Andre Yew

And these videos are available as DVDs, too. The video quality isn't much improved, but at least when you watch them for the umpteenth time, they won't degrade. There are more Balanchine videos still on tape that weren't transfered to DVD, but they are probably out-of-print by now --- they may be worth tracking down. --Andre

pj, Your daughter probably saw me after the Sunday show when we were talking to one of the children's coaches and her (very tall) husband near Kendalls? I was wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt, no tie, and a pocket square. On Sunday, I was seated in the first row of the middle of the Founder's Circle. We'll definitely have to be more organized about meeting up at the next one of these things. I'm happy our Kirov drought will last only until fall of next year when OCPAC has their Mariinsky festival. I can't wait to see this corps in Swan Lake. Some of my friends disagree, but I thought the best seats were actually in the Founder's Circle. The sound has more bloom and is more enveloping, and you are far away enough that you can definitely see the choreographic patterns, but close enough that you can still see people's faces. The sound in the orchestra section is drier, but your mileage may vary. Did you see Diana's performances from the upper balconies? How did she project up there? It seemed like she lit up the stage every time she appeared. Really unforgettable! --Andre

I didn't enjoy the Sunday show as much as the other shows, but coming off the high of Saturday night, it was hard to maintain that level of performance. I thought Novikova, who is a compactly built dancer, did a fine job in Act 1, showing us the dramatic aspects of the role: her excitement at her coming out, her sense of discovery of her powers, and her horror of being poisoned. But I didn't think the also compactly built Anton Korsakov worked at all. He'd danced Bluebird on Wednesday night, and didn't look like a prince. Making this worse was his expressionless dancing and clumsy partnering, as well as a lack of chemistry with Novikova: she looked like she wanted nothing to do with him after she woke up, and there were moments where they looked like they didn't know what was supposed to happen next. Some friends who were seated in the front row saw her talking to him constantly, so there may have been some performance issues. I thought their energy level also waned as the show went on, until the end when they looked like they were just going through the steps. In fact, I thought the corps, though still dancing very well, had kind of let go, knowing perhaps this was the last show in LA, and things weren't as tight as the previous nights. I actually like this Carabosse (Igor Petrov) more because he's more musical (you can hear his laughter in the music) and he has a more intimidating walk, with a sort of otherworldly power which you is surprising to see from an old crone. --Andre edit: sorry I wasn't at the statue, and we were kept busy discussing the performance at each intermission.

Diana Vishneva gave us a glorious Rose Adagio last night (Saturday, Oct. 8). Nearly perfect, Vishneva made it a super-glamourous event --- imagine if the whole stage were an extension of Vishneva's personality and stage presence. This is the Rose Adagio you want to see when the Kirov visits. The corps was dancing with a renewed energy that, in the words of a friend, made it seem like you were seeing everything for the first time again. I almost take Lopatkina's subtle Lilac Fairy for granted now, seeing it for the third time this week. Sofia Gumerova and especially Maxim Cheschegorov danced very fine solos in Bluebird, which are among the best in the week so far, but were marred by slightly rough partnering. Irina Golub danced a bright, sparkling Diamond Fairy with nice articulated footwork. I thought Zelensky looked a bit tired and shaky in his partnering, unfortunately. The orchestra also had some confusion issues. But overall, this was one of the best nights so far. ---Andre

Some quick comments on the last two nights: Osmolkina and Sarafanov's night was all right. I thought she was a bit raw and not really controlling the role, and he had his usual partnering difficulties, but they really pulled it off for Act III, where he looked like he had remarkably good partnering, and they both looked very comfortable with each other. Individually, they're both fine dancers: she jumps very nicely, and Sarafonov has his nice, easy virtuosity. But, the highlight of that night was Vasily Scherbakov's Bluebird: very clean and very easy-looking, he really looked like he was flying at moments. His Florina, Irina Golub, was also very good --- they fit each other well. Somova and Fadeev last night was probably the best couple so far in terms of balance and chemistry. I can't believe that was her debut. She's a coltish, long-limbed girl, not like what you usually see in Auroras. He gave her great support, and both brought out the dramatic aspects of their role the most. We were lucky enough to have Lopatkina's Lilac Fairy again last night. It was an excellent night. --Andre

Cygnet, We'll be hanging around the Nureyev statue in the lobby during intermissions --- it's near where they rent out binoculars. pj, I totally forgot to mention the ogre dance. I'd never seen or heard that music before. We may have some common friends. A friend introduced me to the children's teacher last night (she's ex-Kirov right?), but I had formed my opinion of the children before seeing her last night, so no bias here either. --Andre

Here's a short feature on the three new Auroras dancing in LA: http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/cl-et-be...e-more-channels --Andre

Susan, It was nice to meet you, too. I pretty much agree with you, and it's almost an embarassment of riches: Diana's huge stage presence and projection, and Uliana's imposing, iron-fist-in-a-velvet-glove Lilac Fairy, the wonderful corps (have they improved since we last saw them 2 years ago?), the well-rehearsed children (check out that stylish and idiomatic dancing in the Act 1 garland dance!), the wonderful mime, etc. If I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be Uliana's Lilac Fairy. Diana and Igor's partnering was pushing the edges a lot of times, with a couple of misses, but it made for exciting theater when it worked most of the time. The Bluebird pas didn't work for me either. Korsakov could have been cleaner, and Bolshakova was shaky in her dancing. And what's up with mutant white rabbit/bat monsters? Carrabosse's entourage wasn't very scary or dark. The actual show was 2:40 as there were 3 20-minute intermissions. I think a more sensible way to do it would have been to combine the prologue and Act 1. --Andre

I did not like the performance of Diamonds I saw, and I'm a huge Patricia Barker fan. It looked awkward, forced, and unmusical. Part of the reason I think is the miscasting of her partner, Stanko Milov, who was much larger than she was, and made her normally long lines look like she'd been shrunk a bit, especially when he was standing right behind her. I'm glad they have until June before performing Jewels so they have lots of time to work the kinks out. For the rest of it, I thought the performance looked like the first performance back after a summer off. They could be a bit tighter everywhere, and weren't dancing at the high level at the end of last season, especially for the going-away gala for Francia and Ken. I really enjoyed Lesley Rausch's dancing in Red Angels, but found the rest of it lacking attack and edge, which made it unmusical because it didn't match the music's character. Duo Concertant was wonderful, especially the chemistry between Olivier Wevers and Louise Nadeau, and I really liked Louise's dancing. But I wish Peter hadn't done the cameo, because Olivier came out worse in the comparison. I enjoyed Kaori Nakamura and Jonathan Porretta in Symphony in 3 movements because of their energy and bright attacks, and the corps did a commendable job on their complicated patterns, but again I thought they could be a bit tighter. Except for a couple of clams in Diamonds, the musicians and orchestra were wonderful. I think they're still the best ballet orchestra I've heard so far. --Andre

I saw the Sunday show, too, and the best things were Maria Alexandrova (what a stage presence!), and the Bolshoi orchestra, which played with a passion and precision not often found in ballet orchestras. --Andre

I'm going to try to be there for all 5 performances. Anyone wanting to say "Hi!", our usual meeting spot during intermission is the Nureyev statue in the lobby of Chandler. --Andre

Giannina, unfortunately, they're both coded region 2 (or whatever the Asian region is), but they are in NTSC. It's not too hard to find affordable region-free DVD players or people who will modify your players for region-free. Here are two that have been reliable for me: http://www.jvbdigital.com http://www.world-import.com Both have code-free players for well under $200. The Pioneers are generally a safe bet. --Andre

I know what you mean: I have a 42-inch EDTV widescreen Panasonic plasma with an external scaler (Lumagen HDP) fed from an SDI-moded Denon 2900, and it can be painful to watch many dance videos, especially since almost all are sourced from video, so the deinterlacing is a total guess. The productions sourced in HD, and distributed as anamorphic DVDs (eg. the stuff from Opus Arte like the Dutch National Ballet's Sleeping Beauty) do make up for the dodgy deinterlacing, but the resolution is still well below something shot in film like most normal movies. The sound on some of the newer stuff is pretty good, but seems to be a secondary concern. No macroblocking problems on my end, probably because the Lumagen doesn't use a Faroudja chip. Have you looked at the Algolith Mosquito as a way of cleaning up some of the digital artifacts? I'm looking forward to seeing a Terranex-based deinterlacer, like the Denon DVD-5910's, to see if the video deinterlacing gets any better. It's fundamentally an unsolvable problem, but I hope improvements come soon. Driving B&W 801s with a Yamaha? Seems like quite a mismatch. --Andre

I got both from: http://www.hmv.co.jp in January of this year. I can't stop watching the first one (the British documentary). --Andre

Zippora Karz gave wonderful pre-performance talks for NYCB's visits to SoCal, telling us a little bit about herself (and her life with diabetes) and gave us all great insider information. My favorite part was when she demonstrated one of the corps parts of Stravinsky Violin Concerto full speed while counting it. It made me dizzy just sitting there. I wish more talks would be like this, because she made for a great representative of the company and the dance world in her knowledge, her accessibility, and friendliness. Also, from some details given in her talk, one of the audience members figured out how old she was, and asked her if he was correct --- she looked at least 15 years younger than her actual age, and I think that really impressed many people in the audience. Perhaps they'll become new ballet students! This is becoming off-topic, but I think a really cool pre-performance talk would be an analysis or example coaching session from a section of a work to be performed, perhaps done with one of the understudies, just to show people the nuts and bolts of what goes into a work. If you have a brave choreographer, he could even do new choreography on the spot to show how things are put together. I'm very fond of that old footage of Balanchine making up a bunch of dances, including a hilarious conclusion involving a mock shooting and jealousy, to a simple tune (Yankee Doodle?) suggested (and sometimes whistled) by a young boy and girl visiting the company studios. --Andre

I have too many ideas about this, so I'll just mention a few of my favorites: 1. The chaconne from Bach's partita no. 2 in d for solo violin. Busoni took this and expanded it out for a piano, resolving many interesting harmonic questions the piece raises. It may be an interesting exercise for a choreographer to do something similar visually. 2. Someone set a ballet to Britten's Prince of the Pagodas already. It's such beautiful music composed for a ballet that it's shame it isn't better known or used. 3. Something set to spoken word (poem, etc.) or silence. I don't think this has been explored enough, and it's cheap! 4. Someone should further explore what Balanchine did when he staged an entire opera as a ballet, with the singers in the pit, and dancers conveying all the visual action. This has so many obstacles that I'm not sure we'll ever see this again. --Andre

Hmm, no responses yet. I saw the opening night performance, as well as the Sunday matinee the next day. High points: Tina LeBlanc and Gonzalo Garcia on Sunday danced very well and had great chemistry. Garcia wowed the crowd in Act II with a series on entrechat sixes that seemed to go on forever. The costumes (except for the peasant men's codpieces) and sets were wonderful. Hansuke Yamamoto was really impressive in the peasant pas de cinq with a very clean, precise technique, and really nice ballon. Sarah Van Patten was very nice as the 2nd lead Wili (the whirlpool/renverse Wili). The entry of the royal party was really quite an occasion, and very impressive. Low points: the lighting was clumsy with spotlights that seemed lost, the corps needed more work, especially in Act II, where the Wili chug section kind of rippled along. The music was well-played, but the attacks seemed blunted. Yuan-Yuan Tan and Pierre-Francois Villanoba on opening night had no chemistry, and rather detached dancing. IMO, I don't think it's a good role for Tan. The Sunday performance held together dramatically better than Saturday's, and there were some really touching moments. edit: I forgot to mention that I really dislike the peasant pas de cinq. It's basically the pas de deux's choreography spread out over 2 boys and 3 girls. It reminded me of a social dance class where there aren't enough men, as there was usually 1 girl dancing by herself doing the same moves as the other girls are doing, except unsupported. The effect of the choreography is also diffused and diluted by this spreading out. --Andre

I did not like Sylve in Emeralds when NYCB visited Southern California last year. She stood out too much, and was a little too detached for the perfume of this piece. She has a magnificent, imperial stage presence, and was pretty much overshadowing everything else on stage (even the space-alien decor), but that looked wrong for Emeralds. Diamonds would be good for her, as well as any of Balanchine's neo-Petipa pieces, like Symphony in C and Stars and Stripes, both of which we also saw her perform last year. In the more abstract pieces like Agon and Stravinsky Violin Concerto, she has a very exotic presence because of her obviously athletic body and technique which fit those pieces very well, combined with her old-school, glamorous stage presence. Having said all that, she's my favorite NYCB ballerina, primarily because she has such amazing stage presence and personality, and she has incredible ballet technique. Her bow (the one where one arm is swept back, almost like a reverance --- she seems to have 2 or 3 different styles) is also exquisite, and, for me, expresses everything about her dancing. --Andre edit: clarification for description of her bow

To be fair to the Kylian works, I thought ABT butchered them when they performed them out here in California. It was completely unidiomatic dancing on their part, and shouldn't have been presented to the public without a lot more work. --Andre

Art, I believe that is the correct ballet. There's also a short excerpt from it in Sylve's 7-turn fouette video from the Dutch National Ballet website. The dancing and music in it are so exciting that I'm looking forward to the day I can watch it in its entirety. --Andre

There is a lot of mime (more than the Lezhina/Kirov, and the Durante/RB productions, I believe), but I don't think they have completely restored all of the mime, though it's the most I've seen on video. The scene I use to judge this is mainly the first Carabosse scene. I liked Princess Florine, but Bluebird did not have enough ballon and ease (compare to the dancer on Lezhina/Kirov), and looked like he was getting really tired at the end of his entrechet-six series. It's also the shorter male variation. --Andre

That is rather odd. It looks like the clip crops off parts of the full image, since the full image is letterboxed, and the clip appears to be the standard TV 4x3 ratio. The DVD doesn't look like that, but instead has a wide shot of the whole stage. --Andre

I received my copy of this DVD from Amazon UK yesterday, and had a chance to watch parts of it last night. Good news: the DVD is region free, and in NTSC format, so people in the US can get this DVD a couple of weeks earlier if desired without owning a hacked DVD player and PAL converter. It took about a week to reach me, and cost 22.22 GBP total (including shipping), so it's not really more expensive than ordering it from the Amazon US. The packaging is very nice, and the ballet is on 2 DVDs: Prologue and Act 1 on one disk, Act 2, 3, and extras on the second disk. Video quality is good, though they have a tendency to dwell on the long shots of the whole stage. I don't think Sylve's special stage quality (her huge stage presence which fairly oozed out of every performance she gave with NYCB here in Southern California) comes across well on video, but her impressive technical abilities certainly do. --Andre

I'm not sure what happened to Darci over the week, but I saw her dance in Orange County the week before in the same role, and she was really excellent. I preferred Jennifer Ringer's more intense performance the next day in OC, but Darci's performance was not technically weak in the Oct. 2, Saturday night performance. I don't doubt what Art saw --- perhaps she tired out at the end of a long tour. I didn't see the Saturday night LA performance, so I can't give a first hand report of it. --Andre

I have this set (and have given it as a gift to a ballet friend as well), and it's really very good --- the Roy Douglas arrangements of Chopin for Les Sylphides is doing lots of time in my CD player recently. I'm glad to see it available in the US, as it was available previously only in Europe. I first learned about it here: http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=4104 --Andre