier in this thread, but it doesn't hurt to bring it up again, so glad you did. It is a major role for her.

Here's an article that maybe explains what Lopez is doing. She seems to want the company to be a Miami company. Heatscape and also Midsummer are mentioned in relation to that concept. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/arts/dance/miami-city-ballet-feeling-that-warmth-and-attack.html?_r=1

Yes, at the Mariinsky and Bolshoi the Street Dancer and Mercedes are two different people.

Jack, I haven't been to Bayreuth because you have to buy tickets years in advance supposedly and the seats are totally uncomfortable (friends who have been told me), you get literally LOCKED into the auditorium, and the productions have gotten crazier and crazier simply trying to outdo the previous summer it seems. Not to mention they require so much rehearsal that superstars do not usually want to lock their schedule up all summer long for a handful of performances and lose tons of money in the process (the superstar singers can rake in the cash flying from place to place.....it is like asking someone to take a huge pay cut). So the singers are usually up-and-coming singers who are not the best for Wagner. Wagner needs singers who know what they are doing vocally or they wreck their voices. So from what I have heard and seen via bootleg sources, it is not worth the money to actually go to Bayreuth because you are actually getting substandard singers in crazy productions. Yet this is not a break with tradition. I said earlier that I was quite surprised to see an exhibit of Ring stagings from around the world (photos, set designs) through the years in San Francisco and it showed very clearly that the crazy productions evolved gradually over time, so it is actually part of the tradition. Verdi's Rigoletto has been staged in NYC mafia days and even Las Vegas! Anything is possible!!! LOL Actually, this type of thing is actually more common at the major houses and not so much at regional houses. The smaller companies play it safe whereas the major companies like the Met, Royal Opera, Paris Opera, etc. experiment a lot. I might not have been bothered by the Act 1 scrim in MCB's Midsummer b/c I read about it here (Miami performances) before seeing it in West Palm so I dreaded that aspect, and so since I had low expectations about seeing through the scrim I guess I was pleasantly surprised when I could see everything clearly, although it was much more clear when the scrim was gone for Act 2. I sat in the 6th or 7th row in orchestra for one performance and in a box way above for the other performance and during both the scrim did not really bother me. Cristian, I totally understand why you feel the way you do, but after seeing the production I did not view it as all of them underwater. I feel like the concept of ocean/underwater was just a motif. I think this because Coral Castle was shown in Act 2 and that is not underwater. I think the ocean/underwater concept is just a motif......sort of underwater, sort of not. But I do think it does get muddied b/c a manatee is not going to be out of the water where the humans are. So, definitely, there are flaws. But I actually felt like the humans did not see the magical beings even in this version. Helena walks by at the beginning and doesn't know Puck is there. Later when the men are fighting they have no idea who is fighting with them, etc. Puck takes the flower from one of them and replaces it without his knowledge, etc. So I think that is still there. I feel like the choreography and story are still the same. It just has an ocean motif that is pretty but doesn't always work in every aspect. Maybe things have changed in public school in the U.S. but I grew up attending public school and Shakespeare's plays were an integral part of English classes in high school. I can't imagine any American not having a passing knowledge of Midsummer Night's Dream, but I have to admit that I have no clue about today's high school students and whether they study Shakespeare or not.

You probably didn't mean this exactly toward me but in general, but since I brought up the opera issue and how operas can be wildly interpreted, I wanted to clarify. I actually find flaws in the new MCB Midsummer. I stated that above and I actually agree with Cristian on certain things he brought up that are flaws. However, overall I enjoyed MCB's Midsummer. My only reason for bringing up the opera productions is not to justify crazy stagings and encourage more of them, but to basically say that this has been going on for many years even before I was born (1967), and I am so used to crazy productions in opera that I am actually surprised that MCB's Midsummer has become so controversial. If this level of change were in an opera, nobody would complain. In fact, it would be considered a very conservative version by many opera lovers. Basically, I find the controversy much ado about nothing. Seattle Opera's Ring has a very distinct Pacific Northeast flavor (the trees especially), even though it is very traditional at the same time, and it totally works. Many flock to see Seattle's Ring, b/c it is probably the only "traditional" staging of the Ring left in the entire world since the Met retired its traditional Ring. And there is a sense that it will replaced eventually. Basically, I believe Lourdes Lopez was ATTEMPTING the same thing. The Seattle Ring is breath-taking and evokes the Seattle area with its gorgeous nature. Lopez wanted to do the same for Miami and its Midsummer. I don't really think she succeeded to the extent that the Seattle Ring has succeeded, but it was a good try. On paper I actually think it was a GREAT idea, but in delivery and reality it doesn't totally work. But it is not terrible either. It is actually quite pretty.

I forgot to mention that Ormsby Wilkins conducted the Sarasota Orchestra wonderfully! For a fairly small city, Sarasota has a lot going on artistically.......Sarasota Opera just finished its many years long Verdi Cycle (the company performed every single opera that Verdi ever composed, so I got to see rarities like Oberto, Alzira, I Masnadieri, etc.) and the Sarasota Ballet is doing all these interesting Ashton ballets due to Iain Webb taking over. I used to live in Tampa so I was not that far away, and I have watched downtown Sarasota grow through the years into a happening place. It used to look very sad and dowdy and way past its prime with odd shops no one went to. Now it is full of wonderful restaurants and shops and has a buzzing life to it. I think it was wise for the Sarasota Opera (which uses unknown and not always the best singers) to have a specialty like making news for performing all the rare Verdi operas as well as alternate versions like the french Le Trouvere which was fun to see to compare against Il Trovatore which is so famous. They also perform some rare works (unrelated to Verdi) that you never get to see. Somehow this works for them. I also think Sarasota Ballet is really a company to watch due to the Ashton rarities it keeps programming not to mention the Ashton Festival a couple of years ago. Hopefully, they will one day repeat the Ashton Festival.

I did not regret driving down to Sarasota for its Ashton and Balanchine program. The rare Ashton works help make the company exciting for me, because I am seeing a lot of Ashton I would normally never get to see. The fact that the dancers in Sarasota seem to truly love what they are doing are another aspect that makes them such a joy to watch. Ashton's choreography to Elgar's Enigma Variations is playful and beautiful.....emotional and touching at times and humorous at other times. To me it seems like a very English ballet due to costumes, setting, subtle choreography, manners, etc. However, the port de bras is almost Russian in style which makes it lovely. I have read that Ashton wanted lots of upper body and arm movement, and it appears that Iain Webb and Margaret Barbieri (husband and wife as well as Director and Assistant Director) and their team have trained Sarasota dancers (many Americans as well as some other nationalities) very well in this style. Enigma Variations is so simple, yet so profound. It is a ballet about friends and friendship, and while it comes off as just a fun little ballet, it has its deep moments that show the emotions of humans and bonds between humans is very meaningful. I loved the chance to see it for the first (and, who knows, maybe last) time. Each variation was simple yet elegant. Balanchine's Stars and Stripes was the second part of last night's program, and the Sarasota dancers roused the audience in this great choice of a second act. I can't help but wonder if this program is Iain Webb saying, "I love England and Ashton, but I am also loving my new home America and the Sarasota Ballet!" Balanchine really captures the American spirit in this ballet as kitschy as it may be. Lots of energy and athletics and positive outlook. But you never get the feeling he is satirizing America. He is paying homage to his adopted country. I think in this particular ballet Balanchine flat out exposes the connection between ballet, gymnastics, and circus/carnival elements more than any other, yet it is firmly rooted in the ballet vocabulary. I know a lot of people do not like ballet turning into gymnastics, but I personally think there will always be a circus element to ballet whether people like it or not. And Balanchine knew this. He even evokes the Rockettes in the finale (and other places). I think a lot of people want to sit back and sniff, "Bah, humbug!" to this ballet, but little by little its charms win you over and you are like, "What the heck! This is fun!!!!" The Sarasota dancers did not disappoint. I love the sweet cutesy pie look of Elizabeth Sykes in the First Campaign. I was impressed with her baton twirling while dancing, because I never could figure out how to twirl my sister's baton! Logan Learned in the Third Campaign was as always a standout, and his entrechats and split jumps and turns were amazing as always......I think he would be very limited in his roles in a major company, but he gets lots of roles in Sarasota, because he is spectacular. Victoria Hulland and Ricardo Rhodes were Liberty Bell and El Capitan. Both did a great job. Hulland did the gargouillades and balances well, and Rhodes was totally in character even while doing tour de force leaps and turns. As I drove back home I thought, "This company really has something joyful about it." I think they are excited about where they are and where they are going. That feel comes across the footlights.

Finally her name is back to Yulia Stepanova without (Yangurazova) next to it. Nothing against her husband, but she is known as Stepanova and after working hard to get the preferred name it is now simply "Stepanova" on both the English and Russian versions of the Bolshoi's website.

Sarasota Ballet will be doing Ashton's Enigma Variations and Balanchine's Stars and Stripes this weekend. I will go to Friday's show..... http://ticket.heraldtribune.com/2016/04/02/another-ashton-another-first/

Yes, dramatic theater and opera have been changing the setting and time period for many, many years, and it started gradually in Europe and has spread out. I attended an exhibtion of sketches of Wagner's Ring Cycle when I went to the San Francisco Ring, and I was amazed how the productions did not go from traditional and suddenly change overnight to something outrageous. It all happened a lot more gradually than we like to believe. It has been going on since way before I was born....the breakaway from "tradition" (but it was not a clean break.....it has actually been a very gradual break). So this particular Midsummer is for me such a mild, mild change. After seeing it I do not view everything happening in the ocean, simply having an ocean motif throughout, so it worked better than I thought it would. Nothing offensive and nothing that is upsetting. I also understand people's concerns and usually I love a very traditional production of a work, but I have also seen some crazy opera productions that I have also enjoyed (and some I absolutely hated). The Copenhagen Ring cycle is WILD with capital letters, and I absolutely loved it. There are videos of it, so anyone can watch it. Example of the wildness: Instead of Alberich simply stealing the gold from the Rhine he rips the bloody heart from a young naked man who is painted gold and swimming in a pool who represents the gold. The Valkyries are getting drunk during "hojotoho" etc. The dragon is a fake machine contraption and controlled from an underground lab. But despite these crazy moments as I watched it something happened. Parts of the Ring that I thought I knew and took for granted were illuminated for me in a new way even though that concept is there in the text and the music.......and there were some incredibly touching moments that had failed to register with me in more traditional Rings. I fell in love with that Ring because of that. But I also love the old traditional Met Ring (the one before the current "plank machine" one). Some opera lovers call the old traditional Met Ring (starring Hildegrad Behrens in the videos) "a lazy Ring for people who don't want to think".....but I love that one too......I love traditional versions, but I have also loved crazy productions SOMETIMES. As long as the director seems to love the work of art and attempts to move us deeply I enjoy it. For me there is no absolutes. There are good crazy productions and bad crazy productions. There are good traditional productions and awlful traditional productions.

There is a lot more diversity in the bodies than in some companies. There were a couple of surprising examples, but I don't want to go into that. The male in question used to be quite fit and handsome.

For me the music during Titania's and her cavalier's duet is gentle and touching and later crescendos, so I guess that is why I like that pas de deux slightly better, although the one in Act 2 is also very lovely and the choreography is possibly a little better.

Last night's cast was basically the same as Friday night except that Jeanette Delgado and Renato Penteado danced the Act 2 divertissement. On Friday night Tricia Albertson and Rainer Krenstetter danced it. Both teams handled this pas de deux well, but I think Delgado's turns were more exciting than Albertson's. It was nice to see Delgado for the first time this season. I think someone here on BA said she was out due to an injury. She is an audience favorite and she and Penteado brought down the house at curtain calls. I think they received louder applause than Messmer and Rebello as Titania and Oberon respectively. Once again I loved Rebello's entrechats and stylish exits off stage. He and Messmer really made the most out of their first scene arguing over the child. On a second viewing from up high I did not mind the first act scrim. To me it was almost invisible except when there were projections on it. Maybe MCB adjusted the lighting since Miami, so the scrim worked better. However, you really did notice its absence (and a much clearer view) in Act 2. I find I like sitting higher up for Balanchine because the patterns of the corps are easier to enjoy. I used to sit high up for opera always because I love hearing well projected voices carry so far. You appreciate how large some opera singers' voices are when you sit high up. But for ballet I usually prefer to sit up close, but I am beginning to think I should sit far back when it is Balanchine. Btw, no sour notes from the singers in Midsummer! They were nice. I sometimes dread the unknown singers used in ballets that require singing. The singers in this production sounded fine but they looked young (in the orchestra pit) so they have not ruined their voices yet! LOL

Okay, thanks for the correction! I always thought they ate water hyacinths. Glad to know their diet is more varied. I was just talking with someone and remembered another moment where I felt the production didn't quite work. To me a donkey scratching his leg just seems more normal than a manatee doing this. Not sure why! Maybe because a manatee has more of a short flipper like "arm"....With that said I actually love the change from donkey to manatee. It is very cute, and the overall production is very beautiful, so I am not really bothered by it like others are, but I do think there are little details in it that don't quite work.

Some notes on last night's performance of Midsummer: The scrim is still there-such an embedded part of the production...although I prefer scrims used sparingly this didn't bother me since I was up close in the 7th row. Tonight I will be farther away so it might bother me more...I don't think they plan to ever get rid of it since the projections match the backdrops and create a mood. The program says it takes place in an estuary so I think the water world is more symbolic...underwater elements throughout but humans aren't necessarily in the water. I think the water motif is simply a symbol. However, I didn't feel the water element actually evoked South Florida. I am used to the beaches down here and didn't exactly feel the production captured my experience of South Florida beaches or waterways. Simone Messmer was a much better Titania than she was an Odette earlier in the season, in my opinion. Here she seemed more natural to me. Her cavalier Reyneris Reyes and she almost missed the kneeling jump down up into his arms and falling into an arabesque...looked almost like he was going to drop her for a second. Otherwise this pivotal pas de deux (probably most people's favorite part of the ballet) was very beautifully danced. Arja-great as the main butterfly had terrific grand jetes. I have always loved her energy. Hippolyta's costume is gorgeous! Best costume of the production! Gold sparkly coral? Not sure. But beautiful. Jordan-Elizabeth Long has the type of ballet body most ballerinas long for (long arms, long legs, very thin)....not sure I would have chosen her as Hippolyta though. She was fine but didn't have the authority and power that I tend to think about in this role. A bad production element was that dry ice almost hid her fouttes. I don't think Manatees eat grass, rather hyacinths...maybe I am wrong.....regardless it represents what is wrong with this production....it is very pretty and nice to look at. Nothing disrespectful in the production at all, but slight things pop up that make you have to suspend disbelief. In Act 2 the backdrop has Coral Castle (a Miami sight that South Floridians know), but it was built in modern times while the production seemed to still take place (judging by the humans' costumes) in Athenian times. So I think I give this production an A for effort (trying to create a South Florida Midsummer and do something new) but maybe a C for the final product due to being sort of half baked and not fully thought out. With that said I think the costumes are beautiful and overall production interesting. MCB's dancers brought it to life and seemed to give their heart and soul. So I had a wonderful time. Last but not least: Kleber Rebello's Oberon was the stand out doing entrechats like there's no tomorrow!!!

She seems to be thriving at the Bolshoi....it looks like it was a good move for her....

Wow! That is great news! The Bolshoi seems to know what a jewel it has!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/74mjbb8vdoep5c8/2016%20Mar%2020%20Stepanova%2C%20Belyakov.mp4?dl=0 This is a video of Yulia Stepanova in the final duet in Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge...

Besides, the choreography and dancing is the MOST IMPORTANT thing. If I like the dancing the costumes and scenery are secondary.......

Yes, ballet is a hard sell in Florida where historically the sun always shines (although not as much as in the past ever since global warming and the weather seems totally unpredictable in Florida now......there were never all day rainy days except during hurricanes that I can remember but that happens frequently....drizzling all day).......basically, people move to and live in Florida for sunshine, warm weather, and the beach (being outside). People do not move here for the ballet or opera. So I think it makes total sense for Lourdes Lopez to try to do something new to get people talking. I think her idea was a good one ON PAPER. I think it probably doesn't quite work in reality from the reports I have read, and I will see it in West Palm Beach and report what I think. I sigh at how many of my friends know nothing about the fine arts and just want to go to a Madonna concert which to me is really just junk culture (I have liked what I have heard by her but don't really know any of her new songs, so nobody get upset). Florida audiences probably attend the ballet once or twice as something "unique".......I have taken friends and they act like, "Wow! I am going to a ballet!" as if they are going to something unusual. This is the atmosphere down here. It is a special event for most people from what I can tell. It is a once in a lifetime thing but they would rather be at a Madonna or who knows what concert. I don't really listen to any popular music so I only use Madonna as an example because I have no idea who is popular right now. So PR is probably a necessity in the ballet world in most places. Maybe not as much in NYC but everywhere else they have to use whatever they can to fill seats. So I do not think it was a bad idea on paper for Lourdes Lopez to do this, and she is using local artists supposedly, so she is trying to make it part of South Florida. I applaud the attempt in such a hard market, even if I might not like the end product. However, I will see it on April 2 (and maybe April 1 if I arrive in time and can get a last minute ticket) and will report here. Maybe I will actually love it. I do actually like the manatee head idea. I think that is cute. Manatees are an important environmental issue here in Florida.

As long as Balanchine's choreography is the same I will not mind a re-staging placed underwater, but the problem from the sound of it is that it takes place underwater with butterflies and humans underwater which doesn't make sense. I come to ballet after over 20 years of opera going, and changing the setting of a show is very mild!!!! In opera the time period, sets, costumes, planet, etc. are often completely changed nowadays!!! One opera site shows pics of opera productions asking you to guess the opera and there is no way to tell!!! Aida is just as likely to be sung in outer space as it is in the original Egypt setting!!! For the most part I can deal with it as long as the singing is good (although today that isn't likely)!!!! But I find it humorous that this Midsummer is so controversial. It sounds very, very mild in the "Change" department compared to the craziness I have witnessed in opera productions.