Helene

Bejart "Bolero" online : Monday 23 June, 8pm CET, 2pm EDT, 12pm MDT, 11am PDT. Online stream should link from here: http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/live/danse/le-bolero-de-ravel-par-maurice-bejart-158435 Performed by Béjart Ballet Lausanne at the Versailles Festival. The performance is from 19 June at the gardens of the Orangerie. I don't see info to say how long this will be available, or if it's a one-shot.

Congratulations to them -- this is wonderful news.

ArtsJournal entitled its link to it, "An Almost Hilariously Awkward Interview Of The Los Angeles Ballet’s Artistic Directors." http://www.artsjournal.com/2014/06/an-almost-hilariously-awkward-interview-of-the-los-angeles-ballets-artistic-directors.html The one-time performance takes place the Friday before the week of July 4th, and many of the colege students have gone for te summer. Tickets are ~$40-99, including the TicketMaster per-ticket fee (>$10/ticketfor the top-priced tickets), but not the per-order fee. All tiers of the 2900-seat McCaw Hall are up for sale. Although there was an ad in PNB's "Giselle" program, and Doug Fullington gave a mention during the "Giselke" pre-performance talks, tying it it historically, there wasn't much publicity that I saw about a month out.

Top management salaries and perks compared to the rest was certainly one of the main points of that article. If Heymann makes 6,000 Euros a month, I hope rents are cheaper in Paris, because corps members at top companies with seniority can make 5,000-6,000 USD a month, and for those living in NYC without a mortgage interest deduction, the taxes paid to city, state, and federal governments are similar to total tax rates in Europe.

Cojocaru performed part of Act II of "Gisele" for the Makarova tribute as part of Kennedy Center Honors. Some of it was televised, which made it accessible to many outside NYC.

I don't know why managers would not be able to choose their own assistants, who are part of management. French law may differ, but it is Lissner, Millepied's boss, who, according to the Google translation of the linked article, is cleaning house throughout the Paris Opera organization, not Millepied.

Since as a New Member Scotch symphony doesn't have PM access, if you'd like to contact Scotch symphony, please send an email to the "Contact Us" link at the top of the page, and we'll forward your email.

Cojocaru tweeted a lovely post-performance photo and message to David Hallberg:

Leslie Rausch reveals her daily schedule, diet and exercise (non performance days) for "Glamour": http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2014/06/ballerina-diet-exercise-eating-plan.html (Scroll)

He didn't have to evade the issue, because it's not the primary issue. He brought up the issue he felt would incite violence: what the ADL and the daughters believe is a false moral equivalency. Anti-Semitism alone isn't necessarily a reason: the ADL passes up putting its energy against many things they consider anti-Semitic. Foxman did not speak as an individual: he was the spokesman for his organization, which, as an organization, made the decision to choose this as an issue on which to spend its money and energy and to decide which underlying issue was the rationale for their actions.

I disagree: almost all CEOs, presidents, Presidents, and leaders of organizations rely upon their subordinates to vet, analyze, and substantiate claims, even as they become spokespeople for them. Even had Foxman seen the work, there would be no reason for him to address whether it's an anti-Semitic work, because the organization is claiming that something more specific in the opera could lead to violence. He also has a Board with its own opinions and interests. I don't think Gelb would have pulled this had there not been pressure from his bosses. He's not stupid or uninformed about the controversy over the opera since it premiered in 1991. I suspect the Met was ready to capitalize on it, and it would have been a great tie-in to other organizations and presentations about Middle Eastern politics and by academics and many other opportunities to grab that elusive "new audience" that won't be drawn in by the Zefferelli "La Boheme." Where he was caught flatfooted was is not anticipating that he'd be pressed to backtrack. He couldn't have anticipated the recent killings at a Kansas City synagogue, making the Kansas City-based AMC Theaters willing to play hardball. (Were he to go forward with alternate theaters, the Met in HD that he worked so hard to build might collapse.) There are a lot of cumulative financial and labor-related reasons for the Met Board to be ready to scapegoat him over "Death of Klinghoffer," including a likely labor action. I don't think the Met will collapse and close, but I do think there's a good chance, based on current posturing, that this could take a while to resolve, and that December holiday/tourist season will be a target for the negotiations. There's no more NYCO: maybe people will go to NYCB's and ABT's fall seasons instead.

I can only go by secondary sources -- Vera Krasovskaya and Catherine Pawlick -- but the basis of what is known as the Vaganova Method was the result of several key insights that she developed mostly on her own, since she wasn't taught to teach, and that were later absorbed by other teachers, after post-revolution Powers That Be demanded a new kind of ballet. She did them as she tried to figure out what effective teaching was, before she had much oversight, and before there were committees and collaborations. She wanted to bridge the divide between the classroom and the stage -- none of Balanchine's, "Yes you were in the school, but now I'll teach you to dance" for her, and that meant evolution of teaching as well. She also deliberately mixed up the combination of fundamental building blocks she used in her exercises, perhaps realizing that went hand-in-hand with individual learning styles. She even had changed the technique for certain steps by the time her first class went before the examiners and resulted in Pas-de-Chat-gate. Not all teachers followed her while her authority was still informal, but those who did codified her teachings informally through mutual reinforcement. The combination of insight, initiative, and leadership alone would be enough to call her one of the most important women in ballet, in my opinion. That she was able and willing to transform her teaching into something live, iterative, and evolving with the input of others, even after official committees died, just lifts her higher.

And, if you want those US$313.20 orchestra seats, what time it is in Moscow, compared to your home time zone: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/difference.html?p1=166

The difference between "foreign" and Commonwealth dancers is rooted in training, for the most part. Recent and current RB rosters include a lot of dancers whose early training was not at the school or where they were "finished" at the school the way a lot of PNB Professional Division students are: for a year or two. But their earlier training runs the gamut. While different teachers have different interests and competencies and weight the curriculum differently, when there is a consistent technique that supports a specific style, it doesn't matter as much if early training was in Capetown or Vancouver.

Foxman isn't the only person at the ADL. When has the ADL been hesitant to call something anti-Semitic? The ADL's position is to constantly weigh content against potential violence. In this case, they have a specific issue with content that they think could result in violence. The Met could have respectfully disagreed or could have said that freedom of speech (content) or artistic freedom is a higher principle. This doesn't sound like a Gelb move, but he has bosses. It's possible this is an issue that is setting him up for ouster, but freedom of speech is a North American right: artists who work in Europe know that there are all kinds of laws that suppress speech, particularly what is deemed to be anti-Semitic speech or hate speech. Many of the major artists are more likely to be upset at the pay cuts Gelb is proposing, particularly the artists who aren't as interested in regie theater and are happy that the Met tends to bypass its right to do with opera what it pleases. There might not even be a Met season by then -- the last performance of the opera is scheduled for 15 November -- let alone an HD broadcast.

Isabelle Folkine was responsible for at least the "Scheherazade": http://www.bayerische.staatsoper.de/309-ZG9tPWRvbTEmZG9tX2JhbGxldHQ9dHJ1ZSZpZD0yNzk1Jmw9ZW4mc2V0VGVtcGxhdGU9cHJpbnRfcG9wdXA-~popups~k_biographie.html I can't find a Horst Koegler review for danceviewtimes.

I just watched the Bayerisches Staatsoper's live stream of "Afternoon of a Faun" and the little leg flicks the Faun uses when dancing with the Nymph reminded me of the "Nightingale" clips.

Ballets Russes is streaming now: http://www.operlive.de

Link to live stream: http://www.operlive.de

Sumner has a great voice in this.

The only things I can find on the site are: Here is the list of pre-selected pieces (scroll for Senior): http://www.usaibc.com/round-i-classical-repertoire/ He performed last in his session on 15 June: http://www.usaibc.com/2014-competition/

Thank you so much for the heads up, volcanohunter! I'm a member, but I missed that some of these docs even existed. I've been watching the "Balanchine in Paris" one, which opens with Ghislaine Thesmar coaching Isabella Ciaravola and Herme Moreau in all the second movement of "Palais de Cristal" except most of the central coda solo for the ballerina. Comparing it to the recent broadcast that's available online (on culturebox), aside from a few arms, it looks identical until the end, where there are a few changes. For example the little lifts after the penche/battement/supported lunges, and now there's no jete lift after the back lifts on the diagonal, just runs. Thesmar, in the one of the first interview portions, said that she overhead her husband, Pierre Lacotte talking to Balanchine. Lacotte asked why Balanchine didn't revive "Palais de Cristal," and Balanchine told him he'd forgotten it, and didn't have the same kind of dancers with the same technique when he made "Symphony in C," and the interview cleverly segues into a segment where Alicia Markova coaches Myriam Ould-Braham in "Le Chant du Rossignol" through a translator. (Later we find that Delouche continues to use Thesmar's commentary to tie the documentary together.) It's interesting how much motivation and story she's trying to convey. It's fascinating to see the choreography. I don't even thing he used the same vocabulary in the one version of "Firebird" I saw. Vyroubova coaching Muriel Hallé and in "La Sonnambula is fascinating, and there are some short old film clips of her performing the Sleepwalker. Milorad Miskovitch simultaneously coaches Valéry Colin. The last segment is Verdy coaching Lucia Lacarra and Cyril Pierre in one of the Part 1 PdD from "Liebeslieder Walzer" that was choreographed for her, followed by the big Part 2 PdD. Best quote, "You purr!" I'm pretty sure the Verdy with Lourdieres footage is from one of the other Delouche documentaries, where Verdy coaches "Sonatine."

The Royal Ballet is at the Bolshoi. They performed an Ashton/McGregor/Wheeldon triple bill earlier this week, and they perform Manon four times beginning tonight. Nunez/Bonelli opened the run. Tomorrow's matinee features Cuthberton/Golding, tomorrow night features Lamb/McRae, and Sunday features Osipova/Acosta. Full casting is listed here: http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/performances/776/ Ismene Brown translated a preview that appeared on Russian TV (Rossiya K(ultura)) for her blog; it includes comments by Osipova and Acosta: http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2014/6/20_Anticipating_the_Royal_Ballets_Manon.html Brown notes that she plans to translate reviews for her blog as well.

The Bolshoi Opera is a lot stronger than the Mariinsky Opera overall. From your Bolshoi pre-sale dates earlier in the thread, I'm assuming you mean the early October run of "La Traviata" (1-5 October). I don't know how long in advance the casting for opera is posted. (The latest posting is for the last summer "Tosca," with the smashing Maria Gavrilova.) For the July run of Traviatas, they will alternate two casts, which is likely for the October run. The casting is posted on the opera's page: http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/performances/570/ Under "La Traviata" click "Cast." The earliest current performance cast will appear on the page. To see later casts, click the link to the date in the little menu to the right. (The link for 1 October is up, but only the conductor is listed so far.) If you can wait to buy tickets until the casting is posted, you can search for the singers on YouTube and see whose voices appeal to you most. If they're singing Violetta, Alfredo Germont, and Giorgio Germont at the Bolshoi, it is almost certain that they've had experience with the role and a 99% chance you'll find at least a selection of theirs from "La Traviata" on YouTube. You'll have to adjust your sound expectations, since a lot of the YouTube videos are either bootlegs or degraded versions taken from professional recordings and broadcasts, but you should be able to get an idea of what they sound like. For example, one of the summer Violetta's uses more vibrato and sounds more dramatic, while the other has a lighter voice with little vibrato. My favorite scene in "La Traviata" is the one between Violetta and Papa Germont, the baritone. The tenor has more music, but this scene is the heart of the opera. I don't even like Renee Fleming, but when the Royal Opera did an HD broadcast of "La Traviata" with Fleming and Thomas Hampson, this scene made me blubber. The director for the Bolshoi production, Francesca Zambello, is very renowned and very strong. Here's a bootleg of one July cast's Violetta, Oxana Shilova, and the other July cast's Giorgio Germont, Igor Golovatenko: I wouldn't suggest trying to sit up close or at ground level for opera. Sound travels up. I saw "Eugene Onegin" in the Historic Theater before the renovation, in the second tier up side boxes, and the sound was great. I haven't been there post-renovation, though.

Congratulations to Steven Loch, who has made it to the semi-finals of the USA International Ballet Competition http://www.usaibc.com/2014-usa-international-ballet-competition-announces-semi-finalists/