Alexandra

Another photo of The Talisman from rg's collection. Ludmila Pavlovna Barash (or Barache) in TALISMAN Born in 1887 Other roles she seems to have had include the lead in the pavel gerdt and lev ivanov SYLVIA, as well as performed Cleopatra in Fokine's "Egyptian Nights".

Thanks Joe and Carbro -- good ideas. Why shouldn't ABT have a Balanchine tribute? It would be fascinating to see Ballet Imperial in one house and Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto across the Plaza. The ballets mentioned above haven't been in rep for a generation, so there are a lot of people who haven't seen them.

Thanks, Samsara, I'm not sure it's Ballet Alert!'s place to make formal suggestions, or even pass along members' suggestions. BUT we always encourage people to let a company know what they like about a season, or don't like, or what ballets they'd like to see, or their opinion of new rep, revivals, etc. I'm sure they'd like to hear from you, too. You can find the addresses of companies on their web sites -- so write, write, write

I'd like to see Undertow again. I saw it in the late '70s, early '80s when there seemed to me to be a generation gap between ABT and Tudor -- Romeo, Pillar and Undertow didn't work. Danilo Radojevic was just no Hugh Laing I had a sense that the dancers were doing their level best, but Tudor's aesthetic was no longer the company's. They were wonderful in "Leaves are Fading," but the older works needed an expressionism that just wasn't their native language. About the same time, DTH began to do older ballets -- "Fancy Free," "Graduation Ball," "Streetcar," "Fall River Legend" -- that I thought DID work. They looked as though they'd been watching 1940s movies, if not 1940s ballet. But I'd still like to see Undertow again. And I think I'd rather see the Kirov tackle Hans's Wish List. I know staging Fokine at the moment is impratical to impossible (for bureaucratic reasons), but I'd like to see his "home company" try those works.

If we're going to have Helen of Troy, then we must have Bluebeard. And Aleko. How can you not revive works made on the company by Fokine and Massine?

Alas, yes. That was La Ventana, which Bournonville set for one man and two women. Needless to say, what Nureyev (who set the new improved version) did was quite different. Sigh.

I do know, secondhand, but I got the same story from at least a half-dozen Danes of different generations, that the Williams' stagings in general are not accurate. I have to say I don't like Watts' dancing at all in Kermesse. It's too athletic -- in Danish Bournonville, you don't show the steps, as in Show The Steps. They're hidden, private. Jeppesen, who was the first person I saw do this, was a cloud -- you never knew she had legs. I've seen other videos of dancers from prior generations who were more concrete, but like champagne, very light and quick. It's the same for "La Ventana" -- which I had liked very much when I first saw NYCB do it. But when I saw it for the first time in Copenhagen in 1992, I was really stunned at how different it was. I couldn't compare choreography from such slight acquaintance, but the phrasing and scale of the dancing were completely different. (And, of course, film of earlier generations were different still, though in the same key. NYCB is dancing in a different key.) Their Balanchine looked quite different from NYCB's too; it goes both ways. Sorry, Glebb -- you're welcome to love it, of course

Thanks for that, coda. Did you see it, by any chance? I'd be very curious to see what Zakharova would make of "Dying Swan," and, as I wrote once here before, I'm sure Tsiskaridze would be perfect for "Narcissus."

Chicago Opera Ballet did -- Nureyev danced in it. It may have been his American debut. (that's my memory without checking)

R.S., yes, in America the accent is on the last syllable in "garage" though not in "garbage," except as a joke. What is done in musical comedy does not necessarily reflect the accent of any country; it has to do with rhyme and meter. While there are, of course, regional differences/accents in America, "BAL lay" is not one of them. It's bal LAY here. And Hans's hint above is a helpful rule. We TRY to get close to the French pronunciation A note -- it's genuinely fascinating to get different pronuncations from around the world, but in this case, it could be confusing. People are posting "How do I pronounce this word or that word." They want to be able to talk about ballet with others and be sure they're pronouncing the word correctly. As I've stated, I'm giving American pronunciations as I understand and use them (often after having been corrected, or asking, others as I made my way along the same bumpy road!). Hans is posting what are correct pronunciations in American classes. So far, the questioners have been American, I think. If this becomes an international thread -- if someone from Switzerland or New Zealand wants to know how to pronounce a step or proper name -- perhaps it's best if someone from the questioner's country answered.

Ah, wouldn't that be nice? There was a lot of comment when Baryshnikov brought in MacMillan's that that represented a sea change for the company, a real break from Tudor, as it as unlikely that both ballets would be in repertory. Also there's the issue that audiences who love the MacMillan will find the Tudor, well, different

K8smom -- I think you've just pointed out the distinction! (As noted above, all of my pronunciations are of acceptable American usage; different countries pronounce things differently, and the way different countries pronounce words in other languages can vary quite a bit.) In American, it's pronounced bal LAY. [editing to add] There can be differences, though. If you're saying: My daughter takes ballet -- bal LAY I love ballet -- bal LAY "Swan Lake" is my favorite ballet -- bal LAY BUT if the word is in a name, it seems to me the word is pronounced flatly, with no real accent: American Bal-lay Theater Bal-lay Alert Bal-lay Imperial Perhaps this is determined by the rhythm of the surrounding words? Not being a linguist, I can't say.

Colwill, as with the former software, topics (unless they're moved to the archives) are never closed, and can be reopened at any time by simply posting a reply. I guess Marga found this one and had something to add to it. You can control how many posts are shown in the control panel (the same as we could before) by choosing to expose 30 days, or 5 days, or "from the beginning." If only five days of posts show on the forum list, that doesn't mean the others are gone. It just means they're "hiding." If you select "show from the beginning" you'll get several screens of posts in each forum. But this isn't a change.

Sveiglar posted on another thread, asking if the company was ever going to do Petrushka again. I can't answer that, but I thought it might be interesting to have a place where people could put what they'd like to see revived. Casting suggestions welcome! You never know.... Petrushka is candidate number one.

Hi, Sveiglar -- welcome to Ballet Alert! Glad you delurked and joined us I can't answer your question. There are a lot of the old Ballet Russe ballets that ABT used to do that disappeared in the 1980s -- there's always hope for revival! There are several dancers in ABT whom one could imagine being quite fine in Petrushka. Maybe someone will read this.... Hmmm. Maybe companies should have a suggestion box, where ticket buyers could write in and say, "When are you going to revive Petrushka?" Until that happens, I'll start a thread here.

We've started a sticky -- and we can keep adding to it. I think it would be helpful. As for your list, my pronunciations are: Agon -- A' gon (short A, like in "back"; although I've heard people pronounce it "ah-GON" to rhyme with "a loan". Supposedly this is the "authentic Greek" pronunciation, although my college Greek teacher taught us that there are at least five schools of "authentic" Greek pronunciation, since there's no one left who can verify it.) Bugaku - Boo Gah Koo -- slight accent on the first syllable Onegin -- Oh NYAY gen Tzigane -- Zi GAN ah La Bayadere -- La By ah dare

Thanks, Marc -- I'd liked Zakharova and Korsuntsev when I saw them here in "Diamonds" Nioradze in "Rubies" -- I'll take your word for it

Welcome, Sinyet, and thank you for delurking I think the corporate mindset is worming its way into ballet everywhere -- there's a thread talking about this in general over in the Issues forum that might interest you, too.

I have to recover a minute from the thought of Nikolai Tsiskaridze in "Rubies" -- I can imagine his personality would be delightful in that role, but he's just so, well, BIG!! And it's hard to imagine him dancing like a New York gang leader Thank you for these, Marc -- good to hear that ballet is selling out somewhere!

I've moved the "general" posts out of this forum into a new thread on Issues: Models of Artistic Directors One post didn't make the journey, and I'll try to get to that one now -- sorry, mbjerk!

I love your house-furnishing analogy -- I think it's very apt. (My only tiny quibble is that Ashton and Balanchine built very good houses which isn't always the case with our Home Improvement types today ) I'm going to break this thread off, because I'm afraid that our comments about directing in general might be taken as criticisms of Mr. Nissinen in particular, and, when we got into theory, I don't think that was the intention. So I'm going to move this over to Issues and will close the thread until the split/move has been accomplished -- thanks!

Fendrock, you've pointed to one of the central changes/issues in ballet today. It's often the latter, I think. And in some cases there is no artistic vision, because often ADs get the job because they're dancers who've had to stop dancing and need a job, or they've spent the last five years of their career thinking, "If I were in charge...." but without having a view of ballet larger than their own careers. Sometimes, of course, there is a director with an artistic vision -- Tomasson in San Francisco, Villella in Miami (although he was starting a company rather than changing an existing one, I believe), Ib Andersen in Phoenix, and now Chris Stowell in Eugene, Oregon. And then they may have to change artistic and even administrative staff to do this. I really don't know which is the case in Boston. There, the board's vision seems to be, "We want a big time company. Make it happen." That doesn't mean Nissinen doesn't have an artistic vision, of course -- we'll know on a year or two He seems to be making the company over in the image of San Francisco Ballet, or using SFB as a model. That could be a very good thing. Irony is, it's not that different a model from what Bruce Marks was doing -- sometimes boards, who don't understand what it takes to make a ballet company run, but only look to externals -- box office receipts, press coverage -- don't look at the big picture either.

Gosh, I wonder if there could just possibly be a connection to all of this and THE FACT THAT THEY'RE NOT SELLING TICKETS!!!!! growl grumble grumble -- new emoticons needed! It's not just older principals, it's older corps, too. There were corps dancers -- with satisfying careers, people doing a lot of soloist and demisoloist roles; "top corps" -- who danced until 40. Now you're out at 26. And that means the 25 year olds do their best to look and dance as though they're 16. (Not saying that 16 year olds aren't wonderful to watch; they are. I don't want a ballet company too have no one under 35. Diversity -- odd that in an age where everyone is clamoring to "put America on stage" ballet companies are becoming less and less diverse.

And now I give you Andreanov! [scan removed for possible reposting elsewhere]

rg emailed me two photographs from his collection of The Talisman -- THANK YOU, RG!! Here's his identification information: The first is kshessinska as Niriti. The second is Samuil Andreanov as the Maharajah of Lehore (pinned w/ what i take the eponymous 'talisman') [both are educated (?) guesses on part as to identifcation.] Kschessinska is in this post. Andreanov will be in the next.