Helene

Farrell's mouth turns down at the corners in a neutral state, which a lot of people interpret as sad or angry.

This post should straddle enough time zones for everyone from Japan and Australia to Hawaii: Happy New Year and a Healthy and Prosperous 2013 to all Ballet Alertniks and their families and friends! I'd like to extend my appreciation especially to dirac for dirac's work on Links and carbro for carbro's many hours managing BA registrations and "Contact Us" queries and guarding BA from spammers, most of this behind the scenes. Links is a huge commitment and much work, and it is the most widely read feature on Ballet Alert! because of the quality and depth of dirac's findings. Another treasure of the site is rg's photo collection, and his generosity in sharing these rare historic photos is very much appreciated. My thanks also to Mme. Hermine, who does Sunday Links, and to the Moderating team for raising thought-provoking topics and keeping their eyes on the site. We wouldn't be a discussion board without the contributions of our members, both on the site and through our fundraisers and amazon.com Links. Here's to a great 2013!

There's no Fairy Godmother per se in the opera, but there's a Godfather of sorts. The beggar in disguise is the Prince's tutor, who, along with the Prince's valet, who pretends to be the Prince, is also on a secret mission for the Prince. After the Stepfather -- there's no Stepmother -- leaves Cenerontola behind to head to the ball with his two daughters, the beggar throws off his beggar's outfit and tells Cenerontola that he'll accompany her to the ball, and, presumably, he's responsible for arranging for her to be decked out in her ball clothes. The tutor is also responsible for encouraging the Prince to search for Cenerontola.

I noticed that, too, Barbara. Thank you for pointing that out.

Almost all of the Mariinsky ballerinas look inferior to the corps at NYCB when they dance Balanchine. I'd much rather see Dupont in anything than Novikova, whose opinion means nothing to me. My issue with Paris is the Nureyev stagings of the classics, not the dancers. Were I to got to Russia to see ballet, I'd prefer to go to Moscow.

PNB just tweeted, "Check your mailboxes for @Dance_Magazine. This year, Leta Biasucci is one of their 25 to Watch! http://ow.ly/i/1j7jS" Last season, Leta Biasucci had featured roles in every rep, often replacing other dancers at the last and relatively last minute, and in none did she look like she hadn't been there from the first minute. She's one to watch and watch and watch. Congratulations to her

A big difference in Miami is that Villella's successor was already chosen. An interim director is also in a different position than one appointed to the job.

As much as I agree with critics who are aghast at the changes in the Kirov/Mariinsky, not all of the great dancers and coaches from the last Golden Age agree. That may make me sad -- I remember how disappointed I was when the great Flamenco singer Cameron mentored and chamioned the then-emerging star of Nuevo Flamenco, Nina Pastori; when I heard her, I wanted to cry from boredom -- but they speak from their own authority.

Makarova put on her glasses to watch the performers on stage. I'm not sure what her eyesight is like, but if her prescription is strong, then that might explain her expression without them, and most of the other recipients wore (or tried to wear) a single expression during their tributes, and only the camera focussing on tears in their eyes made it that emotional. The glasses hid her eyes from the prying cameras.

You know what they say about responding to one's critics, but I suppose it's gallant of him to try to defend the honor of his life partner. (I'm not sure if they're married.)

Many thanks, Fosca, for you reports from Baden-Baden and the casting information.

I'm sure the Ulanova story was told by many, but it was captured in Barbara Newman's "Striking a Balance," and I think in Antoinette Sibley's chapter. (I can't look it up because I loaned out my copy.)

Heather Watts said that when Martins proposed that she partner with Jock Soto, who hadn't been in the company for long, she was concerned about how the age difference would play. She said (paraphrase) Martins told her they looked great, and then wondered whether he was being sincere or expedient.

I loved that Part was there. I just wish it had been in a role in which her lovely, individual quality was showcased. I can't believe Part wouldn't have wanted to learn an excerpt from "Other Dances." I hadn't thought about the cultural icon part of "Black Swan." (Doh.) Maybe they could have chosen Sarah Lane, Portman's understudy, to do the Black Swan section. According to her ABT bio, she performed at the Kennedy Center as a Presidential Scholar for the Arts, and she did win a Princess Grace Award. That might have tied it all together. I hadn't noticed that Cojocaru's back looked stiff until I rewatched it to edit the program to burn it to disk. I hope she's okay.

I searched for "Louise Fornaca ballet" and found some references and reviews references to her work in "Oklahoma!": "Broadway," listed as a replacement for "Dancing Ensemble, One of Jud's Postcards, Sylvie", 1943-1947. "Theatre Guild," , Seattle, 1946. (Unfortunately, the link to "Theatre Guild" is broken.) "Boston!," "Louise Fornaca Is Leading Comedy Dancer in "Oklahona!" Company", "Boston Globe" 1947. An article in the "Tri City Herald," about her husband, a "wandering bricklayer" with her on tour. A link to a group photo in the "Berkeley Daily Gazette." Another handful of Google archives reviews/references to her in the "Oklahoma!" tour. It looks like she's referenced (with regard to "Oklahoma!") in "The Girl Who Fell Down: A Biography of Joan McCracken." She was also in "The Wizard of Oz." From the "St. Petersburg Times": There are paid articles where the search results mention her in Agnes deMille ballet(s) ("Christian Science Monitor"), as a replacement in "Porgy and Bess" ("New York Times"), and one that suggests she appeared with Alicia Markova ("New York Times"). From 1934, an article in the "Border Cities Star" that reads: This is a link to a .pdf of a 1943 mention in the "The New York Sun" in "The Youngest Profession" column: bing searches bring up other references in the search results summary text, but her name is missing from the text on the linked page.

If Balanchine felt that "On Your Toes" was simply something he did just to eat, I doubt he would have chosen to stage it for Farrell and Mitchell at NYCB.

To get more people in, they could have gone somewhere that was out of Makarova's experience, as far as I know, which were the original Grand Pas de Deux which had variations for secondary characters, like "Don Quixote" and "Sleeping Beauty." What would have been ideal for me as a ballet lover, but would have been horrible for the audience and for TV, would have been her staging of the entrance of the Shades, with a combination of students and professional dancers. (They could have used students from the Kirov Academy, for example, which wouldn't have broken the budget.)

A Rogers and Hart musical with choreography by Balanchine isn't my definition of "pop" or "dumbing it down," and it was the most American experience of her forays and showed her versatility. I would have preferred it to a mediocre Black Swan excerpt, but I didn't get to choose. I thought Julie Kent looked great.

That would have been a great segway into a rousing finale, and would have been user-friendly at the same time.

Tiler Peck is clearly a wonderful dancer, but could she be more opposite of the kind of dancer Makarova was? There is nothing "Je ne sais quoi" about her. Why even a NYCB ballerina, anyway? (For Baryshnikov, that's understandable.) There must be hundreds of dancers who wore out their Makarova tapes, wanting to be her someday, who have some of her dramatic quality. Why couldn't Part, a Russian-born dancer who left for America, so we have a parallel, not have danced the excerpt from "Other Dances"? (In the fouettes from Black Swan PDD, Part looked dour; that's not her strength, and Peck looked like she could have eaten them for breakfast.) In the "Giselle" Cojocaru's face was a death mask, and she looked robotic to me, which was surprising, since her Giselle got rave reviews. As Giselle, Makarova's eyes, at minimum, were always alive.

I just finished watching it, and the only parts I liked were the clips of Makarova dancing in the bio-tribute. The seven seconds of her in "Giselle" trumped anything Cojocaru and Corella did. I think more than half of that was the atrocious camera work -- all over the place -- but there was no scent to any of the dancing except for Kent and Hallberg in the "Romeo and Juliet" Balcony Pas de Deux, where drama is built in and the Macmillan is enhanced by being edited down to an excerpt, although I'm still wondering what was so profound about Kent's arm from her elbow up that merited a long camera shot. The dancers are wonderful dancers, but cut and sliced like that, apart from Kent and Hallberg, they didn't bring across any personal, recognizable quality, and Part was mis-cast. Just loved the "except for the people here to see the ballerina" joke. NOT. It's so annoying that many of the people who bothered to watch the show long enough to see Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and David Letterman age well will think this is representative of ballet. I'm not sure any of the other honorees got that much better across-the-board performance-wise -- Bonnie Raitt is the best exemplar of blues, really? -- but the music excerpts were coherent at least, and it looked like they aimed towards the 11-minute mark for "Stairway to Heaven." According to the closing credits, Damien Woetzel was co-producer of the Makarova segment. I don't know what that means -- Casting control? Excerpt choices? Helped develop the bio-segment? Presumably, not camera editing. Growing up I didn't watch many old movies and missed most of what was considered handsome leading man material -- I thought they lived in soap operas -- so when the young Dustin Hoffman came along in "The Graduate," I thought he was gorgeous. I didn't realize there was a mold to break. Did Balanchine really jump in line to choreograph for Makarova after she defected? I must have missed that chapter.

I'm glad you found the Clipper packages -- they have lots of good summer deals. During the summer months, they have extra boats, and your 3pm boat might be less crowded, since a lot of people do a day trip or an overnight and try to maximize their time by taking the early boat in and the last boat (early evening) home. The BC Museum is one of my favorite places in Victoria. There are also free tours of the legislature. You can pick up a ticket from an outdoor desk to the left of the stairs, and the tour is less than an hour. I'm a softy for Miniature World, with its displays of the railroad and the settling of the western part of Canada. It's right by the Empress Hotel. A warning about High Tea at the Empress: it's a big room, pretty noisy unless it's late lunch on a rainy winter day and there aren't many people. I'd call it "Corporate Tea." (The version at the Fairmont in Ottawa is a lot cosier.) We didn't try tea at Butchart Gardens, because it was too late, but another one that came highly recommended was the White Heather Tea Room, which looks like a bit of a hike from downtown, but when I looked at the menu, a nice long walk after the meal might be in order. We were going to go, but just couldn't fit it into the rest of our day, since by the time we called (a few days before for the weekend), there was only one time slot left.

The MarQueen is within two blocks of one of the best supermarkets in Seattle, Metropolitan Market, and there's also a Safeway about three blocks away in the opposite direction. Plus the kitchens are good if you eat out and need to reheat the leftovers. It's within half a block of a slew of restaurants of every price range, but most of them affordable. If you're traveling light and have the time, you can take light rail from the airport to the other end stop at Westlake Center in downtown Seattle, and either take the Monorail to Seattle Center and walk 10 minutes through the Center to the MarQueen, or you can transfer to one of the buses that goes from 3rd Avenue to Seattle Center West to Mercer Street and walk around the corner to the Marqueen. (It would be the stop on Mercer Street after Republican, which is by the Key Arena.) If you take a taxi from the airport -- somewhere between $40-$50 with tip -- unless the driver objects because there's construction (probably on 99), have him (most likely) or her take 509 to 518 to 99 (Aurora) instead of I-5. I used to live ten minutes north of Seattle Center, and taking that route, I'd made it to Seatac in less than 30 minutes. There isn't a ferry directly from Seattle to Victoria, but there is the Victoria Clipper which runs from from downtown Seattle to downtown Victoria. From the MarQueen, it's a short (10-15) minute taxi ride or a short bus ride plus a two block walk downhill from the MarQueen. After clearing customs at the Clipper terminal in Victoria, you'd be a five-minute walk from at least a dozen hotels and a 10-minute walk from the heart of downtown (the Empress Hotel, BC Legislature, BC Museum, etc.). The Butchart Gardens is the biggest draw in all of Victoria. You can get there as part of a tour, by taxi (it's a 25-minute ride from downtown), or by city bus (about 45-50 minutes). Coming back to Seattle, it would be a short bus or taxi ride from the Clipper terminal (after passing customs) to Westlake to catch light rail to the airport, unless you want to take a taxi. The ferry itself leaves from Anacortes, WA -- a 1.5-2 hour car ride from Seattle or 2.75-3 hours by shuttle bus (in good traffic) -- and sails to to Sidney, BC, about 45 minutes north of Victoria. I looked up shuttle info from downtown Seattle to Anacortes, and found one company with rates of $29OW/$50.50 RT (or $29 from downtown Seattle to Anacortes plus $31 from Anacortes to Seatac airport if you're heading directly home), plus $18 each way for the ferry, plus $5.00RT if you take the public bus from Sidney, BC to downtown Victoria, but you can get an discounted 7-day advance purchase ticket on the Clipper for $146 (non-weekend trip from May until the third week of June). It's 40% more expensive, but it takes about half the amount of time. The Clipper takes about three hours. The shuttle is 2 hours 45 minutes to Anacortes, the ferry ride itself is 2 hours 20 minutes, and then it's another 45 minutes from Sidney to Victoria, not including waiting times in between. During winter hours, the only ferry from Anacortes to Sidney leave at 8:30am, and the early (6:25am) shuttle doesn't get to Anacortes until 8:45am, after the daily ferry leaves. (The spring/summer schedule from WA State Ferries might not be up for a few months.) There may be at least one other ferry during summer hours from Anacortes to Sidney, but chances are, you'd end up on a shuttle that got you there with a few hours to kill before the next ferry left for BC. The only other option without a car rental would be to shuttle up to Anacortes the night before taking the ferry, staying there overnight, and then getting from town to the ferry terminal, by taxi or shuttle. The downside of the Victoria Clipper is that they hawk their food (breakfast baskets), duty free, souvenirs, and tours during the entire trip. It's good to have headphones. During the summer, they tend to be full, and it's easier to find some quiet space on the big ferries. But with just a few days, I'm not sure you'd want to chance the traffic and spend so much time in transit to save ~$50, and headphones help, especially the noise canceling kinds. You're going to need that time to stand on line at Red Fish-Blue Fish to get the best fish and chips and fish tacos around (unless you don't like fish). Victoria rocks: most of what is there to see is within a reasonable walk, with the exception of the Gardens. I used to go a few times a year when I lived in Seattle. It's the number one place that people who visit me in either Seattle or Vancouver want to see. I even like it in winter, and plan to head there in January.

I grew up in a town that was primarily Italian Catholic -- Sicilian, specifically -- and fish for New Year's Eve was common among the families I knew. My friend from Peru told me that they'd go to midnight mass, have a big meal, and then walk on the beach. To be in a warm part of the Southern hemisphere...

That's like inviting your friends over to listen to opera and playing one of the Ella Fitzgerald Song Books instead. I think if they were told the Bourne was ballet and then saw actual ballet, whether it be "Sleeping Beauty," "Agon," or "Artifact Suite," they'd see it as a bait-and-switch, even if they like and appreciate both.