Birdsall

I wondered the same thing Natalia and Catherine wondered when I saw it advertised on the Mariinsky's website that tickets to the 3D are available. People will accidentally buy tickets to the wrong place. I think there will be some who don't realize they are just going to see a screen and some who don't even realize they could have gotten a ticket next door and seen it in person. The whole idea is a bit weird. I think they should set up a screen outside and allow people to watch it free like the Met does occasionally. I think that actually causes more people to want to venture inside and see a real performance one day. But it seems so bizarre to go see a movie version next door when it is actually live in the other theatre. This is a sign, in my personal opinion, that they still aren't sure what they are doing with Mariinsky II and how to fill the performance schedule there. Maybe this will be worked out eventually. But I would think they would need an entire new staff for the new theatre in order to keep it filled with performances night after night.

Strange that he does not want to keep the Mariinsky's reputation high. I agree that the ballet will probably sell out no matter who is cast, because even guide books tell tourists that ballet is important in St. Petersburg, so people who don't even like ballet will get a ticket just to say they saw the Mariinsky Ballet just as they go to New York and go to any show (doesn't matter what) on Broadway. But if that is his attitude it is short sighted. If this sort of thing keeps up over the years people will start to speak badly about the Mariinsky (I mean beyond these ballet specific sites). Even the tourists who do not like ballet will go around to friends, "I don't get what the big deal is! I saw this dancer who kept stumbling!" It might take a long while, but eventually it will hurt the reputation of the ballet and eventually cause people to avoid it. Not to mention Fateyev's reputation will be mud in the history of the Mariinsky.

Batoeva!! You should see her in Rubies - she is absolutely stunning! Actually, she is absolutely stunning in everything she does! She should be a principal! I lucked out and saw her do the Satanella pas de deux at the children's show at the Concert Hall ("Magical World of Dance"), although if I remember correctly, it was just the adagio and the coda leaving out the variations unfortunately, but it was still a joy to watch her. Then, I saw her Symphony in C in her debut in the first movement. I have also seen her in Rubies, and I agree with you!

I am hoping Fateyev reads our comments, so he realizes that everyone is fed up with it. But he probably doesn't read.

What you and Helene say is true. We forget it. Life is very unfair. I know teachers often say that if you mess up, you move up because you are removed from being in the classroom and put in an administrative position in an office where you are not around children or parents and eventually all is forgotten and you keep moving up into higher paid positions. The world can be crazy and upside down. So I don't know why we expect more from the ballet world. I guess it comes from our desire to believe that the arts are pristine and people are in it for the artistry and not the money, etc. I believe Dale Carnegie's famous book *How to Win Friends and Influence People* says something about how people are rarely ever fired for being incompetent if they are likeable people to their co-workers or supervisor. The majority of people are fired for not getting along with others, because they constantly create ill will and disrupt work and cause the boss to intervene in conflicts. But incompetence is totally okay b/c it often doesn't make waves. Others simply have to pick up the slack. Incompetent people are almost always tolerated more than people who do not get along well with others.

I think we ballet fans are very much like sports fans. Many sports fan scream at the tv at a fumbled ball and scream at what an idiot this or that football player is, but they can not run or jump or catch like the professionals. Same with most of us who are ballet fans. We can't do what they do. But we are fans, and I think it is good that Ballet Alert has a dancer side and a fan side. I personally stay on the fan side of things. I pretty much think they have a rough life....they are trying to do their best, and when they fail nowadays people see it worldwide within hours of the fall or stumble. So part of me has sympathy, but it is the nature of the beast. It is sort of like Hollywood stars wanting fame and then suddenly wanting the paparazzi to leave them alone. It is what it is. They should know this. Like Helene says above, dancers have to have a thick skin and have to perform under incredible worldwide scrutiny. Some of the current ones may not have known that they would end up on YouTube, but now the ones still in school know this could happen to them. So they will go into the field knowing it. In some ways it probably teaches them grace under pressure. Fans are always going to be passionate about what they like and don't like. Personally, I am glad there is a place we can discuss things. Buddy, I apologize if I inadvertantly hurt your feelings in any way. That was not my intent.

Dale, If you mean my comment about meds, I really did mean it to pertain to me. Opera was my crazy meds for 20 years after my sister died. It practically saved my life. Walking away from a career I loved caused the opera (my meds) to no longer work. So I turned completely to ballet which is helping a lot. But I have begun to think I need some real meds too, so that I can stop having negative thoughts. Loss of identity, career, graying hair, mid-life crisis......it all has hit me big time. Anyway, I am sorry if my comment seemed like an attack on Buddy. I wish I could be more positive about life in general let alone opera or ballet. I say all this very openly because I think ballet probably gives solace to a lot of people on this forum. I was in a bad place mentally and my trip in March to the Mariinsky gave me something to look forward to and was an infusion of life for me that lasted for a month. Now thinking about meds for the first time in my life (my parents will be dead against it), because I no longer want to analyze the height of buildings and wonder if they are high enough to die or would only injure. Like I said, I am going through a lot mentally and only open up so Buddy is not insulted and also in case others out there find solace in ballet. Don't worry! I am not suicidal. I have looked up and read that passive death thoughts are common during depression.

I already responded to your post and Tiara's, as you will read, but I want to say that I wish I could see the glass half full the way you do. One thing that is good about you is that you are always positive. Maybe if I ever get some meds I will start to be more positive! LOL

I have to admit that I agree with Tiara. Before I went in March I was praying and praying that I would not get a Skorik debut in Raymonda or Aurora. I didn't think she would get Aurora, because even her body type is wrong for that, but I thought anything is possible under Fateyev. I just find it sad that someone has to pray that he will not be stuck with someone who messes up all the time when thinking of traveling to go to the Mariinsky. That is truly sad. Old timers tell me that was NEVER the case with the Mariinsky (Kirov) back in the day. We are talking about the company that has the reputation of being Point North on the compass of ballet. And these mess ups are not isolated moments. Even if the latest mess up does not end up on YouTube it is circulated privately via private YouTube videos, and Cristian asked if there was ever a performance of hers without a mess up, and so far it doesn't appear to be the case. This is not what we expect from the North point of Ballet. We don't want someone learning her craft before our eyes. We want finished artists on the stage. A mess up here and there is not a big deal. Mess ups every performance is a big deal. And when you add on top of the mess ups the fact that there are so many dancers who rarely get solo roles who deserve them and could dance them right this minute without messing up, it just boggles the mind. Kolegova, Novikova, Osmolkina, and many in the corps can dance better. This is where people's frustration comes from. I don't think anyone really wants to beat up on anyone, but when we know there are better dancers not getting chances while someone keeps getting chance after chance and messing up, it upsets many people.

Osmolkina and Shklyarov in the Giselle Peasant Pas de Deux. See 2:30minutes to see the moment I describe above. Osmolkina handles the moment very well twice!

The peasant pdd is interesting at the Mariinsky, because the ballerina has to link arms with the male after turning very fast. Many dancers will come off pointe in this sequence. It is a very hard peasant pdd.

Cristian, I really want to come down and see this and visit you, but I just don't know how to swing it this coming weekend. I am still trying to figure it out. If this were happening in July it would be much easier.

I don't know much technically about voices, but I can say that I have always enjoyed Emma Kirkby and was thinking of her when I posted. That said, I think you are probably right that what I really mean is that I typically like singers who use little vibrato rather than none at all. The few times I have heard counter-tenors I found them more 'interesting' than anything else, but I did hear one recently that I Iiked a lot--James Laing. I don't know if he is an example of the more "mainstream" approach you mention or not... I haven't heard James Laing, but most counter tenors have started singing with a warmer sound and more vibrato than before. They have learned to train their voices to have no register breaks, etc. So counter tenors do seem to be getting better and better. I think it is still an acquired taste. Some people will always hate them no matter what. I don't mind them overall.

I think I would prefer Ivanchenko over Askerov. Ivanchenko may not be exciting, but he is reliable, in my opinion. I have not been that impressed with Askerov. The rest of the cast should be fine. Batoeva is an up and comer to really watch! She is great!!!

My personal opinion is that Rebello seemed terrific from the start and destined to rise up the ranks. Cerdeiro has a much more lanky, lean (boyish maybe or coltish) look that took time for me to get used to, but last season I thought he had grown tremendously as an artist. For me it was like he transitioned from boy to man (professionally) this past season. Maybe because he just seemed more confident than ever. I don't know why.

Yes, the humming or even singing along at operas is ridiculous! I don't know what is going on in their heads. We are paying to hear the people on stage not our fellow audience members.

Yes! Yes! Yes!!!! LOVE YOUR COMMENT!!!!!!! You are so right. I have heard performances that cut the da capo, and the entire opera became boring. But I have heard uncut performances that I dreaded (because of length), but I ended up loving, because it all makes sense when the da capo section is sung with embellishments, and it can actually be very, very, very exciting to hear the way the various singers onstage embellish their music. Let me kiss your feet for saying that! LOL

I was thunderstruck by not only Dessay's dancing, but generally the fluidity and grace with which she moved at all times in this heavily choreographed production. Does anyone know.....does she have a background in dancing? I think she must! I have read that she wanted to be a ballet dancer originally but discovered she had a voice, so switched directions, but I have no idea how far she may have gotten in ballet studies....maybe it was even just a wish or a few classes in childhood. But it would make sense that she had some classes since you are right....she is usually pretty graceful. She has always been a very active performer willing to do cartwheels or anything physical while singing which is rare in a singer. Most are too worried about disrupting their vocal line. I think Caballe once said that Fiorenza Cossotto (singing Adalgisa to Caballe's Norma) shoved the on-stage kids toward Caballe and they ran to hug her which was not in the original blocking for the performance, and she was sure it was a direct attempt by Cossoto to upset her vocal line. I give that example to show you how rare it is for singers to want to do acrobatics while singing. So Dessay is unusual in that respect, although singers are doing more and more of that, because they are starting to be very fit and game for anything the director throws at them. There is ongoing debate whether this has caused a decline in voices or not.

Although I agree that Makhalina for the most part does not dance with the Mariinsky anymore and probably should be retired, she did do an Aegina in Spartacus this past season in December. It was a matinee. I don't think it got as much attention as the evening Spartacus performances at the same time b/c Pavlenko and Kondaurova were the Aeginas in those performances and they are both dancers people are watching nowadays.

I have been near a woman during an opera at the Met and she got the worst coughing attack, and she was so embarrassed by it but didn't really know what to do b/c she thought leaving would cause people to let her out and block their view, and she kept hoping it would end but finally when her coughing kept going on she left and apologized when she came back for the next act to everyone who had been near her. I felt sorry for her, because she was concerned about others around her and did not mean to cough so much. But I would be lying if I said I was not annoyed at the situation (only because it was an intense coughing fit that would not stop). It was annoying to have a coughing fit going on during the opera, but seeing that she was really embarrassed and upset by her fit made me also feel for her, because I think it can happen to anyone at some point in life. I think her attitude of remorse made it all better for me personally. So overall I try to be tolerant of things like that. But I really do hate the slow unwrapping of cellophane (which can be helped) and talking during operas and have shushed, but then the person has shushed me back one time which I think takes a lot of nerve. I am more tolerant of talking during ballets since there is no singing and I do not miss any dancing while someone talks, plus most ballet music is not on the same level of Wagner or Verdi or Mozart, but I still think it is rude to talk during performances, but I am less likely to shush at a ballet and much more likely to shush at an opera. One time another person (not me) shushed someone and the person being shushed got downright belligerent telling the person off who shushed him using profanity. It was really shocking. The back and forth went on a few sentences, until an usher came and they both hushed. So correcting someone's behavior nowadays can create even more disruption because many people have no shame. They act like jerks and if you correct them, they will escalate their behavior. It is like, "How dare you tell me to stop being a jerk to everyone!" It is really absurd! And I think the other problem is that at least in the U.S. the ushers are almost always little old ladies who are simply volunteers and do not have the desire or personality to take charge and stamp out bad behavior. I suppose if I were doing it for free I would not want to get into a verbal argument with some of the worst offenders. What's funny is I took a quick picture of the auditorium at NYCB before the show even began because I try to collect theatres that I have visited, and there the usher was on me like white on rice telling me no pics are allowed. The curtain was down and the lights were still up, and I told her I would not take any during the actual performance but apparently you can't even take them beforehand. I turned to my partner and said, "She cracks the whip so I can't take a pic of the auditorium, but watch later comers allowed in! I would rather she crack the whip about that!" and sure enough. A couple of late comers came in...... Oh, well......I don't think there is much we can do.

I have to say that I was shocked to hear so much talking during performances at the Mariinsky, and it was mostly Russian that I heard at all my performances which surprised me. I thought for sure they would be better than American audiences. The Germans, French, and English people I heard around me were silent when the curtain went up. Whenever I heard voices talking it was Russian. I think cell phones are a major problem in America. That is the main disruption. Same with candy wrappers. For some reason people think unwrapping it slowly helps but it actually makes the disruption last longer! Anyway, I think noise like that is omnipresent, as Cristian says, here in Florida. But I think actual talking during performances is a lot less than at the Mariinsky!

Things have gotten bad. Phone cameras are out snapping pics (with flash) at performances. This happened at the Mariinsky too, and it was not an isolated incident. You could see phones being held up throughout the performances. I once attended a La Traviata (opera) in Miami where the audience acted like the Preludio was mood music and they were coming and going like Grand Central Station.

Drew, are you sure you like vibrato-less singing? If so, you would like boys' choirs or early counter tenors (before they became mainstream and sang with more vibrato). You might also like Emma Kirby. I think you probably mean little vibrato. Some people like very little, but most people want some amount of vibrato. Too much vibrato is a tremolo and faulty singing if the singer can not control how much vibrato. That might be what you don't like in a singer, and, if so, that is something that is annoying, but white tones (no vibrato) in singing are like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.

Money would explain a lot of the blindness. Any other reason is inexplicable. But some sort of financial reasons for crazy decisions would explain a lot. But how sad. I guess that is the world.....

I wonder also about what the coaches are thinking. I mean, they must be used to dancers coming to them with a certain level of technical ability. It is like the teachers I used to work with in middle school. They would be in total shock that you have incoming 6th graders who do not know their multiplication tables yet! And the Math teachers are told they MUST cover up to chapter 6 by October or something like that, so there is really no time to go back and teach 3rd grade material in 6th grade, but there is no choice if you want your students to succeed. If they can't do 3rd grade material they certainly can't move through 6th grade material at a rapid pace. And the teacher is to blame for low test scores! I am going off on a tangent, but I wonder if it applies here. What do these Mariinsky coaches think when they are used to (in the past) getting dancers who are pretty much "finished" artists and they just have to rehearse and teach roles and remind and adjust slight issues? Instead they are hypothetically getting some dancers who they have to do a lot of extra teaching. I wonder if some of the Mariinsky coaches are thinking, "OMG! WTF???"