Roberta

Am I the only person in the USA who is excited about the prospect of this book arriving in my mail box today, June 3rd? I don't think so.

Are we sure that Ratmansky's GISELLE for the Bolshoi will be a reconstruction? It doesn't seem so, by these words in the Fathom Events site:

Brooklyn Mack is a definite ABT Principal possibility, judging by his oeuvre in Washington, in recent years. He always had the "big guns" for bravura roles like Conrad and Ali but, more recently, developed a real classical finesse in roles like leads in Les Sylphides and The Dream. Of course, I'd also love to see current ABT soloists (Forster, Royal) or corps dancers (oh, he** - Aran Bell!) skip right on up to Principal status.

So sad. The spring/summer 2019 (next-to-last?) issue includes a wonderful article on Ratmansky's research on Harlequinade.

As I researched ABT dancers cast in Swan Lake, I ran into this interesting note:

http://www.teatrocolon.org.ar/es/2019/ballet/la-sylphide

Misty Copeland and Herman Cornejo are due to star in Pierre Lacotte's version of La Sylphide in Buenos Aires (various dates in late August).

So which Swan Lake leading duo do folks recommend that I see at Wolf Trap?

July 11 - Seo/Stearns

July 12 - Copeland/Cornejo

July 13 - Teuscher/Bell

I'm leaning towards Teuscher/Bell because both are fairly new to their roles and have received positive reviews in other ballets.

I didn't want to use the "C" word but, as others have used it...yes, the designs for The Seasons looked totally Le Cheapo.  It hurts to write this, as I'm a big fan of other theatrical designs by Robert Perdziola, including those for Harlequinade. I'm guessing that ABT had to low-ball the budget, using less-expensive fabrics and techniques. One thing is the design; another is the execution.

23 hours ago, NinaFan said:

It was six years ago and a different production, but Simkin made his debut as Prince Desire on July 3, 2013 with Sarah Lane as Princess Aurora.   That’s one casting I will never forget as I had tickets for the performance, but wound up in the hospital having emergency surgery to have my gallbladder removed.   I’ve never seen him cast in the role again, but I’d love to see it.

Not to derail the thread but, as NinaFan mentioned the wish to see Simkin as Prince Desire:  He's a permanent principal in the Berlin Staatsballett, which is producing Marcia Haydee's Sleeping Beauty, commencing 15 Feb 2020. NinaFan may want to keep an eye to the casting, via this link:

https://www.staatsballett-berlin.de/en/spielplan/dornroschen-2/15-02-2020/947

Or...ABT could extend Brooklyn Mack's guest run, to include ballets other than Corsaire. Brooklyn has already danced Siegfried opposite Misty, with Washington Ballet, for ex.

Cornejo is due to dance with Misty in Swan Lake - one of her two NY performances, as well as at Wolf Trap, VA, a couple of weeks later. Brooklyn is "Siegfried-With-Misty Ready"!

Misty's other Swan Lake at the Met will be with Hallberg, so I guess that one's safe.

8 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

I'd go further and describe the Hermitage Theater as tiny. It seats about 300 people, and I reckon that from the sides it's probably nearly impossible to see anything. But surprisingly, the tiny orchestras that play there are able to produce a respectable sound. Full-sized orchestras playing in oversized venues can sound much worse.

Yes, the auditorium area is relatively tiny. It was intended only for Romanovs and their court, after all. However, the stage is of a good size.  Productions that premiered there were usually transferred to the Mariinsky within days - same number of dancers, sets, costumes. 

https://hermitagetheater.com/auditorium

I've been there several times, beginning in the mid-1990s at the time of the restoration, when it was the most modern theater in Russia, with the latest computer technology for that time. The stage is quite deep and almost as wide as that of the current Royal Theater in Copenhagen, for comparison. Of course, the Danish theater has a much larger seating area and a full orchestra pit.

Other than the two rows of seats are the very far ends, all seats at the Herm Th. have excellent sight lines.

Never in my wildest dreams back in the 1990s did I imagine that one day I would be seeing ballets that premiered at the Hermitage, staged for modern companies. Now all we need, to complete the set of "Hermitage - February 1900" ballets, is Les Eleves de Dupre (2-act version of the longer Petipa work, The King's Command, to music of Vizentinni, arranged by Drigo). While we're at it - make it a foursome of "Hermitage - Winter 1900" ballets, as Russes d'Amour (also by Glazunov/Petipa) premiered about one month before Harlequinade, Saisons and Dupre.  The Romanovs sure seemed to have gone ballet-crazy in early 1900!

The Harvard Sergeev Notes exist for that both Russes and Dupre. Mr. Ratmansky? Anyone else? But, please, let's try to have full designs for all - costumes and sets.

1 minute ago, abatt said:

I agree 100 percent.  The Seasons is Bliss.

I presume it will return in the fall season at the Koch.  By the way, Tommy Forster is looking really terrific this season. 

I hope that it returns in the fall.  My first thought was that this ballet will look better on the smaller stage...but there's nothing small about the Koch - former NY State Theatre, next to the Met.

The original Petipa/Glazunov Les Saisons was created for the smallish Hermitage Theatre within St. Petersburg's Winter Palace. It premiered within days of Harlequinade, also at the Hermitage stage. Both ballets were originally intended for intimate theaters. Incredible!

I'll second (or "third") the above opinions about Ratmansky's The Seasons. I saw the first two presentations, with different casts, Monday's gala viewing led by - dancing the main pdd in the Autumn segment -  Isabella Boylston (Spirit of Corn) and James Whiteside (Zephyr), while last night's second cast was headed by Stella Abrera and Thomas Forster in the same roles.

Let me dispense with my one negative right off the bat:  The designs were too simplistic for a grand Imperial-era ballet, even though I understand that Ratmansky created the steps, as there are no notes for The Seasons in the Harvard Sergeev collection. Yet, I was not alone among my fellow balletomanes in anticipating somewhat grander, more solid costumes from the same designer - Perdziola - who gave us the magnificent outfits for Harlequinade. We have one lovely Imperial-style tutu and a tiara for the leading ballerina, the Spirit of Corn, while the rest are variants of free-flowing nice Karinska ca-1960 dresses for NYCB. Very pretty, for sure, but not what I had been imagining. I'm sure that the budget impacted on the luxuriousness of the costumes, minimal props, no wigs, etc. The red dresses for the Poppies, danced by girl students, were bright and effective. Some of the men's outfits - such as the Satyrs and so-called "Water Men" - were garish. The biggest disappointment was in the sparse emptiness of the setting, as there was no setting or even lighting effects; we got just the bare cyclorama with a different solid color for each season, then some weak twinkling lights against black for the finally of "The Cosmos."

OK - I got my little rant about the designs our of the way...

What mattered the most - the steps and the dancing - are brilliant, ultra-classical, yet inventive. My personal highlights, upon two viewings:

* Winter: Not-so-Old Man Winter (Aran Bell - so strong yet light! - or precise Joo Won Ahn) and his four Weather Ladies (my term!), each with a bright little solo, to familiar music used by Ashton in his Birthday Offering: 

• Frost - Katherine Williams or Zhong-Jing Fang;
• Ice - Hee Seo or  Devon Teuscher;
• Hail - Magnificent Catherine Hurlin...my ABT discovery of the two nights!...or Courtney Lavine; and
• Snow - Luciana Paris or Betsy McBride.

A female corps of 12 Snowflakes in long gauzy dresses accompanied each solo with inventive moves.

* Spring: A delightful Pas de Trois for Rose (incredible Sarah Lane or Cassandra Trenary), Swallow (Skylar Brandt or rising beauty Breanne Granlund) and Zephyr (Whiteside or Forster), However, this segment looked particularly sparse with a smallish corps in simple pink knee-length gowns and no setting. The stage looked almost bare from halfway up (Row A center, Dress Circle)...almost like a little ballet for a secondary stage...Dolly Dinkle Ballet recital feeling, for such a great work. Oops, there I go again about the designs...sorry!

* Summer: The Barcarolle ensemble for 18 - 6 each of adult female corps, adult male "water men" corps and 6 little girls as Poppies - was exquisite, including intricate, ever-changing lifts and holds, in time to the swaying music. I wanted to sway along with all of them! And, of course, Summer ushers in our prima ballerina - the Spririt of Corn, with a number of magnificent solo turns...this was Matilde Kchessinskaya's role at the 1900 premiere, after all.

* Fall: the Bacchanale, led by either Cassandra Trenary and Calvin Royal III in 1st cast or my discovery Catherine Hurlin - also with Royal - at 2nd cast. Here, unlike in Spring, the ensemble truly gobbles up the stage, in the celebration or life and love that the choreographer promised us. Sorry to fixate on Hurlin yet again but her solo in this segment, with multiple pirouettes separated by hops, is spellbinding.

* Within "Fall," all of the season's "characters" return for a little final show-off, including Springtime's Rose, performing an amazingly long balance-in-attitude, partnered in turn by the six Water Men, echoing the Rose Adagio of Petipa's SB. Both Trenary and Lane did well but - oh my - Sarah Lane totally amazed. This was my #1 moment of the night, with the exception of the grand adagio pdd for Corn & Zephyr...

* The PDD for Corn & Zephyr - THE highlight of the ballet for many. I cannot honestly prefer one pairing over the other. Boylston/Whiteside were most precise, with Abrera/Forster were most poetic, to me. And both couples performed the most amazing tabletop lift imaginable, with minimal preparation.

* Final Tableau "The Cosmos" - a grand celebration, with seemingly 100 dancers on stage for the final freeze pose, as Glazunov's grand fortissimo notes ring down the golden curtain!

Do-Not-Miss-This, if you can get to it.

Peter Schaufuss was head of the RDB back when they performed a version that I saw. Around 1995/96? I remember that Juliet was danced by a novice who left or retired soon after that. However, the Romeo (Kobborg) was fantastic.  I feel that the '95 staging lost many of the Ashtonian nuances. I was not so impressed, overall, with the exception of Kobborg and some of the senior character principals (nurse, Lord and Lady C).  Many people swear that the original 1950s production for RDB was lovely and with more energy.

I believe that Ashton bequeathed the ballet to Schaufuss. I'm hoping that the Sarasota staging will be done by one of the Ashton Trust's main notators, Grant Coyle, who staged Apparitions this year nd has staged a number of other works.

2 hours ago, Mashinka said:

I very much dislike long distance air travel but feel a visit to Sarasota is something I ought to do.

You should, if you could. The March/April 2020 time period would allow you to see revivals of both Romeo & Juliet (last seen in Denmark in the late 90s?) and Dante Sonata (in BRB's rep a few years ago?). The weather is usually heavenly during that period. It was so in early March this year, during the revival of Apparitions. Packed, appreciative audiences at all performances, not only at the gala opening nights.

On ‎4‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 11:16 PM, annaewgn said:

I think Brandt and Lane will perform their respective roles in every show. Perhaps Alexei only wanted Lane and Brandt for Spring, at least for this round of performances. 

ABT website casting now indicates a different pair of female soloists for The Seasons-Spring:  Trenary & Granlund. It won't be Lane & Brandt at every performance.

https://www.abt.org/event_dates/ratmansky-trio-5-21-19-730pm/

Similarly, ABT is ignoring its Tudor heritage. I last saw Gala Performance in Sarasota, Florida, in 2015. It was wonderful!

The Joffrey is similarly ignoring its heritage ballets - the Joffreys and Arpinos. I last saw a Joffrey heritage ballet in Oklahoma City, of all places, a month ago -- a fantastic Pas des Deesses. So sad that none of this is seen in the larger ballet cities of the USA.

So sorry to read about the low audience turn-out for Harlequinade, a ballet that I loved last season. I'm afraid that, this season, I'm attending only next Monday's "gala" - in quotes because half of the program is the nice but gloomy Serenade on Plato's Symposium...hardly gala fare --and the opening Jane Eyre. I'm attending the "gala" for The Seasons. That's all.

re. Giselle by Ratmansky, the article states that this will be "a new choreographic edition." So it could be totally new or it could be "new-old," using the Stepanov Harvard notes.

Didn't Doug Fullington work with the Harvard notes on a partially-reconstructed version of Giselle for Pacific NW Ballet, a while ago?

16 hours ago, Marta said:

Roberta, you wrote an excellent review of The White Crow.  I enjoyed the film very much and it was beautifully done.  Ivenko was good; his dancing was good but not great and nobody could expect him to  have Rudi's charisma. I thought Fiennes was terrific.  He really evoked the films of Pushkin  teaching Baryshnikov's class. I wish there had been more dancing though.  The film was quite faithful to the bio of Rudi by Julie Kavanagh.  All the people you mention figured prominently in her book.  It would have been fascinating to see more of Sizova and especially Soloviev.  The night after I saw White Crow, I saw the current documentary film "Nureyev" .  Fascinating to see the contrast between them. I also wished there were  more actual footage of Nureyev dancing in the doc film. Instead there were scenes of  dancers performing contemporary choreography against a backdrop of a Russian birch forest, with the real Rudi pirouetting interminably off to one side.  The documentary covers his entire life with extensive portions of interviews with Dick Cavett and others.  Both films are worth seeing.

Martha, thank you for mentioning the newest documentary "Nureyev." I had never heard of it until now. If I may ask - who is the director, the country of production, method of circulation, etc.?

My favorite docu about Nureyev's total life - with heavy emphasis on post-defection - remains the one from 1990/91 by Patricia Foy.

I also completely agree with Bobbi and must add kudos for the leading ladies. Sterling Hyltin was light as air and delectable as the lead in Scotch Symphony, reminding me of her stellar Sylph in Martins' La Sylphide. Hyltin and Huxley make a great partnership. Megan Fairchild brought out her inner Violette - that je ne sais quoi - in Sonatine. I'm still in awe of the rapid-fire brilliance of the entire six-member cast of Valse Fantasie; what an aerobic workout is that ballet! Lastly, I could only grin from ear to ear when Sara Mearns and her "four guys" trotted onto the stage at the beginning of Stravinsky Violin Concerto - the finest tribute to Karin Von Aroldingen imaginable. Lauren Lovette, in the Kay Mazzo role, was also quite impressive. NYCB is truly on a high these days, after the recent tough times.

Editing to add: Yes, there also were a couple of stumbles among the Scotch corps ladies in the 3rd movement but the much-talked-about India Bradley was impeccable and in-time. Let the record show!

I remember having read about Misty's US debut as O/O in Swan Lake; thanks for the confirmation, California. I'm sure that Kent/Barbee's version will be interesting. They consulted the Harvard Stepanov notes and spoke with Ratmansky for certain details in their recent Sleeping Beauty for the Washington group so perhaps they'll do the same for their Swan Lake?

Washington, DC is one of the few US cities fortunate enough to be showing Ralph Fiennes' new movie, The White Crow, during its initial limited release. I attended the DC opening last Friday at the historic Avalon Theatre in NW. As a major admirer of Rudolf Nureyev, I simply could not wait for any small-screen or online version to become available. Were my expectations satisfied? Uh...mostly yes.

Certainly it is great to have the early dramatic story of the Russian balletic comet committed to dramatic film. The two previous films about the early years of Nureyev that I've seen  are the 2016 BBC documentary (with partially-dramatized scenes, featuring Artem Ovcharenko of the Bolshoi as Nureyev) and an earlier "pure documentary" that ran on PBS around 2014 which, to me, was most notable for introducing to the world the pirated films of Nureyev's German friend, Teja Kremke.

My main complaint about the current dramatic film is that it doesn't touch on or develop all of the elements that were so fascinating in the two documentaries. Some characters from the documentary appear; others are not mentioned. For example, Alla Osipenko, Nureyev's main partner on the 1961 Paris tour, is seen but, unless I missed it, her name is not uttered in the Fiennes movie. (When the credits rolled at the end, we learn that Anastasia Meskova of the Bolshoi played Osipenko. So that must have been the ballerina dancing the Black Swan pdd, I suppose.) Also, the new movie does not give us the full story about the incident of Nureyev and his Paris room-mate and fellow star, Yuri Soloviev, in the way that the 2016 BBC docu did. Furthermore, Ms. Mencia, the Cuban dancer who was a girlfriend of Nureyev in Leningrad, features prominently in the PBS documentary but isn't mentioned in the BBC doc or the Fiennes movie. Teja Kremke (Nureyev's gay friend) is depicted in the current movie and was mentioned in the PBS docu...but not in the BBC docu, that I recall. Was it the POB ballerina Claire Motte (in the Fiennes movie) who accompanied her friend Pierre Lacotte on the automobile tours throughout Paris, showing Nureyev the City of Lights...or was it Ghislaine Thesmar, as in the 2016 BBC doc? So we are left with three different films giving three different versions - each introducing different sets of characters - of the pre-defection Nureyev saga.

A big plus:  The characters of Alexander Pushkin - the great Vaganova Academy teacher of Nureyev and so many great male dancers - and Pushkin's wife, Xenia, are developed only in the current feature film, with Ralph Fiennes performing admirably as Pushkin.

A big negative: None of the three films mentions Nureyev's fellow-graduate of 1958, Alla Sizova. According to books, she featured prominently in Nureyev's life in the late 50s even sharing an apartment with Nureyev at one point. Or did she?

In addition to director-actor Fiennes' great work, the current film includes a fine dramatic performance by Ukraine's Oleg Ivenko (whose dancing career has been in Kazan, I think...if so, most appropriate, as this is in Tatarstan). The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, worth seeing it on the big screen (locations include the real St Petersburg-Leningrad and Paris). As someone else mentioned earlier, the realistic depictions of balletic life behind the curtain is admirable.

In sum, The White Crow is a fine addition to films about Nureyev. It's definitely worth my second look. Next time I watch, I'll try to rid my brain of pesky details about those years in Nureyev's life.

Thank you, California. I am especially excited that the Feb 2019 Ashton+Balanchine program includes Ashton's Birthday Offering.  I'm a bit surprised, though, that next year's Swan Lake is being marketed as a first for the company. Wasn't there a Swan Lake in 2015 that starred ABT guest Misty Copeland? The 2015 full-length SL was staged by Kirk Petersen so maybe Julie Kent is referring to a totally-new staging by herself and her husband. It's not as if the company has never danced a full-length Swan Lake. In all cases, it is exciting to see three full-length classics in next season's rep: SL, Coppelia and Nutcracker.

https://www.washingtonballet.org/events/swan-lake/

Julie Kent on SWAN LAKE:

Presenting Swan Lake, the beloved, iconic ballet that is arguably the backbone of our art form, is a very exciting moment for The Washington Ballet. This production is the logical next step in building the repertoire for the company. All the romantic ballets the company has performed over the last few years – Giselle, Les Sylphides, The Sleeping Beauty – have prepared our dancers for this very moment.

Thank you, Drew. I know that it's in limited release in the USA at present but will hopefully expand to more theatres.

My name is Roberta. I'm a dual Italian-U.S. citizen, currently living in the U.S. capital city. My two passions are helping migrant populations and watching dance - an odd combination, I realise.  I firmly believe that the arts, particularly dance and the visual arts, can help heal a wounded spirit. I wish that the bureaucrats and politicos would understand.

I've been attending performances of ballet for many years, in many places. I've watched the main European companies for a long time and am slowly becoming more knowledgeable about NYCB, ABT and the Washington Ballet.  POB, the Mariinsky and NYCB are my current favorites although I also raise the flag for my dear La Scala in Milano. I'm also in awe of the headway made by ballet companies in the Far East, such as in Japan and Korea.

I also enjoy dance films and anything in which Rudolf Nureyev is featured. Of course, I saw and enjoyed The White Crow at its local premiere, this past Friday. I hope to be able to discuss this in the future.