Helene

I thought her answer about class was a thoughtful one. She's another Willy Burmann fan:

Thank you so much DeCoster!

I don't have any information, but I'm thrilled to learn that you are writing this book, and I look forward to reading it.

Oh, dear. It's always an experience when you read a review and wonder if you were in an alternate universe.

Murray Perahia performed at Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on the UBC campus this afternoon for the Vancouver Recital Society. His program began with Bach's Partita No. 6 (E minor), and he played superbly, with a combination of liquid lyricism and rhythmic acuity. A similar lyrical approach to Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 30 (E major) began with promise, but until the second half of the last movement, without the underlying driving rhythm, it was almost too rich. The audience was still until the reverberation from the final, gentle chord dissipated, which made the ending a magical moment. "Kinderszenen" isn't my favorite work by Schumann -- I was hoping for "Davidsbundlertanze" -- but Perahia painted a world through his playing. His closing set of pieces by Chopin (Etude No. 1 in A Flat major Op. 25 no 1 -- used in the end credits of "The Turning Point" -- Mazurkas in A flat major Op. 59 no 2, in C sharp major Op. 50 no. 3, and in F sharp minor, Op. 59 no. 3, and Scherzo No. 4 in E major Op. 54) were more than cinematic: the works sang and danced as well as created character. Perahia performed two short encores as well. The first was somewhat playful, but I don't think I've ever heard it. The second was bombastic and sounded familiar, but I'll have to wait to see if a reviewer identifies it. I'm not sure if the piano was his or was the house piano -- I squinted and think the writing and logo were Steinway & Sons -- but it has a gorgeous, warm sound.

At one of the Q&A's last Saturday, Boal said he was weighing the Stowell and Maillot "Cinderella"s. I haven't seen the Maillot, and I think Stowell's "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet" is a stronger work than his "Cinderella", apart from the love "Seasons" ballet-in-a-ballet, but in creating a younger audience, the initial sell was Romeo and Juliet, not Maillot. Now PNB can sell "Cinderella" by describing it as Maillot's (or, deep voiceover, "From the Makers of "Romeo et Juliette"...). Strategically, this makes sense, but I'm sad that it's "Tragedy" that being pushed aside, with its wonderful, created Tchaikovsky score.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when Q&A members would comment about how they love this production because it's so natural and because there's no pantomime. The swimming (squiggle) motif is just as stylized and specific as "I you love" and "my mother's tears", and the big silent "O" scream that the main characters use throughout the ballet is unconvincing as a personal, differentiated gesture, while affecting as a thematic gesture. Thank you so much for your observations and insight, sandik!

I think that's because the bulk of the audience that goes to Met to see "Tosca", "Traviata", or "Boheme" doesn't show up for "Die Frau Ohne Schatten", let alone "The Nose" or "From the House of the Dead" (although that doesn't always stop them from having an opinion).

Carla Korbes posted her impressions on "Romeo et Juliette" for "The Winger" with beautiful photographs from the rehearsal (by Angela Sterling). http://thewinger.com/2009/romeo-et-juliette-in-seattle/

In 2004 the Bolshoi Ballet brought the Donnellan/Poklitaru "Romeo and Juliet" to the US. The purpose of the production seemed to be to present a modern version of the story with a fusion of dance and theater. While I found it entertaining, I don't think it was in the way the company intended. Jean-Christophe Maillot's "Romeo et Juliette" succeeds in every way that the Bolshoi production didn't. While not every moment was memorable choreographically and/or dramatically -- hard to do in a full-length ballet, and I'm never going to find the Eifman-esque character of Friar Laurence convincing -- Maillot avoids the pitfall of much contemporary choreography, the endless repetition of three to five movement "signatures", repeated in endless succession. His dance vocabulary is a lot more varied and interesting, and it's most often seamlessly integrated into the theater. The theater in this work isn't only in the characterization, but also in some wonderfully inventive set pieces, like the puppet show, which in its combination of comedy and foreboding is as much of a tour-de-force as the play-within-a-play convention of "I Pagliacci". It's also in the way that he cuts a key group scene to the three key public relationships at that point in the drama -- Romeo and Rosalind, ironically no longer wanted, Lady Capulet and Tybalt, and Juliette and Paris -- which highlights the contrast of the private musings, longings, and plots. One of the most impressive insights Maillot has is into adolescent female sexuality, particularly in the way Juliette pulls away not so much because she is socialized, but because she isn't quite ready at any given moment. Given a chance to absorb the sensation, she returns to Romeo. The balcony scene is rife with sensation from both characters. The work is performed on a stark, white set, with two proscenium height flat white panels upstage, between which a ramp extends on the diagonal to about mid-stage. There are also two movable half-height curved panels, one wider than the other, that sculpt the stage space throughout the performance. Stage left, there is a black platform, both the bridal bed and Juliette's crypt. Despite the starkness, it is a rather intimate space, and it indicates a specific place. I saw both Saturday performances, and the casts were starkly different. In the matinee, Kaori Nakamura's Juliette was, from the first scene with her mother, as hurt as she was playful, with Mara Vinson's overbearing Lady Capulet almost violently disapproving in her attempt to teach her daughter how to behave as a woman. When the nurse rips off her mask during the ball scene, or her robe in the bedroom scene with Paris, it's as if she's been violated. James Moore's Romeo could have been her escape and chance at love. Because of her almost insect-like sensitivity and intermittent physical delicacy, the tragedy was inevitable. For all she said in her interview about Maillot's Juliette not being a sweet young girl from Shakespeare, Carla Korbes' characterization belied this. While passionate, her Juliette was more of an emotional innocent, getting in deeper and deeper, all the while believing that it would all work out, which made it horrific when it didn't. Her mother, Ariana Lallone's much more maternal Lady Capulet, was much more affectionate and non-traumatic. Physically, her dancing was silken. Given the chance, I wouldn't relive any period of my life before my 40's, but Korbes tempted me to want to feel what her Juliette felt as she expressed that sense of freedom and fullness. In a Q&A, Postlewaite said he wanted to portray his Romeo as a playboy; it was Moore's Romeo who would have been believable working his way through the entire female population of Verona without coming up for air, while Postlewaite's far more patient Romeo likely would have absorbed and reveled in what he was feeling. (The girls would still be there when he was ready to move on.) Moore's change to the young husband was more of a stretch. I would have loved to have seen Nakamura's Juliette with Postlewaite's Romeo, to see how her Juliette would have reacted to his emotion. Mara Vinson made the most of the Graham-like choreography, and she was a real dragon lady of a mother. She was so self-absorbed, like an Electra, that by the time she appeared at Juliette's crypt, I had no sympathy for her -- even Juliette's death was all about her. It was a powerful, brilliant physical characterization. Lallone's Lady Capulet was much softer and more maternal. I thought Chalnessa Eames' Nurse was one of the great performances of last season when the work was first presented, and once again, her freeze-frame facial expressions and impeccable comic timing were splendid. Carrie Imler made her debut in the role in the evening; the comedy was in her constant motion. It was a very fine debut. Barry Kerollis and Seth Orza made their debuts as Mercutio and Tybalt in the afternoon. Kerollis said that the character, with its anger and aggression was a stretch, and while his Mercutio was magnetic throughout, and aggressive in spurts, there were other times when he could have said, "Who, me, leave a bleeding dead body on the ground?" and have been convincing. Orza was sleek and was quite charismatic even when he partnered Mara Vinson, which was no easy feat. The most emotionally charged relationship in either performance was Jonathan Porretta's Mercutio to Batkhurel Bold's Tybalt. Every time they were on stage together, sparks flew incessantly, and they were at each other with relentless, doggish, stubborn intensity. There are five performances this weekend. If I weren't in Vancouver, I'd see at least two of them. Each cast has its glories, and the contrast between the two provides a rich experience. If you have a chance, go see both.

Thank you so much for the heads up, atm711!

Oh, ouch, that is so harsh...

Oh, but it would. In the US any medium-large company not based in NYC has to prove, over and over again, that it is not "regional", which is often a buzzword for "provincial". I think that's why San Francisco Ballet seems to have passed "Go" and abandoned any further attempt to prove itself on a national level and to have gone straight to trying to prove itself as an international company.

A wonderful wedding present!

I am sad to see that "Mozartiana" is not on the list, although the last time I saw it was in the mid-90's, if I remember correctly, with Anne Derieux.

The website's been updated: http://www.pnb.org/ Click "The Artists" from the horizontal menu, and choose a category from the vertical sub-menu.

That is great news! Congratulations to all

I am GRRRRRRRRRR at the Met for not putting this on the HD schedule. I'm sure I can guess their reasoning, but GRRRRRRRRRR anyway. How many people might consider spending $20-$25 to check it out instead of not spending $150 to see it in the theater? I wouldn't have traveled to NYC to see "La Damnation de Faust" live if I hadn't seen it onscreen first. I liked the music well enough, but I was intrigued by Lepage's take on the work. At least with an unfamiliar opera, people can go in a little scared or tentative, but what's going to happen to all of the people who go to "Tosca" thinking they were getting a reglar ole production, and instead they get Luc Bondy? I'm not a huge fan of "Tosca", and had this been the Zeffirelli version, there's no way I'd go to the HD screening, but Anthony Tomassini's review made me plunk down $24.10 CAD to see it in a couple of weeks.

Melissa Hayden wrote that, to her dismay, when Suzanne Farrell was having knee problems, Balanchine dropped a number of jumps from company class, because she questioned how the dancers could maintain their technique. Balanchine wasn't the only company director to discourage or prohibit dancers from seeking outside coaching. Fonteyn and Ashton had to sneak to Vera Volkova's class, which, luckily, they did.

Although recently, Balanchine's version has been performed more frequently than Ashton's "The Dream", as I can attest from doing the Calendar. Ashton's "home" company has been doing little to maintain his legacy in general; in my opinion, performing his Neopolitan dance in The Latest Production of "Swan Lake" or a few snippets from his "The Sleeping Beauty" is not maintaining his legacy.

I saw Feijoo dance Giselle when she was still with Ballet Nacional de Cuba, and she was so, so lovely.

to Tharp! I want to see this show.

Kenna Draxton is another wonderful dancer from Ballet Arizona; according to her bio on the list of SFB dancers, it's also her first year.

According to this preview in The Seattle Times,

A plane ride to Phoenix would be in order for you, Mr. Reed Thank you for the info! According to the Balanchine Catalogue, that would make: Theme: Cook/Grosh (Bliss/Tobias) First Variation: Mitchell (Kent) Second Variation: Stewart (Hayden) Third Variation: Ivan (Adams) Fourth Variation: Magnicaballi (Le Clerq) Fifth Variation: Mladenov (Magallanes) Sixth Variation: Angelova (Wilde) I always get the originators of First and Second mixed up, because I believe that in the pas de deux, Hayden went first, and Kent second.