Marc Haegeman

Thanks for sharing your impressions, chiapuris. Now that we have the new/old Mariinsky version, the statement in the booklet that the Grigorovich adaptation preserves the Mariinsky original "in so far as possible" sounds really out of tune. Hope you'll be seeing a lot more at the Bolshoi and please keep us updated.

The Bolshoi's "Pharaoh's Daughter" has indeed been filmed by a French company last October in Moscow, with Svetlana Zakharova, Sergei Filin, and Maria Alexandrova. The ballet was broadcasted on French pay TV Mezzo earlier this year, so it definitely exists. I guess we might expect a commercial DVD release later this year. As for the Mariinsky, the only thing due for commercail release is the Fokine programme filmed when the company was in Paris in October 2002. BBC and other European channels have been showing parts of it - Diana Vishneva and Andrei Yakovlev in "Firebird", Zakharova and Ruzimatov in "Scheherazade". Several Mariinsky Opera's conducted by Gergiev are now appearing on DVD (mostly by Philips as Robert mentions): "Ruslan and Ludmilla", "Prince Igor", "Mazeppa", "The Fiery Angel" etc. but unlike the ballet productions the Mariinsky opera's have never been absent from the video catalogue in the last ten years. As for the new/old Petipa ballets - keep praying.

FYI, Leonid Nadirov is no longer in charge of the Vaganova Academy. He has recently been appointed First Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications, and I don't know of any successor yet. Marjolein, best you can do is to write a fully motivated letter and fax and/or email it to Altynai Asylmuratova, the Artistic Director of the Academy on the numbers given by vrsfanatic. Good luck!

It depends on what you mean by "strong", Melissa. There surely wasn't anybody of the calibre of Soloviev, Baryshnikov or Semenov. But Sergei Vikulov, Sergei Berezhnoi (Terekhova's husband), Boris Blankov were definitely serviceable artists, and Konstantin Zaklinsky was up-and-coming.

I guess everybody will agree about Abdiev's effort as Solor, and actually in the Kultur version most of his mistakes have been edited. It doesn't help either when one realizes that it should have been Yuri Soloviev...

Melissa - To see the Chabukiani-Ponomarev production, for a long time one of the Kirov's hidden treasures, this is not to be missed by anyone caring for La Bayadère.

Thanks, Marga. Dark hair seems to be trendy in Moscow these days

I put up a selection of photos shot backstage at the Bolshoi Theatre, and featuring Maria Alexandrova, Nadezhda Gracheva, Dmitry Gudanov and Nina Kaptsova in rehearsal. Backstage at the Bolshoi Enjoy your visit!!

You might even say that for Leningrad audiences and dancers she updated the existing standard: in their eyes she brought something unusual, extraordinary, or very personal, but always unexpected, in her performances of the great classics. Maybe it was just the fact of seeing something familiar done in a different, but still recognisable way, which attracted them - for that matter Mezentseva has been making school at the Mariinsky. Nobody was offended. Like I said I never understood the fuss about her myself

Dear Cygnet, my posting was nothing personal, you know. Just this: when I mentioned "I have never seen it" I meant that I did never see, live or in the video you so agreeably describe, what the Kirov person has seen in Mezentseva's performance of Giselle. (To make sure, it was not the video performance he was describing.) But since you were making insinuations about Mezentseva's career which are totally irrelevant as to how Russians assess her artistry, and since you seem to condemn a dancer on the strength of a video performance, I thought it useful to post this little clarification. Indeed, it's not a crime to disagree with another's standard, but it's a shame if one would remain ignorant of the fact there is another standard.

Here we have this strange phenomenon in Russian ballet, called Mezentseva. I'm not trying to defend her, nor did I ever like her much. Yet there is one undeniable fact, as Alexandra already mentioned: she is adored by about any Petersburg trained dancer I know. Many of them, even from the current generation of Mariinsky dancers, consider her the example to follow, and many will admit her being far superior. A Kirov dancer once told me that her mad scene in Giselle was the most convincing one he'd ever seen in his life. Not because of her thinness, but because of her dramatic abilities, which he thought unequalled. I have never seen it, but there it is - and the things you suggest, Cygnet, are totally irrelevant to that fact. Moreover, Mezentseva was definitely not made because of dancing with Zaklinsky.

I would call this "hanging" a journalistic hyperbole. Moreover, juding by the present ticket prices at the Bolshoi, soviet times are far, far away. Thanks for the synopsis, coda.

Asylmuratova

Interviews with Mariinsky dancers have been published in the well known magazine Dance View and Ballet Alert. There are also links to recent interviews on For Ballet Lovers Only

Giselle opens in Antwerp 17 February 2005, tours through Belgium (Ghent, Bruges etc) and parts of The Netherlands until March 29.

The Royal Ballet of Flanders season 2004/2005 is bound to be a special one, as it will see artistic director's Robert Denvers (who has been running the company since 1987) farewell. It is said to be a mirror of his policy. 2004/2005 opens with anything but a mirror, but rather a foretaste of what is due to come in the post-Denvers era: a mixed bill with William Forsythe (the unavoidable "In The Middle"), a Chinese Petrushka (chor. by Xin Peng Wang), and a world creation set on Stravinsky's Violin Concerto by Nicolo Fonte. Furthermore and more appropriate, there are revivals of the recent "La Bayadère" and of "Giselle", considered as two of Denvers' most successful efforts. Finally there is "Inner Glances", grouping for the occasion four of what are deemed the most remarkable creations by house choreographer Danny Rosseel (with the memorable titles "Disregarding Changes", "Forgotten Journey", "Drifting Inwards" and "Seen Within a Square"). In the new season the company will also tour China, Portugal and London.

Herman, as a matter of fact the male lead is off his rocker for the whole time. Mikhail Lavrovsky’s "Nijinsky" is a very downbeat piece, to say the least, using Rakhmaninov’s "Isle of the Dead" and set entirely in the insane asylum. Nijinsky in straightjacket is gradually confronted with his past by the doctors who hand him his dancing shoes and show him posters of his biggest roles, yet soon finds himself torn between ever quarreling Diaghilev and Romola again. The choreography is rather crude, finding its best moments when Nijinsky reminisces his roles.

Two Bolshoi Ballet gala performances are planned in The Hague and Zaandam (don't ask me why there...), the Netherlands, on June 11 and 13. The program consists of a selection of pas de deux and solos performed by soloists of the Bolshoi and other Moscow companies. The main part of the program seems to be Mikhail Lavrovsky's "Nijinsky", a ballet created in 2000, highlighting Dmitry Gudanov in the title role. The work will see its European premiere. Herman, I guess this could be something for you?

Thank you for posting this, Mikhail. And well deserved, too, for the 4 winners of the "Bright Stream"!

Many thanks, Inga. Good to hear the Bolshoi can still make something of this ballet, although we have come a long way when one realizes that Crassus the cruel warmonger is more interested in women than warfare :grinning:.

Thank you, Ina. It seems that the Bolshoi is making the same mistake as the Paris Opera Ballet by trying too much at the same time in two performing venues, and with a new repertory which demands careful preparation and time. It's interesting that the Bolshoi casts Zakharova in the 2nd movement of "Symphony in C" (which I assume would suit her better), while at the Mariinsky she was cast in the 1st. Please keep us updated about further casts in this program.

Many thanks, Inga. Shame the evening didn't go down that well. Sounds to me that this Balanchine celebration was more or less felt obligatory, but not really danced with the heart.

We already found it, at the beginning of this topic: Kopylov conducting the Bolshoi . It will always be too slow or too fast for somebody, but at least it's a ballet performance.

I have heard Pletnev’s “Cinderella”, Cygnet, even as most of his other recordings (Tchaikovsky symphonies, Rachmaninov symphonies :sleeping: etc). It's all the same. I still need to hear the first one that convinces me. Most of his efforts are cold, clinically sounding, clumsily crafted westernized surrogates. I find it hard to believe that this is actually a Russian orchestra, with a Russian conductor playing. You talk about “clarity and spectacular tonality”. Excuse me, what tonality? Everything sounds flat as a pancake with Pletnev. If you want to hear tonality and a sound image which has character, body and bite, please listen once to Dorati and the Concertgebouw Orchestra, or to Svetlanov (even though he is let down by the poor recording for his "Sleeping Beauty"). With Pletnev you hear nothing but glassy strings, while often there is a whole brass section of 4 trumpets, 3 trombones and a tuba behind it. These guys are supposed to blow their lungs out (and in "Beauty" there are quite a few passages where this happens), yet most of the time it sounds as if they were on leave. A complete non-event to my mind. I hope, Silvy, you now know which recording to buy...

Gergiev's "Beauty" was one of the first recorded by the Philips team at the Mariinsky (along with Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet"), and still a long time before they completely mastered its acoustics. I agree with Herman. As a recording it's interesting for its details, but a general vision of the work as a whole seems to be absent. Gergiev has the advantage of the Mariinsky orchestra, and they can play the score blindfolded. He never plays it in performance, but for that the dancers are eternally grateful Can't find much good to say about Pletnev's deadpan effort, though. Pletnev may be a first rate pianist, but as a conductor I still need to hear his first convincing recording. I find his "Beauty" totally bloodless and dull, while most of the dansante numbers are a total loss. Great idea to turn the apotheose in a piano concerto, that's true :grinning: The recording is one of those modern digital ones (with four D's I believe) where everything sounds so perfectly clean and polished that one would wish for the return of a good old scratchy vinyl LP... The best CD recording (now that we got to the sublect anyway) for my money is still Antal Dorati with the Concertgebouw Orchestra from Amsterdam.