Mary J

I found the book Seabiscuit very uplifting (although the description of the jockeys' life in Mexico is pretty raunchy).

My first reaction, how clever. My second reaction, why not just use the photograph? My third reaction, how much of my donation did they use to pay the pr people for this monstrosity?

Mel - we must be siblings separated at birth. Park was also my favorite ballerina after Fonteyn in the 1960's and 1970's. The second or third ballet performance I ever saw was Park and Macleary in Macmillan's Romeo and Juliet at the Old Met, and I was sobbing by the final curtain. Two years later I saw Park and Dowell in the same production at Covent Garden, and it stands out in my mind as possibly the most completely perfect single performance I have ever seen. Her phrasing was always so perfect for whatever the music was, and she had the loveliest line. I know some of the early photos of her suggest a plumpness but by 1965 she was already lithe and sometimes almost too slender. I used to send her white roses at Covent Garden and she left a pair of her pointe shoes and a lovely thank you note at the stage door for me.

Sam Ramey Sherrill Milnes (as Athanael in Thais? to die for) Dwayne Croft

To anyone who hasn't read SEABISCUIT yet - run out (gallop out?) and get a copy. It is a wonderful book, even if you are not into sports or horse racing. The characters are vivid and varied, and the racing events are so real that you will feel like you are on the horse with the jockey! Everyone in our Book Club at work watched the Triple Crown races this year, even though none of us was at all interested in horse racing before.

I attended Vishneva's performance, too, and while it had its moments, I was rarely moved. I thought Vishneva danced beautifully, but never connected emotionally with anyone on stage. Dramatically, I thought she was too bright, almost vivacious in the ball scene - it is supposed to be her first adult party, and she seemed too smile-y and sophisticated. I did not care at all for the backbend movement that marks her wakening in the tomb - the music at that point supports something much more subtle. I loved the desperation scene when she is trying to decide what to do once Romeo is gone and she is being forced to marry Paris. The whole range of her emotions showed in her face, and this can be a difficult scene since there is no choreography for such a long stretch of highly charged music. Frederic Franklin was Friar Laurence! He looks great for his age, although his acting was a little larger and more melodramatic than those around him. Perhaps my greatest complaint is that the music was played very badly indeed, which takes away much if not all of the emotional impact that this ballet has always had for me.

I am no fan of rap music but this entire case supports my theory that the lyrics are "sound and fury signifying nothing..." If lyrics are put together for their sound and rhythm, there can't be much in the way of meaning going on.

For me, Henning Kronstam, Nureyev and Max Zomosa at the Joffrey. I can't think of three dancers more different physically or stylistically but when they were on stage you never took your eyes off them, no matter what fireworks were going on anywhere else. Each of them was very intense and focussed - the much over-used word is charisma - and Kronstam and Zomosa the very best actors I have ever seen on a ballet stage. Nureyev was an actor, although I never saw the same spark he had with Fonteyn when he danced with anyone else.

I found The Pianist to be fairly unremarkable, especially compared with the depth of the movie. Sometimes the story is beyond the talents of the storyteller, and the author was a pianist, not really a writer...

Interplay?

Beach reading? Not the new Michael Chrichton which is awful. In my mind he has never equaled Jurassic Park for a fun read. I loved The Nanny Diaries, which was an easy read but quite touching. I couldn't pick up The Lovely Bones because the premise just depressed me too much, whatever the actual message of the book. Started The Shopaholic Ties the Knot and got bored with it - really clever but too much a Bridget Jones rip-off.

I heartily recommend Bel Canto, and I am thrilled that the film rights have been optioned (I'm told) by Renee Fleming since she is the one I was picturing the whole time I read the book. But was I the only one who was disappointed by the ending of The Da Vinci Code (or the code of Lenny from Vinci - love that) . I don't want to discuss it and spoil for others, but I expected something more compelling after such a good fast read.

My first adult read was Jane Eyre in seventh grade, and I loved it. Then Rebecca in eighth grade - the first book that I read where I could not go to sleep until I finished it. (My teenage daughter had the same reaction at the same age!) I never enjoyed any of the other DuMaurier books as much. As a younger child I was a Walter Farley fan, and read all the Black Stallion and Island Stallion books over and over (pretty bizarre actually since I am kind of afraid of horses...)

I have just finished "Still She Haunts Me," by Katie Roiphe, a novel based on the relationship between Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and Alice Liddell. It is an amazing, sensitive book and I was sorry to finish it when I felt I had gotten to know all the characters so well. I have also read the Jasper Fforde book, "The Eyre Affair," which is a complete romp, both fascinating and funny. And re-reading Alexandra's biography of Henning Kronstam - this is about the third time I have read it, and always something different strikes me about Kronstam or about the creative process. My perennial summer guilt trip of the intellect is Joyce's Ulysses with gun and guidebook. Have never managed to get very far into that beautiful and terrifying jungle - I think I will have to take a course to complete it.

Grace - the Henning Kronstam/Kirsten Simone movie was Disney's "Ballerina." I guess it didn't come up on this thread because it was on some superficial level a "ballet" movie even though it was not a performance film. I am still a lone voice crying in the wilderness that Disney might release it on tape some day - I know it's dated but it would be nice to be able to see a classy bunch of Danish dancers on demand.

I first met Paul when he was still at ABT and married to Marie Paquet, through his early period with Joffrey when he and Ms. Ruiz were together but not yet married. Paul had the most incredible range and seemed to be a sensitive and reliable partner. I seem to recall that Bruni danced with Harkness for a season or two, as well. Thank you so much for the nice update!

I was a great fan of his when he danced with ABT and Joffrey. Anyone know how he is and if he is still teaching/directing?

Dirac, you are probably right about Fonteyn, except that she was competing with young women who were much more the type in reality than she was. I guess I don't buy the fraility argument as absolutely dramatically necessary with Giselle since you can argue that she dies not of a heart attack but of a broken spirit. (Her first act visions of the wilis are intimations of mortality, not necessarily angina). A robust Violetta in Traviata doesn't work but the illness defines her persona and her motivations much more than Giselle where it is her unguarded innocence (or naivete).

I was fortunate enough to see the classic cast against type in Romeo and Juliet - Margot Fonteyn in her late forties dancing a fourteen year old. I never for a moment doubted that she was the character - but I suppose her small stature helped since she was significantly smaller than the parents and other authority figures around her. (A friend of mine who is in her late thirties recently did Shakespeare's R&J and was amazing, again because she is tiny.) But Fonteyn was especially good because as childlike as she was in the first scenes, she progressed dramatically as Juliet is forced to make more of her own decisions. The scene where she sits on the edge of her bed with the potion from Friar Lawrence was riveting because she clearly was not a little girl any more.

Isn'r other short for ambiguous metaphysical state?

Would a comparison to Danish male dancers be appropriate here? (Or does the heading "beautiful" suggest we are only talking women dancers?) In his prime, it was said of Niels Kehlet that he looked more comfortable in the air than on the ground! The upper body is always so natural and relaxed. The arms and shoulders and hands contribute to the line, to the total image of the dancer in the air, whereas some of the hyper extended jetes all one is focussing on is the geometry of the legs. (I don't think that once during my ballet going in the 1960's did I ever hear a performance by a ballerina described using degrees!)

Ed - Your "associate producer" definition has made my day! But I think that "assistant producer" is for the star's hairdresser, right? And "executive producer" means "I am the one who put up some of my own money for this picture"? I actually liked Gosford Park and I am hopeful that this movie will be engaging. I am a little concerned about Neve, though, as she seems such an acting cypher (ballet training notwithstanding). Is there a release date yet?

I was distracted by the jumps and high extensions last night. I also thought Cojocaru was exceedingly bland in the first scene, projecting more a young girl in love rather than a powerful presence. I actually preferred Julie Kent on Friday night - very serene, beautiful back and shoulders, and technically compelling without any "tricks." Cojocaru looks like Sibley to me, and dances a little like Maximova but I didn't find her particularly musical. Corella was wild almost to the point of sloppiness and his turns were precarious. I had never seen Bayadere before Friday night, and now that I have seen it twice, I am convinced it is impossible to top the entrance of the Shades which left me close to tears both nights.

English National Opera did the Rigoletto in New York's Little Italy in the 1930's - Jonathan Miller was the director - and I thought it did work, mainly because all the necessary cultural and societal underpinnings of the opera were there, especially the nature of revenge and the power of a father's curse. And, if I remember correctly, Andrew Porter did the translation and was able to incorporate some surprisingly accurate slang. But it was not a "gimmick" - the relationships and tensions were consistent with both the libretto and the setting.

NYCB is having a seminar entitled "A guide to Guide to Strange Places" at the New York State Theatre at 6:00 pm on Monday, May 12, 2003. (General admission at the door is $5.00.) Peter Martins, composer John Adams and NYCB Music Director Andrea Quinn will discuss contemporary American music and ballet. (Mr. Adams wrote the music that Peter Martins is using in his new ballet entitled "Guide to Strange Places.") The seminar notice also points out that Mr. Adams will conduct the NYCB Orchestra for the first two performances of the ballet.