Mikhail

Privet, Natasha, La Sonnambula and Donizetti were staged in Perm in May 2001. As a proof please have a look at the review by one of our known critics - Anna Gordeeva - in Novye Izvestia 2001/05/21: http://www.ageb.narod.ru/perm.html (in Russian). Concerto appeared in Perm in '96 or something like that.

http://www.kommersant.ru/ISSUES.PHOTO/WEEK...e36_0080001.jpg John Neumeier and Nikolai Tsiskaridze rehearse the scene of Hippolyta awakening

Well, I watched this “Ticket to Bolshoi” by TV the last Thursday and do not understand now what was wrong with it? The program was prepared some time ago – before the theater faced problems with dancers’ diseases and injures. Nothing was said about probable changes in the cast. Just the opposite: telling about the coming premiere Ratmansky mentioned many people who would be involved – including Zakharova, Tsiskaridze, Alexandrova and many others, almost the whole company. I am afraid, somebody provided Natalia with the wrong info. I guess the rumors spread in Moscow between extreme fans because no fragments have been shown with Zakharova and Tsiskaridze. So what? The explanation is quite trivial: Zakharova was in Paris when they shot the clip. Tsiskaridze evidently will dance IF he is ready and has no problems with his leg. Also he is not recovered completely after the flu but appeared nevertheless at rehearsals yesterday. Alexandrova changed a partner and instead of Andrei Uvarov started rehearsals with a guy from Hamburg Ballet – Ivan Urban. Yesterday Neumeier came to Moscow and was present at the rehearsals. The leading couples there were Zakharova & Tsiskaridze, Alexandrova & Urban, Kaptsova & Skvortsov (normally she had to dance with Neporozhny who was busy at that time). But Bolshoi has problems indeed. Klevtsov (the third Oberon, Lunkina’s partner) is injured, Uvarov and Belogolovtsev have a flu. The situation is difficult, there is one week before the premiere. John Neumeier gives a press-conference tomorrow. Perhaps, more detailed information will follow. Everybody hopes that the premiere will not be canceled. I agree with Alymer, it was main Neumeier’s concept to use different music. Mendelssohn is for human love, Ligeti - for the love of elves and fairies and barrel organ music (actually, popular hits from La Traviata) for the grotesque love story. Three worlds – three types of the music - three types of steps. I like the idea.

Natalia, to clarify the point with Perm’s “Serenade”. The Golden Mask can be given only to a new performance of the preceding season. Only “Serenade” was a premiere in 2003-04. The last year Perm received their Mask for “the best ballet performance” - “Ballet Imperial”.

Well, I am surprised too in some aspects. Say, Yuri Klevtsov from Bolshoi prepared two excellent roles: Mercutio in R&J and Medical Doctor in “Ward No. 6”, and he was not nominated. On the other hand, the same story happens with each award, even with the Nobel Prize. There are people who evidently deserved it but didn’t receive. But nobody can tell that some laureate didn’t merit his title. The same is true, I believe, in the case of the Golden Mask.

The following info concerns all Russian theaters, not only Bolshoi, but I didn’t find the right thread to put it. The Golden Mask - 2005 (the highest theatrical award in Russia) The Council of Experts announced today the list of nominates for performances of the last season. In Ballet division this reads as follows: Performances Magrittomania – Bolshoi Tribute to Balanchine – Mariinsky Romeo and Juliet – Bolshoi Serenade – Perm Forsythe in Mariinsky – Mariinsky The best female role Maria Alexandrova, Moscow (Juliet) Elena Kulagina, Perm (Serenade) Uliana Lopatkina, Petersburg (La Valse) Natalia Sologub, Petersburg (Steptext) The best male role Andrei Merkuriev, Petersburg (In the Middle Somewhat Elevated) Denis Savin, Moscow (Romeo) Leonid Sarafanov, Petersburg (The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude) The full list of nominates, the lists of experts and members of the jury (to make a final choice) can be found at http://www.goldenmask.ru/fest.shtml?/2005/fest.html (in Russian).

Lunkina has appeared yesterday in "Giselle". This is the main news. Unfortunately, I am not in Moscow now and could not attend the performance. But a friend of mine wrote that Sveta was even better, than earlier.

Hi to everybody. I received a slightly different version of the cast. Boston 1. 6 oct "Raymonda" - Gracheva-Filin-Belogolovtsev 2. 7 oct "Raymonda" - Allash-Volchkov-Arifulin 3. 8 oct "Don Quixote" - Alexandrova-Filin 4. 9 oct "Don Quixote" - Gracheva-Klevtsov 5. 10 oct "Don Quixote" - Antonicheva-Belogolovtsev Mexico City 6. 13 oct "Giselle" - Gracheva-Filin 7. 14 oct "Giselle" - Antonicheva-Skvortsov 8. 15 oct "Giselle" - Gracheva-Filin 9. 16 oct "Raymonda" - Allash-Volchkov-Belogolovtsev 10. 17 oct, mat "Raymonda" - Antonicheva-Filin-Klevtsov 11. 17 oct "Raymonda" - Allash-Volchkov-Belogolovtsev 12. 18 oct "Raymonda" - Gracheva-Skvortsov-Klevtsov 13. 19 oct "Giselle" - Antonicheva-Volchkov Minneapolis 14. 22 oct "Romeo" - Mes'kova-Godovsky 15. 23 oct "Don Quixote" - Alexandrova-Filin 16. 24 oct, mat "Don Quixote"- Shipulina-Belogolovtsev 17. 24 oct "Don Quixote" - Antonicheva-Klevtsov Seattle 18. 27 oct "Romeo" - Alexandrova-Savin 19. 28 oct "Romeo" - Mes'kova-Godovsky 20. 29 oct "Don Quixote" - Gracheva-Belogolovtsev 21. 30 oct, mat "Don Quixote" - Antonicheva-Klevtsov 22. 30 oct "Don Quixote" - Alexandrova-Filin 23. 31 oct "Don Quixote" - Shipulina-Belogolovtsev Berkeley 24. 3 nov "Romeo" - Alexandrova-Savin 25. 4 nov "Romeo" - Mes'kova-Godovsky 26. 5 nov "Raymonda" - Antonicheva-Filin-Belogolovtsev 27. 6 nov, mat "Raymonda" - Allash-Volchkov-Arifulin 28. 6 nov "Raymonda" - Gracheva-Skvortsov-Klevtsov 29. 7 nov, mat "Raymonda" - Antonicheva-Filin-Belogolovtsev Chicago 30. 10 nov "Don Quixote" - Alexandrova-Filin 31. 11 nov "Don Quixote" - Shipulina-Klevtsov 32. 12 nov "Raymonda" - Gracheva-Skvortsov-Belogolovtsev 33. 13 nov, mat "Raymonda" - Allash-Volchkov-Arifulin 34. 13 nov "Raymonda" - Antonicheva-Filin-Klevtsov 35. 14 nov "Raymonda" - Gracheva-Skvortsov-Belogolovtsev

This night of June 25, after the performance of "La Fille du Pharaon" the art-director of the Bolshoi Ballet Alexei Ratmansky appeared in front of the audience to announce the names of the new Bolshoi's principals - Maria Alexandrova and Dmitry Gudanov (Dmitry just made his debut in the role of Thaor). This is the first time someone has been publically promoted to a new position. I hope this will become a new tradition at the Bolshoi. Our congratulations to Maria and Dmitry.

At the ceremony in Bolshoi The Golden Masks of this year are just delivered to: Maria Alexandrova (the best female role), Serguei Filin (the best male role) and Gennady Yanin (special prize of the jury) - for the roles in The Bright Stream. Alexei Ratmansky received the Mask for The Stream as the best choreographer. The Mask for the best classical performance - Ballet Imperial (Perm). The best contemporary performance - Le Sacre du Printemps by Regis Obadia (spelling?) in the company “Ballet Moskva”.

An interview by Maya Krylova (Nezavisimaya gazeta) with Mr. Anatoly Iksanov will be published tomorrow (http://www.ng.ru/culture/2003-12-25/6_iksanov.html). Besides the tours to Paris and London there will be a tour to the US in the fall 2004 organized by ICM company. They ask to bring Swan Lake by Grigorovitch, The Bright Stream by Ratmansky and Romeo & Juliet by Poklitaru. I wonder why Americans do not want to watch Pharaoh’s Daughter?

I found many links to Declan Donnelan in yahoo: http://www.tellmeabout.co.uk/directory/d/d...elan/readme.htm

An article was published today in a newspaper “Novye Izvestiya” (here is the link for Russian speaking members of the forum: http://www.newizv.ru/news/?n_id=2537&curda...ate=2003-11-04). According to the author, Mr. Akimov was furious when attended the rehearsals of “R&J” and discovered that Romeo changed his sexual orientation and Juliet became a travesti. The directorate had to remind Akimov that anyway he will be retired in two months and the administration should not interfere the creative initiative of Mr. Donnelan, the famous Western producer. No comments were given from the press-service, only a statement appeared that “the production will be unusual”. The author states that the dancers are interested what will be the end of the famous story but the administration is afraid of eggs and tomatoes thrown to the stage at the premiere. The first performance will take place in the middle of December, still during Akimov’s term as the ARTISTIC director of the Bolshoi Ballet. What does the forum think about this, should I buy rotten tomatoes indeed to protect the great love story? :shrug:

Today it was postponed again until November 17 - for the same reason.

Concerning “R&J” by Donnelan / Poklitaru. Maria Alexandrova started the rehearsals the last week. Because of that she has but a few regular performances in November. The dancers will not be “bare-feet”, they will dance in leather shoes with light soles and small heels (it is called “jazzovki” in Russian ballet slang, I do not know the English equivalent). The ballerina refused to comment the conception and the choreography of the ballet – ‘you will see at the premiere” she told.

The case “Volochkova vs. Bolshoi” will be started in a court in Moscow on Monday, Oct. 27. I bet Anastasia will win. What will she do then, that is the question? Just to remind. After the known scandal with Rozhdestvensky three years ago the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet Alexei Fadeechev was fired. He won the trial but resigned himself immediately instead of accepting back his former position.

Marc, I'd rather skip the comments on Zakharova in "Pharaon" but it seems not entirely the Bolshoi's decision. Zakharova told in one of her numerous interviews that she was chosen by Pierre Lacotte. I heard that French TV suggested a contract with the exclusive rights for filming the "Pharaon", its distributing and broadcasting for 30 years, Bolshoi agrees for 10 years which is actually the same: 30 or 10 years means eternity for a ballet . So for many years Zakharova who did not dance yet this ballet will be the only Aspicia in public opinion. Everything is so strange that any reasonable comments are hardly possible. Indeed, there will be a premiere in December of a new version of "R&J" staged by Donnelan with choreography by Radu Poklitaru. Alexandrova is chosen as Juliet in the first cast, a young ballerina Anastasia Meskova (she graduated from the School two years ago) is supposed to dance in the second cast. But Alexandrova herself got to know about the choice of Poklitaru only recently, from an announcement on a wall with a schedule of rehearsals. As far as I know, she still could not attend the rehearsals because she was busy at the same time preparing for her debut as Aspicia. So for the moment Masha has no idea about the synopsis, the conception and the choreography of "R&J". I guess it is a bit premature to discuss this ballet and Alexandrova's participation. Actually it is known not too much about that "R&J". Poklitaru mentioned `bare-feet' dancers in an interview, so this is not a rumor. But I cannot imagine Alexandrova dancing this way. I know also, that some Bolshoi's veterans from a team of coaches are invited to play Juliet in her old age. Does it mean Juliet will not kill herself or this will be just in Juliet's imagination before the death? I will try to keep you informed when there is more news.

Marc, La Fille du Pharaon wouldn’t have appeared and then returned to the stage of the Bolshoi if it wasn’t for Nina Ananiashvili. And I think that the moral right for the filming belongs to her, not to mention the fact what a wonderful Aspiccia she is. But this right was taken from her – even twice. The first time the filming was planned for the fall ‘2000, but the ballet was excluded from the repertory by Rozhdestvensky, who was brought to Bolshoi as General Artistic Director. The second time is now. In spring the plans were still to film Nina, and she was asked to keep October free from other obligations. That’s why she doesn’t take part in this ABT fall season. Only in August it became obvious that the plans were changed – actually the news came from Zakharova’s interview. I think the clumsy way the final decision with filming was made led Nina to the refusal to dance this ballet in future. So, alas, we will not see her anymore as Aspicia . And as far as I know she is not inclined to go to Paris with the Bolshoi Ballet in January. I guess Alexandrova has no chances for filming: a good debut is not strong enough a motivation. The performances on October 27, 29 and 31 are fixed for Zakharova and Filin, so everything was settled beforehand in spite of the fact that Zakharova never danced this ballet. She is working now with Ludmila Semenyaka and let’s hope she’ll be ready for the mentioned dates.

Yesterday night, October 16, Maria Alexandrova made her sudden debut as Aspicia in `La Fille du Pharaon'. It was planned on October 19th, but because of some circumstances Nadezhda Gracheva and Dmitrii Belogolovtsev could not dance that night (the next performance on Oct. 19 will be danced as was planned, again by Alexandrova and Ruslan Skvortsov - also a debutant in the role of Tahor). Alexandrova's dance yesterday was brilliant. Pierre Lacotte changed a bit the choreography (mostly in adagios), made it more complicated. The complexity of the ballet can be compared perhaps only with `Raymonda'. Maria overcame all technical difficulties - numerous small fast movements, ronds des jambs and small leaps, not saying about grand jetes and pas de chat. Nobody doubted she should be very good in bravura parts of the role, but the real surprise for me were her adagios, lyrical fragments. She was so beautiful and tender, her poses were so phrased and fixed, with excellent balance in arabesques and attitudes, her movements were so slow and clear, that I hardly could recognize the ballerina. Even the text of the role itself seemed almost not familiar for me although I watched this ballet 7-8 times before. Alexandrova was very good in all parts of the ballet, but I found that the best one was the scene `The Underwater Kingdom' where the action took place on the bottom of Nile. Masha's movements there were so smooth and slow as how she danced in the water indeed. It was very impressive, and completely unexpected (albeit one could guess that she was able to dance in this style after her Sylphide a year ago). I am not going to compare the newborn pharaoh's daughter with her elder sisters (Ananiahsvili, Gracheva and Lunkina) but Alexandrova joined the family with dignity. This was Masha's 4th debut in a main role during the last six months (actually four, not counting two months of summer vacations) after `The Bright Stream' in April, `Notre Dame de Paris' in May and `Legend of Love' in September. But yesterday's performance was the most important for her, I guess. The first time she danced the huge classical 3 acts ballet in tutus (she appeared in seven different tutus during the performance) and she looked very beautiful with her long and strong legs, slender waist, graceful neck. I am happy she could overcome the prejudices of the administration about her `emploi' and her own traditions and habits. One of the leaders of the Bolshoi Ballet told me a few months ago that Alexandrova revealed her potential only by 50%. After `La Fille du Pharaon' this number increased may by to 60%, so Masha Alexandrova still have enough power to surprise us in future.

I attended “Giselle” on October 5th at the Bolshoi. It was not bad, it was not perfect. Everybody danced well enough, but as usual somebody danced better than the others :rolleyes: . Myrtha by Maria Alexandorva was completely fantastic – high jumps, impressive ballon, noiseless landings, absolutely clear ten sauts-de-basque in the coda of the pas de willis (I cannot recall a performance when she did less), charming frequent pas de bourrés... She was not an actress, she was the Queen of Willis herself, as somebody wrote - terrible and implacable. Masha usually dances this role very well but that day she surpassed herself. Albert-Tsiskaridze. I liked his dance that night very much. Usually he tries to decorate the role by many unnecessary details (say, different gestures, glances, exaggerated leaps and rotations, etc.) which often contradict each other in the style. That night he demonstrated a noble dance, noble in its simplicity as it should be in this charming romantic ballet. Almost everything he did on the stage was just excellent. And he was so gallant with his ballerinas, not only during the performance but also at the curtain calls. It was not the first time in the new season that Nikolai demonstrated that simplicity and the absence of mannerism which I appreciate. Is this a new quality of the talented dancer? I was not so enthusiastic about Zakharova's first appearance in "Giselle" at the regular Bolshoi's performance. She has an extraordinary body, charming lines, elastic feet, everything a ballerina needs for a perfect dance. But I did not find her technique being superb. I noticed a lack of dramatic art in her interpretation and found her rather cold in the first act (may be only at Giselle’s death she looked sincere and touching). The Madness scene did not impress me. I recognize that Svetlana could not run beautifully, her movements were a bit unnatural when she played with the sword and tried to kill herself. And I did not understand why her pointes knocked so much... No good leaps in the 2nd act, what killed the effect of the flight. Maybe her jumps could be accepted better if they were not so contrasting to these by Alexandrova and Tsiskaridze. Svetlana’s arms were too "swanlike", some poses were not canonical (say, the pose of obedience when she faced Myrtha the first time – she should not keep her head straight, we know the photo by Spesivtseva). Strange enough but I did not notice the cantilena I liked so much when Zakharova performed 20th century choreography. There were some strange sharp movements of the body when Zakharova sank from her points. Zakharova was not bad, by no means I would like to tell she was. Of course she demonstrated many beautiful pas – arabesques, developpés and all that. But she was not perfect as the audience was eager to see from the new Bolshoi’s ballerina. And when I recall a few “Giselles” I watched during recent years (Ananiashvili-Uvarov, Vishneva-Malakhov, Cojocaru-Kobborg, Ledovskaya, Lunkina-Malakhov), I cannot tell that Svetlana Zakharova touched my soul. To conclude I have to tell that Ms. Akimova selected only positive posts about Zakharova from Russian forums and skipped any criticism people presented there. I think this needs to be said to give a better idea of what the Russian balletomanes thought of her.

Masha Aleksandrova’s schedule in September: 4 (opening night) – the main role of Ballerina in “The Bright Stream” 5 – Prince’s friend in “SL” 7 – Hamzatti 9 – 2nd variation in the Shades 11 – Spanish Bride in “SL” 14 – the main role of Mekhmene-Banu in “Legend of Love” 17 – Raimonda’s friend 21 – Raimonda’s friend 23 – Street Dancer in “DQ” 26 – the main role of Esmeralda in “NDdP” In total we have 18 ballet performances in September, Masha takes part in 10, three of which are the main roles. Not bad!

Hi, Marc, that was a good idea. Just a remark concerning the interpretation. The descrepancy of the result can be estimated as 100%/sqrt(260), that is about 6%. This means that Miss Vishneva is a leader indeed, but other ladies (Makhalina, Ayupova, Zakharova, Lopatkina) share 2-5 places.

RQ, thanks a lot for the exhaustive explanations. Why are you doubt about the year? Thus, there were two movies with Haydée, is the first one available somewhere?

Françoise, I am impatient to get this info. Giannina, Corynth sells Canadian Onegin, I have this tape. Thank you both, ladies.

I found a record of Onegin from TV - production by ZDF, Germany, reg. David Sutherland. Unfortunately, 2-3 first minutes are absent so I do not know the cast and the year of the production. M.Haydee as Tatiana, but who are the others? An encyclopaedia mentions a film of 1966 that is shot soon after the premiere, with the same cast. But I am not sure if I have that one. Can anybody help? Thank you.