Petra

I hear a piece about this on NPR last week: =http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4855605 According to the report, the New Yorker had wanted to do something like this for a long time, but it was only recently that the technology became available and/or affordable.

I certainly wouldn't want to do anything that would cause my company's IT security system to prevent me from accessing this board during work hours!!

Hopefully, by next year Farrell (or Kaiser) will have found the money to enable her to resume touring with her company.

Off topic as "Priest" really isn't a romance, but since we've started discussing gay romance/sex, I think the sex scene there between Linus Roache and Robert Carlyle was incredibly sexy and romantic. Maybe we need a new topic for favourite gay love/sex scenes.

However, writing as a member of the audience, there are a number of ballets to Stravinsky or Tchaikovsky that I like to watch.

Dale - I think your post leaves out the roles of Odette/Odile and Siegfried. I'm going to the evening performance on Oct 1.

Lars von Trier's movies are hugely overrated IMO. Kingdom (a TV series, not a movie, but I saw it in a cinema as a two-part screening), Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark - I suffered through them all and then I stopped going to see his movies. They are misogynistic (sp?), manipulative and hypocritical.

Sometimes the distraction is the women's lack of "appendages". What looks great in a leotard or tutu doesn't always conform to our perception of an ideal nude. Most dancers these days aren't odalisques!

Casablanca GWTW (although I really prefer the book) The Princess Bride ("As you wish......") Un Coeur en Hiver (Emmanuelle Beart, Daniel Auteil and Paris) Annie Hall

Like Mozart.

Just to flog a dead horse: In her autobiography, Allegra Kent writes very admiringly about Verdy's uniqueness.

With regard to "Clueless", I think Alicia Silverstone outshines Brittany Murphy because Alicia Silverstone has true star charisma and not because Silverstone is better looking in any way than Murphy. I think it's a shame that Silverstone hasn't managed to get better roles the last few years - she lights up the screen.

I have never sat through an entire movie with Keira Knightly so can't say anything about her really, but more importantly IMO is - does the world really need another "Pride and Prejudice" movie? Following up on my post above where I mentioned Samantha Morton: Has anyone seen the Tv adaptation of "Emma" wher Kate Beckinsale played Emma and Samantha Morton played Harriet? I hadn't heard of this version before, but my gut feeling is that these actresses should have swopped roles.

Charlotte Gainsbourg is not "plain" by any definition of the word, but she also does not have the 'Hollywood' look - she's unlikely to win an Oscar on the basis of a prosthetic nose or an adjustment in dress size. In fact, after looking at the long list of actresses that have played Jane Eyre according to IMDB: Jane Eyre she seems to be one of the more Bronte-an on the list. For instance, although I'd be interested in seeing Samantha Morton's Jane Eyre as I think Morton is a terrific chameleon of an actress, isn't Jane supposed to be quite dark complexioned? Edited to add: Eureka, at long last, I have succeeded to add a URL. Now I can die happy.

Certainly not on this board. That sounds like my dream job, Renata. What an incredible first job, especially at such an interesting time in the cultural world. (At the risk of displaying my supreme ignorance, I admit that I think it must have been before I was born).

Isn't the plot of Ashton's Ondine rather similar to The Little Mermaid? That would be a decidedly non-pop treatment of the story.

The main casting last night was: Spartacus: Yury Klevtsov Crassus: Vladimir Neporozny Phrygia: Anna Antonicheva Aegina: Maria Allash (tonight's Aegina is Maria Alexandrova) If I had to describe the performance in one word, it would be overwhelming. Everything is huge - the story, the steps, the score, the dancers, the length. "More is more" certainly was the motto behind this ballet - which is strange, considering that it's a protest against the excesses of the capitalist... oops Roman world. Another aspect which I found interesting - and not what I'd expected - is the very stylised dancing and acting. For instance, the fight scenes are very stylised and unrealistic compared to say MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet, which dates from about same time. The dancers were excellent - from high-up in the balcony where I was sitting, there were no problems with the one-handed lifts or any of the other pyrotechnics. Neporozny could have done with more elevation, some of his leaps seemed quite low. Actually, the dancers seemed to be quite restrained - Spartacus can obviously become a Vegas show and it wasn't like that at all. The courtesans were courtesans, not hookers. The ballet itself could do with editing, it is very long and some scenes, mainly the 'crowd scenes' in the second act, really dragged. My enjoyment was definitely dampened (pun intended) though by the physical experience of sitting in the Mann Center in over 90 degrees heat with 80% humidity and no cooling system whatsoever. Open-air theatres that I've been to in the past have been ones left behind by "the military machine of Imperial Rome" after they were done "waging a cruel campaign of conquest" and then forcing those "doomed to slavery" (to quote from the program notes) to build them amphitheatres. Roman amphitheatres are made of stone, not wood, so they don't retain heat and they don't have roofs, so you can feel the evening breeze and enjoy yourself at night even if day-time temperatures are 110 degrees. The Mann Center is completely covered - is this usual for an 'open air' venue in the US? - and there weren't even some ceiling fans to get the air moving. At least, the dancers didn't have to worry about warming-up... Fun cross-cultural fact: I haven't heard or seen so many Russians since the last time I was in Israel. It's funny to feel at home hearing a foreign language!! Fun historical fact (c/o my husband): the failed communist revolution in Post-WW1 Germany was called the Spartacus Revolution.

7 is a mystical number in many cultures, I think - 7 days of creation according to the Judeo-Christian tradition, 7 days in the week, 7 heavenly spheres. OTOH, there are so many mystical numbers...

Then I suppose General LaFayette must have been a reincarnation of Joan of Arc. :rolleyes:

It is most likely that Ansanelli has never had to look for a job yet. Her entire professional life has been as she herself said (to paraphrase) 'in the family'.

I agree with both Helene and Skittl that this installment was flatter and less stand-alone than earlier books. I thought it very long just to set the scene for the great showdown which is to come in Book 7. This is probably the first book in the series that I haven't felt was better than the previous one. PERHAPS SPOILERY - MODERATORS - PLEASE DELETE IF THIS IS TOO SPOILERY -I also wasn't as moved by the death in this book as the ones in Book 4 and 5. That means I wasn't dripping in tears at the end!! However, I think that has as much to do with the age and lifelong achievements of the person involved (compared to the very young death in Book 4 and Sirius Black's new found reason to live in Book 5) as anything else. Regarding the suitability for children - I am unfamiliar with Valley High style books (I'm not even sure if that's the correct term), but Judy Blume's juvenile books are far more explicit. I actually thought the 'relationship' parts very sanitised and even coy in a way. The 'magic' scenes felt much more real to me than the 'relationship' scenes. OTOH I appreciate the fact that for the large part, the series does develop. Unlike Enid Blyton's characters, and even the Narnia children, the children and adolescents in HP definitely develop and change. Again, I'm not familiar with most of the current young-adult literature, so maybe this isn't as significant as it seemed to me. Old Fashioned - you are much closer to that demographic. What say you? Lastly, I'm not sure that the youngest fans are reading the books. I kow a couple of self-styled Star Wars fans aged 6 who haven't seen the latest movie, as their parents don't think it age appropriate. The kids just have all the merchandise. If you are reading the book to or even with a child, it would be possible to cut some passages.

The Bolshoi will be dancing Spartacus in Philadelphia on August 2 and 3. Does any one know the casting for this? The Mann Center's website just lists two dancers for each role. It would be nice to know who I'm going to see in return for the arm and the leg I had to pay...

I haven't seen her dance (yet), but I do think that it is very courageous and gracious of Ansanelli to have left NYCB without lining up a job already, but I fervently hope that she does do that very soon. As she wants to dance the classics and is fairly inexperienced at that, she really needs a 'family'. It would be very unfortunate for Ansanelli - and the ballet world - if she became a 'guest artist' at a couple of places.

Luckily I spend most of my time in an air-conditioned office. Sorry to derail the thread, but I really am very happy. Now please proceed to discuss how everyone is going to go to DC to see Suzanne Farrell, even though 2/3 of the programme is Bejart.

I do too - but this is a generational thing. I was pulled unwillingly into the computer age. However, my husband who is my age, but is a computer geek (insofar as a candidate for a ph.d. in history can be a computer geek) finds it easy to read academic articles on the screen. And I am sure that most people younger than me are quite comfortable reading articles on the computer itself.