Helene

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The reason I asked if the theater is in Finland is because it would make the Mariinski the resident company of the Baltic region. It's less than two hours from Tallinn by the fast ferry, and is accessible by overnight ferry from Sweden. Also Helsinki one of the main cities to visit during tours of Scandinavia, and for Westerners, despite the cost, there aren't visa and language issues with visiting Russia. I thought Helsinki a very beautiful city, even in October, when there was a very damp chill in the air.

San Francisco Ballet confronted the same challenge when the War Memorial Opera House was closed in order for it to meet the seismic codes (for earthquakes). They went from performing on the stage of one of the largest opera houses in the US to performing mainly on two stages in houses that seated less than 1000 people, and they were a lot smaller and shallower. (They did perform Swan Lake at Zellerbach in Berkeley, where the Bolshoi performed last fall on tour, but that isn't the largest stage, either.) They countered mostly by performing ballets with smaller casts and not a lot of scenery. If these types of programs (triple bills) don't bring in local fans, then the companies may be better off touring. Is this theater in Helsinki, Finland, where the International Ballet Competition is held?

I'm afraid that a lot of searching using Google and MSN search has come up with nothing but an occasional listing of a program. It doesn't look like there is a company website or any article explaining who they are and what they're up to.

Ceeszi, Thank you so much for your great report and descriptions of each piece and couple!

I just watched the Corsaire and Harlequinade videos, and I wish there was a "kvelling" icon

It's not the same as seeing it onstage, and you would have to make allowances for the constriction, but I really liked Allegro Brillante. My favorite cut on the DVD, though, is Pas de dix, with music from Raymonda. The Scotch Symphony excerpt is also on the Balanchine bio DVD. I love seeing Eglevsky, Magallanes, and Fernandes as well.

I'm afraid that never stopped anyone from criticizing anyone else for the way s/he spends his/her money. Living in the City of Bill Gates, one of the contant mantras is How He Should Spend His Money and How He's Not Doing Enough. (Somehow, this criticism doesn't seem to filter down to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who, despite his wealth, asked the public to subsidize a football stadium for his NHL team.) That in addition to the constant carping during the Dot Com era about Microsoft, amazon.com, etc. Millionaires not giving enough in charitable donations, despite the general rule that it takes several generations of giving before it is ingrained behavior, and many of the suddenly wealthy high tech folks were the first in their families to have any substantial wealth, but gave anyway. (But Not Enough.) I know quite a few foreign-born tech people who are single-handedly supporting their extended families, and some even towns in their home countries, but because they aren't big on the United Way list of donors, they get no "credit" for it.

I was impressed by his responses to your critique, because it was clear that every decision was well-thought-out.

Many thanks for the report, lilliana!

Firebird is a tough one, because, as you pointed out, there are three looooong stretches of music that are so difficult to fill -- Prince vs. Monsters, Berceuse/Transition to Ending, and the Wedding Sequence. The fourth, the Princesses' entrance and dances, was, in my opinion, well solved by Stowell, but I think your point about how the sweetness of the romance between Prince Ivan and the Princess doesn't explain how they could defeat Katschei is right on target. The music of the Berceuse is as gentle as the music when they meet, so that they don't even grow in majesty before they destroy Katschei's soul. It's also very hard to have one man fight all of those monsters for so very long. At least in the Nutcracker, the initial 2/3 of the battle are fought by the mice and the kid soldiers, leaving the Nutcracker and Mouse King (or his surrogate) to duel it out. One needs special effects to pull off the One Man vs. the Hordes that are so common to Martial Arts and Bollywood movies. I've always thought this scene would make a better film, set in a forest, where the Prince could evade and pick off monsters one by one, while the monsters spring out from behind trees, caves, rocks and hills, alone and in groups. That's what I "see" when I hear that music.

I cracked up at this quote, I can understand that the money might have been used for something else more critical, but how could something that brings happiness in a public space be a waste of money? There's so little of it going around.

Oh, my!!!! I love the rhythm in the turns, and the wonderful attitude position. Mel, for posting the link.

I hope you find lots of good DVD's to bring home from Japan. And I add my best wishes for you in competition. If you have any interest in writing about your experiences during competition, we'd love to hear them (however short or long).

There's a new opera house that recently opened in Copenhagen, and the plan is to have the bigger ballets staged there. That might be a better alternative for you than the Old Stage. I can't find my ticket stubs from a couple of years ago, when I attended opera and ballet performances at the Old Stage. Although I don't know the exact seats and sections, for the opera, I was in the first row of my section, so there wasn't a problem with anyone in front of me. For the ballet, I was in this little section to the side of a middle tier, where there weren't many rows. I was in the end seat in the back row, and had only half a person in front of me. I avoided his head by leaning a little to the right. I'm 5'5" tall. At 2.5 centimeters per inch, that coverts to 162.5 cm.

I saw the ballet in the late 80's at ABT; I liked Kathleen Moore's performance in particular. The score for the ballet, Die Kindertotenlieder, is one of my favorite song cycles.

Last night, I saw the Stravinsky program, which consists of Kent Stowell's Firebird, Balanchine's Apollo (long version), and Tetley's Rite of Spring. I think that Firebird is the most visually beautiful production I've seen at PNB. The sets by Ming Cho Lee are my favorites of the work of his that I've seen. The opening set consists of tree and pod-like hangings to create a mysterious, stylized forest; they are a bit like Faberge eggs (singles and clusters of them) with pomegranate seeds, in shades of aqua, turquoise, greens, and lilacs. Before the action begins, at the end of the intro music, they are raised and hang over the stage. In the back of the stage is a low wall and a gate, which is slightly atilt. This set is used for Prince Ivan's entrance, his meeting with and capture of the Firebird, and the scene where he meets the princesses. The transformation of stage to Katschei's realm is almost overwhelming: a black backdrop falls with a stylized portrait of Katschei from the nose up, mostly in muted red, while a series of arcs drop and span the stage from wing to wing, like nested dolls. The drop and the arcs are raised during the transition scene during the "Berceuse." After Prince Ivan destroys Katschei's soul, the lights rise brightly on a set in which spires drop from the ceiling for the final procession. The costumes by Theoni Aldredge are just as stunning: a short, unstructured red silk tutu for Firebird, dresses for the princesses in a range of soft pastels -- mint, lilac, seafoam, apricot, mango, mauve, periwinkle, and pink, with the head Princess in very light pink -- multicolor bodysuits for the monsters, and an cream-colored suite of costumes for Prince Ivan and the Princess, the other princesses, the eight pairs of wedding princesses and princes, four young incense bearers, and six flower girls. I love the Firebird's opening solo: it's very birdlike, but focuses as much on the legs as on the arms, and avoids any stereotypical flapping. Firebird is alternately free, playful, and majestic -- a magical creature. Kaori Nakamura becomes the Firebird; it's a role that looks tailor-made for her quick, fluid movements and ability to transform and materialize so suddenly, that it looks like she's appeared out of thin air. I also love the pas de deux that follows with Prince Ivan, because it retains the character of the bird whose been captured -- although not subdued in any way -- but who negotiates her way out. Nakamura's exit after the pas de deux was a striking and unexpected Plitsetskaya jete, and it looked like she might have actually touched the back of the head with her shoe, so far up was her kick and so far back was her head. In some productions, the princesses dance and the meeting with Prince Ivan can seem interminable, but not in this version. The most romantic touch in ballet happens during the opening minutes of the dance where Ivan seeks out the Princess: not only to do the princesses circle and create patterns to help the Princess elude Prince Ivan, but so does the formal structure of their group dance, with the Prince and Princess in separate lines. And when they finally touch for the first time, it is to hold hands to create a bridge for the other princesses. It's really hard to keep up the tension in the scene with Katschei and the monsters: there's a lot of powerful music, brash and bombastic, but with none of the menace of von Rothbart. Stowell doesn't really solve that, but the choreography for the monsters is a lot of fun, and the costumes are so great that their swirls are beautiful to watch. James Moore was very striking as the "lead" monster, stalking the Prince with jump after jump. Stowell's treatment of the "Berceuse" is unusual as well, at least among the productions I've seen. The Princess wakens the fallen Prince and they are reunited while the Firebird dances among them. She then dances alone until they return, she convinces them that it's not happily ever after until the soul of Kaschei is destroyed, and she gives Prince Ivan the sword to break the Easter egg that represents Katschei's soul, which flowers after he's killed during the eerie transitional music between the "Berceuse" and finale. Stacy Lowenberg was a lovely princess, and her pairing with Batkhurel Bold, a beautiful man in his own right, is a stunning sight. I tend to think of the Prince's role as a bit thankless: to me, the choreography in the opening solo is a bit disjointed, he has a lot of partnering, and then he gets tossed around by the monsters for quite a while. (Good practice for being the Sacrificial One in Rite of Spring, which he also performed in the program. Kent Stowell said in the post-performance Q&A that the double-casting was due to an injury.) If this program had been typecast, the evening's Apollo would have danced Prince Ivan, and Bold would have been Apollo. Apollo opened with one of the more easy births -- an audience member brought this up during the Q&A, and Russell said that she told the girls in the role that they looked "too comfortable," although she said it's scary being on the edge of the high platform and doing the head rolls -- with Brittany Reid as Leto. (I wonder if Balanchine dismissed Martha Graham because when he saw the contractions in her work, he thought "been there, done that: Leto, Paris 1928.") Stowell and Russell said that they were surprised when audiences laughed when Apollo was born; I think that was because the lights go up so suddenly on the juxtaposition of a fully grown dancer who is swaddled. It's such a striking moment, no matter how many times I've seen it. Stanton, normally a rather subdued dancer, was very funny as the "toddler" Apollo, but, on the whole, he slid back into self-effacing cavalier mode, and he didn't show much arrogance to be tempered. I missed some of the details, particularly in the solos, of the growth of the youth into the god. When the muses appeared, the planets were aligned: a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead, all pretty much the same height! Structurally in the ballet, from soon after their first entrance, even before they perform their solos, the gig is up: Terpsichore is featured while Calliope and Polyhymnia are mirrors of each other, and there is the telltale moment when Apollo pushes Calliope and Polyhymnia stage left and Terpsichore stage right. From her first entrance, Jodie Thomas burst out on stage with palpable energy. Her Calliope was so fully realized, that she became the first dancer in my mind to match Stephanie Saland's brilliant interpretation of the role. When Apollo rejects her at the end of her solo, I thought, "well, you don't deserve her anyway." Noelani Pantastico was unusually subdued as Polyhymnia, matching Stanton's energy so much that they made the more tempermentally suited pair. Which left it to Louise Nadeau to light a spark. She gave a beautiful, gentle, genteel performance of Terpsichore, teaching Apollo by example, and setting a standard for him. It was a gorgeous performance, and her dancing in the pas de deux was a dream, with the final touch being her soft arms and wrists and hands during the "swimming" scene. In the scene that follows, with all four dancers, Pantastico raised her energy level, and the dancing among the three women was a delight. Stanton, too, seemed more energized, and the ballet ended with the beautiful ascent up the stairs and the corresponding, slow arm gesture to the heavens. I am so glad to have seen this version, and I'll never understand why this sublime ending was cut and changed to the "starburst," which when held for an extended time, looks like the AT&T logo. After someone finally pulled the plug on the baroque trumpet music that was piped into the lobby and rest rooms during intermissions, someone decided that it was a good idea to have a live musician play that kind of jazzy piano music that is played at the fancy dress-up galas. After the glorious music of Stravinsky, there was no place to escape this form of noise pollution except the auditorium, but I found listening to the orchestra warm up for the Rite of Spring preferable. There was a great photograph of Edward Villella in the famous jump from Prodigal Son in which every plate of every muscle in his legs was visible. In the Rite of Spring, all of the men were dressed in flesh-colored briefs, which Stowell said in the Q&A that they were not happy about at first. Batkhurel Bold danced the Sacrifice role, and one could see every plate of every muscle of his legs, not in a close up photograph, but from the back of the orchestra. If this group was going to pick a man to sacrifice, there was no stinting: they gave up the best they had to the gods. The dancing in this piece was incredibly impressive, and it is hard to imaging surviving the corps men's roles, let alone the Sacrifice's. I hadn't looked at the program carefully beforehand, but I was struck immediately by the two pairs of dancers that flanked the parents roles -- Jodie Thomas and Lucien Postlewaite and Rachel Foster and Casey Herd -- and when they were on stage, they demanded my attention, particularly Thomas. Watching her attack and retract, I thought she would be incredible as the Novice in The Cage. While the dancing was amazing, I didn't think much of the choreography as a whole. It wasn't that I didn't like it, but my eye kept focusing on specific dancers, and my kept mind wandering. The choreography itself didn't grab and maintain my attention. But I was glad to see that the men got meaty roles in this program, because they weren't cast in either of the first two ballets, except for parts in the procession and tableaux at the end of Firebird. There was an insert in the program to honor Resident Lighting Designer and Technical Director, Randall ("Rico") Chiarelli, who will join San Francisco Ballet after this season. (And SFB can surely use him, given how few ballets in Programs 1 and 2 were visible, at least from the Balcony.) There was a laudatory synopsis of the history of his career with PNB, and a lovely tribute from his daughter, who is Senior Marketing Manager with the Company. It's so easy to take the lighting for granted, but his shoes will be very hard to fill.

It was excerpted in Dancing for Mr. B. It's possible that it was a rehearsal that was taped, because the quality wasn't that great.

Last night Francia Russell, in a post-performance Q&A, answered a question about how roles are cast. Her answer was two-fold: to create the best cast for the audience, but also to give younger dancers the opportunity to grow, so that the next crop of dancers would be ready to assume the roles. I find that many "mature" portrayers of Odette emphasize the emotion over the choreography. I loved Kistler's early performances in the role because she was a dance creature, and the video of her graduation workshop shows remarkable dancing for anyone at any stage in her career. Also, there wasn't the pressure of Odile or Act IV, in the short version. I also love to see young dancers in roles; I used to live for Saturday matinees at NYCB. I'm rarely disappointed when a young dancer replaces a Principal in a role, unless the Principal was supposed to give one of his/her last performances, but that may be because I don't attend the full-lengths all that often. I can think of one performance in over 30 years in which I thought a young dancer's performance was an unmitigated failure. There's almost always another angle or aspect that is revealed in any performance by a dancer who is learning in front of my eyes, and decisions that are ignored by the greatest interpreters of the role. However, I do think it's the responsibility of the AD's to grow dancers, and not exploit their willingness to over-extend in order to promote them -- in all ways -- before they're ready to take on physical demands, the burden of public scrutiny, and the sense of responsibility to maintain the level of excellence that nearly every important dancer has expressed as his/her career progressed.

I wonder why the online version is different than the print version...

In many cases Balanchine did do the ideal: he grew young dancers by giving them a featured role in one ballet, and then sending them back to the corps for the next, and doing this over the course of a long period. Even when they started to dance principal and big soloist roles only, their title remained a rank below, and they were promoted mainly when they could handle the pressures of the title as well as dancing the roles. There were exceptions, like Kistler, McBride, and Kirkland who were fast-tracked, the equivalent of Roberta Peters in opera, but the typical procession was slower. Even in these cases, Balanchine was there for decades to coach as well, with the exception of Kistler at the very end of his life. Kistler has said that when he gave her Swan Lake Act II as a teenager, his instructions to her were "Don't act," "You're not in love with your partner," not only to avoid overacting, but to take the pressure off of her to portray something she hadn't yet experienced and didn't understand. What's frightening to me is when a young dancer is "born" in a major role, particularly when a company is hurting for Stars. That's when management casts the young dancer in roles for which the standards are the greatest dancers in role after role, often with little coaching, in order to sell those tickets and publicize the young "star." The pressure -- physical and psychological -- can become dangerous, unless the dancer is a fearless stage animal and can't be stopped.

That is such a generous endorsement, particularly after Whelan, who I know is one of your favorites, had such a triumph in the role.

Castelli was one of the three men in the "choreography by Balanchine" series from Dance in America who partnered in Divertimento No. 15 adagios. He partnered Maria Calegari in the first pas de deux, and Marjorie Spohn in the fourth pas de deux. (If the entire ballet had been taped, he would have danced one of the two "themes" in the opening movement.) There's a small photo of the two of them in the Nonesuch DVD liner notes, showing his lovely tendu back. He had such lovely line. He was also in the corps of Stravinsky Violin Concerto. I believe he is the man on the far stage right side of Kay Mazzo in the first of eight sections of the First Movement, and the back (upstage) of the two men who enter jumping after Peter Martins' solo in the eight part, and later the upstage left corner of the square of four men who do continuous jumps. His final pose in the movement is extended and very noble.

I can't believe it took a death notice for me to remember that Victor Castelli had the most beautiful jump for a man that I've ever seen.