Helene

The TV spot from rehersal: Some casting hints: Carla Korbes looking gorgeous as Giselle with Karel Cruz as Albrecht, and glimpses of William Yin-Lee as Wilfrid to Cruz's Albrecht, Eric Hippolito, Jr. as Wilfrid, I think, to Lucien Postlewaite's Albrecht. There's also a quick shot of Lesley Rausch with children. Cruz and Postlewaite will be heartbreaking heart breakers as Albrecht. I'm getting all verklempt thinking about it...

From PNB's Media Relations Director, Gary Tucker: Congratulations to Mr. Kerollis!

According to Rosie Gaynor's blog entry on the eight dancers who are leaving PNB at season's end, Peter Boal plans to hire eight dancers. The first hiring confirmation we've had is the Matthew Renko will join PNB next season: From Time Out Chicago Renko was a member of New York City Ballet, Ballet Chicago, and Suzanne Farrell Ballet. In a NYCB thread, mira attested to his skill as a choreographer: I hope he choreographs for next year's "Next Step", a performance in which PNB dancers choreograph for Professional Division students. I'd love to see his work.

Thank you so much, leonid!

I was thinking Ballet Chicago, but Suzanne Farrell Ballet is more likely to come out West before I can travel to Chicago. ETA: Just got word (with a link) that Renko will dance with Pacific Northwest Ballet next season: http://timeoutchicago.com/arts-culture/dance/14763419/live-review-ballet-chicago-balanchine-celebration So I'll only have to travel to Seattle, yay!

It's not so much of a surprise that there were issues in the theater for "Die Walkure" -- The Machine can be tetchy, and it's not a quick or easy process to get it back up and running when there's a glitch. They're still working out the kinks, which is one of the reasons many houses introduce their Ring Cycles a with at least the first two operas in the seasons before a full Ring, which the Met is doing before the full Ring in the 2012 season. At first, I, too, wondered if Levine was okay. I'm very happy they aren't making him drag himself to the stage for curtain calls. Then I wondered if they had a very last minute singing substitute and were getting that person in costume and warmed up during the delay. I'm glad it was just mechanical issues. I'm disappointed that I'll be out of town during both of the "Die Walkure" encores here, and they don't play the same dates in the US. I hope this eventually gets broadcast on PBS or made into a DVD. The summer encores are generally mainstream greatest hits selections. I think we are lucky to get something as serious and relatively exotic as Don Carlo, which I'll try to see.

We also got the slide show of stills of the performers, and an announcement from the very nice theatre manager that it wasn't a problem at the theater or with the transmission. It was The Machine : one or more censors on the planks went out. As a result, the computer couldn't tell where the planks were on the axis. Every once in a while we've gotten blips in the transmission, but yesterday at Scotiabank Theatre we lost what felt like five minutes of audio in the first scene of Act III, and, sadly, we missed Sieglinde's gorgeous parting line to Beunnhilde, the theme that is repeated in the orchestra at the end if Götterdämmerung. We received vouchers from the theater, which was great, and we can use them for encores.

vipa, you better be careful -- this opera stuff is addictive! I'm glad you had such a great time. Except for the first major technical difficulty I've experienced at one of these -- we missed about five minutes of Act III, including Sieglinde's beautiful lines before she runs off into the forest -- I loved Die Walkure, and I think The Machine is brilliant.

Thank you, Marga!

Thank you, Jack. I hope to see the company one day. Renko sounds like one to watch.

I just read that Cheryl Burke and Louis van Amstel danced together on this week's elimination show. Did anyone see it? I love both of them.

Jeffrey Stanton: The ballets he doesn't identify himself are "In the middle, somewhat elevated" (blue unitard), "Swan Lake" (blue velvet), "Jardi Tancat" (beige shirt, brown pants), 4T's -- Phlegmatic (white shirt, black tights), "Slaughter on 10th Avenue" (all black), "Take Five, More or Less" (black, with Leslie Rausch in purple dress), "Agon" (more white and black), and "Silver Lining" (top hat and tails). The brief snippet of "Romeo and Juliet" is Kent Stowell's "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet".

PNB has released a video in which Marian Smith speaks briefly about the two musical scores being used and Doug Fullington speaks about the Stepanov notation; there are stills of the scores themselves: In the video you'll see the same cast as in the Guggenheim presentation -- James Moore as Hilarion, Carla Korbes and Seth Orza as Giselle and Loys/Albrecht, and Carrie Imler as Giselle's mother and then as Myrtha. In the middle of the video there are two young, Liora Reshef and Eric Hippolito, Jr.; is that Peasant pas de Deux? It's great to see Reshef again who was back in the cast lists in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"after a long absence: she will shine in a Romantic ballet like "Giselle". Here's a great look at the two lost scenes from Act II that are being restored: "Hilarion and the Hunters", with Peter Boal standing in for Hilarion and then Jeffrey Stanton as Hilarion, and Kiyon Gaines, Josh Spell, Barry Kerollis, joined by William Lin-Yee, Eric Hippolito, Jr., then Andrew Bartee, then Sean Rollofson (?), and then "Old Man and the Villagers", with Ryan Cardea as the Old Man (with the green hat), and I think PD students as the villagers. Other videos: The Photoshoot, with Amanda Clark, Eric Hippolito, Jr. (doing the lifting), and Angela Sterling, formerly a fantastic soloist at PNB, now a fantastic dance photographer: The evolution of the poster by Ben Kerns:

I wish Cornejo a quick and full recovery. I wish Sarabia was making his debut under happier circumstances, but it will be a great opportunity to see him dance.

Vancouver Opera opera completes its run of "La Traviata" tonight. Erin Wall, who sang Violetta, was spectacular and stole the show: her voice was in the zone, smack in the center of the note, and fully supported. She found the pulse of the character, and she carried the characterization through the entire performance. Unlike many sopranos who indicate consumption by getting breathy and coughing a lot, she used tone and color to lose the strength of breath, something very different than the sotto voce she used to convey emotional pain. Jonathan Miller was the director, and it was a remarkable production. Baritone James Westman, who sang Giorgio Germont, said in an interview with QueerFM, that he had seen a video of another Miller production of the opera. I haven't seen it, and can't speak to how different this production was from earlier productions by the veteran director, but what he got from every singer onstage was a natural physical performance void of the standard opera gestures, including the sudden stop-and-stiffen that telegraphs directly to the back of the house. An example is in the last act, when Westman's pere Germont saw that he had returned with his son far too late, he walked to a chair, sat down, and slowly, over the course of the rest of the act, sank into a broken posture. No sobs, no quick turning away, no clutching: just the physicalization of guilt and impotence. Stephen Wadsworth always calls the singers he works with "actors"; in this case, the singing actors were as skilled as any theater actor in creating a specific movement characterization as well as vocal characterization. I had heard David Pomeroy's Don Jose a few years ago. To "La Traviata" he brought the passion that was lacking in "Carmen", but he sang with more refinement and style in the earlier opera. His performance wasn't quite coarse, but it sounded unfinished. I feel like I've been hearing a long streak of baritones who are gravelly in their lower registers, but sing beautifully in the top half of their voice with style and lovely inflection, and James Westman fit that bill. The other "principal" was conductor Jacques Lacombe, who is Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony, and he conducted a graceful, nuanced performance. Among the smaller roles there were two standouts. The first was Barbara Towell's Flora. Not only does she have a strong, secure mezzo, but in the Act III choreography, I wasn't sure whether she was one of the guests playing dress-up -- she was en travestie, in classical Spanish man's dress, and she is tiny -- or a dancer until she was hesitant when the male dancers lifted her to their shoulders. The second was Giles Tomkins, a bass-baritone who sang Doctor Grenvil. He doesn't have very many lines, but his rich voice sang to the rafters. I'd love to see him in a major role.

Oh, Marga, you're right. I didn't see last week's elimination show or this week's shows -- for some reason Shaw won't treat DWTS as a series, and I forgot to set my PVR to record. I read the book after Cheryl's elimination but before I learned of this week's results, and glommed the couples together. It was Hightower who had some wonderful dances with Romeo, and Burke with Jericho.

While on the road home from a splendid wedding this weekend, I read Cheryl Burke's book, "Dancing Lessons: How I found Passion and Potential on the Dance Floor and in Life". It's structured a lot like Jacques d'Amboise's "I Am a Dancer", with an initial chronological section on childhood and then using types of dances as metaphors of a mix of what was going on in her personal and professional life, with a lot of repetition among chapters. In some ways it reads like an info-mercial, but what I found fascinating was her "Thanks, Partners" chapters, which go into greater detail the reasons for the gratitude she expresses to them throughout the book. Ballroom dancers, with all of the glitz -- hair, make-up, costumes -- and sex, particularly in Latin always seem so much older than they are, and it's easy for me to forget that 1. Most of them are babies in their early 20's and 2. When the show started, aside from people who were interested in ballroom and their families, these dancers were unknowns, no matter how lauded in the professional ballroom world. (Alas the demise of the yearly PBS competition broadcast, even if it was a small slice of ballroom, like watching figure skating once every four years at the Olympics.) It's really like ballet, where so many great dancers apart from Nureyev, Fonteyn, and Baryshnikov elicit a "Who?" response from the general public. Of course most of the stars go into the show knowing little about ballroom dance and not having danced it before, and the pros are the ones with all of the knowledge. We see the stars struggle with technique, coordination, musicality, and confidence, but when it boils down to it, almost every star, no matter how much we roll our eyes about how E-list some of them are, and no matter how untalented in their own area we find them or how much we dis their boy band or reality show, knows what s/he is doing very, very well in some area, and most of them are grown-ups in real life, not just the token 60-and-over stars. For example, Wendy Williams might not be able to dance, but she knows how to host a talk show, and I don't under-estimate what it takes to sit still, appear interested, enunciate clearly, keep guests' energy up, put them at ease, take live audience and viewer response into consideration, and all of the other things I couldn't even guess about the technique it takes to do her job. Other pros have had cameras on them forever; to learn to dance when they were most vulnerable with a camera crew around taping everything was something they could do easily, but which Burke had a very hard time getting used to. I found it fascinating when Burke described what each of her partners taught her, personally and professionally, things I would have assumed, being in show-biz of a kind, she would have been exposed to and would have known. Ian Ziering, for example, was the one who suggested that she was a brand, and should capitalize on it, leading her to the idea of creating her own studio chain. She had her self-described first worst moment with a pro with Emmitt Smith, when she yelled at him in frustration. Taken in the context that she had had controlling, abusive, and over-bearing boyfriends, here is her description: She then describes how she had to change her approach as a teacher: She almost seems surprised by the extent to which he and other partners have continued to keep in touch and have supported her, but it's very clear she considers them teachers in both how to perform (as opposed to dance) and how to live. It's at the point of the show where I'm sorry anyone has to go, and it's bittersweet that Burke was the one, with her partner, who was eliminated. I thought she and Romeo did some remarkable dances along the way.

Oh, I just saw the subtitle listing the program. Definitely for "Afternoon of a Faun", "Antique Epigraphs", "Interplay", and "The Concert", I'd try for Second Tier (but not Second Tier sides, the seats against the walls). "Afternoon of a Faun" was the second thing I saw at NYCB, and Darci Kistler and Afshin Mofid danced it. I also have happy memories of "Antique Epigraphs", which was choreographed for Stephanie Saland (brown), Kyra Nichols (purple), Maria Calgari (blue), Simone Schumacher (green), Helene Alexopoulos (red), Victoria Hall (gold), Jerri Kummery (tan), and Florence Fitzgerald (brick). I love the score, especially "Syrinx" for flute. It should be a lovely program.

That is great!

I spent decades going back and forth between the Second and Third Ring. I think the Second Ring is better for ballets with casts of ~ 0-12 corps members, like "Agon", "Concerto Barocco", "Davidsbundertanze", "Liebeslieder Walzer", and Third Ring is better for the big corps ballets, where seeing the patterns makes all the difference, like "Symphony in C", "Symphony in Three Movements", "Stravinsky Violin Concerto". (Fourth Ring is great for those ballets as well.) Second Tier is a lot like the front of the Dress Circle at War Memorial Opera House. Third Tier is like the back of the Dress Circle, but on a different level, not with a wide aisle separating them. (The First-Third Tiers of NYST only have about half a dozen rows each.)

Thank you for the news, Jane! to Ms. Bernholdt, Mr. Hubbe, Ms. Englund, and Mr. Fransson

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Oh, I am green with envy at those who will see this!

Kronos Quartet!!!! I love them and their dedication to 20th century classical and contemporary music. I'm playing "Nuevo" in their honor. "Mini Skirt" -- wheeeeeeee!!!!!!

It's almost an non-starter to compare the greats who are coaching, often in street clothes, to the dancers being coached. In addition to artistry and experience, they can distill the movement down to an arm, hand, gesture, or gaze, without having to express with their entire body and with the amplitude needed to project from the stage.