sophia

It's true, the western system is different from the russian, but as far as POB is concerned, they change styles regularly and dancers, esp. soloists, happen to perform and/or rehearse two different (I mean very different, not only classical to neo-classical) programs during the same period of time. And injuries are common - almost a rule here. Check the change of casts in December or at Easter for example...

Raymonda was filmed last December with Marie-Agnès Gillot in the leading role.

On the Itar-Tass website, the reader can just find a name-dropping without any precision. I just make the supposition (between brackets) that the dancers mentioned could be Medora and Conrad.

1944 actually. Sorry!

Well, I may be wrong!! I found her birthday on Wikipedia... I'll check later...

She was born in 1947.

I completely share your opinion about Thibault and Ould-Braham (no possible comparison with Cozette in any way) who are true stars actually, most appreciated by the audience. But these two are first and foremost (not to say only) classical dancers. That's a reason why they are not the favorites of the management... It's exactly as if they chose to promote "mediocrity" rather than personality and artistry... People who were promoted in recent years are honest soloists or first soloists, certainly not principals.

Caroline, the performance you're talking about was a dress rehearsal, she was not supposed to dance it, and I think we can't judge her on that performance. Personally, I attended her two other performances that were scheduled on May 3rd and 5th. As far as I am concerned, I can't say I'm a big fan of her, though I really enjoyed her as Odette/Odile and Cinderella. Not minor roles in any way... That certainly means something about her abilities. To tell it in a nutshell, I would say that her dancing is not particularly exciting. Except the roles I mentioned before, each time I saw her on stage, I couln't help feeling boredom and she didn't convince me. For instance, she recently performed roles such as Myrtha, Gamzatti, Queen of the Dryads or La Cigarette in Lifar "Suite en blanc", I found her rather disappointing and I especially did not appreciate her lack of lyricism. To be fair, we must admit she has a true elegance on stage and is really a good technician (in POB, that means a proper leg and foot work), two qualities that make her far superior to Eleonora Abbagnato, another première danseuse longing for a title. This new appointment is probably disappointing to many, as there are certainly better (I mean more interesting artistically) "premières danseuses", especially the shiny Myriam Ould-Braham. Anyway, I really have nothing against her and if this appointment is not better (be aware I may be wrong!), it certainly is not worse than the ones that occured in recent years. People who were given the title are good soloists, even good first soloists (they reached the highest rank in hierarchy before becoming Etoile), nevertheless that does not mean they are true Etoiles in my view. Technic for instance is not enough, you also need a unique personality, and a special artistry to deserve the title (obviously in theory!). What is new with Emilie Cozette is that she is a solid dancer, very rarely injured, and that really sounds like an event among POB stars! :grinning-smiley-001:

By the way, I found the american boy (semifinalist) John Giragosian (Maryland Youth Ballet) very good. Maybe someone knows more about him and the school he's coming from?

I also confirm that both are very talented. I was particularly impressed by James Hay who won "Young British Dancer of the Year" competition last year. He was the best among the boys in Lausanne. Sae-eun Park (South Korea) and Mai Kono (Japan), respectively 1st and 2nd place, were more than simply brilliant candidates: they already have that artistry (especially Park) we're all looking for and which rarely occurs in ballet competitions.

Sorry Azulynn!! Same post or so... Jérémie Bélingard made debut as Basilio in 2002, I think.

Here is the cast on the POB website: http://www.operadeparis.fr/Saison0607/Dist...ion.asp?Id=1008 Note Denis Matvienko venue on 15th and 17th March I had the opportunity to see him as Basilio in London (partnering young and brilliant Bolshoi soloist Osipova) and he's really worth seeing!! We'll also have several expected debuts in the leading roles: 19 y.o. Mathias Heymann as Basilio (his first big role, that should be an event), Nolwenn Daniel and Myriam Ould-Braham as Kitri. Myriam Ould-Braham will be partnered with Emmanuel Thibault, who made brilliant debuts in this role in 2004: also a big event audience is expecting with great joy! :blush:

According to the POB website, Proust ou les Intermittences du Coeur should be recorded on 12th, 15th and 19th March and broadcasted on french television (France2 - date unknown) before DVD release. We don't know the chosen cast yet.

Thanks, I didn't know that video. But unfortunately I think it's only available in the US. There's a beautiful pdd entitled "La Prisonnière" often scheduled in galas (danced by Lacarra-Pierre among others). Maybe this is the one you're talking about.

A television report on Laurent Hilaire farewell: http://tf1.lci.fr/infos/culture/0,,3394953...t-hilaire-.html

Well, I wouldn't say it seems much attractive... But I may be wrong... Actually, I can't really imagine Proust staged or choreographed... This is a 2 acts and 13 scenes ballet inspired by Proust's In search of lost time. If you can read french, you'll find on the POB website a presentation of the ballet and its 13 scenes: http://www.operadeparis.fr/Saison0607/Alire.asp?Id=996 Cast: http://www.operadeparis.fr/Saison0607/Spectacle.asp?Id=996

This is Kader Belarbi, and not Laurent Hilaire. Both have black hair! I also think Emeralds is the best part of parisian Jewels.

I think Kader Belarbi is rather tall (certainly not as much as Jose Martinez or Hervé Moreau) and as far as I am concerned, I was not particularly shocked when I saw the casting. Apart from that, don't pay too much attention to this preliminary casting, as some of the dancers scheduled got injured and finally won't dance. I could mention Mathieu Ganio and Isabelle Ciaravola in Apollo or Dorothée Gilbert in Trisha Brown's choreography, but I may forget some other names...

The Forsythe programm starts on February 6th (until February 16th). Some girls from the school who are also "surnuméraires" will be casted on that programm for replacement. By the way, the Forsythe program has changed. We will finally have: "Approximate Sonata", "The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude" (instead of "Hermann Schermann"), "Artifact Suite".

I don't know where the rumour comes from, but I'm sorry to tell you that "Etudes" was not filmed at the Paris Opera last season. I don't think there was even a project of doing it. Unfortunately, because I love this ballet.

Yes, the Young Dancers Bills were a very good programm, but unfortunately, this year, one more time, nothing is foreseen. I have not seen the Young Dancers Bill for three years, if I remember. Certainly, young dancers (and less young ones too) are not given real opportunities to show what they can do. The casts are often very disappointing because we always see the same dancers in the main roles. Of course, it's normal that an étoile gets the main role in "Swan Lake", "La Bayadère", "Romeo and Juliet" and so on, but sometimes, balletgoers would like to see some "sujets", maybe some "coryphées" in a main role even if it's just for one performance. It's interesting for the audience and a real challenge for the dancers, they are encouraged to work and they keep hopeful... Recently, I saw Emilie Cozette as Odette / Odile, of course she is a "première danseuse", so it's a normal fact of being casted for such a role when you have this rank, but people were really very enthusiastic, because it changed from the other nights and she made a brilliant performance. Choreographers who are invited by the Opera do not care about the hierarchy and they cast who they like. Pina Bausch, for instance, chose for the third cast Charlotte Ranson (quadrille at that time, now a coryphée) as "Love", and Alice Renavand (coryphée at that time, now a sujet) as "Eurydice" (and she was so wonderful!) in "Orphée et Eurydice". For the youngest, it's difficult to have a firm judgement, things can change... I just talked about an "impression" and obviously, I may be wrong. Anyway, I don't want to make any comments about the demonstrations. In the corps de ballet, one of the youngest, maybe the youngest, Aubane Philbert, has certainly something very very interesting, a lyricism, a very good technique too (she chose "Grand Pas classique" for her free variation at the concours), and I know that the competition (she was very tense) did not reflect what she can really do.

You are absolutely right: all these people should have been promoted earlier, just like Emmanuel Thibault who spent more than ten years as a sujet or Delphine Moussin who became an etoile at the age of 35 (maybe 36) while she had been casted as an étoile for years and years!!! But there has been an irrational policy of promotions, I think most people and especially dancers agree on that point... For me, age is not a problem, I know there's an age limit (42,5) but all the "old" dancers I see remain brilliant. I saw Laurent Hilaire as Rothbart the other day, I also saw him as Tybalt, of course he can't dance Siegfried or Romeo any longer, but in these particular roles, he remains the best! And in a normal world, 30 years old should not be old even for the dancers. Just a precision: I think people like Moreau, Paquette, Carbone, Bélingard are more or less about 28-30. The problem is maybe elsewhere: I went to see the ballets and the different casts all year long, I also went to see the "concours" and honestly, I find a lack of personalities in the younger generation. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it's my impression .

Thanks Estelle for all your comments. When Gérard Mortier said that he didn't pay much attention to ballet and that it was the matter of Brigitte Lefèvre, I think it's nothing but rhetoric... I often go to the ballet, and Mr Mortier is also often in the audience... Discreet, but there. And his policy is partly based upon communication! Of course, I don't think he really interferes in the ballet casts, and Brigitte Lefèvre certainly has much power in the ballet decisions, but I am absolutely certain that the policy of promotions is totally different from what it was before. It means that he took a part in the last promotions and thanks to him some "old" dancers were promoted. Personally, I don't regret the time when two or three months before the competition you could write down the list of the promoted dancers without any risk of being mistaken... I am not a fan of Mortier, but on that particular point, things are much better. The good point is that dancers now are more hopeful as age is no longer a problem and as they know that their promotion is not only due to a beautiful and young face. Just see, for instance, Mr Thibault and Phavorin promotions as premiers danseurs, not to talk about the étoiles...

Paris Opera Ballet "Raymonda" is not available. There was a television recording made in the eighties, but it was never commercially released. "Sleeping Beauty" (featuring Dupont and Legris) and "Swan Lake" (only Bourmeister version featuring Pietragalla and Dupond, Nureyev version has just been filmed, so you can't find it for the moment, in a few months...) can easily be found on the internet. I don't know where you live, but try european sites like http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B...4703054-8975843 or http://www.hmv.com.au/product/dvd.asp?sku=-998945

- "Pharaoh's Daughter" - "Paquita" (Paris Opera ballet) especially for the "Pas de trois" featuring Emmanuel Thibault - "La Bayadère" (Paris Opera Ballet and Royal Ballet): both are quite different but I love the dancers: Isabelle Guérin, Laurent Hilaire, Elisabeth Platel for the Nureyev version and Assylmuratova-Bussell for the Makarova version. And I agree with Marc Haegeman, the Maximova-Vassiliev "Nutcracker" is extraordinary. It made me enjoy this ballet I didn't really appreciate before. And probably others...