Birdsall

You may have noticed, but the Bolshoi's Bayadere (the latest HD movie transmission) is now available for pre-order on Amazon. I check the "Coming Soon" area often and saw it is coming out, and I remembered you asked about this. So you can pre-order it (it is only $20 right now when you pre-order.....the price usually goes up a little .....maybe $26 if you order it after it comes out) and you will finally own a commercial copy of the variation you mention.

Catherine says, "In the basement there are two small rooms with mirrors/barres and low ceilings." I am not surprised by this revelation. But how sad that is the officially equipped ballet studio. The basement is where you put things you don't care about that much but can't get rid of......to me things like this tell us a bigger story!

I am pretty sure that if they are not needed for any more works the rest of the night that they take their bows after their portion and go home. That is how opera is at least. Characters in the first act (and not in the rest) tend to go home.

I do think that the Vaganova Academy does seem to teach a very unique and special style and feeds into the Mariinsky (therefore, the Mariinsky also has its special and unique style). So few ballet companies have a "unique" style anymore. It makes me worry when someone has been living elsewhere for years and teaching (and seeing different styles and maybe being influenced by these different styles) taking over the Vaganova Academy. Even if she is a product of that training I can't imagine her last 26 years in NYC not influencing her at all. Opera lovers cry over the loss of the unique french style of singing. This is what will happen if things continue the way they are in Russia. The Mariinsky will no longer be unique and special. Maybe it is inevitable. International generic style is what happens when an art is embraced all over the world. If the Mariinsky becomes "international" one day I guess I will at least be able to save a lot of money, but I would still be sad.

How much power does he need? It is crazy! Even the White Nights Festival programs always have his picture. He must be an ego-maniac!

I think it is because, in general, magazines want the new issue to have a long shelf life in case the next issue comes out late. The issue of a magazine you get in October tends to be the November issue and in a way it is the "expiration date" because November is the last month people should see it. and halfway through the month of November I think the new December issue comes out.

Here in Florida the DQ was played as one of the Fathom Events (same as the Met operas), and as a result there was a better than average turn out for the show for such a small city as Gainesville. I think there were about 30 people. It is a university town, so that could also be why. Most of the previous ballets were by Emerging Pictures and it was in Jacksonville (a much larger city) and often just 5-10 people.

I am very surprised. Arja usually comes off as a spitfire powerhouse sort of in the Osipova mold. At least that has been my impression. I will see this program in West Palm in November. I wonder if casting will be different.

They know many would leave after the Balanchine! You know that! LOL

Cristian, I agree with what you say about the dream sequence. I think someone who doesn't know DQ would wonder, "Who are they?" They were all pretty much dressed alike. When Amour showed up I only recognized her due to the little childlike bourees. I also hated the handing Kitri off in the air. There were some other lifts that were strange too. But some of the revised choreography was interesting and fun to compare and contrast. My take is that he was trying to be modern but also traditional at the same time. I tend to think this deflates a production. I think you have to choose one direction or another. Make things very new or stick with tradition, but that is just me. The yelling out and noise on stage also did not work for me. I think ballet is already like an imaginary world. Trying to inject realism into it makes it all seem awkward to me. I thought Carlos Acosta was the main reason to see this. He has flair and even moves his upper body better than most of the others. I think watching too many Mariinsky DQs have ruined me when watching the corps de ballet in other companies. Everyone seemed stiff and jerky to me from the waist up in the corps. But this is a matter of different company styles and my own personal taste. Others probably hate what I love (the flowing arms), and that is okay. We can't all like the same thing.

I thought her Aurora was so beautiful when I saw her in it. Her looks helped because she is such a pretty ballerina and it is an extra plus when Aurora is pretty, in my opinion. Not a must, but it makes everything more magical. I also saw her as Medora in July and she was terrific although when she is brought out to the men after being captured, she was not as heroic as other ballerinas but everything else was wonderful. Her Tsar Maiden in Ratmansky's Humpbacked Horse was also nice. I was worried about the parts where some pop dancing is done, but she did that naturally as well.

I think I read that the mother of Phoebe Cates (an actress that had a big splash in her teen and early years) brought Vilar's securities fraud to the government's attention. She discovered he was using her money for his own personal use. He was not squeaky clean by any means judging from all the articles I have read. His desire to have his name on everything he paid for did seem like self glorification as Carbro says above. There is no doubt that he had a love of opera and helped a lot of opera companies for a while (and had replicas of the Met's chandeliers made for his huge apartment in NY according to one Opera News article I read years ago), and I remember that period, and it seemed too good to be true. Someone willing to spend millions at multiple opera companies around the world? In my opinion, there was something odd going on, and then it burst like a bubble.

Sorry you felt cheated. I saw it in July with Ivan Vasiliev, Oksana Bondareva, Victor Lebedev, and Ekaterina Borchenko, and it knocked my socks off! I thought it was exciting and much better than the Bolshoi version. However, I do think it is a ballet that could wilt if the dancers are not having an "on" day. The short acts did not bother me due to the excitement I saw on stage each act. Hope the other shows you saw were better!

The Bolshoi's website says its Bayadere is by Petipa with "new scenic version" by Yuri Grigorovich and "scenes from productions by Vakhtang Chabukiani, Nikolai Zubkovsky, and Konstantin Sergeyev used"......so this particular variation could have been choreographed by any of them, and the music is probably an interpolation. I bet someone on this site knows the answer where to find the music. I do not think there is a commercial version of this version of the choreography available. It is only done by the Bolshoi and, as Alymer says, it was in the previous production (1990s) and the Bolshoi has retained it in its "new scenic version" which was unveiled last season, I believe. However, the clip you posted is from the movie transmission from last season which might be released on dvd eventually. So there is hope for you. One thing I like about the Bolshoi's version is that the Kingdom of the Shades has like 3 or 4 ramps. It makes it harder, I imagine, for the shades as they descend 3 or 4 (can't remember) ramps......and it creates a breath-taking view because there are so many levels of shades in that scene as a result.

Thanks for posting this! Very, very interesting! He does seem like he takes on way too much and it would make sense that he is doing it for power.

The Bolshoi's choreography is different in that respect to any other version, and you probably have to go to bootlegs to find it. The current new Bolshoi production kept all the extra dancing for Gamzatti including the cat fight (a portion done en pointe) which is different than every other version I have seen. I do not know who created all this extra dancing for Gamzatti (and even Nikiya since the cat fight has dancing on pointe). Someone who knows the Bolshoi's choreography of Bayadere and history of it will have to chime in and tell us, but Gamzatti dancing in the first act is only done by the Bolshoi. It is not the norm!

Emerging Pictures dropped the Royal Ballet this year due to the fact that they "had to" to choose between the Bolshoi and the Royal: they chose the Bolshoi. I'm happy that Fathom picked up the Royal as I really want to see their new DQ and a Winter's Tale later next year. The Royal Ballet's DQ plays this Wednesday according to Fathom Events.

Maybe this has been mentioned before, but I notice the Royal Ballet's cinema offerings are now presented by Fathom Events which does the Met's operas. That must be why they are now at different movie theatres than the Bolshoi's.......

Welcome, by the way! Forgot to say that! LOL

I will have to rewatch Filling Station on the Jacques d'Amboise dvd I have to see if I "get" the gay theme. I did not get that the one time I watched the video, and I am gay, but I think the costume in the video is not see through, so curious about the pics you mention from the original (I am sure they had to change it for the tv audience). I am not saying you are wrong at all, but I have always been oblivious. My gaydar is totally off and can rarely tell when someone is gay or straight. I do think in previous times when things were hidden people searched for signs (to find others like them) so they were more alert, and you could have a good theory. Nowadays there is no need to hide and it is very easy to meet others like yourself (apps like Grindr on your phone, etc.).....

I think Anastasia Kolegova is wonderful. I actually like her better than many Principals at the Mariinsky. She has an introverted persona on stage, so she is a great Odette, but she can also be spicy as Odile, although I feel she is always subtle in demeanor (less aggressive), and her dancing is technically impeccable. However, Tereshkina is probably the best Odile, because she drips confidence and evil. Tereshkina wows you mainly as Odile. I think she is good as Odette also, but her Odile is the more exciting than her Odette.

Thank God he was born!!!! I will see his Jerusalem in Sarasota this season in honor of him. Sarasota Opera has been doing a Verdi Cycle for years performing every opera he ever wrote, so I have been able to see things like Alzira, the french Trovatore.... Le Trouvere, Oberto, etc. It is actually fascinating to see that he really grew as a composer. He didn't just come out of the womb a genius like I originally thought when I first got into opera. He got better and better and his early stuff is truly just like bel canto but you hear him grow into his own voice in later operas. My life would be less without Verdi in it. Happy Birthday, Verdi!!!! Too bad nobody can actually sing his works nowadays though! LOL Okay, that's my one little negative thought for today! LOL

That dance was a big flop, in my opinion, for all the reasons everyone stated above. I agree with Cristian that the dance inside the house made no sense, and I agree that she was supposed to be enjoying it, b/c she was smiling throughout. It was too violent in style to be a situation where it was meant to just be peasants overly excited. There was some sort of message there that I guess the choreographer was trying to convey (I had assumed it was the director's choice but Helene says it couldn't be), and it shocked but more out of how idiotic it looked than anything else. Despite the sets being fairly traditional (although moved up a little in time) I found the sets sort of ugly and blah. I hope they didn't spend a lot of money on it, because it was not worth it. I never thought I would say this, but I think I actually prefer the previous production which was practically nothing but leaves and chairs. At the time I hated that production, but this one is such a disappointment b/c it is just so boring. Bring back all the leaves!!!!!

The only thing I can think of is that the director was trying to say young women are mistreated and manhandled by society and there is nothing more for them to do but smile and play along dance along. But this is another reason why I stopped going to operas I'm so sick of the directors hammering a certain message over our heads treating us like stupid idiots as if we can't figure out that women had few choices back in Tatyana's day!

I found that really discomfiting. Was she enjoying it and playing along, or was she feeling frightened and being abused? I couldn't see her face well enough to tell how she was acting it. I found that disconcerting as well, especially when the men threw grain in her face. I thought, "why are these men harassing this girl?" I agree. I thought, "WTF?" I would not rehire this director.