art076

Hooray!

Wednesday night - Who knew Terpsichore was such a flirt? Irina Dvorovenko was as sultry and seductive as a Terpsichore could be... it was a bit startling. Eric Taub wrote on ballet.co that Dvorovenko's performances are like she is performing Kitri in every role - one can certainly see that here. Kitri attempted to live through Balanchine's muse. Though the technique and everything was there, I was not the biggest fan. On the other hand, Maxim Beloserkovsky was wonderful as Apollo - elegant and strong. There was a slight mishap with his costume that had him performing the virtually the whole ballet shirtless, but still it was a good performance. Jeu de Cartes was even more fun the second time around. New York readers definitely have this to look forward to during the Met season. There was an announced cast change at the beginning of the performance, with Gillian Murphy pulling out of her roles in both GOng and Jeu de Cartes. Hopefully she is ok, and we will still see her as Sylvia on Friday! Socal gal: I won't be at Thursday, but please share your thoughts!

Some notes on the Tuesday, May 2 performance - It was a lovely evening, highly enjoyable even if it was a bit rough around the edges. Hallberg's debut was very promising, though understandably not fully formed yet. He tends to play the puppy-dog, wide-eye wondered Apollo throughout, instead of progressing from child through to adult elegance. Additionally, the dancing was weighty - the jumps landed with loud clunks, and his steps were heavy, as though he were over characterizing the role. That said, though, he will certainly grow into it and there was lots to like about his performance. He's got that incredibly strong elegance and posture, and his sheer tall blondness makes him appear god-like very naturally. Promising debut. Apollo the ballet is always so enjoyable to me, no matter who seems to be dancing it. It's a breath of fresh air and the choreography is so incredibly perfect as it flows completely logically, yet always surprisingly, from step to step and form to form. The three muses were Julie Kent as Terpsichore, Gillian Murphy as Polyhymnia and Maria Ricetto as Calliope. Kent was lovely as Terpsichore - a kind of effortless grace, even if parts were a bit *too* soft at times. Murphy was fine in the trio bits, but her variation verged on clunky - salvaged somewhat at the end by her cute exclamation and run off stage. Ricetto looked the most Balanchinian of the bunch. The only bad part of the performance was when a cell phone nearly ruined the pas de deux for the audience; the dancing went on as usual, but I was jarred out of the performance. Gong was quite the contrast to Apollo; Morris' choreography has a sort of forced musicality when it is played right next to Balanchine. But with the very fun score and equally amusing quirks in the choreography (a supported arabesque hop on point becomes a kind of jackhammer as it gets repeated with heavier emphasis repeatedly, for example - to the amused delight of the audience), one sees that Morris is going for a more witty effect than purely musical one. Misty Copeland stood out in the pink tutu role, partnering with Marcelo Gomes in the later pas de deux set to no music. Jeu de Cartes was a company premiere and it's certainly a fun piece, though still a bit rough in many of the transitions last night. No one seemed entirely comfortable in anything yet, but again it looked like it will come together fully very soon. As if to show how they are still trying to figure everything out, curtain call was a mess with no one being quite sure when to bow, or who to bring on the conductor, etc. The ballet is staged as a set of three vignettes with roughly 5 dancers each, with the "cards" trying to fit in and make a good poker hand of sorts - running around, bumping into each other, with off-beat choreography in tune to the angles of the Stravinsky score. Herman Cornejo was a bouncy Joker who wove between the three movements of the ballet - starting off as Queen Irina Dvorovenko's antagonizer in the 1st movement, then becoming the butt (literally) of the five mens' joke in the 2nd movement, to being a prankster who helps out the girl left out in the 3rd movement. Despite the plotless nature of the ballet, there is a kind of progression here for the Joker: from being cruel at first (making the Queen cry), to learning what it's like to be the object of a joke, to then using jokes to help someone. THere was fantastic dancing in five variations during the second movement (the men were Julio Bragado-Young, Aaron Scott, Grant Delong, Jared Matthews and Gennadi Saveliev), and Erica Cornejo was the cute 5th-wheel girl, trying to get in between two dancing couples. Dvorovenko's performance was the showgirl performance of the evening, with huge extensions and big dancing - plus curtain call eating after the show - but the performance less characterization and more Dvorovenko-izing. Overall, a fun evening and its great to see the company doing works like this when they usually only visit with story ballets. It will be interesting to see how my perspective of the ballets goes with cast 2 of the mixed rep tomorrow night (Dvorovenko will dance Terpsichore... which should be, well, interesting).

The Bjornson/Dowell production has not been performed for quite some time, yes. Though the choreographic text has been widely praised, the designs were rather jarring for a ballet that has been such a prized part of the RB repertory. Then, there was Natalia Makarova's production staged only a few years ago, though that production was heavily Russian influenced - both choreographically and stylistically. The sets returned to a more traditional storybook nature, but the spirit of the production was much more Russian than English. Thus the decision to restage the Messel production for the RB's 75th Anniversary, as mentioned in the article, because Mason felt it that they needed a return to the more traditional RB production of it.

Performances begin tonight in Orange County. Any other Ballet Talkers going? Some very interesting debuts to look forward to this week, particularly for David Hallberg - he opens the run tonight as Apollo, and closes the run with his debut as Aminta in Ashton's Sylvia. Also, the company premiere of Cranko's Jeu de Cartes is tonight. I'm looking forward to this mixed rep, as well as to seeing Gillian Murphy in Sylvia on Friday; having see the Royal Ballet broadcast of this production, I think the role will fit her like a glove. Also excited because ABT's performances will end So Cal's several-months long ballet drought!

Letestu does not come off well on the Paquita DVD, but her Odette should be wonderful. If you've seen her Shades variation on the POB DVD of Nureyev's La Bayadere, you'll know what I mean!

I don't understand why people dislike Alina Somova so much! Her Medora last year in DC was indeed hyper extended, but she had immense stage presence nevertheless and shifted the emphasis on the ballet back onto Medora - which, when you think of it, was where it should be in Corsaire. The other Medoras were comparatively flat and uninteresting, where Somova bounded across the stage like she truly owned it (even if the hyperextensions were annoying). I also found her Sleeping Beauty in Los Angeles to be a remarkably developed performance for a dancer at such a young age... the hyper extensions were thankfully gone, and her dramatic spontenaity was a pleasant surprise. So while she still has quite a bit of development to do, I don't understand all the intense negative energy directed towards her.... is she that much worse in St. Petersburg?

Hooray! Not entirely unexpected to have Cojocaru/Kobborg on opening night, as they are first cast in London as well. Now, as for the others..... at least we know which casts will be rotated (see the Royal Ballet's web site here), its just a matter of *when* they might be performing. In London they have 5 casts, and in DC we will have 5 performances. I hope we will at least see Marianela Nunez and Sarah Lamb's Auroras.

I thought they were planning to release the Ashton Sylvia w/ Bussell Bolle on DVD. A reviewer in one of the major British papers mentioned it offhand in a review of the December performances at the ROH... I'd have to dig through to go back and find it.

Thanks Natalia- Since the article is in Russian, can you give us a few more details from it, if they are mentioned? Such as: casting for Swan Lake, confirmation of casting for Ondine and Don Q, planned release dates and whether we'll get all of Jewels, or just pieces of it spread out between the documentary you mentioned? (it seems unlikely that we'd get a full Jewels from the Kirov since we already getting a full Jewels from the Paris Opera Ballet)... Thanks!

Johan Kobborg's site lists an US/South American tour in his schedule section. The Boston and Washington DC dates might be the only US dates (they are the only ones I can find anyway...)

Thanks for both of the detailed reports on The Sleeping Beauty! I think I may have just been sold on a trip to see Cojocaru's Aurora in Washington this June (assuming she is dancing).

The issue is not just financial - there is immense manpower involved in going back to renegotiate every single contract for performances that occured 30 years ago. There's no saying where the original signers are now, so it would take an immense amount of time to do that. So it's not just a matter of cost paid to the union at the time of release, its the time and cost it takes to renegotiate a contract that was made under a different environment. Additionally, costs likely go up significantly when a performance is to be released commercially. Live from Lincoln Center was designed as a one-off deal for many of these performances, in order to make production costs more feasible for the television program. Programs such as Great Performances or Dance in America are more likely to have the contract set from the start. So while it may not be technically impossible to do such a thing, I don't think the powers at be can afford to go through the ffort of renegotiating a release of a broadcast that would have limited commercial appeal.

Desire is Anton Korsakov - though you can barely see him beneath the enormous wig/costume treatment. I didn't mention him only because you don't get to see him do very much..

So, I've just received this on my Netflix ( ), and the ballet excerpts are wonderful. In the Special features, we get the Act II Vision scene, from Aurora's entrance through the end of her variation. Zhanna Ayupova is thrilling through the whole thing: light, graceful, musical. And what also stuns is the Kirov corps, who gets to shine a bit too. It's an unforced, lush style that is uniform throughout the entire company without a hint of effort on their faces. Here it's on display to grand effect. What's interesting about this clip is that it is from the reconstruction production - so Aurora's variation isn't the one we'd normally associate with it, but the "Gold" variation music from act 3, with choreography that the Lilac Fairy usually dances in the Sergeyev production. Within the film itself (which we already saw in the theatrical version), we get to see Ayupova dancing her entrance in Act I (it cuts off just before the Rose Adagio, unfortunately), and then we get to see the coda through the pricking of Aurora's finger and the end of Act I. So, lots of great bits throughout. Makes one wish for the entire performance, but still this is very nice to have.

I went for the Kirkland/Baryshnikov Theme & Variations. Wish they had time to air whole programs though!

Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake just opened in Los Angeles - and I thought it was just fantastic. It is of course NOT the classical Swan Lake, but I found it a wonderful, very individual version with its own very valid story to tell. Its clear in the lakeside scenes that Bourne is respectful of the Swan Lake and ballet traditions - the choreography for the male swans has portions that are reminiscent of the Ivanov choreography - but he never means to be "classical" ballet. These are not pretty, quivering swans but menacing, powerful creatures. Bourne's work is contemporary dance theatre: dance specifically involved in narrative. Even when he is doing a parody of ballet (in Act 1, set to the Pas de Trois music, the main characters go to the opera house and see a kind of demonic Les Sylphides meets Swan Lake's Von Rothbart), ballet fans will knowingly laugh and enjoy this. And the story: a Prince disillusioned with the royal society he has been born into, driven to nearly commit suicide by throwing himself into the lake before the swans appear as a life-affirming vision. I was engaged throughout. Bourne's choreography in and of itself may not live on like Ivanov's in gala extracts, but it is the choreography as well as the concept that works wonderfully. I will give, though, that if I was expecting a classical Swan lake and got this instead, I might have been disappointed. It's certainly much different. But LA is largely familiar with Matthew Bourne. Every major piece of his since Swan Lake has been presented at the Ahmanson Theatre, and many of them were exclusive US engagements. And at its American premiere in 1997, Swan Lake caused a huge stir in LA before heading off to Broadway to win several awards. So its return here this week was greeted with a prolonged standing ovation at last night's opening.

I went to Friday night's performance also. Certainly a fun night all around - though for me the real highlight was Johan Kobborg. While the other dancers (Stiefel, Corella and Tsiskaridze) were all good in their own rights, only Kobborg showed artistry. He acted as well as danced, and he had the virtuosity just as much as any of them. Perhaps it was the choreography he was given tonight, but I was most impressed by him. He was wonderful in "The Lesson" and it was also fantastic to see him create a character and a story arc in his vanity solo, "Afternoon of a Faun." "The Lesson" was a real winner, with finely acted - as well as danced - performances from all three Royal Ballet dancers (Kobborg, Alina Cojocaru and Zenaida Yanowsky). A treat, as was said above, to see Cojocaru's brightness and easy way with technique and character up there on stage. Corella wins the virtuoso award of the night, with flying leaps and never-ending spins. Steifel seemed the most popular, drawing the biggest cheers from the crowd just for appearing. Tsiskaridze was the classically tall prince, and certainly a show man with his solos from Carmen.

Amazon.com now lists a US release date of March 28, 2006, from Kultur. Do a search for "La Sylphide" after clicking on the Amazon.com banner above... the listing for this DVD doesn't have a picture yet.

Conrad is Maxim Beloserkovsky. Can't tell who Birbanto is...

Wonderful news! As socalgal wrote, their Giselle in Orange County two Julys ago was one of those memorable nights in the theatre that one remembers for a very, very long time. And I particularly love the Royal Ballet's (Peter Wright's) production for the very clear dramatic focus, and the whole company's ability to convey that drama.

FYI, according to this article in the LA Times, the bonus materials on the DVD of Sacred Stage include "a nearly complete performance of the [The Sleeping Beauty's] lyrical Vision Scene" with Ayupova and company in the reconstruction staging. http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/cl-et-da...y?coll=cl-stage The article also reviews the Zakharova/Bolle La Scalla Swan Lake DVD plus a few others.

I was thinking that Tzigane, with Farrell's own Natalia Magnicaballi, might have been perfect for this occassion. Add a star male dancer for the audience to clap at when he enters to partner Magnicaballi, and you have a gala tribute. Tzigane is sexy and fun, a wonderful Farrell role, and the company has danced it on many occassions - including on the KC's Millenium Stage this past September. Plus, Natalia is ravishing in it. It would have been a stunning tribute to Farrell. But perhaps Tzigane would have been more difficult to pull off without Farrell in the rehearsal room (doesn't she own the rights to this particular piece?).

This is certainly fascinating, but it has been there for quite some time hasn't it? Since around the time the production originally came up...

FYI - the company also performed during the Kennedy Center Honors, as part of Suzanne Farrell's tribute. They reportedly performed the finale from Divertimento No. 15, and it will be broadcast on CBS, December 27 at 9 pm. (The newspapers all seem to be focusing on Beyonce's tribute for Tina Turner...)