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Did anyone see Murphy/Hallberg "Dream"?

I'm thinking about trying to catch the Friday night performance with Nunez and Soares but I'm not sure.

Nunez and Soares are wonderful together in Swan Lake, and I particularly love Nunez' Odette/Odile. She's a marvelous stage presence and a wonderful actress. In addition to a very solid technique, there's so much emotion in her body and her facial expressions - she's a very human and touching Odette, and her Odile is a force to be reckoned with. So you can't go wrong with Nunez/Soares, IMO (though Rojo/Acosta would be out of this world as well).

I do not understand this line from Alastair Macaulay's May 16, 2007 NYTimes review of the gala:

And though none of the Act I dances are juicy enough to make a satisfactory ending to a gala, Paloma Herrera (despite her Ruby Keeler face), Gillian Murphy, David Hallberg and Ethan Stiefel each brought stylishness and skill to them. (emphasis added)

First of all, I don't think Paloma Herrara looks anything like Ruby Keeler, but even if she did, how is that a valid criticism of her dancing?

Perhaps he was referring to her facial expression, instead of physical resemblance?

Thanks for all these detailed reports everyone!

Can someone speak to the choreography in Sleeping Beauty, for the Lilac and Vision scene variations? Do they go more towards the Russian/Soviet variations, or more towards the ones that the English use - with the Lopukhov Lilac variation and the Ashton vision variation?

Lewis Segal himself talks about the article in this online video interview:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/b.../bctid474435067

From the whole of the interview, which is pretty interesting, it seems clear that he genuinely does care about ballet and dance (look at all the photos on his walls!).

Thanks, Andre for the link in the video forum!

How funny, Leigh - when I looked at the new RB season, I had the same travel thoughts for the April period! (though I didn't know the POB school would also be performing at the time).

The POB mixed bill looks too good to pass up - classical to neoclassical to neo-neoclassical. I wish, somehow, the RB Jewels and the POB bill were timed closer together, but the RB Serenade/ Brandstrup/ Homage to the Queen is interesting as well.

There's plenty worth looking at in the Royal season; so many performances of Sleeping Beauty and R&J! The casting looks fun in Jewels, though I must admit I thought Rojo would have been a natural in Rubies, but she's in Emeralds instead. I'm glad Nunez is in Diamonds - thought she would have gotten Emeralds. I'm also curious how they'll pull off Dances at a Gathering.

Thanks, socalgal for mentioning Neary and Christensen's introductory remarks - I remember thinking at the time how charming it was to introduce the ballets. Made it feel like a community event. And yes, Masahiro Suehara really was wonderful in Napoli.

I went back on Saturday night to see the company in Redondo Beach. That theatre is considerably larger than UCLA's hall, but the stage seemed a bit bigger too. Getting a bit of perspective away from the stage was nice, but I did enjoy the intimacy at UCLA. The company looked good again, but understandably a bit tired at their third marathon weekend performance. Napoli, though, was sheer joy - very bright and bouncy. They really seemed to dig into the Bournonville style, and were much more willing to let go this time around.

One thing though: there was a photographer at the back of the house noisily snapping photographs during the show! He seemd to be LA Ballet's own photographer, as he was there on Thursday night, too doing the same thing during Agon until the company's publicist (or thats who she said she was) asked him to move into the sound booth. I was sitting in the back of the house both times (could not afford to pay up to $95 for front seats- and even in the back they were $55!), so he was right behind me and the noise directly affected me and patrons sitting around me. Not that I don't understand the company's needs for PR and marketing photos, but it's ridiculous to subject the audience to this very annoying sound, especially a paying audience. It kept jarring me out of the ballets - thankfully it was only during Agon on Thursday, but on Saturday, it completely destroyed my experience of Concerto Barocco. The house manager allowed me to move forward since there were seats availabe that night. But most professional theatres have a policy of putting photographers away from the audience or in a sound booth, to muffle the camera sounds (and to comply with union rules) - if this company wants to become fully professional and be considered as such, it will have to pay as much attention to the needs of its audience as it does to the work on stage.

Thanks, Gianina, for your review - reading it convinced me to go see "The Seagull" after I too was disappointed by Anna Karenina. And I enjoyed Seagull much more than Karenina - there was plenty of anguish, yes, but it was more evenly spread out and the characters were better constructed for us in the ballet. We understood their anguish this time around, instead of seeing them only in anguish. There was also quite a bit more purely classical dancing involved, through ballet rehearsal and class scenes - the dancers are really wonderful and it was great to see them showing their strong classical technique. ANd there's hip hop, too!!

My interpretation of the "undulating thing": within the plot of the ballet, I think it was a ballet that the Treplev, the young choregrapher created. It's a weird, esoteric piece that other characters in the ballet don't understand. We see this the ballet being performed at a performance - this takes place behind a scrim, while Arkadina, the established ballerina that Treplev is in love with, and Treplev "watch" seated downstage but staring out to the audience. Arkadina falls asleep while watching Treplev's ballet being performed, making him furious and disappointed, especially when she wakes up and runs after him clapping in a fakely enthusiastic way. And he's disappointed because he wants her to like his ballets the way she likes the established choreographer's (Trigorin) ballets. In Chekhov's "Seagull", young Treplev wants people to like the new play he has written - especially Arkadina - but they get distracted when established playwright Trigorin comes along. The later appearances of the "thing" are visions of his ballet - he interacts with it later, too.

I think the undulating thing has a lot to do with how the hip-hop section comes into the ballet as well. Frustrated that no one understands his work, including the new dancer he has selected to star in his "thing" ballet, he runs out into the street - where the rest of the world is listening and dancing to hip hop, not classical. That gives him some sort of release. I love the moment afterwards, where the lights come up in the rehearsal room and all the female dancers are all listening to hip hop on earphones. When Trigorin comes in, they hurriedly toss the headphones aside as Trigorin glares... then he fires up the classical music and its back to classical ballet.

I really enjoyed Los Angeles Ballet's first performance on Thursday at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. The theater was a really wonderful, intimate change from the vast and unforgiving Wilshire Theatre. And it's also far more intimate than the huge halls a the Music Center and the Orange County Performing Arts Center, where I'm used to seeing ballet in Los Angeles.

I was excited about the programming: Concerto Barocco, Agon, and diverts from Act 3 of Napoli. Neary and Christen chose well, where the great choreography sustained the evening and gave the dancers a great challenge to come up against. Agon in particular isn't a walk in the park for even the big companies. So not only was it interesting to see how the dancers would accomplish the ballets, but the ballets themselves were just fantastic to watch.

The performances were very promising - a bit tentative in the corps (understandable, they're new), but overall very well coached and clean.

Agon in particular came off very well. There was an exciting energy and fizz when the female corps stormed onto the stage to Stravinsky's atonal violin beats at the beginning of the ballet. The men held their own as well (though a few seemed to try too hard, and ended up sloppy).

Corina Gill gets the kudos for holding up virtually the entire evening on her shoulders: she not only led one ballet, but ALL THREE on the program. She danced the adagio/pas de deux role in Barocco, then took on the pas de deux in Agon, and then showed up for a brief by very impactful variation in Napoli. And she was fantastic in all three roles - her dancing had a musicality and confidence that adapted to each ballet. Most amazingly: a transformation from the subtly seductive Agon to cheerful, elegant and fleet-footed lightness in Napoli, with barely 20 minutes in between. She's tiny in stature, but dances big - a joy to watch. Oleg Gorboulev partnered her in Barocco and Agon. We didn't get to see him dance much on his own, but he was a sturdy partner and had strong, easy presence on stage.

We don't get much Balanchine in SoCal, so this was a nice big helping of Balanchine's great ballets. They're doing this program through the weekend, and then one more time at the end of the month. The next program should be great as well: Serenade, Apollo and Rubies.

For the LA performances, there is currently a discount offered through Gelson's Supermarkets:

http://www.gelsons.com/services/culturalspotlight.asp

10% for the Thursday Apollo/Les Presages/Green Table program, and 20% for the weekend Deuce Coupe/Motown Suite programs. (It may not remain posted there forever, so act fast if you want to use it.)

Casting doesn't usually go out for LA and Orange County until about a month before. And you will have to look on ABT's web site for it, under the calendar section (the LA and OC venues don't generally post casting on their own web sites).

You can also look to the Met season casting for an educated guess of who might be dancing: you're going on the first nights of both programs, so it is likely that they will be the same as first night casts from the Met season. Symphonie Concertante will also be danced on three nights in Orange County the following week, so if your first choice cast isn't doing the one night in Los Angeles, you might be able to see another cast if you're willing to drive.

So far I've watched up through the end of the "Shades" scene. The production on DVD moves snippily along - the conductor moves fast and so does the action on stage. Zakharova is quite beautiful (yes, those legs!!) in the Kingdom of the Shades and is also lovely in the dance with flower basket during the wedding scene. Bolle is a good partner, and I find his sturdy virtuosity very satisfying as well - its not overly showy or flashy, but still very athletic and refined.

The rest of the company is underwhelming: Isabel Brusson lacks the required dramatic presence for Gamzatti and also doesn't have technical pizzazz that gets dancers through the role. The Grand Pas de Deux in the wedding scene was tentative and she blandly made her way through that much-excerpted variation. She does have a strikingly beautiful face, though, which makes her staring - I'm not sure if it's meant to be intense of simply blank - impactful on close-up. And those Shades soloists in the Kingdom of the Shades are all smiling brightly, which annoys me: aren't the girls supposed to be dead? It's not quite Don Q... the rest of the corps was perfectly lovely in the Shades scene though, and I thought the filming of it was decent as well.

The DVD is worth it though, for Zakharova. I think she's exquisite in her sections, and Bolle is a wonderful complement.

FYI the webcast is already up in its full glory in the archive section.

It should also be noted... many Millenium Stage programs are webcast and then archived on the Kennedy CEnter's web site ( http://www.kennedy-center.org ).

Just go there at the appropriate time to watch, or you can watch it in the online archive. I can't find any info saying it won't broadcast from the Terrace Theatre as well... anyone know for certain?

Quick note of correction regarding Bayadere from the posts above:

The 2002 tour of Bayadere to LA and Detroit was the Soviet production, not the 1900 'reconstruction' version. The set and costumes used were mostly pieces from that new/old production, but the choreographic text and production were all the Soviet production, ending straight after the Kingdom of the Shades and without all sorts of divertissements that were added to the reconstruction. It was considered too costly from a personnel standpoint to tour the reconstruction, so only the Soviet Chabukiani version was seen in Los Angeles and Detroit. The Met in New York did get the full reconstruction production, though. We in LA were quite happy to see Vishneva as Nikiya though, so we were just fine seeing the Soviet production (even though it played in the Kodak, which is awful for live theatre even if it looks super glamorous on TV for the Oscars!).

Thanks for your review, BalletNut! Can you describe what Possokhov's Firebird is like, and how it differs from the Fokine version? Is it an entirely new concept, or does it tell essentially the same story?

Casting is up for the first week of performances:

http://www.sfballet.org/performancestickets/casting.asp

I'll be going the second weekend (2/10 & 11)... the casting looks excellent!

Oooh! Zakharova is wonderful as Nikiya, so this should be a wonderful DVD!

This web site lists a release date of Feb 27.

Also, don't forget to look at the region code as well - something you didn't have to worry about with VCRs. Region code is harder to overcome than the PAL/NTSC issue (I believe that has been discussed elsewhere as well).

The POB Swan Lake that was filmed last year will be released by Opus Arte in 2007. It's listed for European release on 1/1/07 at the Opus Arte web site and for American release in February 2007 at this website.

Here's Opus Arte's page for it, which includes casting details, photos and a link to a video clip that does not yet exist (it usually goes up about a month before release):

http://www.opusarte.com/pages/product.asp?ProductID=182

I'm excited about this release - I think Letestu's Odette/Odile could be really great, and I'm excited to see the POB corps here as well.

This is Rudolf Nureyev's later production of Swan Lake, which differs from his earlier version that is on DVD/video with Margot Fonteyn and the Vienna State Opera Ballet. The Paris production includes restoration of Odette's mime in the lakeside scene (which I for one am pleased about) and the obligatory (for Nureyev) extra male variations. For anyone interested to know more about the production, also check out the documentary Etoiles: Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet - available on Netflix and Amazon - which interviews and goes behind the scenes with many of the dancers as they rehearse for Nureyev's Swan Lake.

For the 1895 Petipa setting, a fair amount of the original partiture was re-ordered, some music was cut, and some was added. Tchaikovsky was already dead, so the music that was added, while composed by Tchaikovsky, was orchestrated by Riccardo Drigo (an in-house composer at the Mariinksy Theatre at the time). The music came from a set of 18 Piano Pieces published as op. 72. The following three pieces were added: No. 11 (Valse bluette), the corps piece inserted early into Act IV; No. 15 (Un poco di Chopin), inserted toward the end of Act IV between the beginning and closing of the Scene finale of the original partiture; and No. 12 (L'Espiègle), inserted into the Black Swan pdd before the Coda.

I do not recall having ever heard these 'Drigo' pieces performed by companies other than the Mariinsky–though they may have.

The current Royal Ballet production, staged by Anthony Dowell, includes these Drigo-orchestrated pieces in the fourth act. Dowell staged the production with the consultation of scholar Roland John Wiley (who's book, Tchaikovsky's Ballets, is very detailed and informative) - and this production is considered to be one of the most musically close to the 1895 production. It includes, in Act 1, the switch of the pas de trois to occur before the waltz and these interpolated piano pieces in Act IV.

Is anyone else interested in the roles that Gillian Murphy has been cast in this spring? Desdemona, Juliet, Titania - all look like very interesting roles from her, and are outside of the usual Kitris, Gamzattis, Odette/Odiles she's normally cast in. Aurora seems like an obvious casting choice for her. It will be interesting to see the dramatic side of her in these other roles.

After three Swan Lakes this weekend, I'm quite happy.

The Kirov production is my favorite version of the Swan Lake, even with its oddities. First off, the Kirov just knows how to put on a Swan Lake. It’s in their blood, handed down over the generations from the ‘standard’ 1895 production. The current production was created with significant revisions in 1950, under the watchful eye of Soviet censors. But still, what contemporary audiences know of Swan Lake – scads of white tutus, pure classical dancing – is all there in purest form with this production. It’s Swan Lake pretty straightforwardly, and the production’s quirks (the jester, a happy ending) don't get too much in the way of a glorious lakeside act and fabulous dancing. Most important of all, there are no psychological or Freudian overtones for Prince Siegfried.

(I posted large chunks my Odette/Odile descriptions on another board... but please forgive my reusing words!!)

Diana Vishneva's Odette/Odile, was the most satisfying. At today's Sunday matinee, she was spot on, dancing beautifully even through a loudly crying baby during Odette's variation. First of all, she's a beautiful dancer: wonderfully proportioned with legs that aren't too long (that seems to show up a lot in the Kirov company), beautiful feet, and great control of her body. She can create beautiful shapes with her body, and she looks fantastically regal in a tutu.

But what impressed me most was the dramatic spontaneity of her performance. When Siegfried intrudes upon her reverie at the beginning of Act 2, right after she's been turned back into human form, it doesn't look planned or choreographed. She really looked surprised to see him. Then, when Rothbart comes to separate the pair, she actually notices that Rothbart is there and acknowledges his presence by trying to push Siegfried away - the reason this looked so wonderful was because no other Kirov Odette acknowledged this during the weekend. Each of them just kept on dancing the choreography given to them, but Vishneva made a dramatic point out of the moment. Then, with the White Swan Pas de Deux, it wasn't merely a gorgeously executed classical duet, but a dramatic scene. Vishneva’s Odette started by being reluctant to respond to Siegfried, remaining physically distant and pulling away when he reached for her hand. But as the pas de deux progressed and Siegfried showed his sincerity to her, she began to trust him - finally allowing herself to be folded into his arms and cradled towards the end of the dance.

At Friday's performance, Uliana Lopatkina's Odette/Odile was beautiful, lyrical - and anything but spontaneous. Each detail was caretfully planned and there was nothing that could happen onstage that was going to put her off the charted course. This approach had charms of its own; her years of experience as Odette and Odile delivered a performance that took every advantage of the role's possibilities. It was a ballerina's very individual interpretation of the role, complete with her own Odette-brand mannerisms - a flick of the wrist here, a carefully planned bend of the leg into attitude at just the right point in the music there. But all that planning can sometimes leave the drama cold.

Lopatkina's Odile was dazzling – extreme glamour via razor-sharp precision. She seduced Siegfried, and the audience, by being an stunningly perfect Odile. No wobbles, perfect turns, classical flash. A thrilling classicism.

On Saturday afternoon, there was much to admire about Victoria Tereshkina's Odette/Odile. Her Odette was free of all the ballerina mannerisms that Lopatkina had, and was a fairly clean reading of Odette. And her Odile was mesmerizing. It was just as clean as her Odette technically, but her stage persona was on fire. She was smug but still sexy, and responded to Siegfried's confusion about the look-a-like Odette in black by turning on the seduction even more. It was a visceral thrill seeing her sail through the very difficult choreography, and her confident stage persona added to the overall effect.

Still, as beautiful as Loptakina and Tereshkina were, Vishneva's combination of great dancing and drama added another dimension to the ballet. Her Odette was moving, and very exciting.

The Siegfrieds took second seat to the Odette/Odiles this weekend - they were kind of just there. Danila Korsuntsev danced at the Friday and Saturday afternoon performances, and Igor Kolb danced at the Sunday matinee. Korsuntsev seemed to be sleep walking; I laughed when he ripped off Rothbart's arm in the final battle and started half-heartedly brushing Rothbart with it (meanwhile Rothbart was enthusiastically dying on the floor below). Kolb had more stage presence, and added a big (but still very elegant) leap to Siegfried's first entrance to establish his presence over the court. But still, Siegfried is a very thankless role in the Kirov production, very much a cavalier, so there wasn't a lot for him to show.

One cannot forget to mention the magnificent corps de ballet. It still gets me every single time that every one of those dancers is dancing full out, and yet they all instinctively move the same, remain perfectly in line, and move with the same unforced elegance - while still being interesting individuals. The lakeside scenes were a joy to watch - a stageful of perfectly placed arms and legs, wrapped in white.

These Swan Lakes were a lot of fun to watch - much more so than Romeo & Juliet. The Kirov seems born to dance Swan Lake, ingrained in their blood. A joy.

This is the production by Leonid Lavrosky.

It is being televised on BBC in the UK during the month of January, but there is no indication whether or not it will be released on DVD. Many recent RB telecasts have been only that - telecasts, and even with rumors of DVD release, they haven't been out on DVD. So I wouldn't hold my breath yet...

EDITED: I had originally written February, but it's in January. My faulty memory picked the wrong dates out of this BBC press release (February is the Stravinsky radio broadcasts): http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressrele...haikovsky.shtml