mnacenani

Yes indeed - who else but the Bolshoy has the human and financial resources to put all of the "24 Hours" on stage in Coppelia ??

From Staatsballett Berlin website notes on their forthcoming new Bayadere production : "In order to get as close as possible to the original, Alexei Ratmansky not only reconstructs “La Bayadère”, but also painstakingly examines Petipa's taste and instinct. This approach is taken up in the stage design and costumes being newly developed by Jerôme Kaplan". Regrettably Berlin does not have the company to do this work justice.

I certainly don't remember seeing an orchestra at either of the two "Malakhov & Friends" galas I went to at the Admiralspalast on 2-3 September 2016. "Polina & Friends" made it three times in a row, enough is enough.

I have no problem with the sets and costumes - the awful quality of the dancing and the variations is my problem. OK maybe the variations were such in its day but it doesn't look Petipa to me, or have I been conditioned to look for current technique and style ?? But what about the horrible PdB even I can notice - surely Petipa didn't ask for that ! (the Vaganova GP last year was excellent imho - I saw the full Smikalov Paquita the next evening and thought Vaganova's 3rd Act was better)

Gnossie just checked the Berlin Ballet website and DS is not listed. His write-up on the programme places him jointly at Dortmund Ballet and Dresden. Berlin male principals and soloists leave much to be desired, hoping Simkin will partially fill the void.

I apologise for this error : I was almost certain I read this figure somewhere on the web while looking up Ivan Liska today but now can't find it. Anyway the correct number of departures seems to be 29 as you have stated, it can't have been 55 since the company had ca. 69 members at the time.

After watching the webcast from 2015 I can't help thinking that Zelensky was probably right in sacking or not offering contract extensions to the 55 dancers (Lacarra aside) who left. I saw the 3rd Act of Paquita which Vaganova Academy performed at the Mariinsky last year as part of their graduation performance which is on YT (link below) - compared with that this Munich performance looks (imho) awful : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK3HRdrwvxc

Zelensky is like the Grim Reaper ! When he took on Stasik 25 dancers resigned upon hearing the news, and when he took on Munich 55 dancers left the company, including Lacarra.

Thank you so much for this heads-up ! I have seen the Lacotte version of POB and last year saw the Smikalov reconstruction at the Mariinsky : the first two acts of Lacotte and Smikalov did not have much in common between them. Eager to see how Ratmansky has treated it, but most probably one will be able to tell once again that Act 3 is the real thing.

Albrecht can be blonde but Jizel never !! 👎

POLINA & FRIENDS GALA - STAATSOPER BERLIN Thursday 17 May : The evening started off with Polina coming out in front of the curtain mike in hand and delivering a short welcome speech in German, the contents of which I could not make out, got big loooong applause. She was in White Swan tutu which I found a bit odd since the first number was the Medora-Ali PdD which she was going to dance with Daniel Camargo of Dutch Ballet. Anyway this is Berlin not Moscow and I don't think anybody minded the wrong costume - the PdD execution was excellent, Camargo whom I saw live first time was impressive. From then on we saw "Mopey" (Music CPE Bach/Choreo Goecke) a solo danced by Friedemann Vogel ; Giselle 2.nd Act PdD danced by Danielle Muir and Konstantin Lorenz of Berlin Ballet ; "Intimate Distance" (M. O Bubenicek/C. J Bubenicek) a duet danced by Ksenia Ovsyanick (Berlin) and Dmitry Semionov (Dresden) ; Sleeping Beauty PdD danced by Kochetkova and Di Lanno of SFB, the first half ending with the Manon bedroom PdD danced by Polina and Vogel. Mopey by Goecke (recently fired house choreo of Stuttgart) I found meaningless and a waste of Vogel's obvious talent, who I also saw live first time. The dancing in Giselle was a bit shaky at times, Berlin has room for improvement. Intimate Distance seemed to be about a couple constantly breaking up then making up, but don't trust the word of someone who watches modern choreo "like a cow watches a passing train" ! Sleeping Beauty PdD execution by Kochetkova and Di Lanno was excellent .... my she is petite isn't she ?? The last number Manon bedroom PdD execution by Semionova and Vogel was ex-cel-lent and got big well-deserved applause, but there was no "chemistry" which is not surprising in a gala. The second half started with "All Long Dem Day" - another Goecke choreo to Nina Simone's song, danced by students (not kids) of the Berlin Ballet Academy. I can't make fish or fowl out of these pieces so won't say anything - lots of well rehearsed movement, to what end or effect ?? The second number was "Without Words", choreo by Nacho Duato to Schubert's "Lieder ohne Worte", danced beautifully by Polina and Ivan Zaytsev, her frequent partner at Mixailovskiy. The next number was billed as "Elegie aus Schwanensee" danced by Svetlana Gileva and Dmitry Semionov of Dresden Ballet, which I thought was the Black Swan Adagio and didn't read the credits. What came on was something totally strange, and when the lights went up I discovered this was choreo by "Xin Peng Wang" (?) to unrelated music by Chaikovskiy ..... don't remember a thing, neither the music nor the choreo. The final two numbers were "Degunino" (M. Knaifel/C. Morau) a solo danced by Kochetkova and "Cantata" (C. Bigonzetti to Southern Italian chant by women's quartet Assurd) danced by Polina and Zaytsev. Even my wife who is more tolerant of modern choreo said she was sad to see Kochetkova wasting her talent, time and energy for Degunino. Cantata was somewhat interesting, Polina and Zaytsev animating by excellent execution the chant which resembled Corsican traditional chants in our opinion. Before the finale, Polina came out and asked the audience to grant her 30 seconds, during which she changed into something like morning class gear and danced a solo as extra, which was very well received, then it was time for the curtain calls to music by Rakhmaninov. This is the last time I will have seen a gala in Germany - no live orchestra takes away 50 % of the pleasure for me. On top of that, the quality of the recorded music was awful - from sources of wildly varying quality, belted out of a standard theater PA system. The Staatsoper was under renovation for almost a decade, a decent surround system should have been incorporated into the works. I have better surround sound than this at home, and consider this quality of sound at a "gala" totally unacceptable and a disgrace !! Footnotes : Dmitry Semionov is Polina's brother and we found him to be quite impressive. And it turned out that they have a sister, Ksenia Semionova, who is a pianist and she was credited with the piano part for the recording of "Lieder ohne Worte". Carlo di Lanno also looked very good to my eye. Was my first viewing of Kochetkova, live or recorded, thought she is a very good dancer but would she be among the top rank at the Bolshoy ..... I am not sure ..... beg forgiveness from her San Franciscan fans. P.S. - Many people don't know who Polina is married to : her husband is the Turkish Berlin CdB dancer Mehmet Yümak. There is a sweet story I picked up somewhere re how they met first time : after Malakhov signed Polina and she was due to arrive in Berlin following her graduation from Moscow Academy someone from Berlin Ballet rang Mehmet and said "Look - there is a Russian girl who is joining us who does not have a place to stay - can she stay in your spare room while we find her lodgings ?" !! Don't know whether this is 100 % true.

Intelligent looking eyes, and not a "poseuse" like some others.

Balshoye Spasiba !!

Dear Drew it may be more problematic than we think to allocate necessary rehearsal time to any ballet which has been off repertory for considerable time. I saw two out of three recent Coppelias with a friend who is a Moscow Academy graduate and former dancer and current ballet writer and lecturer, and she said the CdB looked under-rehearsed, which wasn't visible to my eye. I saw the matinee alone where coaches were sign-directing the CdB and leads from behind the proscenium and when I reported this some members commented that this is what happens when the production has been under-rehearsed.

Getting a ticket for any high-demand event at the Bolshoy has become a real hassle for people like me who fly in only a couple of hours before curtain up. My hotel is opposite the Bolshoy and even then ! One has to go to the main box office and present passport, credit card used in booking, and passport copy of any companion (whose passport number and name has to be entered when booking) to collect the tix. And there is always a queue and Russian ladies ahead of you in the queue let everyone they know join them and jump the queue ! So collecting your tickets with only a couple of hours to spare is almost a non-starter : couple of weeks ago I wanted to collect my tix for a future event at the New Stage box office when I arrived for an evening performance, was given a card showing locations of Bolshoy box offices on Teatralnaya and directed to the main box office. The next day I went there an hour before my matinee was due to start and queued at Window No. 3, only to be directed to Window No. 1 when my turn came. By then there was no time left so I went off to the matinee. It ended at 2:45 pm and I made it to Window No. 1 just 5 mins before it was due to close at 3 pm for the lunch break. Then the lady there would not release the tix since all three had my name and passport number ! Luckily by this time I have learnt just enough Russian to be able to explain that I live in Istanbul and did not have the passport copy of my companion when I bought the tix online, adding that getting a ticket for the Bolshoy has become a "kashmar" (nightmare) !! This regime is in effect for the first week of advance tix sales, from online sale opening on a Saturday at 5:30 pm (box office sale opens in the morning !) to Friday of following week. From then on you can get e-tickets online and print them out at home ...... if there are any left !!

Totally agree, but with the football world cup kicking off on June 14th I am sure Moscow will be overcrowded and have ruled out visiting Russia during the world cup. I find both Moscow and Piter unbearable during the summer without any world cup.

I hope they will destroy it beyond any chance of repair - I already wrote that if this is ballet I am Apollo !! Re program and dancers : wonderful, beyond my expectations, so much so that I just applied for a ticket for the second night too. Hope to write how I found it in due time, not that my opinion is of any importance for anyone.

I for one am happy, wasn't expecting this much. Seeing Legris, Guerin, Lacarra, Ferri will be wonderful for me, and Osipova.

If you'll excuse me : Paris has gone completely off the classical tracks, at least London is trying to stay on.

However, dear Volcano, it was no different at the Mariinsky Gala, but leaving aside the suitability of the program, this is more interesting. At least Bolshoy hasn't officially named it "Petipa Gala", they have called it World Ballet Stars. I saw the "Petipa Gala" at Stasik too and that left much to be desired in terms of Petipa.

Dear Drew I couldn't agree with you more - I for one with limited knowledge of heritage choreography would love to see what you suggest. The snag is probably that the names and CdB would not be rehearsed in rare pieces off repertory and it would take an enormous amount of time to come up to standard. For the Petipa season Mariinsky were trying to stage the Ratmansky Swan Lake but had to drop it in February when they couldn't surmount rehearsal problems. But this is so much more exciting than the dud Mariinsky "gala" I saw in February.

Second Part : 1) Balanchine PdD : Teryoshkina Shklyarov 2) Spiral Twist (Maliphant) : Lacarra Dino 3) PdD from After the Rain (Wheeldon) : FERRI Gomes 4) Diana & Acteon : Krysanova Tsvirko 5) PdD from SB : Novikova Sarafanov 6) Grand Pas Classique : Marchand Park 7) Farewell Waltz : Legris Guerin 8/ PdD From Manon (June 1 only) : Osipova Shklyarov 9) Tristan & Isolde PdD : Zaharova Labukhin 10) Raymonda Grand Pas : Smirnova Chudin + CdB I can't believe it ...... after the pseudo-gala at Mariinsky in February ...... Mariinsky eat your heart out !!

I can't believe it - looks too good to be true !!! 1) Diamonds : Kovalyova Tissi 2) Korsar Odalisques PdT : Turazashvili Chapikina Marchenkova 3) SB Bluebird/Florine : Hahlova/Denisova Belyakov 4) Margot-Rudolf PdD from Nureyev : Kretova Ovcharenko 5) Le Parc PdD : Kondaurova Smikalov 6) Talisman PdD : Stashkevich Lapatin 7) Mirror PdD Onegin Act 1 : Vogel Smirnova 8. Swan Lake Act 2 Adagio : Lacarra Dino 9) PdD from Qutb (Cherkaoui) : Osipova Kittelberger 10) Les Rendezvous (Petit) PdD : Legris Guerin 11) Don Kixot Grand Pas : Pagliero Heymann ....... I caaaaan't believe it !!! (TBC)

Just in from MockBa : Bolshoy Petipa Gala 31 May & 1 June Program :

Right, thanks for the correction. I failed to see the easy to pick out Sevenard but forgot to cross her name out on the programme. Didn't know you were based in Moscow !