dirac

Great quotes, richard53dog.

I looked at the obit and was a bit confused. Alan Blyth is credited as writing it but the article also notes that he died in 2007. Does anyone know how this is possible? Did he write it in advance of his own passing and it was put on ice? In England at least and I am sure elsewhere, informed persons often critics, colleagues or friends are asked to write obituaries often well before the subjects demise and if they are still relevant they are used. Alan Blyth was a distinguished critic author and musicoligist. See his obituary: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituari...yth-462271.html Someone I knew wrote an obituary for Natalia Dudinskaya who died in 2003 and he had pre-deceased her by nine years yet because of its content it was published in "The Independent." Edited for misspelling The same practice is also followed in the States. Publications like The New York Times keep many obituaries of the not-yet-dead on file. I think David Halberstam's obit was written by someone who had already died. Blyth was a fine writer. Thank you for posting, Pamela.

This is great, miliosr. Thanks so much for posting this.

Thanks for posting this, sandik. I saw an item last week - sad news.

One of my favorite movies, MakarovaFan. Good to know that the actor playing a man famous for his way with horses couldn't ride one.

I found the surtitles more of a help than a hindrance; they don't suck you into the story, but then that's something that shouldn't be left up to surtitles in the first place. Graham's "Clytemnestra" is difficult to follow even if you know the Oresteia backwards and forwards and have braved Graham's own program notes to boot. The original score (composed by Halim El-Dabh) includes chanted text for a man and a women to provide some context, but it's not much of a road map if you get lost. The work is structured as a non-linear series of flashbacks with multiple takes on the some of the incidents. The cast is very large; there are about a dozen named parts and not all of the characters are easy to identify. Keeping track of who's doing what to whom and why is a challenge and I think it can make it difficult to experience the work as a drama. The big solos and set pieces are plenty vivid, but would be an eyeful even if they were presented as excerpts. If you worked them up as a trailer, everyone would want to go see the show. Thanks, Kathleen. Great post.

Woodward did most of his work for television but he made three very good feature films and he’s top of the line in all of them: The Wicker Man, Mister Johnson, and Breaker Morant. There aren’t many actors who could get as much as he did out of a slight shift of inflection or tiny change of expression. I think especially of a bit towards the end of Breaker Morant, when Woodward is offered a chance to escape and ‘see the world.’ He says ‘I’ve seen it’ and with the smallest of emphases he tells you that he’s had enough of what he’s seen and he’s ready to leave it. Nice singing voice, too. R.I.P. Related.

Thank you for posting, Ed. I've seen good movies with screenplays by Ambler but never read one of his books. (There's a little known Alec Guinness picture that I like, The Card, that was adapted by Ambler from a novel by Arnold Bennett.)

Wow, indeed. Thanks for posting this, innopac!

Helpmann certainly was interesting, although personally he seems to have had some less than attractive qualities. His talents are shown to much better advantage in ToH than in The Red Shoes, definitely. (A naive observer could be forgiven for wondering just how Helpmann wound up as premier danseur for the Ballet Lermontov.)

Yes, please tell us more, Ed. The cinematographer on the picture was Christopher Challis if I'm not mistaken. Powell had wanted a larger role for Nicklaus, planning at one point to reveal Nicklaus as Hoffmann’s muse. Brown had a most wonderful and distinctive speaking voice, which you don’t get to hear in ToH, unfortunately. Her career was blighted by crippling arthritis, which struck her in her teens. Powell speaks movingly about her in his book – they lived together for decades until her death.

I agree, it's remarkable he did all that in the first place. I like some of his ballets better than most people on this board, but then I'm not exposed to a surfeit of them (as I am to Helgi Tomasson's sometimes less-than-inspired offerings here in San Francisco).

It is Tallchief. I seem to remember a publicity photo of her with Esther Williams from somewhere. If Martin Scorsese has some time on his hands I hope he considers a restoration of Tales of Hoffmann, which could probably use the attention.

Thank you for posting this, abatt. If you do see it, I hope you tell us about it!

Has anyone seen the new DVD by any chance?

Thanks, miliosr, I enjoyed reading your post. Graham was always candid about making dances for herself to dance in. It may well be that for Graham the choice was not between making dances for her fading gifts or creating on other dancers, but continuing primarily to make works for herself or make no works at all. (And she got such a relatively late start with her own company that I’m sure from her perspective her active career as a dancer was, in a way, too short.)

Thank you so much for telling us about it. The Adagio Lamentoso is one of those pieces of music that can almost seem too familiar, but a wonderful performance can make us appreciate it afresh.

Thanks for the update, carbro. I wonder how close this book is to being an 'unfinished novel' as opposed to a series of fragments. Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon was published by Edmund Wilson as an 'unfinished novel' but it really doesn't qualify - it's the first few chapters of something that was plainly going to undergo a great deal of revision and had a long way to go before completion.

Thank you for telling us about it, MakarovaFan. I hope the revival comes my way.

Thanks, Patrick. You really should see Antichrist, you might not like it but I'd be interested to hear, read that is, your thoughts.

Thank you for reviving this thread, Ed. Both of those are great but I love the second.

Backstabbing ballerina stories go at least as far back as The Turning Point. I haven’t seen any suggestions that there’s a male love interest, so I don’t think we know if the ladies are in fact playing for both teams.

But then the article goes on to say that very few companies ask to perform his works because of the music and those that do (presumably ballet companies) do not perform them in the correct technique and with the correct style. So, they're really betwixt and between, aren't they? Sure looks that way.

cinnamonswirl, I have the impression that NYCB is associated in some way - perhaps it's the protagonist's home company? But there's only so much ballet that you can work in to a film led by a cast of non-dancers.

The NYT article makes the point that if there is no Cunningham company his dances will go to ballet companies almost by default, because many modern troupes don't have the technique.