richard53dog

I'll bet it was something to see, although she wasn't too confident she could sing. Dench was set to be the first Grizabella in Cats but was injured and had to cede the role to Elaine Paige. More recently Dench appeared in A Little Night Music in London and was pretty convincing in it from some of the bits I saw.

Well, it depends on who you consider the shows "creators," and Cabaret is a funny case in that there's really not a clear-cut answer. Traditionally in musical theatre, the "creators" were considered the composer and lyricist, in this case, Kander and Ebb, who were definitely against casting Miss Haworth as Sally. Hence, "Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific," "Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady," "Frank Loessor's Guys and Dolls. Although important, the director in each of those cases (Josh Logan, Moss Hart, George Kauffman) generally was not and is not considered the "creator" of the show. Cabaret is interesting in that it's one of the early stage "concept musicals," musicals which are built around a "concept" rather than a storyline. So, instead of moving the story along, much of the music in Cabaret generally comments on events and themes in the piece. Eight years further down the concept musical road, Bob Fosse actually took the 1973 film version to its logical conclusion by excising almost all of the non-cabaret music from the piece (I think the only song not in the cabaret in the film is "Tomorrow Belongs to Me"). ...................................................... So to say that Miss Haworth did what the "creators" wanted her to do, I think, is still a stretch. She may have accomplished what the director Hal Prince had in mind, but I don't think she accomplished what all the creators envisioned. I think of Miss Minnelli as a very "needy" performer, and for Sally Bowles, it totally works. Agree completely on the shift in influence from the writers to the directors/producers on Broadway in the later 60s. And don't forget Michael Bennett. My choice of "creators" really meant those with the driving vision, which in Cabaret was pretty clearly Hal Prince. I think Haworth delivered what he was looking for as Sally. And looking over the list of shows that Kander and Ebb collaborated on, it looked to me that their works really, really benefited from the kind of "concept" thing. By this I mean their works seemed to fit into a kind of mosaic of creative components rather than being the clear, primary creative driving force. And as I already noted I'm not really comfortable with bringing too much "logic" and realism into the argument i.e. that because Sally Bowles is a mediocre singer that it's ok that the actress playing her be a mediocre singer. Things start going down the drain very quickly using that kind of rationalization. But...... I hadn't listen to Jill Haworth or Liza Minelli sing the title song from Cabaret in a very long time. In Haworth's case, probably not since I last played the LP and I suspect that was REALLY a very long time ago. I never really liked the Cabaret film all that much. I remember the original show as having a very gritty quality to it, on top of all the other components of the atmosphere, there was a threadbare seediness to it that was romanticized somewhat in the film. And I thought the first time I saw it (and the only time I watched it all the way through) that it sort of petered out. After listening to the Haworth clip, I dug out Liza There's no denying she has much more in the way of options as a singer that Haworth does. But Liza makes an meal out it with all kinds of effects. There is climax after climax and really I think she got slightly bogged down in all her own effects. And her voice was far more softgrained than I remembered. Haworth is weak as a singer BUT she has energy to compensate for the lack of things like singing in tune. And she drives the rhythms, not flawlessly, but relentlessly and this aids her characterization. As does her slightly clipped diction with a clear accent. (Liza's Sally does not sound like she came from London) And Haworth builds the song to two climaxes, the "going like Elsie" line and then the finale. I think there is a chance here that I was just very impressed at a very impressional age but I still think it's a very effective version of the song. To me Haworth just paints a more vivid picture, not so pretty but more striking, than Liza does.

I agree. I saw The King's Speech on sunday and enjoyed it a lot. It seems like a very finely made film. The Academy is SO unpredictable though. It may be a toss up whether they decide to go after Noir Camp with a little bit of a connection to something artsy or they decide to be earnest and pat themselves on the back for going for the "serious" choice.

Where this argument starts to get very tricky is that logic that is realistic in nature is being introduced into a performing arts genre which by nature is NOT realistic in form. I can see why this is done, more and more, all performing arts genres are being "treated" by injecting a dose of some kind of realism into them and audiences are expecting this, even requiring it. So it's very commonly done. I have to say it works with me too, even though I'm aware I'm being manipulated, so that's how it goes. And I don't see the practice becoming less prevalent. The Met recently opening a new production of La Traviata with a heavily theatrical component to it. It's generated a lot of discussion on the opera lists and many people were really drawn in by the highly detailed dramatic theatricality of it. I haven't seen it yet, but I understand just how effective that kind of approach can be. Yet, I can't help noticing that injecting a lot of realistic details (Violetta is young and thin and , more to my point, sounds like she is ready to die at any moment) are behind making a very NON-realistic kind of form effective and moving for the audiences. But one of the things I've noticed is that, in general, performance practices in the performing arts, evolve and change all the time and that these changes are often driven by the expectations of audiences. And it's very difficult to try to retreat to a more theoretical kind of stance, water doesn't move backward and there's no better way to frustration than trying to make THAT happen. I was very young, but I saw Haworth in Cabaret and I was very impressed. It really didn't register on me that she wasn't particularly skilled as a vocalist. And maybe she wasn't even all that skilled as an actress. But I "got" it she was inevitably sucked into the miasma of the feverish cabaret life which was layered over the feverish society in Berlin of that era. So overall she succeeded at what the shows creators wanted her to do.

We could end up with quite a mosaic there! Over the weekend, I was looking at the NJ Ballet schedule , they are performing at a local college so I migrated towards looking at all the events which will be appearing at the college during the winter/spring. And there i found a Sleeping Beauty, performed by the Moscow Festival Ballet. So this falls under Violinconcerto's criteria, we have an appearance of the keyword "Moscow". I think I may stick with NJ Ballet, they are a bit more of a known quality to me with a more genuine energy if not having such a glamorous "cachet".

That's sort of funny because with all the discussion of La Sonnambula, I decided to watch it earlier today. We must have been on some kind of a tuned in wavelength or something of the sort. I was a bit startled by the hoop dance because it looks so much like Balanchine's Nutcracker and it was jarring to see it with other music. But to answer your question, the music used in the ballet for the hoop thing is a speeded-up-on-steroids version of the cabaletta to the Mira O Norma duet from Norma. Actually I got a chuckle out of it because I thought it worked pretty well, thinking about the discussion of the arrangements of the various Bellini themes. Another section that I thought worked nicely is the Polacca from Puritani which is a dance-y piece anyway(although it's used as a kind of vocal rondo in the opera) and is beefed up and used for a sort of Polonaise in the ballet. Hmm, I wonder it was a tiny joke on Balanchine's part, considering the similarity of the terms......

Helene, it's my understanding that the Met Opera now has individual contracts with all singers, even those in comprimario roles. And those singers have fee progressions based on number of years service which seem to overide "draw" capacity. So a performer such as Paul Plishka gets something very close to top fee per performance for his current work which is primarily in comprimario roles. Plishka has been a Met singer for more than 40 years which seems to be the driving factor. He gets a lot of money, almost as much as the leads, for doing tiny roles. Back much earlier in the decade I actually saw some of the material extracted from the Met's tax return and the two performers with the largest yearly earnings were Juan Pons and Ruth Ann Swenson, neither being major draws. So, to sum up, a lot of the salary expenses in arts organizations are very complex, affected by numerous factors, and seemingly incomprehensible to the layman!!!

Isn't that THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA? -goro- :clapping: :clapping:

Yes, that's correct. My spelling is misleading, I didn't mean to suggest that the accent is on the third syllable, but that's how it ended up. What I was getting at is that the third syllable is often mispronounced, as it would be in in the first syllable of BEAU-ty rather than as BOO, which is correct.

Casting of women , anyway. It seems the women's roster at the principal level is , oh, I don't know what term to use, "uneven" ? "problematic"? And ABT is looking to strengthen it by use of guest stars, particularly for the all important Met season. Counting Vishneva as a kind of "guest with an ongoing relationship", there are 4 guest women in this Spring's season. I'm not complaining, the opportunities to see dancers from other companies and cultures is wonderful, but it doesn't do a lot for the permanent female roster. I really would love to see some of the women develop and blossom from the soloist and corps level. As it stands now , ABT is becoming two companies, the one that appears at the Met and the one that appears at all the other venues. I think maybe the issue is that of charisma which isn't something easily developed. The guest dancers clearly have it (Vishneva, Osipova, and Cojocaru are all magnetic performers although the male "guest" Bolle really isn't, but he's very tall and strong and Gomes can't do ALL the heavy lifting) but it's a bit questionable if some of the really promising women such as Lane, Copeland, etc have that quality. But it would seem to me to be a good idea to at least investigate it more regularly. And ABT has to sell tickets. In a way it's hard to fault them for not using the "biggest" names available at important venues such as London, Moscow, Los Angeles, Tokyo there may even be contractual arrangements with the local producers spelling this out. But both Lane and Kajiya did get cast in London T&V so it's not like ABT is doing nothing. This is another reason I miss the fall City Center seasons. ABT seems more willing to sell repertory there as well as stars and offers a bit more opportunities for dancers coming up in the ranks.

I also find the music a bit unsettling as the ballet unfolds. Like Kathleen , I'm familiar with the Bellini operas that the score is derived from. In a sense it's not too much more than just an arrangement of the Bellini tunes and I'm not crazy over this kind of thing to begin with. And for people that are familiar with Bellini's opera, I think Night Shadow is a more appropriate name, easier to pronounce (Sonnam-BU-la is a bit tricky) and doesn't lead expectations towards Bellini's operasemiseria plot. All that said, La Sonnambula/Night Shadow is a slightly quirky but pretty interesting and evocative piece.

The London programs look good to me; although I just saw Seven Sonatas/Everything/Company B at NJPAC in November.

abatt, I've only seen Nunez twice but I really like her a lot and wish I could see more of her. I saw her as Aurora in the RB's Sleeping Beauty back in 2006 and then a little later in a gala where she danced the Corsair pdd . Both times were with her preferred partner, Thiago Soares. She's on a few videos, most notably the RB Swan Lake (an icky production but perhaps the version of the choregraphy with the finest pedigree on DVD) and Ashtons La Fille Mal Gardee. I find her very fine in both of these. She's also on two others, where she dances a more subordinate role; a dazzling Lilac Fairy on Cojocaru/Bonelli Sleeping Beauty and Myrtha to Cojocaru's Giselle. As Simon noted, she's a killer technician but she's also a lot more than that and I like her in the ballerina roles quite a bit. I don't know about Giselle, she's a bit "sturdy" for this fragile character, but she may surprise me, she has a lot of range.

Well, not to prempt Mme. Hermine, but I noticed this story on the yahoo homepage early this morning before I saw it here. So I believe the story has gotten some circulation.

Just to add to rg's comment, I noticed the other day that the Dancing for Mr. B program is now available from Kultur Video on DVD. It's been out two years but me, wrapped up in my own world, didn't realize that it was commercially available again. So if anyone else was looking for this, you can go through the Amazon window above and order a copy.

I think that's a part of it with Mearns. To a degree it's a bit undefinable; she has that quality that makes you watch her. It's over and above the steps she'a actually doing .

That's really good news. In a way it's a bit of a shame that the Czinner film is just an extra on the Fonteyn documentary because it's availability isn't as obvious as it would be if it were the main title and not just a bonus but I'd welcome the release in whatever form it comes in. The Firebird film is very fine. I was a bit disappointed in the Ondine. I had been familiar with the shadow scene for a long, long time and always thought it was just very strikingly beautiful. A lot of the rest of it is rather dull though. So overall, the Ondine material is a bit uneven. Still this is a wonderful documemtation of Fonteyn and gives much more of an idea of what she was like on stage than the Nureyev Swan Lake film, which I've never been all that fond of.

The theater that is showing this live in Manhattan is charging $25 admission. That's not quite as expensive as London but still on the steep side. The Met HDs have run a bit less than that in New Jersey where I live, more like $20.

Fonteyn was coached by Karsavina when she undertook the Firebird, I've seen photos of the rehearsals with Fonteyn modeling her poses and movements on the famous creator of the role. A few years after this performance, Fonteyn and Somes were filmed in the complete Firebird. At the same time the complete Ondine was filmed as well as a chunk of Swan Lake Act 2. As far as I know the film is not commercially available, hopefully someday it will be. In the Firebird film, this same section is very similar except Fonteyn's makeup is a bit more subtle. This stands to reason, the Edinburgh performance was a stage performance caught on film, the later film at the ROH was geared to the film audience and so the effects were a bit more subtle. I looked on youtube, no sign of either the 1959 Firebird or Ondine. But the Swan Lake excerpt is there. So as a little consolation prize, here's a bit more of Fonteyn and Somes filmed during the 1950s Note that the Swan Lake has the famous "pdd" done as a "pdt" with Benno's assistance, certainly a throwback from a different era!

And I see Sallie Wilson in Hot Chocolate.

I wish were were seeing this program in NY but we aren't. The only mixed program is the new Ratmansky/new Wheeldon/new Millepied/Shadowplay program. London is seeing a program similar to the mixed DC program though. The DC engagement looks pretty good to me. At least DC can't complain that ABT is bringing R&J again!

I loved that...and I believe it. Yes, I agree with Drew and Cristian here. Whatever forms your initial exposure to something remains part of your consciousness. It's sort of a variation on the old "Mom's cooking is best" adage. I find this being true for myself but I have to add that I've also found that it's limiting to be bound by such points of reference. Sometimes mom was really a mediocre cook and while one can hold a sentimental attachment to the dishes she produced it's really good for perspective sake to acknowledge that there is sometimes a better way, even in an objective sense.

I saw Fracci as Tudor's Juliet at ABT but I want to say that her Romeo was Nagy. Later she did Cranko's Juliet in NY with Nureyev but that wasn't with ABT. I looked in the ABT repertory archives, a wonderful resource and found that the only complete Romeo and Juliets that ABT has done were the Tudor, which premiered in the 40s and was revived much later for Fracci/Nagy and Makarova/Prinz and the MacMillan which didn't premiere until 1985, too late for Bruhn for sure. Maybe there was a revival of the Tudor for Fracci and Bruhn around the mid 60s? Some years earlier than the revival I saw which was the early 70s. The archive does list some pas de deux stagings though, including this one: ROMEO AND JULIET (pas de deux) Music by Sergei Prokofiev Choreography by Erik Bruhn Lighting by Jean Rosenthal World Premiere: 11 Teatro dell'Opera, Rome, 3/66 Original Cast: Carla Fracci, Erik Bruhn ABT Premiere: New York State Theater, 5/10/67 Cast: Carla Fracci, Erik Bruhn Maybe this was what you saw? Fracci/Bruhn was the second Giselle I saw and it was magical to see the two together although Bruhn was already past his best days. Fracci, as canbelto notes, was very ethereal in the second act, she was some kind of very Romantic apparition, not at all real. Not only her face but her arms and back were very white and her tutu was enormous, this soft foamy material (later determined by some sleuthing on the part of Gelsey Kirkland to be silk tulle) Looking back, Fracci's Giselle was really an amazing creation in evoking such an mystical kind of being. You weren't completely sure exactly WHAT you saw. Very clever theatricality on her part, I think!

I just love those fish dives!

Fortunately , there are no animals in Act 3 of Aida. Imagine poor Aida singing "mai piu, mai piu" (which sounds like "my pew") over and over as she does in Act 3 with an extra little (or not so little) deposit on the stage next to her.... Ok, corny joke , I know. My recollection, along the same lines was a Cavalleria (another Zeffirelli production), where the donkey couldn't wait. Same thing, the cast chewed the scenery, but carefully avoided a certain spot on the stage. Finally a maintenance man, in a peasant costume, came padding stiffly out on to the stage with a broom and a long handled dust pan. The dustpan was boldly stenciled "Metropolitan Opera House" I could make out the letters all the way up in the Family Circle standing room (with binoculars) So much for the illusion of being in Sicily.