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Sonja

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Posts posted by Sonja

  1. It's been more than two weeks now, but still I would like to post a few notes on this programme I saw in Stuttgart (matinee and evening performance).

    The triple bill consists of following ballets:

    1) Symphony in C (Balanchine)

    2) Pierrot Lunaire (Tetley)

    3) The Concert (Robbins)

    I assume many professional critics have written about it, but most reviews I could find are in German only - and since it is such an American programme (and since I loved it...), here are my comments:

    It is such a great mixture - the neoclassical "Symphony", then the "toughest bit" in the middle, and for the finale something to leave the theatre with a bright smile on everyone's faces.

    Symphony in C

    Guess I don't have to tell a lot about this ballet. My impression was (probably very biased!) that Munich dancers in general look more elegant (if only a bit), especially the corps de ballet - but it was nice to see some young faces tackling Balanchine!

    Matinee showed an almost entire new cast - Diana Martinez Morales and Friedeman Vogel lead the first movement, Alicia Amatriain ventured the second (she looks beautiful, a true Balanchine ballerina - only towards the end she became visibly tired), supported by very attentive Douglas Lee (at the end, he only had eyes for her and how he could help her instead of smiling to the audience - I found this really nice!); third movement was lead by Sue Jin Kang and Jason Reilly who flew around the stage, and fourth movement's leads were Roberta Fernandes and Mikhail Kaniskin - the latter with amazing scissonnes a la seconde - he's quite tall, and it was unbelievable how quickly he fully stretched his legs to the sides, almost in a split - and got back to exact 5th position within no time!

    Evening cast were Alicia Amatriain and Robert Tewsley, then Bridget Breiner (she was with Munich ballet before, is now first soloist in Stuttgart - and also had problems towards the end) and Roland Vogel, then again Sue Jin Kang/Jason Reilly and for the final movement we had Elena Tentschikowa and Ibrahim Oenal.

    I was a bit surprised - from the names I would have expected that the evening cast outshines the matinee - but I would say both performances were almost equal level! Lucky Stuttgart to have that choice!

    Pierrot Lunaire

    Feeling lucky I had read whatever I could find before, as this ballet is so different. Well, it's not so much the ballet, for me the main "problem" is the music. It's a mixture of speach and singing, the texts are quite horrible at times, and it's sometimes really strange. Nevertheless I found it impressive how Tetley created movements to this score.

    Matinee cast was lead by Alexander Zaitsev as Pierrot, Yseult Lendvai als Colombine and Jorge Nozal as Brighella - a good performance, but I understood the ballet only in the evening performance!

    The evening was lead by Robert Tewsley - and he WAS Pierrot from the first moment he was on stage. He was so touching, his movements came from within - and although we felt sorry for him as he was cheated so much, at the same time HE was the one who remained "sane". Lucky Londoners!

    The Concert

    Some may call it old-fashioned - but I had a good laugh at this ballet. I am no fan of slapstick comedy - and still, I almost feel tears of laughter in my eyes in some scenes. Plus I find it amazing how a dramatic ballerina like Sue Jin Kang suddenly becomes such a terrific comedienne! Watch her sitting on that chair, trying hats on, see this face that is almost bored to death - and compare this to her Marguerite, then you'll know what I mean.

  2. Yesterday I watched Robbins' "The Concert" in Stuttgart - and although they have really good and informative brochures, I missed any information about the music, apart from that it is Chopin. So I was left sitting in the auditorium trying to figure out the various hints and quotes, but not very successfully, I am afraid.

    If anyone could help me here, I'd be very glad!

    (This was part of an interesting Triple Bill, starting with Symphony in C and Pierrot Lunaire - will try to post a review when I find some time! - Just one note: Lucky Londoners to get Robert Tewsley at the Royal - I found his Pierrot outstanding...!!!)

  3. Seeming unable to track a useful link in the web - maybe someone can help me out: I will be in Auckland middle of May and was hoping to check for any theatre/ballet/dance performances in advance.

    So... if anyone could provide me a link or give me any information, this would be greatly appreciated!! (Will be there around 16-24 May)

    Thanks in advance!

  4. Tatsu, thanks for your report! Glad you enjoyed the performances - and your feeling about Lendvai/Malakhov in R&J is exactly the same I had when I saw them in "Lady of the Camellias". (I have, however, seen Yseult Lendvai with other partners, and then I thought their rapport was much better....)

  5. ..with a new cast in Munich (01.02.02)

    The "Shrew" in Munich has been associated for years now with the cast Judith Turos / Kirill Melnikov - both great actors and a great pairing, maybe to some of you known from their guesting in New York years ago, when they received praise for their Tatiana and Onegin.

    Judith Turos has even been compared to Marcia Haydee and been acclaimed by some critics to match the original interpretation - not only because she looks quite a lot like Haydee, but also for the fire and depth of her characterization of Kate. And it's amazing how good she is - think she must be fourty (plus?) now!

    So... every new cast in Munich has to expect to be measured against this - and that's probably why we

    haven't seen many other dancers as Kate and Petruccio for a while - Oliver Matz guested from Berlin, with Kiki Lammersen (who stopped dancing some years ago), once Oliver Wehe got a go - but that's about it.

    Last Friday finally saw some new faces - Lisa-Maree Cullum and Alen Bottaini. Both are dancers with very nice technique, so this was no point to worry, although I believe this ballet gives the principal dancers a hard time! They were given the probably best possible coaching - by Marcia Haydee (see also my review of the masterclass). But still many of us were sceptic: Lisa-Maree Cullum does not only look soo different from Judith Turos (she's not so dark, plus much smaller) - so far, she has had greatest success in fairy style and very classical roles (Giselle, Raymonda) and also dramatic ones (Manon). But is she a comedienne? Alen Bottaini is a fine actor - but how about the rapport between the two?

    To cut a long story short - it was a huge surprise. And a huge success. Both really got into the roles right from the start - and they found their own interpretation. This cast was not as "rude" as Turos/Melnikov - one could see quite early both had a soft side hidden behind their horrible behaviour.

    They added individual notes - Bottaini's Petruccio is a real Casanova who knows he can get whoever he

    wants; he nods happily when Lucentio, Hortensio and Gremio tell him Kate is beautiful - hesitates

    when they tell him he must marry her - but then has to agree as he needs the money. After he has

    presented the three in disguise to Kate's father (remember, they pretend to be teachers to get close to Bianca) he would love to stay there to court Bianca as well - but the father leads him out to Kate. Nice little details - thoughtful interpretation!

    Lisa-Maree Cullum's Kate is really a horrible woman at the start - but already in the middle of the first pdd she realizes that Petruccio has something she likes. (This "turning point" was pointed out by Marcia Haydee in the masterclass, that's probably why it has become so obvious to me only now!) When Petruccio knees in front of her and kisses her hand after the first pdd, for a moment she enjoys this - but as soon as she realizes the others are watching, she remembers her role, quickly takes her hand away and walks away a few steps - looking at her hand as if there was something very interesting - while Petruccio walks away very very proud and with a big smile on his face.

    When Petruccio takes her home, this Kate looks as if she was starving and freezing - like her Manon,

    Lisa-Maree's Kate makes me feel so sorry for her - while Petruccio has such a great time teasing her.

    And at the end, the third pdd was full of harmony - like it should be.

    I hope they will be given another chance soon - they seemed to have fun on stage, the audience went really mad (this does not happen too often in Munich), and it was a great night!

    PS: Not to forget to mention a third debut, that of Gremio (the "old" guy, disguised as singing teacher) - Norbert Graf gave a very nice interpretation, portraying an elderly man who tries to catch up with the young and attractive but ends up looking funny as he falls over his clothes, drops things - and is not successful in courting at all...

  6. "The Taming of the Shrew", 30.01.2002

    Last night saw the third masterclass given at Bavarian State Ballet - this one was sold out even quicker than the ones before, and again the studio was packed with ballet enthusiasts. (I am always wondering how the dancers find enough air to breathe in such an atmosphere!)

    Marcia Haydée rehearsed Lisa-Maree Cullum and Alen Bottaini, both Munich first soloists who have not danced in this ballet yet and are going to have their first night tomorrow. I think I have rarely before laughed and learnt as much as in these 90 minutes - it was a fantastic evening, and I hope I can transmit a bit of the atmosphere on this board for those who may be interested!

    Before the actual rehearsal started, Marcia Haydée told us a bit about herself and about working with John Cranko - unfortunately I have never seen her live on stage, but her presence and energy were still absolutely fascinating. Some of her remarks I remember....

    - For her, Kate was a turning point - not only as a dancer, but also as a person - she learnt that she can be funny (Lisa agreed that she also found it difficult to be funny)

    - "Drama is much easier than comedy! Comedy - if you overact, it becomes Kitsch - if you don't do enough, it doesn't work."

    - "John said: 'Now you will be funny.' I said: ,'I am not funny.' - John said: 'That's your problem' and went for lunch."

    - "Shrew" is the most difficult ballet by John Cranko. You have to be earnest - and you must never ever look at the audience. "You have to dance as if you were in a closed room and if everything was real - as soon as you start to laugh, you have lost."

    - Difference Cranko - Neumeier: Neumeier gives the exact moves to the dancers. Cranko wanted the steps and a certain feeling behind them. Today's problem: Dancers watch a video and copy the step - "but they don't know why I did it that way. And in the next performance I did something different. Richie [Richard Cragun] never knew exactly what I was going to do - I was challenging him!"

    Rehearsal of the fist pas de deux - when Kate is the stronger one. With this pdd, John Cranko started the whole ballet! Lisa and Alen danced some bits, were corrected, and for the "finale", Marcia Haydee asked them to go through the whole pas de deux as if it was a performance. And it was amazing to see how many details they remembered after such short time!

    Some details that struck me:

    - Those "falls" of Petruccio looked so real, everyone kept his breath. There was such a loud "bang" when Alen hit the floor and he looked almost unconcious, so even Ivan Liska stepped a bit forward to see if he was ok!

    - Already in this pas de deux Kate starts to give in (typical for Cranko - at the end of a pas de deux at least one of the partners has changed) - before she turns a slow arabesque (Petruccio comes last minute to support her), "you realize that you do like this man. You don't want him to take his hand away - but you don't want him to know that - so you take away his hand slowly and walk centre stage - thinking: How can I get the man without that he notices that I want him?"

    At the end, Marcia Haydée gave a big compliment to Lisa and Alen: She told us (the audience) we had a wonderful cast (thundering applause) and said to them: "John would be proud of you."

    So... I am really looking forward to their performance tomorrow night - but apart from these personal emotions, I feel we have learnt a lot about John Cranko and his works that night!

  7. Mme. Hermine, thanks for this quick reply that sheds already a bit of light onto the video.

    So... I am optimistic I will also find out the rest - Malakhov looks quite young, but Saidakova is still quite young, I think, so this is another riddle... smile.gif

  8. A friend of mine has bought a 65 min Hamlet video, starring Nadia Saidakova and Vladimir Malakhov - but since EVERYTHING on the tape is written in cyrillic, we have not been able to find out

    a) where this was filmed

    B) when it was filmed

    c) who are the other dancers on the video?

    Any additional information would be extremely welcome - thanks in advance!

    Sonja

  9. I would guess it's most probably the Grand Pas Hongrois (that is the wedding scene), or parts of it. In the original (?) version there is also a "danse d'enfants" for the quite little ones, so this part is pretty varied... AND the Grand Pas is often performed separately, as far as I know - similar to the Kingdom of Shades of La Bayadere.

  10. Dancers: Lisa-Maree Cullum (Manon) and Oliver Wehe (Des Grieux)

    Second Masterclass in Munich - again sold out, and very very interesting. I try to quote Dame Antoinette Sibley as much as possible as she gave such vivid explanations - I have never seen her on stage, but wish now I had, as she created such a special atmosphere in this rehearsal!

    Wearing medium height slippers, she fully danced out some steps, marked others, but really swirled around the studio! Very British (if I may say so), with some understatement and a good sense of humour. She began with a "charming anecdote" of how she learnt she would dance Manon (I am sure many of you know it...), stressing how particular this role has always been for her as she used to be known as a very classical dancer - "all these fairies and princesses, you know" - it was great to be a "real woman".

    Last night of summer season 1973 at Covent Garden - she and Anthony Dowell danced "Sleeping Beauty". Always worried about the difficulties, she had a little routine: Before the music started, she went on stage to do some of the difficult steps. "Then I would go back to my dressing room and pretend not to be doing anything. And then there was this book" (she showed it to us): Carmen and Manon Lescaut. She opened it and found a note from Sir Kenneth MacMillan that this was some holiday reading for 7 March (?) 1974. She was thrilled but did not know which one she was going to dance - Carmen or Manon. Somehow she got through the Rose Adage. Anthony Dowell watched her from the wings, so after the Rose Adage, she asked him if he also got that book. He rushed to his dressing room, she went out for the next adage. "And by the end of act I, we found out that we were dancing Manon and Des Grieux!"

    Parts of rehearsal:

    - the one (and only) solo variation of Manon

    - Manon's Leitmotiv - same steps, executed totally different

    1) When she's on stage first time, everyone is attracted to her, laying hands on her - she slowly realizes her effect on the others, but becomes claustrophobic - SHE want's to have control

    2) When she enters Madame's etablissement at the side of Monsieur GM

    She's totally over the moon - now she is where she wants to be. She is the centre of attraction, and she is fully self-confident

    3) Coming from the ship and almost dying

    She's been kept in the dark for a long time, she can't stand the light, she's clinging to Des Grieux, broken.

    - Bedroom pdd when Des Grieux is packing - Ivan Liska picked out this to make sense of what is going on in this scene - it's become my favourite as there are so many different moods in it, but the dancers seemed to have some difficulties to put the right feelings into the steps.

    Bedroom pdd

    Des Grieux

    - knows they have to get away quickly

    - is tormented: He's the most sincere man on earth - and now the police is after him

    - but he believes he and Manon will be off to a new life with all the money they got from gambling and cheating.

    Manon

    - "is more simple: She thinks she's done her part - she's helped to get a lot of money, so they can escape, but all she really wants now is to go to bed with Des Grieux." So she's the active one, while he's fully aware they have to get away quickly

    The big "problem"

    - Manon's love for jewellery - she wants both, jewellery and Des Grieux, while

    - Des Grieux thought he got rid of that, that she would start a completely new life with him - the jewellery reminds him of the worst time in his life

    Filling steps with life:

    At first, Manon's not conscious of the jewellery - bracelet, earrings, collier. All she wants is to get Des Grieux into bed - while he wants to get away. When she's wrapping her arms around the poster of the bed, she's totally forgotten the bracelet. But Des Grieux notices it, stared furiously at it: What's this? And Manon only then looks at her arm - "Oh, that's my bracelet. It's beautiful, isn't it?" She looks at it, gets totally carried away, totally self-centred, forgets about Des Grieux for a moment, dreaming of the good life - he brings her down to earth again when he takes her arm. And that makes her furious: "Why are you hurting me?" But as she knows he adores her, she teases him, she knows she'll get him where she wants to.

  11. Francoise, I am glad you liked Maria and Alen when they danced in Paris! I really like both of them. Unfortunately, Maria Eichwald has been injured quite a lot - stress fractures, I guess, but in autumn she broke her foot in a slide in the coda of "In the night" - this was only discovered quite late as the foot was swollen badly, so not treated (I do not know enough about medicine to judge, but feel really sorry for her!) and has been totally off for more than two months now!

    Yesterday I heard she has only recently started to take class again, so she probably won't be back on stage before February... (Such a shame - I was looking forward sooo much to her and Alen's "Taming of the Shrew"!)

    Alymer, thanks for giving more details. You hit the point in saying all looked a bit the same - I did not know exactly what it was, but it could have been this... In a way I am glad the "White Lady" got to dance that much since I like Sherelle a lot (and she would never get to dance Raymonda), but for the production itself, I am not sure if this is good. (I have also met some people who got really tired of "all that dancing"...)

    Well, I am glad we do have this ballet to give us a taste of it, though!

  12. Andrei, I have started a separate topic re. your question.

    Back to Raymonda - Thursday night saw an entirely new cast, and I think it was a different ballet! Raymonda was Barbara Kohoutkova - not entirely as light as Lisa-Maree Cullum, but portraying a young woman who went through some really heartbreaking experience very credibly. Her Jean was Lukas Slavicky, also from Czech Republic - he's only about 21? 22?, and he looked also credible in this role - bit like a spoiled young man who focusses on his "career" and is going to marry for social reasons. Well, with these two dancers, Barra's "reconciliation pdd" made much more sense to me - there was a guy who felt sorry for how he behaved and promised to change his life.

    Abderakhman was danced by Alen Bottaini - those who know me will know the tone of what will follow... wink.gif To cut it short: Amilcar Moret Gonzales was good, but Alen Bottaini knocked me off my shoes. This was not a handsome exotic guy, but this was Abderakhman who knows he gets what he wants. And he wanted Raymonda. Suddenly it made sense that the "Lady in White" came to give magical power to Jean - otherwise the poor boy would not have had a chance against Abderakhman... On 21 December, third cast will premiere, with Kusha Alexi as Raymonda.

  13. Hi Andrei,

    I thought it better to start a new topic than to swith from Raymonda to Sacre... Although this is not a really recent performance... It's been a while since I saw it last time, so just a few notes - I guess there MUST be some reviews of it, but cannot think ad hoc where to find them... It's a very abstract ballet, men in black (velvet?), one girl in shorts and white top (the sacre?) - starting with one man standing in the middle of the stage, moving slowly -almost like an animal (this is Amilcar's part). As the music becomes stronger, more dancers appear - almost everyone has his or her solo, all movements look as if they come from deep within the dancers. I found it rather difficult to watch, especially in a big theatre where the distance is quite big, whereas the dancers love(d) it, plus when I saw it from one of the front rows, I really got into it.

  14. Here's what's on Munich ballet website

    "Born on 5 July 1977, danced with Jeune Ballet de France (well tracked down , Estelle, I did not know that!) and at Deutsche Oper Berlin, then he came to Bavarian State Ballet in 1997 as group dancer. With this company, he has danced Max in "Max und Moritz", cadett (sp?) in Neumeier's "Nutcracker", Gaston Rieux in "Lady of the Camellias", Puck in Neumeier's "Midsummernight's Dream", Benno in "Swan Lake" and as Man with the strong heart in "Emma B" [ballet by Jean Grand-Maitre, in one day, out the next...] More recently, he shone in Teshigawara's "Sacre du Printemps", "Quartett in G" by Patrick Teschner [one of the company's soloists], Bronze Idol in "La Bayadere" and in the audience favourite "Intuition Blast" [a funny pas de deux for two men to music of Swan Lake]. With the season 2000/2001 he has been promoted to soloist. In November 2000 he danced the male lead in "Petrouchka" [ch: Hosseinpur] and later that season Lescaut in "Manon".

    Missing in this list is Mats Ek's "A sort of" where he also dances the male lead - and I am sure I have forgotten something... wink.gif

  15. Hi Alymer,

    thanks for bringing up this topic! I was hesitating to mention this production - although I think it is great to have it in the repertoire as another real classic, I feel it's difficult to match with really "big" companies' ones...

    Personally, I felt quite unhappy about the casting. Kirill Melnikov is more a dramatic dancer than a prince, and though I really like Lisa-Maree Cullum (I found her dancing really beautiful, light as a feather and very musical) and Amilcar Moret Gonzales, I was missing any rapport between them.

    Amilcar Moret Gonzales was born in Cuba and trained at their National Ballet School. He's been with the company for a while now and often cast in modern pieces - he is the central figure in Teshigawara's "Sacre du printemps", plus the male lead in van Manen's "Grosse Fuge", to name just two. In September, he gave his debut as Basil in Don Q. (which I missed, unfortunately!), so he seems to get access to some classics as well. He's married (as could be read in every Munich newspaper, well, almost every) to Munich principal Kusha Alexi from Switzerland who will dance Raymonda first time on 21 December. (He will then dance Abderakhman as well, so I am curious about the rapport then!)

    I also like the music a lot, and I think it was worth to give this ballet a try. It will be interesting to see how future performances with different casts will look!

  16. Due to injury of one of Munich's principals, we saw an interesting cast last Saturday!

    Diana Vishneva was brilliant - brilliant technique like Svetlana Zakharova who we saw earlier this year, but quite different. Her Manon was alive. She's a real beauty (and knows this) - well, sometimes I felt it was Vishneva dancing and flirting around, not Manon - but she was stunning. Her variation in Madame's etablissement was different from what I have seen before - not sure of what changes she made to the choreography (especially head, shoulders and movements of the arms - or if that is simply Kirov version), but it looked great. Only thing I missed was that she developped her character. I love the scene when Lescaut leads Monsieur GM into her bedroom first time and Manon discovers luxury. Well, this Manon did not seem too much overwhelmed by it, so she probably was used to it before?

    Alen Bottaini is not the tallest of dancers, so I was worried about the pdd - but it was amazing how well he partnered her. Understandably, at first he seemed a bit nervous - but he got over that quite quickly. Middle of the first bedroom pdd they were a real pair, having fun on stage. Another scene I love is the second bedroom pdd when he tries to pack things and she keeps on distracting him, so finally he unwinds from her embrace, seeming to say: "Love, I have to pack this bag!" Final pdd did not touch me in a way that she was broken - but it was a great show. And his grief at the end was still moving.

    It also paid off that he watched so closely the masterclass Sir Anthony Dowell gave to another Munich principal - I felt as if he had "soaked in" some comments. His variations were much more fluently than before, and for the first time, he really expressed feelings by the steps! Sometimes it were just little details - one I recall were the pirouettes after he murdered the gaoler: He used to finish them with arms in second position - nicely looking, but quite academic. On Saturday, arms were also to the side, but he opened his hands and looked to the ceiling, expressing: "Oh my God, how could this happen? What have I done?"

    So - a very enjoyable evening - just a pity audience was a bit strange and gave them only one curtain call. After all, it was Saturday, so why on earth was everybody rushing off so quickly? They would have deserved a bit more!!

  17. Giannina and Lolly, thanks for your kind words!

    Yes, it was truly a very special expericence - and it's true, I have never heard anyone find such vivid images! Our second cast Des Grieux, Alen Bottaini, was watching as well - and when qlimpsing now and then towards him, it seemed he felt like jumping up and trying out those images as well!

    Finally, after a long "thirst period", we seem to be really lucky - another masterclass has been advised, in January with Marcia Haydee, rehearsing "The Taming of the Shrew"!

  18. Munich, 17.10.01

    Last night saw Munich's first ballet masterclass I can think of: Sir Anthony Dowell rehearsed Des Grieux with Bavarian State Ballet's (BSB) first cast for the role, Oliver Wehe.

    Since I never saw Sir Anthony dancing on stage, I cannot judge or comment that aspect - but from what he performed last night, we got an idea of his stage presence and charisma!

    Rehearsal included the two main variations of Des Grieux, first one when he first sees/meets Manon, and the second one before the gambling when he is tormented as Manon wants both, him and the jewellery.

    Oliver Wehe is a very fine dancer who has the "right looks" for Des Grieux - but something so far I have found lacking in his performances. Sir Anthony picked that instantly: "Don't do it too classically. You are not dancing Sleeping Beauty!" And boy, what a difference it made when Oliver tried to forget about the positions and "just went for it"!

    Some comments and ways of explaining still stick in my memory - most of all "I found it helpful..." or "I found that particularly difficult" or "I used to do it that way..." - I am not sure, but I think this is also mentioned in the book of Darcey Bussell?

    We also had some good laughs about some comments, for example at the end of first variation: "You put your head down - and then you PRAY that they will applaude. New York has always been great - they gave me a good time to rest and breathe!"

    Or, right after he killed the gaoler: "I did not feel like standing there for ages and then - all at a sudden - think: Oh, now I have to do a double saut de basque!"

    At the end, I felt as if Ivan Liska (AD of BSB) took Sir Anthony a bit by surprise as he asked him to flick through the scene just after Des Grieux has killed the gaoler - he seemed not really prepared to do this, but after a short thought, he went throught the whole scene with such energy, got fully into the role and seemed to forget about the audience (though probably being fully aware of us...) - so everyone applauded frantically after this short performance!

    Next event in this series will be a masterclass with Dame Antoinette Sibley, rehearsing Lisa-Maree Cullum in the part of Manon. 12 December - and I am really looking forward to this!

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