Helene

There would just be such irony in that.

Mariusz Kwiecien, the young Polish baritone, has been making a splash as Don Giovanni in opera houses around the world, and last night he opened in Seattle Opera's production, leading the Gold Cast. This afternoon I saw the Silver Cast, headed by former Seattle Opera Young Artist Morgan Smith, who impressed me as Peter Niles in Mourning Becomes Electra. I have to admit, my plan was to watch Act I, my nomination for the most perfect act in opera, and then to go to Stars on Ice across Seattle Center at Key Arena, but it was Smith's performance that made me stay until the end. The director was Chris Alexander, whose direction I find often crosses the line to silliness, but I'm in the minority on that verdict. He highlighted the comedy, but watching the performance was like watching a production of Shakespeare, which Jenkins, in the post-performance Q&A, said was the point, emphasizing that Don Giovanni is a drama giocosa, or tragi-comedy. By letting the comedy breathe through, the tragedy, the irony, and the human foibles shone through clearly. Jenkins also spoke about how the character of Donna Elvira was written as a comic figure, and in the 18th century, Donna Elvira would have been received this way, whereas in the 20th and 21st centuries, we have more sympathy for her character; in his essay in the program on the eight characters, he makes this point as well. It was counter-intuitive for me that treating Donna Elvira comically in the beginning made her more sympathetic as the story went on. Sure, she was loud and passionate and a bit over-the-top, but she didn't start sympathetically, only to turn shrewish. She was a bit like the brassy woman that you come to like as the story unfolds. At the end of the opera, wearing Don Giovanni's coat that Leporello wore to distract her, she expects to enter a convent, where she'll be a bride of Don Giovanni until the end, trying to save him from hell through her prayers. In another unusual turn, Massetto isn't the lower class counterpart to Don Ottavio: as Jenkins explains in his essay, Massetto's behavior is revolutionary for his class in his willingness to fight and talk back. Not as clever as Figaro, nor a dirty fighter like Don Giovanni, he doesn't win, but he gets in Don Giovanni's face even more so than Leporello, and the production carries out this idea. Baritone Kevin Burdette, a very funny Mustafa in the Silver Cast of L'Italiana in Algieri, proved to be a terrific actor once again, playing the straight man; without his gifts, I don't think Jenkins' idea of Massetto would have come across. Usually in the Zerlina/Massetto scenes, Massetto is played as a big doofus, and as soon as they start to sing, I start to hear "Pa, pa, pa, papapapagno..." and start thinking about work or my laundry. Burdette, as a bit drunk and jealous bridegroom, was not easily assuaged, and in his long reaction to Zerlina's excuses and apologies was slow and churning -- very disciplined acting. She realizes that to ask him not to punish her is to escalate his anger, while to say "beat me, beat me" diffuses his rage, and turns his thoughts to make-up sex. He's not a pushover, and she's going to have to keep on her toes. Don Ottavio really does draw the short straw, and it is entirely his own doing. Always a beat behind, sounding stilted when he tries to fulfill the manly role, he cannot be what Donna Anna wants. In the post-performance Q&A, there was a discussion about whether Donna Anna makes it into Don Giovanni's book. I don't think she would, because I don't think it's Don Giovanni himself she wants; I think that she's half asleep when he shows up at her window, and he's fulfilling her fantasy of what she wants Don Ottavio to be. Don Giovanni hasn't seduced her, really; she's seduced herself. It isn't until he speaks that she's jolted out of it, and like any good girl not facing her bad girl side, she has to become holier than thou. I didn't believe the stage business with Donna Anna seducing the Don before The Commendatore walks in: I think she's fighting Don Giovanni, but, like Donna Elvira, not giving him the final blow, because there's part of her that wants someone like him, and she's forced to face her disappointment that Don Ottavio will never be more than a stiff. One of the most effective choices was to have Don Giovanni hire a mandolinist to accompany his Act II serenade. Usually the Don accompanies himself, which means he's tied to a prop, and I've seen this scene come across as smug. By freeing him from the instrument, and sending Don Giovanni downstage and facing the audience, not the window of his target, it turned the aria into something more complex: Smith sang it in an almost sincere, innocent way. As Kwiecien said in an interview in the program, "To me, it's natural to play him as a gentleman...How else could he attrract women of all ages and classes?...The most successful way to attract women is with delicacy and a gentle touch--although in Don Giovanni's case there is a dangerous poison underlying this sweetness." For a single instant, that dangerous poison was that Don Giovanni actually believed his own hype, that he was a good guy in love with each and sharing the wealth. The set was another architectural set, looking like a dark stone wall exterior of a city palace, with numerous doors that functioned alternately as the interior of a restaurant, an elevator, regular doors, etc. and a multifunctional second floor balcony. The only other set pieces were a banquet table that rose from a trap, a bench that slid across to center stage as needed, a cafe table and chair set that set the scene for Leporello's "Catalogue Aria," and a motorcycle on which Don Giovanni makes his getaway after killing the Commendatore. The costumes were multi-period; each of the women and most of the men in different a different period of 20th century garb, except for the costume ball, with Don Giovanni crossing periods, to represent timelessness. It confused me a bit at first, but ultimately, I got it. And the conclusion seemed to be that Hell is a disco. In the Q&A Jenkins said that one of his requirements was that the scenes change rapidly, with no pauses between them, which is the way it would have been staged in the 18th century. He said the only alternative is to have a revolving stage, which is moot at McCaw Hall, which doesn't have the revolving platter, although he did say he wouldn't have made that choice. (I saw that work very, very well in Tallinn.) This production moved from scene to scene without pause, and the dramatic tension was maintained beautifully. In another quote Kwiecien said, "I don't like Don Giovanni sung by sixty-year-old men...A woman would not be attracted to a man forty years older than she is, and I think the first thing that attracted women to the Don was that he looked beautiful, like an older Cherubino." (I think Mr. Kwiecien has a little more to learn about women; when I was 14 I had a massive crush on Cesare Siepi, as Ramfis, the reactionary authority figure, of all things.) In casting this production, Jenkins chose two young men. I haven't seen Kwiecien yet, only photos, which are quite promising, but Smith is, shall we say, a hottie, and a very convincing Don. He has a terrific voice, with a lot of authority, and not just because of his voice type. He sang with a lot of ease, and he moved very, very well. (Like Netrebko in I Puritani, he had a spectacular jump, in his case, onto the banquet table.) I don't know how Jenkins managed to sign Vladimir Ognovenko to make his debut as The Commendatore, as his normal repertoire is a list of leading roles and he's a "People's Artist of Russia," but what a performance, shaking the rafters in his final scene. He has the type of voice that you can feel through the soles of your feet. Dana Beth Miller was a volatile, passionate Donna Elvira, with a freshness in her voice. She was strong, with the exception of the end of her Act II aria "Mi tradi quell'alma ingrata," which was a bit rough, although the conductor, Andreas Mitisek, after a rather slow "Il mio tesoro," took the aria at NYCB pace. Frazita Whelan was more technically sound end-to-end, and while her opening was on the dull side, she gained dramatic intensity toward the end. Heather Parker, as Zerlina, has a lovely soubrette soprano voice, and apart from moving around in a mincing manner, which I suspect was at Alexander's direction, the shimmy being one of his favorite moves, she was a convincing actress. Brian Kontes' Leporello was fine, but I prefer more hefty voices in the role. Patrick Miller showed a lot of promise in Act I, with a bright tenor, but in "Dalla sua pace" he and the conductor fought over tempo. It wasn't until "Il mio tesoro" that I realized that his timing was inconsistent. His second verse was stronger than his first in phrasing and breath control, but in the overall performance, he started out stronger than he finished. There was much to think about in this production, and I look forward to seeing Kwiecien and the rest of the Gold Cast on Wednesday, traffic willing.

Norwegian National Ballet shares a website with the Norwegian National Opera: http://www.operaen.no/sw386.asp Here's the link to the current season: http://www.operaen.no/sw8044.asp The Company performed Wheeldon's Polyphonia last September-October. On the Norwegian site, there is information about the company, and Espen Giljane is listed as the head of the ballet company (Balletsjef): http://www.operaen.no/sw161.asp

Dancers have described losing their way and having been talked through a role they've learned at the last minute or talked back into the correct steps. I would think that more than one dancer has been talked through, gestured through, and nudged through a specific version by a partner who is more familiar with the production.

The Times opinion ends: I, being a New Jersey girl, had to look up the word luvvies:

I've seen very few movies in which the actresses "who speak to me through a medium of movement called The Ballet." Almost all of those are movies in which there are ballet dancers. This a very important point in my opinion. Any company can perform their version of the great classics without permission or coaching in the classical or romantic styles. I think one of the few exceptions is the modern classic, Les Sylphides (Chopiniana), which is controlled by the Folkines.

The theme of the NYCB Luncheon on 1 February 07 is In Honor of Kyra:

Thank you for the heads up, volcanohunter!

Welcome to Ballet Talk, Mr. Mikhailovsky. We are an audience site, but we do have a sister site, Ballet Talk for Dancers, which is dedicated to dancers, dance students, parents of dancers, and other participants in ballet. I'm sure this would be of interest on that site. You will need to register separately on Ballet Talk for Dancers in order to post.

That is always the danger when a career is taken out of context, usually from afar. Not that many of us were able to track Volchkova's career or get a sense of her dancing over time, and until the brouhaha over her weight and firing, she wasn't on our radar.Frequent ballet-goers to English National Ballet would have formed their opinion of Ms. Clarke's dancing long before the Guardian article outing her BNP membership was first published. Most of them don't live in the NY/Metro area, where the majority of our posters live.

January 13, 2007 Gia Kourlas reviews Jean Isaac.

I wonder who will dance the rehearsal on 31 January and opening night on 1 February. I'm hoping to see all of the Odette/Odiles.

I think it has to do with both. Organized religions of all stripes have created ritual and general teaching that is expected to be absorbed through repetition, ritual, and impression. Do I think that Balanchine's interpretation was based in Orthodox doctrine? No. Do I think that Balanchine's interpretation was rooted in his concept of what it meant to be a Russian Orthodox man of deep religious faith, based on the ritual he observed in childhood, noted by Taper and many subsequent biographers, and reinforced by similar ritual at court and on the ballet stage? Yes. Just as he experimented with Impressionistic ballet during his school days into his professional career, and just as he expanded ballet into a neoclassicism and use of modern music that would be alien to his childhood stage idols and often ignored the concept of institutional hierarchy as a ballet master, he kept the essence ingrained from when he was student: "Ballet is woman" and structural hierarchy on stage. The distinction reminds me of a an interview with Karen Armstrong, a former nun who has written extensively about religion and religious history, that was published on salon.com. Since it is accessible by subscription, I won't add a link, but will quote a small portion: While I'm not saying that Balanchine's view of G-d was infantile, I do think that in his interpretation of the Prodigal story, he retained the essence of what he distilled from his religious experience and turned it into theater. That's why I think that a discussion of doctrine is not the central point.

As the founder of the University of Washington Dance Department, Ruthanna Boris was a very important figure in Seattle. The obituary for Boris in the Seattle PI (from today's Links) gives more details of her life, an account that is a little less Balanchine-centric: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/classical/29...orisobit11.html

Thank you for posting this, carbro! The URL I clicked was to what looked like a marketing site, but what I saw was a blank page with "Done" in the bottom left corner. I assumed I was a registered user because I got the email, and I did have a username/password for the site from when I ordered tickets online a couple of years ago, but with the website update, maybe I'm not anymore.

Nothing's been published about her plans, except for what was in the press release. Google has come up with nothing on her current whereabouts.

I just received an email from NYCB with a "Registered Users Special Ticket Offer" for performances from January 16-20. From the email: Unfortunately, the link in the email isn't working. (Not because I could attend, but because I can't describe the process.) For those who are registered on www.nycballet.com, this looks like a great deal.

She retired at the end of the 2006 repertory season, along with Megan Low. Here's a link to the thread from last summer, which begins with a post of the press release. http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=22142 Welcome to Ballet Talk, danceFanVA. We hope you'll tell us a bit about your interest in ballet in our Welcome Forum. (Click the "New Topic" button in the upper right side of the page.)

Welcome to Ballet Talk, ZB1, and thank you for your kind words about the site. We look forward to hearing from you about what you've seen. We occasionally have threads about arts administration in the "Ballet News" and "Issues in Ballet" forums (and sometimes in "Anything Goes"), but these are relatively rare, although we often discuss sub-issues, like Marketing, hiring, etc. Our sister site, Ballet Talk for Dancers has a forum dedicated to Arts Administration. You need to be registered to see the forum. After you register, you can find it here: http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?showforum=120 And registration at BT4D will also give you access to the Adult Ballet Students and Adult Student Buddy Board forums, too.

Given the number of people who attended Balanchine's Don Quixote and wondered where the pretty music went, I suspect that many people won't distinguish between the new Cinderella and what they might be assuming it is. (Until they walk away scratching their heads, that is.)

In art, as opposed to love, Balanchine didn't beg, and he didn't let his dancers ask for much. He was known to be unforgiving. He bestowed. I think his father figure in Prodigal Son is very much in that vein, as well as resembling the formal, ritualistic religious figures of the Orthodox Church and the monarch whose court he left most reluctantly.

School figures applied only to singles skaters. Over a century they evolved from the entire competition, to the majority of the competition, to a majority but gradually decreasing percentage, to less than half, to less than that with the introduction of the Short Program, to being eliminated. The elimination of the school figures coincided with the triples era, which gathered steam in the 80's until figures were eliminated in 1990; Elvis Stojko landed the first quad combination the following year at Worlds. Triples and quads, especially the most difficult ones, require long preparations and lots of crossovers to generate speed. Even though there is a requirement for steps leading into the solo triple (in seniors), that is one jump in a short program (3 jumping passes) compared to a long program with 8 jumping passes for men and 7 for women. Compared to the longer combinations of smaller jumps that Dorothy Hamill did in the 1976 Olympics, or the three and four jump combinations that Gordeeva/Grinkov did before triples became mandatory, the triples preceeded by long cross-over passes are rather empty, in my opinion. Also, over the same period, the "recommended" well-balanced program has become mandatory; the only thing skaters can do is lose points by leaving out elements. But they can't, for example, do a fifth lift and leave out a pairs spin or death spiral, and there is a maximum number of difficult lifts that they can do within the allowed number.Under the 6.0 scoring system, each judge could determine his/her own hierarchy of values, but the general patterns were that the big jumps trumped the smaller ones with difficult preparations, difficult preparations weren't rewarded, and speed was prized over the transitional blade work. Complaints about her lack of speed were what made Michelle Kwan give up the intricate programs she skated in the mid-late 90's for the relatively empty programs from 2001 or so on; the judges didn't consider it a trade-off, but a defect. Spins, spirals, and footwork were throw-away elements in singles, often done in a very perfunctory manner. Code of Points scoring has started to turn this around, by giving higher levels for more intricate spins and difficult footwork, higher Grades of Execution for difficult entrances into jumps, and one of the five Component Scores dedicated to transitions. If anything, this has caused a lot of complaints to say that skaters are trying to perform difficulty over their heads and doing ugly spins and footwork to rack up points, because the system is not rewarding excellently executed simpler moves properly. There have been many more transitions in the last couple of years, after a 15-20-year lull. I think you'd be surprised if you compared this years Worlds and Europeans to those in the mid-to-late 90's. A similar thing is happening in dance. One of the things that I love about a number of younger couples -- Domnina/Shabalin, Davis/White, Matthews/Zavozin, Platanova/Maximishin -- is how closely together they skate. They still do the fancy lifts, and their holds aren't as intricate as Torvill's and Dean's, but they skate hip-to-hip, something I miss from the couples of the last 15 years.

Why would Old Believers interpret the parable in this way? Presumably their translation of Luke's Gospel would have the father running out to meet his son as in every other translation. Nevertheless, is there any evidence that Balanchine was sympathetic to the Old Believers? I think the real question is why Prokofiev gave the piece such a somber ending. Given the music, I don't see how Balanchine could have choreographed it any other way. The father would have, but Balanchine's change was to equate the father with G-d, and the G-d of the Orthodox Church, in his vision, would behave differently.

When I first saw Prodigal Son, my first thought was "did I miss that week of Hebrew School?" I was so sure from its telling that it was an Old Testament story that I didn't know. I didn't realize it was from the New Testament, given Balanchine's take on it.

In my opinion Torvill and Dean used their bodies to express theater, as well as timing and rhythm. I think of what followed as the "hair pulling" form of theatricality: lots of exaggerated facial movement, sturm and drang, and the occasional bombastic score that wasn't remotely dance-like. Even though Klimova/Ponomorenko are among my all-time favorites, I preferred them pre-Tarasova, when they were more technical, but considered cold. My second all-time favorite Ice Dance program is the encore K/P did after one Worlds or Euros: they came out with a prop of a long rod, and proceeded to do a barre on ice, then they lost the barre and did center, until they finally did a dance. I found it enchanting. As the rules changed, and couples could separate for more than a few seconds and were allowed to perform more and more intricate lifts and spins, there were more crossovers and open holds, and less edge work. What mesmerized me about "Bolero" was the constantly changing and weaving holds, and the integrated use of upper and lower body in their skating. After Europeans, and Grishuk/Platov were considered true contenders for the gold instead of newbies aiming for any podium finish, their compulsories were suddenly much better. It's a phenomenon in every judging system, that presentation scores in particular, rise with reputation and/or increase in technical content. An example is Kimmie Meissner: she didn't land her 3/3's at the Olympics, but her skating skills (edging, posture, % of one-footed skating) and interpretation magically improved in Calgary, where she landed those jumps. The question is always whether a skater or team has been underscored in the past or overscored in the present or both.