Quiggin

Thanks, Pherank, for the great Massine rehearsal clips for "Parade" and his egg in the mouth instructions. According to John Richardson, Satie and Picasso substantially rewrote the ballet without Cocteau knowing about it. Yes it's absolutely wonderful, and one must ask why we aren't we doing satirical ballets like that today? The Miro set looks delightful, but almost as a light comedy. Also it reflects the size of Ballet Russes productions which I think must have much smaller than the ones we are used to seeing at New York State Theater or the Met – much more small scaled and intimate. Even the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco seems too big for Diaghilev-era productions such as Apollo and Petroushka. (Paul Taylor presented a perfectly scaled version of the latter here at the Yuerba Buena theater a few years back.) There was also a curious Dame Ninette de Valois ballet based on Manet's Bar aux Folies Bergere – it was perhaps a bit too lightheartedly choreographed for the painting's sombre subject, much discussed by art historians in the past 25 years. According to Horst Koegler in his Dictionary of Ballet: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an23999060 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edouard_Manet,_A_Bar_at_the_Folies-Berg%C3%A8re.jpg

In the teens and twenties there was a lot of significant trafficing back and forth between Cubism, abstraction and the stage. Two examples: – Balanchine used to see a lot of Malevich paintings and other avant garde works at the house of Tamara Geva's father, the collector Levky Zheverzheyev, where Balanchine would come for tea ("I liked the pictures though I didn't understand them completely"). Malevich's Supremativism, influenced by Braque and Picasso's synthetic cubism, may have stimulated Balanchine's interest in working on the diagonal. Some of the paintings could be floor plans for his ballets. A 1913 exhibition of Malevich's works (one of the compositions has been hung in the corner where the room's icon was traditionally positioned): http://www.dmoma.org/lobby/exhibitions/blockheads/futurist.html – Picasso brought a lot of his Cubist ideas to the ballet – with his set and costume designs for "Parade" 1917, "Three-Cornered Hat" 1919, "Pulcinella" 1920, and "Mercure" 1924. The ballet became his workshop and he did little sculpture during this period. His paintings began to include raked floors, hard colors and stage lighting, overlapping scrims and other little references – such as the small enclosure from which the conductor watches the stage and which doubles as a skewed balcony view in his San Raphael window series. And T. J. Clark notes that the background of "Guernica" is not so different from that for "Pulcinella" twenty years before. Here's a good assortment of images from Picasso, la danza e otto settimane in Italia, parts 1-3: http://www.balletto.net/giornale.php?articolo=250 http://www.balletto.net/giornale.php?articolo=229 http://www.balletto.net/giornale.php?articolo=222

Just this past Friday night Lorena Feijoo was on a panel discussion in honor of Fernando Alonso at the Museum of Performance and Design in San Francisco – along with her mother, Lupe Calzadilla, and Jorge Esquivel. The event was a launch for a new book called, Fernando Alonso: The Father of Cuban Ballet. Turns out it was also a farewell.

More on Eduardova here, with an rg photo and a comment by leonid (she was once Vera Zorina's teacher), also a link to a substantial entry from Hitler's Dancers. http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/30098-ballet-or-opera-photocard/?hl=eduardova Also another rg photo, a postcard from(?) Madame Eduardova: http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/31252-cent-baisers/?hl=eduardova

Great find, Jack, thanks. It looks like it's from a 1959 Saturday Review. I thought it was interesting what Stravinsky said about Monteux's conducting, that "he never cheapened Le Sacre ... he was always scrupulously faithful to the music," since Monteux sometimes is cited as saying he didn't like the piece. And while in Memories and Commentaries Stravinsky says that Massine's choreography for the 1921 revival was "excellent, incomparable clearer than Nijinsky's," here he says, Also interesting that Stravinsky pointedly says that doesn't need the constraints of musical theory to compose. And yet Berg does do a pretty decent violin concerto – and doesn't Agon stand in a cage of artificial rules. * Regarding Stravinsky's proposed bisexuality, why are people taken aback rather than finding it charming that he had a brief affair with Ravel? Support of gay rights only goes so far – doesn't seem to extend to one's artistic heroes. There it's still a stigma. And what was Glenn Gould's remark? from WQXR: http://www.wqxr.org/#!/blogs/wqxr-blog/2013/jun/25/was-stravinsky-bisexual-if-he-was-so-what/

Thanks dirac, it wasn't opening for me this morning – I will reread it. I was sort of interested in how dissonance has "aged," and what it means now – is it shocking any more. Also I have been just reading reading Rosalind Krauss's A Penny for Picasso, discussing Gide, Picasso and Stravinsky as pastiche artists – in comparison to the authenticity of Schoenberg. I do think it's interesting that Balanchine couldn't choreography Rite, and Mravinsky didn't record it though he did Petrouska, Fariy's Kiss, Agon and Apollo. Anyway in skimming the article I jumped to a harder conclusion than the material warranted. However I do believe in Hollywood, and before, there was a riff between Stravinsky and Schoenberg (also Stravinsky and Jean Renoir), but eventually there was a reconciliation. Regarding a conjectured affair between Robert Craft and Vera Stravinsky, Stravinsky is supposed to have said something like, "well maybe I'm the one who's really having the affair with Robert Craft."

I skimmed Craft's article and now it's no longer linkable, but it was interesting to read that Balanchine said it would be impossible to set dance (to find appropriate images?) to the music. It is awfully ferocious and full of crazy rhythmic passages... Also that Craft took a swipe at Schoenberg at this late date.

Edwin Denby is a problematic gold standard of a critic. He was first of all a poet, a writer and then a critic. You would have to look to Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, or John Ashbery, who were poets and wrote art criticism, as an equivalent. Arlene Croce wrote for high-minded weekly or monthly periodicals like Ballet Review, Film Culture and the New Yorker under William Shawn (she left in 1994 after Robert Gottlieb left and Tina Brown took over). Alastair Macaulay should really be compared to journalists who write quickly and lightly under deadline pressure, such his predecessor at the New York Times, John Martin, who sometimes couldn't review the whole program if it went on too late into the night. And Martin could be snippy – and genuinely witty – about performances and bodily formats of dancers. The whole business of newspaper reviewing of cultural events is probably pretty much on borrowed time, so Macaulay is perhaps last critic they'll hire other than stringers. I hardly see any classical music coverage at the Times these days, but perhaps I don't look in the right places. And they used to review everything.

The Italian manner of holding a grudge? It's a old kind of withering sarcasm that pulls the rug out from under you and you can't respond to. Yes Italian but I also remember it from instructors in design school. But it's old fashioned - maybe it appears in Mad Men.

It's funny the Cuban dancers defect to do contemporary work, but it's the classics that they end up shining in. Also they're good in Balanchine off the bat – which they do in Havana and if they distort it, they do so in a fresh and "don't be perfect, dear" way. Look at the clips for Tchai Pdd if still up. And sometimes as they adapt to the more refined English and Danish styles, they lose a bit of their original fire and idiomatic charm. Regarding Villella's bitterness, he may be angry at the whole world, not just Florida. His cutting sarcasm reminds me of a certain kind of 1950s New York emigre character type. Perhaps he has reverted to an aunt or grandfather's way of seeing things, as we sometimes do as we get older. But there's no reason for Miami Ballet, which has its own character and style steadily developed over twenty five years, to have to become a subsidiary of the Alonso Havana School – out of guilt feelings for the embargo? Instead why doesn't the Cuban Community back the two existing ballet schools, that of Magaly Suarez or of Pedro Pablo Peña's Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami so they can have longer seasons.

A model for the ballet to musical transition might be Robbins remaking Fancy Free into On the Town. In fact Fancy Free might be a good audition piece for the Gene Kelly/Jerry Mulligan role – whoever can combine the swagger and slight awkwardness of the sailors might be able to bring off the role, which yes probably should be played by an American, just as Lise should be French. But who will play be Oscar Levant and Nina Foch? And is Daddy Long Legs the musical far behind? As for the paintings, here are the artworks of an American artist in Paris, the real thing – Ellsworth Kelly, who spent six years abroad just after World War II: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kelly-mediterannee-l02465

Jayne: But the New Yorker no longer seems to devote long articles to dance ... Macaulay seems be keeping dance, at least that of Lincoln Center, in the cultural forefront at the New York Times, (see today's Sleeping Beauty summary review on the front page online) and I'd bet if he were let go per Soto, the next critic would not be able to do so or at least to that degree. The San Francisco Chronicle now seems to have Allan Ulrich on some sort of part-time basis, and only has him review San Francisco Ballet when it would be too embarrassing not to. I thought the article was good, and Drew's comment that Sara Mearns, Odette/Odile might not go over in Russia interesting, and that American dancers and Americaness, which seems neutral to us here, might have a different character value in Europe – like the American girl in Massine/Satie's Parade or Jean Seberg in Breathless. I used to find Tina LeBlanc who was so wonderful in Balanchine too American in San Francisco Ballet's Swan Lake. Maybe that's what Macaulay was taking into account with his comment about Balanchine dancers not being accepted as real ballerinas.

Yes. Always difficult when the founder and guiding light of a great institution is fired. Also there are some interesting comments in the A&E Revue clip about the challenges of dancing Balanchine – being lyrical and dancing with all out brilliance at the same time. Plus clips of Tchaikovsky Pdd, Tarantella, Glinkiana and a tiny glimpse at Rubies. His Tarantella is an eye-opener, how he varies the accents and timing between the smaller steps and the larger figures.

Count Harry Kessler gives a good and spirited report of the evening in a recently published translation of his diaries. At the time Kessler had been working with Richard Strauss and Nijinsky on a ballet called The Legend of Joseph. Previously, in Spring 1911, Kessler noted that he had gone to see Spectre de la Rose, with Nijinsky as the spirit of the roses – who "overshadowed the pretty Karsavina completely." ... "Even Rilke says that Nijinsky was perfect, like things that transpire inside oneself." At Gallica.fr there's a replica of a theater journal, Comœdia Illustré, from June 1913 with quite wonderful illustrations and some not terribly scandalized reviews of The Rite of Spring – as well as Jeux, Khovanchina, and Carnaval [begins about twelves pages in]. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8415121d/f1.image.r=ballets%20russes%20sacre.langEN

Scholl says Apollo begins with a reference to the auto-eroticism that Faun ends with – it could be a conscious private joke of Balanchine and Stravinsky's or not – but overall it might be worthwhile to read one ballet in terms of the other. It would be interesting to figure out what Balanchine's "Brief" – to use the term Michael Baxandall's uses in "Patterns of Intention" – was, what was he borrowing from and what were the scores he was settling. Lynn Garafola suggested that the birthing scene as it stands in the long version may incorporate some Martha Graham exercises Balanchine saw one of his dancers doing in the thirties. I agree with Ray that Scholl is off on some things – in talking about 2 dimension space in Apollo, he seems to ignore the influence that Cubism and Russian icons had on the Russians' sense of flattened space. Also the pictures he choses for "Apollo" in his book are those of Nilas Martins – which are not the first ones I think most of us would have picked.

Natalia: I think Scholl is onto something, at least in the bigger idea of the relation between the two ballets. L'Apres-Midi d'une faune appeared on many of the Ballets Russes programs in the mid-twenties and was performed by Lifar five days before the premiere of Apollo. So it does makes sense that Balanchine is rewriting Faun, even poking fun at it. According to Scholl in From Petipa to Balanchine, in Faun “Apollo cedes place to Dionyisus” and in Apollo it’s the opposite story – “dionysian excesses cede place to Apollonian restraint”. And Stravinsky at the same time is distancing himself from his Russian, and Dionysian, side with the slightly arid neoclassical score of Apollo.

kbarber: Dancer do sow steps. I always hesitate at peek and peak. At some point these things are like grammatical odette/odile choices. Here's a dubious apostrophe in San Francisco. Maybe the o' threw the sign painter off. (At Tumblr but in the safe section) http://canariesinthe...age/51495304101

It seemed to be on You Tube for maybe a week in December, I thought I would be able to study it carefully but then it was gone. As a production it seemed a bit more focused and finished and maybe "untranslated". The Prince was Matthew Golding and I think Anna Tsygankova played Cinderella.

In a Meet the Artist interview Ruben Martin Cintas said that he thought that in rehearsal Wheeldon lavished his attention on the parts of the sisters and stepmother and less so with the main couple – less than he does in his shorter ballets. There was just too much to do and his heart was in the comedy. The ballet is fun to watch for the most part, except for too many variations of seasons and too much for the Prince and Cinderella that didn't develop. There seemed to be a section of Carousel dropped in – where a whirling group of dancers at the ball keep Cinderella and the Prince apart – but less effective than in the Rogers & Hammerstein. Maybe it's should be a 45 minute or hour/15 ballet? Regarding the choreography, here's a snippet of Laura Capelle's review of the Dutch production in the Financial Times: http://www.ft.com/in...l#axzz2SjzOo3wK

I must say I concur – along with a couple of friends who never really agree on anything – with Macaulay's assessment of the ballet. It seem more like a contemporary musical, very clever and with lots of great sets, but lacking some of important conventions and those beautiful moments of utter transparency that ballets usually have. And there were indeed some awkward and murky passages, one in which Cinderella is tossed a bit like a manikan by the Prince (even Maria Kochetkova who can usually pull anything off seemed a bit disconcerted). A big problem I felt – which didn't seem to be the case with the video of the Dutch production – is that the Prokofiev score was played so politely and respectfully that it didn't sound like Prokofiev. There seemed to be none of the agressively melodic, sarcastic, and self-ironic characteristics you usually hear in his music (even in the Richter solo piano version) that might which may have helped bring more depth to the narrative and to the choreography. Rita Felciano has also written a good account of Cinderella at DanceviewTimes, nicely titled "The Two Sisters," that's as critical as Macaulay's: http://www.danceview...wo-sisters.html

I'd like to see a new alternative biography of Balanchine that strips away all of the stories he told and all the stories we tell ourselves about why the ballets are the way they are. Balanchine's reasons were often just to keep working, to keep the company going (per Eliott Carter), and many of the stories we tell serve to fit him into an all-American context. For instance, Balanchine tells Taper that he had never really looked at modern art before Diaghilev sat him down in a museum and left him there. However, Balanchine tells Solomon Volkov that in Russia in the early twenties, at the house of the collector Alexy Zheversheyev, which he visited often, "I saw the works many left artists, including Malevich. I liked the pictures, even though I didn't understand them completely." Zheversheyev, Volkov says, played an "exceptional and under-appreciated role in young Balanchine's artistic development." He was also Tamara Geva's father. Because of his Russian/early Soviet education in theater and visual arts, Balanchine's aethetics would seem to be pretty much formed by the time he came to France, and so it would be interesting to see the dynamics between Diaghilev and Balanchine, as teacher and apprentice, also recast.

from @VitoMazeo1 April 20, 2013 eh sí...erano tre anni che lo volevo provare, siccome e' l'ultimo giorno prima di a dare all' HET ho fatto questa pazzia roughly: "And so for three years I wanted to experience [life at San Francisco Ballet?] and then at the last possible moment, I did this mad thing and threw myself over to HET ... " Not the usual cautious career move but kind of wonderful ...

The company members are all pretty good – the London tour reviews gave the dancers top marks, but were less excited by the choreography. For me From Foreign Lands and Borderlands would be the most distinguished pieces. But it's hard to say what will travel well – will what's charming in San Francisco be so in New York? Luke Ingham and Carlos Quenedit are interesting new male principals, Sofiane Sylve is always a treat to watch, Taras Domitro can be absolutely brilliant, hammy or classically lyrical, and Maria Kochetkova gives well-finished and consistent performances. Cinderella is great fun to watch, a combination of burlesque and low comedy (many jokes about smells) combined with the lovely dancing and some of the figures of Wheeldon's Carousel – but I'd read the reviews carefully if the ticket prices don't fit into your normal ballet budget. Someone mentioned/speculated that the ballet company is following the Cinderella sets on their way back to Amsterdam – and that may help pay for the traveling costs of the tour.

In addition to many "petty and tunnel visioned" critcs, Maria Tallchief was also very critical of Martins leadership of New York City Ballet. From the New Yorker of April 16, 2013:

I think there's a difference between metaphors (& Homeric similies) and a programmatic narrative in which you check off the boxes as you go down the list. The beautiful image of moon crossing the sky that you cite and the hand mimicing the flashing light at Piccadily Circus from Apollo, and other shifting images seem to bring you closer to the work, whereas the overall Program – war or whatever – migtht tend to keep you away from the work, less vulnerable to its ambiguities. And thanks for the context regarding Marcia Siegel ... Yes, Richard Buckle was a good guy in the British criticism scene but the review does have the "limitations" of the Orientalist approach, and the sex trade images are a bit too blithely laid out there – this afterall was the period overshadowed by the Korean and Vietnam wars. (Arlene Croce, too, is a bit off-base when she refers to the woman in the pas in Symphony/Three as an "interverted Oriental," in comparison to her role as an "extroverted American" in the first movement.)