Helene

However, Kattern-Ulrichl states, Ballet had died in Paris and Copenhagen? In Monte Carlo before Rene Blum was sent to a concentration camp?

Definitely the casting masterstroke of the season ;) I'm not sure what Mackenzie was thinking, but think of all of the kids taken to matinees for whom Part might become the definition of ballerina. I think they win.

Kathleen, thank you so much!

I'm not sure they have the money to extend the Met season, as much as I miss the June Festival from the '70's, but for a while they had visiting companies come in a few weeks at a time. In the early '80's I remember seeing the Royal Ballet, Netherlands Dance Theatre, and a Japanese Kabuki company, and I think Paris Opera Ballet may have been there one summer.

Who are the dancers? Here's mine:

It would make sense they'd try to leverage the situation, but I think The Powers That Be at the Met can do ABT's math as well as ABT can, and if they'll lose more money by leaving the Met, the Met will know that going into negotiations.

Congratulations to all of the dancers who earned promotions, and thank you for posting the information, naomikage! Here is a link to beautiful photo of Olga Smirnova and Semyon Chudin in "La Bayadere" that Marc Haegeman just posted to his "For Ballet Lovers Only" Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=574072275987131&l=58192059a7

Thank you for your help. I was trying to figure it out from the NYPL site, but I found some of the info on the site confusing.

It would have been helpful if she had said the first time she cited info Geva's bio that it had a number of factual issues, but in this case, she's given five reasons why the account is suspect. Could she have meant that "ultraprivate" to Balanchine meant that he wasn't interested in talking about it? In the Taper, it was clearly a marriage to address troubling times: even though they were a couple, they were very young, and they'd not have married then in calmer times. Geva is not Kendall's subject, and even if she had been, there's enough psychoanalyzing in biography. If a bunch of what Geva wrote in the memoir is suspect, why would the reason for this be something for which Kendall owes an explanation? If it were the only thing in Geva's memoir that was suspect, but Kendall had contrary evidence for it, Kendall wouldn't owe an explanation for that, either.

Where do the dance videos fall? If they're using DVR's, have the digitized the entire collection?

Is it possible to view the NYPL videos in the library itself? Or do the videos have to be checked out?

That's great news: four months ahead of schedule.

I think they're looking at a possible move for after the current contract; I don't think they're planning to get out early. They'll have some practice with the current state of affairs at FKA State Theater by running their fall shows there instead of City Center in the meantime.

In addition to the two ballets that will stream, listed in this thread, Bayerische Staatsoper will live stream six opera after today's "Wozzeck": 1 December 2013, 6 p.m. (CET) Richard Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten New production Conductor: Kirill Petrenko Director: Krzysztof Warlikowski with Johan Botha, Adrianne Pieczonka, Deborah Polaski, Wolfgang Koch, Elena Pankratova, a.o. 28 December 2013, 6 p.m. (CET) Giuseppe Verdi La forza del destino New production Conductor: Asher Fisch Director: Martin Kušej with Anja Harteros, Jonas Kaufmann, Ludovic Tézier, a.o. 15 February 2014, 7 p.m. (CET) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart La clemenza di Tito New production Conductor: Kirill Petrenko Director: Jan Bosse with Kristīne Opolais, Toby Spence, Tara Erraught, a.o. 31 May 2014, 7 p.m. (CET) Bernd Alois Zimmermann Die Soldaten New production Conductor: Kirill Petrenko Director: Andreas Kriegenburg with Barbara Hannigan, Michael Nagy, Endrik Wottrich, a.o. 28 June 2014, 6 p.m. (CET) Gioachino Rossini Guillaume Tell New production Conductor: Dan Ettinger Director: Antú Romero Nunes with Michael Volle, Bryan Hymel, Günther Groissböck, a.o. 27 July 2014, 6 p.m. (CET) Claudio Monteverdi L'Orfeo New production Conductor: Ivor Bolton Director: David Bösch with Christian Gerhaher, Anna Bonitatibus, a.o.

I don't think it's impossible that Shaw didn't approve or even drive the direction of the dance. I don't think it's necessarily the case that she did, given how tight her schedule was and that she subbed in, which is why I don't attribute to her by default.

Deborah Warner who was supposed to direct had surgery and had to cancel; Fiona Shaw, her frequent collaborator was brought in to direct (or stage, I'm not sure which) and was already committed to another production. Kim Brandstrup was hired to do the choreography, and I'm not sure how much input Shaw had or if it was a battle she was willing to fight if she didn't agree. The dance was such a departure from the carefully directed and coherent production. I don't think anyone who understands Russian and/or read the titles would wonder about the few choices that women had in Tatyana's day after having listened to Filippyevna describe how she was married off at 13 to a younger man and became a servant in her mother-in-law's house.

I wrote, "a young peasant women tossed around by a group of men in the Larin house with the Russian Orthodox Church present?" I'm questioning whether a dance in any spirit in which a young peasant women -- not a little girl -- was tossed around with her skirts flying over her head would have been something that would have been appropriate in front of the Church representatives or in the house of landed gentry. (The scene is meant to be outside, where the peasants are singing and playing.)

I don't think she was acting it at all.In the scene, the peasants are singing a folk song about young lovers. The choreography made little sense, even as a metaphor. I think they should have scrapped it.

I thought it was one of the most balanced casts of anything I've ever heard at the Met, vocally and dramatically. They've got another cast coming up from 23 November-12 December, with Marina Poplavskaya (the Elisabetta in the HD "Don Carlo") as Tatyana, Elena Maximova in her Met debut as Olga, Rolando Villazon as Lenski, Peter Mattei as Onegin, and Stefan Kocan (Sparafucile in last season's Vegas "Rigoletto") as Prince Gremin. Sadly this cast is not on the free Live Stream schedule: http://www.metoperafamily.org/stream/schedule.aspx A taped performance of the HD cast will be broadcast on Metropolitan Opera Radio on Saturday, 18 January. "Die Fledermaus" is playing two Saturday matinees in a row, and the live radio broadcast is scheduled for the week before on 11 January. The second cast will be broadcast on SiriusXM on Monday, 2 December. I thought the Brandstrup choreography in the first act was useless: a young peasant women tossed around by a group of men in the Larin house with the Russian Orthodox Church present? (Or am I totally mistaken about late 19th-century mores?)

It was stunning. It's really too bad that Lenski is such a self-regarding, melodramatic dope. I loved the symbolism of the uprooted birch tree.

SF Ballet just posting this link from Facebook announcing the casting for "Cinderella" -- five Cinderella/Prince combos are scheduled for NYC: http://www.sfballetblog.org/2013/10/cinderella-nyc-casting/

I just PMed your info and note to MakarovaFan.

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As always, unofficial news, of which unsubstantiated gossip is a subset, will be removed from Ballet Alert!, as will one-note posting.

It wouldn't matter if Osina danced in front of a badly painted backdrop with a corps from the Dolly Dinkle School of Ballet: either her Odette/Odile is stellar, or it isn't. In fact, in Vienna, she dances the Nureyev (more or less after Petipa) version, the same one the Paris Opera Ballet dances. Where she graduated in her class is meaningless to what she presents onstage. That she dances with the Vienna State Opera ballet, since 2010 directed by Manuel Legris, one of the greatest ballet stars of the last thirty years -- a man singled out by Nureyev in his teens -- which was the year Osina became Principal with that company, is hardly something for which she must apologize. (First Soloist in their lingo.) I realize there is a long-standing Mariinsky DaVinci code that dictated who could be promoted when and on what basis, but it's so easily manipulated by casting prematurely/inappropriately and checking off the role boxes. The idea that this must remain unchanging, and that an inequity like Obraztsova not being made a Principal should be replicated indefinitely, is curious to me.