felursus

I was "around" in the 50s but a bit too young to really appreciate what I saw. I really lived through the 60s in New York and the 70s in London. I guess I would like to be a bit older (for the 50s) and a LOT richer - I'll take that private plane too, please, Dirac! I'd like to have been rich enough to be the person who threw all the parties, so I wouldn't have had to freeze my toes off at the stage door. (It has always been my favorite thing about the new Met that the stage door is underground, quite warm and sheltered! If you had asked this question 20 years ago, however, I probably would have said "The Diaghlev Years" and Russia from slightly before - say the 1890s. I would also have had to be exceedingly rich to keep up with the blue-blooded balletomanes of the period. One would need to fete one's favorite dancers with caviar and champagne. After reading that in a bio of Nijinsky when I was quite young, I thought that the height of elegance and sophistication and assumed that that was what everyone had after the ballet in Imperial Russia!

Reaffirmation of love can't do the trick: Siegfried was unfaithful (well stupid, as he can't tell a white feather from a black feather), so the only way Siegfried can redeem himself is by dying for Odette. She can only be released from her curse by dying as well. Rothbart should die once they sacrifice themselves because not only have they escaped from his curse, they have broken his power. (Killing Rothbart a la Soviet style doesn't end the curse either.) In the Ashton version (later used by Makarova for Festival Ballet), Odette wants to kill herself but is prevented by the big swans. After Siegfried arrives (and is forgiven), Odette sends the other swans off and might have followed them into a life of swandom but for the arrival of Rothbart who is then challenged by Siegfried. Aware that Siegfried can never win a fight against Von Rothbart, the lovers decide to die together. There is a suggestion that the swans then kill Rothbart (whose powers have fled with the ending of the curse). I guess Act IV has been interpreted so many different ways that choreographers can have a field day with it - thus leaving it wide open to be abused. I remember a Festival Ballet version (Beryl Grey) that happened to premiere during the Easter season that ended with the swans in the pattern of a huge cross on the floor with the "resurrection" of Siegfried and Odette. One would have had to be a visitor from Mars or from some remote location where there were no Christians to have missed the point of that staging!

I agree, Alexandra. The three sets of beings: fairies, nobles and common folk are all in the same place (more or less) at the same time and yet exist in different spheres. The nobles no more see the rustics than they do the fairies - and vv. None of the three groups can really comprehend any of the others. Ashton's genius lay in portraying that vividly by developing a totally different style for each group and yet have these styles integrate so very well. Of course there are moments of crossover - even the fairies have bits of slapstick - like some of Puck's antics and the fairy (I forget which one) who finds herself, oops, alone on the stage, and Titania playing with Bottom. The nobles have a lot of 'business' to get through before they can go back to Athens to be entertained by the panto troupe of rustics - sometime after the end of the Ashton ballet - while the fairies reclaim the peace of the forest. By the way, the next time you see this ballet, take a look at the moon. Notice how it moves in the course of the ballet to show the passing of time.

Does anybody know what language that article that Estelle gave the URL to is written in? It isn't Turkish or Hungarian. It's an Indo-European language, I think to judge from the little I was able to make out. Some of the letters seem to have been borrowed from Icelandic. Just curious.

How about a goodly supply of Zaharova Tamer, a cream guaranteed to keep the extensions below 180 degrees unless absolutely essential; Finger Relaxer, an ointment designed to prevent claw-like hands; Grin-Softener Lip Creme - prevents over-exposure of the teeth; then there are two foot creams designed to solve different problems: Steel Shank, a cream with strengthening properties for those suffering "mush foot", and "Arch-So-Fine" for those unfortunate enough not to have beautiful, natural arches. The two foot creams may be used separately or together depending on the dancer's needs. Lastly, I offer "Audio Ointment", an application for the ears to help the tone deaf and unmusical better able to dance to the music. ;)

I thought we had already done this last November: remember the "Ballet of the Butterfly Ballots"??? I was trying to think of really LONG ballets: War and Peace (complete with battles), The Bible (Old and New Testaments complete with apocrypha), and then there could be the "NOT SUITABLE FOR THE MATINEE CROWD" versions of books by DeSade: "Justine" might be interesting! I guess almost anything could be made into a ballet, but whether it SHOULD is another story. Those of you who read my rants some months ago about the Birmingham Royal Ballet's "Edward II" (and this list didn't exist at the time I saw the POB's "St. Sebastian" - which also would have merited a "rant") know how I feel.

Help! I've totally blanked out here, but doesn't ABT have a ballet in it's rep (somewhat abstract) in which the young men go off to war and die and the women are left to mourn??? I've clearly only seen this once, as I can't remember the name, music, choreographer, etc. - all of which would be very useful just now. Perhaps it had no specific program notes to that effect and the above was just my interpretation. Must be my "early onset Alzheimer's"....

Alymer: oh, yes: Ann Jenner - a Lise to dream about!

About the only thing I know about the Reverend Moon is that he touts himself as the next Messiah and loathes homosexuality. Perhaps there are some on this list with a little more exposure to the tenets of Universalism (or whatever the correct term for his religion is. During the Soviet era there were many people who boycotted the Bolshoi and Kirov - for all kinds of political reasons. Some of the "anti" actions went a little beyond the pale - such as releasing white mice in the London Colissum (poor mice) and then screaming: "Mouse!" loudly so as to disturb a performance. There were also colorful demonstrations - such as the person with a little ballerina in a (bird) cage to make the point of "captive" artists. The reason I am more sceptical about the Moonies than about even tobacco companies paying for a ballet is that people generally acknowledge that cigarettes are bad for you and know that the cigarette companies are trying to buy good publicity. When a cult of the magnitude of the Moonies does something like this it is to promote respectability. We note that there is no "Vatican Ballet Company" or a "Canterbury Contemporary Dance Company" (For those of you not acquainted with the Church of England - Episcopalian, in the US), Canterbury is the seat of the archbishop considered to be the chief prelate.) Jeannie's analogy of the Vatican Museum doesnt' work: we all know that they own fabulous works of art. Opening the museum to the general public isn't a propaganda ploy to make the Catholic Church more popular. A lot of the art in the museum is pre-Christian anyway, so some of the exhibits don't even 'promote' Christianity in any case. Besides, the real sin here would be in NOT making the art available to the public. Of course, many people in the audience will be completely unaware of the connection of the Universal Ballet with the Moonies - whereas people were well aware that the Kirov and Bolshoi were from the Soviet Union. Therefore, they haven't even been given the opportunity to decide for themselves whether or not they want to go and see them. Just a thought....

They are going to be in New York soon. I would be interested in seeing the dancers, of course, but I am really torn about supporting an enterprise that is sponsored by the Moonies. I'm really torn about this. It isn't the dancers fault, but then they did accept employment under the aegis of a cult that I find really scary. :confused:

Well, I'm sure Durante WAS well paid - I hear she has a fondness for fast and expensive cars. :rolleyes: Joking aside, I just found Durante very detatched and totally unsexy, so that when Carmen does that bump and grind movement in fifth position people just giggled. Murru tried very hard, but he was unable to make a connection on his own. Speaking of Murru, I certainly think he deserves to be better known on the international scene. I noticed in Giselle that he very nearly conforms to the Cecchetti ideal of being able to perform a saute in first position so that the heels and the toes touch in the air. Well, that's a physical impossiblility, but I think Murru comes about as close as humanly possible! Performing the repeated entrechats six in the second act of Giselle has been done many times before: notably by Eric Bruhn, so it wasn't something that Murru thought up for himself. I believe this was mentioned during our discussions about Giselle under Aesthetic Issues. Congratulations, atm711 to you and your spouse on your wedding anniversary. You make me feel like a newly wed - and I've been married for 25 years (this June). May you have many more happy and healthy years together.

I, too, saw the Giselle on Friday evening. I thought it INTERESTING and, perhaps, even a valid interpretation, but I object to it being called simply "Giselle". There are going to be a lot of little girls in Milan who will think that they have seen the REAL Giselle when they haven't. I wish Sylvie had given it another title - such as (and this is only an illustration) "A Sicilian Giselle" (along the lines of the other variant on the Giselle theme: "A Creole Giselle", which did stick a bit more closely to the original). That aside, I was irritated by a number of things: I thought the little vignette in Albrecht's room a little unnecessary; the noisy and frequent change of scene seemed a bit excessive; I was annoyed by the lack of space on stage caused by the "wall" in Act I; the brown socks looked silly; the courtiers seemed to be dressed in costumes reminiscent of the first half of the 19th C, except for Bathilde, whose outfit (once she removed the coat) looked to be out of the 1950s. The idea of a sword then seemed totally out of place. Why couldn't Albrecht have a monogrammed rifle instead? No one carried a sword then except when in military uniform. Sylvie changed enough in the ballet to figure out a way around that - and Albrecht's gesture of going for his sword would STILL make sense, because when not out hunting or chasing village girls, he probably DID dress in military uniform. I rather like the peasant pdd, but I do wish Sylvie had left Giselle's solo alone. By the way, with reference to our earlier discussions about Giselle: I note that Albrecht HAS no landlord in this production. He just leaves his sword by the side of a building. Rather careless of him, no? In Act II, I spent too much time looking at the brides' dresses. And INDIAN brides? It was a German tale after all! Furthermore we seem to have moved up to the 1950s in wedding dress styles. I did feel sorry for the girls who had to wear long sleeves! As for Sylvie's costume: I gather it was meant to be reminiscent of the Act I costume, but she COULD have put up her hair. The braid retainer looked silly. Those AWFUL rocks! Since when do rocks fly? Are we to infer that the action takes place under the earth??? What is their purpose - except to be in the way? Why not flying gravestones if you want to do something like that? And as Giselle CLEARLY dies of heart failure, she could have been buried in hallowed groud - which wouln't have been stony. Sylvie need US as consultants! Another thing I noticed, and this may be a function of differences in stage size: the floor cloth was rather wrinkled, and I was very fearful someone would have an accident. With reference again to our discussions: remember the point about the circle??? They had some lighting problems on Friday, and for a while only half of it was lit. Sylvie certainly emphasized the magic of the circle in this production - and the lit floor wouldn't let you miss the point. As far as the choreography went: I kept wondering why she had kept some things: a lot of the chorography for the corps - including the infamous hops across the stage, and for Albrecht, but decimated the choreography for Giselle and the wili solos. Given what a great dancer Sylvie is, it just didn't make sense for her to substitute some non-descript movements for the beautiful solo. If it had been anyone else, one would suspect that the choreographer could no longer dance the original. All-in-all, I enjoyed it up to a point (execpt, I must add for the hour-long intermission between the acts, which I thought unconscionable). I wouldn't mind seeing it again. It might even grow on me. It just isn't the REAL Giselle, and I think the general audience, who may not know any better, should be clued in on that. I have a question for the dancers out there: in Act II, it looked as though Sylvie wasn't wearing tights nor did she have ribbons on her shoes. I have very powerful glasses and I kept LOOKING. So how does she keep the shoes on? (Yes, I checked to see if she had applied skin-tone makeup to ribbons - but then there would be some wrinkling, and there was none. :eek:

La Scala opened it's stay in New York on Wednesday evening with the Amarcord/Carmen program, which they also presented on Thursday evening. Being unable to attend on Wednesday, I only saw the performance on Thursday. I enjoyed MOST of Amarcord but thought it needed a lot of pruning: say 15-20 minutes. I also thought much of the choreography was highly derivative. For example, the goose-stepping blackshirts seemed to come straight out of Igor Belsky's "Leningrad Symphony". (Sorry, younger readers, unless there's a video out there ? you wouldn't have been able to see this ballet.) The dancers, however were all excellent and did a commendable job of portraying their characters. I especially liked Biagio Tambone as the fascist official, Massimo Murru as the German officer and, of course, Sabrina Brazzo as Gradisca. The California contingent will be happy to hear that Durante's fan stayed in her hand, unbroken, during Carmen! It beats me as to why they use a paper fan: I don't think the rustling of the paper contributes in any way to the ballet. I have seen Carmen a number of times in the past - both live and on film - so I am fairly familiar with it. I will confess to not having seen it for many, many years, though: with Eric Bruhn and Kirsten Simone. I had forgotten some details - such as the creative use of the chairs - especially their use to deptict the bandits' horses. Durante did not wear the "pixie" wig. She had her hair parted at the side and then back into a bun. If we are being picky about details, I thought she might at least have added a couple of spit curls. I agree with the person who thought that there was no connection between Durante and Murru. I think the problem lay with Durante, as I felt that, while she DANCED the role excellently (probably the best that I've seen), she was about as sexy as a cold, wet washcloth. I felt that she projected the role the same way she does Manon - and Carmen and Manon are two entirely different characters. Carmen is about sex, her love of "strong" men as well as money. Manon is about money, money, money, social position and then love. Any sex that Manon has is merely a means to an end. In that sense, she is something of an innocent, whereas Carmen is predatory in the fullest sense of the word. Durante just didn't bring that out. Even at the end, during the "duel", I felt that she was just counting the drum beats and moving in time to them. There didn't seem to be any tension at all between her and Murru. Murru, by the way, partnered her extremely well but didn't seem to care that much. One wondered if the two just don't like each other. I'd like to give a mention to the three bandits, who did a bang-up job: Vitterio D'Amato, Beatrice Carbone, and Gianluca Schiavo. Does anyone know which man is the one who wears the red wig? He was really super! Those three brought life to the performance. The audience reception for both ballets was very warm, and the house was full. Giselle tonight. The first of four performances. Supposedly Sylvie is doing all of them except the Sat. matinee.

There's NO excuse for cell phones ringing during a performance: if the person needs to be available at all time they can easily purchase a vibrating battery, and this will alert them to a call. Furthermore, most of the theaters (at least here in NY) make an announcement prior to the start of a performance reminding people to turn off their cell phones, alarm watches, etc. Despite this, I once was at a performance where the person actually ANSWERED the call during a performance! As to the best of my knowledge God has yet to communicate with anyone by cell phone, the call could have waited! My other pet peeve is people who can't sit still. I was sitting in the orchestra at the Met in a place where the seats were poorly staggered, so everytime the woman in front of me moved her head (which was often), I had to move mine to see, and this greatly upset the person behind me. It also left me with a headache from bobbing around so much.

Back in the dark ages (again) of the Old Met Emily Post wrote a column for Opera News. It happed to come out on a day when we standees had waited for hours in ankle-deep slush in freezing temperatures. The column was about proper dress for the opera and contained a photo of one of the regular standees, who happened to be wearing thick tights and a Norwegian sweater. The caption read: "Ski sweaters and tights are for the upper slopes." This made us standees see red, and we wrote Dear Emily a stinging retort - pointing out that she came from her nice, warm apartment in a nice, warm limo into the nice, warm opera house, while we had to stand out in the cold for hours and didn't even have a chance to get some supper. (Rudolf Bing loathed the standees, and the worse the weather the more likely it was that the tickets would be sold just in time for us to file into our unreserved spots.)

In the long-ago days of the OLD Met, women were not admitted with slacks of any kind. A friend who was in the NYCB once wore fairly formal and full culottes and a comment was made about them. During the same era, I was told by Ann Jenner that the girls in the corps of the Royal Ballet were not allowed to wear slacks anywhere near the theater! Men had to wear neckties at the Old Met: one regular standee, who sported quite a full beard, went in one evening wearing a crew neck sweater. The doorman made him lift his beard so he could see if the standee was wearing a tie. He wasn't, so we had to smuggle out the tie of someone already inside so he could get in! In 1961 the Kirov came to the Old Met for the first time. They opened on a swealtering September evening. I later read that the temperature inside the House reached 105 F. Most of the gentlemen (it was a black or even white-tie affair in those days) took off their jackets. I believe it was Kolpakova who reported being amazed at looking over the sea of white that resulted from so many men being in shirtsleeves! During the 70s I came to NY on a visit while I was living in London. I was bowled over to discover lots of women in slacks and a man in a gold lame outfit that displayed most of an extremely hairy chest and was so tight that it left little to the imagination. On a subsequent visit, I wound up doing what for me was the unimaginable: I wore jeans, and torn ones at that, into the Met! I had been on my way to visit a friend when I stopped to leave at note for Ross Stretton at the ABT stage door. The lady backstage asked if I'd like a comp to the matinee. I couldn't refuse, and I didn't have time to go home and change. I stayed in my seat the whole time and covered my lap with my jacket! Nowadays, unless it's a special occasion, I like to wear nice informal clothes such as linen slacks and a jacket. It's basically what I can wear to work. If the occasion is more formal, then I have to change my clothes at work, and that's a bit of a nuisance.

Azari Plisetsky - yes, I believe brother of...Maya.

Now that you mention it, I think I must have seen it that way as a child. I'd completely forgotten about it.

I think Balanchine like the fact that everything in America was "new", that it didn't rely on old traditions, that people were free to "break the mould" and to experiment freely. He came here at a time when the musical environment was "jumping", when Hollywood was at the height of the studio system, when Broadway was full of new plays and musicals, when there was a lot of inventiveness in the arts. I am the daughter of an Hungarian violinist who came to this country in 1927 - brought in by Walter Damrosch. My father (I was a "late-life surprise package") personally knew and worked with many of the musically creative minds of that era (and in fact met Balanchine on more than one occasion at the home of mutual friends). He said that although there was a lot of creativity in Europe prior to WWII, no where was "the new" so actively sought as in this country. A Balanchine who had remained in Europe (even assuming that he would have survived WWII) would have been a very, very different Balanchine, because the influences on his life would have been quite different. I'm in the "not convinced" group: I don't think that the environment in Europe would have brought out the best in his genius.

My love of ballet MAY have started as a rebellion against my mother, who was a big fan of Martha Graham. I was sent to the New Dance Group Studio at age 5. My first teacher was Donald McKayle! But MY love was ballet. I guess, at first, it was because it was about fairy tales (to my young mind), pointe shoes, and pretty costumes. I had ballet paper dolls, and I read every book on ballet history that I could lay my hands on. I had my first ballet lesson at age 9 - after much pleading. I LOVED my pink tights and shoes and took them to bed with me. I insisted on wearing my hair in a bun, and I tried to Russianize my name, because I thought that all REAL ballerinas were Russian! I nearly flunked out of high school one year because the Royal Ballet were in town, and I went to their performances rather than do my homework. I also got into trouble for playing hookey to queue up for standing room to see Ulanova do "Romeo and Juliette": there was a performance scheduled for May 1, and because it was such an important holiday in the Soviet Union we were all SURE she'd dance - and she did. As I grew older and danced more myself, I began to have a deeper appreciation for ballet as an art form. It's where my heart is. I hear music and I choreograph impossible steps in my head. Dance is music made visible. Dance is breathing. Dance is life.

No7 mentions the Salons Russes curtain: it was certainly used when the Kirov brought that programme to New York a couple of years ago.

A friend of mine taught Benesh notation at the ballet school in Havana back in the 70s. (Yes, I got lots of interesting tidbits such as how Fidel, while attending a party at the Alonzos, was thrown fully clothed into the pool.) Anyway, she said that the big thing in Havana was to go to the Copelia (I think only 1 'p') for icecream. It was a big, famous icecream parlor there. I guess that's how this van got its name. Now we could go rechoreograph a bit of the ballet to include a dance with an icecream cone.

Your picture or whatever didn't come out. Manhattnik, must I make a pilgrimage to the site??? Now I'm really curious. :eek:

Sorry if I've offended you, Jane. I guess I've known the words for so long I can watch the performance without necessarily "hearing" them in my head. I've sent the Wagner words on to a friend who is a Wagnerian soprano. I'm sure she'll be amused. As for Giselle: do you mean: (Wili variation) "Hold that balance, hold that balance: if you value your life hold that balance! Hold that balance, hold that balance: if you value your job hold that balance!" ??? :rolleyes:

Just for fun - and somewhat astray from our serious and sometimes scholarly discussions: the late David Daniels (dance critic for Vogue) was most prolific in creating words to go with ballet music. He was especially creative for Swan Lake. When he wrote out some of them for a RB principal dancer about to do her first Swan Lake in NY, she said she'd have trouble keeping the words out of her head when she danced. For better or worse, here they are: Odette: (right after her grand jete entrance) "Oh woe is me that I a swan must be, that I can ne'er be free of Rothbart's fatal charms. Once the daughter of a mighty king was I, who could not flee the evil powers of Von Rothbart." Odette: (when she's trying to dodge Siegfried) "I'm the Swan Queen, do not touch me or the evil genius will destroy you. Go away! Or you'll succumb to Rothbart's noxious powers. Hush, now for he fast approaches. Cache yourself in yonder bush! (Aside) He is the Prince if I can charm he he will free me from my bondage..." Odette: (beginning of pdd - from the developpe) "My name is Odette, I am Queen of the Swans, Von Rothbart has brought me here to sing my song of woe. A swan I must be, at night I am free, a maid I can be with your love. If I can find a man who will vow his undying love and devotion to me, this bane of my life, the curse of Von Rothbart will fade, I'll be free." Then in England I picked up two other gems: one from the walz in Act I: "How's your mother? how's your father? how's your sister? how's your brother? How's your mother? how's your father? how's your sister, your brother, your aunt?" (It didn't help that there was a version in which the dancers went from partner to partner...) And then there are the famous words to the female Act III solo. Hard to describe WHICH music, but here goes: "I eat my peas with honey. I've done so all me life. It makes the peas taste funny, but it keeps them on the knife." (I think this goes back to the idea of "How can you tell the difference between and Englishman and a Continental when they are eating?" Ans: The Continental can get all the different food items on his plate on the fork at the same time EXCEPT peas, but the Englishman can get the peas on it as well.) Anyway, does anyone else know of any words that have been made up to go with the music?