Helene

One thing I did forget: there's a photo in the last photo section that I think is the most wonderful photo of Nureyev of all I've seen: taken by Alexandra della Porta Rodiani, it shows Nureyev at the end of his life in full conductor's garb with baton on a lawn with trees blurred in the background. He looks relaxed and happy and his smile is spectacular. Definitely a candid shot, with his mouth partly open.

I started the bio last week and finished it this weekend. I thought it was poorly written, particularly the first half. I spent too much energy trying to decipher what Kavanagh was trying to say, to re-order her paragraphs, and to wonder whether the book had an editor. Of the people who were described at any length in the book, there are few I'd want to know: Alexander Pushkin, Nureyev's childhood friends Liuba and Leonid, and Stanley Williams are among them, although the latter is described in terms of work, not personality. Jane Hermann comes across as an interesting person as well. However, Kavanagh did write repeatedly that he transformed companies and dancers with whom Nureyev worked, and she made it perfectly understandable why a dancer would want his attention. Off the stage, not so much, but that may have to do with the contempt he showed almost all of the people he let in, especially the women. "The Life" that was interesting to me was the relationship between him and the other dancers in the studio, and that, unfortunately, would require a different kind of author, if it is conveyable through words at all.

In 16 May Links was an obituary for activist Cicely Nichols, who danced and studied with Robert Joffrey. Her daughter (and many thanks to her) has sent a photo from that time with photo id's; Ms. Nichols is in the center of the third row, and Arpino and Joffrey are second from right and right in the second row. The text (re-formatted) says: this is the text: Some of the second and third rows seem almost to be one row: Henline, Cohn, Bull, Arpino, Nichols, Joffrey, Soars?

With gas prices at this rate -- 4.149 in Sedro Wooley, yikes -- it will be cheaper to fly. And I just checked the football schedule: there's a home game at Berkeley on the 27th, which means all of the places to stay near campus will be expensive and full.

Just a moderator's note that news posted on other forums isn't official, but news from the foreign press is.

Welcome to Ballet Talk amiaow, and, please do tell us about the symposium! I wish I were there -- I love Adelaide, and Irina Baronova is one of my dance heros.

Casting is up for the PNB All Robbins' program ("Fancy Free," "In the Night," "The Concert") that opens next Thursday, 29 May. http://www.pnb.org/season/robbins-cast.html Of the dancers who are leaving the Company at the end of this season, *Noelani Pantastico will dance in "Fancy Free", first couple (with Olivier Wevers) in "In the Night", and the Angry Lady in "The Concert". *Casey Herd will dance in "Fancy Free", third couple (with Kaori Nakamura) in "In the Night" and The Husband in "The Concert". None of the corps women who will be leaving are cast in named roles in this program, although there is a TBA for one of the "Matinee Ladies" in "The Concert". The real season finale is the evening of 8 June with the 8 Encores program, and, hopefully, each will be featured in that program. I'm really sorry I'm going to miss both performances with Benjamin Griffiths, James Moore, and Seth Orza as the sailors in "Fancy Free", and I hope that someone will review it here. Sarah and Seth Orza are cast together as the first couple in "In the Night". Jordan Pacitti, who was literally the poster boy for "Fancy Free" when it was last performed is cast for it this season, making his debut on Friday, 30 May, yay! Feel free to add reviews to this thread, and I'll move it to "Recent Performances."

Now I know I'm going to be broke by the end of next year (at least for Series A): Cal Performances Dance Series (Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley): Series A: Mark Morris Dance Group September 25-27 8pm, September 28 3pm: "Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare" Kirov Ballet: October 14-15 8pm: Act III from "Raymonda," Grand Pas from Paquita," Kingdom of the Shades from "La Bayadere" October 17-18 8pm, October 18 2pm, October 19 3pm: "Don Quixote" Mark Morris Dance Group May 29-30 8pm, May 31 3pm: "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato" Bolshoi Ballet June 4-6 8pm, June 6 2pm, June 7, 3pm: "La Bayadere" Series B: Merce Cunningham Dance Company November 7 8pm: "Suite for Five," "eyeSpace" (20-min), "BIPED" November 8 8pm: "Second Hand," "Split Sides" November 14 8pm: "eyeSpace" (40-min), "BIPED" November 15 8pm: "Cuises," "XOVER" Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre January 30 8pm: "Art of the Fugue," "Black Diamond," "Symphony of Psalms" January 31 8pm: "Les Noces," "Wiev," "Bolero" Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and Sweet Honey in the Rock* March 3-4 8pm*, March 5-7 8pm, March 7 2pm, March 8 3pm Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg May 1-2 8pm, May 3 3pm: "Onegin"

Thank you, Rosa! ETA: Also in the ballet with Kondourova is Maxim Zyuzin, who was also terrific at City Center, and, if I'm close to transliterating properly, Islam Baymuradov (sp?). (The Mariinsky site is down right now, so I can't check.) She doesn't seem to care who ravishes her on the table Then she has to dance on white astroturf... Then she turns into a doll... Then Zyuzin attacks her with the doll of herself... Which he seems to regret later... Edited again to add that Maria Alexandrova also performs Odette at the end of Part 2 with final pose at the beginning of Part 3. Then there's a rehearsal of Viktoria Tereshkina with Angel Corella, then into their performance, with occasional cuts to rehearsal and back. Then Rojo, who does a 15-minute balance in the Black Swan Pas de Deux, and does triples among the fouettes.

Siegfried is in a strange place when he leaves the palace/palace grounds (or in Kudelka's version, the local saloon). He's about to be forced into a decision he doesn't want to make, and he thinks there's something else out there. He's in the dark forest in the middle of the night, and he's up for something different. Odette is an exotic. She's not a swan physically, literally, but like anyone else who's not an actor or an actress, you can dress them up to look one way, even a way that is part of themselves, but the rest of them is still in another world. (Hence the swan movement.) Look at old photos of immigrants who are in formal dress of their new countries and how half still in the world from which they came. They still move the same way. And while Odette may not have made much of an impression at the party -- skittish, sad, withdrawn, however regal -- Odile makes a grand entrance in a little black dress (originally red and gold, no?), is as sociable as can be -- convinces Mama to give her a chance, with the help of Von Rothbart, charms the pants off of everyone at the party, and speaks to the Prince on a hormonal as well as spiritual level. (Odette would make a horrible Princess; she'd be a recluse like Tsarina Alexandra, and look how that turned out.) What more could a Prince want? Odile shines under bright lights, in public. Odette under moonlight, in an intimate setting. "Swan Lake" is about psychological truth, not literal truth.

No release date, but confirmation that an Acosta "Spartacus" was filmed for DVD release has been confirmed by Marc Haegemann in the Spring 2008 edition of danceviewtimes. Writing about the Bolshoi's visit to Paris this January, he writes:

I went again this afternoon, and I'm still on cloud nine. I wanted to note the man in blue with the purple sash, who excelled in the mime episodes he was in, including Eurydice in Part II. (Dallas McMurray?)

From Links today is an article about Phillip Otto, who danced with Milwaukee Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet (where he met his wife, Rachel Butler-Otto), and Pacific Northwest Ballet from which he retired and went on to run PNB's community outreach program in the public schools. He's now to become Artistic Director of Community Ballet in Huntsville, Alabama, and Rachel, who was a beautiful dancer and greatly missed when she retired, will become director of the school. http://www.al.com/entertainment/huntsville....xml&coll=1 The quote, "it's hard to imagine Otto doing a pirouette" is ironic, because he had a preternatural ease when turning, and could toss off perfectly executed multiples with seemingly no preparation.

Accompanying Michael's vivid descriptions of the experience of Hubbe's last performances are two wonderful shots of Hubbe by Costas as "Apollo"; a third -- a stunner -- appears on the cover.

I've loved this full-length work by Mark Morris ever since I first saw it. It is full of walking, gesture, and ritual. Joy was seeing familiar faces; Joe Bowie has been dancing this work for almost 20 years. (It premiered in Brussels in November, 1998.) It is also seeing Lauren Grant's first entrance in any work and knowing that I will see quicksilver starts and stops and direction changes and a complete commitment to the music. Two other standouts were dancers I was too far away to know for sure by face, but I believe the tall(est) brunette with a barrette in her hair, wearing brown with blue underskirt in Part I and rose in Part II was Amber Darragh. I just don't know who the man who wore pale blue with a yellow sash in both parts was. (David Leventhal?) ETA: The review in The Seattle Times confirmed that this was David Leventhal. All four vocal soloists were superb -- Christine Brandes, James Maddalena, John McVeigh, and Lisa Saffer -- and while the acoustics in the theater were disappointing -- only about the first 10 of maybe 30 rows in the orchestra are not under the balcony overhang -- the Seattle Symphony and Symphony Chorale sounded as good as they could, given those limitations. There were a lot of people in my section who've been following Mark Morris' work for years, and several locals, like the woman sitting a few seats away from me who reminisced about how she remembered him from when he was in high school, "dancing anywhere and with anyone he could." It must be disconcerting to see his head of curls shot with gray. But he still takes the most elegant bow of anyone on stage.

I moved my schedule around to be able to see Mark Morris tonight and saw the Gold Cast performance of "I Puritani" earlier in the week. This performance was very different than the first. Norah Amsellem gave a Callas-like performance in several ways: emotionally charged, responsive to text, and liberal with pitch. It was also eliberately formed, with attention to each phrase, but, for me, this only brought out the silliness in the role of Elvira, and, in the end, I didn't care. Last week Gutierrez brought out the (near) universal experience of helplessness and despair of rejection and made me empathize with her. Amsellem's Elvira was simply high-maintenance. But then there were the men. Lawrence Brownlee has a tenor voice with lovely timbre, but that isn't what makes him a great singer: it the underlying support and technique that gives him the ability to shape phases of supreme beauty and pathos, and, of course, the artistry and musicality to make those choices. Although I had heard Arturo's part in the penultimate ensemble "Credeasi, misera de me tradita" with many, many times, I had never heard it until Brownlee sang it, and only then realized that it among the most beautiful melodies in opera. Although everyone else was thrilled with the high F he sang in the later refrain -- and it was a beauty -- I would have preferred it to end the modest way it began. (From Jenkins' description in the post-performance Q&A, everyone seems to detect a different "tell" from Brownlee to see if he will attempt the note in any given performance.) Brownlee also moves like an athlete. Most singers when given a hiding scene rush to this place and then that, but the motivation is either blatantly obivous -- "alas, I hear a window smashing" -- or because the director said to, but Brownlee showed physical awareness of what was going around him and had eyes in back of his head to warn him of the dangers, finally making Arturo credible as someone who crossed enemy lines in both directions unscathed. One big payoff was in the Act I sword fight with Riccardo, played and sung by Mariusz Kwiecien, who moved like a panther. They went at without restraint and with mutual contempt -- "I've wanted to impale your ratty little heart since I first set eyes on you and now's my chance" -- and it was the best swordfight I've ever seen on stage. Jenkins also gave up the secret: for safety reasons, there's always a run-through just before the curtain is raised.. The other advantage to the audience (besides having healthy singers) is that this serves to refresh the blocking, so that the more talented ones have it fresh on their minds and can do it unselfconsciously. Brownlee spun gold and bronze from his first note. Kwiecien and John Relyea, who sang Giorgio, Elvira's uncle who convinces Elvira's father to renege on his promise of Elvira's hand in marriage to Riccardo so that she can marry the enemy Arturo, both needed time to warm up. Once they did, though, it was all engines at full throttle. In Kwiecien's case, especially in his top range, he was all flexibility, power, and cream. He also does bad very, very well, without standard, stock snarly gestures, and with great physical agility. Just before his final duet with Relyea/Giorgio ("Suoni la tromba"), when Giorgio says in response to his question that if they meet Arturo on the battlefield fighting for the Royalists, then it is their duty to kill him, he slowly clenches his downstage fist, having manipulated the conversation and found the loophole out of his his promise to help Elvira by reuniting her with Arturo. The only non-convincing staging for the men was at the end, when Arturo returned and was pardoned through an Act of Parliament, Riccardo returns his sword to him, and all ends happily. You half expected the sword to burst into flames to kill Arturo, like the poisoned dress sent to kill Elizabeth I. Relyea has a resonant bass-baritone voice and a refined style, following in the footsteps of his father, the great Canadian baritone, Gary Relyea. He is also heads taller than anyone else on the stage, which made Kwiecien's ability to stand up to his voice and stage presence through virility and charisma that much more impressive. It was easy to see how this old warrior with a soft spot for his niece could succeed on the battlefield due to sheer physical dominance. Joseph Rawley, another young bass-baritone and another out of the Seattle Opera Young Artist's program, made the most of the small role of Elvira's father Lord Gualtiero Walton. He soared over the orchestra. I'd also like to hear more of mezzo Fenlon Lamb, who sang Enrichetta, the Queen, who impressed without melodrama. At this performance I also finally understood some of what in Bellini might have appealed to Wagner, and that is how Bellini transitions aria after aria into a long expository ensemble, bypassing three or four stop-for-applause opportunities, and building the drama. This would not have been apparent without the expert singing and dramatic sensitivity of the chorus, led by Beth Kirchhoff, who went from full voice to a prayerful whisper as the scene demanded, and the willingness of all four leads to blend into the ensemble. So forget Puccini and the rest of verismo. Who'd have thought that the men of bel canto "I Puritani" of all operas would have had me reaching for my smelling salts?

It's another feature that changes depending on context -- for example, when typing this post, the checkbox does not appear -- but when navigation around, who's keeping track of that? I tried to find out how to make the default "unchecked" but to no avail :blush:

Rauschenberg's Huge "Echo" has a place of honor at Seattle's Benaroya Hall, at the top of a short flight of stairs from the main lobby to the first landing. Sadly, the official website has no photos, only a description: http://www.seattlesymphony.org/benaroya/about/art.aspx

If you "uncheck" the "Search This Forum Only" checkbox from "Search" on the menu at the top of the page, the engine will search the entire site. Edited to add: To be clearer, the "Search this forum only" checkbox appears if you are in a forum. Clicking "Search" from the home page searches the entire site, and the checkbox will not appear.

Upgrade is complete. I have to double check the language changes, which might have been reset, but the pages look fine. If anyone has any issues post-upgrade, please post here or email us at the "Contact Us" link at the top of the page. As an heads up, sometime next week we will implement a more secure cookie setting, which may require you to sign in again. (There is no known issue with this noted on the help boards, but you never know, and each browser manages cookies differently.) If you have automatic sign-in and can't remember your password, you will need to reset it using the "Forget your password?" link on the sign-in pages. Resetting passwords is a two-step process, and you will need to be sure mail from the ballettalk.com domain does not go into your spam folder. I will give another, separate warning as we get closer.

I'm still waiting to hear when the upgrade will start this morning, but please be prepared for the board to be closed for a few hours.

That's why I had no idea that he was the dancer to whom we were introduced during first intermission until you started to discuss his performance during second intermission

Cunningham spoke in the NPR story yesterday on Rauschenberg. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...toryId=90401687

According to the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona) season schedule ad in the June 2008 issues of Opera News (p.9), Angel Corella Ballet is performing at the theater 9-11 July 2009.

Cristian, how do you attend all of these events while working and being in school?