Helene

Works great until the first power failure.  You can't read a dead computer by candlelight.

That's what laptop batteries are for

Don't forget Joffrey.

Senior moment.

As an opera fan, I don't have a problem with convention, and, apparently, neither does the opera-going world in general, given the proliferation of recent productions of Handel operas, which were once intermittent and mostly vehicles for specific stars, like Giulio Cesare for Sills and Treigle. I find relevance in timelessness and ceremony, even if I won't get over a strong dislike of Albrecht, knowing the convention of the girl whose love redeems the hero

I don't have a problem with bombast or sentimentality or when done well. The reason I called Spartacus a bad ballet is because for me it doesn't build very well and I find it repetitive, especially in the theater. Watching it end-to-end, I find it tedious, but taking out the Vasiliev film and watching excerpts of him and Liepa is a total thrill for me.

I don't think US News and World Report has done for ballet companies what they've done for college ratings

But in the US, in most unofficial "ratings" I've seen, the top 2 are considered NYCB and ABT, which is why I think San Francisco Ballet has been so adamant about trying to gain an international reputation. To use a sports analogy, this is like Michelle Kwan beating Sasha Cohen at US Nationals for the last two years, but placing behind Cohen at the World Championships, and SFB wants to be Sasha Cohen.

Of the "regional" companies -- i.e., everyone but NYCB and ABT, I don't think there'd be that much argument among people who've seen many US companies that SFB, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Houston Ballet, and Miami City Ballet would be in the Top 10. What's common to them all is a strong artistic vision and longevity of Artistic Directors, although eyes are on Houston to see if what changes the newish artistic leadership will bring, and would have been on PNB, had Boal not been chosen. Pennsylvania Ballet and Boston Ballet have had their ups and downs over the years, but they're fairly well known and seem to be on the upswing. Pittsburgh was making a run for it under Patricia Wilde, but seems to have artistic and financial issues now.

Living on the West Coast, I've been able to keep an eye on two companies who are turning to a more classical rep: Ballet Arizona under Ib Andersen and Oregon Ballet Theatre under Christopher Stowell, and they are both on the rise.

The orchestra played sublimely for Klinichev in Don Q and Romeo and Juliet last year in Seattle. Raymonda sounded quite lovely under Sorokin in Berkeley.

mussel and carbro,

Thank you for posting the announcement, and for your descriptions of a fantastic end to the night

The NBoC website has a short interview with Stephanie Hutchison.

Or that she thought that a bouquet of wildflowers presented by a poor old lady was more precious than the flowers she received from the princes.

I'm quite surprised by Fayette's retirement, since he is relatively young, isn't he?

I will be interested to read the "story behind" whenever he chooses to tell it.

He hasn't spoken publicly yet, but if there's an article or interview, we'll be sure to post a link to it.

I have a thing for Spartacus, especially Maris Liepa's Crassus from the film. He's just so baaad. (The character, I mean.)

We've expanded the video policy earlier today.

Here is the link to Elite Dance that DancingPixie posted originally:

http://www.elitedance.com/videosearch/updateme.htm

This is a great site!

Thank you DancingPixie

We've expanded the downloads policy to include additional types of sites for which links can be posted, and it now includes film and music.

The new policy is located here.

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I don't see a setting to make this the default selection, but if I find one, I'll post it.

Thank you for the heads up and for following the offer to its conclusion. I've changed the title of the topic, so that readers know it's no longer available.

I suspect that when someone leaves and we don't know why, then it's not a happy thing.

Actually, many dancers who retire leave to have normal lives: families, new professions, time off to think, school, and adventures they've put off to avoid injury. There's nothing specifically ominous in leaving ballet without having 15 minutes of fame and a big announcement or even ending up as a result in a Google search.

Welcome to Ballet Talk, naomikage!

Many thanks for your post on ABT's performance in Tokyo.

I hope everything is okay now in Tokyo. The New York Times article said that 5 people had been injured.

Playing devil's advocate here - It's a given that anyone who gets into the NY Philharmonic is seriously talented. Perhaps the reason there are more women in the orchestra is that men of that caliber are more ambitious in pursuing a solo career.

Or are acting as soloists in an orchestra. Of the women who were hired during his tenure, the women had signiificant orchestra or chamber music experience. Talent is a given at that level, but orchestra playing is different than solo playing, and being a good orchestra member is collaborative.

Whether or not it's true, 20 of 33 violinists at the NY Philharmonic are women and several of them are Asian Jiulliard graduates.

Of the 33 violinists listed on the NY Philharmonic website, 15 of the 31 with links to their bios attended Julliard.

Since racial reverse discrimination wasn't cited in the article, I'm curious as to why it is relevant that "several" are Asian. In fact, 10 of the violinists in the orchestra are Asian, 9 of them women, 5 of whom joined the orchestra between 1977 and 1998, before Mr. Polezhayev arrived at the NY Philharmonic.

While pedigree doesn't always an orchestral musician make, of the seven women who joined the orchestra during Mr. Polezhayev's tenure, one was hired as the Assistant Concertmaster -- not a position that one expects the person filling it to fail probation -- two were Concertmaster Glen Dicterow's students, one had substantial experience playing for the Pittsburgh Symphony orchestra and was Associate Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Theatre orchestra, one studied with Joseph Silverstein at Curtis and then played for the New Jersey Symphony, one won the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition and played in an orchestra under Menuhin, and one was a child prodigy growing up in St. Petersburg before playing in the New Jersey Symphony and is a world-renowned chamber music player.

NY Philharmonic auditions are blind, which means that of the eight musicians who were on probation, seven were women who had earned their spots through their playing ability, not their gender or race or name, although it would be difficult to imagine that Dicterow couldn't recognize the playing of his own students, if he were among the selection committee.

I’m glad to hear the Historical Society’s exhibition is a good one.  Its subtitle, “The Man Who Made Modern America,”  seemed ahistorical and inflated to me, and not a good omen.

The point of the title was that Hamilton basically estabished the whole system of banking and finance that we now have (in other words, American capitalism), and he, better than any of his well known contemporaries, understood that the future of the new nation was urban and industrial, not rural and agricultural.

To put this in context, while I don't think that Hamilton foresaw the Industrial Revolution, he did understand the necessity of a diverse economy, with manufacturing as a mitigation against the vicissitudes of a farm and small merchant economy, as well as the means to reduce dependence on England, which was still considerable after the Revolution.

Given the banking and market system he set up, and his understanding of debt financing, I don't think the subtitle is an exaggeration, regardless of how we feel about the current state of American capitalism.

I have to agree that this book would be a lot for an eight- or nine-year old to handle. It's one thing to see grown-ups having romances on TV or in the movies, but I don't know many children that age who are all that comfortable with teenagers that they know and love -- as opposed to Britney Spears -- dating and snogging and acting downright weird, and the Harry Potter characters are in the category of friends. (Did Pippi Longstocking ever date?) The first books could span the 5 to Harry/Hermione/Ron's own age group, but as Harry and the crew become adolescents, the target is a bit older.

Many kids are already aware of the politics and psychology on some level, because children are the cruellest masters. I suspect more have been in Snape's category than they'd care to admit.

Thank you, oberon!

Yahoo!!!

Our Alexandr Buber has won the competition in Nagoe, Japan! Congratulations!!!!!

You see? Belarussian ballet is great and it's growing better and getter!!!!!

That's terrific news!

I hope they'll be able to tour to the West someday.

I'm so happy for Wendy! Actually, Peter Boal announced her engagement last summer at Jacob's Pillow but I was afraid to write about it here for fear of being "snipped". It was quite a romantic story.

And a very NYCB idea to have Jock do the catering!

Okay, I'll take the bait and :

What did Boal annouce publicly?

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