klingsor

Amanda McKerrow's Ethereal Farewell

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5071502003.html

Good Lord drb, I rarely read a post that echoes my sentiments completely, including the refererence to poor Von Rothbart's "Swan Fetish"

As for Zhong-Jing Fang, I'd add "La Sylphide" to the ballets I'm hoping to see her in.

I think it was de Valois, not Ashton, who was in charge of that production, but Ashton did choreograph a (beautiful) waltz for the nobles and de Valois choreographed the danse des coupes (sp?) for the peasants.

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Thank you, Alexandra.

One thing that has bothered me since the premiere of this "canonical" staging is the reversal of who does the peasants' dancing and who does the aristocrats'.  Despite its vague earthiness, the hoity-toities do the Waltz, and the peons do the regal-sounding mazurka.

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Please correct if I'm wrong, but didn't Ashton do it that way also?

No major changes that I noticed.

Basically the same.

Balanchine's "La Sonnambula" music by Vittorio Rieti (after themes of Vincenzo Bellini)

Erik Bruhn's Madge in "La Sylphide"

Alexander Godunov's Tybalt in Grigorovich's "Romeo and Juliet"

Nina Timofeyeva's Aegina in "Spartacus"

Gary Chryst's Iago (The Moor's Friend) in "The Moor's Pavane"

Lucia Chase's Stepmother in "Fall River Legnd"

If done well, it's a beutiful ballet.

The music has the aroma of fall and the ballet evokes the twilight of youth.

Went Friday and Saturday night.

Enjoyed both evenings very much but who decided to use "Winnie The Pooh" in Petrouchka instead of that big bear they used to have.

Tempi in Les Sylphide were a little too slow I thought.

I sent this thread to a Belgian internet friend of mine on a Hockey

MessageBoard. Here's his response:

I could make a few suggestions, based on what the person prefers to read.

There's not too many authors I really like, I prefer the great modernists and it seems like we skipped that movement a bit in Belgium.

My favorite would be Willem Ellschot (who hasn't been mentioned yet in the thread) who was an early twentieth century writer who hasn't written a whole lot (complete works around 900 pages) but is really worth checking out if one likes irony (he used his own experiences as a basis for his writings, but he uses it in an ironic way, truly remarkable).

The best thing about him is that he writes in a very simple language while still producing some of the greatest literature in Flemish history (think Kafka like language, short, clear sentences, even though the atmosphere is nowhere near as haunting).

Recommended works would be 'Lijmen - Het Been' and 'Kaas'.  All are very short but very rewarding once you start to understand a bit how it works.

Hugo Claus has been mentioned in the thread, "Het Verdriet Van België" - "The Sorrow of Belgium" is probably the greatest book written in Belgium in this century but it's not an easy one, and it requires some background knowledge of Claus as a person and Belgium as a whole during WWII.

Louis Paul Boon has also been mentioned, another great writer who found a lot of inspiration in the social injustice he saw during his time. 

Those are really the three greats IMO.

There are others worth mentioning, (see the thread, Streuvels, Walschap, Buysse (playwright), Timmermans (whom I personally detest).

Upon further review, the big difference is a lack of refreshments during the performance.

At a sporting event you can always find a vendor hawking "popcorn, peanuts and crackerjacks". Yeah, I think it's great when they do "Swan Lake" in two acts instead of four, but what do I do when my stomach starts churning at the end of ACT III?

Unless you stick around for the curtain calls at an opening, there aren't that many opportunities in "Art" to relieve one's natural aggression by booing people you despise for the moment (directors especially).

Sports, on the other hand, afford you countless chances to vent your anger from beginning to end (coaches and managers, players, owners, refs, intermission entertainers, mascots).

Gelsey... the end of her one and only Swan Lake, when the vehicle that transports Odette and Siegfried to the Hereafter was out of order.

A Giselle with Marianna Tcherkassky when she stopped the performance because the orchestra was playing the wrong music.  (I was not in the house for this.)

I always thought it was Gelsey's choice to end "Swan Lake" that way. When you're dead, you're dead. Nuts, I liked it that way.

I was at the Marianna-Fernando

"Giselle". Pretty sure it was Paul Connelly in the pit who got confused. I could see Marianna and Fernando talking to each other and they made a very musical exit as the curtain came down. Then they started the ballet from the beginning.

I do remember enjoying Bejart's "Firebird", though it was more Phoenix than Firebird.

Don't know if I should feel guilty about it, though.

Grigorovich's "Spartacus"

Bejart's "Bolero"

Rest In Peace, Marlon.

My favorite Brando line:

Girl: What're you rebelling against, Johnny?

Johnny: Whaddya got?

Berlin Ballet -- whose production?  Nureyev and....Evdokimova? 

When the Berlin Ballet danced at the NY State Theatre I'm pretty sure it was Panov's production. Considering how much dancing he added for himself as Hilarion in Act II it might have been called "Hilarion". Evdokimova danced with Imre Dozsa. Panov danced Albrecht with his wife, Galina.

Evdokimova danced Giselle the next week at the Met with the London Festival Ballet. She danced with Nureyev. May have been his production. Of course, there were some extra variations for Albrecht in Act I.

Surprised no one has mentioned DTH's "Giselle" which took place in Louisiana. Why not? "Manon Lescaut" ends up in Louisiana, too.

I'll check again with Lincoln Center on Monday.  I've gotten several updates, but they've been unofficial.  There may be an injury that's caused "Marguerite and Armand" to be cancelled.

Thank You, Alexandra

Met site does not list Marguerite and Armand.

They do list all other casting more or less as above.

Does anybody have any information?

Link:

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

http://www.metopera.org/cgi-bin/perfabt00....04&opera=ASH601

Afshin Mofid

Fine and dandy!!!

I'm addicted to polls. Seems I gotta go to NYCB tonight in order to vote.

I'm not feeling very well to begin with. The sacrifices we have to make for Alexandra.

I must have dark ballets:

La Sonnambula

La Valse

Repulsion (1965)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059646/

Too late now, but...

With Gelsey Kirkland

Choreography: Tudor

Music: Schoenberg, maybe?

It may be fun for us to speculate on this subject, but last night at ABT provided a strong dose of reality. The applause and cheering for "Swan Lake" was deafening, prolonged, and bestowed on principals, soloists, and corps alike. This was in sharp contrast to the audience conduct on the Balanchine evening I attended, when the applause was, at best, polite. But what really got me at the end was the comment by an old geezer* sitting behind me, who announced exultantly to everyone around, "That was real ballet, not like that Balanchine stuff."

I'll be glad to get back to the State Theater tonight. 

*It's okay to call him that; I'm a geezer myself.

Nothing wrong with elitism in my book, but just about any performance at Lincoln Center is accompanied by exposure to the comments and poor manners of dolts.

In the 70s and 80s most of my subscriptions to NYCB were 2nd and 3rd ring center. The quality of the audience, though still good, is not what it once was. I now sit in the AAs of the second and third ring to limit my exposure to inane comments, talking, applause during the music, coughing and interminable candy wrapper opening.

I'd like to see ABT do "Concerto Barocco" during their fall season at City Centre, if for no other reason than seeing it done on that stage.