Herman Stevens

Dave, I'd recommend watching the Paris Opera and the Dutch National schedules and hop on over to either city when there's a program you fancy.

175 euros is obscene.

I would add Semenyaka to the list, and put it fairly high on the list (Anisimov as Albert, and Grachyova as Mirta).

It's on a "VideoLand Klassik" Bolshoi DVD. It also features some dopy footage of Semenyaka and her little son. Don't ask me how and where to get it, but it does exist.

The Bessmertnova is a classic, especially the mother-of-pearl back drop is delicious; however the camera has this uncanny habit of looking away when we want to look. I shudder to think what a 1990ish Bessmertnova would have looked like.

Classic Arts Showcase just showed a pas de deux (to Paul Anka's version of the old Frank Sinatra song, "My Way")

OT: "My Way" was composed and written by Paul Anka, which would pretty much make it his song.

Due to overwhelming popular demand I'll post some of my impressions of the Dutch National Ballet's first full length Jewels production, which I saw on the opening night Sept 8 and on Sept 15.

Rubies has been performed in Amsterdam since 1977 and Diamonds since the mid-eighties. For Emeralds however this was a first. As in most cases Emeralds remained the least succesful ballet, although on the second night there were some big whoops coming from the audience… and then it turned out the slow coda was yet to come.

Ruta Jezerskyte danced Emeralds's Fileuse girl on both nights, with beautiful soft upper body, particularly on the second night, partnered by Cedric Ygnace. The only downside, perhaps, was that the soft upper body wasn't quite contrasted by the hairpin moves that characterize Jewels - "it looks like I'm heading left, but hey, something makes me go right after all".

Larissa Lezhnina was a beautiful Sicilienne girl on the first night, showing that this part is done best by a small, quick dancer, as further evidenced by the non-small, non-quick Anna Seidl on the second night. It was really painful to see how entire parts of the choreography went flat in Seidl's account (earlier this year she was quite dour in Kammermusik, too.)

Rubies was danced by Marisa Lopez and Cedric Ygnace on the first night, with Igone de Jongh as the solo girl. Rubies is not my favorite ballet; I get the feeling Balanchine is parodying himself here (occasionally avant la lettre). However the cast was excellent. De Jongh has been quite successful in a number of Balanchine ballets lately, such as Square Dance and Kammermusik. On the second night the cast was not nearly as powerful. You have to be a bit of an animal to do this right, and it didn't happen. Cedric Ygnace, now that's a ballet animal.

Diamonds. There were three shows with Sofiane Sylve and Charles Askegard. Sylve has been partnered by guest soloists lately, and not all of 'em looked like a great match. The problem with the PDD, as has been amply discussed on BT, is the piece is about Suzanne Farrell, and you can't copy her, and you can't be different. One thing Sylve got right is she didn't act, her entire PDD had a (for lack of better words) passive-compulsive "don't ask don't tell" mood that was not unlike Farrell's MO. Sylve's and Askegard's Scherzo was great (Askegard had clearly been saving himself for this). I would have loved to see Sylve one more time (I got the impression in the finale that there hadn't been too much Amsterdam rehearsal time for the guests from NYC), but on the second night Larissa Lezhnina and Tamas Nagy danced Diamonds, and as wonderful a fit Lezhnina had been in Emeralds, it didn't really work in Diamonds. Sorry, but this is a part for a big girl. Something big and sublime is supposed to happen when she opens her legs in those lifts, or in those swivel turns, and for all her technical finesse this is not something Lezhnina can deliver, unless the entire theater including each and every audience member is shrunk a couple sizes.

I should mention Anu Viheriaranta who stood out in the first-night Diamonds, as one of the four demis, giving character to the final polonaise from start to finish and in the second-night Emeralds pas de trois. This is truly a marvellous dancer, who never just dances the steps, infusing everything she does with character. I would love to see her Fileuse, but I guess she'll only get to do this at the tail-end of the Jewels run due to this company's "we've got this great girl, but no way we're going to show her off" policy.

Isn't it ironic that the best performances had Eastern European dancers in the "French" Emeralds, and French dancers in the "Russian" Diamonds?

I loved Emeralds – for pretty much the same reasons as everyone else who loved Emeralds. I loved the costumes and despite the open mouth smiles and overly effusive moments I loved the port de bras and thought the dancers added a charming French “perfume”and warmth very appropriate to this homage to French romanticism.

I remember commenting on Pujol's "emoting" too, after first watching the DVD. I'm almost embarrassed now at having said that, in light of the stunning performance she's giving.

However I do notice that a lot of posters have been making comments like this; also about Letestu's slightly different characterization of the Diamonds role, and even about a couple of Eastern European dancers (currently in the Dutch National Ballet) dancing a Who Cares? excerpt in the Prague Gala DVD, allowing themselves more facial expressions than the poster liked.

My hypothesis is that the POB Jewels DVD signals a new phase in Balanchine dancing and its transmission, both geographically and over time. I'm guessing that the original Balachine precept of no-acting (let the steps express the emotions) may have had its time.

The same thing happened with Stravinsky's music. For a long time conductors followed Stravinsky's lead in focussing on the rhythm. No wallowing in the lyricism. Objectivity. However conductors like Salonen and Chailly have revealed a layer of romanticism in the music formerly covered over by Stravinsky's precept that music is unfit to express anything but the music.

I think the same is happening now with Balanchine. Virtually in every case I can think of the original creators downplay the emotions in their stuff, since for them it's all in in the notes or the steps. Listen to composers perform their own music. Almost always it sounds cold and objective at first. Usually it takes later generations to bring out the expressive richness, and maybe that's what's going to happen with Balanchine, too.

BTW I'm not saying the original dancers didn't bring out Balanchine's emotional richness; what I'm saying is those original dancers aren't dancing anymore, and perhaps new dancers have to look for different ways to bring out the richness.

Regarding the question of other companies who do Jewels: I know of NYCB, PNB, SFB, PA Ballet has done it, Pittsburgh under Patricia Wilde, MCB, NoBC, Mariinsky-Kirov, POB, and Cincinnati Ballet with Ballet Met. The Dutch National Ballet is planning its first production in September, and the Royal Ballet is planning to present it in 2007. Several companies have done one section, usually Rubies (under the title Capricio, the title of the music).

About the Karinska costumes - I love them.

The Amsterdam Jewels is premiered next week. In a funny twist Larissa Lezhnina is in the 'French' Emeralds, while the first cast soloist for 'Russian' Diamands is the French Sofiane Sylve (partnered by Charles Askegard).

The Hamburg Ballet premiered their Jewels last season.

Great post Gatto, raising two problems. How do ballets continue their lives once the original casts have retired? And in the case of Diamonds, indeed, it appears Farrell needed a long time to grow into the role. So should Balanchine have told her straight away she couldn't do it?

Swan Lake would not have made it to Petersburg (and the 20th century) this way, nor would it have had 32 fouettees. We wouldn't have had any Sleeping Beauty fishdives, and, of course, most Balanchine ballets were changed by Balanchine as new casts came along. So, was he wrong to do so?

A dancer can be completely convinced of his/her approach or interpretation and be off the mark, which an informed audience member can identify immediately in many cases, particularly when a dancer takes on an iconic role that is specific to the style of another performer or company.

To me this comes very close to saying "the audience is always right", for which I believe there is virtually no evidence, historically. I'm very suspicious of people who say they know more about art than the artists - and there are a lot of 'em.

We are a discussion board from the point of view of the audience, and it is well within Ballet Talk policy to criticize performances, which, by definition, are performed by dancers who have spent weeks and often years working on specific ballets.

I'm sure you're well aware I wasn't saying it was not allowed to criticize performances. I just happen to think one's criticism gets more interesting when one realizes that dancers usually have spent a hell of a lot more time on the piece than we did.

The dancer in the POB was wrong...well, I guess anyone who isn't Farrell is wrong. I thought her gaze was too romantic and almost weak. Those, "I am so in love with you" glances at her partner were out of character for the dance. Also, some of the steps looked off, most notably at the end of the pas those walking forward while leaning backward (reminds me a bit of that part in Tzigane). The POB dancer didn't take huge steps and was relying too much on her partner for balance.

With all due respect I think it would be helpful to wonder, when you've watched a video of a ballet and making these rather snap comments, whether one or two viewings of that video gives you a better judgment of the ballet than the dancer who has worked weeks non-stop on the ballet.

It's perfectly OK to say you like A better than B, but are you sure you invested sufficient time in thinking about this piece to say you know better than the dancer who does the actual dancing what's part of the dance and what not?

This doesn't mean you can't say "I don't like it". I'm just a little baffled how you can be so sure that you know better than people who make their living dancing these steps.

And let me add that I vastly prefer Farrell (DIA) to Letetstu, too. But I would probably say the same thing about Carlotta Brianza's Aurora, too.

I've never seen Rubies before and am not familiar with the dancing style of the original cast members, which helped in my perception of POB Rubies.

another big question mark.

The tall girl in Rubies was Marie Agnes Gillot.

Thanks for that information. After seeing her as Diana (in the DVD of the Neumeier Sylvia) -- and enjoying her intelligent comments during the interviews on that disc -- I'm hooked.

Isn't she Lilac in POB's Beauty, reemerging in the Act III Precious Stones threesome as well?

Emeralds was disappointing in that they chose to omit the final movement that B added. And what's with the crazed open-mouth smiles?

I had to get used to this too, but having watched the dvd numerous times I have to say the POB's Emeralds is just splendid.

So maybe there's some emoting, but the dancing is so extraordinarily musical and ecstatic, it just doesn't matter anymore.

Jane/Lynette:

All I can say is that Duprot is a gem & I found myself riveted to her every move...well, whenever Eros wasn't dancing . Back at the hotel, I was delighted to see, when perusing my 2004/05 RB Souvenir Programme, that Duprot is already being given significant soloist roles...there's a photo of her as Olga in last year's Onegin. Bravo!

Duprot is drop-dead cute, but I'm not sure whether she's got that Ashtonian swiveling speed. (I'd have to see her more often. I'd love to.)

Outside of New York, I think ballet is a performing arts afterthought

I used to live in a midwestern college town for seven years and there were a lot of visiting ballet companies. So I think it's not that bad.

I did notice, however, Americans tend to be very insular in the way they see things: their situation is the way the entire world is. (Note your use of the words "we" and "our".)

This is not necessarily true.

I think it has something to do with our belief in meritocracy.

which is why (I guess) the US have a president right now who has serious problems stringing together a sentence.

She was the Hungarian Princess in the Grigorovich Lake o' Swan I saw in London recently. Delightful.

Krysanova went up to the problem drop and started tugging with all her might. She pulled it down straight, so it could be lifted.

Atta girl, Cinderella!

So would you in hindsight say you liked Krysanova's C better than Zakharova's, or were you just better seated and suited to the choreography this time?

Especially since for Grigorovich he is the only real protagonist of the ballet.

well, that's just never going to happen in Swan Lake, unless Siegfried will whip out 32 fouettees.

many modern productions try to solve the Act I problem, and maybe there just isn't any better solution than a than letting it be.

in some ways the Grigorovich version compounds the problem by making Rothbart Siegfried's Evil Genius with the risk of the bad guy upstaging the good guy (as in Raymonda).

BTW I should say that IMO Grigorovich is one of the great 20th C choreographers (a fact not much enhanced by the obnoxity of his many hagiographies written in the same vein as political propaganda). Swan Lake is just not one of his happiest pieces.

Hi chiapuris----standing in line for four hours to try and get Bolshoi tickets at the last minute----I would have done the same thing. Remember that exactly fifty years ago folks stood in line for Three Nights(!) in London to get their first look at the Bolshoi dancers. You are part of History!

Eh, Buddy? Fifty years ago was at the height of the Cold War when great artists and troupes rarely ever ventured out of the USSR.

These days, with the theatres under reconstruction both the Bolshoi and the K-Mariinsky are essentially touring companies. As it happens both the Bolshoi and the K-M are in London now.

So if you miss a show, you can be pretty sure you'll have another opportunity next year.

What a small world Herman.

We met a Ballet Talk friend in the interval. So that makes three...

We were sitting in the 4th row center from the stage.

Aren't those stalls just to die for? It's such an intimate theatre, really.

We saw the same immobility in Alexandrova's face. I just happened to like it a lot, because her dancing became and remained so expressive throughout the lake scene. Chacun a son gout.

I think some kind of eye contact is really desirable. But in a way I have no problem with M.A.'s Odette. These were her intentions (surely she thought longer about them than I did) and she fullfilled them to the max. I just think Filin fell short of complementing them and making it a truly great show.

lovely story, Gina.

and I'm so glad to see Elizavetha Gerdt on pointe shoes in that Lilac picture...

Charles Jude must be around 53 now (he was born in 1953), and I hope that he won't make the same error as his mentor Nureyev, dancing for too long...

I saw him in the rather weird Lifar Icare a year ago.

I was at the same Alexandrova - Filin Swan Lake as Chiapuris.

I would not have the same ultimate praise.

Alexandrova is a great pure dancer. It was wonderful to watch her Odette, but I have often been more moved by dancers who are, perhaps, technically less perfect. The way I saw it (we were in the 6th row from the stage) her face was practically immobile throughout the entire first white scene. (Grigorovich' Swan Lake is a two-act ballet.) I think it is both a personal choice and a matter of Grigorovich' scenario (Odette is supposed to be a figment of Siegfried's fantasy) that there was so little dramatic expression, but this did make for a rather sterile first half, entirely focused on exquisite dancing.

A real problem was however the total lack of dramatic chemistry between Alexandrova and Filin. Filin is just a dancer who loves to dance and enchant the audience. Period. He was really most expressive during the curtain calls. There was never any sense during the very slow white PDD that he was a despondent prince awestruck by this otherworldly being. He was just partnering a great dancer. I'm not complaining at this level of dancing, but in the best performances there is great imagination added to wonderful, musical dancing, and this didn't happen in the first half of this Swan Lake.

Without Odette's constipated look Alexandrova's Odile was much more expansive. The audience went crazy during the fouettees, though I couldn't help but notice there was quite a bit of travelling, and of course there are some infelicitous Grigorovich cuts and changes in the Black Swan PDD.

What's really good about Grigorovich's Swan Lake is the suite of dances by the various bride-to-be princesses. Instead of filling the stage with a couple dozen corps members stomping away at the mazurka, etc, each national dance is dedicated to a princess and her retinue introducing herself to the prince and the queen. There's a lot of Raymonda in the wonderful Hungarian (hand behind the head) and Russian variations (real hand claps), and they were blissfully danced by Nelly Kobakhidze and Anna Rebetskaya. The last, Polish variation was by Ekaterina Shipulina.

This suite of dances really is a ray, no, a huge beam of light in this otherwise rather murky conception of Swan Lake, with the Evil Genius following Siegfried around and all the gloomy blacks and browns.

The funny thing is when you say Bolshoi you think of extraverted dramatic dancing, and apart from the brides-to-be and part of the Black Swan PDD what I saw was a very introverted type of dancing. At no point was I ever reminded Swan Lake is a ballet about life and death, desire and betrayal. It was mostly about exquisite dancing.

The corps was great. I don't think I have ever sat through an entire Swan Lake without seeing the slightest inperfection whatsoever. These girls really have got their act together. The orchestra was great, conducted by Pavel Sorokin, (and they'd played the exact same music in the afternoon, too, and the previous nights). There were a couple of moments when I did like Balanchine said, just closing my eyes enjoying the music.

I hope nobody will mind me writing my experience regarding racism both in and outside of ballet world. First of all I am half Pashto and half Japanese, so to be accurate racially I am a mix of caucasian and mongolian races. Dancers who were similar mix as me are Nijinsky, Nureyev, Charles Jude, Tallchief sisters, Asylmuratova etc......(so many).

And this is another interesting point Omshanti makes in his great post: the idea (posited over and over on this thread) that classical ballet is one-dimensionally mono-ethnic just doesn't bear a lot of scrutiny.

The one good exception is a duet from Who Cares? danced by Natalie Hoffmann and Altin Kaftira.

Two wonderful soloists from the Dutch National Ballet, if I may add.

Just a few things:

First, I never said anything about "people of color." In a thread such as this where we are treading on eggshells, it is important to read posts carefully, especially when quoting.

Sorry Hans,

It was Herman who wrote that, I apologise.

KL

Well I checked my contributions to this thread and unless I'm going blind you can apologize again* because I didn't either.

BTW I suspect for most non-US readers these intricacies of taboo terminology are rather bewildering.

*just kidding ya.

At this juncture I am not ready to concede ballet will always be racially biased. Ballet is what we make it. If enough of us commit ourselves to change it will happen. Sadly, if enough of us either give up hope, work wittingly or unwittingly to impede change, or worse yet, fight to maintain a system that injures, excludes, and punishes people based on their identity and heritage--in that case, we can and will perpetuate these negative aspects of the art far into the forseable future. The choice really is ours.

For every purist we might lose, there is also a chance to pick up a few new fans.

This sounds really scary. Who is "we"?

There are not many companies in the world dedicated to classical ballet. There are about a million dance groups who do other kinds of repertoire. There have been many many discussions on BT about the precarious existence of this tiny minority of more or less purist ballet companies. That's what I sympathise with.

Ballet, like any form of high art, has always attracted a lot of resentment, whether it's about "all those tutu girls" being unable to express themselves, or about "ballet = anorexia," and the "ballet = racism" is yet another manifestation of resentment IMO.

Having given my views on a previous page, I think I'll leave it at this.