DanielBenton

Sandik, very true about the Berlin filming, but of course the culprit there was a famous film director who was really full of himself. I guess he "got away with it" doing the great Fracci/Bruhn Giselle film so he did it again!

Balanchine said that ballet was the younger sister muse to music, by which I understand that music as a sophisticated art form has been around for about 500 years and ballet for a much shorter period. As he demonstrated in many works, ballet as an art form continues to develop and become more sophisticated. He felt that large scale structures were a function of the musical mind (rather than solely physical gestures), but anyone who has seen Serenade, Apollo, Agon, or any number of other works knows that ballet can uniquely enhance and intensify a musical experience. I find a contrast in Alexei Ratmansky, who has a keen musical ear, and likes to refer to ballet as "just dancing".

Very sad to see the camera shots changing so fast to pander to an audience with the attention span of a gnat. It brings to mind the awful camera work for the NYCB Berlin 1973 filming that Balanchine disowned.

Re Vol.5: in a VAI catalogue received today, it says McBride and Bonnefoux are in Bugaku, and Apollo is the version on YouTube with D'Amboise, Adams, Jiliana, and Russell.

The "Four Temperaments" released as part of the "Balanchine NYCB in Montreal" series by VAI is excellent.

Thanks volcanohunter. I hope it's Allegra and Edward. Just have to wait some more for Liebeslieder

Volcanohunter, can you show the link for Vol.5? Thanks!

Thanks KFW

1) Stravinsky/Balanchine: Apollo (originally called Apollon Musagete) because it can be considered the direct successor to The Sleeping Beauty; 2) Tchaikovsky/Balanchine: Serenade because to very loosely paraphrase Alexei Ratmansky: it has a narrative, and you get to make up the story.

A very interesting interview. Poignant reminiscences of life in 60s-70s Soviet Union, where three words were never ever spoken in the ballet world: Baryshnikov, Nureyev, and Balanchine. He also gave a wonderfully concise description of how the relationship of ballet and music changed because of Tschaikovsky.

Can someone translate?

Thanks exactly what I needed to know!

abatt, thanks I got the exact dates from the links above.

Can anyone tell me about when they might post the casting for May-June Sleeping Beauty? Thanks

I just read through much of this book. It might be useful as a starter to pique the interest of a student composer, but it is not in any way comprehensive in it's list of repertoire (probably an impossible task). Somewhat more irritating is the selective detail about the works listed. Also the appearance and readability of the section on repertoire could be vastly improved.

At least the Pictures music is "dansante". And Justin Peck certainly gave himself a challenge with the music he chose. I am quite fond of most of Cesar Franck's music but that piece was pretty bad - sounded like a student-age throwaway.

Then you did your "due diligence" getting to know the score! Sorry it was a mediocre production.

CraneDragon, were you familiar with the music to Agon when you saw the production?

As usual I agree with abatt. Mozart is so difficult to perform (as us pianists know); you have to make it sound (or look) easy, with grace, preferably with perfection. Sara captured that. I would like to see four of the most mature ballerinas (perhaps Whelan, Mearns, Reichlen, Korowski) as the four women doing the Menuet.

Fire alarm. Just got in at 7:35

Vipa, I liked the Tschaikovsky program too, I just got worn out because of its length. As you say, the most important thing is the great depth and performances we are getting to see and hear at present.

I have a Ballet Essentials ticket for Oct.4 Sat @ 10:30am in the Rose Building to give away. This event is currently sold out. (I tried to give it back to the ticket office to resell but they were not interested; I have two performances and a dinner to go to Oct.4 and this would no doubt wipe out my old bones so I would like to give it someone who can use it). If you can figure out how to private message me on this site we can figure out how to get you the ticket. I am currently in NYC and can mail it to you or pass it to you at the DHK theatre sometime. I will be at every performance this week and rehearsals on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

The programming is definitely off: the all-Tschaikovsky program is almost 3 hours long; having watched Serenade earlier, emotional fatigue is setting in by the time we get to the Theme and Variations of Suite no.3. For the other program, almost any combination could have been better than putting together Donizetti, Sonambula, and Firebird.

Agree with abatt. The Donizetti has a Bournonville quality to it - intricate, clean dancing, everyone having a good time. Today I thought Whelan was even better than last night (or I watched her more closely). She seemed more ethereal. An "old-timer" told me at intermission that Allegra Kent carried off the poet's body from the center of the stage - a long ways! I saw two things go flying - one was the shoe, directly toward the Coquette in the downstage right corner, and not sure what the other was. Why should Firebird be retired? It has great music, great dancing for the firebird, nice dancing for a lot of other people, beautiful sets and costumes, children love it (so do I), and it occupies a special place in the history of NYCB.

Critically different this year: The orchestra already sounds great. They are rehearsing.