felursus

I think the piece your are referring to was choreographed by Ashton for the RB (Carl Toms) production in the late 60s.

Interesting question, Luka. I think Odette hasn't had much experience of men. She's stayed away from humans for years by the time the second act starts. So, at first she's genuinely afraid of Siegfried. Then she's afraid to trust him. After all, if she's had any encounters with humans, it's probably because they want to turn her and her swan friends into dinner! She knows what will happen if he breaks his promise, but she can't help falling in love with him. Odile on the other hand is trying to pretend she's Odette. But Odile can't possibly understand Odette so probably thinks Odette espied Siegfried and used her wiles to entice him into swearing eternal love ("what a minx!"). Therefore what Odile thinks Odette is like is limited to flapping arms and imitating a 'soulful' expression. I think the key is that lack of understanding.

Thanks, Helena. I don't know why I was blanking out on Robert Mead's name. Does anybody know where he is/what he is doing now? I did see the original "Fille" cast - once. I was on a cycling tour of Britain, and I snuck away to London to see two RB performances at Covent Garden. Fille was one and the other was a mixed bill that included Antigone and the Good Humored Ladies (which featured Lydia Sokolova as the elderly lady in the cast. Somewhere I have her autograph.) I can't remember what the first ballet of the evening was, and alas the programme was lost. I do think I preferred Ann Jenner (she was my favourite Lise). I don't remember if I ever saw Christopher Gable in the role - although I guess I must have - but I adored Michael Coleman as Colas. A lot of later Ashton was choreographed for dancers other than Fonteyn - Sibley was the first Titania, and the choreography is full of "Sibleyisms". I think that's what Ashton did a lot of - he picked out movement characteristics of the dancer and played them up. A good way of looking at that is to observe the characteristics of the choreography of something like "Enigma Variations" (a gem that no one has yet mentioned) and look at the dancers on whom the roles were made: the choreography fit the dancers like second skins. No wonder it was difficult for the second cast to take on the role.

Thanks, Helena. I don't know why I was blanking out on Robert Mead's name. Does anybody know where he is/what he is doing now? I did see the original "Fille" cast - once. I was on a cycling tour of Britain, and I snuck away to London to see two RB performances at Covent Garden. Fille was one and the other was a mixed bill that included Antigone and the Good Humored Ladies (which featured Lydia Sokolova as the elderly lady in the cast. Somewhere I have her autograph.) I can't remember what the first ballet of the evening was, and alas the programme was lost. I do think I preferred Ann Jenner (she was my favourite Lise). I don't remember if I ever saw Christopher Gable in the role - although I guess I must have - but I adored Michael Coleman as Colas. A lot of later Ashton was choreographed for dancers other than Fonteyn - Sibley was the first Titania, and the choreography is full of "Sibleyisms". I think that's what Ashton did a lot of - he picked out movement characteristics of the dancer and played them up. A good way of looking at that is to observe the characteristics of the choreography of something like "Enigma Variations" (a gem that no one has yet mentioned) and look at the dancers on whom the roles were made: the choreography fit the dancers like second skins. No wonder it was difficult for the second cast to take on the role.

I, too, am a New Yorker born and bred. The first ballet performance I ever saw was the NYCB. At the time, and for many years after, it was the ONLY company - the heir to the Diaghlev tradtion (to my child's mind). I will admit to pining somewhat for full-length ballets with pretty, elaborate costumes, but I was willing to trade them in for purity of dance. I have to add here, that my mother was a worshipper of Martha Graham and barely tolerated my love of ballet - something she tried to wean me from. Somehow sseing "Clytemnestra" at age 9 didn't quite hit the spot! In the 60s I became enchanted by the Russians and the Royal Ballet, and Balanchine's flirtation with extreme exaggerations began to annoy me. It started with those claw-like hands and the extreme angularity of movement he seemed to like in those days. I agree with the person who said he/she didn't like watching other companies perform Balanchine. I think most European companies have a major stylistic problem with it. The Royal Ballet performed AGON and SERENADE while I was working at the ROH. The SERENADE was fine. I think it's one of the few Balanchine ballets that "travels" well. The RB definitely had problems with AGON. I think it's partly because they are trained to dance within the "box" and Balanchine definitely requires moving beyond the box. It's hard for me to adequately express what I mean in words. On the other hand, I don't think you could come along and set a traditional classical ballet on the NYCB and have them look good in it either. Yes, I know they do a full-length Swan Lake and a Sleeping Beauty these days BUT these ballets were staged/choreographed especially for them, and their stylistic quirks fully taken into consideration. I am reminded of the fairy variations in the SB Prologue: the music is so fast it reminds me of all those recordings where they are played so quickly one thinks: "But no one could ever dance the variations that fast." Ah, but the NYCB do! I think I'm rambling now. It's 1 am, and my brain has already done a grand jete into bed...

I've always wondered why there is no King. Is he dead? Is the Queen the Regent? How old is Siegfried? If the Queen is regent then he must be under whatever age was considered to be the age of "majority" in those times. If Siegfried is really all that young, it would explain why his mother is so concerned about his carousing with peasants and not taking getting married very seriously. It might also explain why he was so easily fooled by Odile and VR: no experience at all. What do you think?

Other ballerinas dancing the same production did the fouettes. For whatever reason, Plisetskaya chose not to do them. Re: Makarova - she had problems doing pirouettes. I saw her last class with the Kirov, and she went off into the corner at one point and was working on them with one of the then young up-and-coming soloists. Then when I worked on the Nureyev and Friends gala, Nureyev spent a lot of time working on pirouettes with her. He kept patting her stomach - seemingly telling her to use her abdominal muscles (she had a tendency to lean back), but perhaps he was doing that because he knew she was pregnant! Fonteyn was another dancer who cut out the fouettes - at least at the end of her career.

I think it depends on how overboard (or not)the Jester is. I like him when well danced. Sometimes it is the individual dancer who makes or breaks the role (as always)- but perhaps a little more so here. There has to be ONE that Manhattnik would refrain from hitting with his proverbial flyswatter. I do like the idea of him being a foil for the Tutor though. Anyway, I think there WOULD have been a court jester in Siegfried's mom's court. By the way, and I know Mme. Hermine knows who I mean, I do know a jester who could reliably do the 32 fouettes! [ 07-02-2001: Message edited by: felursus ]

My all-time favourite Ashton ballet is FILLE - favourite Lise was Ann Jenner, and I loved Michael Coleman as Colas. THE DREAM is a close second - with the original cast, of course. I also love SYMPHONIC VARIATIONS. This work is a lot more complex than it looks at first viewing. Ashton was very worried that people thought it looked like something by Balanchine. (He asked me about it once.) I loved the last act that Ashton composed for Swan Lake - and the pas de douze that Alexandra mentions - one of the best walzes around. LOVE the Neopolitan dance - best combo: Ann Jenner and Alex Grant. I love the white Monotones. It was choreographed for a gala/benefit and the other piece was added later. Original cast, of course: Vivyan Lorraine, Dowell, and (I'm blanking out here - help!) Has Jazz Calendar been revived at all? It was a very imaginative piece, and I liked the score. it had the virtue of having a lot of people in it.

My all-time favourite Ashton ballet is FILLE - favourite Lise was Ann Jenner, and I loved Michael Coleman as Colas. THE DREAM is a close second - with the original cast, of course. I also love SYMPHONIC VARIATIONS. This work is a lot more complex than it looks at first viewing. Ashton was very worried that people thought it looked like something by Balanchine. (He asked me about it once.) I loved the last act that Ashton composed for Swan Lake - and the pas de douze that Alexandra mentions - one of the best walzes around. LOVE the Neopolitan dance - best combo: Ann Jenner and Alex Grant. I love the white Monotones. It was choreographed for a gala/benefit and the other piece was added later. Original cast, of course: Vivyan Lorraine, Dowell, and (I'm blanking out here - help!) Has Jazz Calendar been revived at all? It was a very imaginative piece, and I liked the score. it had the virtue of having a lot of people in it.

Well, but if Director X is a scoundrel and is well-known only to give roles to a) his lovers B) girlfriends/wives of his friends (vv. for a female director), c) girls who at 5'6" weigh less than 100 lbs, d) buxom blondes - or whatever and LOATHES a) anyone with a Russian-sounding name even if born in Chicago and whose parents were born in Chicago B) anyone brunette c) anyone over/under a certain height d) married women/men e) married women/men with children - then it might be helpful to aspiring company members to have an idea about this in advance. I mean, if a 17-year-old brunette has a burning desire to join the brunette-hater's company, it might be helpful for her to know that he hasn't hired a brunette in the last 10 years (at 17 she could hardly know that), so maybe she should either consider a visit to a hairdresser with a view toward changing her hair color or start thinking about another company. :eek:

I think we've all suffered from the talkers, the lovers, the cell phones/pagers etc. But while we are on the subject of peeves, mine is parents who feel they need to reinforce the story to their offspring, constantly, or who have not sufficiently primed their children NOT to talk during the performance OR who have not bothered to consider whether their particular child is able to sit quietly through an act or a whole ballet/concert, play, or whatever. :rolleyes:

1) Balanchine with Maria Tallchief and Nicholas Magallanes (Act II) 2) Royal Ballet with Rowena Jackson and Philip Chatfield 3) Bolshoi with Plisetskaya and (not sure) 4) Royal Ballet again with Fonteyn and Blair and Beriosova Macleary. (I think this was essentially the same Leslie Hurry production that Blair later did for ABT). I guess it was basically Ashton with deValois input. 5) Kirov (Sergueyev production) - and I can't remember with whom - whoever and all who did it on the 1961 US tour. 6) Royal Ballet Carl Tom's production. This is the one that had the prologue (later cut), VR bringing the national dancers to the ball and the Ashton 4th act. (If I recall rightly, Makarova kept this for her production) There was a polonaise and a Mazurka choreographed by Nureyev 7)Beryl Grey's production for Festival Ballet (early 70s). I PROBABLY saw Evdokimova and ?. I guess I also saw Maina Gielgud do this while she was with the company. I don't remember much about it - it was that memorable - except that at the end, after Odette and Siegfried jump off the rocks, the swans formed a cross on stage. I have a feeling that the production debuted around Easter, and everyone was trying to figure out whether Grey had been carried away by religion. 8) POB's Nureyev production - the one in the box. I loathed it. I thought the POB danced it like civil servants: like marionettes. Having seen them many times in other things, perhaps they were told to be like that. 9) On film only: the Nureyev production for Vienna: the one where the swans run under the floor cloth at the end and Siegfried climbs a tree stump.... A friend once showed me the program from Vienna. There was an English translation of the libretto. In part it read: "Back at the ball there is a bevy of beautiful belles." 10) the Leslie Hurry/David Blair prod. for ABT 11) Makarova's production for ABT 12) Eric Bruhn's production for NBC 13) Peter Martin's production for the NYCB. No comment. My husband is taking a shower, so if I need to barf I can't. 14)Kevin McKenzie's production for ABT I'm sure I've seen others somewhere along the line. Oh - the more recent Bolshoi production, of course. And the Boston Ballet/Kirov joint production. How could I forget? :rolleyes:

Alexandra, I know EXACTLY what you mean: I used to want to go out and shoot the whole lot of them, tie down their arms - all trussed and ready for the oven!

OK, I'll date myself. The very first Swan Lake (Act II) I ever saw was the Balanchine 1 act with Maria Tallchief and Nicholas Magallanes. There WAS a Benno and he was there for the pas de deux (ok, pas de trois). I think the Royal Ballet had a Benno for a while - my memories of that are dim. As for who Benno is: Siegfried's best friend? assigned companion (spy for the QM)? just another high-born guy who's grown up around the palace? My secret theory is that Siegfried and Benno are "friends" in the intimate sense of the word, and that's why Siegfried is so dismayed at being told he has to get married - or else Benno is his partner in extra-curricular escapades outside the palace walls, and Siegfried doesn't want to give up his freedom. :rolleyes:

Back in the Dark Ages, the Royal Ballet had a production in which the Siegfried had to bow to his mother before running off into the night to go try explaining his idiocy to Odette. The late David Daniels, who much later became the dance critic for Vogue made up the following dialogue for that moment: Siegfried, in a little boy's voice: "Mommy, can I please go out and play now?" "Yes, dear, but be sure to be back in time for dinner. We're having your favorite dish: roast swan."

Let's be accurate: firing is when a person's employment is terminated prior to the end of their contract. What has happened to the dancers in question, as in the case of the Boston Ballet Dancers, was that their contracts were not renewed. Non-renewal of contract can happen for many reasons: lack of development on the part of the dancer; change of focus within the company, and the dancer doesn't "fit" the new profile; the dancer has been there for a number of years, is just "so-so" and the director wants to hire "fresh blood", or the AD wishes to start a stylistic change within the company or wishes to hire more dancers with specific talents; "artistic differences" with the director - which may include anything from not liking the roles he/she is to be given/wanting roles the director doesn't want to give to him/her to not wanting to be paired with a particular partner/not being allowed to dance with the partner of choice, etc. Not all of these reasons imply that the dancer is either incompetent or difficult to work with or not versatile. Sometimes the dancer him/herself is willing to discuss the reason(s) he/she is leaving and sometimes not. In any case, all we really know, unless we have inside information or the dancer him/herself wishes to discuss it, is that the dancer is leaving - whether voluntarily or not. I don't see why, if the dancer is talking, we can't. It can't be kept a secret for long. Directors of other companies have their own informants and would know if someone had been let go (or, strictly speaking, not have his/her contract renewed). I do think what would be bad is to say things like: "Sheezno and Heezno have been fired because - well, just look at how awful they are. Thank heavens the AD decided to get rid of them!" As far as ABT goes, the list will be out soon enough. I know about a few more than the people already mentioned on this list as leaving. :rolleyes:

Well, he seems to be a young, spoiled, rich-kid who prefers to hang out with his friends. We used to opine that he was probably gay - think of all that time he spent with Benno! He sure isn't thrilled at the idea that he's supposed to pick out a princess to marry - even though, lucky guy, he's being given the choice of six (unless it's ABT's production, and he only has 4 to choose from). So off a-hunting he goes - in a fit of pique and melancholy. In the deep, dark woods he meets a creature he's never seen before: a girl in a weird dress who tells him an even weirder tale. Instant chemistry! Poor Siegfried - he can't tell the difference between a white dress and a black one. (Does Odile have an Aussie accent: I understand that that's where black swans originate?) He also fails to recognize VR - whom he KNOWS is up to no good. Well, a prince with brains would. :rolleyes:

I had always imagined that EITHER the other swans were other girls VR had enchanted because he had a grudge against their parents too OR girls he enchanted to keep Odette company OR her companions on the day she was enchanted. I had also imagined that VR had some kind of a grudge against Odette's parents (he wasn't invited to her christening?) and so.... Swans are considered to be Royal birds. In England all the swans on the Thames belong to the Crown. The image of the swan as beautiful, graceful, and somewhat remote ignores the fact that they can be very nasty birds indeed - surprisingly, they run quite fast on land - I've been chased by one!

Numero Uno: Svetlana Beriosova. She had to have been one of the greatest Odettes ever, and when she was "on" was a really evil Odile as well. She made it clear how much Odette really loved Siegfried and how deeply she was hurt by his apparent treachery. Second place: Makarova Third place: Plisetskaya. No one, but no one, will ever be able to match her style - or those arms!

From Picone's mouth - his departure was due to "artistic differences" with Kevin McKenzie.

I'm with LMCtech: my husband is straight, white, WASP (English) male who loves classical music (especially the Baroque period), plays the organ (used to play in churches), sings in a large choir (New York Choral Society) and prefers "story" ballets to abstract ones, and has no interest in sports unless it's the Olympics. He would have asked the cab driver to change stations to the classical one.

My "birdie" who told me about Raymonda is extremely highly-placed (i.e. not just a kid in the corps who's heard rumors). As far as the "Dream" and "Fille" go - everyone backstage was talking about it - so if it's a rumor, it's a very strong one. It may have been strengthened by the fact that Anthony Dowell and Kevin McKenzie were meeting last week. Dowell was in NYC (seen by me) and attended Amanda McKerrow's "Swan Lake". As far as casting goes: I think they have the people to do the Dream. As for Fille - well, that is so special. I know a lot of companies other than the RB have done it, and I saw Joffrey do it, but it just wasn't the same. (Joffrey also did "The Dream".) I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Well, Balletdanzer, a little birdie told me that ABT will be staging a production of Raymonda next year at the Met.

Well, Luka, your visit will be too early in the year to catch ABT. The Metropolitan Opera season lasts into April, so it won't have ended when you visit. I advise you to go to the NYCB site later in the year to get an idea of their schedule. Right now their site only has their current season and the Saratoga schedule. There may also be visiting dance companies at the New York City Center. Perhaps someone in the group could tell us their URL, so you could check them out. Even if there isn't anything ballet for you to see while you are in NYC, you'll be kept very busy visiting all the sites. You might even catch a Broadway show. (Hint: check and see if the show you want to see is up on the board at TKTS in Times Square - that way you can get the tickets much cheaper.) Enjoy.