richard53dog

Thanks, Natalia, that gives me something to mull over Richard

Is anyone close enough to go? I'm curious. Could anyone compare Wright's SB for BRB to his production for the Dutch National Ballet? I'm not really all that interested in the scenery or costumes but rather the choreography and staging. I know the Dutch version from the DVD. Thanks!

That would really ruin the impact of the opening. Too bad. I hope they figure out how to avoid it going forward!

I'm sure there are. But my own personal preference is for a woman in both roles. I really think it's easier for a female to appear powerful and frightening. Men can wander towards the line of becoming camp too easily; certainly not all do , but it happens

It does look promising indeed!

Waters paced the original film so that there was some simple, almost innocent periods. (In it's campy way) The show rachets up the energy level to flood this kind of repose away. It's very HIGH ENERGY. Too much, I think.

This is my way of thinking. R&J pushes NYCB in the wrong direction in terms of adding new rep. Do we need another "streamlined" production?

I was thinking the same thing myself, if you drive in (I'm another member of the bridge and tunnel crowd), you are not locked into a non-negotiable , Cinderella type deadline for getting out of the city. But each year the traffic, at least from New Jersey, gets worse. It used to be that you might have to grit your teeth for up to a 1 1/2 to 2 hour trip in and get in compensation a 30 minute trip out , plus a flexible exit from the performance. But the difficult trips in have become more and more the norm and often the trip back to Jersey can be an 1 1/2 with traffic, construction, tunnel lanes closed for no apparent reason, etc. Now I used a combination of driving to a PATH station (a commuter subway between NY and NJ) and using the PATH train and a subway. Not great but I prefer it to bumper to bumper traffic for hours on end and the PATH and NYC Subway run all night no I don't have that witching hour.

Hi! Enjoy yourself at the board. I think you'll find an enormous number of threads, given this great quantity I think you'll find plenty to engage you.

Yeah, now I don't see it anymore either! I wonder what the issue was.

The article also includes a question by "Helene on the Ballet Talk Web site"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She was the original singer of I'm Still Here in Follies and it has been said that Sondheim modeled the song after the ups and downs of De Carlo's career(and life). Whatever. I was pretty young but I saw her do this number and she stopped the show. Her determination is evident on the Original Cast Album RIP

Of course this was just something I assummed but I thought that while the programming was in fixed blocks of individual pieces, that the casting would continue to be flexible (dancer A in Agon on Tuesday, dancer B on Thursday, all while staying within the programmed block) I'm wondering if this is incorrect?? It would seem a little crazy to have the casting tied to the blocks. If nothing else, if two or three dancers have been doing a particular piece, it would be easier for one to replace another in case of illness or injury. Of course an understudy could be ready but if they haven't danced the piece that season it's just that much harder to jump in. Oh well, I'm sure the logic will become clearer as we see more weeks of casting.

The fish dives are a guilty pleasure for me. I believe they are not really authentic, but at this point they are pretty much traditional in the West. And Beck_Hen, I hate it also when you can see each tiny stage of them exposed. Spin. Stop. Lift one leg. Lift the other leg. Etc, etc. The Fonteyn videos you mention are fine , and I saw her a number of times with Nureyev and they were also fine but there is no need to go back years and years in history. Last June I saw the RB in DC and Cojocaru/Kobborg made the dives sizzle. Alina spun into them, trusting Johan to catch her. So at least from my corner, I don't say "oh, but you should have seen so-and-so sixty years ago"

Yikes, bring her back!!!!!

I can see your point. Unfortunately an awful lot of opera singers, particularly chorus members, don't move very well so forming changing patterns of figures tend to be less than crisply formed. (forget about complex movement) On the other hand, opera singers... sing.....so there is that whole element added to the mix

Thanks, this link worked fine for me, too. I am intrigued!

No "My Life as Aurora", huh?????? Well she seems to be moving in some different career directions that seem to give her fullfillment. No rut for her. I say, "good for her".

I know, I know. DeValois had a huge battle with Hurok over the NYC opening night of Sadler's Wells. She took advantage of his.....ah....lack of experience by agreeing to cast the beautiful Shearer as Princess Florine, which made her largely invisible and focused the attention on Fonteyn. So he thought he won but he actually lost. Or did he??? I believe he still featured Shearer prominantly in the advertising and the audiences were happy to go to see the lovely redhead as well as the "new girl" (Fonteyn). At least for American audiences it seems advertising , stars, and money all are interrelated. To borrow from another thread, currently Anna Netrebko may be the biggest name in opera right now. And I think the "package" that makes up AN is comprised of a bunch of complex elements.

There is a connection of sorts, mostly because I Puritani, as well as some other "mad scene" operas, come from what is called the Romantic Era (say 1830-1840) and Giselle is also roughly from that period.I think the root use of the device is similar. Not all or even most operas through out history have mad scenes, but they were a popular devise for wilting sopranos, usually wronged by a suitor, during this period. Maybe the most famous of all of them is Lucia di Lammermoor where Lucia AND her suitor are both wronged by Lucia's brother who forces Lucia into a political marriage. Lucia loses it after killing her husband, wanders around on stage in a dazed state singing very florid music. Some of these are not strictly mad scenes, it may be the heroine's mind is wandering in and out of focus, and in one , Bellini's La Sonnambula, isn't really crazy but just sleepwalking. (Plotwise Bellini's opera has nothing to do really with Balanchine's ballet, but Ballanchine's piece is certainly a nod towards Bellini) After this time period, mad scenes pretty much went out of fashion as a regularly used devise but they occasionally would show up, sometimes in the scene chewing Verismo operas of the early twentieth century. But the style is very different here and there isn't that Romantic Era kinship with a ballet such as Giselle.

True, there is no public indication of an upcomming change. No Want-Ad has been published. But actually, in my own opinion, there's nothing rude about speculating about a possible change in the administration of the NYCB. It's a public institution but more to my point, Martins is a public figure and speculation of this nature goes with the territory. I guess where we disagree is that I don't see him as a figure with any kind of shield around him.

Thanks! So she's back for week 3 anyway. I'll just have to get over not seeing her Aurora this go round.

Cygnet, I find your points very interesting. Most of my recent experience with both these companies is video rather than live but I do follow the drift of your discussion. I'm curious as to what others with more first hand experience than mine say.

I'm guessing this is the version the Bolshoi would have taken on tour in the 70s? In one of my huge inventory of decisions, I missed Maya P in this. It was about 1972, the Cold War was going on and the Bolshoi toured North America. But the closest they came to NY was Montreal. So I went up to Montreal on a bus and did get to see Plisetskaya live and in person. But I looked at the next night and thought LHH, why would I want to see that?????? Oh well, I was a poor student and really didn't have money for a hotel (we took cat naps in the cathedral). But I still have the program which covered the whole engagement in Montreal.

I believe you're right on this. But the past two years she seemed to return to NY to coincide with the start of the winter rep. I think I saw her in a mixed bill the first or second week in Jan 2005 and last year in a Swan Lake, and they were early in January, no? So I was just assuming I understood her pattern............. Of course her schedule is her own to put together; still I'm disappointed not to see her in SB