Pamela Moberg

As a small child when I was an avid movie fan I was told that all American and English female stars should be addressed as Miss even if they had been married six times. On the contrary all Swedish dancers or singers or actresses should be addressed as Mrs even if they had never been married - that was the standard until about the second half of last century. Long after that one could find some old and presumably gentlemanly reviewer write "Mrs. So-and-so gave us a wonderful performance of Giselle last night". That Giselle in question might have been an 18-year old girl who had never been married. Girls and boys have also entered the Swedish language in general and is used much more than ladies and gentlemen. This is probably a result of the youth cult. That poses a question - what am I? A girl or a lady? Hm

The great Swedish singer, Birgit Nilsson, has passed away. She apparently died already ten days ago, the funeral service took place today. Nobody knew about it, the family desired to keep it this way, as the burial took place in the small church of the village in south Sweden where she was born. A spokesman for the family said that they wanted to avoid masses of journalists, TV cameras and generally curious members of the public. Birgit Nilsson had a long life and career (she was 87 at her death), worked until some years ago as a coach and gave master classes after retiring from the stage. She excelled in Wagner and Richard Strauss operas, her most famous performances were as Isolde in "Tristan and Isolde" and "Die Frau ohne Schatten" by Strauss.

This is getting weirder and weirder - would somebody kindly sort out for me! For a start, I always dutifully pencil in the date of death, when a dancer passes away, in my Koegler. There I have noted that Irina Baronova died in 2002. She probably lives somewhere else now, but certainly not in Australia! Furthermore that her husband did not want her to have anything to do with the dance world. First I think it is preposterous, if any presumptive husband - or for that matter a friend - laid down such laws to me, I would kick that person right out of the door, even if he was stinking rich. Well, that was merely a personal aside. Then, I have a very vivid memory of attending master classes that she held in London, somewhere in Holland Park. That must have been either 1959 or 196o. Good classes and she looked absolutely stunning. Another stunning person also taking class there was the Canadian ballerina Lois Smith. Baronova was also a member of the Royal Academy of Dancing and those classes must have been held at the Academy premises. I cannot possibly have dreamt all this? Or? Must get hold of that autobiography though.

Just watch a cat doing a very deep plie before pouncing! Needless to say. I love cats and have a Russian blue, the joy of my life.

My birthday was yesterday and I was given "Imperial dancer Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs" by Coryne Hall, Sutton Publishing, GBP 20. It looks absolutely fabulous, 326 pages, bibliography, extensive notes, family trees and several pages of photos, a really beautifully produced volume. I have just dipped into it, reading a page here and one there; now I have to attend to my Christmas tree plantation, but will read it from cover to cover and give a detailed review after Christmas. But I am sure it would be a delightful Christmas present for someone interested not only in ballet but also in history. :blush: (My copy was ordered from Dance Books in England, but I assume it can be got from Amazon as well).

What is Trinidad Sevillano doing these days? Has she retired? Is she teaching or what?

Coming to this thread rather late, but now I have read it all. In the beginning Marga talks of tradition and experience which you get from older teachers. I will give you a line-up: Cleo Nordi - taught by Legat Legat - taught by Johansson Johansson - taught by Bournonville Bournonville - taught by Vestris How is that for tradition? Well, I was taught by Nordi. The mind boggles... If that isn't tradition, then what is! Makes me eternally grateful when I think of it this way. :hyper:

Thanks for the kind words, Carbro! But oh dear, this needs some clarification I think. Yes, Carbro, you hit the nail on the head - lengthy articles needing a lot of research, maybe trips into town to the reference library etc. If I may say so myself, I am not at all a meanspirited person who wants money for everything. (Though some meanspirited person once said of me that it costs money just to speak to me) BalletAlert is quite another thing, it feels like having so many penpals with whom you can hold forth on your favorite subject. And I actually do write for free when I think it is a deserving cause. Some time ago I did a lengthy article on Leon Bakst for a Swedish association devoted to art and literature. They circulate a small quarterly magazine for their members and are all dedicated people and such things must be encouraged. But I dont like being taken advantage of - I dont like people considering me as an elderly married woman who does a little bit (only a little bit, one can get the vapours!) of writing because it is considered highclass to be fond of the arts. That is a Victorian view - I despise the Victorian era - and does not hold good today. .

There isnt only ballet in Russia. Think of the operas, concerts, the museums etc. When will the Russians understand (probably never) that it would bring them a lot of revenue if things were made a bit more decent for tourists. As it is now, nothing short of a catastrophe.

Amen to Samuel Johnson - the guy makes some sense.

It was announced this evening that the conductor Valery Gergiev has been awarded the The Polar Prize for music. The modern recipient is Led Zeppelin!!! The Polar Prize is something akin to the Nobel Prize, former recipients have been Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder in the modern section. Gergiev was awarded for his services to music and ballet. He conducted the student performance of "The Fairy Doll" which I saw in St. Petersburg years ago. I think that was a fine choice!

I assume that not only Wikipedia, but also a host of other online encyclopedias are rather weak on ballet. I prefer to go to a ballet site like BalletAlert when I have a question and I know I can trust that answer. In fact I did take a look at Wikipedia and found some rather grave errors on what little there was on ballet. But that might be in the nature of things. Those who post there are not paid, they probably are amateurs who naturally do their best, so that is fine. Then, and this is really the question. In almost any other walk of life, people who are doing something seriously get paid for their efforts. Suddenly, when it comes to art, you are supposed to be such an ardent art lover that you can subsist on thin air alone. Sorry folks, I have bills to pay and I have to eat, so my days of spilling out my knowledge of ballet (or whatever) for nothing are definitely over. If I am asked to write an article on some ballet topic I want to get paid. In hard cash. And why shouldnt I? People who write on football or economics or medical stuff get paid for their articles and no one questions that. But with fine art it is different, is it supposed to be a divine calling, or what?

Interesting indeed. I know of Wikipedia, but I did not know that it was weak on ballet. Or rather I assume that it would be, most sites are fairly poor. However, it is getting rather late here now, I will peruse it tomorrow and give my opinions then.

Dirac, you are of course right. In my previous post about Bergman, I limited myself to commenting his movies, and I still maintain that I do not like them. But, very many years ago, early seventies, maybe, Bergman directed "The magic flute" and that was really something. I have only seen it on TV, but it is wonderful. It would be very far from me to deny the genius of Bergman, but his morose movies are just not to my personal taste, whereas "The magic flute" was entirely to my taste and I enjoyed it immensely.

I assume that one ought to get ones teeth into something by Harold Pinter now. I must confess that I still feel cheesed off after reading last year Nobel Prize winner, Elfriede Jelinek - she put me off reading anything for a veeery looong time. By the way, anybody read anything by Orhan Pamuk, Turkish writer?

Another sacrilege coming up here:- I just cant stand anything of Bergman's work. Ingmar, I mean, not Ingrid. Yet, I can understand the dialog and dont need any subtitles. Dont know what it is, I just dont get them - characters always seem mean and lacking in generosity, everybody is sullen and looking like they are at death's door. Sorry, just cant see the greatness there, but if you just whisper something like that, you run the risk of being decapitated in Sweden. Then we had something called "Songs from the second floor" possibly von Trier. I lasted 15 minutes, no loss of money though, it was on TV. Then we had "Gilbert Grape" - no comments at all here.

Perky, couldnt it have been Walter E. Owen? At least I have a book with some absolutely wonderful photos by him. And why has nobody mentioned Houston Rogers in England? Serge Lido in France? And then we had quite a marvellous photographer in Denmark, Mydtskov.

I think you might get a lot of help from a very old book: "Letters on Dancing and Ballets" by Jean Georges Noverre. Translated by Cyril W. Beaumont. My own copy is a paperback published by Dance Horizons. The original was published in St. Petersburg in 1803. Ask at your library, the ISBN is 0-87127-006-4. Good luck with your paper!

Just a brief note before I close the door. I think the one who got a dead cat thrown at her (from the top of my head) was a ballerina called Yelena Andreyanova. It is supposed to be true, not just a Fellini thing, but then Fellini must have got it from somewhere, it is far too construed to be anything but the truth. But who wrote about it? Fernau Hall maybe? As I see you live in Sweden, do drop me a private email if you feel like it - I do speak Swedish as well!

Yes, it does ring a bell somewhere, wasnt it in Moscow end of 19th century? Other mishaps in those days: A poor dancer displeased her audience to such an extent that she got a dead cat thrown at her. I am going on a short vacation to Edinburgh tomorrow, (to view exhibition of Romanov stuff) but when I return I will look through my books to see if I can find it.

I detect a slight note of disappointment. Why? Dame Adeline must really have been something, both as a person and as a dancer. She was born in Denmark in 1878, she toured the world, became president of what is now the Royal Academy of Dancing, established the Adeline Genee Gold Medal, became a Dame of the British Empire. Not bad going for a girl born in the Danish countryside in those days. Now she has a theater named after her. She is also supposed to have been a splendid dancer.

Sorry, having read the replies in a great hurry, I forgot one thing. Yes, it is quite probable that Giselle had had a fling with Albrecht. Reading history of feudal Europe it was the norm, yes I do mean the norm, that the landowner´s sons should conquer as many of the maids and crofters' girls as possible and then get away with it. If they did not they were regarded as "not quite men". Of course, there was an entirely different code of conduct for young ladies of fine families. The offspring of these affairs of the young nobles were then disregarded. Though, there might be an exception... My object of research Christian Petrovich Johansson -it is all very odd - the father might have shown some responsibility there. Unless I am more certain of my case, I cannot comment further.

No. atm711, age doesnt bother me either - on the contrary, I think that idiot things which used to make me hot under the collar before dont bother me now, whereas there as things now which seem to be an issue with me. I want 19th century ballets and operas performed as they were written originally. Think of seeing an authentic Bournonville ballet today... OK, there are remnants of the style today in Copenhagen. Throw out Haydn and Bach (I am not a particular fan of either myself), but I have respect and I think they ought to be performed in a decent manner. So, they must be played today for the people who like them. So must ballets from the 19th century be preserved in its original form - let us form a kind of "Old ballet preservation society" and sue those who try to modernize old works. I vehemently maintain that people who try to modernize old works are totally devoid of talent, imagination and ideas. Do something new! That can be said about Balanchine, he did something entirely new - he CREATED, in my mind there have been two great choreographers of late, but the greatest must have been Balanchine. The other one was of course Ashton - but I feel he depended too much on Fonteyn, so will he last in history? I am actually beginning to have doubts. Other opinions?

atm711 - as an old (I mean someone I have seen for a long time and the same goes for me, so no offence meant as age goes) poster I certainly dont want to pick a cyber fight with you. But to come down to brasstacks, have you seen it live? Suppose not. Nor have I - I have only seen the damned thing on TV (would never pay hardearned taxed money to see Ek). But, my thesis still stands - OK, Albrecht might be an idiot, but classic literature is full of cads, or at least guys who dont know what they really want. That is true of real life as well. Ek's Giselle is totally void of any astesthic (sp. it is late and my dictionnary not at hand). Hope you see what I mean. OK, the plot is absolutely outrageous, but we must consider the time in which the ballet was conceived. Poor Giselle was dis- honored, in plain terms she had had a ding dong with a man before marriage, that was not permitted by moral standards in those days. The man did not want to carry on with her - he also had obligations to fulfil - total disaster all around. In fact, I do prefer versions where Giselle kills herself with a sword. Not having seen it myself, but I think British ballerina Beryl Grey chose that option. Very wise, Grey was big and healthy looking, nobody would have believed in her dying from apoplexy in the middle of the village community. Giselle is a fairy tale and we must accept it as such, like we have to accept Shakespeare and his Othello and Romeo and Juliet. Tales maybe, but they happen today as well. Well, that was a tirade, but my view is still that you should leave a work of art well alone. Of course, one can always paint a moustache on Mona Lisa for fun - that has been done. But I think it is doing da Vinci wrong. By the way, DD just went to Paris and saw (what was there to see behind bullit proof glass) the Mona Lisa. She phoned me and asked what the fuss was about...

Hans, Ek didnt only do Sleeping Beauty. He also somehow managed to do something weird with Giselle and Swan Lake... At least my mind boggles... I might be accused of being a grumpy old woman, but I really do think that there must be a limit. Self restraint must be exercised with regard to old classics. My advice to people who want to "modernize" is always: Do something new and fresh then and let us judge that.