mnacenani

Orphée et Eurydice, Palais Garnier, Paris — charisma and vulnerability. A fitting farewell for Marie-Agnès Gillot, one of Paris Opera Ballet’s all-time greats. Laura Cappelle / FT

https://www.ft.com/content/ac54c18e-373d-11e8-b161-65936015ebc3

Seems unrestricted but if you encounter a paywall just copy and google the subject (in bold print above)

I occasionally browse through the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation website, which I find well maintained and valuable  http://www.nureyev.org/  and once again discovered something thanks to it :  there is a permanent exhibit of Nureyev's costumes and memorabilia and a reconstruction of his apartment with his furniture and beloved kilims. It's at the "Centre National du Costume de Scene" in Moulins-sur-Allier, 2½ hours by train from Paris : http://www.cncs.fr/?language=en-gb

There is a "virtual exhibition" on the CNCS website : https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/fwISGAyB_7ISIQ

I have already started thinking about a three night visit to Paris, going to Moulins for this exhibit on one day, and going to Nureyev's grave at Ste-Genevieve-des-bois outside Paris on the other (something I have wanted to do for many years but never could). Ezio Frigerio's design for Nureyev's grave is stunning and for me well worth a visit.

Last evening Mezzo started recasting "The Nureyev Constellation", a docu first aired in 2013 on the 20th anniversary of his death, based on the Nureyev conference held in Paris in 1993. If you are able to receive Mezzo really suggest that you watch this - wonderful memories of Nureyev and his time, by people who worked with, danced with or knew him. Many archive videos ..... Nureyev dancing with Chauviré and Pontois ..... when not everyone in POB was an "etoile" !  Mostly in French with English subtitles - next and subsequent telecast dates (times CEST = GMT+2) :  http://www.mezzo.tv/nos-programmes/la_constellation_noureev

Mind you, Mezzo (SD) and sister channel Mezzo Live HD have been increasing the ballet content of their programming, and livecasting more ballets, like the recent Petipa Gala at Mariinka. In case anyone is interested info on how to receive Mezzo is here :  http://www.mezzo.tv/en/receive-mezzo

7 hours ago, Buddy said:

So what does it all mean? For me, more trips to Moscow if at all possible unless they come to the Festival,

Dear Buddy - do join me at the Bolshoy next season. You will soon discover that you get more bang for your bucks there. You'll get "good vibrations", electricity of a kind which simply does not exist at Mariinka. Come over and see for yourself !!

(PS - the only thing attractive at Mariinka for me is that you can see more ballets over a number of days than at the Bolshoy, which you may value as you live far away. I will make 3 trips to Moscow between 20th April and 12th May - I live "close by" and don't mind)

Maya Plisetskaya and her brother Azary: The Soviet ballet tour of America :  https://www.rbth.com/arts/327903-maya-plisetskaya-and-her-brother

13 minutes ago, Mashinka said:

Not in that picture she isn't

OMG - you have committed a cardinal sin ...... inexcusable 

On 3/28/2018 at 2:33 AM, Mashinka said:

You seem to choose to forget that dancers such as Nureyev, Makarova, Baryshnikov et al chose to defect (at some risk to themselves) in order to dance in a wider repertoire.

But of course - seeking fame and fortune played no part in their defections !    Please do excuse me but Nureyev's obsession with money is well documented.

On 3/28/2018 at 2:33 AM, Mashinka said:

from 'the west' Russian repertoires seem narrow and unimaginative whereas in most of the western companies they are far more innovative and wide ranging.

Again I beg forgiveness but from the East repertory in London and esp. Paris seems "much ado about nothing" !  "Strapless" ...... "Alice in Wonderland" ...... the latter being too long by 2 hours ! 

20 minutes ago, Laurent said:

Considering Grigorovich's production of "Swan Lake". for which you seem to have nothing but contempt, I cannot name, really, better versions among the ones currently danced in the West. The plus-side of Grigorovich's version is its integrity and logic,

Grigarovich's Swan Lake - the first ballet I saw at the Bolshoy, on my first ever trip to Russia. I was dumbstruck, thought it was brilliant. I am dead against the classics being "reimagined" but I couldn't help thinking this is the way to do it, if one must.

On 3/26/2018 at 9:48 AM, mnacenani said:

The orchestration by Lanchberry sounded similar to what is played at the Scala and in Rome for Don Q and Bayadere :  with more prominence given to the strings and woodwinds, if you know what I mean :  if you hear this music on tv from afar you can guess that the performance shown must be from the Scala. I am going to look up whether my guess that it's Lanchberry's scoring being played at the Scala is correct.

Just checked  :  the Bayaderka orchestration for Scala is also Lanchberry - he does have a "signature" - also makes prominent use of the flutes !

1 hour ago, Mashinka said:

Would you be so kind as to give a little more information about this gala, such as where it was performed, and who else was dancing.

I don't understand your comment beneath the picture.  Did you mean petty?

 

Meaning he found Yulya pretty, not Denis

5 hours ago, Jayne said:

I just read that the director Kenneth Greve was dismissed for inappropriate comments towards dancers.  

By this yardstick Zelensky should not be allowed to work anywhere 

Back home after seeing mat and eve of Helsinki Ballet's "Don Quijote" on Saturday. I normally would not go to Helsinki for ballet when there is Moscow and Peterburg within the same 3-hour flight time from Istanbul but when a friend rang me a couple of months ago saying she was going to book the premiere on 23rd March I decided to join up - there are three dancers from Istanbul in the CdB, and Cagla who seemed quite talented to my amateur eye when I spotted her at their graduation show rehearsals two years ago was signed by Helsinki Ballet for their junior company last year before she graduated. At the end of the year the junior company was disbanded with a couple of dancers being taken into the main company including our girl so I was curious about how she was doing.
Finnish Ballet was founded in 1922 according to their website so it has some history. They rank their dancers as Etoile, Principal, Soloist and Dancer. At the matinee Kitri was Eun-Ji Ha (E), Basilio Frans Valkama (P), Mercedes Rebecca King (S) and Espada Maksim Tsukarjov (D). Kitri's friends were Maria Tamminen (D) and Lucie Rakosnikova (S). This staging by Patrice Bart (1995) is also abridged at 1:45 hours stage time, the dance quality was fine and the orchestra excellent - will not attempt further description since there is a full video of a recent Giselle which I will post below so anyone interested can judge for themselves.

At the evening performance Kitri was CdB dancer Abigail Sheppard partnered by Michal Krcmar (E). To my eye they seemed a notch or two up compared with the leads at the matinee, maybe not surprising since this was the premiere. Sheppard looked very good and is most probably tagged for promotion to at least soloist - she only needs to work on her fouettee a bit more I thought. Basilio, Mercedes and Espada (etoiles Tiina Myllymaki and Sergei Popov) were all very good. Soloists Rebecca King and Lucie Rakosnikova as Kitri's friends I also thought were very good. The Turkish CdB dancers appeared at both mat and eve with Cagla dancing as a villager in the opening scene, then as gypsy, as dryad and in the bolero at the wedding scene. I could not take any pix since not even one soul lifted a mobile at both mat and eve - the Finns must be a very rule-abiding people !

Have to say I and my friend found the costume and characterisation for Gamache a bit over the top - the costume really looked like it had been borrowed from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" set !

Now the orchestra and orchestration :  the orchestra was excellent - sooo tight in all sections, strings woodwinds and brasses, not surprising in the land of Sibelius with "his concert hall" just next door. Ballet without a good live orchestra loses half its allure for me, and if the interval food & drink is not lively either the rest is gone too. Interval buffet was excellent in all sections like the orchestra . The orchestration by Lanchberry sounded similar to what is played at the Scala and in Rome for Don Q and Bayadere :  with more prominence given to the strings and woodwinds, if you know what I mean :  if you hear this music on tv from afar you can guess that the performance shown must be from the Scala. I am going to look up whether my guess that it's Lanchberry's scoring being played at the Scala is correct.

(PS1 :  Act 2 starts with the gypsy camp and a Kitri-Basilio PdD to music which has nothing to do with Spain or Gypsies - sounds totally out of place when followed by the csardas ..... could perhaps be plugged into Manon or Onegin but certainly not Don Q. So much so that what Fadeyechev added to Act 2 of Bolshoy's Don Q would seem more befitting by comparison )

(PS2 :  the decision to shorten the wonderful march starting the final (wedding) scene and slowing its tempo to something quite unfitting for a march was imho in poor taste and judgment !!  This march is iconic, instantly memorable and instantly puts the audience in festive mood, so if it ain't broke why fix it ??? My congrats to the Istanbul ballet and music directors for not only incorporating this march in full and at correct tempo, but also playing it during the curtain calls till the end - everyone was clapping in sync and had a wonderful time and left the theatre in festive mood with the night surely to linger in their memories for ages)

I have to say that overall Helsinki Ballet is of somewhat higher quality than Berlin Ballet, putting Salenko aside. Can't say whether it can be called better than Munich which really impressed me on my only viewing (Giselle) last October, maybe some members can.

The full video of recent (March 1st 2018) Helsinki Giselle (Act 1 from 21:00 / Act 2 from 1:40:00)  :  http://oopperabaletti.fi/en/stage24/giselle-recording/

Infolink for Finnish Ballet company and repertory : http://oopperabaletti.fi/en/ballet/

Further cast changes posted for Manon by the RB .......... it's coming, you know what I mean ..... if not see the first post above.

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/cast-changes-manon-spring-2018

Hei, hyvä iltaa Helsingistä !  Hello, good evening from Helsinki. This is the teaser - just back to hotel from matinee to change into evening gear for the soiree. Helsinki has also joined the Don Q bandwagon, so my frequent assertion that this is a most enjoyable ballet for adult and child may have some truth in it. There are three Turkish CdB dancers in this company - the girl Cagla was snapped up from one of the Istanbul ballet academies last year before she graduated. Have to go now, hope to post a few words later in the evening.

15 minutes ago, MadameP said:

I read the review, and assume it was aimed at a general audience, since there is no technical evaluation in it whatsoever, apart from saying that Osmokina has great Vaganova technique!  

Laurent would say it was aimed at the likes of myself !    I may not be so "knowledgeable" about classic ballet (yet) but I sure have loads of motivation and self-confidence  ....... especially when people like Laura Cappelle and Clement Crisp support my take on certain performances 

7 hours ago, Laurent said:

I wonder how people who are novices in areas that demand years of study to be "knowledgeable" can say that somebody is "knowledgeable" or isn't.

I posted the superlative deliberately to a) flatter Katya, and b) provoke response from certain quarters - seems I succeeded  On the other hand, even novices can identify talent at first sight and can tell if someone is "knowledgeable" - depends on the novice

A&R = Artists & Repertory

My friend Katya Baeva's Osmolkina-Gomes Giselle review for "No Fixed Points". I consider it my privilege that Katya accepted me as a friend : as knowledgeable about A&R and execution as anyone can hope to become : http://nofixedpoints.com/gomes-mariinsky-albrecht

34 minutes ago, Jayne said:

Ah well I am glad they will not go to waste.  At least you know what you like!

My wife says I watch modern choreo "like a cow watches a passing train" and make no effort to "decipher" what it tries to convey   At my age I should better allocate my remaining time wisely and see what I can understand readily

2 minutes ago, Jayne said:

Can you exchange? 

As far as I know Bolshoy, unlike Mariinka, does not exchange or refund. Will probably end up giving these tix away to my friends in Moscow - they "don't mind" seeing modern choreo

8 hours ago, Laurent said:

 If anything, on the gala night, Oksana Skoryk demonstrated that classical dance must be a toilsome labour, while Parish -- that tours en l'air is one of those things he is still unable to make any progress.

They were good enough for me, and seemingly also for another member who was in the house on the night, and that is what counts - chacun a son gout !

10 minutes ago, Jayne said:

I don’t know if she can sing, but she has the perfect looks and body type to perform Velma Kelly in “Chicago”.

Is this meant as a compliment ??? 

GNOSSIE thank you so much !  Pls post the full GP if you can find it.

3 hours ago, California said:

Matthew Golding, who mysteriously disappeared from the Royal Ballet roster

As far as I know he had some health issues and was off for some months, and afterwards left the RB at the end of last season. He is guesting : danced Solor vs Natalya Matsak in Kiev on 17th February. I was planning to go but stopped short of buying a ticket when the website did not seem secure - had MasterPass logo but still asked for CC details !

2 hours ago, Buddy said:

So tonight the adults have to rise to the occasion with one of ballets most smiling and entertaining classics — Don Quixote

So you are going to see my beloved Masha tonight - and there are still best seats available as I write. I am green with envy and purple with rage ........ Buddy - do not think that you have escaped the Ides of March unscathed ...... Hell hath no fury like mine .... you just wait !!