Helene

When Ballet Talk on Tour was in Paris this spring, cygneblanc suggested Clement Restaurant, 17, Boulevard des Capucines 75002 Paris, http://www.chezclement.com/index.php?page=op_plan You can see the menu and reserve a table online. There are several Restaurant Clement in Paris; this one is a few blocks away from Palais Garnier. If you are standing on the steps of the opera house, with the building behind you, it's a few blocks straight ahead on the right-hand side. It's on or near a corner and very close to the L'Opera metro stop. We had a wonderful meal there.

What I find remarkable about the clip is the way he starts out so slowly and accelerates from adagio in the blink of an eye.

I think that Balanchine's "American-ness" is characterized in two ways: the America of movies, both Broadway and westerns and Fred Astaire, and the bustle and energy of New York City. Reading the Kirstein biography, Kirstein was constantly and fervently writing libretti about "American" subjects for Balanchine, and Balanchine was constantly putting him off, giving him vague encouragement or ignoring the suggestions. This went on for decades. On the whole Balanchine was less interested in narrative ballet, but in a ballet like "Stars and Stripes", he captured the essence of the American band music and the theater of parades with the bones of classical ballet. Or in "Western Symphony", with its loving parody of "Swan Lake" and all those American dancers with flouncy Western dresses doing the classics. The juxtaposition is so grand. The interesting question for me is what Balanchine would have commented on if he had stayed in Europe and what he would have shown us about Denmark or France.

To further the analogy, dancing for ABT is the "big leagues", which for men pay: Minimum Starting Salaries: NHL: 450K NFL: 285K MLB: 390K NBA: 427K For the women? WNBA: 34,500 Very few of these athletes are living in NYC or San Francisco, either. Maybe not enough to retire on after four years, but certainly enough to live comfortably and a good start in owning a home. Not to mention the huge tax breaks and stadium/arena-renovation subsidies that major league sports teams get from cities, states, and counties -- sometimes even overriding the citizen's votes (but I'm not still bitter about the Mariners' last stadium, no...) -- that dwarf the amount of money that arts organizations receive from government. But back to the topic, I wish Matthew Murphy luck and happiness.

Congratulations to all the recipients. and to Postlewaite, a beautiful dancer. Seattle is lucky in many, many ways.

Oh, dear. I think they tried that a couple of times with various matinee-idol-looking tenors after the original. They did pick the cute ones, though, and three of the most lauded young(ish) tenors. I just don't see these three men being as shamelessly cheesy as Pavarotti, which I suspect was a lot of the appeal. Domingo looked wryly detached from the phenomenon, and Careras was happy to be alive and singing after his near-fatal bout with leukemia.

Many thanks, Nanarina, for writing about your trip I had the same experience when visiting Palais Garnier -- I felt like I was wearing sunglasses, it was so dark!