naomikage

Thank you for your thoughts. I was also surprised when I saw Maria Kowroski in Swan Lake but considered myself lucky. It is a fabulous program. Will post some views after I saw the performance.

Here's the full cast of the Japan tour. I will be seeing Program B on 23rd.

http://www.nycballet.com/NYCB/media/NYCBMediaLibrary/PDFs/Press/Casting/NYCB-Casting-Japan-102113-102713.pdf

Vladislav Lantratov is promoted from the Leading Soloist to Premier,
Olga Smirnova — from the First Soloist to the Leading Soloist,
Denis Rodkin — from Soloist to the First Soloist.
Anna Okunyova, Yanina Parienko, Artemy Belyakov &
Anton Savichev became Soloists.

http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/about/press/articles/

Congratulations to those who got promoted.

Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty DVD/Blu-ray will be released on September 30th.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00E4V0FAG/

Swanhilda8 thank you for your guide attending Bolshoi Theatre. It is very very helpful and a must read for all visitors

I also visited Bolshoi to see Onegin this July, and I wished I had read this before I went there as it was quite difficult for a non-Russian speaker in Moscow to get there. One thing I would like to add is that champagne was incredibly expensive at Bolshoi and cost me 1350 R for a glass.

I have sat both at Met Opera House and ROH, and I could say ROH is much smaller scale than the Met. Met is so huge that even the Grand Tier seats seem very far away but ROH is much closer. One of my favorite seats at Covent Garden is in fact the front row of the Amphiteatre, the price is reasonable and offers a very good view of the stage. The orchestra, on the other hand is not raked enough and often your view is obstructed by a tall person. You may have to sit in the middle rows such as L or behind because the rake is better there. I was in the 2nd row of orchestra center block for Mayerling and I couldn't see almost anything. Well I am quite small like 1.6m.

Royal Ballet's Ashton Celebration DVD & Blu-ray will be released September 2nd on Amazon uk

MEDITATION' FROM THAÏS - Leanne Benjamin, Valeri Hristov
VOICES OF SPRING - Yuhui Choe, Alexander Campbell
MONOTONES I AND II - Emma Maguire, Akane Takada, Dawid Trzensimiech,
Marianela Nuñez, Federico Bonelli, Edward Watson
MARGUERITE AND ARMAND - Tamara Rojo, Christopher Saunders,Sergei Polunin, Gary Avis

Artists of The Royal Ballet
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Conductor: Emmanuel Plasson

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, February 2013

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-Ballet-Dances-Frederick-Ashton/dp/B00E1C4QVC/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ballet-Dances-Frederick-Ashton-Blu-ray/dp/B00E1C4RUC/

trailer

Birdsall, I understand your point as I also think it is strange that Novikova is still not a principal at Mariinsky yet. She does deserve promotion as soon as she will be back from maternity leave.

There are some clips of Esina's debut performance in Le Corsaire at Mariinsky.

http://youtu.be/FTfaFMykSBI

I think it is quite not polite to call Olga Esina Miss Nobody as at least she has guested as Odette/Odile in both Bolshoi and Mariinsky. At least she is the biggest star in Vienna, and the company level has risen dramatically high since Manuel Legris has taken over the directorship. The company has successfully completed their 3 week long Paris tour and Esina was praised much.

I do think Osmolkina, Kolegova and Novikova are brilliant dancers seen all of them in a leading role. Novikova is currently on maternity leave. But although Mariinsky and Vienna are much different in status and size, you get a kind of star appeal if you are the top principal of a company.

According to Austrian press, Olga Esina was supposed to move to Bolshoi, but in February she had second thoughts and stayed in Vienna.

http://www.viennareview.net/on-the-town/on-stage/rivalries-centre-stage

After a regal guest performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in October, where she shone as the dark seductress Odile, Esina was invited to decamp permanently to Moscow. Esina initially accepted and provisionally announced her departure. Rumours of some emotional entanglement began circulating. But then in February, Esina had second thoughts and allowed herself to be persuaded to stay.

I have seen her performance a few times and she really has star quality, Vaganova-trained, very beautiful with solid technique.

According to Ria Novosti, Alexandrova has an Achilles injury which may take up to 6 months or 1 year to heal.

http://ria.ru/culture/20130803/954062604.html

As for torn Achilles, Evan McKie of Stuttgart Ballet also tore his Achilles while performing the prince in Sleeping Beauty 4 years ago, and it also took him 7 months to recover.

In my opinion, Evgenia Obrastzova is not a suitable guest for ABT. I saw her performance in Onegin with Hallberg at Bolshoi (live) but her old-style dancing was not suited to the role and there was desperate lack of chemistry. And she is too short for David.

She is a good dancer but mainly a Romantic style ballerina suited for La Sylphide and ABT doesn't have so much romantic style ballets. She did not dance Swan Lake while she was in Mariinsky as her limbs are short. There are many good shortish ballerinas in ABT such as Sarah Lane.

Video news of Urin Visiting Filin in Germany. Filin plans to return to Bolshoi in mid-September and discussing plans for premieres with John Neumeier and Pierre Lacotte.

http://www.1tv.ru/news/social/238808

This is also reported on Chicago Tribune.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-russia-bolshoi-20130801,0,5594843.story

Another link of this news. He seems optimistic with his left eye.

http://ria.ru/culture/20130801/953636819.html

I watched two performances of Onegin at the Bolshoi (my first trip to Russia). It was the last two performances, the Stuttgart guest day and Obraztova / Hallberg cast day. (unfortunately Vishneva / Gomes performance was sold out and I couldn't make it)

I have seen Onegin at various companies including POB, Royal and also in Stuttgart many times. So my views might not be completely neutral, but yes, Alicia Amatriain and Evan McKie pair were just sensational and delivered such a dramatic, nuanced and breathtaking performance. I would say they are the best interpreters of the ballet at present. Such a delicate and yet strong Tatiana by Amatriain and McKie's elegant, deep, pathetic and charming Onegin, with such magical partnering. Anna Osadcenko as Olga was also very playful and lovely.

I noticed the music was too slow at times which killed some of the passion and speed, although they seemed to have become faster in the Stuttgart guesting day. But the corps by Bolshoi dancers were doing a great job and made use of the huge stage at Bolshoi.

Evgenia Obraztuova was like Juliet in her first act. She was sweet and her dancing was eloquent and lovely but too classical and old-fashioned for Cranko. She did have much dramatic quality and much into the role especially in the last act but the chemistry between David Hallberg didn't seem to be there, maybe she might have been better with her other partner. Thought Hallberg was just too tall for her. Hallberg is a beautiful dancer with gorgeous lines, his variations were stunning but his acting seemed too serious at times and I couldn't see much love to Tatiana. It was unfortunate for him to have last minute changes of his partner.

But as a whole, it was very touching to see Pushikin's masterpiece brought back on stage in Moscow. Onegin does have flaws, especially from a Russian point of view but a grand and very memorable piece.

You can see more videos of the Amatriain / McKie performance on the same channel as posted above.

One more prediction, one production will be retired with a new version to be premiered in 2015.

Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty?

This seems to be written in the stars. And it might be SB I guess. Revamp maybe from the resident choreographer, just a wish!

It is interesting that that Paris Opera Ballet will be performing Fall River Legend and Miss Julie next season. ABT has brought Fall River Legend for their Japan tour in 1994 but has it been performed recently?

For instance , Cranko's Taming of the Shrew. It is a male virtuoso ballet so this would be very interesting to see with the current ABT men.

http://www.abt.org/education/archive/ballets/taming_of_shrew.html

Another famous episode is that Tamara Rojo danced the Tatiana role once and then she was rejected to dance the role. It seems she was very upset about this. I can't fined the source right now but she cited her frustration about this in an interview.

Well it is unlikely that they will record Onegin, the Cranko Trust is very strict and they won't allow companies other than Stuttgart Ballet to release DVD on Onegin. Recently a huge number of Onegin videos on YouTube were eliminated and only company's official promotional clips are left.

But we can still hope someone in the Russian audience to film it!

Here's the link to Simone Messmer's interview, this is a very good read and I admire her for her bravery.

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/dance/american-ballet-theatre-soloist-simone-messmer-talks-about-her-decision-to-leave?intcid=leader

the score is not too my liking (it does nothing for me, as opposed to the "Swan Lake" score)

That's too bad. I find the score to be quite charming -- if not in comparison to Tchaikovsky, then at least in comparison to the other typical ballet alternatives (Minkus oom-pah-pahs, etc).

I also love Sylvia's score, maybe one of the best scores for ballet!

It might be the first time for Polina Seminova to perform Juliet in MacMillan's version but she has performed Juliet in the Cranko version many times in Berlin. You can find many clips of her Juliet on YouTube.

My prediction for 2014 Met season, partial list:

La Bayadere

Giselle

Manon

The Dream

Company premier of an Ashton full length

It'll be Diana Vishneva's 10th anniversary with ABT next year. I'll fill in more when my crystal ball becomes clearer.

This is just a guess but I bet the Ashton full length will be Cinderella.

Why wouldn't Hee Seo or Kent make the trip? They were cast in Chamber Symphony (though in different casts). Also, I'm assuming that Hee Seo may be given a role as one of the Muses in Apollo. (I think Seo was Polyphemnia during the last ABT run of Apollo.) I'm pretty sure that ABT performed Apollo either last season or the season before. The three Apollos were Gomes, Hallberg and Beletserkovsky.

The answer is, Hee Seo and Roberto Bolle are guesting in Universal Ballet (Korea)'s Onegin on July 7th and 8th

http://www.universalballet.com/english/performances/performance_view.asp?nyear=2013&nmonth=07&cSort=79

IAdded later:

If there are any more replacements could Myriam Ould Braham be arranged ?

Myriam Ould Braham cancelled her Gala guesting this summer in Japan due to pregnancy (which was announced officially). However, she is expected to dance in La Sylphide this month at POB.