Pamela Moberg

The Cojocaru-Kobborg Giselle is indeed very lovely. Cojocaru is entirely believable - waiflike, insecure, pathetic, utterly moving, just wonderful. And Kobborg is also wonderful. Do recommend it! Their Giselle cannot be compared to Maximova-Vasiliev, it would be totally unfair to say one is better than the other. M-V's Giselle is darker, more Gothic in feel. C & K are a young happy couple and then it dawns on them that this is not to be. Though they are totally different in atmosphere, I have found that I now have not only one, but TWO favourite Giselles. Both versions move me to tears.

The tribute Bart mentioned will be broadcast on Swedish TV on Sunday if I understood the commentator correctly. What a wonderful thing to keep and cherish on DVD. And thank you so much, Farrell Fan for sharing your lovely memories with us. Mashinka, you are so right. This year we have lost so many truly great artists - I am also thinking of Bergman and Antonioni. As it happened, one of The Three Tenors guested Sweden yesterday. Jose Carreras appeared for one performance only - unfortunately I was unable to attend, but I saw an interview with him on TV. He appeared to be absolutely devastated.

Early this morning Ingmar Bergman passed away at his home at Fårö, a small island in the Baltic Sea where he had lived for the past years. Last fall he had a hip operation and it is said that he never fully recovered. He will be remembered by his many movies, theater productions and books. Without a doubt he was the greatest director of all times in Sweden. His last movie "Fanny and Alexander" is supposed to be autobiographical. In that film it was said that he tried to come to terms with the sufferings of his childhood and youth. He was born in 1918 in Uppsala, his father was a clergyman and also the official court preacher. The father was a stern Lutheran, very unforgiving and demanding and Bergman's severe upbringing left him with scars for life. As time went by his films became more and more filled with anguish and despair and I must admit that I was not overly fond of them. But some of his theater productions were delightful, especially his opera production of "The Magic Flute" is my own favorite.

Sad news indeed, Rosie. Actually, I was getting impatient, not having seen anything in the TV schedule so I was going to ring them up tomorrow and ask them when it will be. On the other hand, last time was a debacle of monumental calibre. I dont know how it was televised in other countries, but here it was truly dreadful. Very sad news and I am quite disappointed. It is wonderful to see new young talent. Glad that I kept all the old programs and converted them into DVD's. If only EBU had scrapped that awful song contest in stead.

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies - especially I loved Dirac's "hardy perennials". Yes, but why do these perennials pop up so frequently? (My perennials in the garden all seem to be struggling like mad). Could it be that directors have a terrible burden of responsibility, it is not cheap to mount a large production and tics must be sold. In the olden days the public was lured to performances by means of very weird spectacles like tooth pulling, bearded ladies, dwarfs leaping through burning hoops and other oddities. Maybe it is the same feeling today, audiences might not attend if it is something they are vaguely familiar with - everything must have a new twist. BTW, I have already nicknamed this new production Faust and the Atrics - ( a bit of a play with Gerry and the Atrics). The reasoning about a new twist seems to hold true, except in one aspect. When it comes to a love story everything all of a sudden becomes Romeo and Juliet. West Side Story was called that, a recent play at the municipal drama theater here was depicted as the star crossed lovers of Mostar. Actually based on a true story, a young boy and girl were shot at the bridge of Mostar, one was orthodox Christian and the other muslim. That went on during Shakespeare's time and it still goes on and such tragic cases will always occur. It will be interesting to see what they will make of Faust's love for Margarethe here - and what they will make of her character. And what are the intentions for the "merry-making at the Kermesse"? Rock and roll started in the fifties, will they jive to Gounod? The mind boggles, better stop before I get nightmares

Well, to cut a long story short I am just back from an audition. Didnt get the job, by the way. The local opera house of Gothenburg is going to stage Gounod's Faust - an opera director from Frankfurt am Main has been specially invited to do it the same way here as in Frankfurt. They wanted extras, youngsters and then some older people. That's where I come in. Director made a bit of a speech and explained that he wanted Faust in a kind of fifties setting, (1950 that is). Opening scene should take place in an asylum for old demented people, old guys in white beards should be sitting about in wheel chairs and old ladies should be feeding them breakfast. At this point I for no reason at all started thinking about "One flew over the cucko's nest" and I wasnt far off. That was exactly how it was meant to be. A lot of OAP guys with white beards were hired together with some elderly fat women with grey hair. I am not fat and I dont have grey hair - so exit I think Gounod's music is very beautiful, but it is hardly suited to a fifties setting. It really beats me why directors think that modernizing operas and ballets by putting them in an entirely different epoch from the original will work. If they want a new and younger audience they will fail - in my opinion the younger generation thinks that the fifties was a rather silly era. Must admit that I am rather disappointed and I will not go and see the performance either, might do better by buying a decent DVD. What is other BalletAlerters opinion of modernizing operas? Maybe I am just old-fashioned, but has anybody seen any work where modernizing has been an advantage?

I possess two DVD's with Villella introducing programs, New York City Ballet and a Balanchine Celebration. But I would really love to have something where he is dancing himself.

Thanks, Bart, for making me aware of that thread. I have seen it briefly long ago - now I read all 11 pages of it. Well, cant have much of an opinion here now, can I? As I have never seen the original, I did on the one hand agree with some of the posters on some details, but I still remain very impressed. Can just imagine the original live, good Lord - yet, this POB offering will be a very treasured item in my DVD collection. I really do think that this is a work that will survive for as long as there is ballet. (That cant be said about a lot of what we are treated to today )

At least in Europe today has been proclaimed International Day of Dance. Well, now it is past midnight here so it was yesterday. Swedish TV really outdid themselves for a change and sent "Jewels" - all three parts, Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds. The work was danced by the Paris Opera Ballet and it was absolutely marvelous. I have never seen even short bits of Jewels before so I have nothing to compare with, but I was stunned. It would be nice to hear from you who have seen both the original American versions with the NYCB and the Paris version. How do they compare?

Sir Kenneth MacMillan will definitely survive, more so than Ashton, and possibly some works by John Cranko. I am only talking English here, but I think that Ashton fell into oblivion a lot by the demise of Margot Fonteyn. I did see some of MacMillan's early works when I was a kid and he always fascinated me. Of the Europeans, well, Bejart might survive. Birgit Cullberg's "Miss Julie" might survive, but nothing else by her, and Ek's work will definitely not last. All these choreographers are now dead, except Bejart and Ek, yet one must count them as choregraphers of today. IMO, there are only two recent greats: Balanchine and MacMillan. All the rest are way, way behind.

Finally I am finished with all my transferring videos to DVD - and now another task has ensued. A quite delightful one There must of course be law and order in everything, so I check the DVD against the video to make sure that nothing is missing. My videos could be very mixed, but now I have put all American stuff together, all Russian together and I find myself with a most wonderful box full of ballet history. And properly catalogued. Tonight I have just been checking out the Makarova "Ballerina" - in three almost hour long parts. What heavenly stuff! What heavenly clips of old dancers! Things I have never seen live or in film, f.ex. bits of Markova in Giselle. Is this video commercially available? It really ought to be - it is very educational and beautiful in every way. Take a person who claims to know nothing at all of ballet and sit him/her down in front of this film and I really think you have a convert. People usually say that they dont like ballet because they dont understand it. Here is the chance. Well, here is everything nicely explained and one doesnt get the feeling that she is talking down to people and regarding the viewers as idiots. Well, armed with this series one ought to go out on a crusade and convert people to the proper cause, dont you think! Just a great pity, IMO that all the Russian stuff I have is not color compatible with our system, everything Russian looks very bleak and washed out colorwise.

So glad to hear that your son has settled in so well in Hamburg! And so reassuring to hear that the atmosphere is good and people are friendly. Oh yes, I remember that cafeteria, not to mention the showers! Comparing Hamburg Opera to the old theater in Gothenburg, where there were only two showers for the entire staff, I felt like I was in the lap of luxury. First impressions are so important, but he seems to have got a flying start, my heartfelt congratulations! :huepfen024:

Yes, Canbelto, I am also surprised that you are surprised. I must dig into past posts, but I am almost certain I mentioned the book. I received the book on my birthday in December 2005 - it is of course possible that I omitted to post as that time of the year is extremey busy for me with all Christmas trees I am selling. Anyway, it is very interesting to compare Imperial dancer with Mathilde's own book. I have actually corresponded with Ms. Hall and we were supposed to meet in Edinburgh as there was an exhibition there about the last Romanovs etc. Unfortunately we did not meet after all as she was busy promoting her book. Ms. Hall told me once that she was greatly inspired by a Finnish TV program about K. I have that tape, now on DVD, wonderful stuff indeed. I remember it being broadcast on the Swedish network at Christmas, such a marvelous program tucked away at an impossible hour on the most festive of all Swedish days. That program probably only had one viewer and that was yours truly! :cool2:

Oh yes, they show Kristoffer Berntson over and over again on Swedish TV. And rightly so, I have seen quite a lot of him in the past, and now, suddenly, he is so much more assured - he is steadily climbing the ladder and I think that in a couple of years we will have a badly needed medallist here. There hasnt been one for a very long time. So, for luck, I took out my Salchow fan. (Maybe I have mentioned it before, but I have a fan that once belonged to Salchow's sister). I didnt really like any of the tango couples, the Bulgarian couple was best - somehow I thought that fire and intensity were lacking in most couples. As I am not a skater myself, presentation is very important to me, and some couples were frankly rather boring. Swedish TV broadcasts two sessions a day, 105 minutes in the daytime and 60 minutes in the evening. Not too bad. Today they started selling the tickets for next year's world championships. Good tickets are absolutely exhorbitant, I will think twice about buying an all events ticket, single event might be OK.

Apart from it being very delightful to actually own all these DVD's, it is also most interesting to see how styles have changed so quickly. To give you an example: first watch some ballet filmed in say 1955-1960, and then look at something filmed 1995-2000. . The difference is enormous, and now I am not only referring to high arabesques or high legs in general - everything is different. And so it should be, things must evolve. Only the Danes with their Bournonville style look the same, but say a Napoli from yesterday looks sharper than a Napoli from 1955. What will we think in say 30 years from now?

The World Championships have started in Tokyo. Not all that much being broadcast here, but I have naturally watched what was on this first day. There was of course a very great interest on the part of Swedish TV in the Swedish participants. There were three of them - that is just historic! Kristoffer Berntson was there and did his usual "cell phone number", well, he is actually getting more relaxed and proficient. And a new couple in the pair skating: Pylkina-Hogner. Little Pylkina, and she is very tiny indeed, is just 16 but I think promising. She is actually Russian, from St. Petersburg, but moved here a few years ago with her mother who is a trainer. The couple only placed themselves at I think number 17, but they gave a good show and one must take into account that traveling to Japan and taking part in this event with all the big elephants must be pretty nerveracking. And talking about big elephants, the Russians dont seem to have many these days. What has happened to Russian figure skating? OK, Pylkina is born in Russia and the bronze couple were also originally Russian, but skated for Germany. Gold and silver went to China, which is a nation that seems to produce many good skaters. Japan also had a wonderful guy. Is there possibly any BalletAlerter in Tokyo? Or do we all have to rely on TV? It will be an enjoyable week, I am sure. :huepfen024:

According to press release, Mr. Öhman will take up his post as from 1 July, but Kenneth Irving has set the program for the entire year which includes the fall season. Mr. Öhman has said though, that he wants more full length works. He also wants more young people in the audience, but they all say that. That is all the info at hand, one shall simply have to wait and see.

Yes, Volcanohunter, I have both the Shaufuss and Makarova series, they are very good. In my opinion mass scenes do not work well on TV, on example here being the new Swedish Swan Lake, it was far too dark and I found it useless on a screen. But I have not seen it live, so I refrain from judgement. As I have now gone through all my ballet videos and transferred them to DVD, I was surprised to note one thing. I owned very few commercially made videos, just some Highlights of this and Glories of that. So the rest of my ballet library was taped from the national Swedish networks. Looking at the dates, very few were later than about 1995. Before that, masses of stuff, Shaufuss, Makarova, Ustinov and Fonteyn series, in addition some rather intellectual and genuine stuff about flamenco. That glorious program "Backstage at the Kirov" was broadcast at prime time, 20 hours a Saturday night! The mind boggles... I also have several other Soviet tapes about the Vaganova, Perm Ballet School and the Bolshoi and what have you. Note that I used the word "Soviet" which means all videos were pre 1991. Now I am sad to say that Swedish TV has become all fun and games and silly contests - the times they are achanging. It is very rarely one sees any ballet these days. It seems it is the trend all over. :blush:

Well, now we know! The new director at the Gothenburg Ballet will be Johannes Öhman. I am afraid to say that I have never seen him live, only on TV. He is young, very young, late twenties or very early thirties I believe. At the moment he is first soloist at the Stockholm Opera and also artistic director of an independent company called "Stockholm 59 degrees North" which performs contemporary works. Can one possibly hope for something classical in the future?

As a fellow countryman I will also join the welcoming committee, nice to have you here! I live on the west coast near Gothenburg, unfortunately the Gothenburg Opera only does modern stuff, so I dont get to see much ballet. But I have a wonderful DVD library. Lots of luck and success with your studies!

Not that I want to fall into the category "everything was better in the olden days", but maybe here you can have a point. These days, dancers are pensioned off fairly early, in Sweden I believe it is 42 for women and 45 for men, not quite sure though. But then, on the other hand, take for example Giselle, or for that matter Juliet. They are very young girls, so how old are the mothers supposed to be? I have seen Giselle mothers whom I have interpreted more as Giselle's great grandmother. The Danish ballet was very good at keeping older dancers on as mimes, Gerda Karstens b. 1903, did a wonderful Madge in La Sylphide long past her retirement as a dancer and long after pension age. I think a company needs to keep some older dancers, who might be way past their prime as dancers, but can take on character roles adding dignity and weight to their performances. A kid from the corps just doesnt look believable as the king or queen in Swan Lake.

I do have that documentary - in my opinion it is a bit over long, 3 solid hours, and I was disturbed that it seemed to concentrate a bit too much, again IMO, on her love life and troubles and not enough on her dancing. Towards the end I just felt desperately sorry for her - what a way to go. Also, as somebody quite correctly remarked, she had a terrible taste in men, seemed to find all the real awful ones. Though, I am very happy that I have seen her live.

I knew that I had an extensive ballet video library, but I didnt have a clue that is was so vast, absolutely immense. Well, we bought our first video in February 1981, yes I know for sure because our youngest daughter was born 3 April. So you can imagine that things have been collected along the years. Now I have found a thing called "Backstage at the Kirov", one hour long and I just wrote the label: Mostly Russian and English spoken - a document of great historical value. Altunai Azulmuratova and Konstantin Zaklinsky rehearsing and performing act II of Swan Lake. :huepfen024: Well, that tape is really something and the interviews with AA are to die for - so is her dancing. It just might be commercially available, in that case well worth buying.

At the moment I am going through all my old vidoes and putting them on DVD. I have always been very careful about labeling (or so I thought) but surprises keep turning up. This afternoon I did a - what I thought - was a pure music program about Russian music. A one hour show hosted by Bamber Gascoigne (what a guy). In the middle of this I found the pdd from Swan Lake with Altunuy Azulmuratova and Farouhk Ruzimatov. No fireworks, no "telephone" a la secondes, just pure and sheer ballet - it was quite breathtaking in its beauty. What dancers, I am happy I have captured them for ever on my DVD. Azulmuratova was (tape from 1991) so wonderfully beautiful in every way. Something very well worth keeping.

Kenneth Irving's contract at the Gothenburg Opera is ending with this season. There are four candidates, all secret so far. Yet it has leaked that one, the Finnish choreographer Jorma Outinen has withdrawn. It has also leaked that the new ballet director is male and Swedish. Who can it be? Well, it can hardly get worse than it already is. Their latest offering, something called "Body + Soul" was not particularly well received, one critic used words like "amateurish" and "end of term display".