dirac

Novarro's not shown to best advantage in Mata Hari, but I don't think he would have been a great improvement on Gilbert in Queen Christina, either. Unfortunately, Garbo didn't want Laurence Olivier, still young and callow at the time but a more interesting match for her than either of the others. I"ve seen Novarro in several silent movies - The Red Lily, The Student Prince, and Ben-Hur - all good movies and he is very appealing in them. His sound movies, not so much. Thank you for telling us about the book, miliosr. It sounds like a good read.

It's too bad for the new O'Neal's. Best of luck to the former proprietors in current and future endeavors.

Apollinaire Scherr, who will be delivering the keynote speech, previews the event on her blog.

There's also a nice interview with Kirkland and Chernov in the latest Ballet Review, where she talks about her early influences as well as the new venture. Best of luck to both of them!

There are some great models out there for controlled YouTube postings, where "control" doesn't equate to suppression. I'm all in favor of that. But it's part of the trust of the Trusts that they pounce on such unauthorized postings and they would be derelict in their duty if they didn't. I look forward to an eventual resolution that satisfies everyone.

The ending bothers me too - so much, by now, that I feel I don't want to see the piece again. I read a book recently by a dancer whose name I regret I've temporarily forgotten who also wondered about it and asked Balanchine why he didn't have the father go to the boy, and he said 'No - is God - boy must come to him'. (Quoted from memory, almost certainly inaccurately.) I think your quote is about right, Jane. I recollect reading that Balanchine said something like that to Robbins. I tend not to have a problem with Balanchine's ending myself, if only because where the original story was concerned I always thought the Good Son had a point.

I don't think it matters, bart. There are plenty of news reports out there for those who have been following the case. Thanks.

Thanks for posting, Mashinka. I also unburdened myself thoroughly in the last thread and won't repeat myself unless it's called for, but I quite agree. Anthony_NYC is also right, the testimony is a must-read.

Villella says in his book that Adams as the Siren chilled him to the bone. With those legs I'm sure she was a very striking Siren. Another interesting pairing to have seen would have been Robbins-Tallchief, photographed so well by George Platt Lynes. Tallchief says she wasn't tall enough and couldn't cope with the cape, and there is no reason to disbelieve her, but I would still be curious to see what she did with the role. Apparently there were some rocky moments on the first night ("Maria! For God's sake, sit on my head!") but both of them seem to have received intensive coaching from Balanchine.

I think the group Americanized its singing voices early on with the intention of exercising broader appeal to the American market, which was probably a shrewd move - if they'd retained those droll accents for musical purposes they probably never would have gotten out of town. The accent did pop up from time to time, but the "international" effect seems to have been deliberate.

In addition something of the kind was already happening while Balanchine was alive. He told different dancers different things about a given ballet at different points and if something didn't suit a new dancer in the role he would often change it. Of course, any such alterations made in his lifetime happened under his own aegis. But when the creator is gone others have to make those decisions -- responsibly, one hopes. Also Balanchine changed some of Terpsichore's steps for Farrell and so the "score" she worked from was slightly different from Danilova's. When Farrell was new to the scene some thought she was distorting some of her choreography. Now she's the "old-fashioned" standard.

Times are still tough. And of course a company can do all the 'reaching out' to a community that it can, but the community has to respond.

The Charlie Rose interview is a good one, Rose asks Rivers more about what it was like working with Carson ("Go watch 'The Tudors,'" Rivers suggests) and Rivers notes what I had heard but the documentary does not indicate, that she already knew that she had reached the end of the line on Tonight when Fox made the offer for her own show. And like her daughter, Melissa, in the film, Rivers refers to her career as a sort of independent entity, "The Career."

I don't think we're really arguing, miliosr, at least I'm not. ;) There is plenty of evidence to indicate that Mayer disliked Gilbert enough to want to get rid of him, and less conclusive but not-entirely-dismissible evidence that he actively worked to do so. We also know that Gilbert was not helping himself. Soares (and you) makes a good point about Gilbert's salary; Garbo and her vehicles, too, eventually became too expensive without the European market. (You'll have to tell us what he says about Novarro's career - please start a thread when you're ready. )

I think you already know the answer to that, Hans. However, centuries from now Balanchine's works will probably look somewhat different because times changes and dancers change with them. On the other hand we do have more sophisticated ways of recording how Balanchine's ballets were danced, which wasn't true for Petipa.

I would also be interested to hear more on the role, if any, of claques in contemporary performance. I have no experience of claques myself.

kfw posted this on my "Other Arts" thread and I'm taking the liberty of copying it into a new thread as I think it deserves a room of its own: That sounds like a lovely way to pass part of the afternoon, kfw. Did it attract a good sized audience, I hope?

Haven't seen a set of cheekbones like that since Montgomery Clift. All congratulations to M. Bullion.

I'm sure dancers were embellishing even in Petipa's own day, however. In principle there's nothing wrong with that Leigh's teacher did as long as you know what you're doing, adjusting enough to keep the ballet from ossifying and challenging dancers while keeping to the spirit and design. That isn't "changing the rules of the game" - it's acknowledging that the game is different for every generation. That's key, I think.

Thanks so much, Sandy. I'll give it a listen when I have a chance. Like Rivers or not, she's not a dull interview.

I think we all agree that Gilbert's decline and fall was the result of more than one issue, don't we? Reposting from an earlier post of mine in this thread: Shades of "Singin' in the Rain. " The story was that Thalberg, who was often on sick leave, was not always there to step in and also Gilbert did not always mind Thalberg's advice to a) steer clear of Mayer and b) behave. It's true that the real power and final say lay with the money men in New York, but Mayer was still the man on the spot. Jeanette MacDonald was once one of Mayer's favorite stars, but when she went over his head to New York on the matter of dubbing her own voice, she believed he never forgave her and her career suffered for it thereafter. The studios do seem to have used the transition to sound to do a little housecleaning. Could he get rid of a star at the top of his game? Most likely not, but he could take advantage of an opening, and it seems that Gilbert unwisely gave him plenty. (In regard to "His Glorious Night," the dialogue seems to have been at least as much the problem as Gilbert's voice.)

You're absolutely right, Alexandra. As it comes back to me, she was comparing two Paquitas - one that Danilova had set on the students for the SAB workshop performance and the one that Makarova had presented, which was embellished with fancy steps and attendant busywork.

Now that I think about it, Arlene Croce said more or less the same thing decades ago when discussing the effect that the sundering of the apostolic succession of choreographers in Russia with the departure of Fokine and Balanchine had upon the course of ballet in that country. With the best choreographers gone missing, the teachers took over.

Audio interview with Rivers and the filmmakers, Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg.

Wonderful post, atm711. Thank you. It may be that during periods when creativity is not at a peak, technique comes more to the fore.