Mary J

My recollection may not be accurate but wasn't there a movie of Cinderella with Sizova?

of course, Alexandra's Henning Kronstam biography is a must - and lots of fabulous photos! The web site www.kronstam.com has a "sample" chapter and twenty lovely photographs!

Zeffirelli's Traviata (Domingo, Stratas)

Zeffirelli's Boheme (Stratas, Carreras)

(funny I don't like his live productions but he sure can make a good movie)

Verdi's Otello (Domingo, Fleming, Levine conducting) or (Domingo, Te Kanawa, Solti conducting)

My first choice - recommendations. I know what family and friends like so I know where to apply the grain of salt.

Next - reviews. Again only if the reviewer says something about the book that makes it intriguing to me.

Finally, browsing. That is the most fun of all! The cover, the review squibs, the book flap summaries, and as a final test, a paragraph or two in the first chapter. If I am not going to like the style, I will know pretty quickly.

Juliet - I love owning books which is why I may buy something even if I eventually decide to donate it to the library. I think the only time I go to borrow from the library nowadays is when the price is prohibitive and I am convinced I won't necessarily like the book enough to justify the outlay of cash. Lately that seems to be about $25 for trade hardbacks and $50 for rare or hard-to-find books. One of my real indulgences.

I have just finished a very disturbing but extraordinary book called "We Have to Talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver. WARNING: the book has very violent events so I cannot recommend it if you are as a susceptible a reader as I am. (I sometimes read something that leaves me with such a vivid mental image that I am literally sorry that I have read it.) But once I started this book, I had to read it all. The style is lucid and honest, and even occasionally funny, and every character creates a strong impression. Even the house the narrator lives in is so wonderfully described that I have a floor plan in my head of what it looked like.

I don't usually read anything that is suggested by TV book groups (this is a "Good Morning America" book) because I am usually disappointed but I received the hardback book as a recommended read from a family member who is a reliable source.

The fictional narrator is the mother of a son who commits mass murder in his high school. But this is not sensationalism for its own sake - this is a real, flawed person trying to come to grips with painful losses and trying to understand what her role was in them. It is not psycho-babble either, which is a relief. I feel like I really know the narrator as a person because she admits to less than attractive feelings some times, and there isn't a mother out there who has not at one time or other been totally exasperated with her child.

If anyone else has read this, what did you think?

I am late in adding my vote but it would have to be Henning Kronstam. No photo does the man justice. As Romeo, those amazing dark eyes reached out to the last row of any theater! If I had to think of a second name, it would probably be Vasiliev.

I believe that all the music for Bournonville ballets is being recorded in connection with the Bournonville festival but that is next year so you would have to be very patient! And videos of all the daily classes!

I am going to take Alexandra's question about saving only one Balanchine ballet, and make it even tougher. What if only one ballet could survive of all the ballets ever created. Which ballet would it be, which company's version, and why?

Apollo! Symphony in C a close second.

And the next obvious question for me is where/how is Maximova?

I second the nomination of Sally Wilson, the nonpareil of her generation as somone able to transform psychological tension into physical form.

Maybe instead of "pass go and collect $100," it could be "passe releve and ..." what?

I walked by a stationery store this morning and saw a sports version of the Monopoly game in the window. It got me thinking about a ballet-based game, perhaps with ballet companies instead of properties and ballets instead of houses and hotels. What would the utilities be? Instead of Pass Go, it would be ... ? Jail would be... Could the Chance cards be dancers (as guests or permanent members)? It could only be played if ballet music is performed in the background!

If you are a Kennedy Center Member you can order tickets by phone now. ( I joined on the membership website and then called immediately to the membership office and they transferred me to the box office so I ordered tickets within minutes of contributing!) Also there is an open master class observation opportunity at 5 pm on Wednesday Jan 14th for a $15 general admission charge. You can get tickets for that now.

Hey, Nikolai!

Alexandra may be too modest to tell you that she wrote a great biography of Henning Kronstam (one of my all-time favorite dancers!), and also did her thesis on Bournonville, so she has spent a lot of time and effort in recent years getting to know rdb, its history, dancers and repertoire!

Thank you so much to Nikolai and Effy for their reviews. Some of us would very much have liked to be there, too, but will have to wait until the tour in January instead.

I will probably try to go every night, too! Can anyone tell us when tickets go on sale, and if there are standing room places? Thanks!

The NY Times reviewer liked her, claiming she overcame the lack of singing and dancing by emphasizing the vulnerability and manipulation aspects - kind of a non-musical musical approach.

I stand corrected, now that everyone has refreshed my recollection. It appears that it was Monotones II that I am remembering and preferring - the white segment with Dowell, Meade and Lorraine in unitards with the Gymnopedie music. The exactitude of the arms was so exquisite - and it is true that the three dancers chosen had to have identical proportions for the symmery to work. I never saw it at Joffrey - but can imagine the right people there could certainly handle it.

This is from the dim distant past so forgive me if it is a little vague. I saw Monotones at Covent Garden in 1967. I love the Satie music so I was prepared to like the ballets. I would have to try to find my programs to check the casts but I seem to remember Dowell was in Monotones I - frankly the white unitards tended (and probably were intended) to make the movement more abstract and required even more exacting unformity of style and timing. The choreography fit the music beautifully, and the performance demonstrated the Royal Ballet coolness and precision. The dancers seemed like a single entity rather than multiple dancers - very geometric. I liked Monotones II a little less, I think because you can have too much of a good thing. By then the uniqueness of the visual concept had worn off and the ballets are, after all, called monotones.

Saint Saens? Power and delicacy.

And you thought Princess Leia hairstyles wouldn't catch on! I am more concerned about the serious sickling problem these dolls have.

I think if you try the Alibris books web site(Alibris.com), they may be able to find some of those soft cover classes with notation and piano accompaniment. I bought a partial set for my daughter's piano teacher (who also plays for ballet classes!) less than a year ago.

Hey - I'm Shostakovitch, too - and all I ever wanted to be when I grew up was Prokofiev

Where can one find the Which dead Russian composer are you? test? My monkeys got up to three letters of five different plays by the time I signed off yesterday.

I love this cd, too! My favorite part is the tribute (?) to Les Miz, the "only show with its own pension plan..."