Kevin Ng

Nathan Coppen is an Australian dancer who just joined the Royal Ballet this season, after dancing with the English National Ballet for several years.

Jeannie, thanks for your useful information on the B&B type accomodation near the Maryinsky Theatre. Last time I stayed at the Hotel Astoria/Angleterre which was 5 minutes from the Maryinsky by taxi. I understand that it's the closest hotel to the Maryinsky. I remember that I saw Rasta Thomas having tea in the hotel lobby with a friend one afternoon.

I've received from the Kirov this provisional casting for the Maryinsky International Ballet Festival, which of course is subject to further changes. Guest stars this year are from the Paris Opera Ballet and the ABT. 9 March, Cinderella - new production by Ratmansky to be premiered in Feb. 10 March, Fokine Ballets: Chopiniana, Petrushka, and Scheherazade 11 March, Nutcracker - Natalia Sologub, Andrian Fadeyev 12 March, Le Corsaire - Svetlana Zakharova, Elvira Tarasova, Nicolas le Riche. 13 March, Manon - Diana Vishneva, Vladimir Malakhov 14 March, Swan Lake - Agnes Letestu, Jose Martinez 15 March, Balanchine Ballets (Serenade, Prodigal Son, Theme and Variations) 16 March, Romeo and Juliet - Zhanna Ayupova, Manuel Legris 17 March, Neumeier Ballets (Spring and Fall, Now and Then, Sounds of Empty Pages.) 18 March, International Stars Gala

The Kirov performs at the Maryinsky Theatre every season from October till August. I am amazed by the large repertory that they do at home. They do about 5 different programmes every month, which offers a good variety for a visitor who is in St. Petersburg for a short time. When I was there several months ago, I managed to see 3 different programmes in 4 days. The Royal Ballet nowadays seems to do only one programme per month at Covent Garden on average. They used to do 2-3 different programmes per month.

ABT principals Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Belostserkovsky trained in the Kiev school as well, and Kirov principal Denis Matvienko joined from the Kiev Ballet last year.

BW, I see. So it's the Moscow Classical Ballet that you saw then. Helen, it's strange that there are so many Moscow-based companies touring Beijing. Maybe it's time to see a St. Petersburg company for a change.

NO7, thanks for pointing out that review. The closing paragraph is quite thought-provoking. "In all, the production makes one wonder whether, after half a century, the native city of Georgy Melitonovich Balanchivadze - the city in which he grew up, where he studied at the conservatory and where he first appeared on stage - might soon become known as "the home of Balanchine."

Helen, what's Moscow City Ballet dancing in Beijing? There seems to be far more dance companies touring Beijing than Hong Kong this year.

I'll start off with the Kirov's summer season in London. Some of the highlights that I can remember are: -Diana Vishneva's radiant Aurora, as the Rubies ballerina, and in the 3rd movement in Symphony in C. (She was also moving in Manon which I saw at the Maryinsky in October.) -Svetlana Zakharova as the Diamonds ballerina, and as Terpsichore. -Andrian Fadeyev's noble Prince Desire in Sleeping Beauty, and his moving Apollo. He also showed his dramatic talent as Lankedem in Le Corsaire; and as the composer Schnitke in Neumeier's "Sounds of Empty Pages" premiered in St. Petersburg this year. -Anton Korsakov in 3rd movement of Symphony in C, and in the pas de trois in Emeralds. The Stars of the Bolshoi season in London -the beautiful Svetlana Lunkina in the Giselle pdd, La Sylphide pdd with Dmitri Goudanov. -Goudanov superb in Flower Festival pdd and La Fille pdd with Anastasia Goriacheva. I also admired Alina Cojocaru and Angel Corella in the Royal Ballet's Don Quixote. [ December 19, 2001: Message edited by: Kevin Ng ]

Do you mean the Moscow City Ballet or the Moscow Classical Ballet?

Dale, Andrian Fadeyev couldn't dance Prodigal Son because he was guesting in Dublin last week with the Russian State Ballet. Maybe he'll dance the role in the later performances in January. http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/features/2001/1219/fea5.htm The Kirov is touring Spain this week doing Lavrovsky's Romeo and Juliet.

The first cast of the Kirov's Balanchine programme last Friday was as follows: Serenade - Ayupova, Tarassova, Korsuntsev The Prodigal Son - Makhalina, Ruzimatov Theme and Variations - Gumerova, Matvienko

Meanwhile the Russian State Ballet, another Moscow company, is touring in Ireland. Kirov principals Maya Dumchenko and Evgeny Ivanchenko are guests. http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/features/.../1215/fea20.htm [ December 15, 2001: Message edited by: Kevin Ng ]

Slightly off topic here. I read a short report in the arts/features section of today's "South China Morning Post" (not carried online though) about a British theatre critic being sued for libel. I quote - "Actor David Soul has won a libel case against a journalist who called a play the actor was in the worst he had ever seen - without having seen it. The actor and singer....was awarded US$250,000 over a scathing review by showbusiness writer Matthew Wright of the British newspaper The Mirror...." I wonder what repercussions this legal case will have.

The Shanghai Ballet gave two performances last week at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre of a new production of "Swan Lake" which was premiered during the Shanghai International Ballet Competition last August. This production was supervised by Derek Deane, the former artistic director of the English National Ballet. Hong Kong audiences had already seen Deane's arena version of "Swan Lake" which ENB performed at the Hong Kong Convention Centre in 1999. But Deane last year did another version of "Swan Lake" for ENB which is not in the round. I saw it once last January at the London Coliseum led by Thomas Edur and Agnes Oaks. It is this more recent and more satifying production that Shanghai Ballet acquired. Peter Farmer's beautiful sets and costumes have been faithfully reproduced. The choreography mainly follows the Royal Ballet's previous production based on Nicholas Sergeyev's notations. Deane has also included two gems by Ashton, namely his Neapolitan dance in Act 3, as well as his pas de quatre in Act 3 which here replaces the pas de trois in Act 1. I don't understand however why the traditonal pas de trois hasn't been retained. Prince Siegfried has a solo at the end of Act 1 choreographed by Deane, which is inferior to Nureyev's choreography in the Paris Opera Ballet's production. The last act's choreography is entirely Deane's, while it would have been preferable if he had used Ashton's choreography which is more poetic. Overall this Shanghai production by Derek Deane is superior to the Hong Kong Ballet's production by Stephen Jefferies which was just revived here in September. It is more coherent both in terms of the choreography and drama. The Shanghai Ballet is a good regional company, and its corps de ballet has a stylistic uniformity missing from the Hong Kong company. The Swan Queen on the night I saw was danced by Fan Xiao-feng, who is temperamentally more suited to Odette than Odile. She threw in some double fouettes in the coda of the Black Swan pas de deux. Her Prince was Sun Shenyi. In his variation in Act 3, Sun finished all his three double tours en l'air in a clean fifth position, which was impressive. [ December 19, 2001: Message edited by: Kevin Ng ]

Viktor Fedotov's death must have been very sudden, because he had been scheduled to conduct La Bayadere at the Maryinksy this week. According to the News section of the Kirov Ballet's website, there was a service this morning at the Nikolsky Cathedral in St. Petersburg before the burial. http://www.mariinsky.ru/en [ December 08, 2001: Message edited by: Kevin Ng ]

I was just informed of the death of Viktor Fedotov, the illustrious conductor of the Kirov Ballet whom Clement Crisp once described as the 'prince of ballet conductors'. His inspired conducting was always a highlight of the Kirov Ballet's London seasons in the past decade. I think that he was also invited to work with the Royal Ballet on more than one occasion. [ December 06, 2001: Message edited by: Kevin Ng ]

I don't have the tape of the Kirov's Vainonen production of Nutcracker. I saw it when they performed it in London in 1996, I think the children for that Christmas season were recruited from the English schools instead of from the Vaganova Academy, who no doubt would supply students for the performances in St. Petersburg. I haven't seen Grigorovich's production for the Bolshoi however.

There's an article in St. Petersburg Times about the Kirov Ballet's new programme this weekend consisting of creations by some young choreographers including its own dancer Kiril Simonov who choreogaphed the new production of Nutcracker last February. http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/726/features/a_5257.htm Also in a fortnight's time, the Kirov will premiere Balanchine's "Prodigal Son" in an all-Balanchine programme which also includes "Theme and Variatioins" and "Serenade" [ December 02, 2001: Message edited by: Kevin Ng ]

Alexandra and rg, I am fascinated by your observations on this 'gliding' effect in other past and present productions. I just like to add to my earlier remarks. The additonal pas de deux in the snow scene choreographed by Svetlana Efremova in St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre's Nutcracker is set to a section of Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3, but I don't know which section precisely. I remember clearly that the veil was actually moved while the ballerina was balancing on pointe, and there was no stage machinery facilitating that. I would be very interested to see too Nikita Dolgushin's version for his company based in the St. Petersburg Conservatory that rg mentioned. By the way, there's a long interview with Dolgushin in the current issue of the bi-lingual St. Petersburg magazine "Ballet Art", which I bought in St. Petersburg last month.

rg, to reply to your questions. a) From what I remember the path of travel lasted about a minute. B) It looked secure and not at all precarious. This 'gliding' moment isn't however in Peter Wright's current version of Nutcracker for the Royal Ballet. I saw several performances last Christmas, and noticed that this moment has been cut. I remember how much I was entranced by it when I saw the first run of performances of Wright's original production at Covent Garden back in 1984. [ December 01, 2001: Message edited by: Kevin Ng ]

St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre, a 45-strong company directed by Konstantin Tatchkin, commenced its four-month UK tour at the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton in mid-November. The repertory consisted solely of the three Tchaikovsky classics - "Swan Lake", "Nutcracker", and also a new production of "The Sleeping Beauty" which only premiered in its home theatre in Liteiny Prospekt in St. Petersburg in early November. This new production of "Beauty" was first performed in Britain in the Swan Theatre in High Wycombe two weeks ago. I caught each of the three classics once in both venues. The new "Beauty" with attractive sets and costumes designed by Semion Pastukh and Galina Solovieva respectively, is mainly based on the previous Kirov Ballet's version of Konstantin Sergeyev but has some some unexpected innovations. Aurora is pricked by a rose instead of by the needles fulfilling Carabosse's curse, and hence the Rose Adagio earlier is danced with carnations. In the hunting scene there is a dancing bear introduced. Curiously Florimund doesn't kiss Aurora in the pavilion to awaken her, but instead touches her with a rose. The text of Konstantin Sergeyev's 1950 version of "Swan Lake", which is the present production of the Kirov, is also reproduced in St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre's production of "Swan Lake". Of more interest is the company's "Nutcracker" based on Vasily Vainonen's 1934 production for the Kirov, which the Kirov performed in London Coliseum in December 1996. It is stretched into three acts instead of two acts as is customary. The first act ends with the departure of the party guests, and the second act starts with Clara returning to the drawing room at night to retrieve her nutcracker doll. St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre's production has some additional choreography by Svetlana Efremova, a ballet mistress of the company and a former Kirov dancer. Efremova has introduced two demi-soloists in the snowflakes scene. There is a solo for the Snow Queen set to music from Tchaikovsky's Mozartiana. And there is also a beautiful additional pas de deux for Masha/Clara and the Nutcracker Prince in the snowflakes scene which ends memorably with Masha balancing on pointe on a veil dragged by the Prince. In this Vainonen version, the grand pas de deux is danced in the presence of four attendant cavaliers. The dancers of the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre, which was only founded in 1994, were mainly drawn from the Vaganova Academy, which explained the good schooling of the corps de ballet. While the company is obviously not Kirov-standard, their overall dancing is nevertheless very decent. The male dancers make more of an impression than the women. The company possesses an excellent pure classical danseur in the 21-year-old principal Yuri Gloukhikh who trained in the Vaganova Academy. Tall and handsome, this blond dancer has a beautiful long line and a noble bearing that reminds me of Vladimir Malakhov when he was still dancing with the Moscow Classical Ballet in the late 1980s. Gloukhikh has a high elevation in his jumps, and his acting has a naturalistic style. Both his Siegfried and Florimund were outstanding. A younger and even taller principal dancer is the 18-year-old Kiev trained Aleksandr Zhembrovskiy. His Nutcracker Prince was stylishly danced, and he is obviously a dancer with great potential. He also danced Blue bird. Strangely the first nights of each of the three classics had the same dancer in the ballerina role - Irina Kolesnikova, a contemporary of Gloukhikh. Kolesnikova was at her best as Masha in Nutcracker. Anastassia Kolegova danced gorgeously in the Snow Queen solo. The company will eventually reach London on 13 January when it will give a single performance of "Sleeping Beauty" at the Royal Albert Hall.

Jeannie, thanks for your update from Moscow. I hope that you can attend Nina Ananiashvili's 20th anniversary gala next Friday. Re Ratmansky's new ballet "Leah" I heard that Ananiashvili was partnered by Giuseppe Picone.

I just re-read my original thread several weeks ago. http://www.balletalert.com/ubb/ultimatebb....c&f=13&t=000615 I wrote - "Elvira Tarasova had strong legwork, and danced with poise and style." I was only making a general comment; I meant that Tarasova's dancing had grace and composure.

A.M., thanks for your useful background information on Rasta Thomas. Actually besides Thomas, there are also 2 other male dancers who joined the Kirov last season - Denis Matvienko (formerly of the Kiev Ballet), and Andrei Merkuriev (formerly of the Maly Theatre). I think however that these 3 dancers are likely to dance in St. Petersburg than on the Kirov's overseas tours. Xinxin, hope you are seeing some great performances in Japan. Yes, I regret not being able to see the Bolshoi in China this week.