Helene

It would be great if PNB could end the Seattle season with its "Giselle" and pack it up to perform it at Lincoln Center, now that NYCB finishes up its Spring season earlier than PNB. There could be a "Live from Lincoln Center" broadcast and a DVD (as I dream on...)

The last time PNB went to City Center, they did one Balanchine program performance and several performances of Maillot's "Romeo et Juliette." The general consensus was that the ratio should have been reversed, if they had to do the Maillot at all. PNB, like MCB, is known as a Balanchine company, so they bring another flavor of Balanchine. (I would have cast the last Balanchine program almost completely differently, but that's another story, and with Korbes gone, it will be interesting to see how ex-NYCB-centric the 2016 casting will be.) If people didn't like the Maillot, they're not likely going to embrace the new choreography that many people were unimpressed by when PNB brought it to the Joyce. It's not like PNB needs to show the ubiquitous "Petite Mort," and Stowell's "Carmina Burana" wouldn't show well, if it even the set fits into City Center. Bringing Ratmansky, Wheldon, or Peck to NYC is another alternative (if they the rights and there isn't geographic exclusivity in play), but NYC already sees those choreographers, too. I don't know which NYC/East Coast companies, if any, perform the Dawson, which is a high-energy work that the company is brilliant in, but everyone and his mother seems to do "Vertiginous": even the Mariinsky brought it to City Center. It's a great piece, though, and fits energy- and influence-wise, with Forsythe being the anchor. The treat should be Crystal Pite's "Emergence" which takes the entire company to perform, and the only work I've seen in years in which ballet and contemporary/modern exist side-by-side in mutual respect. It was made for NBoC, and I don't know of another company that performs it (although I could have missed the news). The program itself should be a visual and visceral thrill.

OBT posted to Facebook that Amy Watson from the Royal Danish Ballet will guest in the Amore Italiano program this Fall: https://www.facebook.com/oregonballettheatre/photos/a.138763421099.111059.34067106099/10153555118336100/?type=1&theater The program is Bournonville's "Napoli" (Act III) and Kudelka's "Sub Rosa" with music by Carlo Gesualdo and runs Saturday, October 10 (7:30pm), Sunday October 11 (2pm), and Thursday, October 15-Saturday October 17 (7:30pm) at Keller Auditorium. Single tickets go on sale on 1 September. http://www.obt.org/subscriptions.html

Sandi and I had a conversation in email about the upcoming visit by Grand Rapids Ballet, whose AD is long-time PNB star Patricia Barker, and who are bringing two programs to Seattle, both of which are characteristic of the company's rep: One program is Olivier Wevers' "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The other is a mixed bill, Penny Saunders' "Slight," Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's "WRITTEN & FORGOTTEN," David Parsons' "The Envelope," and Mario Radacovsky's "Beethoven's 5th." Saunders, Lopez Ochoa, and Radacovsky have extensive ballet backgrounds, but, like Wevers, choreograph contemporary ballet/dance, and Parsons comes from the modern school. Google isn't helping me to find how many of these are company commissions -- the GRB website isn't the most robust, information-wise -- but it's clear that there's a vision and unity behind these rep choices. GRB is a small company of 18 + six apprentices, and that's not a corps of swans. However, they are doing narrative ballet: this season, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Lopez Ochoa's "Dangerous Liaisons," and the under-rated Bruce Wells' "Cinderella." Wells' is the only one in the neoclassical/classical tradition. David Parsons' "The Envelope" is from 1986, the same era as much of the Kylian works that have become ubiquitous among ballet companies, but the rest, if they aren't premieres, are at least relatively new. Grand Rapids ballet is building an audience that has a sense of ownership of and connection to this rep. Whether it's as intellectually challenging as Nagano's rep in Montreal, I don't know, but it doesn't seem to have been an obstacle to gaining a new and loyal audience in Grand Rapids.

The first of today's Links is an article in "The Washington Post" about ballet audiences. Boer Deng writes that while other audiences are diversifying, ballet audiences in 2012 were: 80 percent white 2/3 female More than 2/3 from households making over $150K a year. The article also cites PNB's research into young audiences, with the biggest obstacle being that young people didn't think ballet is for them. Deng also states that only the symphony has similar demographics. That's why I was struck by this article in my Facebook feed from WFMT, which describes what Kent Nagano is doing in Montreal, where the symphony has younger and more diverse demographics: http://blogs.wfmt.com/offmic/2015/08/17/kent-nagano-violent-shift-from-the-status-quo/ I think a diet of black and white Balanchine is in order, if that is the prescription.

That's a very nice interview with Dronina: thank you for posting it! I remember Hernandez as a very promising young dancer at San Francisco Ballet, and it was great to hear her praise for him. It's so difficult when a partner retires, and to find another is a great gift. He had since joined English National Ballet (after Dutch National Ballet). http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/isaac-hern-ndez-the-hottest-ballet-boy-to-hit-london-since-carlos-acosta-10436964.html

The latest Balancing Pointe podcast interview is with Ida Praetorius: http://balancing-pointe.com/96-ida-praetorius-soloist-royal-danish-ballet/ Host Kimberly Faulker notes in the intro that many had requested an interview with Praetorius, and it's great to know that aspiring ballet students know about her and wanted to hear her story. She's a delight to listen to.

Do not discuss personnel matters without official sources/citations. Do not even hint at inside info. I won't warn again.

The same way the the characters in "Friends" could afford to live in those cavernous spaces in NYC. We've come a long way from "The Honeymooners." (Although the standard answer in Allen's time was rent control, which was pretty much gone by the time of "Friends." Rent stabilization just isn't the same.)

When you take away the salary and benefits, you limit criticism to the very few who can live that frugally off of piecing together freelance assignments and who, until recently, most often went without health insurance, and to those wealthy enough from other means -- spouse/partner, inheritance, good investments, the buy-out packages like Cantrell got -- and who can afford to, effectively, volunteer. We're back to gentlemen's publishing with women in the same situation added in.

They could give any number of instructions that dancers and civilians can follow, but if the body doesn't acclimate on demand, the instructions are only worth the paper they're printed on.

When I went to bike camp in Colorado, I couldn't climb six stairs without being winded. I told one of the instructors that I wished I had come a few days earlier to acclimate, and I was told I would have had to come a few weeks earlier, and the other instructors agreed. These were serious athletes (or had been), at the same level of condition as dancers. That's why they have oxygen tanks in the wings.

Marina Harss interviewed Alexei Ratmansky on the subject of reconstructing Petipa, with emphasis on his recent "Sleeping Beauty," which will be presented at LA Scala. http://dancetabs.com/2015/08/alexei-ratmansky-simple-and-wise-a-qa-about-ratmanskys-sleeping-beauty-for-abt/ There's information about the Bolshoi "Le Corsaire" as well.

Many thanks for the report!

Thank you for the link, kfw! I'm on borrowed WiFi until Saturday, but I hope I can play it before Saturday, when we're in transit.

Does any know of auction houses that handle ballet memorabilia (aside from the usual suspects that sell the Nureyev- and Fonteyn-level belongings?

Outgoing music critic Scott Cantrell (Dallas Morning News) and ArtsJournal's Douglas McLennan weighed in about music criticism and arts criticism in general for WQXR. There are highlights in print and a 17-minute audio that can be streamed and/or downloads: http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/newspapers-cut-critics-dark-time-dawn-new-age/?%3A+This+Week+In+WQXR&mc_cid=24b68bb1fb&mc_eid=81482feaf0

The way I've heard her name pronounced at Q&A's is: John-na Fran-tsis-koh-nis.

The headgear looks as practical as Seligman's for "The Four Temperaments."

The comments to the "Gawker" story referenced in the article are, sadly, indicative of the value society attaches to dance. It's not just that the old history is difficult to mine: the current happenings are difficult as well, unless someone films a work and posts it to YouTube or the choreographer posts a film to his or her website, which is rare, aside from an excerpt or two. There are no scores or bad poetry or canvases to unearth and re-evaluate, and, as a result, maybe decide it wasn't so bad after all and was misinterpreted or undervalued in its own time.

We received the following message from a non-member who took the time to write to us: I’m sad to report that Shelley King, the beloved director of operations for YAGP, passed away today. YAGP has just posted this information on their FB page. She was such a brilliant, talented woman, and her passing is a tremendous loss for the dance world. I’m heartbroken: I had so much admiration for Shelley, and she was beloved by so many of us. Condolences to Ballet Talk members who knew her. https://www.facebook.com/YouthAmericaGrandPrix/posts/10153517652683407

This has come up many times today for me, too, sent via social media and private email.

Also, there may have been a build-up of PM's and/or board emails from people on your ignore list: these should have been blocked, but it's possible that whatever change happened, it released the backlog.

In the past week I've noticed some strange changes. For example, the forum info on the home page is now stretched to three columns in Chrome (but not Firefox), and the "Upcoming Events" Calendar isn't showing, and I just got an email from a member whose "ignore" list has disappeared. I don't see anything in the help forums, and I will file a ticket with help desk, but, in the meantime, if you have an "Ignore" list, and it's important to you, if you would check to see if yours is intact and, if it's not, restore it, I'd appreciate it very much. To check your "ignore" settings, click the little down triangle/arrow to the right of your username, and then click "Manage Ignore Prefs" (the bottom left option).

First to address a huge error of omission from my post above, the Seattle Opera chorus was spectacular. I often wonder how they can get better, and then I see another opera, and it seems like they've surpassed themselves again. A few words about Jamie Barton's recital last night. I know that the Nordstrom Recital Hall is a much smaller venue than McCaw Hall, but even factoring that in, when she wants to turn up the volume, Barton can and does. At times I could feel the vibration of her voice in my bones. There is nothing like an un-miked voice that can do that. The program was in three parts, and except for Rachmaninoff's "Spring Waters," it was not familiar rep, which was a pleasure in itself. She opened with three songs by Joaquin Turina, "Cuandro tan hermosa os miro," "Si con mis deseos," and "Al val de Fuente Ovejuna," which she said were done often by sopranos and tenors, and she had them transposed for her voice, which she later said ranged from F/G to C in performance mode. It's rare to hear Spanish language songs in general, particularly outside the Zarzuela phase of Operalia. The second part was five songs by Libby Larsen, "Love after 1950," set to female poets, "Boy's Lips (a blues)" (Rita Dove), "Blonde Men (a torch song)" (Julia Kane), "Beauty Hurts (a honky-tonk)" (Kathryn Daniels, called "Big Sister Says" on Larsen's website), "The Empty Song (a tango)" (Liz Lochhead), and "I Make My Magic (Isadora's Dance)" (Muriel Rukeyser). As the parenthetical title descriptions suggest, there is a stylistic range, and Barton sang in the appropriate style with drama, humor, and clear diction. (When later asked what her favorite language to sing in is, she said "English" and her affinity showed in this set.) The last three songs on the regular program were Rachmaninoff's "Spring Dances" and "I Wait for Thee" from "12 Romances, Op. 14" and what she described as Wagnerian Rachmaninoff, "All Glory to God." She's already sung Fricka in Houston and is learning more roles. She said that Wagner is easier for her to sing than Bellini, when asked to comment on the two composers, and that it lies in the right place in her voice. She returned with the excellent Beth Kirchhoff, a vocal coach and former Seattle Opera Chorus Master, her piano accompanist, for two encores. The first was well-know to those who've followed her career, and which she sang in the 2007 Met Opera Auditions captured in the documentary "The Audition," the Witch's aria "Hexenlied" from Humperdinck's "Hansel und Gretel." The second was the mezzo's aria from "Adriana Lecouvreur," which she sang with such dramatic arc that it felt like a short film. We thought that was it -- she had sung two Fenena's in less than 24 hours on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, then an hour+-long recital, with three more Fenena's this week, and she deserved a break -- but she returned and generously participated in a Q&A, first with General Director Aidan Lang and then taking questions from the audience. I never knew she had gone to a small, liberal arts college without an opera program, but I wasn't surprised to learn that she did musical theater in college. She has an easy, natural stage presence, whether singing or speaking, and she has a great sense of humor. In news: Barton is about to record her first solo CD, which will include songs by Sibelius. (I can't wait to hear that: the Sibelius songs with which I'm familiar should fit her voice like a glove.) She'll make her Royal Opera House debut as Fenena, and I hope Aidan Lang grabs her as much as her schedule will allow.