cargill

I just want to say that I think that is a very fair and accurate description of the flaws of Onegin--I haven't seen the Royal Ballet do it (ABT did it this season), and it seems clear that it was made for a company that had four decent dancers and a fairly lackluster corps, and suited the Stuttgart very well--I saw much of the original cast. But I don't think it is a useful ballet to develop a company with, whatever its merits, which in my opinion are fairly flimsy. The corps just does generic dances, not even the folk inspired ones which might give the piece some flavor, or awful old geezer characterizations. There are no soloist roles to develop dancers--even Swan Lake has the pas de trois. To me it is like MacMillan without the mysogeny. I heard a story--I don't know if it is true--that when Balanchine saw all the lifts in the letter scene he said something to the effect that he assumed the Tatiana couldn't dance. Danilova once commented about someone "While she was busy balancing, I was busy dancing." I suppose a choreographer could look at Onegin and say "while he was busy lifting I was busy making steps." That said, of course great dancers have an impact, but I don't find it a great ballet.

The most recent issue of Dance Now (David Leonard's wonderful quarterly) had a very intresting article on Onegin and some of the problems that ballet had in transferring the text. For me, it is another of those very long ballets (like Romeo and Juliet and Manon) with an even longer opera struggling to get out. But underneath the swaths of padding, there can be some very fine performances, but often in spite of the choreography, not because of it. I just did an interview with Guillaume Graffin, who is a very fine Onegin with ABT, and he talked a lot about the problems he had in getting a grasp of Onegin just through the choreography, and trying to make him the three-dimentional character of the poem. His point was that Onegin is choregraphed as a snobbish villan, but he had to have something more, or Titania wouldn't have fallen in love with him. He saw him as sort of a fallen angel, whom life had disappointed, but he felt that was very hard to put across in the ballet.

I have been watching Jewels for years, and my opinon has certainly shifted. I remember being bored to death by Emeralds and by the corps in Diamonds, and loving Rubies. And now, I adore Emeralds, and, after the Kirov performance, could watch the Diamond corps forever. Rubies I find a tiny bit grating--but perhaps I just miss MacBride. I certainly agree about Korbes in Emeralds, and she probably wouldn't be bad in Diamonds either. Of course in a perfect world Korbes would get Emeralds to Somogyi's Diamonds. And Miranda Weese would be well enough to do Rubies.

I just got a release from ABT saying Veronica Part was joining ABT as a soloist. So ABT now has two tall gorgeous women joining them.

I guess it is a matter of de gustibus, but I was not overwhelmed (at least artistically) by the Kirov's Don Q. I found Vishneva quite one note--very loud and strident and without charm. Samodurov was charming in the comedy, but had trouble with the dancing, cranking out those supported pirouettes and putting his hand down from some extraneously difficult jump. The whole performance (except for some of the side roles) seemed designed only to impress the audience, not to tell the story, and I felt like I was being smacked on the head. That said, the production is gorgeous, and the character dancing is really terrific.

I don't agree with everyone of Mr. Gottlieb's judgements, but I think it is obvious that there is something unusual going on in casting, and by extention, I expect, in coaching. Contanstly shoving young corps girls on in important roles and then putting them back in the corps, not developing soloists, leaving people in roles (Somogyi is by far the best person in Hypolita, but she is a principal for heaven's sake and has been dancing it for years), working a dancer until injury takes them out for a long period (as has happened to a number of dancers over the years). I know people, even some in the company, have said that the company does too many ballets, and I think that is part of the problem. If a ballet is danced 4 times a season, and two people dance the leads, that isn't much time to develop an interpretation or any depth.

I don't think pointing this out means someone should just stay home and not watch the ballet--for many people NYCB and Balanchine were so much more than just a pleasant hobby, and something that meant so much cannot just be shrugged off.

I don't agree with everyone of Mr. Gottlieb's judgements, but I think it is obvious that there is something unusual going on in casting, and by extention, I expect, in coaching. Contanstly shoving young corps girls on in important roles and then putting them back in the corps, not developing soloists, leaving people in roles (Somogyi is by far the best person in Hypolita, but she is a principal for heaven's sake and has been dancing it for years), working a dancer until injury takes them out for a long period (as has happened to a number of dancers over the years). I know people, even some in the company, have said that the company does too many ballets, and I think that is part of the problem. If a ballet is danced 4 times a season, and two people dance the leads, that isn't much time to develop an interpretation or any depth.

I don't think pointing this out means someone should just stay home and not watch the ballet--for many people NYCB and Balanchine were so much more than just a pleasant hobby, and something that meant so much cannot just be shrugged off.

Fokine may have been rebelling against the geometric formality and abstraction of some of the Petipa set pieces (like the Shades scene or the absolutely charming and adorable lotus dance for children on point). And Fokine did object to the formal mime, didn't he, wanting a more natural way of moving. And the structure of Petipa's pieces, having the different dances come on as party pieces, so to speak, without any relation to the plot, like the tom tom dance (I forget what it was called). Yes, choreographically it did call the Polovotsians to mind, but it has no bearing on the plot, and can just as well be left out. I of course loved every minute of it, and I do love Scherezhade too, but structurally, not just time wise, they are very different.

Jane I didn't notice any tulle but the shades scene took place in the mountains, and there were big boulders in front of the path (it zig zagged once), so the shades went in and out of view, ver effective I thought. It started out dark and then got quite light, and the sets looked a bit like John Ford's Monument Valley or somewhere on the back of the moon. The shades all had little brown Gibson girlish wigs on and bell-shaped tutus, which was charming. However, I don't think the sets for this act were a real high point in Russian stage design.

I thought that was a very odd comment too. After all Fonteyn WAS Odette to many people, and Swan Lake was one of the first of the classics de Valois put on. I do agree, though, that their current production looks like they don't know very much about Swan Lake.

I haven't voted yet (I may wimp out and vote both), but I think McKenzie's was the most disappointing, because ABT had a decent (not great, but decent) version which needed some tweaking and redesigning to be very good. Instead, it missed the point on every angle, time period, story, theatricality (good heavens, theater 101 certainly should talk about creating an entrance for the ballerina and how to focus the end of the first act on Siegfried), moral seriousness, design, etc., etc. Though ABT does have the dancers, which by and large NYCB didn't. But as I wrote in one of my reviews, good Swan Lakes are all alike, and bad ones are bad in their own individual way.

I realize of course that the way I would build a repertoire is based on all my favorite ballets, but that is pretty unrealistic, because (1) they would be very expensive, and (2) I suspect audiences wouldn't come. It depends on where the company is and how big it is. But if I had a ballet company, I would try to have some classical ballets, not just Nutcracker, but ones with lots of parts to keep the technique up. If I couldn't do a real Sleeping Beauty I would try something like a one act Paquita or Raymonda for the women. I would also try to raid the Diaghilev repertoire (assuming the Fokine is available) to develop stage presence and ability to project a character. And I would have some modern classics, Balanchine and Ashton, and Tudor. I would not have the Snow Maiden! Or any version of Carmena Burana. I would program some modern pieces, prefereably by someone in the company who knows and can develop dancers, but program it with other works so that the evening is not all new works. So I suppose my company would look a lot like the old Royal Ballet, which isn't such a bad thing.

AS one whose all time favorite piece of ballet is the mime in Swan Lake, I of course voted for as much mime as can be put in! I do think it helps the dancers develop a character and a stage presence to think aobut how to hold an audience's attention. The Swan Lakes I have seen without the mime seem much less moving and poignant--the mime forces Odette to use her eyes and to express something, whereas when a few extra steps are substituted, there is much less to express.

Mime may have had a harder time surviving in the US because of the sizes of the stage as well. The little subtle movements and expressions don't carry well in huge houses. I thought that the Soviets tended to get rid of mime because they thought the newer audience wouldn't understand it, that it was something left over from the Czarist times and old-fashioned.

In the ABT production, it is a portrait of Solor, and Gamzatti shows it to Nikiya (or rather rubs her face in it!) to prove to her that Solor is engaged to Gamzatti and that Nikiya should just go away.

I would love to see Tallchief's Scotch Symphony. She coached Judith Fugate in it for the Balanchine archives, and apparently there have been some changes since it was first done. And what about Verdy getting a hold of Emeralds!

One I would love to see again is the Haieff Divertimento. They did it for the Balanchine Celebration and 1 or 2 seasons after that, and never again. It had wonderful music, and was sort of in introduction to the 4 Temperaments, and had some wonderful dancing for men.

Based on some of the dancing I saw, it seems the favorite drink is a malted down at the corner drug store.

I odn't think you will find many people who disagree with you. She was so extraordinary. In some ways, in the back of my mind, I think I go to the ballet looking for someone with a face and a movement that rich--she would lead my poll of dancers I feel grateful to have seen!

I remember reading somewhere, though I can't place it, that Danilova once suggested to Balanchine that he put on the Jardin Animee, and he said no, because then everyone would realize how much he had taken from it! Balanchine certainly took thinks from Petipa, lots of the white swan, and certainly Raymonda's hand clapping solo look similar, though of course Balanchine changed certain accents. There is of course nothing underhand about it--Petipa reworked lots of Romantic ballets, too.

I agree. Ringer is a lovely dancer, but she just didn't seem sharp or commanding enough for the role. To me she looked like she was dancing La Source, which of course she was made for! There is such a melting quality about her that just doesn't seem to go with T&V. The little leg beats you mentioned are, I think the gargouillades, which as I understand Balanchine added for Gelsey Kirland when he did it for NYCB. They weren't in the version he did for ABT in the 1940's.

In terms of delivering a performance, instead of tricks, the company looked really quite good last night, especially Reyes as Gulnare and Malakhov as the slave owner. The pas d'esclave was so lovely, so expressive, it really seemed to be about loss of freedom (though not overly melodramatic.) Of course, she seems perfectly happy the rest of the ballet, but she is supposed to. Malakhov didn't try the deep plies up to a jump, but his dancing was so expressive, he created a real character, just a mass of cowardly greed. Acosta is a very good actor, I think. The confrontation scene with Birbanto was played straight and really quite dramatic. I too was suprized that he seemed on the short side dancing with Herrera, he really does seem to tower over everyone. His dancing, though, seems more energetic than elegant, and he went for too many fancy jumps that he couldn't finish cleanly. To me, a real hero shouldn't be competing with his slave. And I think that the production does Birbanto a real diservice by having him come on and jump and jump and jump right after the Ali pas de trois. He really should be able to mime, to establish his character as something different and powerful, though de Luz certainly tried to make something of it.

I guess we now have our Spider Woman: the Ballet.

Unfortunately, Malakhov and McKerrow are not dancing Giselle together this season. I agree with Manhatnick--the moment when Malakhov bent down to kiss Bathilde's hand was one of the most vivid theatrical moments I can remember. Their Giselles to me will be my model of how individual and moving that story can be. And in the second act, he just seemed to be so tightly wound, just begging for one last chance to see her and explain. I get choked up just thinking about him. I do like him as the slave owner, though. He is the only one I have seen who can dance it expressivley, who can make is solo say something and not just look difficult. Watching him go down into those deep plies and then spring up again just seemed to sum up his character so perfectly.

I saw it with the original cast, many years ago. It was one of the first ballets I saw, and other than being bowled over by Beriosova as the Tsarina, it was pretty bad--apparently is was roundly booed at the premiere. Yards and yards of incredibly dull padding in the first 2 acts, and no real connection between the first two acts and the 3rd act, which was effective in a modernistic way, though I was put off by the idea of using real films of murder as scenic decoration. Durante danced in the ABT production, so it wasn't just the cast that killed the American production, it was the ballet. I heard that it was referred to back stage as both Anasthesia and Euthenasia.