Anthony_NYC

I remember once exiting the First Ring of the State Theater after a particularly beautiful matinee performance of Serenade. Two elderly women, with their New York accents, were walking next to me. "Whatja think?" asked one. The other one shrugged: "I guess it was OK, if you go for splendor."

Apart from a bit of solo singing and the weirdly animated kids at the end doing "Over the Rainbow," we were spared a big musical production number. Remember those awful dance interpretations of excerpts from the nominated soundtracks?

Natalie Portman got all weepy, of course, but at least she didn't start scratching or pulling off strips of skin; and Melissa Leo, an actress I'd never heard of, indulged herself in an overlong display of putrid self-congratulation (lady, it's just a trophy). Otherwise, though, the speeches seemed pretty level-headed, and the show itself a little less ridiculous than usual, which may not be the quality to draw in a larger audience but I regard it as a positive change.

Anthony

Watching how beautifully well (and relatively easily, for an expert) that can be done, it made me wonder at the possibilities for dance on film. You could cast any actor as a dancer and do long, uncut shots showing the choreography instead of incessant crosscut editing (as famously in Flashdance) that are supposed to fake out the audience but that drive us dance fans crazy. It's a shame they didn't use it more in Black Swan, they could have added much more substantial dance value to the movie that way. But the director doesn't seem to have been interested in that.

In a charming piece in The Atlantic, Michael Chabon relates how he substituted (at his nine-year-old daughter's suggestion) "negro" for the offensive word when he read Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn aloud to his kids.

--Anthony

I'm not sure she wants to be likable so much as admirable. Rose has admirable qualities, of course, but is not in the end an admirable character. Maybe Laurents, a wickedly intelligent and prickly director, could get something really unexpected and great out of Streisand if he were chosen to direct. (He did that with Tyne Daly on Broadway.) I could also imagine Scorsese doing the same.

Another aspect of the character, and perhaps a more important one as it carries us through the show without hating Rose, is the enormous charm and charisma that go hand-in-hand with the steely ambition. I can easily imagine Streisand putting that across very well.

papeetepatrick, please understand that my questions about the state of her voice are based solely on her last album; I'd otherwise more or less lost track of her singing career since "The Broadway Album," so perhaps I'm underestimating her powers.

--Anthony

I'm not sure where to post this link (moderators, feel free to move it!), but the current issue of Columbia Magazine has a profile of Arlene Shuler, former dancer, now president and CEO of New York City Center (and founder of Fall for Dance, among other things).

Anthony

For those who missed it the article in the NYT. Twenty years ago this would have sounded like an intriguing idea, but personally I think she's now much too old as an actor, and judging from her recent performance at the Village Vanguard she doesn't have enough voice left either. (Who would ever agree to direct her, I can't imagine!)

This just caught my eye in Amazon. It's a 2-disc compilation of previously-existing recordings by various performers, all of them good to great, of the music for several Balanchine ballets, and it appears somebody at EMI really took care to alter the order of the tracks (they were not originally recorded this way) so it exactly matches the scores for the ballets.

Disc 1

Jewels, complete and whole, hooray! I believe this is a first! The selections for Emeralds are in ballet order (as far as I know for the only time since Robert Irving's recording), and Tchaikovsky's Third Symphony is shorn of its first movement, just as in Diamonds.

Disc 2

Serenade, with the finale and slow movement reversed, as in the ballet (Robert Irving also does this)

Allegro brillante

Symphony in C (in Sir Thomas Beecham's superlative performance).

It's due for release on January 11, and is currently priced at $13.73. Here's the link for ordering via Ballet Alert; or just paste B0046CUJI6 into the Amazon search box located in the top banner of this page.

Anthony

And if you don't want to buy a score, you can consult a pdf of the whole thing (both orchestral and piano reduction) online here.

Kathleen, you're right, it is a "wages of art" movie, a genre I didn't realize existed until you brought it to my attention! A comparison of those might make for an interesting discussion. (Or maybe not, since I believe every single Hollywood biopic ever made about a musician falls into that category, each with the same basic plot.) Though it belongs to that genre, at least "Black Swan" has the courage of its convictions and stays black right to the Grand Guignol end--a refreshing change, if not a particularly enjoyable one.

To play devil's advocate here, just as one wouldn't criticize "Sweeney Todd" for making meat pies seem like an unattractive menu choice, one shouldn't go into "Black Swan" expecting it to "sell" ballet to the average moviegoer, which is clearly neither the director's intent nor his obligation. It's dark and weird, mannerist, disorienting, and thoroughly unpleasant. Enjoy!

Anthony

I saw a screening of this last week. Honestly, I can't even say if I think it's a good movie, but it certainly held my interest!

If you're looking for great dancing, you'll probably be disappointed, because the movie isn't really a ballet film in that sense. It's a thriller first and foremost, with Aronofsky using the ballet world as a setting appropriate for his busy and surreal environment, one in which there is no dividing line--none whatsoever!--between the insecurities, paranoia, ambitions, and desires of a creative artist's inner life and the tangible facts of the "real world." It's completely fluid, and you can debate forever what parts of the movie are real and which parts pure imagination. (You might even ask if any of it is real.) I was about to say we see everything through Portman's eyes, but that's not right, it's more disorienting than that: we feel everything as Portman feels them. So as the movie progresses, you might say, in response to a scene or character, "that's absurd" or "oh, such a cliche" or even "huh???"; then you realize that these things have deliberately dropped into the movie because they are part of the the character's inner perception, where anything is possible. They are real to her, so they are presented as real to us. This is terrifically well done from a technical standpoint, and it's a great idea for the thriller genre since soon enough everybody the ballerina has contact with, even her own mother, seems to have an ulterior motive, and you never know what crazy thing is going to happen next.

I thought Portman was outstanding. With her big, vulnerable eyes and almost non-stop anxious panting, she makes the character's utter loneliness palpable and heartbreaking. You feel for her--which is exactly how Aronofsky pulls you in.

Incidentally, if you're squeemish like me, there are a few scenes you might have trouble watching, but it's not as bad in that regard as the trailer had led me to expect.

Anthony

I received the following flyer today from the George Balanchine Foundation:

EAKINS PRESS FOUNDATION

20 West 44th Street, #405 • New York City 10036

eakinspress.com • (212) 764-2255

Contact: Peter Kayafas, Director, Eakins Press Foundation, (212) 764-2255

THE EAKINS PRESS FOUNDATION AND BALLET SOCIETY, INC. ANNOUNCE

THE ONLINE PUBLICATION OF THE COMPLETE CATALOGUE OF THE

PUBLISHED WRITINGS OF LINCOLN KIRSTEIN: A FULLY SEARCHABLE

DATABASE-DRIVEN INTERACTIVE SITE REPRESENTING THE VAST LITERARY

OUTPUT AND KEY LIFE EVENTS OF ONE OF AMERICA’S GREATEST CULTURAL

FIGURES.

www.lincolnkirstein.org

NEW YORK CITY—The Eakins Press Foundation has just posted a website that will

serve as the main source for learning about Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996) and the

massive contribution he made to American culture. Kirstein was one of America's

most important cultural figures. Co-founder, with George Balanchine, of the School

of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet, he was also a great patriot and

champion of the arts in America. Starting in his early years at Harvard University,

Kirstein used the written word to influence how audiences looked at classical art and

new movements within a variety of media. He was the founder and publisher of the

journal Hound & Horn; and founder of the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art, a

precursor to the Museum of Modern Art. Kirstein wrote extensively, with force and

erudition on all that interested him. This website presents a thorough listing, with

excerpts and illustrations, of the writings published throughout his protean life. On

these pages the reader will find an unmatched record of American cultural history—

which will inform future generations in perpetuity—set forth through the prism of

one of the great minds of the 20th century.

The website is designed with several sections in addition to the database-driven

search engine of Kirstein’s published writings. There is a comprehensive “About

Lincoln Kirstein” section where users can click through a decade-by-decade

biographical chronology of Kirstein’s life; a section of short essays by such scholars as

Leslie George Katz, A. Hyatt Mayor, Harvey Simmonds, Louis H. Silverstein and

Nancy Lassalle; and there is a “Resources” page with descriptions of and links to the

institutions that are central to Kirstein’s posterity.

The intention of this website, in addition to serving as the primary internet portal

for scholarship and interest in the life and accomplishments of Lincoln Kirstein, is to

maintain the capacity to continually evolve and expand with changing technologies,

so that, for instance, when full books become “readable” on line, much or all of

Kirstein’s writing can actually be read through this source.

Mahler was a very great composer, but Norman "The Sky Is Falling" Lebrecht, who has made a career out of absurd doom-and-gloom predictions about today's classical music scene much like the apocalyptic ones he apparently now also ascribes to Mahler, is probably exactly the wrong writer to shed light on his genius. (Andrew Clark in the Financial Times: "This is a book about Norman Lebrecht, masquerading as a book about Gustav Mahler.") Another one who always gets a lot of largely undeserved publicity is Gilbert Kaplan. Almost every other book I've read has been perceptive and a very worthwhile read--but reason and research don't make headlines! Off the top of my head, I'd recommend for starters Donald Mitchell, Henri-Louis de la Grange, Constantin Floros, The Cambridge Companion to Mahler, Mahler and His World.

With regard to the Balanchine production, I just wanted to say that it has never struck me that Marie and the Prince return whence they came at the end of the ballet. If that was their intent, they'd get back in the boat and turn around. Instead they get on a sleigh that goes flying off in the same direction. Maybe I'm being too doggedly literal in my interpretation of the mechanics of stage action, but I always assumed they were soaring away to a realm of their own, full of wonders we can't even imagine.

And I cannot bear to believe, in my heart, that any of it is just a dream!

I agree with Bart about Cynthia Gregory being the best Siren. It was one of her best roles, I thought. I'll never forget at the end of the pas de deux that iron hand of hers rising up behind her head, both a gesture of victory and a slow, deliberate threat. She was terrifying.

I don't agree with Bart about the end of the ballet! For one thing, he couldn't have the Father run to the Prodigal, because it's not in Prokofiev's score, which suddenly goes all soft and gentle. Balanchine points it up by bringing the movement on stage to a minimum: the curtain parts, the old man slowly shuffles forward. The Prodigal's turning away in shame, his crawling on his knees into his father's arms--I could go on and on about this, because I think it's one of Balanchine's most theatrically canny moments, and incredibly moving. But it's also off-topic in this thread, so I guess I won't go there!

As somebody posted the last time this subject came up, a transcript of the girl's testimony is available on The Smoking Gun. It should be required reading for everybody interested in the case.

I've enjoyed going back and reading through this old thread. Having come to movies late in life, I always feel I've got a lot of catching up to do. The talk about some of a the big stars who have faded from memory made me think of one who's a particular favorite of mine--Irene Dunne. I don't know anything about her career or personal life, but she certainly made some classic movies, was remarkably versatile, and for me is always a gigantic pleasure to watch. Maybe I'm wrong about this--projecting my own movie ignorance--but I have the idea that for most people nowadays her name rings a distant bell and that's all. I wonder if she isn't one of the icons because she didn't make her career off her looks (though a beautiful woman) or playing sexual teases (though she does that to delightful comic effect in "The Awful Truth").

I completely agree with AnthonyNYC's assessment, but the film is worth seeing for the first 15 minutes just to see the re-creation of "The Rite of Spring" premiere.

Oh yes, I forgot about that, and agree: the first fifteen minutes that recreate the famous debacle are well done, more or less true to the famous stories those who were there have told. But then we move on to later that evening, and the movie turns completely fictional in terms of plot and character--which I could forgive if it just weren't so boring and pointless!

Saw it this weekend. My goodness, what a boring, silly movie! Even the camp potential of some of the dialogue is ruined by the sleepy pace. Best to wait for the DVD, then have a party and divide everybody into two groups. One drinks a shot of vodka every time there is a closeup of Stravinsky gazing with an inscrutable expression. The other drinks a shot every time Chanel enters a room, looking chic. Everybody will be drunk within an hour, at which point you can turn the movie off and begin to have a good time.

Indeed. I still wish it were the Hodson reconstruction in the Joffrey production, but I have a very soft spot for Sacre and always want to see what different choreographers have done with it.

Sorry, this is off topic I guess, but since the subject came up... It's funny, I can't find a reference to it on Ballet Talk, but I'm sure it must have gotten discussed--a new DVD of Millicent Hodson's reconstruction of Rite of Spring came out last year, with the Mariinsky Ballet (Gergiev conducts). You can buy it here.

I thought I'd heard the Met did not trash the Chagall Flute, but put it into storage with the idea they might trot it out occasionally for special occasions. Can anybody here remember or confirm?

Had she stuck with her original subject, that mediocre house conductors make too much money compared to the players, she might have landed her point better. But then she quickly goes wild and wooly, working her way up to: "As one principal player said: 'The difference between a very good performance and a great one is, more often than not, in the hands of the player. No conductor should take the credit for that.'" NO conductor, really? I doubt she herself actually believes that statement.

While I never have much hope for these crossover things--they're pretty much always terrible--I might go just to hear him play. Chris Thile first came to prominence at about age 12 as a mandolin prodigy (who knew there was such a thing), and is really supposed to be something to hear. I thought he was primarily a bluegrass player who was trying to branch out into jazz, but now I guess he's giving classical a whirl. Heck, he's very young, so I wish him all the luck.

dirac, Vivaldi wrote mandolin concertos. Knowing him, there are probably about 23,142 of them, all in the same key. Will Thile's concerto sound any different, I wonder?

I'm still thinking about the alcohol issue. Are London theaters this article actually allowing it to be brought into the auditorium, or are they just ignoring it? Is this widespread in London nowadays? Is it going on in New York City or the other big American theater towns?

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe most Broadway theaters do now allow the audience to bring beverages back to their seats with them. The alcohol only bothers me in that I can find the smell of a good gin terribly distracting in a warm theater. But ice! They must ban ice, or serve only martinis.

In case you missed it, Patti Lupone had at a whack at somebody taking pictures during "Rose's Turn." And we can all hear it because meanwhile somebody else was recording!