Helene

Great post, richard53dog. I am among the people who think that Richard Wagner would have gone nuts with cinema and computerization and that, if he were alive today, would have been IM'ing film directors left and right, as Cosima blogged about it. Some of his stage descriptions are like visions of interplanetary space travel that could only be accomplished by camera work and special effects. On the other hand, any director -- or film editor or director or camera person for DVD's -- would be getting the what-for from him. (I think of Balanchine positioning cameras in the movies on which he worked, over the objections of the studio head.) I think you're dead on about Puccini as a man of the theater. The question is, whether he would have embraced the directions in which theater has gone, or whether he'd think they were lifeless. I think it's hard to generalize about what most composers would think of big categories, like "traditional" or "konzept". I think a lot of it depends on the production, and in the case of Wagner, whether ego would get in the way. It's hard for me to imagine, though, Verdi or Puccini being thrilled about the Zefferellization of their operas much more than over stage set with a row of toilets, and especially Puccini being taken by overly intellectual and static readings. But then again, without censors, who knows what Verdi would have embraced?

He said he was going to freelance and dedicate his time to the festival. That isn't so different from what Bocca did towards the end of his career, although Bocca focused on a company and Carreno will focus on a festival. As a freelancer he'll be in demand and can do as much as he wants or as little as he wants, based on his own priorities. Good for him!

Christoph Maraval is now ballet master at Naples Academy of Ballet. http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2010/sep/08/naples-cademy-ballets-master-brings-professionalis/ There's a slide show with the article.

Here's "Glass Pieces" (with Glass' music): This one is really hard for me to parse -- lots of overheads and fast cutting. After the corps shots, there are two couples, Rachel Foster (in black) with Benjamin Griffiths, and Sarah Orza (in grey leotard) with James Moore. There's a longish part (for this length video) of Carla Korbes and Batkhurel Bold. I think I spotted Maria Chapman in black with Jeffrey Stanton, and I hope, hope, hope this isn't wishful thinking, and she's back from last season's foot injury. Later Chalnessa Eames in a blue leotard is lifted by maybe Jerome Tisserand in a blue shirt that matches her leotard and blue pants with white stripes.

I just got a letter from AAA (Washington) with a picture of a nutcracker driving a tow truck and the tag line: "No, Nutcracker won't give you a tow, but he will give you 20% off Nutcracker tickets" for PNB's "Nutcracker" through 22 September. And there are no blackout dates. That's got to reach a wide audience.

Also, participating was what hooked him on ballet and was part of ballet education: how to behave on stage, in the wings, in the dressing rooms, in rehearsal. Originally, Coffee was four kids (parrots) around Francisco Moncion smoking a hookah. That was changed in 1964, with the solo created for Gloria Govrin, then according to the Balanchine Catalog, was "substantially rechoreographed" in 1979. The "complete" TV broadcast was in 1958; the change wasn't to make it family-friendly for TV. That would have been too early for the opening of the New York State Theater (April, 1964), but perhaps Balanchine was anticipating the move? I've never seen the Moncion version and don't know whether it was too static for the big stage.

Thank you, JMcN -- I thought I remembered that they saw him in a classical ballet. (The book, like the rest of my life, seems to be in a box right now.)

The 2010 Honorees are: Oprah Winfrey Merle Haggard Bill T. Jones Jerry Herman Sir Paul McCartney http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/07/AR2010090702439.html?hpid=artslot

The only arts-related one I've seen in Seattle or Vancouver has been Vancouver Opera's for a single performance "Lillian Alling", a commission from John Estacio (music) and John Murrell (libretto) that opens in October. I joined Vancouver Groupon when it launched, but Seattle was already going strong, and I might have missed earlier ones from there. Hopefully they'll get decent retention next year, but they shouldn't expect the kinds of renewal rates they get from their loyal base. I'd love to see the P&L and long-term results on this one. It's interesting because unlike magazine subscriptions (apart from newsletters), the publisher expects to break even at the [n]th renewal, mainly based on the cost of acquisition (print and other media ads, direct mail packages, insert cards, cut to Publisher's Clearinghouse, etc.), the cost of acquisition is time spent to set it up with Groupon. I don't know Groupon's cut or the payout schedule, but the incremental cost of the new subscriptions is administrative, ticket and program printing, and mailing, and, if they have to open up a new section, more ushers.

Unless rights were denied, I don't understand why they didn't use Stevenson's work. Even if rights were denied, finding other classical choreography that resembled Stevenson's shouldn't have been too hard. My cynical cap appears to be super-glued to my scalp, and I can only think that using Murphy's work was an attempt to "popularize" ballet among the wider movie-going audience and to use a well-known, Australian-based choreographer. I'd love to see Murphy's "Swan Lake" because I think it would be a hoot, but that's in the context of having seen "Swan Lake", not as a novice or non-balletgoer. Ironically, Australian Ballet performs the Peter Wright "Nutcracker", which is likely the single production an average film-goer from Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane is likely to have seen, not a "So You Think You Can Dance" production number.

Li danced with the Australian Ballet, which he joined in 1995 and left in 1999. (For the last two years, he was training as a stockbroker while he danced.) Murphy took over what became Sydney Dance Theatre 16 years earlier, although he was resident choreographer for a few years, and the company has performed his work. I don't know how much influence he had while Li danced there. I saw the company seven years later, and they performed a wide range of work. Those "Red Brigade" ballets were the reality of the period of the Cultural Revolution. Madame Mao and Stalin had a lot in common in shaping ideological forms of art. Mrs. Li (Niang) is Joan Chen, whom I found riveting in the movie. I also love the diplomat, but I didn't remember the character's name and couldn't catch it in the credits.

A wider range than I knew was available for streaming. Sirius broadcasts at least three live performances a week during the season, including the Saturday broadcast, and "favorites" encores weekly all summer based on listener vote, but there's a chance to catch everything once from the Met website. On 3 September The New York Times published an article on director Peter Stein's withdrawal from "Boris Gudonov". Stephen Wadsworth replaces Stein as director.

Another Katharina, with a half order of the Nurse. I usually don't like sites with lots of moving graphics, but kudos to Evan McKie and the Jealous Kid On/Off Graphics people who worked on the site. Thank you, innopac, for finding this

The precedent was set in the "Dance in America" series of Balanchine ballets, where a piece of music for one of the ballets accompanied the excerpts from all ballets in the intro and another piece in the closing credits. PNB uses the Mozart from "Sechs Tanze" for the "Sechs Tanze"/"Glass Pieces" video, more Mozart from "Petite Mort" for the "Director's Choice" video, and the Martynov from "Afternoon Ball" for the "Season's Preview" video.

Here's the link to the "Director's Choice" video: I'm not sure of all of the ID's, but here's a shot; the music is Mozart (23rd Piano Concerto) used in "Petite Mort": Petite Mort: Ariana Lallone and Batkhurel Bold Jardi Tancat: Mara Vinson? and Batkhurel Bold Petite Mort: Chalnessa Eames Jardi Tancat: Carrie Imler (red) and Mara Vinson? (violet) Petite Mort: Lucien Postlewaite (center) and Karel Cruz (right) Petite Mort: Benjamin Griffiths (with sword) Jardi Tancat: Carrie Imler and Olivier Wevers Petite Mort: Lucien Postlewaite and Kaori Nakamura

Since "Western Symphony" is one of the ballets that I would trade happily for a fragment of an old, lost Balancihine ballet, and I find the corps work hopelessly dull, my only question is "Why?????" If they were going to do Tharp, why not "Nine Sinatra Songs"? It's not just that I dislike "The Golden Section", but I can't see it filming well, while the Sinatra is intimate.

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Many thanks, mmded, for the reminder of Marc Haegemann's review. Not only did he describe the ballet as "among the most rewarding new ballets acquired by Flanders in the last dozen years", Dawson's appointment also could begin to address his critique that "the current season wasn’t in any way different from the preceding ones, in that it didn’t give us any real indication where the company is heading to and in what way it is going to survive the next 10 years". Royal Ballet of Flanders has very fine dancers, if the audience in Gent gave little energy back to the stage in the few performances I've seen there.

Without knowing how talented or teachable they are, it's hard to know how this cast compares to the others in terms of dance ability.

This fall, to celebrate its 50th anniversary (a couple of years late), Vancouver Opera will present the commission "Lillian Alling": This morning's Vancouver Groupon is $58 (plus $2 handling fee) for a $110 ticket to any of the four performances, 16-23 October, in section C, which has some nice real estate in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on all levels. The description above is from the Groupon offer, and it isn't as cutesy as they tend to be. I may have missed other tickets offered in other cities, since I've only been a member since Groupon launched in Vancouver, but this is a fine idea, especially since most Groupons can be gifted, and the recipient chooses the date.

Also, That sounds wild, especially with male and female Bluebirds. (The male is Niels Kehlet, in the credits as "Niles Keleth".)

The intial comment was "I liked seeing a ballet movie about Heterosexual men", which I took to mean where a heterosexual man is the focus of the movie or main male character, since the second most prominent character in "Mao's Last Dancer" is Ben Stevenson. Where, specifically? I've watched the movie a dozen times over two decades, and I never caught that.

It depends on who owns the rights. If there's a Trust involved (Tudor, Balanchine, Ashton) for example, the Trust gives permission and arranges for someone to stage the ballet. Sometimes the Artistic Director or Ballet Master in the company can stage it -- Ib Andersen at Ballet Arizona, Peter Boal and Francia Russell at Pacific Northwest Ballet -- and sometimes they hire an official stager. (PNB and Ballet Arizona hire stagers from the Trust for some ballets.) They can also hire coaches, such as when PNB brought in Suzanne Farrell for a day or two to coach "Diamonds", although she didn't stage the ballet. For living choreographers, like Forsythe, the company gets permission from the choreographer, and usually either the requester is affiliated with Forsythe, like Bennets at Royal Ballet of Flanders, and can stage it him/herself, or the company and choreographer arrange for an approved stager to set the work, such as when Roslyn Anderson stages Kylian ballets and Shelley Washington stages "Nine Sinatra Songs". In the case of Maillot's "Romeo et Juliette", the choreographer visited Seattle to refine what had been taught by the original Juliette, who staged the work and who was scheduled to dance one performance until she ran into visa issues. From Q&A's and books and articles I've read, the primary way to transmit the steps is person-to-person, with the stager relying on his/her own notes more regularly than notation, and video as a memory aid. However, dancers more and more are saying that after the premier season, they just check out the tapes and learn the parts before the ballets go into rehearsal. This is a double-edged sword, because what is on tape may be different than what is coached, and the intention is lost without being transmitted from people who worked with the source or someone directly coached from the source. There are some sources, like the Stepanov notations of Petipa ballets, that are used by Doug Fullington, for example, to reconstruct early ballets, and in this case, the notation and the ability to read and interpret it is key to staging the work.

While there are gay characters in all of the movies you mentioned -- I didn't see the Fonteyn bio-pic -- in the Baryshnikov movies, he's the leading man, and he's such a playah: you don't get any straighter than that in movie terms. There's are two short scenes in which Skerritt's sexuality is discussed: when in the heat of an argument, Bancroft' Emma accuses Maclaine's Deedee of marrying him because (paraphrase) "back in those days a man in ballet meant 'queer'", and later when Deedee tells him that there was some truth to this, and he responds that he married her to prove it, too, which could also be interpreted that, as a male ballet dancer, he needed the outward validation, not that he was unsure he was straight. Jeez, they even made James Mitchell's character in "The Turning Point" straight. In "Center Stage", four of the five main main characters are emphatically straight -- Stiefel's Cooper, Radetsky's Charlie, Kulik's Yuri, and Gallagher's Jonathan. There have been only a handful of ballet movies, which is too bad.

I don't think the impression I got was intended After seeing Brenaa's astonishing connection with the dancers, his energy, his demonstrations -- his overall involvement -- to watch Ralov barely engaging with the dancers, except to make one technical correction, was such a let-down. She sat in a chair and rarely moved. I would have been unable to sit still watching Villumsen's solo.