mnacenani

Still have not been able to see her as Kitri - had booked at ROH two years ago but got Tsygankova on the night. And would love to see her as Juliet in original version. She danced Juliet twice at Perm last year but logistics out of Istanbul are a nightmare.

Once again it will be ballet travel article rather than serious ballet review. Flew in early afternoon to observe Krysanova in a different role after seeing her (imho amazing) performance as Juliet last November. Normally I hate and don't see contemporary "creations" and don't fancy Shostakovich either but took the risk of having to walk out at the interval since this was a "story ballet" I perhaps could relate to. I only had a rudimentary knowledge of the original plot (shame on me again) and as I believe good ballet should be self-explanatory I did not look up the story or read the synopsis before the performance. Last evening there were five principals on stage, as star-studded a cast one could wish for : https://www.bolshoi.ru/en/performances/714/roles/#20180116190000 and the show started with Tixomirova the Housekeeper striking a pose in front of the curtain before the conductor came out - what a character she is. My companion told me that Tixo had a baby a few months ago (which I at first misunderstood as "Tixo will have a baby in a few months" so I was watching her with horror for the first 20 mins or so as she did high jumps all over the place) - nice to see her back in fine form. From the action on stage can someone who doesn't know the plot at all make out the story ? Imho no way : one can understand that it's about a girl who roughs up and generally treats badly a number of men who try to woo her but anything more elaborate that this would be hard to dream up. But having said that I found this creation quite watchable dance and music wise and will see it again, this time in full knowledge of the original story and the printout of the synopsis of this staging in hand. I found it to be a quite watchable slapstick comedy if one can call it that. And it taught me that Shostakovich could write excellent melodic score when he wanted to, the score of this ballet is a pot-pourri of tunes from various compositions but someone has made a good job of stitching them up. Now Katya : (at this point I have to disclose that I have been reported as a propagandist for Krysanova, so maybe readers should take in my views with a pinch of salt !) was it Kuznetsova who wrote after the premiere of the Ratmansky R&J that "Krysanova the actress outshone Krysanova the dancer" ?? After seeing her as the Shrew last night I fully agree with this appraisal - imho here we have an extremely talented "character actor" in addition to a dancer with excellent technique, a combination not found quite so often. OK, R&J and TotS are not "classical ballets" per se but I have seen Katya also as Kitri and Medora where in my (malevolently biased) view she outshone the other leads I saw in consecutive performances, the other Kitri being Zaharova. I hope quite a number of our membership will make the effort to see the Ratmansky R&J live cinecast coming up this Sunday so that we can open a thread to discuss both her acting/dancing and the Ratty staging vs original Lavrovsky. Last night created quite a dilemma for me : I bought tix for the Shrew after casting was posted, to see Krysanova. This performance was at the New Stage, but afterwards while looking up what Alyona Kavalyova is slated for what do I find : on same evening Alyona is to dance the lead in Swan Lake at the Historic Stage ! No tix left on Balshoy website of course, but yesterday while checking in at the hotel the concierge said "have you come to see Swan Lake ? We have a nice seat on the second row of parter at a good price" ....... it was good for me that I had one of my friends as my guest for the Shrew, and that the concierge did not have two tix for Swan Lake, so I managed to keep on course !

Normally I can't get enough of Zaharova, and I could watch her do the DQ grand pas a zillion times. But I'm afraid she is becoming a bit old and not "looking the part" for some roles. After watching one of her recent Giselles my wife quipped that she looked like Albrecht's mother. In Sept '16 I saw Krysanova at the matinee and Zaharova in the evening as Kitri and Katya to my eye was the more "believable" Kitri overall.

Yesterday tix were still available, extremely tempting ..... am trying to restrain myself

No one else seems to have noticed this so posting just to make sure. Mariinka has completed posting ballet casting for February and Natasha is debuting in Legend of Love as Mehmene Banu. Best seats for this are R10K - an eye watering price for Piter : https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/playbill/playbill/2018/2/16/1_1900

Ooops ! I just looked at the principals and seeing the current dates on the page thought this was the current roster, sorry about that.

Roster of candidates for Swanilda has been posted : https://www.bolshoi.ru/en/performances/283/roles/#all (No comment ! )

My reference video for Giselle is the ROH 2006 Cojocaru-Kobborg performance issued by Opus Arte. I think Kobborg was also great in this.

"What if, instead of plunging a dagger through her heart, Cio-Cio-San demanded alimony and child support from Pinkerton? And what if, instead of being murdered at the hands of Don José, Carmen turned the tables on her lover-cum-aggressor?" Worth having a read imho : https://www.wqxr.org/story/carmen-metoo-era-upgrade-florence-opera-house/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/02/italy-gives-world-famous-opera-carmen-defiant-new-ending-stand/

Having never seen Yakobson Ballet would have liked to see this but didn't know. Now they are on tour to Japan France and Italy till the end of March. Had seen some Eifman stagings on Mezzo but never Yakobson. Have never seen Alina live as Giselle and would go the extra mile to see her if/when she would appear. Please do post it if you notice it coming up anywhere in Europe.

Sorry for trespassing - no harm in extra publicity I hope

https://www.ilona-landgraf.com/2018/01/the-post-diaghilev-generation/ Many thanks to Ilona Landgraf for this heads up. By Michael Meylac, foreword by Ismene Brown, aft-word by John Neumeier.

It's archived on ORF website for anyone with good VPN : http://tvthek.orf.at/profile/Neujahrskonzert-der-Wiener-Philharmoniker-2018/13886723/Neujahrskonzert-der-Wiener-Philharmoniker-2018/13958145

(As someone who has been an opera-goer for 30+ years before being captivated by Russian classical ballet) May I suggest that there is serious socio-political satire in Madama Butterfly in Act 2 Scene 1, when MB is speaking with Sharpless and Goro regarding divorcing one's wife in the USA. Before the advent of surtitles many people who didn't know the libretto well missed this bit I think.

Japanese TV show featuring blackface actor sparks anger ! http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42561815

https://www.eno.org/whats-on/chess/ Had been waiting for years for Chess to be revived, after missing the one-off semi-staged performance at the Royal Albert Hall in 2008. Had seen the original staging in London in 1987, for me something must-see, if ever there was a true "rock opera" this is it. After 15 mins we could tell that Björn and Benny of Abba must have had a classical music education : the composition is as rich in its vocal varieties as in Mozart's operas - solo, duet, terzett, quartet, quintet, sextet, chorus ...... "exceptional, worth a special journey" in Michelin parlance !

Thank you so much, think I can manage with the help of google translate. There was a hitch at the cc payment stage, will retry in the morning.

As you may know tix are much sought after and can only be obtained via a lottery. Three years ago my cousin who lives in Vienna got two tix via the lottery and offered it to us and we said no thank you due to the same reason

Thanks for this tip - just looked up but no tix are available on the website, could be sold out. For quite some time I have been wanting to see ballet in Kyiv : there must be a strong ballet tradition there judging by the number of Mariinka and Bolshoy principals and first soloist who are of Ukrainian origin, from Zaharova on. Will email the box office now.

Dear Mashinka - I am in a festive mood and am dying to post a gag in reply to your post I quoted above, starting with "Where I come from we ......." but I can sense Helene peering over my shoulder and she has a big axe while I have but a little neck ....... sigh ! Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE ON EVERY CONTINENT !!

Saw little of her at the ROH during the Nineties but she sure was a breath of fresh air (my favs at the time were Asylmuratova and Durante). She had a very interesting (imho) monologue on YT which I had posted on a different thread - will try to find and post it here for the benefit of any members who might not have seen it.

Neumeier's "Anna Karenina" is to premiere on March 23rd with six performances running till March 28th. Hamburg/Canada/Bolshoy co-production. The eagerly awaited revival of Vikharev's 2009 reconstruction of "Coppelia" is set to premiere on 20th April and will run for three nights. Incidentally, two "Ballet Soloists' Gala"s have been scheduled for 25-26 April. I had seen and reported on the previous galas on 22-23 October 2016 - the program when posted will be sort of "predictable" but what a difference a full live orchestra makes, compared to some other shows with recorded music only. An enthusiastic balletgoer could enjoy seeing it five nights in a row !

Now you do have a point here, and I do have a problem with who to see. I normally tend to see dancers who I know and like, which is damn difficult at the Balshoy to organise. Ticket sale opens 3 months before performance date but casting is posted max 3 weeks before by which time there are no tickets left. I keep thinking whether I should just buy tix blind and see whoever appears on the night to broaden my knowledge base, but who wouldn't want to see a dancer he/she admires if there is the chance ?? With ticket prices becoming unacceptable on the "open market" I will have to buy blind thus resolving this dilemma. Stepanova : I don't have anything against her, will make an effort to see her in different roles, no foregone conclusion ! This season she is on my watchlist along with Kavalyova. However, you and I might have different priorities and likes which affects who we will gravitate towards.

Must say this DQ grand pas execution is not bad at all - is this from last year's Samara gala ? Don't have anything against Stepanova - don't know the dancer well enough, will be watching. So far I only saw her live once as Medora and reported how it looked to me. Tastes and likes are so personal, someone else could have a totally different take on that same performance.

That makes two of us ! However, I need to see a bit more of Stepanova to be able to arrive at a definitive opinion. Beautiful form and execution is important but for me ballet is something more. "We'll see how it goes ..."