Helene

The Britney "ballet" has caused much comment. What are your suggestions for "Ripped from the Headlines" scenarios for ballet? My nomination is Nicolas Sarkozy. POB could put their special touch on this subject: tons of beautiful, glamourous ballerinas, and the dramatic men who don't look like the typical romantic hero.

Wondering whether Rambert Dance Company actually dances ballet, I went to the website, and I see nothing about this "ballet" and wonder why it wasn't called "Britney, the Dance."

A concert series called Simple Measures is presenting a new work by Pacific Northwest Ballet Principal Dancer (and PNB School teacher) Stanko Milov, to be performed by former PNB Principal Julie Tobiason at the following locations: Friday, Feb. 15, 2008, 7:30 PM Fremont Abbey Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008,3:00 PM Edmonds Conference Center Sunday, Feb.17, 2008, 7:00 PM Mount Baker Community Club Thanks to the Seattle Times for the fowarding link and calendar listing: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thea...439_conc15.html

In this Nichols followed the role's originator, Karin von Aroldingen, whose Clara the Wife always was equal to Clara the Muse.

It usually happens to me when I use the "Options" menu (box) to subscribe to a thread and click the wrong value.

The short answer is: 1. Click the "Options" box towards the top of the page. 2. Under Display Modes click "Switch to Standard."

It could be worse -- they could look so Eighties

Yes. The history of cosmetics goes back thousands of years BC.

I just finished reading Jane Simpson's "London Report." About "Diamonds" she writes: What beautifully evocative writing!

February 4-February 10, 2008 Lisa Rinehart reviews Trisha Brown Dance Company in "Foray Forêt," "If you couldn't see me," "I love my robots" at the Joyce Theater. Rita Feliciano reviews Company Ea Sola in "Drought and Rain Vol. 2" at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Joseph Mazo describes the creation of "Cortege Hongrois" in "Dance is a Contact Sport." He notes that the opinion around the company at the time was that the ballet was not among his best.

When I saw Lopatkina perform the Lilac Fairy in Berkeley a few years ago, I was surprised by the height in her developes in second, having read her described as a classicist. They weren't the 185 degree type performed by Somova, and they were performed quietly, but they still were in the 160-170 degree range.

I call you one Fritz Wunderlich (lovely) and raise you one Leonid Sobinov, from 1910: And Stanislavski called him the greatest actor on the Russian stage. Another Tchaikovsky heartbreaker, this one from "Pique Dame" sung by Dmitri Hvorostovsky: (I can't find a Pavel Lisitsian on YouTube.) Ironically, the most beautiful aria for a man in each opera is not sung by the lead male in either opera. Also from Eugene Onegin, Gremin's Aria, sung by the great Mark Reizen at age 90 (with subtitles): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MzO56PmjQ4

My flights are arranged, and I've been able to order tickets through various websites with one exception: Paris Opera Ballet for the 27 April matinee. I already have a ticket in hand for the 28 April performance. When I ordered them, neither matinee (27 Apr/4 May) were available through the website. Lately, the 4 May matinee has been added to the list. I hope that there is a 27 Apr matinee, and that it hasn't been cancelled or re-scheduled like the school performance.

(But would they have to change the name to include Met Life?)

A tangent, I know, but I wanted to for Laura Linney, who is one of my all-time favorite actresses and repeatedly brilliant in a wide range of roles. I last saw her in "The Hottest State" when some friends rented it, and in the small role of the protagonist's mother, she lit up the film. (As, in another way, did Sonia Braga as the mother of the protagonist's girlfriend.) As it turns out, according to IMDB, it is her 44th birthday today!

I will be travelling a lot more without Internet access on the weekends, especially mornings, and it won't be possible for me to do Saturday Links beyond the next two weekends. We are looking for a person who'd be willing to spend 30-60 minutes on Saturday mornings to search for and post ballet-related Links for this much-read feature. We have the source list, and I'd be happy to help in the transition. If you have interest in sharing the role or in being a back-up Links person, we'd be happy to discuss. If you are interested or have questions, please send me a PM by Monday, February 11.

"Spoiled by discipline" is an interesting juxtaposition.

According to Peter Boal at yesterday matinee's post-performance Q&A, Noelani Pantastico will dance Juliette in all performances. He said that there was a visa issue and that Coppieters would not perform next weekend. Carla Korbes, who was also cast as Juliette, has a back injury. The matinee next Saturday is an added performance, and this means Pantastico will dance five performances of the work in four days. Considering how drained she looked at the curtain call of yesterday's performance, this will be a Herculean feat.

The link is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/books/re....html?ref=books

When posting links this morning, I was hoping a Ballet Talker would have seen the program and would write about it. Thank you, Mike Gunther!

In the Winter 2007/2008 issue of "Dance Now" Ismene Brown has written a fantastic mini-history of the Messerer family, tracing its influence from Russia to Cuba to Japan and to England. It is accompanied by four wonderful photographs: Alicia Alonso and Azary Plitsetsky in "Don Quixote," a delightful one of Sulamif and Asaf Messerer in "The Bright Stream" (Lupokhov), a contemporary photo of Mikhail Messerer teaching at the Bolshoi, and a truly lovely one of Sulamif Messerer teaching Maya Plitsetskaya, age 13, "The Dying Swan."

I received next season's brochure from Lincoln Center, and there are a number of peripherally related offerings next year: Kirov Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Valery Gergiev, will perform two dance-related programs (Music for the Ballet, and the complete "Romeo and Juliet), an opera in concert (The Love for Three Oranges), and music from film ("Ivan the Terrible" and "Alexander Nevsky.") Mark Morris' new "Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare" will be performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke's at the Rose Theater in May 2009. The Morris is being presented as part of a mini-subscription called "New Visions: The Literary Muse" along with Hesperion XXI, led by Jordi Savall, performing "Don Quijote de las Mancha: Romances y Musicas," a theater pieced based on Virginia Wolff's "Waves,", and piece called "Kafka Fragments," with music by Gyorgy Kurtag, directed by Peter Sellers, performed by Dawn Upshaw and Geoff Nuttal, with photographs by David Michalek. There's lots of great stuff happening at Lincoln Center next year.

There are two options: Option 1: 1. Click on My Controls from the top of any page. 2. From the "Options" section of the left Menu, click the second-to-last option "Change Email Address." 3. Fill out the form, which will log you out. (If you don't remember your password, change it now using the last option "Change Password," so that you can get back in. 4. You'll receive an email. Follow the instructions. Option 2: Write to the "Contact Us" link at the top of any page from the email address on file with your new email address. We'll update it for you. (This may take up to a day, depending on when we get it and our day jobs.)

That's why I found his comment so noteworthy, because he does not take credit for more than raising the Bolshoi's profile -- by virtue of touring extensively, the profile is raised, but to have it raised in a positive way, the company had to be well-prepared when it toured -- and guiding it through the difficult time of the renovation of the main theater. In Seattle, we found out what happened to our ballet company when the Opera House was closed for 18 months, and they performed in the arena next door, and it several years for the company to make up the deficit, and I don't think his contribution should be underestimated in this regard.