CharlieH

Lili Felmery is the Hungarians’ gorgeous young rising star...and she’s a Magyar! Try to catch her in anything. She dances Pas de trois in SL but, IMO, should be O/O soon. Nice interview (&cover) here: http://www.opera.hu/ Tatyana Melnik is the company’s Etoile of choice as O/O, IMO. As for Igor Tsvirko...good technician but too demicaractere for my taste to be a compelling Siegfried. Maybe as Basil, with a shortish Kitri.

Going, going, gone! Adios, Sr. Duato! https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156251898546147&id=150782756146 The Staatsballett Berlin company will apparently be led in 2018/19 by one-half of the new team, Johannes Ohman. Sasha Waltz will join him as co-AD at the start of the 2019/2020 season. So it appears that the dancers’ petition did not work out? Daniil Simkin won’t be alone as a new Principal. Joining him will be two Super Cubans who’ve long been working in Europe: Yolanda Correa (currently in Oslo) and Alejandro Virelles (currently in Munich). I hope that we may be seeing one or both of them in Ratmansky’s new Bayadere. https://www.staatsballett-berlin.de/en/presse/mitteilungen/26-02-2018/94

I don’t like Boylston in everything but she was out of this world as Columbine. Whiteside/Boylston stood out among four very strong casts of Harlequinade.

Good. Always a pleasure seeing you at major premieres, Cubanmiamiboy (Cristian)! You’ll enjoy the wonderful art museums close to the Unter den Linden theatre...Pergamom and others. I was thinking the same, Mussel. It’s not like Ratmansky to cut his Petipa-era ballet stagings. Yet, we've read “clues” that, with this Bayadere, Ratmansky might be rethinking (reinterpreting?) the story, rather than slavishly reproducing every step in the Stepanov notes. So will it, like Grigorovich, end with a very short destruction of the temple following the Shades act? If there’s no full A4, will the Gamzatti-Solor-led Pas d’Action shift back up to the Betrothal act’s diverts, as in the Soviet version? Will Ratmansky opt to not stage the adorable Lotus Dance with children that we see in the full Vikharev recon A4? Will the A2 Staggered Dance (a.k.a. “Dance of the Slaves”) for a character corps (12 ladies & 4 Men), wearing golden pagoda-like headdresses, be cut? Finally, let’s not forget that this new production will have brand-new designs by Jerome Kaplan. No ca-1900 Imperial sets and costumes as we saw with Vikharev’s recon for the Mariinsky. Yet, I’ll travel with an open mind, as always. p.s. There’s a chance that the “3 hours with 2 intermissions” was a guess by the webmaster, based on any past Bayadere staged in Berlin? How would the webmaster know the actual running time of this new-old version, if the staging is in process?

You must have missed his Harlequin. Whiteside was magnificent in that. Actually, I’ve seen only fine performances by him...wonderful in Tchai pdd with Boylston last year, great Symphony in C opposite Hee Seo in DC a few years ago, etc.

Berlin Staatsballett will be premiering Ratmansky’s reconstructed Bayadere on Nov. 4, 2018, with repeat performances spread out through February 2019. Some details here: https://www.staatsballett-berlin.de/en/spielplan/la-bayadere/04-11-2018/718 New designs will be by longtime Ratmansky collaborator Jerome Kaplan. My wife and I have planned a trip for this. Anyone else going?

Too bad and odd. ABT could use some more male soloists (grooming for Principals).

Congratulations to all three ladies! I have an especially soft spot for Ms Fang, who I first saw winning the Shanghai Intl Ballet Competition In 2001, when I was posted to the PRChina. It took longer for her to blossom than we would’ve imagined then...but she did it. 🌸 As for any promotion of males...doesn’t ABT sometimes make these announcements by gender? They have in past years. Fingers crossed for Shayer & Bell.

What a coup. I was already planning to go to Sarasota for the revival of Ashton’s Apparitions. That Marcelo will be guesting heralds a double delight.

Thanks for that. Must be just at the end to hit a final pose (or something like that). Will check my docs. Edited to add: Indeed, the lone male re-enters halfway through the 3rd mvmt and has a brief manege of leaps before the two solo ladies return to the stage & everybody dances together until the end. Awww...it was Marcelo when I last saw this ballet live. 😭

I just added another prediction: Aran Bell with two tall ladies. I would be surprised if “she-who-cannot-pirouette” is cast in this but I’ve seen crazier things at ABT. 😉 Edited to add: A major positive note about this ABT Fall season: “Project Millepied” seems to have ended!

ABTfan, Symphonie Concertante requires two technically strong female leads who, at one point, perform alternating double pirouettes. Ideally, they are of equal height and tech abilities, mirroring each others’ movements...one to the violin, the other to the viola. When I last saw this ballet during an ABT fall season at City Center, it was with Wiles and Part. Wiles totally outdid Part, for whom I felt a little embarrassed. So ABT should be careful with the pairings; for example, Lane & Trenary should be fantastic, if cast together in this. If memory serves, the male lead is basically a partner to the ladies in the slow 2nd movement. Elegant and steady...Calvin Royal III? Or this may be another opportunity for Aran Bell if two taller ladies are assigned the leads (such as Teuscher & Schevchenko)? I saw Songs of Bukovina last fall. It’s worthy of a second look.

Boy, what a poor season. Perhaps casting will entice us to buy tickets.

Absolutely wrong. Other than the gate in the middle, the wall is plain and high. Kaplan’s acid-colored national costumes are hideous. Odile’s tutu looks ok until she flashes her underskirt. Kaplan’s only bow to reconstruction aesthetics (1890s style) is the white-swans’ tutu and headpieces/hairstyles.

I saw it several times in Zurich in 2016 - a magnificent production, overall! The Lake scenes are beautifully designed. Hopefully, the “big wall” in scene1 will be replaced with something more beautiful. Ditto the tacky colors of national costumes in the ballroom scene...not to forget Odile’s key-lime underskirt.

Thank you, Gnossie. You are ultimate authority on all-things Vikharev. 👌

Absolutely. Here is one Vaganova graduate of the past (2001) who turned out healthy & fabulous: Terioshkina, guest-starring as Paquita in one of this year’s graduation concerts. Courtesy of YT poster BalletOpera. Enjoy Terioshkina’s grand jetes. Whee!

Thanks for this heads up, Quinten! I’ve alerted a fellow ballet lover in Moscow with DVR at-the-ready!

The RDB dancers’ appearances at Jacob’s Pillow begin this Wednesday. https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/love-affair-between-dance-royal-danish-ballet-and-jacobs-pillow,542329

The Ekaterinburg Fille was most definitely a reconstruction by Sergei Vikharev - the last of his great reconstructions using the Harvard Stepanov notes. Here’s an amateaur film of the pdd...but Bogdan’s professional film shows off the designs more beautifully. In the meantime, enjoy this!

You’ll have to google “Bogdan Korolek Vimeo” to see the full set of vids that he’s uploaded, as I mentioned in the last post. It’s worth the bit of detective work!

Sorry. Just google “Bogdan Korolek Vimeo” to get his full channel, including the two Fille excerpts. Whenever I try to copy the link to any of his vids, only Naiad appears. Vimeo doesn’t seem to work like YouTube. Oh well, I tried.

Films from the dress rehearsal. Recon of Petipa’s Dance of the Hours (from Gioconda), staring Maria Khoreva and Mikhail Barkidjija: Burlaka’s Flora Suite “Ballet Flowers” may be posting more links in the days ahead.

Just noticed another thread...but it was not clearly titled, to indicate connection to the 2018 Vaganova graduation performances, IMO...just the names Khoreva, Bulanova.

The 2018 Vaganova Academy Graduation concerts at the Mariinsky (then on tour to Moscow) are under way! Who are this year’s stand-out graduates...future “zvezda material,” as we love to say on BA? This year’s concert is in honor of -who else? - Petipa! This short Russian TV report shows clips from Burlaka’s stagings of his Flora’s Awakening Suite and a Suite from Ondine/Naiad and Fisherman. https://tvkultura.ru/video/show/brand_id/19725/episode_id/1817632/video_id/1898526/ Please post impressions and, if found, other links below. Academy rector Tsiskaridze is doing a great job, IMO, always respectful of the Imperial heritage.