richard53dog

Hans, I'm curious. Just how do you look at Julia Roberts? Richard

Charade Suspicion Notorious. What can I saw, just like my preferences for film comedies, I like a bit of darkness in romance flms Richard

Oberon, that's a shame about the intermision. It does a lot of damage to a piece that needs a smooth flow. I saw it at Glyndbourne and it ruined the piece there but they ALWAYS have a dinner intermission so I could at least understand why they inserted it. But why did NYCO feel they had to have one????????? Richard

I saw this the first time shortly after it was released, maybe the Summer of 1969 as part of an opera/ballet film series in Avery Fisher Hall (at the time Philharmonic Hall. The audience was outraged by all the excessive manipulation of the camera and the cutaways. Booing started soon after the start of the film and continued for most of the evening. Although the Kirov Swan Lake film got a lot of booing too the night that was shown. I have to say I no longer find the second act so distracting to watch, actually I sort of enjoy the manipulated camera work. But I just can't watch the first act. Richard

Hans, What about Marin's Lyon Coppelia with the endless parade of blonde wigged, red dressed, black spike heeled Coppelia that come out of the movie projector. A Coppelia that will give you nightmares. I feel you want to come up with an outrageous, off the wall piece, go for it, I'll be happy to watch it. But don't take a wisp of a piece like Coppelia and turn it into a horror show.; as some others have already said, create your own piece and then apply your concept to that. Richard

Wow, and the season opens just three days later. I'm assuming that means in the newspapers, maybe ABT will make updates on their website earlier. Richard

I saw Gregory mostly early-ish. I think she also did Grand Pas Classique with Denard, but that's from memory so I wouldn't bet the farm on it. I've said this before, I never liked more her , only less, the more I saw her. But again, that's opinion But I have to agree with some of Gina's comments. She had a very striking sense of bearing, and a very pure sense of line. I sort of think of this as the look of "western" ballerinas before we saw a lot of Russian ballerinas on a regular basis and the whole alignment seemed to altered. And no question, she had an amazing virtuoso technique. Yikes, those turns and balances. Richard

This sounds like a lot of double talk to me . If nothing else, how can in one breath someone say " you can't tell what is Sergeyev and what is Petipa" and then in the next "Sergeyev made the male roles more prominent" My thinking is that if the MT theater doesn't want to give up the Sergeyev version that they have known and loved for a long time (what like 50 years or so?) that's their right. But don't issue self contradictory statements. Again this is what you are used to is what you like the best, but I think of the British versions (of course there have been tinkerings there) as being closer to what I think of Petipa. Just my opinion. Richard

So Cygnet, It sounds like a lot of emotional issues are at work here. I can sort of understand that, it's the old "mom's cooking is best" kind of thing. It seems a shame to to have gone through all the effort of the reconstruction and have the dancers (and I would guess a lot of Russian audiences) not want to see it. Hopefully this resistance will slowly fade away. I still think that the Sergeyev has a lot of mediocre elements to it. But that's me Richard

Art, you might be right about the economics, and it may be motivated by the tour stops. It's sort of snobby to think that that's why the tour isn't stopping on the East Coast.(not snobby on your part....on the tour management) Interesting that the Bolshoi just brought their massive Pharaoh's Daughter to NYC but not the other tour stops. Again , maybe a decision motivated by economics. Richard

Solor, that is a good question. The MT is bringing the Sergeyev to three US cities this fall. Why? I guess there is some reason, but it sure will keep me from traveling from the East Coast to CA or Detroit. indeed! Richard

OK, I'll bite. "A group of solos and a duet". I hope it comes to the US. Richard

Going There was a silent film of Rosenkavalier with a suite arranged from the opera score.(I'm fairly sure Struass created the suite, this was in the 20s) As Bart guesses for a ballet, Octavian in the film is male. But the film plot veers all over the place with the Feldmarschal and his troops in battle scenes. As for creating a ballet out of the opera score, it would be a bit tricky, given that so much of the music is conversational in nature. Still there's enough melody swells to provide plenty of raw material for a relatively short arrangement to be used as a ballet score. Richard

Ha, ha, me ,too! She was often on the Bolshoi tours that I saw in the 70s. They were mostly mixed bills and Struchkova always would come out and crank out fouettees like crazy, very fast, very secure. It was only much later when I saw some clips of her dancing that I saw the charming, lyrical quality she also had Richard

Funny, just by coincidence last weekend I went to dinner in Asbury Park, NJ ( which is making an AMAZING comeback from decay) and I drove by The Stone Pony. Blocks and blocks are being rehabed or built on, but I'm sure this will remain untouched Richard

Helene, Battle did start out with quite a sense of exploration. The first Pamina I saw her(in the early 80s) do was breathtakingly beautiful and expressive and I really went thinking she had bitten off way more than she could chew. I thought it was much more beautiful than the Met telecast from about 10 years later But it all seemed to start to atrophy around the time she turned 40, there was much less imagination and what was a fresh beautiful sound started to tend to sameness and became a bit furry and cloying to boot So I would say she had her moments but they didn't last too long. Did the emotional things shut down her artistic exploration? Who knows, certainly I won't even try to guess. Richard

She also starred in a Broadway comedy Luv, later in the 60s, which had a decent run (I saw her in this) Her father Norman was a noted stage designer Richard

On Vishneva's web site, she answers a question on DVD's of her dancing. She mentions this Giselle and says she thinks it is still released just in Japan. Goro, do you know which company released this? Maybe it will go into wider release. I envy you! Thanks, Richard

Yup, I saw this at the The NJ Arts Center(it now has been privatized and has some other name) in Holmdel in early Summer 1969. As I recall, in three nights I saw Fracci and Bruhn in Copellia and Giselle and Serrano and Fernandez in Swan Lake. I would have guessed that Pulcinella Variations was a curtain raiser for Copellia, but I'm sure rg's memory is much more reliable than mine. I saw all these dancers quite a few times, EXCEPT Toni Lander danced with Bruce Marks in Pulcinella and it was the only real ballerina role I saw her do. She retired pretty soon after that. Would Lander have done Myrtha? I no longer have the program but it doesn't ring a bell Richard

Going way back, I have seen releases of operas without the vocal parts. These are generally for singers to study with or singer wannabees to use as a kind of Karaoke. But I haven't seen any of these for ages, these may be a very hard to come by. Richard

I agree Giselle doen't need a curtain raiser; this is largely a relic of an earlier era when the idea seemed to be that audiences needs to be given their minutes worth. The Met Opera used to tack onto short operas either short ballets or one act operas. A common example was Salome which had concerts, short Puccini operas (i.e. Tabarro or the odd ballet ( for instance, Apollo ) Other ballets were also appended to other programs. At the Met this has pretty much been dropped, The first opera I saw at the Met was Hansel and Gretel even in 1967, this was considered too short to LA Ventana was danced to precede it. I came in pretty much at the end of this practice. Again, I agree with Farrell Fan that no curtain raiser is needed, the what would I pick for Giselle? Obviously, nothing Richard

Yes, my biggest problem is the lack of mime. Sleeping Beauty loses a lot by having much of the mime trimmed away. But I also think the Sergevey's choreography is pretty ordinary looking. I'd really, really like to see the reconstructed version. Richard

I got the ABT Fall 2005 City Center brochure in today's mail. Richard

7:00 is too early for out of towners. I hate getting out late too, but often it's simply impossible to get from New Jersey into Manhattan by 7:00. I would guess that they would lose more audience than they would gain. 7:30 is much more manageable and it does have the benefit of making the trip back home easier. At the Met Opera much of this problem could be solved by compacting the evening; cutting down the endless intermissions. Almost no other performing arts organization operating in New York has 30-35 minute intermissions Richard

EvilNinjaX Here's a link to preliminary casting for the three US cities the Kirov will bring SB to. http://www.ardani.com/kirovballettour.htm Richard