drb
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Raymonda's back!!! The outstanding performance (and videography) is being rerun Wednesday. I think (but would not swear to it) that the following times are US Eastern:
"Raymonda" ballet, pre-recorded broadcast from Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
Wired Broadband Connection
October 26, 2005
2:00 am, 5:30 am, 9:00 am, 0:30 pm, 4:00 pm, 7:30 pm, 11:00 pm
The website is:
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One picks up the sense from many posts that the Mariinsky has "undercast" many major roles during their current American tour. Yet looking at their Paris casting for November/December at the Chatelet, the three Swan Lake O/O's are Lopatkina (obviously), but then Somova and (this not yet on the theatre's site posting, still provisonal) Bolshakova.
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There are two aspects to Dancing Giselle's post that I would like to address.
First, as a professor I am very disturbed by the described behavior of your professor, which clearly crosses an ethical line, both by focusing attention on a specific student and by the repeated nature of his attack. I hope your school at least affords you the opportunity to report this behavior, even if you wish to wait until you've finished the course. I also hope you feel comfortable enough to discuss this behavior with some other students in the class.
Second, Gelsey wrote about what happened in a very different time, and named names in her autobiography. Not many years after that an NYCB Principal named names in a national magazine, in a desperate and clearly successful attempt to deal with a fad for cocaine at that time. These specific problems were resolved long ago. Of course dancers are people and some people sometimes do things they shouldn't, but there just aren't the obvious signs of trouble now that were frankly visible on stage to audiences back then.
What does all this have to do with learning a language?
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I posted the same question a couple of weeks ago, so far no answer. Perhaps this will help a little:
Kirov: Polikarpova, Gulyaev, Terekhova, Babanin; conductor (after all, the music is by Prokofiev, so this should matter) Viliumanus.
Bolshoi: Semenyaka, Dorokhov, Semisorova, Vetrov; conductor Kopilov.
For those in NYC, CUNY TV has scheduled a telecast of the Bolshoi version on Sunday, October 30 at 2 PM.
On the surface, Semenyaka could be a deciding factor, but an eye-witness account would surely help. I vaguely recall that both are about 15 years old.
Have you any more info on the Ananiashvili performance?
P.S. Videowise, I really enjoyed the new Zahkarova Swan Lake (la Scala). She's much more fluid, dramatic, less excessive that she was with the Mariinsky in NYC a few years ago. And supremely beautiful, of course. I only wish that the people who did the video work on last week's webcast of the Bolshoi's Raimonda had been in charge in Milan. The Milan team cut away from Sveta at all the wrong times.
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The Saturday matinee of Afternoon of a Faun with David Halberg and Stella Abrera was beautiful, the best maybe I've ever seen Faun performed. This is why one keeps going to the ballet - because you never know when a performance like this is going to happen. I left immediately afterwards because there are some acts which should not be followed....
What is it that constitutes dramatic immediacy? You know it when you see it. Stiefel and Kent were acting. Today, something real happened on the stage.
Beautifully described. Thank you! You REALLY left? The ultimate "Bravi."
At ABT's website
there's now a photo of the Abrera/Hallberg Faun. It looks small and rather inconsequential. But it has high resolution and when I "saved" it and then looked at it in saved form it was big and clear. Really worth the effort.
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Diana Vishneva's website has just updated her performance schedule, including Carmen in the Moscow Gala on Maya Plisetskaya's birthday.
Lucky Japan!
Dec 20 2005 Tokio: NNT The Nutcracker
Dec 18 2005 Tokio: NNT The Nutcracker
Dec 16 2005 Tokio: NNT The Nutcracker
Dec 5 2005 Paris: Chatelet The Nutckacker
Dec 4 2005 Paris: Chatelet The Nutcracker
Nov 28 2005 Paris: Chatelet Ballet Imperial
Nov 23 2005 Paris: Chatelet Forsythe-Steptext
Nov 20 2005 Moscow: KDS Gala-Plisesthkaya (Karmen)
Nov 13 2005 Tokio: JAC Pa de de
Nov 12 2005 Tokio: JAC Pa de de "R.&J.", "Sl.Be."
Nov 6 2005 Paris: Palais Garnier Rubies (Benjamin Pech & M.A.Gillot)
Oct 28 2005 Berlin: STAATSOPER The Sleeping Beauty
Oct 26 2005 Berlin: STAATSOPER The Sleeping Beauty
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Frederic Franklin, among others, will appear live at the Film Forum:
http://www.filmforum.org/films/ballets.html
IN-PERSON EVENTS:
Q&A with filmmakers DAN GELLER and DAYNA GOLDFINE
plus Ballet Russe dancer FREDERIC FRANKLIN!
Wednesday, October 26, 7:15 show
Q&A with filmmakers DAN GELLER and DAYNA GOLDFINE!
Friday, October 28, 7:15 show
Q&A with New York Times Dance Critic*JACK ANDERSON
Wednesday, November 2, 7:15 show
Artforum has a long review of the film:
http://www.artforum.com/inprint/id=9494
A short excerpt:
What turns out to be most compelling here, however, is how these senescent ballerinas and ballerinos achieve a poignant ecstasy as they recall the exploits of their youth. They are all in astonishingly good shape; they invested everything in their bodies, and their bodies have returned the compliment. They demonstrate dance steps, movements, gestures, and as they do so, they seem suffused with some whisper of what once made them famous. Their minds and hearts have fared well, too. They thrill to memories of how each step was best executed, of who should never have been cast in which roles, and of who captured the hearts of which audiences. "Suddenly," says nonegenarian Dame Alicia Markova, "it's like something opens, and I see everything as it happened then."
The latest posting of play dates:
Film Forum New York NY - Oct 26-Nov 8, 2005
Embarcadero Center San Francisco CA - Opens Nov 4
Shattuck Cinemas Berkeley CA - Opens Nov 11
E Street Cinema Washington DC - Opens Nov 11
Rafael Film Center San Rafael CA - Opens Nov 11
Camera Cinemas 7 San Jose CA - Opens Nov 11
Laemmle Music Hall Theatre Beverly Hills CA - Opens Nov 11
Edwards South Coast Village Santa Ana CA - Opens Nov 11
Century Centre Cinema Chicago IL - Opens Nov 18
Renaissance Place Cinema Highland Park IL - Opens Nov 18
Bethesda Row Cinema Bethesda MD - Opens Nov 18
Kendall Square Cinema Boston MA - Opens Nov 18
Harvard Exit Theatre Seattle WA - Opens Nov 18
Embassy Cinemas Waltham MA - Opens November 25
Museum of Art Oklahoma City OK - Nov 25-27
Plaza de Oro Theatre Santa Barbara CA - Opens Dec 2
Broadway Center Cinemas Salt Lake City UT - Opens Dec 2
Tivoli Theatre St. Louis MO - Opens Jan 27, 2006
Midtown Art Cinema Atlanta GA - Opens Jan 27
Jacob Burns Film Center Pleasantville NY - Feb 3-9
Ken Cinema San Diego CA - Opens Feb 17
Ritz Theatre Philadelphia PA - Jan 27, 2006
with many more playdates to be announced
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"Jeune Homme" has had a fascinating film history, it would seem. Cocteau wanted a film version, and asked the American film maker Kenneth Anger to film it in 1951:
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=290729
Evidently this project was started, but not completed.
In a recent documentary that I have not seen, "Le Mystere Babilee," there is apparently footage of Jean Babilee and his wife Natalie Philippart, the orginal cast of the ballet. Also, a film of the dance dating from 1962 and starring Babilee with Claire Sombert was reportedly shown this year in Centre Pompidou's videodanse festival. One can only hope that this will somehow make it onto dvd. I'd be willing to pay full price for a 15 minute dvd: Having seen Babilee in this role (not that many years ago, he must have been around 60--can anyone else remember this NYC performance?), he was immensely powerful, more intense than even the great Nureyev. I gather that he was still performing a couple of years ago at age 80 (but not this ballet). Surely among the greatest dancers of the 20th century.
I've seen Nureyev perform this, and I feel the film version is a good and honest presentation of the actual dance. Sure, there are a lot of closeups, but one should remember the number of binoculars that showed up at Rudy's performances!
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I agree with Oberon that performances at NYCB are very daring, thrilling and elegant (not Punk!), both "Then" and now. Their unlimited exchance policy is a real help in this regard: in recent years I've found it useful to exchange about half my performances. Of course there has always been the occasional program that just didn't appeal. But now certain great ballets are often worth avoiding. UnDER-inspired (not un---the best inspirers are not (allowed) there) or under-cast. Sometimes, I think, lackluster solos lead to dulled-out corps. Not always, though. Ballo, with one Ashley coaching the other, is still just as thrilling (Bouder dances it differently, of course, which just shows that Merill is a good coach). Making it "same as" is not the way to make it "good as."
Often the greatest talent is used in lesser works, to Balanchine's loss. But we do have Wheeldon, hopefully he'll find another Jock. And he's still got Wendy! A muse is a muse is a muse. And yes, sometimes Mr. Martins does a great job. His Sleeping Beauty looks great, zips right along (no 3 hours and 40 minutes --and that's Mariinsky's short version--with boring bits and and story out of whack), yet has most of the good (dancing) stuff. Not every company can hit you with Vishneva/Lopatkina, but last time 'round Bouder/Kowroski was certainly worth the detour! Its a great company. And if it could somehow keep its ballerinas healthy, beyond compare!
Sure it is Mr. Martins' company (and he's kept it alive and financially healthy in pretty tough times), as much as one might like it to be Farrell's. But there's a mighty big ghost haunting the State Theater, much as that old French ghost from a hundred years ago still haunts Russia. Petipa lives! And so, deep down inside and resting for just a while... it is still Mr. B's company.
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I've seen it and it does bother me. The Fall and Decline of the Definite Article, I guess. Balanchine's The Four Temperaments is also frequently rendered as Four Temperaments and I always want to cuff the writer while yelling, "There are only four temperaments!" ... Grr.
Actually the original version was The Four Temperaments but it became Four Temperaments with the practice clothes version, beginning in 1951. In recent years it has become Four Temps, and soon will be 4 T's.
Only kidding... And in fairness to Mr. Martins' Company, it is listed there as The Four Temperaments. Moreover their website reminds us that:
"Hindemith's music was commissioned by Balanchine, an accomplished pianist who wanted a short work he could play at home with friends during his evening musicales. It was completed in 1940 and had its first public performance at a 1944 concert with Lukas Foss as the pianist."
The first performance of the ballet was two years later, on Maya Plisetskaya's 21st birthday... American Ballet came of age on the same day as the World's Assoluta!
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"Would I dare to aspire/To be great as Plisetskaya", a beautiful rhyme, but only in New York!
In atonement, Maya dancing in Finland just before her 74th birthday. In Afternoon of a Faun, with Alexey Ratmansky(!) as partner (click on photos to make bigger):
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I've been reading Roger Penrose's "The Road to Reality: a complete guide to the laws of the universe" since the end of summer, and it will last through NYCB's winter season and into ABT's Met season. This is the "math version" of Stephen Hawking's cosmology books.
A quote from the chapter (page) I've been reading this week: "Galilean spacetime is a fibre bundle with base space E1 and fibre E3." This implies (quoting, but using words for certain math symbols) "we do not have just one 3-D space as an arena for the actions of the physical world evolving with time, we have a different 3-D space for each moment in time, with no natural identification between these various 3-D spaces." I find this very vital way of seeing things is made manifest when watching Suzanne Farrell, or now Ashley Bouder, dance Balanchine: the music being the sanity that holds it all together!
It is amazing that Galileo's perception of the universe needs math that wasn't yet in the curiculum when I studied it! No wonder the poor guy was a heretic. It really is a fascinating book, and I can't wait to get to what Einstein really meant (if I can get that far). With such books you cheat and read the last page. The ending: "...what we mainly need is some subtle change in perspective--something we all have missed..." It is refreshing to know that that is true even for the two smartest people on the planet.
My get-back-to book is Maya Plisetskaya's autobiography (what with her 80th birthday approaching):
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846
Stalin has her father killed, her mother dumped in a gulag, she dances Swan Lake for balletomane (!) Mao....
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WBUR has a review and lots of big photos of the new Cinderella(click Boston Ballet in paragraph two for a slide show):
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Thanks Amy's mom.
Unfortunately, I also can't get the link to work.
Here's the link:
http://bulgarianspace.inteya.com/music/varna_ibc/
Click regulations for the 22nd... for info on the 2006 competition.
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In one month, 20 November 2005, Maya Plisetskaya will celebrate her 80th birthday. Here in New York we are reminded of her every time we visit Lincoln Center, as she stares down upon us from the great Chagall Mural "The Triumph of Music." It is the red one, to our left as we face The Met. She had visited Chagall in Paris sometime before the Met opened and had no idea that he was to include her in the mural. From her autobiography:
(In 1968, on her way to rehearsal at the new Met) "...I stop in my tracks in the plaza by the fountain. I look up. Chagall's tall murals. I look at the left one, reddish orange. A flying sunny angel with a trumpet, a marvelous Ivan Tsarevich playing a green cello, birds of paradise, a two-headed creature with a mandolin at its equine chin, a glazed violin and bow on a blue-sparkling tree. In the top left corner, a colorful flock of ballerinas... one is certainly me, pelvis forward, tight as a bow string, arms behind her back, feet in second position. I did something like that for Chagall to the Mendelssohn Concerto. And Mark Zakharovich had captured that moment."
Great celebrations are planned in Moscow, as reported elsewhere in this forum. Next February 12, London's Royal Opera House will have a star-studded gala, with Maya present, in her honor:
http://info.royaloperahouse.org/Calendar/I...Year=2005&atf=m
Does anyone know if there are any festivities planned in the United States?
I was lucky enough to see her in some of those New York visits, including all the works shown in these photos (click on each photo to make it larger):
http://www.bolshoi.net/photos/kulikov/page-plis.htm
Translating: 1, 2 Isadora, created on her by Maurice Bejart
3 Bejart's Bolero
4 - 6 Carmen Suite, created on her by Alberto Alonso
7 La Rose Malade (Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony), created on her by Roland Petit
8, 9 The Dying Swan (As an encore she repeated the whole thing!).
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Just noticed that Natalia Osipova is scheduled to dance Kitri at the Bolshoi on November 7:
http://www.bolshoi.ru/ru/season/ballet/rep...sha&dynid26=606
Is anyone planning to attend?
Mashinka: I think I see what you mean about that photo...it isn't exactly a model of classical perfection. It was taken a short time prior to her performance in that role at the Met last summer, that I have to admit was The Peak Bolshoi Experience I had during those two weeks, despite the greatness of Masha Alexandrova. Tobi Tobias expressed my feelings with far greater articulation than I can manage. The quote from her review:
"...Now about that miracle. About two and a half hours after the curtain goes up, on comes a girl in a pale yellow tutu and dances the briefest of solos. It is composed largely of grands jetés. The girl is small and compactly built, with a look of childlike wonder about her. The jetés are incomparably light, a cross between floating and flying. There seems to be no effort behind them and no ego; they just happen. It’s one of those moments that occurs in ballet from time to time, when issues of classical technique drop out of the picture and all you see is pure dancing. One of those moments in which you understand perfectly what ballet is for or, perhaps, fall under its spell for the very first time. The dancer’s name is Natalia Osipova. She entered the company just last year."
http://www.artsjournal.com/tobias/archives...g_at_wind.shtml
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"Maybe we should have a policy of mentioning at least the lead student dancers, since some will (we hope) go on to professional careers, and it's always nice to be able to say: "I was there when ...."."
I hope someone higher up will give us a policy statement. In particular, being unpaid, pre-pros, it might be unfair (unkind) to permit negative comments: at this level there is a right to fail in private, and since young people generally have this internet thing mastered, no doubt the performers and their friends will find any mention of them. Of course favorable comments are another matter!
It is great to read reviews like Skittl's, a breath of fresh air and a beam of hope for the art! And I can't wait to read the review of "Who Cares." Skittl, do you know who will set "Who Cares?" It must have been fun for the dancers having Danny Duell, who was a popular star at NYCB not so long ago, prepping them for "Valse Fantasie." "Who Cares" is going to give a lot of dancers a really great opportunity to shine. In four decades of NYCB-going, it is still fresh and a joy to see.
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Other than Zakharova, not sure re intermission 'previews'. Maybe one might have been Shipulina?
More often than not Shipulina was on our left, Alexandrova (darker hair) on right.
Variation in resolution was a little strange. The last rerun was often around 250Kbps, while the night (here) reruns were typically 400Kbps. Made a big difference, which I think we can take as encouraging, since the rate at which digital tech advances would suggest that a year from now we could all be pretty happy!
It would be nice if the Mariinsky took this Bolshoi webcast as a challenge... President Putin's home town team should be second to none!
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The website of the Bolshoi is stating that yesterdays perfomance has been dedicated to Tatina Golikova's end of career as balletmaster-rehearser.
(Tatiana Golikova has been working with both, Mariya Alexandrova and Mariya Allash.)
Thanks for info. Did not look like Bessmertnova. Beautiful woman, not unlike some old web photos of Golikova. Hopefully one of our Moscow posters will clarify the issue.
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Could anyone identify the woman (teacher, coach?) who was clearly much loved by Mariya Allash and the audience during the quite triumphant final curtain calls?
Also, a fine photo set of Allash (click Raymonda) in Raymonda, including rehearsal and receiving coaching from Grigorovich:
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Was the production broadcasted as bad as the Raymonda they released on DVD?
As I write this Act 2 is about to begin (I think there are about three more reruns to go before it is gone). It is really very well produced (I mean the video direction), no fast cutting, you really get to see the flow of the choreography. It is hard to think of a commercial video that is so balletomane oriented! The corps looks impressive, the male dancing is certainly a notch above what we saw this summer at the Met. The ballerinas are fine: how surprising that co-Prima Masha Alexandrova is in a soloist role! Not a "six o'clock" in sight. I think it is very favorable publicity for the Bolshoi.
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"...it would be great if she joined Pacific Northwest Ballet"
I, a very selfish New Yorker, absolutely agree with your wish. By now, it looks as if PNB is our last best hope to keep Balanchine alive at maximum glory in his chosen country.
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THANKS! It is on now, and the picture quality is way up!
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What a treat Monique would be to NYCB audiences! A way to salve the wound of losing Ansanelli...
It looks like Los Angeles Ballet is just getting started:
http://www.losangelesballet.org/index_home.htm
And with Ballet Pacifica also having its sights set on LA, will two companies be able to take hold in the city?
From their site photos and administration, LA Ballet looks more Balanchine-oriented; while Pacifica, with its ABT administration, teachers and guest stars, looks, well, ABT-like. Perhaps things will work, as that dichotomy is certainly successful in NYC.
Evgenia Obraztsova
in Dancers
Posted
The Rome Opera site has confirmed that Evgenia will dance the lead in Carla Fracci's Cenerentola (Cinderella, not the opera!) on November 3, 4, 8, 10. The choreography is attributed to Carla Fracci after the 1956 version of Alfredo Rodriquez (Ms. Fracci starred in this production in 1956). Ms. Obraztsova's partner will be Giuseppe Picone, formerly of ABT.