Helene

I was tweaking with some settings last night to identify what they meant, and I forgot to change this back when I was done. You should be able to see the info now when you're not logged in.

Lefevre was on borrowed time with retirement looming, and Hilaire was in the running for her job, which he would not have been had he walked out in protest or battled with her publicly. Perhaps he thought he could be more helpful to younger dancers by staying in management, and with Millepied coming in to take over the company, and long-time etoiles at te end of their careers, there's an opportunity for change and he may be taking a long term "win the war" approach.

Several videos have been posted in the "Ballet Videos" forum.

It's like the sophisticated cousin to "Perfect is the enemy of good."

We can only hope and wait. In the first movements, she brings a Waltz Girl sensibility to Russian Girl. It's a dramatic rendition in the final movement.

This remarkable interview article with Speight Jenkins about the transition was published yesterday in the "Puget Sound Business Journal.": http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/2013/06/seattle-opera-director-speight-jenkins.html?page=all I thought it was interesting that he wasn't involved with the search process until the end, when the finalists each spent several days in Seattle. Emphasis in the following quotes is mine: I understand that the opera works differently than ballet: except for the Young Artists Program, which is closest to the Professional Division in the PNB school, the opera doesn't have performing "staff" -- it contracts singers on a per-show basis -- the General Director, except in rare cases isn't the composer/creator (although arguably, a Regie director at the helm might be considered a creator) and, it doesn't have schools, aside from a few older companies with conservatories, like the Mariinsky. It's an art form where the base is the score and the libretto, not one where the text -- musical, literary, physical -- is passed almost entirely from creator/stager/interpreter to the performers, with help from video and notation that is not common ground for nearly all of its practitioners and relies upon a limited number of experts. However, I can't but help thinking he's watched Peter Boal's situation at PNB, where Russell and Stowell are still continuously involved in the company through their choreography -- especially Stowell's "Nutcracker," "Swan Lake," and "Cinderella," -- and staging, and where Boal has bent over backwards to acknowledge Russell and Stowell. Asneighbor and early mentor to Boal, he must be thanking his lucky stars that he is an opera guy, not a ballet guy. While it's true that Lang will have to prove himself to some of the singers, directors, and conductors because of their loyalty to Jenkins who gave them early breaks, it's not like inheriting a fixed company of 40+ people who owe their careers to someone else. Replacing singers or directors, or even productions, is not the same social animal as not re-signing a large number of contracts, and Peter Boal inherited a company. Even if Boal had wanted to, he didn't/doesn't have the options of a General Director in opera. An opera General Director is rarely entirely responsible for a creative person's career, especially over time, since, unless the person is under contract to a rep companies. Creative people of all levels in opera are employed by a lot of different companies, recital series, (theater, for the direction and design teams), and a lot of the pressure is off any one GD, whereas in ballet, most dancers are employed by one company, there isn't much movement and opportunity to move between companies, guesting is generally limited to the stars or at hometown semi-professional companies, and the Artistic Director is the be-all and end-all of their artistic life. They can either put up or stop dancing. All of the creative people who have signed for opera productions from 1 September 2014 did so knowing that Jenkins would be retired and not knowing who his successor would be, and as freelancers, they have little to risk in test-driving the company under Lang's administration. Part of the success of Seattle Opera has been the way singers are treated by the administration, staff, and volunteers: it's why they park themselves in Seattle for an entire summer to rehearse and perform The Ring instead of zipping in and out to rehearse and perform around other gigs, and while the artistic side might be planned in Lang's first season, I think it's how the administration and staff makes the transition that will have the most impact on whether the creative people will want to return several years down the road. Jenkins was highly involved in SO productions; the designers and directors who haven't worked with Lang before will decide whether his approach, whatever it is, is fruitful for them. Creative people who've worked with Jenkins might not like working with Lang or choose other contracts because they'd make trade-offs only for Jenkins -- not everyone likes everyone else and might choose to work with someone with a different style, if there are options -- but Lang also would have a very long speed dial list, given his experience.

San Francisco Ballet has had a number of French- and other European-trained dancers over the years during Tomasson's tenure. She should fit right in.

Congratulations to Ms. Froustey

Are you using a Mac or a PC (Windows)?

The issue that I wrote about was fixed when I changed everything back to the default pages and modified them last Thursday and Friday. There are two modes of posting: BBCode mode: If this is on, the formatting controls will be active, like the "B" for bold and the "I" for italic, the quote box, the emoticons/smilies, etc. If you're in this mode, then the quote should appear within the box, and you can only edit what's in the box, not the"[ quote= [poster, etc.]' ]", "[ /quote] " formatting tabs. So far, in my limited experience since the first week using a Mac with Firefox, the cursor goes automatically outside the box under the (last) quote. If I edit what's in the quote box, I can get outside the box by clicking the down arrow key. However, if I try to edit a post on Mac with Firefox where the quote box is at the bottom of the post, the down arrow does not go outside the box, or at least doesn't always. (I've only noticed when it hasn't). In that case, the only way I know how to get outside the box is to get out of "BBCode" mode and use "Plain Text" mode. However, this solution doesn't work for Mac with Safari, at least with my combination of browser version and operating system. The little light switch, which remains active in BBCode and Plain Text modes, is in the upper left hand corner of the controls, right under "Reply to this topic," and that toggles between modes. Plain Text mode: If this is on, all controls but the little light switch control will be disabled, the type will look like typewriter type, and all of the controls like "[ b ]" and "[ /b ]" (for bold) and "[ quote='[poster name, etc. " and "[/ quote ] " will be visible. (These aren't the exact formatting tags: when I use them, they format instead of showing the contents.) Whenever I can't get out of the box in Mac with Firefox, I toggle BBCode mode off with the "light switch", cursor to the bottom after the final "[ /quote ]" code, hit Enter/Return/Carriage Return twice, and then toggle back to BBCode mode with the "light switch" again. Then my cursor is outside the box. When this happens in Mac with Safari, I have to toggle to Plain Text mode, scroll to after the last quote box, type in anything to create something after the post box, and toggle back to BBMode, where I can edit out what I've just typed or continue to type but still have the formatting controls OR I can continue to type in Plain Text mode and format it myself if I need to. These are the only two versions I've tried.

I'm glad it worked: you're very welcome

James Gandolfini, most famous for portraying Tony Soprano in "The Sopranos", died early today of a heart attack while on a trip to Italy. From the "New York Times": http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/arts/television/james-gandolfini-sopranos-star-dies-at-51.html?hp&_r=0 Rest in peace, Mr. Gandolfini.

I just checked your settings, and yours were displaying the default UI -- all in blue, without our red logo at the top -- instead of our slightly customized one, which includes the link to BT4D. I've changed the settings, and hope you can see it now (or after you've refreshed your browser).

Excellent news for the Company, which has confirmed this news, and Mr. Diaz.

The NYT has reported the news with some info about the transition: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/arts/music/seattle-opera-names-a-general-director.html?_r=1&

A slide show from "The Guardian" (edited to add) can be found from this page: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/jun/19/david-wall (The URL to the actual slideshow does not work when posted directly although it appears in the browser.)

Another sword photo of Jenkins and Lang, this time from Seattle Opera's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151975634246038&set=a.102275646037.113604.90753776037&type=1 Here's a video of John Nesholm, the head of the search committee, introducing Lang, and Lang's statement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJV-3plZFHQ I don't know if it's the video or my internet connection, but Nesholm doesn't appear to be moving during the audio at the very beginning of the video.

The Seattle Symphony just posted their congratulations and this great photo of Jenkins and Lang to their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151727172124434&set=a.107788769433.114373.94754924433&type=1 Symphony musicians perform for Seattle Opera, and there's a family relationship between the two organizations.

I'm not getting the "historic" hype, but the announcement is Speight Jenkins' replacement: Aidan Lang will be coming from New Zealand Opera, and before that, the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, the Buxton Festival and Opera Zuid: http://www.seattleoperablog.com/2013/06/aidan-lang-to-become-seattle-operas.html His accomplishments have been significant, and what I find most exciting are the number of collaborations he's fostered. I love a lot of the rep he's produced elsewhere and that he'll bring both a musician's and a director's eye.

Well, if massive amounts of money are being thrown around, I'm hoping someone has endowed the Young Artists program with enough cash to run indefinitely, adding technical young artists into the mix, and that they'll name it all for Jenkins, including the space for them in the arena offices/shops building. It would be really great if someone threw a pile of money at taping the Ring this summer. Argh, at this rate Bill Gates couldn't fund all of the "really greats."

I thought Kourlas saw a technically excellent dancer with some dazzle to her technique, but no innate sense of musicality (aside from strict rhythm). I didn't see the performance, so I can't agree or diasagree, but I thought her point was clear and have seen more performances fitting this description than I care to remember. This. There are few critics who have equal expertise in both areas and can take each on its own terms.In general, outside a few cities where there are dedicated dance critics, there are one or two writers/critics assigned to all of the arts, and rarely is their background in dance. Where there are dedicated dance critics, most are expected to go out of the dance genre of their expertise, which I would find terrifying. There's only so far that an understanding of technique and structure can take a person without the experience of watching a lot of undocumented performances, and, in dance, you can't just pull out a bunch of CD's or DVD's and do a crash course in Martynov's music or French New Wave cinema.

In the UK ballet fans are overwhelmingly female and I don't see how it is possible to assume they know nothing about ballet simply by looking at a photo. I was responding directly to volcanohunter's question about what the Bolshoi press office was trying to imply.

I never noticed the rubber ducks. I'll have to look next time.

Carla Korbes and Karel Cruz are scheduled to perform in New Zealand Ballet's "Swan Lake," joining Amber Scott and Ty King-Wall of the Australian Ballet as guest principals for the run. For this article, Ethan Stiefel said, Korbes and Cruz were both injured during the last rep, and I hope they've healed. Korbes is scheduled to perform in the International Evenings of Dance at Vail right after the NZ run, and I assume she and a healthy Cruz will be cast in the PNB performances (the opening gala, "Swan Lake" Act II/"Tide Harmonic," and all-Balanchine) at the Festival.

Just because someone is a paid critic does not mean that it is okay to disparage their conscience or speculate about their motivation here. Ms. Kourlas may be right or wrong, and you may agree or disagree strongly with her, but even if her review was mean or snarky, this does not indicate a lack of conscience; a professional critic does not "say anything" and continue to be published. Also, the last time I looked, she was a woman, not a girl.