richard53dog

This is just wonderful! The second part of the clip in contained on the VAI bio DVD of Plisetskaya but I've not seen the first part before. I remember as a very young ballet fan seeing photos of Plisetskaya and being just swept away by them. The first time I actually saw her I took an overnight bus from NYC up to Montreal where the Bolshoi touring group was performing with Plisetskaya as the star. I saw her do Carmen and then immediately got back on the overnight bus to NYC. But I was very young and sturdy and it was a thrilling experience. LAter I did see her a few more times in NYC when Cold War tensions eased a bit. Whenever I see clips of her I marvel at the amount of magnetism she possessed and also at the level of energy she performed at. She was an amazing performer. I see clips of her dancing and it brings back the experience. She was a marvel.

FF, that was very thoughtful of Charlie!

I was doing a search today and this old thread popped up. I noted the name Fedora Barbieri and thought, hmmm, let me read it. I think the discussion just a bit confused because there were actually two different films of Il Trovatore being discussed as if they were one! There was a film made for Italian RAI in the late 50s that used the cast of Gencer, Del Monaco, Barbieri (as Azucena), and BAstianini. It's one in a long series of opera films that RAI made. I love this one, the singing is very, very good. The film itself is lipsynched which is a bit of a problem as it always is to me but , oh well. The singers' acting is very old fashioned, very clutch your breast, but the singers execute this very traditional type of acting with great conviction, so that helps a bit. The film that Ed waffle pointed out is another one, made about ten years earlier with a mix of singers in the film itself and a couple of actors lipsynching to singers' voices. I've never seen this one but Gianna Pederzini (again, Azucena) was a great star in the era a generation earlier than the group mentioned above. There were other films made in Italy like this with a mix of singers in the film and actors providing the visuals for other singers. The most famous perhaps is the Aida, which has a gorgeous Sophia Loren acting Aida with the voice of Renata Tebaldi coming out of her mouth. When RAI started making their opera films in the mid 50s (and they made dozens of them!) they went for the opera singers themselves in the visual part, a more workable option in my view (In the Aida film with Loren/Tebaldi, there is a rather bizarre set up; a fairly glamorous actress named Lois Maxwell "acts" Amneris with the voice of Ebe Stignani coming out of her mouth. It's very jarring, Stignani sounded very fruity and matronly at that point and Maxell was decidedly NOT matronly) Of the RAI films, I'll mention a favorite and then I'll pull the plug on this rather long-winded post. A favorite , available in VHS only, alas, is this one: http://www.belcantosociety.org/store/advanced_search_result.php?search_in_artists=1&keywords=otello+del+monaco&x=0&y=0 It's Verdi's Otello and it's a wonderful performance, Mario Del Monaco is far more nuanced and expressive than he is in his studio recordings of Otello for LP/CD. Rosanna Carteri is exquisite as Desdemona, sings beautifully, and captures Desdemona's fear and confusion SO vulnerably . But for me the revelation is Renato Capecchi as Iago. He normally sang buffo roles so it's odd to find him as Iago. But he does Iago in a tradition earlier than the often hammy, stage chewing baritones that have sung the role for the last 50 years. He doesn't play the part in a "showy" way, after all, Otello(and Othello) is the flamboyant, exotic character. Capecchi does Iago as the dweeby guy all the girls ignore. He's got a sort of open, dopey face, with a bad haircut , the kind of guy that everyone passes over. So when he is alone, and the malevolence in him starts to pour out, the transformation is really chilling. We aren't left wondering why Otello and Desdomona are so dense that they miss the danger of this evil character that oozes hatred from his first entrance. Capecchi hides the hateful side of his performance until act 3 when it is too late for Otello to spot it. Well recommended! And maybe it will come out on DVD. The RAI films are slowly making their way to DVD.

Volcanohunter, I just stumbled on this list of Met free Realplayer broadcasts and was going to post it. But I see you were WAY ahead of me, almost a whole month!!! But to add just a bit to the discussion, I listened to the Met Opening Night broadcast of Rheingold last night. I was just thrilled, I haven't heard a Rheingold so beautifully played for a long, long, time. It was very good to hear Levine back on the podium after being out of commission for so many months; I hope his health issues have been resolved. In the past, I'v found some of his Wagner slow for the sake of slowness. Last night he led the orchestra in a performance with a lot of drive and energy and with mostly wonderful, lively, silvery tempi. Not to make this into a real review which will sort of turn this into , I want to mention Eric Owens as Alberich and Richard Croft as Loge. These are two key characters driving the drama and both sang wonderfully. Yes they SANG, they didn't bark, squeeze, shout or whisper. Both sang using excellent schooling but also drove the drama with clear, beautifully executed diction. Wonderful to hear!

Ah, nice photos Amitava. From the shots it looks like there was very little in the way of scenery but the costumes looked similar to the NYCB originals. I was reminded of the discussion of which ballets (Sylphides, Jewels, T&V, Ballet Imperial) really needed or benefited by having something like the original sets and costumes. I remember thinking that Jewels needed the costumes (except maybe for Rubies) but not the backdrops. And it looks like Houston had something like that. (I see just some pulled curtains at the wings entrances but no backdrops) Am I interpreting the photos correctly? How did the settings work visually?

I just started today The Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster. The Silva book looks interesting; I've read quite a few of his novels. The whole injection of art history/restoration gives his books a sub-theme that sets his books apart from other spy thrillers.

I read on an opera list a comment someone made about the ROH's new "rules". There a parallel was drawn with agreements that performers, writers, composers,etc. sign with film companies . The idea there being that the film will never get made if all these individuals retain control over their individual "piece" of the pie. But I think there is a fundamental difference. An opera house is not a film company and while it is extremely unlikely that a composer of a song or some dialog for a film will attempt to reuse that item in another film; composers, writers, choreographers, and directors all expect to retain some degree of control over their work . And I'm sure most hope to use the same work in a different venue .

I think this is the Soviet film with a funny anachronism in it. I no longer own this one but I seem to remember that the shot of Cinderella fleeing the ball at midnight involves a long shot of a plaza that Cinderella traverses. the lighting is very murky but just visible are a number of 60s vintage cars parked at the curb of the plaza. It might be a different Cinderella film but I don't recall ever seeing the Komleva one so I assume it's this one. Struchkova is very fetching and charming looking here as FauxPas notes. I saw her a number of times but much later, more like the mid 70s where she no longer projected the easy girlishness she has here. On the Bolshoi tours of the mid 70s, if my memory is accurate (always a concern!!!) she was the one that came out during the divertisment section and danced the number with the fouettes. Different night, different PDD but Struchkova was the fouette lady. She was very consistent and seemed to toss them off easily.

There you go! That's a nifty solution to the problem. I guess history will eventually tell us who is more remembered (at least in NYC), Ed or the "other one"

No, Philharmonic Hall was renamed Avery Fischer Hall in 1973. But the hall had only been opened for 11 years at that point so the original name wasn't terribly deeply ingrained in people's minds. The name change followed a very large(for the time) donation of over 10 million dollars. While it's possible there are some skeletons in Mr Fischer's closet, he was a life long music lover and inventor of electronics equipment, which made him his fortune. He also sat on the board of directors for the NY Philharmonic. In the later part of his life he seemed to be considered first and foremost a philanthropist.

Lady Macbeth might be able to offer some helpful (or not) tips on how to sanitize the name that is currently used to refer to the "Building Formally Known as the New York State Theater"

Canary, you may be on to something with Mezentseva. I never saw Mezentseva live, only on videos, but I remained in the camp that never really got her. She was really admired and sort of actually adored by an awful lot of people so it remains a bit of a puzzling situation. But there are a lot of performers in a lot of different areas of performance (dancers, singers, actors, etc)that polarize their audiences so it's best to accept that sort of situation. It's really fairly common and the best approach is to agree to disagree. But going back to Mezentseva, my beef with her was the way she moved. I never got (only on video) a really beautiful, striking quality of movement, just a transition from one pose to another. And the long , very thin , limbs didn't paint an attractive picture as they went from one position to the next. I find many of the current crop of MT dancers on the brittle side and, from videos anyway, it seems Mezentseva was the model for that kind of dancer. Now again, I try to be careful, what appears brittle and unlovely to me can seem just breathtaking to somewhat else with a different perspective. So it's good to be aware of that. This is how I try to think of these seemingly unresolvable differences in opinion. I remember watching a video some years ago shot in St Pete. It juxtaposed the lead Kirov ballerina, mezentseva, rehearsing and performing bits of Swan Lake with the very young Altynai Asylmuratova who was coaching the same roles in preparation for her first performance (I may be a bit off on the details here). But what struck me was the difference between the two, Mezentseva with her long, brittle looking arms, carefully transitioning from one position to the next and the much less experienced Asylmuratova dancing some of the same bits with a beautiful, singing, graceful movement. But yes, your post was a bit of an AHA moment for me. But let me also state that I find some very obvious differences between the two. Mezentseva seemed to have a much better schooling and technique than Somova in terms of executing various types of steps. But both seem , well, somewhat clunky to me.

Agreed. I saw both Wiles and Murphy in T&V around the same time and there was NO QUESTION in my mind which dancer I preferred.

Well, perhaps they should get their files ready. Wiles is very well schooled but I find her a very dull, leaden dancer. To me she has a good technique for this type of rep but it doesn't add up to much. I've seen her several times in T&V partnered by Hallberg and I just don't have particularly good memories of this. (ducking)

That's the casting for T&V on the second evening. The opening night has Wiles and Stearns in T&V. It looks like some sloppy editing on the ABT site. Both mixed bill Havana programs have Seven Sonatas being performed twice. Or is that really how the program is laid out? T&V, Seven Sonatas virtuoso PDD/PDT Seven Sonatas Fancy Free Unusual program, no?

Sigh, I'd love to see the telecast from when the production was new released. Nureyev's Jean is sort of an example of the law of diminishing returns but I like Pontois as Raymonda quite a lot. And the production is beautiful, the moment when the tent rises up is one of those moments of theatrical magic.

This seems absolutely amazing. The ROH is trying to claim rights to almost everything associated with any new works created for the theater; not just photos and images of new productions, which seems reasonable to me, but almost everything associated with any new works that will premiere in the theater. This includes choreography associated with new dance works! It appears that they would also claim rights to scores associated with new works but there a prior arrangement exists, composers (mostly) assign rights to their publishers and as I understand it (in my limited understanding of such legal issues!), that would take precedent over the ROH's claim. It's a very sweeping action and sounds like it will keep a lot of lawyers very busy. A cynical part of me wonders if that isn't at the heart of this; lawyers creatively inventing ways to generate billings.

I'll never forget the hookah. I would've mentioned it in my last post, but didn't want to veer too far off the subject of SPFs. Now that we have taken a bit of a branch-off, I feel free to say that the hookah fascinated me for years because I didn't know what it was, only that is was exotic. Mitchell would partake of it as he began his solo. I have a fuzzy memory of him being brought in, sitting in the middle of the carpet, by the children. Or did the children bring the carpet in and Mitchell entered and sat on it to smoke? I can't imagine how the kids/parrots could have carried or dragged him to center stage. Does anyone remember how this went? On the Playhouse 90 version, Clara and the Prince open a pair of doors and Coffee is on the rug with the 4 children/parrots. The parrots help Coffee prepare a snack for Clara and the Prince, some sugar dipped in coffee. Coffee gets up and moves forward on the stage so he has a large open space with the rug at the back of the set. He does part of his solo and goes back to the rug, which again fills most of the tv screen. One of the parrots hands him the hookah and he takes a hit. Smoke rises up in the foreground. He stands and dances some more on the rug and then lays down and goes to sleep. Clara and the Prince get up and leave the scene , moving on to the next sweet. All in all pretty unusual stuff for 1958 network TV.

kfw notes that the 1961 Bell Telephone Hour Nut is available from amazon. The German film with Hayden/Villella/McBride is also available from amazon (looks like a third party vendor but the price isn't bad) http://www.amazon.com/Nutcracker-1965-TV-Special/dp/B002VA5A0W/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1284773615&sr=1-2

Current favorites: Jennifer Ringer and Wendy Whelan Classic favorites: Violette Verdy, Melissa Hayden, and Pat McBride

I'm fuzzy on the details but I thought the interference from the Lincoln Center umbrella management was more a hindrance in building a new theater in the new building behind LC on AMsterdam Av. But you may be right in that they jinxed the deal downtown too. At this point I'd like to seem them get a break. Well, a significant step has been taken in the saga of this long, sad, tale. Susan Baker, the board chairman that has led NYCO through many of the crazy events of the last seven years( including the two failed attempts to move to a new home touched on above) has been replaced. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-17/embattled-chairman-of-n-y-city-opera-leaves-diminished-company.html Charles R Wall comes from Altria corp (don't want to TOUCH that one!) and hopefully he will be able to turn this beleaguered company around. I think it was inevitable that Baker had to go; right or wrong, too many negative events are attributed to her and I would guess that it has impacted on fund raising. Here's hoping this is the start to a new , more positive, future for NYCO!

This is one of the two big problems I have with Somova in this video. Perhaps first is the quality of her movement itself, which seems to me very , very strange, and not very good at all. Like with some other dancers today, I don't see a strong, beautiful sense of movement, instead I see transitions from one pose to another. And here's my second problem, Somova looks amateurish as she sets up these positions; so it's not necessarily the extreme extensions themselves (as others have pointed out, not so inappropriate here) and the resultant distorians but the way she thrusts her limbs into position in an often jerky manner. As Bart noted, she seems to be moving underwater. I would think if this video were slowed down it would look even stranger.

I would be a bit wary of the direction that this might take, particularly with Sams' involvement, but like bobbi, I think that Christie's involvement gives the production a good pedigree. I can't see him presiding over some kind of out of control trainwreck. (But if he pulls out as the production nears the premiere, as Peter Stein recently did in the Met's upcomming Boris, whoa!!!!!!!) And as the Wakin points out in the NYTimes, the precedent for doing this kind of confection has a historical context. So this could be a creative project, time will tell.

The loggionisti that terrorizes opera performances have their own agenda; they simply like to hear themselves and get off on terrorizing singers. It's really just a snobbish, nasty clique. But I don't know if the loggionisti's "expertise" carries over to ballet or if they actually even attend performances other than opera that are held at La Scala (not just ballet but also recitals and orchestral concerts with and without soloists). Carla Fracci always complained that Italian audiences had no where near the interest in ballet as they do in opera. But to take your "transmutation", if Somova were a singer, and sang in the same distorted way she dances, I suspect she would hear quite a lot from the loggionisti and it wouldn't be applause!

Thank God!! I wish I could had seen Ballet Imperial, instead of TPC#2... Up until a few years ago, ABT was still doing Ballet Imperial with the classical tutus and the "Imperial" backdrop. I don't recall if they included the mime though. I saw it a few times, once with Gillian Murphy (sensational) and then a bit later with Vishneva and a rather shaky Malakhov.