Helene

Welcome to Ballet Alert!, Koralle.  We hope you'll post about what you see.

I only saw the digital stream, and I also thought Malek was a standout in the Lang.

I love the Pergolesi, but I preferred Oliver Wevers' work for Whim W'him to the same music.  

While I loved seeing Postlewaite, I was sad to miss most of what Cuddihee was dancing in the opposite box, since the camera had to make a choice for the close-ups.

Pacific Northwest Ballet rents McCaw Hall.  

AD's and General Directors of opera and ballet companies have spoken about how, even if they own the rights, they have to negotiate with all of the unions involved, which is complex.  I remember getting an email from one of our local (Seattle) companies that things were in place for streaming pending resolution with one of the unions, which eventually happened.   I would hope that digital is on the table when contracts are renewed.

Some European and Russian companies have production companies that produce their content, and it certainly helps to have sponsors.  When Key Arena was being renovated and morphed into Climate Pledge Arena, the arena video equipment was housed in McCaw Hall where PNB and Seattle Opera were able to use it.   People used to as Speight Jenkins regularly at post-performance Q&A's why they didn't release DVD's of the Green Ring, and he always answered that it would take over $1million to produce it.  If money was the only object, there wasn't donor or foundation money or an independent producer.

Without looking at the financials of individual companies, though, it's hard to say whether streaming is profitable for that company, whether it subsidized  by a sponsor(s), whether there are grants specific to media that subsidize them -- PNB's original pre-pandemic upgrade in media in general came from a multi-year grant, for example -- through designated media fundraising campaigns, or any combination of the three.

Some opera companies, like Lyric Opera of Chicago and Seattle Opera offered streaming  last and this season only if your ticket isn't scanned; LOC said in the fine print of its 2023-24 season brochure that it would not strean next season, because usage is so low.  (I haven't seen anything to indicate whether SFO or SO will continue streaming next season.)   PNB has offered stand-alone and add-on digital subscriptions for the last few years, and San Francisco Opera offered streams for each opoera this season and two of their 100th anniversary programs for $27.50/stream.  Met Opera has extended Live in HD to people who are outside a certain radius of movie theaters. (I'm not sure how they validate it -- IP? Billiing zip code?)   For at least a year, Houston Grand Opera was part of marquee tv, but I'm not sure if that's still true.  Philadelphia Opera has had streaming for at least a couple of seasons.  In Europe, there have been variations of streaming services and premium TV packages for many years, and Vienna State Opera had the Lamberghini of all monthly streaming services before the pandemic, with mutliple live streams available for 72 hours afterwards and three archival selections/mo.  They, like the Met, offered daily streams for free in the first year of the pandemic, include the ballet, but Vienna never started that service again .

Former and much-missed PNB dancer Barry Kerollis is in Seattle this weekend for the 50th Anniversary celebration along with other PNB Alumni, and he posted this video clip of him performing Puck, one of his best roles and finest performances at PNB:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq8OI3CgodX/-

Other alumni in told included Angela Sterling, Deborah Hadley, and Eric Hipolito, who will appear on a panel led by Kyon ross for the Rep V Conversations on Thursday, April 14 at 5:30pm (ticketed) before the Dress Rehearsal, according to the email.  

Second weekend Saturday matinee and evening and Sunday casting is now up, too, and the first two "Meet the Artist" guests on April 14 and the April 15 matinee:

https://www.pnb.org/season/midsummer-nights-dream/

Link to the downloadable Excel sheet:

AMSND 2023_04_11.xlsx

When Alexandra accepted a position teaching ballet history at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in 2005, it was at mid-year, replacing a faculty member with little notice, and having to develope a curriculum of her own from scratch in less than one month, and she told us that she couldn't continue to run Ballet Alert! while in her new position.  She decided to transition it rather than close the site; instead, this year marks Ballet Alert!'s 25th year.

From PNB's IG, a clip of Cecilia Iliesiu rehearsing Helena, one of three roles she'll dance:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq1ILBlM-co/

Lisa Traiger was one of Alexandra's writers, and she's republished an article she wrote including interview sshe did with Alexandra and KAB students, originally published to the school's magazine, here:

https://dcdancewatcher.wordpress.com/2023/04/09/in-memoriam-alexandra-tomalonis/

Our founder, Alexandra Tomalonis, died yesterday.  She had ben ailing from several health conditions for a few years.  

Alastair Macaulay posted the news to his Instagram account today, and there are already comments and remembrances on the thread.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqz7OPzozBG/

I'm hoping there are obituaries that acknowledge her importance to the ballet community.  Her immersion into the ballet world came when she saw Nureyev perform.  She changed careers and became a full-time writer and researcher for her book, "Henning Kronstam: Portrait of a Danish Dancer."  Through the periodicals she published in print, subscribed by libraries and still in their collections, and online -- the first danceviewtimes.com article was published in 2003 -- through transition to online publications -- the two latest, Denise Sum's writings on National Ballet of Canada's Erik Bruhn Prize Competition and Cinderella in the last month -- she nutured, mentored, and encouraged writers and editors and was a fierce, dedicated, and relentless proponent and supporter of dance writing in many voices.  She was also a teacher of ballet history at the Kirov Academy in Washington, DC starting in 2005, and a lecturer, including for the Kennedy Center's Ballet 360 series.

I don't know when she slept, because she kept in touch with so many people.  I remember many phone calls with her way back in the beginning of sem-affordable cell phones, when accessories were hard to find, where, after several hours, I'd be sitting on the carpet next to an outlet, because my battery was about to run out, and I didn't want to interrupt the conversation for a second.  

May she rest in peace and may her memory be a blessing.

According to his Wikipedia article, which cites this entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica, Lander's first two wives were Margot Lander and Toni Lander, and his widow was Lise Lander.

However, according to IMDB, he was married five times:

I was just thinking about you the other day and hoping you were okay.

I hope your recovery continues, and thank you to your friend.

The 2023 YAGP Senior Men's and Women's Finals will be livestreamed tonight on YAGP's YouTube Channel.

Here are more details from Pointe Magazine:

https://pointemagazine.com/yagp-2023-final-round-livestream/

(credit to the Dance Edit newletter for the heads up).

6 hours ago, nysusan said:

Despite being with the company for less than 4 years she is immensely talented and has made a very strong case for herself every time she takes the stage.

Considering that most of the first two started near the beginning of the pandemic, that is an amazing achievement.

From PNB's IG, with video:

We caught PNB Principal dancer Leta Biasucci receiving the warmest acclamation from her colleagues during her first full company rehearsal since having a baby last year. We’re not crying, you’re crying!

For this run of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Leta will be performing the role of Hermia (seen here) and the Divertissement pas de deux with frequent partner @lucienpost. Welcome back to the stage, Leta!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqtLbtKrTP-/

Definitely crying. 

Agreed!  And one of her roles, in the Act II Divertissement, is one of Balanchine's greatest, in my opinion.

And I just saw a post by PNB on IG that casting for the first five performances (Fri-Fri) is up, with a photo of Christian Poppe as Puck.  Here's the link to casting (scroll):

https://www.pnb.org/season/midsummer-nights-dream/

Here's a link to the downloadable spreadsheet:

AMSND 2023_04_04.xlsx

Lucien Postlewaite posted to Facebook and IG:

I’ll be dancing the Fairy King
4/15 7:30
4/20 7:30

And Divertimento Pas de Deux with @letasucci
4/15 2:00

More shows will be announced next week.

He's a fantastic Oberon, as you'll be able to see from the performance clip from his solo, and this means Leta Biasucci will be back.

I've been trying to find more IG accounts to get more clues, to no avail, but I did find this stunning photo of Amanda Morgan on her IG account -- it looks to be from the official portraits photo shoot:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci5gM8eBV8Z/

Another one with more clues:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqohwvzP3Uu/

Elle Macy and Dammiel Cruz-Garrido as Titania and Cavalier.  I think it was Noah Martzall crossing quickly as Puck.

Francia Russell is in the studio with the dancers.

Casting isn't up yet, but there was this clue from PNB's IG account:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqigVoJPPSr/

That's Cecilia Iliesiu rehearsing Titania.

It could have been a photo posted by  Konovalov to show where he now fits into the photos on the website for his new rank.

I honestly don't remember.  It was a pretty awful production.  I'd liked him in other ballets when NBoC toured.  

I agree that Kudelka's was loathesome -- NBoC toured it to the West Coast in 2005 -- but he had a point putting those princesses on auction blocks.  The only way I'll be remember anything else about it is if I try to find what I wrote about it at the time.

I looked back and found I saw Xiao Nn Yu with Patrick Lavoie and Heather Ogden with Guillaume Cote.

In the photo, the top row of men are Konstantin Zverev and Evan Kapiten (google translate off the Russian page) / Even Capitaine (English page).  The bottom row of men are (Y)evgeni Konovalov, whose account it is and who is being congratulated in the comments, and Alexander Sergeyev.

Congratulations to them both   .

And adding a third congratulations .