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richard53dog

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Everything posted by richard53dog

  1. That's a point worth repeating. Write your own letter -- and use regular mail. I don't think they are worthless but surely an individually written and snailmailed letter makes a deeper impact. But it's all relative. I do a fair amount of signing online petitions and in some cases I've gotten correspondence back from the congressman I've sent the form letter to. Somewhere there is a weighting system for the effectiveness of the different forms of communicating with elected representatives with online petitions at the least effective end and insisting on making an appointment with the representative to discuss the issue in person at the end of having the greatest impact (but perhaps not the greatest effectiveness!!!) And it'll vary from rep to rep and then it has to mesh with their own personal agenda.
  2. Dancemom, the photos are indeed lovely and I enjoyed looking at them. But I chuckled a bit by the opening statement that referred to Ringer and Millepied as "two of dance's brightest stars". Would they have been referred to that way a year ago? Before SugarPlumGate and Black Swan? Goes to lend more support to the old age "there's no such thing as bad publicity". All in all I'm happy for Ringer, she's had a lot of ups and downs and she's a lovely dancer.I'm glad she's gotten some recognition. Millepied less so, mostly because I'm wary it will boost his work as a dance creater and certainly his choreography itself won't really do that.
  3. As far as From Petipa to Balanchine is concerned, it is published by Routledge, and unfortunately a lot of their books run for prices comparable with this. Ohhhhh, Routledge. That explains the price. They are primarily a publisher of textbooks, research books, and other academic type publications. That market has it's own price structure and it's not at all like the consumer market. I work in a college library and see all the books that come in and what they cost . And all the Routledge titles are pricey. But then a lot of what they publish is within their own niche. Gale Cengage is similar but I don't think they publish too many titles that would show up on consumer lists. At least Routledge publishes quality titles, the stuff is expensive but there is at least some value there. There are some other outfits that publish titles designed for different school levels and some of them are complete ripoffs. But this is going OT so I'll stop.
  4. Quiggan, as far as NY theater criticism, the NYT has held the "central" position back further than Rich. Back in the mid-late 60s, it was Walter Kerr who would decide if a show lived or died. Ok, that's too simplistic, he couldn't make it or break it every time, but the Times was a powerful force, the most powerful, and I suspect it went back to an even earlier era than the one I experienced. And Kerr was followed by a string of equally powerful reviewers lead up to Rich. Back several years earlier, there were many more daily newspapers in NY but by 1966 or so, almost all of them had either been bought or went out of business. This left the city with the Times, News, and maybe the Post. But the Times called the shots in theater criticism. I also agree on the influence Maccaulay has , but the dance criticism issue is a little different than the theater criticism one in that it isn't so much tied to the economic fate of the show being reviewed. The theater critic's power at the NYT is that the review heavily (less than an earlier era, but still a factor) influences ticket sales. And this is a much more tenuous connection with dance reviewing. But the basic connection is still there, the NYT is the first place people tend to go to determine what the "critics" thought. Same thing with music. Although I think in this era, there are other sources of influence and also the role of the "critic" is being reevaluated. People are less likely to consider a single reviewer a central point of influence. Today anyone can be a reviewer be it on a website , or in the social media forums, or other internet phenomenon.
  5. Yes, I've noticed that too and found it a plus. Aside from the fine research and a convincing way of explaining it she places in in the political/social/cultural context of the era. This makes for rewarding reading. But the transitions are sometimes a problem. She moves from one topic to the next and sometimes there is a noticeable "bump" , almost as if the parts were all constructed in their own universe and then arranged in a smooth or not so smooth sequence. This is were I think an editor should have been more active. The overall flow is not always fluid and the juxtaposition of sections not always really meaningful. I'm curious to see if my reactions change. I'm just up to the rise of romanticism and Taglioni's rise to fame.
  6. She was an amazing person with a lot of resilience. All the ups and downs of her career coupled with the horrors of the McCarthy era witch-hunting and she just kept going, full speed ahead. It must have taken a tremendous amount of energy and drive to keep reinventing herself the way she did. I saw her when Follies was revived on Broadway about ten years ago, she played Hattie, who's big number is I'm Just a Broadway Baby, and she stopped the show with it. Doing the math, she must have been about 82 at the time According to the press release, she was still teaching a musical comedy class. Somehow, I wasn't surprised. She evidently had a bottomless source of energy. RIP, Betty.
  7. I do like the version with the jetes more and enjoy both of these versions. Toumanova's have a wonderful energy and crispness and she's very sensuous. Herrera was a very young dancer when this was taped and she does appear as a teenager rather than a spitfire but she's is very charming as Kitri and she makes some very lovely effects with her feet. I've actually always liked this version(with Corella) on the ABT gala program recorded about a ten or so years ago.
  8. Kathleen, hmmm.... interesting comment. I'm sort of struggling with the Homans right now. It's taken me almost a week to read about 150 pages and to be fair I've had a lot of distractions this week. But I'm finding that the actually writing itself is maybe part of the problem. It doesn't flow smoothly and does wander off on a few too many bypaths. So what you wrote was a little bit of an aha moment for me. I'll continue with it, to be sure, but agree it could have used a stronger editor. Going a tiny bit, has anyone any comments on Ballet in Western Culture by Carol Lee? This just came in a the library where I work and I was wondering what it was like. One comment from a casual perusal, the reproduced photos seem generally very dark and grainy, not really appealing at all. But I didn't sample the text at all.
  9. Hmm......looks like an interesting program. Have no idea what RAkU will be like of course, but to have Ashton and Balanchine masterpieces as bookends ain't bad! And kudos to SFB for presenting an Ashton piece. Some of the other "children of Balanchine" companies here in the US get a deer in the headlights look if they are asked about presenting Ashton, who was after all, one of the great choreographers of the 20th century.
  10. And to add another bit of information that some may recall and others may not, Markovsky was Siegfried in the 1968 Kirov Swan Lake film with Evteyeva. There was a short thread on it some years ago:
  11. That's actually the original order of the acts. And a high soprano singing Giulietta is also closer to the original than having one of those growling contraltos. Most of the music that low voiced Giuliettas sing is not written by Offenbach. There is a recording conducted by Kent Nagano that uses a reasonably complete recreation of the score compiled by Michael Kaye. It's mostly very well sung with Alagna as Hoffmann, Dessay(at her best) as Olympia, Sumi Jo, spectacular as Giulietta (and having the showiest music) and van Dam as the villains. But I'm going OT a bit with this.
  12. I see where you are going with this and tend to agree. More and more Hoffmann is played as a series of delusions within Hoffmann's mind. I think it works pretty well, it is a fantasy piece. Actually I think the British film works pretty well, it certainly captured the surreal elements of the piece. I wasn't all that thrilled with the current Met production. Sher couldn't seem to make up his mind exactly what he wanted to present; the delusional elements were there but so was a ton of other stuff, we had Hoffmann as a Chaplinesque figure searching for his identity on top of dealing with his delusions. I think it diluted down the focus. Plus it just looked cluttered to me; a whole stage full of Olympias is a bit much. Delusion is one thing, this Hoffmann was incoherent. But that's my own taste. I can admire imagination and innovation but I like to be able to see it as a focused effort. We didn't hear which of edition was done by the FGO but another issue I had with the new Met Hoffmann was that in 2010, they were still doing an old, corrupt edition filled with music that Offenbach didn't write and ignoring much of the scholarship that has been done in the previous DECADES on an authentic version of the piece. That's a black mark against James Levine. The final, Venetian scene was the most inaccurate, still using a low female voice for Giulietta. (Although the film presented an even more disgraceful version of the score; but that was in common use in the mid 20th century) Cristian, which order were the acts given in Florida? Did they present it in the old Olympia/Giulietta/Antonia sequence? Did Stella have music to sing?
  13. Wow. So If I understand the math, for a 6 performance series of Friday nights in the dress circle, the cost is $2758? Amazing;that's about $460 a ticket. PNB has conditioned their audiences very successfully!
  14. Interesting. I'm glad I don't live in Seattle!
  15. They call the premiere of each run an "opening night" and tack a stiff surcharge on it? That sounds like quite a racket. You need some more competition in Seattle. I would tell them to take their "mandatory contribution", which is in fact a surcharge, and stuff it. At the MEt Opera, which is certainly the priciest game in town in NYC, the premiere of an opera, even if it falls on a weekend, has a top ticket price of $405. And that is the ticket price, no "mandatory contributions", that's what you pay. And that's for center PArterre Box; there are actually many seats for considerably less than that that are still considered premium locations. Of course the actual "Opening Night", in September (there is only one of these per season and it's a red carpet event, not just the first performance of a run), is much pricier. But that's not the same thing as the first night of a mixed bill in Seattle.
  16. I just hope it doesn't mean there will be an influx of Millepied ballets shoved down our throats in an effort to ride this brief glimmer of fame to pump the box office receipts. Yes, isn't THAT the real worrisome detail? He's a modestly talented dancer and I can't see him ever really having all that glittery a performing career. But, ugh, as a choreographer, he's in the school of "after Martins" and there is already a parade of shallow, gimicky works. I hope the pace doesn't accelerate. What's the term for littering, choreopgraphy wise?
  17. MK, The Kleiber/Price/Kollo Tristan is really exquisite but it always remains for me a bit of a hothouse kind of effort. I can't imagine the performance working in the theater, as fine as it is as a studio creation. So while I do treasure it, I really will remember Maggie more for her Mozart, Strauss, and Verdi where she really was successfully with both studio and stage versions of many works. I only saw her a few times in the opera house, she cancelled a LOT and cancelled on me almost as many times as I actually saw her. But I was fortunate enough to hear and see her as Mozart's Countess, Verdi's Desdemona, Amelia Boccanegra, and Giovanna D'Arco. I also remember her on a number of recordings; Strauss' Four LAst Songs, Verdi's Ballo, Strauss' Ariadne (this in the first version) as well as her wonderful collections of Mozart arias for RCA under Lockhart. She wasn't at a terribly advanced age, not quite 70, which isn't very old. But it seems like her last years were very happy, while her career was rewarding in some ways, I know she found it very difficult in other ways, but after retiring she settled in an old farmhouse in Wales and bred Golden Retrievers. And it seemed that this last was fullfilling for her; the dogs were much less stressfull for her than working conditions in the worlds opera houses were. So at least the last part of her life was very happy and I hope she made provisions for someone to take over her canine children.
  18. And Tallchief comments on the "throw" in the video Dancing for Mr B". She speaks of how nervous the toss made her, "there were four boys throwing me and only one boy catching me"....
  19. Eileen, in addition to DAAG and the Concert, Robbins created two other pieces to music by Chopin; Other Dances and In the Night. I think you make a good point as far as the difference to their approach to American themes, particularly Balanchine's romaticizing of them as opposed to Robbins' grittier treatment.
  20. Natalia, I loved the reports. I can't wait to see Bright Stream in NY in the spring. You've whetted my appetite. It's set to open with the four principals that opened it in DC. But there is also a "petite" cast similar to the alternate cast in DC but with Osipova as the ballerina (rather than Boylston) that looks very interesting. I hope to get to both!
  21. Sigh. This really sums up the basic problem I have with Wiles. She's a really well schooled dancer with a fine technique. But she always seems so stiff to me. And all I get from her is that she is concentrating on the steps she is executing. No sense of the music, no sense of listening. No expression. Just steps. She seems to have almost no charisma or magnetism on stage at all. Almost like a blank wall.....
  22. Thanks for the write-up, Natalia. This program looked very interesting to me, casting issues aside, I'd actually love to see it here in NYC. But as we won't, hearing reports such as yours are the next best thing! London will also see some similar programs in a few weeks so I hope to hear reports from there too. Also am waiting for reports on this weekends Bright Stream performances in DC. At least that one WILL be shown in NYC and I'm looking forward to some of the casting that's been announced for us a few months off.
  23. I thought he was very striking in My Own Private Idaho, (as was River Phoenix), which was the first film I noticed him in. He was also very decorative (one of his strengths) in Dracula which was just a year or two later.
  24. My thought too. I had a less than thrilled reaction to a couple of other DVDs that have already been released with the Rojo/Acosta pairing so I'm a bit wary of this.
  25. I remember that very evening in 1967, startled at her energy ('relentless drive' is exactly right, I think), and since I was so 'review-conscious' at the time, I recall even wondering why she went ahead and pulled all the stops out after this treatment by the critics--that's a real pro who will do that (and, as Prince pointed out, do it for 2 years after all that). Well, regarding reconciling how the critics trashed Haworth vs my own reactions wasn't really an issue for me for a rather simple reason. Because of the timing of when Cabaret opened in mid 1966 , I wasn't following theater news and reviews, I only went to my first Broadway show late in 1966 . It was a very exciting thing for me and I immediately started going to lots of shows including Cabaret in early 1967. I had heard that the reviews were "mixed" but didn't really know of any specifics. So I was very, very impressed by Haworth as Sally, a bit less so by Joel Grey and disappointingly missed Lotte Lenya as she cancelled the afternoon I went. But the NY critics take on the show was a non issue for me. And probably I didn't really care that much what the critics said anyway. Keep in mind that that was the beginning of a time when young people openly declared that anyone over 30 was hopelessly out of touch and of no notice at all. Walter Kerr appeared to be at least in his late 90s, or so it seemed to me, so of course I wasn't too interested in what he had to say.
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