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naomikage

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Posts posted by naomikage

  1. San Francisco Ballet is giving the U.S. premiere of Neumeier's The Little Mermaid in March, 2010. Had anyone seen this one?

    I enjoyed the La dame aux camellias POB DVD, although I thought the story could have been told with more economy (an opinion based on only one viewing). On the other hand, there were so many beautiful moments in the choreography it was easy just to let yourself be swept along.

    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.

  2. 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.

  3. Amazon is now taking orders for a DVD titled Prima Ballerina, which, I believe, features Laurent Gentot's documentaries Uliana Lopatkina, l'ame de la danse and Svetlana Zakharova, la tsarine de la danse. The DVD is scheduled for release on December 8.

    I'm a bit puzzled by the run time. The DVD is apparently 53 minutes long, and though I haven't seen either film, my impression is that collectively they should be longer than that. The First Run Features site has not yet posted any information about the DVD.

    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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Hi naomikage,

    While I wait for my order of DVDs to arrive from Japan, I am interested why you say the filming is maybe not good enough.... what do you feel the director did wrong? I'm always interested to hear opinions of ballet fans on why films are good / not so good!

    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.

  7. How interesting. Japanese TV is one of the few broadcasters still committed to showing ballet. You are lucky!

    Thanks for the links to the DVDs, I'd like to order them, could I just ask you one more question - are they Region 2?

    thanks naomikage!

    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)

  8. Naomikage,

    I was interested when you said that the film was not intended for commercial release. Can you explain more? I am a producer of ballet programmes and so I am always interested in how these projects happen!

    May I also ask you, have the DVDs been released by the New National Theatre itself? And have these ballets been shown on Japanese television?

    Sorry for so many questions!

    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.

  9. 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.

  10. Could somebody who is fluent in Japanese please help us with a few details? I've ordered many things from amazon.co.jp before but am not sure if this "DVD ROM" or "DVD Book" is the same thing as a DVD. Does it include a complete performance of the ballet or is it just highlights and/or a teaching guide of some sort?

    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.

  11. The Official Salaryman's Ballerina! :unsure:

    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.

  12. 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.

  13. 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

  14. 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.

  15. 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.

  16. Glad that you liked it, Helene!

    By the way, our Japanese fans will be happy to read that the LHH will tour Japan this coming November/December! I just ran into a nice Japanese journalist who confirmed it.

    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

  17. 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

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