Pamela Moberg

Bart, I am working on the translation of a poem well, maybe tomorrow. It is my absolute favorite so I want to do it justice, but I know I will never be able to. In the meantime, here is an aphorism by Tranströmer: It is called "Two truths". "Two truths approach each other One comes from within one comes from the outside And where they meet one has a chance to see oneself". Well, something to think about---

Yes, Jayne, your hopes are at least partly fulfilled. This morning Norway announced the recipients of the Peace Prize. It is Norway that awards the Peace, whereas Sweden awards the rest. I think I have explained this before: When these prize givings started in the beginning of last century, Sweden and Norway were one country. "The land of the brothers" it was called, partition was in 1905, and since then there are two separate countries, but they share the Nobel Prizes this way. Anyway, recipients of Peace Prize to be divided equally between the following three ladies: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia Leymah Gbowee, also of Liberia Tawakul Karman of Yemen. Bart: have some stuff to attend to now, but hope I will be able to return this evening and say something about Tranströmer's poems.

Yes, there was some prankster about posting that "news" about the Serbian author. Nobody has owned up yet, though. The Swedish papers and blogs are full of comments, 99% in favor. One foreign paper (as yet anonymous) had it that the prize had been awarded to - wait for it - Tomas Transformer

At 1 p.m. (Swedish time) the Swedish Academy announced the name of the recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature. It goes to the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer. and I think everybody in this country will join me in the applause. Mr. Tranströmer is 80 years old and suffered a stroke some years ago, since then he has speech difficulties, but there is nothing wrong with his brain capacity. He is a much loved poet - translated into more than 50 languages - and very easy to read. I really do recommend him! But weird things happen. I saw the live broadcast from the Swedish Academy as it was announced. Yet, a few minutes before switching on the TV, I read the Guardian (which is a highly respected newspaper) and they said that the prize would go to Serbian writer Dobrica Cosic. I do not claim that I know of every author on this planet, but the name was completely new to me. There was even a link to Nobelprize org. which I clicked and they said the same thing Now what is going on? Was Nobelprize org. hacked by someone or what? Very weird. At any rate, we cannot doubt the live broadcast and the speech made by the constant secretary, Mr. Peter Englund. As for myself, I am very pleased and happy. That was all for now from your special Nobel reporter.

Not being a stamp collector, I am probably not the right person to answer this, but it has been done in Scandinavia. Denmark, many years ago, issued a stamp with Margrethe Schanne, their legendary "La Sylphide" and Sweden issued one with ballerina Annelie Alhanko and her partner Per Arthur Segerström in "Giselle". Those I have actually kept and was once thinking of starting a ballet stamp collection, but it never got under way. In the former Soviet there were some ballet stamps as well.

Please tell me honestly, Amy Reusch and others who might have seen it - is the 3D Giselle worth spending time and money on? This is my first cinema ballet coming up, and I wonder if I should avoid disappointment by abstaining I am now thinking of price of tix, train journey and general inconvenience, money and time might be better spent elsewhere. My only experience of 3D was in London very long time ago, when they showed spectacular clips of buffaloes charging into your lap and such things. I was not amused then, and having become grumpier with the years, a battalion of wilis storming at me, doesnt somehow sounds so appealing, prefer my Giselle in the more traditional style. Thanks in advance for any info

Just received the schedule of ballets performed live, which will be shown at selected movie theaters. Giselle - Maryinski - 9 September. Esmeralda - Bolshoi - 9 October. The Sleeping Beauty - Bolshoi - 20 November. The Sleeping Beauty - Royal Ballet - 15 December. Le Corsaire - Bolshoi - 11 March 2012. Romeo and Juliet - Royal Ballet - 22 March 2012. The Bright Stream - Bolshoi - 29 April 2012. La Fille mal Gardee - Royal Ballet - 16 May 2012. Not a bad program I will attend them all There is an opera program as well, all from the Met. Well, now with the time difference, they will be shown here at a very ungodly hour, whereas I am in luck with the ballets. Time difference will be at the most two hours for me, but I do pity you Americans with the ballets. But take heart, I am sure it will be worth it to struggle to wake up at the crack of dawn for these ballets. Anyway, thanks for the technique which gives us all the chance to see wonderful things And as far as I know, this schedule is worldwide and doesnt apply to Sweden only.

Thank you. With so much dumbing down on British television, it is a breath of fresh air and a welcome event for those that cannot attend in person. Feeling very nostalgic about this, thanks Leonid! When I lived in London, I lived just a few blocks away from Royal Albert Hall so I could go often. Coming out of the concert in those warm nights having taken part of those wonderful experiences - the music - the ambience - the warmth of the audience - those were memorable evenings and lovely memories to be treasured for ever.

In reply to Dirac: Yes, I was being sarcastic, but in my anxiety to be brief as I found most people too longwinded, it misfired. To get back to where all this actually started with those mesdames of the POB. They could learn a bit from European royalty - who may smoke in private, but never does so in public. Take the example of HM Queen Margrethe of Denmark, she is an avid ballet fan and has even designed sets and costumes for the RDB, she smokes, yet you will never see her doing so at a public function or find a press photo of her smoking - at any rate not a recent photo. These people also have spare time and private apartments where they can smoke and swing a bottle if they feel like it. I strongly believe that if you are a public person you have a duty to behave in a proper manner in public. Yes, yes, I know that there are some wellknown people here who have appeared somewhat the worse for drink in public - not at all recommended. Just poor judgment, IMO. It seems to be a bit fashionable for want of a better word (being sarcastic again) to get up in arms about smoking, yet, if we now stick strictly to the ballet world - though it applies elsewhere as well - there are more important issues to deal with. Anorexia is rife and getting out of hand - whilst many in any population is obese - that should be addressed. My mother when she died weighed 34 kilos and she was a life long anorexic, that was pretty scary. FYI one kilo is 1000 grams and one lb is 453 grams, you have to do the maths yourselves.

The European Broadcasting Union competition for young dancers was held in Oslo and to me it was a great disappointment. I didnt even bother to save it on DVD. The format had changed completely - it was almost totally modern, one pair of point shoes in sight during the whole evening. However, the winner was Daniel Sarr, 19, a Norwegian, and deservedly so. He was good . The Ballet Boyz were in the jury and they offered him a job on the spot in their company. Well done, Daniel! Did anybody else watch this?

Oh dear, such a lot of posts about such a triviality I will let you folks have whatever opinion you like, but personally I subscribe to being polite and thoughtful towards my fellow human beings. Sometime I succeed, at other times not. Yet, in this life it must be remembered there is a live and let live - something that is alas sadly lacking these days. Self styled moral vigilants and busybodies are all over the place. This brings to mind an old video that I have now discarded when I tranferred to DVD. It was a program from Swedish TV, an interview with Makarova and I did not find it worth saving for two little measly clips of her dancing. One I remember well was of her standing at the barre - cig in hand, turn round, tranfer cig to other hand, doing what I can remember was grand battement. This film would have been from late seventies to early eighties. At the time I thought it was rather poor show, she wasnt being filmed every time she did the barre so she could have omitted the fag. If she normally smoked while doing the barre, of course it was her own business. She was not, shall we say, a good role model. But at least I didnt start hating her for it - which judging by some of the posts, would have been the case today. I have noticed that of late, pettiness, intolerance and general bloodymindedness is taking root all over the place in every walk of life. In the ballet world, I think anorexia is maybe a greater problem, while generally obesity is by far the most challenging medical issue today. It annoys me no end when I have to stand in the bus or train because some fat slob takes up two seats (and pay for one )

Violette Verdy also took part in Ballerina, didnt she? Or was that another film also called Ballerina? I remember seeing it as a child, but memory is very hazy.

For those living in Europe, dont miss the EBU Eurovision dance contest tomorrow - Saturday 25 June. Here it will be broadcast 20.00 - 21.25 - Swedish time. Check with your TV schedules as I am not sure it will be the same time everywhere. Contestants from Germany, Holland, Portugal, Poland, Kosovo, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Norway and Sweden will take part. All young dancers between 15 and 20. The event will take place in Oslo, Norway.

Something gone wrong here - my vote goes to Sarabita.

Yeez Bart, you must have read some English translation of the Gothenburg stuff -I assume that you cannot read Swedish. Although Swedish and English are rather close, it does not mean that knowing one of those languages you could understand the other. Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, German are all in the same group of languages - one can guess a few words, but that is all. Whereas, Finnish is entirely different, there I cannot even guess, it is called Finno-Ugro and is related only to Hungarian. Strangely enough, Icelandic bears some likeness to English. Sorry, just couldnt resist this excursion into linguistics. Well, yes, more DVD in the future, I do have a good library of nice things. But it would be nice to see a live performance for once .

Well, certainly it looks like the divine Fracci - she is born in 1936. She was fantastic in her days in certain roles. Then she did some documentaries about 19th century ballerinas - I have some of those on DVD. Also I had an autographed photo of her when she was very young, alas, moving around Europe a lot, that photo has somehow been lost.

There will be a new director of the Gothenburg Opera Ballet from next fall. Adolphe Binder, previously at the Komische Oper in Berlin. She is originally Romanian but has lived for a long time in Berlin. She is neither dancer nor choreographer, but some kind of video producer. I am sorry to say that I have never heard of her, has any BalletAlerters any knowledge of this person? What can we expect in the seasons to come? Regrettably I have not set my foot in the Gothenburg Opera House for years to attend a ballet performance as they only do modern stuff. I fear this state of affairs might continue... Can someone please throw a light at this

17 in the audience - well, the mind boggles. But taken into consideration that most horrible hour, it was not bad. But it all stands to perfect reason. Those screenings are in real time, we are so close to Moscow here, just a couple of hours by air. DD saw her movie starting at 5 p.m. which means that they were actually starting their performance at 7 p.m. in Moscow. So that means that if we were to see a performance from the Met here, it would be at an impossible hour. Cant work it out in my head, but somewhere in the house we have a clock that shows all the time differences in the world, must check that. By the way, it is 2 a.m. here right now

Just spoke to DD - she was very excited after having seen Bolshoi Coppelia with Natalia Osipova. One cannot but be in awe of modern technique, now it is possible to see -as in this case - the Bolshoi in a small little community in the wilderness. And for a rather modest amount of money. There are though, certain requirements for the movie venues to be allowed these broadcasts. They must install good quality screens and possess a perfect sound system to do justice to the music. According to her, it felt more like being in a proper theater than at the movies and she warmly recommended the performance.

Well, just seen it. And I am real glad I didnt spend cash on a ticket, I saw it with DD at home. We renamed the damned thing "The black turkey" - well, that just about sums up my opinion and hers as well. We were in perfect agreement that we had never seen a worse movie - bad in all respects.

It has just been announced here that the Polar Prize for music will be awarded to singer-poet Patti Smith and to the "Chronos Quartet". The Polar Prize is some kind of Nobel Prize for music and comes from the estate of Stickan Andersson who was the very successful manager of the Swedish group ABBA. So the US got both awards this time!

The Italian-born conductor Riccardo Muti, currently the leader of Chicago Symphony Orchestra, has been awarded the Birgit Nilsson Prize. He is the second recipient - the first one was Placido Domingo. The prize is of one million dollars and will be given by the King of Sweden. According to the rules the prize is to be given as close to October 9 as possible, reason for this is that it was the date of Mme. Nilsson's debut at the Stockholm Opera House. The news was very well received in the Swedish press

I agree about The Concert. Actually, it might be wrong to say it is boring, it it worse, its downright puerile. Then of course, I wouldnt put my hard-earned cash on anything by Ek. The works are not only boring, they are also unaestechic (sp?). Which is worse is hard to tell, simply boring sends me to sleep or my mind wonders and I withdraw into myself, whereas ugly works puts me in a rage. Then of course, it all depends, a ballet can be very boring with one company and much less so with another.

1st February (according to the register of births - 5th Feb according to the midwife who attended) there is the centenary celebration of the great Swedish tenor Jussi Björling who died in 1960. No doubt one of the the greatest tenors of the last century, he did not have a pleasant life. Recent biographers have compared him to Michael Jackson. And there certainly are similarities. Well, there were three tiny tots, the brothers Gösta, Olle and Jussi who were taken by their dominant father on tours all the time - Jussi started working at the age of four, sometimes giving several concerts a day. The group also performed in the US. Formal schooling didnt exist for these kids. As adults all three became opera singers, Jussi being the most famous. Throughout his career, he was known to be very unreliable, a stand in always had to be present as nobody was sure if he would turn up at all, or simply wander out after the first act. There were radio programs, they were broadcast live in those days, sometimes he turned up too drunk to sing and they had to play some of his records in stead. Health was a great problem, he had a bad heart, but he also suffered periodically from grave alcoholism and of course there were a lot of scandals. His untimely death was not unexpected considering his poor health.

The Gala Performance was broadcast here this afternoon. As usual, it was a full two hours of wonderful skating - the skaters are not competing so they are more relaxed and they are allowed to do real show numbers. One thing amazed me: the wearing of glasses havent seen that since the days of Buddy Holly. And the lovely Denise Bielman did a guest appearance, she is now 48, but looked like 28! So nice to see her again, she seemed to be in great shape. With the obvious risk of dating myself, yes, I have seen Sonia Henie live. But I was very young then and I cannot remember very much, except that I wasnt terribly impressed. If you are interested I think it would actually be worth it to make some effort to see the entire show.