mussel

Balanchine and Danilova staged the full-length Raymonda in 1946 for Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Does this ballet still in some companies' repertories? Has anyone seen it? It's not in NYCB's repertory. However, Balanchine staged 3 ballets to portions of the Raymonda scores, they are Pas de Dix, Cortège Hongrois, and Raymonda Variations for NYCB. I am just curious to find out the current status of the full-length version.

It's not the Bolshoi that's coming to London, rather it's group of Bolshoi dancers calling themselves "the Stars of Bolshoi" that's going to dance in a theater in the West End. It's a complete different story. People get confused and thinks it's the real McCoy but it's not. That's why they can't bring sets and sceneries with them to stage full-length ballets. It happened before in the US in the early 90's and that's what gave Bolshoi the bad reputation. What Bolshoi needs to do is to hire a law firm specializing in trademark law to restrict the use of the name "Bolshoi" in the West. There'd be no more "the Stars of...."

People's serious responses are as funny as the joke itself. Was it last year or the year before that a news release from Bruce about the EU's new job safety regulation that prohibited the 32 fouette and all dancers must wear protective head gears?

Mayor Giuliani is at it again!! Unbelivable! He's got to be kidding! Mayor calls for "Decency Committee" to oversee exhibits at museums that receive city money: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/16/arts/16MUSE.html Also, a related critique to the subject from the Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/16/arts/16EXHI.html Since NYCB also receives city money, it's not far-fetched that NYCB's works would be subject to the same scrutiny. Furthermore, the State Theater is legally owned by the City, if City Hall finds NYCB's or NYCO's works offensive, would City Hall try to evict them from their building as it did to the Brooklyn Museum over the "Sensation" fiasco?

On the contrary, New York is big enough for 2 ballet companies. New York supported three before Joffrey moved to Chicago. If you look at the spring season, both State Theater and the Met are consistently full at the same time. ABT is not going to move out of New York or it'll lose a huge chunk of donations from rich individuals and New York-based corporations. If ABT establishes a full-time schedule in New York it's going to be difficult for them to maintain a full touring schedule. ABT is the de facto national ballet company for the US in a sense it travels around the country to places where there're no ballet companies of their own and internationally.

I have been wondering the same question also. I remember while watching "ABT Now", someone (Julia Kent?) mentioned that ABT was set up as a touring company. May be that's one of the reasons why ABT doesn't want to be tied up by a permanent home? May be it's the financial resources needed to maintain it's own house? We can forget about alternating opera/ballet seasons at the MET. MET has no trouble filling the prime months between late September and late April. I don't think MET would give up any time slots during its regular season. Its powerful board members and contributors (i.e. Alberto Vilar) wouldn't allow it. Why would MET fight so hard to limit competitions only to give up its slots. I think the best hope for ABT to set up a permanent home would be the new opera house at Lincoln Center. [This message has been edited by mussel (edited February 11, 2001).]

I agree with you absolutely. There's a woman sitting 2 seats behind me (at ABT's R&J) constantly looking for something in a plastic bag, the rustling was even worse than that from a candy wrapper. She finally stopped when a guy sitting in front of her asked her to. Another irritant is people using flash camera during performances dispite signs posted outside the auditorium and public announcement during intermissions. [This message has been edited by mussel (edited June 25, 2000).]