atm711

I have my tickets and I will be seeing them in Brooklyn; the last time I saw the Company they were known as the Central Ballet of China---so it has been quite a while.

"Love Affair" with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne...

(I think that's the title, although I usually confuse it with the later versions...)

"Crossing Delancey" with Amy Irving.

Starting in 1978, the Dance honors went to the following:

George Balanchine

Martha Graham

Agnes deMille

Jerome Robbins

Gene Kelly

Katherine Dunham

Merce Cunningham

Antony Tudor

Alwin Nikolais

Alvin Ailey

Alexandra Danilova

Nicholas Bros.

Paul Taylor

Arthur Mitchell

Jacques D'Amboise

Maria Tallchief

Edward Villella

Mikhail Baryishnikov

Chita Rivera

Judging from some on this list, I don't think it's too soon for Farrell.

Pamela, I assure you, my comment was mostly tongue-in-cheek I particularly hate what Mark Morris did to the Nutcracker, and what that other Englishman did to Swan Lake. I find it interesting that you assume Giselle had a pre-marital fling with Albrecht; the only time I thought this could be true was when I saw Lynn Seymour's Giselle. From her reaction to Bathilde one could assume that she was 'with child'.

PS: The 'age thing' doesn't bother me---I don't concern myself with things I can't change.

All wonderful scenarios--but Mats Ek still wins with his Giselle, it's the only version where Albrecht gets his come-uppance. At the end of the ballet he is literally naked and alone...... :blush: ---and that Act II in the Asylum?

And -- that's a stunning set for the 1937 "Apollo".  Anyone have information about it?

Here is a bit more about it from Grace Roberts (Borzoi Book, 1946)

"The first revival of the Balanchine version of 'Apollon Musagete' in America was presented by the American Ballet at the Met. Opera House, NY, on April 27, 1937 with a cast that included Lew Christiansen (Apollo), and Daphne Vane, Elise Reiman, and Holly Howard (the three muses). For this performance seventy members of the NYPhilharmonic played, conducted by Igor Stgravinsky.............

The production of Apollo Musagete

rejoiced in a decor and costumes by Stuart Chaney that were several degrees removed from Stravinsky's notions of what they should be. The Muses were clad in conventional Greek tunics. The setting, a naturalistic landscape, was cluttered with an assortment of objects: broken columns, urns, a colossal head, capitals, and a rock for the apotheosis, the whole over-hung with a great set of draperies, complete with fringes and tassels."

She concludes with the following assessment:

"Of the cast, only Holly Howard gained critical praise. Lew Christiansen received no credit for a fine performance, though, his admirable physique, classic dignity, and controlled technique were perfect for the role of Apollo. Several years later when Ballet Theatre revived the ballet, Andre Eglevsky, whose performance did not in any way measure up to Christiansen's, received the acclaim of the critics, who by that time had been more or less beaten into an acceptance of Balanchine's advanced style."

....and the ballerina with the long silver hair is Irina Baronova....

I'm not sure about these ballets, but she was lauded in the role of Hagar in Pillar of Fire, and her performance in it was televised.

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I didn't know there was a tape of Gregory as Hagar; all I know is the one with Sallie Wilson.

On another occasion, she is reported to have called the management of the Boston Symphony Orchestra to complain that her hotel's room service had put peas in her pasta.

.......apparently she never had a peas and proscuitto sauce---delicious.

Ballet Internationale is hardly a 'world class company', although their artistic directors have been associated with a world class company. I saw the company last April at Brooklyn College and it attracted the Russian community of Brooklyn (not unlike Eifman!). The Company was a bit 'rag-tag'. The best part for me was seeing a dancer I did not know anything about---Karen Scalzitti-Kennedy, who I understand is semi-retired. It is a far cry from being an "internationally acclaimed ensemble" as Mr. Aliev states in the program.

Sitting in a darkened theater listening to the Swan Lake overture while waiting for the curtain to rise---I get a chill up my spine every time ....

Thanks, I am relieved I am doing it correctly...About Laing---most of the entries are:

Laing, Hugh---tantrums of....sex life of...blackmail of....ugh.

I started up my blog today---but I know I am doing something wrong---because I do not like the way it looks---the page is too crowded--help.!

Concerto Barocco---I have found myself, many times, concentrating on those 8 girls.

This very weekend I shall get to it---it's too hot to go outdoors. I have been slowed down trying to write of Hugh Laing---I have been poking around trying to find some concrete opinions of what others thought of him on the stage---but there is not too much written of him.

Alexanndra--you make me blush

I have a question for Helene---under the 'add photos to your blog entry' it states that the photo should come from a phto file on the computer (I know, I know, my ignorance about computers is being revealed)--my question is---can I use my scanner to put on a photo? and Thanks Helene for all that work you put into the directions---I am reading through my 13 printed pages. It appears to be a lot like 'Type Pad".

Does anyone know the last time that the Mariinsky pefomed this ballet in full?

I don't know the last time, but I do know the first time. It was in 1848 with Fanny Elssler. "A contemporary informs us that Elssler's miming was so touching in the scene where Esmeralda bids Gringoire farewell and crosses to the scaffold, that many spectators shed tears" (CWBeaumont) She also used this ballet for her farewell performance at the Bolshoi in 1851.

I saw a performance of 'Giselle' with two 'closing' ballets The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo (1950) opened with Chauvire's Giselle and followed with the 3rd Act of Paquita with Danilova, and closed with a ballet called Birthday with Mary Ellen Moylan......

In the days when Ballet Theatre had an opening ballet before Giselle---there was no peasant PDD in the first act, which made the ballet considerably shorter, and, IMO, made for a better flow of the action.

I think Sleeping Beauty pales in comparison musically to Swan Lake and the Nutcracker I don't want to see it anywhere. 

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I feel that way about 'Nutcracker' and have said so; but since your comment on Sleeping Beauty wounds me, I vow never to utter another bad word about 'Nutcracker'.---I wonder, did you see the Kirov reconstruction? 4 hours of bliss.

The solo waltz in Les Sylphides and the 2nd movement of Symphony in C---Why????because I can do them better than anyone

Thanks for the reminder, Paul. This is one I wanted to see but somehow got away. I just requested it from the library.

Re Lynn Seymour's Giselle.  A very distinguished British critic, now alas dead, who had seen any number of dancers in that role (including Spessivtseva) remarked of Seymour's performance that she was the only Giselle who convinced him that she had been sleeping with Albrecht for some time! 

I had the same impression when I saw the tape of the Nureyev/Seymour Giselle. It would not have surprised me if the poor girl was pregnant---which could explain her fury at Bathilda.

More on-topic, does anyone remember which ballerina it was who said, referring to her death scene in Giselle, "[La Sublimova] does not need a sword to die!"?

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It's only a guess, but that sounds like something Ludmilla Tcherina would have said in the film 'Red Shoes'.