naomikage

I have seen the Neumeier Little Mermaid in Japan earlier this year, and it is a very dark yet beautiful piece, very heart-crushing and heavy one. The Mermaid is portrayed as a strange, rather ugly creature, and her love never reaches the prince. The designs were very stylish, and the score is very modern but wonderful. This work is a masterpiece and I love it, but maybe so heartbreaking and somewhat cruel that it might be difficult for children.

Royal Opera House has started a new podcasting channel, providing treasures of ballet and opera http://www.roh.org.uk/itunes/ You can download master classes, reheasals, interviews on this channel. such as Jonathan Cope coaching Mayerrling for Mara Galeazzi and Edward Watson, Anthony Dowell coaching Thiago Soares in Swan Lake and so on.

Although mentioning of reporting of the Japan tour, sorry that I had not written anything about it. So far, I have seen 4 Swan Lakes (Lopatkina/Korsuntsev, Tereshikina/Sarafanov, Vishneva/Kolb and Lopatkina/Ivanchenko), 1 Sleeping Beauty (Vishneva/Kolb/Kondaurova) The tour is about halfway, with Little Humpbacked Horse and Gala Left. There was the tragedy of Anastasia Kolegova but other things are going very well and every performance is so wonderful. You can see some of the behind the scene pictures in the official blog. http://ja-ballet.seesaa.net/category/5775150-1.html and I will try to report about at least LHH and the two galas.

It was been announced on the National Theatre website, that Cory Stearns has been replaced by David Hallberg on the 14th matinee due to illness, and on the evening of 15th, the leads change by the act. 1st act Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg 2nd act Michelle Wiles and Cory Stearns 3rd act Yuriko Kajiya and Daniil Simkin http://www.chncpa.org/n16/n2279/n2297920/3099560.html

From the National Theatre website, some pictures from the dress rehearal and press conference http://www.chncpa.org/n16/n2279/n2297920/3089528.html http://www.chncpa.org/n16/n2279/n2297920/3084131.html

Peer Gynt choreographed by Heinz Spoerli, Zurich Ballet. starring Marijn Rademaker of Stuttgart Ballet will be released October 27th. http://www.amazon.com/Peer-Gynt-Zurich-Ballet/dp/B002DMIJQA/ I have already have my copy from Amazon.uk. It arrived yesterday so I will see it tonight.

Also this DVD (Giselle by Ferri and Murru) is available in Japan http://fairynet.co.jp/SHOP/4560219320680.html although region code is 2, NTSC format.

This DVD is already released in Japan and I have this. It is indeed, Uliana Lopatkina, l'ame de la danse and Svetlana Zakharova, la tsarine de la danse. Svetlana Zakharova Tsarine de la Danse 27 min Swan Lake with Andrei Uvarov Sleeping Beauty with Uvarov Scheherazade with Ruzimatov Middle Duet with Andrei Merkuriev and very brief experts from Giselle, DonQ, La Bayadere and Dying Swan Interview of Zakharova and Nikolai Tsiskaridze, coaching by Ludmila Semenyaka Ulyana Lopatkina L'Ame de la Danse 27 min Swan Lake with Jose Martinez, Danila Korsuntzev, Evgeny Ivanchenko Rose Malade with Ilya Kuznetzov Troi Gnossiennes with Ilya Kuznetzov La Valse (Vaganova graduation performance) Short experts from The Legend of Love and Diamonds Interview of Lopatkina and Ivanchenko Les films de Laurent Gentot It is indeed a very good documentary and the footage are very beautiful but unfortunately very short so you might get stressed as you can see the performances in this film are brilliant.

This Neumeier's work is a masterpiece, I think. I have the EMI German PAL disk and it is beautifully filmed. Siegfried by Jiri Bubenicek, his shadow Carsten Jung, and Odette by Anna Polikarpova, Princess Natalia by Elisabeth Loscavio Siegfried (his model is indeed Ludwig the 2nd of Bavaria) is obsessed by swans and he has gone mad and is in custody in his castle. He holds a performance of Swan Lake in his castle and he is the only audience, and his obsession makes him take over the role of the prince. He shows no interest to his fiancee Princess Natalia. Both the performance and the choreography are stunning, although quite different from the original Swan Lake.

An article about Jason not leaving Stuttgart Ballet (in German) http://www.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/stn/...-ausschlag.html

it is on the company's official site. http://www.pina-bausch.de/news.htm http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/jun/3...sch-dies-dancer a great loss for the dance world and I can't belive it. I loved hew work, and she was only 68.

Unfortunatly, the Ferri farewell gala is not distributed as a DVD in Japan. It was broadcasted twice on TV. It is a pity because the performance was so intense and wonderful. There were two different programs on the gala, and only one was televised. The other day Ferri danced Carmen and Lady of the Camelias black PDD, and Manon bedroom PDD, along with Amovio's R & J, all woth Bolle. Gomes danced Kudelka's Cinderella and Oberon from The Dream.

The biggest problem of this DVD is the quality of the filming. I think 3 or four cameras were used in this filming and the camerawork is not so bad. Although it seems that there are some shots too distant, no irritating cutbacks and the directing is good. I have seen the acutual performance and saw the cameras filming this and it was not a HD camera. The format is 4:3 (oh no!) and the film does not look clear enough for ones accustomed to nowadays High-Vision beautifully filmed ballet DVDs. As some of those in this forum might know, Japan is quite a big market for ballet and some ballet DVDs are distributed only in Japan. For instance, there is a documentary DVD of John Neumeier with many rare footage of his works at the Hamburg ballet which was broardcasted on TV and recently distributed. Also, there are some 'Variation lesson' DVDs by Uliana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva, Vikltoria Tereshikina, Alina Somova, Evgenia Obraszova and Oleshia Novikova. (Natalia has reviewed some of them). Also a full Giselle DVD by Malakhov and Vishneva with the Tokyo Ballet.

These DVDs are region 2. NTSC format. And Natalia, a clip of Orfeo & Euridice by Sakai and Yamamoto is included as a bonus to the Swan Lake DVD. Other bonuses for SL are, Don Quixote by Hiromi Terashima and Naoya Kojima Sleeping Beauty Aurora variation by Maki Kawamura Carmen by Miwa Motojima (42 minutes)

So New National Ballet Tokyo has been filming most of the performances and those recordings are in the archive of the opera house, so you can see almost all of the previous performances if you go there. There are some which are quite valuable. This Raymonda release was one of those recordings, but luckily this recording was commercially released after it has been filmed. This is the first release of the DVDs of this theatre, and if this sells well, I think there will be more to follow. And there are some footage of full performances that has been broadcasted on Japanese television, such as Sleeping Beauty by Miyako Yoshida and Tetsuya Kumakawa, Paquita by Vishneva and Kolb, Don Quixote by Zakharova and Uvarov, and La Bayadere by Zakharova and Matvienko. I wish those broadcasts be commercially released too.

Natalia, You don't have to apologize! Jean de Brienne is danced by Denis Matvienko, and the leads in Swan Lake are Hana Sakai and Ryuji Yamamoto. And the conductor of Raymonda is Ormsby Wilkins, from ABT. I saw the DVD of Raymonda right now and I think it is a very good one. I saw the actual performance filmed anyway. Maybe the filming is not too good enough (because when it was shot it was not intened for commercial release) but it is enough to capture the beauty of Zakharova.

Natalia, I have mentioned a couple of months before about this DVD, and it has just arrived. This Raymonda and Swan Lake are both full performances of the whole ballet, with some extra clips such as reheasal and behind the scenes, and an interview of Svetlana Zakharova, along with some clips of PDDs from Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty of the New National Theater. The DVD-Book term means that this DVD is published by a bookseller so it is a DVD with an illustrious book with the synopsis (in Japanese) and photographs of the performance. If you want to see Zakharova's Raymonda, this is a good choice I think.

Somova reminds me of Russian girls who work in bars in Roppongi, Tokyo where Japanese businessmen go after their work. Actually there are quite many of those girls who looks like her. And I don't know what company is going to sponsor the Mariinsky Japan tour but at the Bolshoi tour, a securities company was the official sponsorso there were many businessmen who were invited as a result of that.

Vishneva's absense in the London tour is due to her appearing at the World Ballet Festival in Tokyo, partnering Malakhov. Somova is opening the Japan tour in November with Swan Lake, and also the Japan premire of Little Humpbacked horse with Gergiev conducting. But it seems that most Japanese Mariinka fans do not like her, and I think her ticket sales will be a flop. Who wants to see her Odette when Vishneva and Lopatkina, Tereshkina is also in that role? And also Aurora with Vishneva and Tereshkina as alternatives.

Here are the daily cast for the London performance Romeo and Juliet http://www.roh.org.uk/whatson/production.aspx?pid=9642 3 August , 19h30 Juliette : Alina Somova Roméo : Vladimir Shklyarov 4 August , 19h30 Juliette : Olesia Novikova Roméo : Igor Kolb 5 August 19h30 Juliette : Ekaterina Osmolkina Roméo : Evgeny Ivanchenko 6 August , 19h30 Juliette : Evgenia Obraztsova Roméo : Anton Korsakov Swan Lake http://www.roh.org.uk/whatson/production.aspx?pid=9651 7 August , 19h30 Odette-Odile : Uliana Lopatkina Siegfried : Daniil Korsuntsev 8 August, 14h Odette-Odile : Ekaterina Kondaurova Siegfried : Igor Kolb 8 August, 19h30 Odette-Odile : Viktoria Tereshkina Siegfried : Evgeny Ivanchenko 10 August, 19h30 Odette-Odile : Alina Somova Siegfried : Daniil Korsuntsev 11 August, 19h30 Odette-Odile : Viktoria Tereshkina Siegfried : Vladimir Shklyarov Homage to Balanchine http://www.roh.org.uk/whatson/production.aspx?pid=9667 12 August 2009, 19h30 Serenade Alina Somova Evgeny Ivanchenko Ekaterina Osmolkina Daria Vasnetsova Denis Firsov Rubies Irina Golub Vladimir Shklyarov Ekaterina Kondaurova Symphony in C Viktoria Tereshkina Anton Korsakov Uliana Lopatkina Daniil Korsuntsev Olesya Novikova Filip Stepin Nadezhda Gonchar Alexei Timofeyev 13 August 2009, 19h30 Serenade Daniil Korsuntsev Ekaterina Osmolkina Irina Golub Yulianna Chereshkevitch Denis Firsov Rubies Viktoria Tereshkina Alexander Sergeyev Anastasia Lishyuk Symphonie in C Alina Somova Anton Korsakov Maxim Zuzin Ekaterina Kondaurova Evgeny Ivanchenko Ekaterina Osmolkina Vladimir Shklyarov Evgenia Obraztsova The Sleeping Beauty　 http://www.roh.org.uk/whatson/production.aspx?pid=9660 14 August 2009, 19h30 Princess Aurora : Olesia Novikova Prince Désiré : Igor Kolb Lilac Fairy : Ekaterina Kondaurova Saturday, August 15 2:00 PM Princess Aurora: Evgenia Obraztsova Prince Désiré : Vladimir Shklyarov Lilac Fairy: Uliana Lopatkina Saturday, August 15 7:30 PM Princess Aurora : Alina Somova Prince Désiré: Léonid Sarafanov Lilac Fairy: Uliana Lopatkina

I will try to report on some of the performances. and the casting of Sleeping Beauty. As for The Little Humpbuck Horse, this might be regarded an adventurous programming, but the Fokine Programme was changed into an All Star Gala, what I hear is that the impresario did not expect good ticket sales from Fokine. Perhaps The Little Humpbuck Horse was programmed because Ratmansky's The Bright Stream had a very high critical success in Japan, and also this time Valery Gergiyev is conducting on the first night.　（He will be on a Japan tour with the Marrinsky Orchestra, but the Mariinsky Orchestra only performs with The Little Humpbuck Horse) Gergiev tickets sells very well in Japan.

Though it will only be distributed in Japan, Svetlana Zakharova and Denis Matvienko's Raymonda with New National Theatre Ballet Tokyo DVD (and also Swan Lake with Hana Sakai )will be relesed in 2009/5/19. Some of you might have seen New National Theatre Ballet Tokyo's Raymonda in Washington. They are much renouned for their beautiful corps de ballet. And Zhakharova dancing Raymonda is a must-see. I hope these will be released in other countries. Both works are choreographed by Asami Maki, and I don't think Raymonda's choreography is so good, as Abderakman does not appear in the dream scence, but otherwise both versions are very orthodox ones and the costumes are very beautiful. Raymonda http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4418090126/ Bonus (30min): Zhakharova' interview, rehearsals, behind the scenes and class lessons Swan Lake http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4418090118/ Bonus(30min) : Experts from past performances such as Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, and Orpheo et Euridyce by Dominic Waish.

The Mariinsky Ballet will have a Japan tour in November to December to perform LHH. I don't know how many performances of LHH will be done because tickets have not started booking yet. Other programs are Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, and a gala. I will introduce you the official blog of the impresario that reports about the premire. http://ja-ballet.seesaa.net/article/115802765.html Natalia, I have enjoyed your reports and that gives me a very positive expectation of the LHH with the Mariinsky. Hope we can see Tereushkina's Tzar maiden. Also some pictures from the rehearsal. http://ja-ballet.seesaa.net/article/115557127.html

According to the official Mariinsky website, former Mikhailovsky Ballet soloists Denis and Anastasia Matvienko have joined the troupe. http://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/ballet http://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/ballet/...denis_matvienko http://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/ballet/...cers1/matvienko

Here is the pre-cast for Brisbane POB Bayadere posted on the French forum Dansomanie La Bayadère 6/24～7/4 Nikiya : Dupont ou Letestu ou Osta ou Moussin ou Gillot, remp. Ciaravola Solor : Le Riche ou Martinez ou Pech ou Hervé Moreau, remp. Paquette, Bullion Gamzatti : Cozette ou Gilbert ou Daniel ou Romberg, remp. Bellet, Hecquet, Renavand L'Idole dorée : Thibault ou Gaudion ou Isoart ou Kim, remp. Ibot, Marc Moreau L'Esclave : Bullion ou Duquenne ou Paquette, remp. Magnenet, Saïz Le Rajah : Didière ou Monin Le Grand prêtre : Saïz ou Wilk, remp. Saraminte Danseuse Manou : Giezendanner, remp. Mathis, Verdusen, Marine Ganio La Nourrice : Nathalie Aubin, remp. Robert Le Fakir : Hoff ou Isoart ou Bertaud http://www.parisoperaballet.com.au/site/ The casting for each performance is not annouced yet but above will be a hint