Helene

Maybe invite New York Theatre Ballet?

NYCB would have done well to have staged Ib Andersen's version, although it would need to be expanded for the larger State Theater stage. The challenge of taking on a new Shakespearean work (or other play) is the lack of an original score. However, this did not stop Kent Stowell from creating the lovely The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, the score to which was assembled by Stowell and Stuart Kershaw from mostly obscure Tchaikovsky, the exceptions being the Pregheria from Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 4 and the slow movement of his 3rd Symphony.

I'm going to close this topic so that we can continue the discussion on this thread. There's a link to this topic from the new one, and thanks to everyone for their responses here.

There is a thread called Dancers that respond to your letters that was started in 2004 and revived earlier this year. You might want to look through that one, which I've closed and linked to this one, and we can continue the discussion on this thread.

There is another interview by Michael Langlois with Charles France that's been published in the Fall 2006 issue of Ballet Review. There's a note to say, "Michael Langlois' complete interview has been edited to eliminate some of the overlap between it and Laura Leivick's conversation with Charles France published in our summer issue." A snippet, in answer to "What were your responsibilities [as Baryshnikov's assistant at ABT]":

November 18, 2006 The Bruce Woods Dance Company is closing due to a $300K deficit. Phildanceco performed a fifth anniversary program for the Kimmel. Jennifer Dunning reviews Kota Yamazaki's company Fluid hug-hug at Dance Theatre Workshop. Gia Kourlas reviews Lionel Popkin's new work at Danspace Project.

Yes, miliosr, with a bow to Judge Arlene

Seattle Opera Young Artists Program is performing three works this year, and one of them is, as director Peter Kazaras noted in his opening remarks, is YAP's adapatation of Peter Brooks/Marius Constant, and Jean-Claude Carriere's adaptation of Carmen called The Tragedy of Carmen. I remember seeing this vrsion when it was televised on PBS in the 1980's, and I've been looking for a DVD release ever since (to no avail). Kazaras was one of the singers in the original production. YAP is touring it around the Puget Sound; the Seattle venue was the Capital Hill Arts Center. There was 3/4 seating, starting at floor level and rising four to five tiers. The fourth wall was a brick wall. The set was a short stool, a woven blanket, and a black travel trunk that freelanced as a bar when turned upright. There were entries at the corners for the singers and actors, who totalled six. Four sang -- Micaela, Carmen, Don Jose, Escamillo -- and two acted -- Lillas Pastias and Zuniga/Fight Manager/Garcia (a character from the Merimee original), as well as an entry from the audience; when a woman wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt and sweats with one leg cut at the knee took her seat before the performance, I assumed it was a Seattle person making a fashion statement. There was one piano, a couple of percussion interludes, and a recording of the fourth act overture. There was no cast list for the performance, but bios of members of all casts in the program. In tonight's cast were Teresa Herold (Carmen), Holly Boaz (Micaela), Marcus Glenn Shelton (Don Jose), and, I'm guessing, Jonathan Lasch (Escamillo). The baritone who sang and acted Escamillo looks little like either picture in the program -- he's much better looking -- but a little more like Lasch's photo. Ani Maldjian acted Lillas Pastia, and Michael Anthony McGee Zuniga/Garcia. With the exception of Maldjian's opening speech -- my friend thought the attempted accent was Russian, but if it was, it was of the Natasha from "Rocky and Bullwinkle" variety -- the dialogue, spoken and sung in English, was crystal clear. The acting was remarkable for opera, and necessarily so, since the audience was right on top of the singer/actors. Brooks and his collaborators set the opening confrontation between Carmen and Micaela instead of between Carmen and another factory worker; this sets the tone for the rest of the opera, although I could have lived without the catfight. Boaz's Micaela would have described herself as a "good" girl, although probably on a technicality, but the way her face darkened into a glare of resentment at the recognition of being entirely outclassed by Carmen was perfect. The most striking part of the staging for me -- and judging from the big smiles on the people across from me, for many in the audience -- was during the "Toreador Song." During the aria, Lasch pulled out a formidable pocket knife, opened the blade, and cut one, then two quarters out of an orange. As Carmen sat on the stool, arching backwards, he took the first wedge, and squeezed the juice into her mouth, and then took the second wedge, pulled out the meat of the orange, and fed it to her. I think the entire room went into a collective swoon. Talk about gastro-porn. It's hard to judge operatic voices in a small venue without orchestra from 15-20 feet away, but there was some very impressive singing, including a playful "Toreador Song" from Lasch, who looked more like a preppie lacrosse player than bullfighter or the boxer he was turned into, and a very well-received "Flower Song" sung by Shelton, who has a very bright tenor voice. Boaz sang the hapless Micaela, but managed to give the character a spine dramatically, through both acting and voice; I think she had the hardest challenge to sing smaller for the venue. While I liked Herold's Carmen solo, she was incredible the two times she sang with other singers: she was given the harmony to what is normally Micaela's 3rd Act aria -- Brook and company changed the order of the score -- and then she sang the final duet with Don Jose. Her lower register is rich and she blended beautifully with the other singers. I was so happy to see this production again. I prefer it to the full-length Carmen.

It's a good thing my new keyboard at work is liquid-proof, because I had just taken a swig of soda when I read your comment

Wasn't Robert Hill made a Principal based on his work in contemporary roles?

At this point, people are desperate enough for new Balanchine works to try to find anyone who has the slightest memory of a short passage of Lost Balanchine, particularly from the Ballet Russe eras. The same people danced Fokine and Massine.I would love to see A Month in the Country and Pillar of Fire, for example, and not have to travel to NYC or London to do so. And that's just scraping the surface.

The excerpt reminded me of my own family. Both sets of grandparents escaped from Tsarist oppression and their politics were very firmly to the left. I grew up with my maternal grandparents living quite close, spending most weekends with them until I was a teenager. My mother's brother's children, the first of whom was born when I was 18 and only two months before our common grandfather died, grew up with my aunt's parents, who were allowed to emigrate from Communist Czechoslovakia only when they were old and infirm. In Czechoslovakia their farm was confiscated and they lived under an oppressive state, particularly as practicing Jews. My cousins grew up with their grandfather's politics and I grew up with the grandfather's they never knew, and both sets of politics were rooted in their own horrific experiences. I adored their grandfather, and even if I didn't agree with his politics, I knew what drove them, and how politics was not theoretical to him. It was quite a lesson.

I would guess that Tallchief based her opinion of Balanchine as pianist on the four-handed piano they played together. Good/great musicianship can be different from good/great piano playing. I don't think Tallchief ever said he was a bad musician.

Does Millberg Fisher say to whom she was comparing him? Tallchief was being raised by her mother to be a concert pianist; she may have held him to a different standard, and may not have included his ability to transcribe in her assessment.

What a great interview -- thanks for the heads up, ViolinConcerto! I thought this exchange particularly interesting:

There was a short outtake from the movie on the DVD version showing Radetsky (as Charlie) in class doing some amazing things with lovely, clean technique.

We received the following inquiry: I have contact information in case anyone has a picture. If there are any commercial recordings of Ms. Tucker's work, I'm sure our inquirer would appreciate knowing what they are.

Many thanks for the great summary and moving account of Kirkland's appearance.

To take this farther afield, in the November 6, 2006 issue of The New Yorker there is a "Talk of the Town" item on Charlotte d'Amboise. In it writer Lillian Ross states: Even if the seasons' repertoire included Nutcracker, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mozartiana, Harlequinade, Mother Goose, and Union Jack, and she danced in every one, she was hardly a regular in most of the ballets. I think it is very likely that Ms. Ross misunderstands Ms. d'Amboise's participation in NYCB. Even Toumanova, Baronova, and Riabouchinska had to wait until they were 12-13 to have full-fledged careers with the Ballet Russe . Something that would not have gotten by the copy-editors in the old days of the magazine is the d'Amboise quote, "Daddy always tried to get boys to take ballet; getting them to the ballet bar is difficult." I don't think anyone would have a problem getting boys to the "bar," but getting them to the "barre" is a different story.