PeggyR

If it's any help, recently I purchased a 1949 Sadler's Wells Ballet program with Fonteyn's signature among a number of others (many unreadable). I paid about $35 for it, which I thought was low, but then I suspect Fonteyn is less well known in the US.

As much as I love this clip (and appreciate the rare opportunity to see Farrell), in some ways I prefer the d'Amboise/LeClercq video that has been discussed here before. That one makes me laugh out loud at the comical self-involvement of these two exotic, impossibly beautiful creatures who are constantly drawn back to their images in the mirror, a palpable third character.

In the Farrell/Mofid - both of them impossibly beautiful too - it feels like they're inhabiting each other's dream; there's an enchanted quality about it, more as if they are turning away from something that really isn't there than toward their own images. Not sure if that makes sense.

Thanks to GeorgeB fan for posting this. It's wonderful to be able to compare different performances/interpretations so many years after the fact.

Just got back from the encore Encore HD Tosca and must admit I'm at a loss to understand why the all the hooha about it. Looked good to me. No, it's not perfect: for one thing, I could do without the hookers with the gold wedgies -- more RuPaulic than Napoleanic (maybe they could trade in the shoes for some underwear). Some of the staging was awkward, but that can be fixed. Karita Mattila is, to put it delicately, a tad mature, but once she opens her mouth and lets loose with that voice, who cares? Loved Marcelo Alvarez's compelling and ardent Cavaradossi, and by far my favorite was George Gagnidze's eye-rolling Scarpia; definitely a whiff of Tony Soprano ("Cavaradossi's gonna sleep wit' da fishes.").

As to the production, it looked fine, a little bleak in the first act, but once you got used to it, the characters came into focus without being overwhelmed by scenery. Great costumes too.

The camera work was generally pretty good, although the power of the Te Deum was undercut by the too agitated camera movements; as one of the intermission interviewees said about that part, Puccini does all the work. I think it would have been more effective to leave the camera still so you can get the full effect of the music and the entrance of the priests, et al. Minor point, but that's one of my favorite scenes and I hated the distraction.

Speaking of the intermission interviews, does Susan Graham have to read from a script? The woman memorizes whole operas, she can't remember half a dozen questions? And wasn't Mattila hilarious?

All in all, loved it.

My favorite Verdi opera is Don Carlos and one of (many) 'fave fives' is Rodrigo's beautiful 'C'est mon jour supreme' (my recording is the Domingo/Ricciarelli in French and I don't have acess to the Italian right now). I've always found the relationship between Carlos and Rodrigo to be one of the most touching in opera and frankly, in this one I could do without the women altogether.

richard53dog: I'm glad to hear someone else loves Fanciulla. Years ago on one of the Met broadcast intermissions, somebody said this was their 'guiltly pleasure' opera! Can you imagine feeling guilty about that?!

Since Met Opera tix are very expensive unless you go nose bleed or wait for all day for rush tix, you can use the HD showings to preview an opera / production you might want to fork over the cash for.

That's a good point, but it's only applicable to people who live in the area, and who could ever hope to fork over hundreds of dollars for a ticket (not everyone can, no matter how devoted to opera they are).

The fact that these broadcasts are available nationwide, in places that may get little or no opera, or opera rarely of the quality the Met can (but maybe doesn't always) provide is, I think, the main advantage. And it's great that the controversy over this Tosca doesn't seem to have hurt the broadcast sales in the least (added encore performances) is encouraging.

Edited to add: Sorry, I thought this was the Tosca thread. Well, it's 7 am and I'm not quite awake...

Extracts from the San Francisco Ballet's 2009 program book regarding Ibsen's House, which was premiered in 2008 at the 75th Anniversary New Works Festival:

...choreographer Val Caniparoli knew that he wanted to create a tour de force for five women, so he mined strong female characters from five of the Nordic playwright's works.

Caniparoli says: "I'm not telling any story...I'm trying to take the essence from the plays...you can sense five women, five different relationships, and their predicaments."

Here are the plays and characters:

Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler/George Tesman

A Doll's House

Nora and Torvald Helmer

Ghosts

Mrs. Alving/Oswald

Lady from the Sea

Ellida Wanger/The Stranger

Rosmersholm

Rebecca West/John Rosmer

For the San Francisco Ballet 75th Anniversary New Works Festival, Val Caniparoli made 'Ibsen's House', which deals with five of the heroines and the men in their lives. It's not about specifics, more about the emotions these people experience in their dealings with each other. SFB doesn't have a reportory index (come on guys!) so I can't give you any links to information about it. When I get home from work, I'll look it up in my program books and provide more details.

Here's a link to Alastair Macaulay's review:

...Mr. Caniparoli’s “Ibsen’s House” tells us which five Ibsen heroines he’s bringing together and which five male Ibsen characters he has them dancing with. This works best if you have never seen, or at least admired, any of the Ibsen plays in question. All five women wore stiff and seemingly corseted calf-length dresses that might be made of bombazine; the men wore frock coats in charcoal gray. You can’t miss that this is a ballet about the repression of women in Victorian times, that the men are both repressed and repressive, and that nobody is ever happy.

The operatic segments that have been mentioned so far seems to have (more or less) the common denominators of melodiousness, a certain amount of lushness, long line, on-your-sleeve emotionality. The word "gorgeous" might apply as well as "beautiful."

I thought that too, about the melody being a common factor. However, while I can imagine listening to many of the arias mentioned here sung by singers with beautiful voices but not much acting skill and still enjoying the music, "Ach, ich fühls" seems to me to be the odd man out: gorgeous music that only has an impact if the the singer can deliver on the emotion.

Edited to add: It occurs to me that many of these arias are sometimes used as standalone pieces, rearranged for orchestra (or piano) without the voice, and the music is just as listenable (depending on the arrangement, of course). I can't imagine "Ach, ich fühls" without the voice.

Is Pierre Lunaire by Schoenberg? I've got to look that one up. Any recommendations on recordings?

BTW, last night driving home from work, I was listening to The Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffman; I think that one needs to be added to the list.

...the entire ring each week for 3 weeks, "according to the composer's original intensions." I'm impressed.

I've already warned my boss that I'm taking a week vacation for whichever cycle I decide to attend.

By the way, tickets go on sale to the general public (i.e., not a subscriber or donor) in February 2010.

San Francisco Opera has announced the complete Ring cycle in 2011. I can't find any mention of this on BT, but please delete if this is a duplicate.

Here’s a link to the press release (PDF), and here’s one to the website (the button for the PDF version of the brochure is at the bottom).

From the pictures on the brochure, this appears to be ‘updated’ (groan) to the 1920s or thereabout. Any bets if the Wall Street crash stands in for Götterdämmerung?

Oops, forgot Wagner. The opening of Das Rheingold; and this is something that really doesn't come across on disc. You have to experience that swell of music in an opera house, where you can feel the vibrations. Stunning.

O Soave Fanciulla

It's Puccini. It's La Boheme. On my recording, it's Bjorling and de los Angeles. Enough said.

It might help to give this discussion an economic perspective. The Met's top ticket price for the opening night Gala was $1,275. For this Saturday's matinee, it's $375.00 (best Parterre seats) and $295 (best orchestra and grand tier seats). The HD/Llive tickets are in the $20 range. At $20, I'll take the risk of a failed experiment. At $375.00, probably not.

Despite (or maybe because of?) the lousy critical reception, another encore HD performance has been added at my local theater (and presumably elsewhere) this Saturday. The original live and two encores were/are pretty much sold out here, as is this new one coming up, so the pans don't seem to be doing any harm to the HD box office. I agree that $20 vs $375/$1,275 is a major incentive to take a risk. We can only hope the Met keeps the prices this reasonable in future seasons.

Add my thanks to the reviewers here; I can't wait!

Here's the complete casting in Orange County as posted here:

11/3 7:30 pm

Kent/Carreno/Part/Saveliev

11/4 7:30 pm

Herrera/Gomes/Wiles/Stappas

11/5 7:30 pm

Kent/Carreno/Messmer/Saveliev

11/6 7:30 pm

Reyes/Cornejo/Abrera/Matthews

11/7 2:00 pm

Murphy/Hallberg/Riccetto/Saveliev

11/7 7:30 pm

Herrera/Gomes/Wiles/Stappas

11/8 2:00 pm

Dvorovenko/Beloserkovsky/Part/Matthew

But back to the topic of funding, even with a lack of funding the arts can never be eradicated. There was amazing art being created during the Great Depression...

Correct me if I'm wrong about any of this, but at least some of that Depression-era art was created under government sponsorship by way of the 'put people to work' programs.

I don't know if any ballet or other dance was created as a result of these programs during the Depression, but that might be an interesting avenue to explore: governments tend to focus on 'needs' and if scarce funds were allocated for the arts, then somebody must have thought the arts and artists were 'needed' in some sense beyond simply providing the basic necessities of life (e.g., food and shelter) for the general population.

Not only do I live in a city named after him, but St. Francis was my animal-loving family's favorite saint. Book's on preorder and can't wait to read it. Thanks for the heads up.

...cheapest one was on Amazon at $525....

Holy cow Am I ever glad I bought it when is was in circulation! Haven't watched this in a while, but remember loving Ferri (of course) and being pleasantly surprised by Murro and the corps de ballet. Unfortunately, Isabel Seabra's Myrtha was seriously earthbound, a performance that would deter me from spending too much. On the other hand, this appears to be the only Ferri Giselle on dvd, so....

ABT will be in China in November, but San Francisco Ballet is there now (September 22 through October 3) and the dancers and staff are starting to post blog entries on the 'Studio 455' SFB blog site. Good photos, too.

Enjoy and check back often.

Edited to add:

Here's the posted casting:

Shanghai--Progam A Evening

Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 7:15pm

ON A THEME OF PAGANINI

Conductor: Gary Sheldon

Piano: Roy Bogas

Frances Chung, Pascal Molat, Taras Domitro

Maria Kochetkova, Davit Karapetyan

STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO

Conductor: Gary Sheldon

Aria I: Sofiane Sylve, Pierre-François Vilanoba

Aria II: Vanessa Zahorian, Damian Smith

DISTANT CRIES

Yuan Yuan Tan, Damian Smith

INTERMISSION

CONCERTO GROSSO

Conductor: Gary Sheldon

Pascal Molat

James Sofranko, Jaime Garcia-Castilla, Taras Domitro*, Hansuke Yamamoto

WITHIN THE GOLDEN HOUR

Conductor: Gary Sheldon

Katita Waldo, Damian Smith

Maria Kochetkova, Rubén Martín Cíntas*

Sarah Van Patten, Pierre-François Vilanoba

Shanghai--Swan Lake Evening

Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 7:15pm

SWAN LAKE

Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson

Conductor: Charles Barker

Odette/Odile: Yuan Yuan Tan

Prince Siegfried: Tiit Helimets

Shanghai--Swan Lake Evening

Thursday, September 24, 2009, 7:15pm

SWAN LAKE

Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson

Conductor: Charles Barker

Odette/Odile: Vanessa Zahorian

Prince Siegfried: Davit Karapetyan

Shanghai--Swan Lake Evening

Friday, September 25, 2009, 7:15pm

SWAN LAKE

Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson

Conductor: Charles Barker

Odette/Odile: Yuan Yuan Tan

Prince Siegfried: Tiit Helimets

Beijing--Program A Evening

Thursday, October 01, 2009, 7:30pm

ON A THEME OF PAGANINI

Frances Chung, Pascal Molat, Taras Domitro

Maria Kochetkova, Davit Karapetyan

STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO

Aria I: Sofiane Sylve, Pierre-François Vilanoba

Aria II: Vanessa Zahorian, Rubén Martín Cíntas

DISTANT CRIES

Yuan Yuan Tan, Damian Smith

INTERMISSION

CONCERTO GROSSO

Pascal Molat

James Sofranko, Jaime Garcia-Castilla, Taras Domitro, Hansuke Yamamoto

WITHIN THE GOLDEN HOUR

Katita Waldo, Damian Smith

Maria Kochetkova, Rubén Martín Cíntas

Sarah Van Patten, Pierre-François Vilanoba

Beijing--Swan Lake Evening

Friday, October 02, 2009, 7:30pm

SWAN LAKE

Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson

Conductor: Charles Barker

Odette/Odile: Yuan Yuan Tan

Prince Siegfried: Tiit Helimets

Beijing--Swan Lake Evening

Saturday, October 03, 2009, 7:30pm

SWAN LAKE

Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson

Conductor: Charles Barker

Odette/Odile: Maria Kochetkova

Prince Siegfried: Davit Karapetyan

* Denotes premiere in role.

Casting subject to change.

Wonderful article on Brigitte Bardot on the eve of her 75th birthday: In the actual magazine there is a picture of how she looks today that isn't included on line; a pity, as she has eschewed the surgical enhancement that her peers have opted for and looks her age.

Bardot is a true screen icon - they just don't make them like that any more.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/sep/22...t-french-cinema

Bardot turning 75, Sophia Loren had her 75th last week...

Geez, I feel old...

Happy birthday to a couple of genuine 'stars'.

Briefly, the program, which ran just under an hour, consisted of three movements from Balanchine's Divertimento No. 15, the first movement played as an overture before the curtain, then the Theme and Variations followed by the Andante; his Agon pas de deux; "Scene d'Amour" from Maurice Bejart's Romeo and Juliet; and as a light, rousing conclusion after the intensity of that scene, Balanchine's Stars and Stripes pas de deux.

Thank you so much for your review. I'm looking forward to the performances in Berkley next month -- can't wait to beef up my Balanchine 'credentials'! Interestingly, just today I discovered the webcast of the 2/23/07 free performance (which was discussed and linked in an earlier thread from a couple of years ago, but here it is again for anyone who missed it then; scroll down to the bottom of the page); some impressive dancers.

Because the question can hit you so differently when you resonate with another person whose love of ballet you really feel. Like right now for me I'm feeling what Gianina said -- the way San Francisco Ballet dances "Within the Golden Hour" takes me SO deep into the heart of what I feel ballet is, it's my current heart-throb, the ballet I kinda ache to see again. And that's a kind of favorite, isn't it? It's the one that's been on my mind the most...

It's interesting that the contemporary Within the Golden Hour is mentioned. When I first saw this thread, my immediate thought was, 'A favorite must be a 19th-century classic, hence my choice of La Sylphide (which is virtually tied with Giselle and Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake). But why not a mid to late 20th or 21st century ballet?

Like a lot of non-New Yorkers, I haven't seen enough Balanchine to select one of his; and while I don't think Golden Hour is in that league and certainly it's not a 'great' ballet in the sense of Giselle or many of the others mentioned here, of all the new works I've seen over the past few years of serious ballet-going, it's the one that keeps coming to mind, especially that stunning final image that has been hinted at through the ballet. It may not be an overall favorite, but I'd have to call it a 'new' favorite.

So, thanks Paul and Giannina (and others) for expanding my thinking.

Once again, lucky Canada! In my neighborhood we get the Met in High Def and the National Theatre Live, but nothing like this feast.

...

December 5, 2009 - Ivanov/Wright: The Nutcracker (Royal Ballet w/Alexandra Ansanelli & Valeri Hristov?) ...

An Ansanelli Nutcracker? I checked the OpusArte and Amazon US/UK websites and don't see anything about it; can we hope it's a DVD to look forward to in the future?

He set an example for how to face an appalling disease with grace and bravery. He's earned his peace.

Peggy

La Sylphide (unfortunately, only on video; I'd love to see it live).

Here is a review from The Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ml?hpid=artslot

But "Twitterdammerung: The Twitter Opera" was not skewered by critics, which came as a surprise to many (including the critics).

The opera was "actually watchable, listenable and rather funny," wrote the Daily Telegraph's opera critic, Igor Toronyi-Lalic. One couldn't escape the fact that it was a gimmick, he said, "but as cheap gimmicks go, this was a good 'un."

For some (me, anyway), the idea of somebody Twittering his/her every stray thought or visit to the dentist to a cast of thousands is the end of the world as we know it.