canbelto

I was there last night and after Florez encored "Ah mes amis" he was giving a well-deserved standing ovation. The first time he sang it the people next to me were like, "If we keep clapping he has to repeat it!" It was really a wonderful moment of the audience acknowledging a performer so generous. Although Florez's voice is very phonogenic and he looks nice on video, he is one of those performers better seen in the house, where you can just sense the audience's adoration for him. It's rare to see such an obvious adoration for a performer. I don't see it with much bigger stars, like Anna Netrebko or Renee Fleming. Not that they don't have a following, but to go to a Florez performance with the audience screaming "DIEGO! DIEGO!" feels very special.

Vishneva "Big Red" Ekaterina Kondaurova or "Big Red" Uliana Lopatkina?

Catherine, a very good video (that I learned a lot from) was "Reflections of a Dancer." It's about Alexandra Danilova, who Balanchine trusted completely to teach future NYCB stars. In the video you can see Danilova carefully coaching students in the Russian Imperial ballet style, including teaching a girl the Raymonda "clapping" variation, as well as Le Pavilion d’Armide. There was nothing neoclassical in her teaching, she was passing on what she learned as a student at the Mariinsky school. I don't dare to presume to speak for Mr. B, but considering how much regard he had for Danilova, I can assume that he wanted his dancers to be thoroughly trained in the classical ballet style.

MacMillan Ulanova/Zhdanov R&J film or Fonteyn/Nureyev R&J film?

If so, then the NYCB would never be a top-flight dance company, and neither would the Royal Danish Ballet, as neither company's core repertoire is the "classics."

I have to disagree. To write off all American companies as being unable to do justice to the classical repertoire is simplistic and even unfair to the great gains U.S. companies have made in classical repertoire. Will their corps de ballet ever be as beautiful and uniform as the Mariinsky or Paris Opera Ballet? Probably not, but that doesn't mean all the efforts have gone to waste.

Lucia Chase. Famous "set number" dances: "Singin' in the Rain" or "Cheek to Cheek"?

I'm so sorry I missed a whole weekend of performances. I was going to today's performance, but first my cat got struck by an awful infection, and then I fell victim to a nasty cold and was a total mess. Thanks for all the great reviews.

Oops sorry double post.

Kavanagh. Alina Cojocaru or Tamara Rojo?

Melissa Hayden. Clairemarie Osta or Aurelie Dupont?

Minkus Vaganova Academy or SAB?

Yuri Soloviev and Gabriela Komleva in "Grand pas classique" can be viewed on youtube. Do a search, and gasp at the sheer ELEVATION and speed of Soloviev's entrechats. No wonder Rudolf Nureyev would say upon receiving a compliment, "You should have seen Soloviev!"

Barocco! Arlene Croce's "Discussing the Undiscussable" or "Dimming the Lights"?

I think the Macauley controversy stems from one basic fact: should a critic of a major newspaper such as the NYTimes have a wide variety of taste? MacCauley doesn't, and his biases are very obvious -- he loves Balanchine, most British ballet, some of the more academic classics, such as Sleeping Beauty, but has very little tolerance for anything else. He dislikes Russian ballet vehemently, and I've stopped reading his reviews of the ABT altogether. I admire his writing abilities, and his knowledge of ballet history, but very often I think he goes to performances with a closed mind. I think MacCauley might work a lot better in a more "niche-y" environment, where he's not forced to review ballets and companies he has no interest in. To use another example entirely, I think Suzanne Farrell has done a great job coaching Balanchine repertoire in so many different companies around the world, but I'd never want to see her coach, say, Giselle. She has no interest in 19th century story ballets, and that's fine.

In light of Alistair MacCauley's reviews for the NYTimes, here is Robert Gottlieb's take: http://www.observer.com/2008/kirov-s-old-w...nd-perversities

Mourka. Ludmila Semenyaka or Natalia Bessmertnova?

I get that impression from Sarafanov actually, but not Vishneva. After each jaw-dropping tour'en air Leonid came out for a curtain call with a "hey I'm awesome" face. By the way every time I wait for will call I meet someone special. First time it was Irina Kolpakova. Last night it was Sarafanov's mom, who is GORGEOUS. Tereshkina's balances at the end of her variations were indeed marvellous. One more thing about my charming seat-mate. During each piroette she would hold her fingers up real high and start turning her fingers along with the dancers. When they inevitably didn't turn EXACTLY the way she wanted, she'd shake her head and say, "I can't believe this." During the curtain calls she'd only clap for Sarafanov, and during the Don Q pdd curtain calls, she said, "I'm not going to clap for them" very loudly. Lovely. One more thing: Ekaterina Konduarova danced the Don Q variation and I loved her. Please someone give her more opportunities!

I came back from the ballet, and for the first time, I actually left because of an audience member. After two acts I couldn;t take the woman sitting next to me anymore. From the very first she was disagreeable, she sharply asked the woman next to me, "Are those programs different, or are you just taking pleasure in reading the same program three times?" The woman next to me was taken aback and said, "These programs are for them" (meaning her two friends). Then the lady complained that she couldn't see, and demanded that the people in front of me slump down. Then she flipped through the program and was like "Diana Vishneva? Ugh she's awful. And Viktoria Tereshkina? Sarafanov's the only dancer worth seeing." Great. When the program began, she started to grumble. First according to her the people in front of us were talking (they weren't) and she hectored them to quiet down, even though they weren't talking. Then she started following the dancing, and she shook her head in rage and muttered nasty comments the ENTIRE TIME. She in particular seemed to hate Fadeev and Vishneva, and during the entire Don Q pdd grumbled, "Awful, awful, just awful." But the dancing? Viktoria Tereshkina really is proving her worth as a principal. Tall, regal, with mindblowing but never vulgar technique, she won all hearts as Medora, and held her own against Leonid Sarafanov. Sarafanov is a miracle. He leaves the audience in a frenzy, with his elevation and speed. Still a bit boyish looking and gawky, I wonder if he'll ever outgrow the "boy-wonder" role. Still, what a wonder! Evgeny Ivanchenko was elegant but more understated, and the three Odalisques were very charming. I particularly loved Svetlana Ivanova, so cute and doll-like! Light as a feather in her solo. I confess that I dislike the Diana and Acteon pdd, and although I appreciated Osmolkina's elegance and Lobukhin's hunky muscularity overall the piece didn't work for me. Next. Don Q with the vets Vishneva and Fadeev. I thought both of them had some shaky moments in the pas de deux. The first series of supported pirouettes almost resulted in a fall for poor Diana (and my charming seat-mate spit, "See! Awful!"), but they saved themselves like the pros they were. I was commenting to nyususan that Diana's now at the point in her career when technique is no longer so effortless, and sometimes you can see the work and concentration. But her variation (she's one of the few ballerinas who still does the grande jete variation) and fouettes (doubles with the fan over her head) proved that she's still a prima ballerina. Fadeev looks strikingly like a blond Nureyev. Again, he's not Leonid Sarafanov but who cares? After that I left.

Congratulations to Viktoria Tereshkina! Well-deserved.

Ballet Imperial. Irina Dvorovenko or Maxim Beloserkovsky?

Zobeide. R&J: Lavrovsky or MacMillan?

Yes the book focuses heavily on her childhood, and her performing as a child star in music halls, with her mother playing the piano. She goes into some detail about her musical training too. Andrews' childhood is straight out of Dickens -- an alcoholic mother, an abusive, alcoholic stepfather, finding out she was an illegitimate child, etc. etc. But it ends up being a rather warm-hearted memoir despite the gloom, simply because it's so wonderfully written. it doesn't have the typical ghostwritten gloss but it's not a self-indulgent ramble-fest. Julie Andrews had a sense of humor? I never knew it.

I wish they would bring the reconstructed Sleeping Beauty on tour, as well as Jewels and, you're right, Raymonda.

Alexandrova. Nureyev or Makarova Bayadere?