anin

Its not the topic I object. " Les Miserables " is a great novel and the musical was done very tastefully,with great humour and lovely music. If the " Flames " is revived with completely new choreography, then there might be a chance. Some works remain classics and some not. That was never the case with " Flames " to start with. " Spartacus " is another matter. When it first premiered with choreography by Grigorovich it seemed like a revelaion.And what a cast! But when a few years ago I got a video and watched it for the first time since I left Russia, it didn't have the same impact,which is to be expected. I still loved some parts, and there were many,that I was not thrilled about at all. And " Spartacus " has absolutely great music,no comparison with " Flames.

What a stupid idea to revive this travesty of a ballet. It's vulgar and campy in the "best " tradition of Soviet ideological approach. It's true that the PDD was quite popular, but only thanks to some marvelous performers like Baryshnikov,who performed it in concerts shortly after graduating from ballet school, and which I was fortunate to see.Ballet itself ? ! Who at this time would want to sit through 4 acts of a very banal chreography and music that qiute matched it in its banality. The Bolshoi should wake up.It's 21 st century for crying out loud.George Balanchine happened, and many others, Boris Eifman in Russia for that matter.It's insane since the Soviet Union does not exist animore.Do they have to go back to this,have they not learned anything?

There's a DVD of Don Q with Nadezhda Pavlova and her then husband Gordeyev.At the end as a bonus there are scenes performed by Maya Plisetskaya and Maris Liepa sometime in the 60-s. During PDD Plisetskaya does perform fouettes. They are not all time great,but quite respectable.

I was too little to remember Alla Shelest and young Nureyev (when I had a chance to see him a few times in the West,he was way past his prime) in performance at the Kirov,but my mother always told me what an incredible dancer Alla Shelest was,in fact she was one of her favorite.Actually most ballet goers of my mother's generation considered Shelest as their favorite Kirov dancer. It's both a crime and a tragedy that we have nothing preserved on film of this genius performer,whose talent such giants as Ulanova and Plisetskaya absolutely worshipped. There is a video of " The Fountain of Bahchisarai " with Ulanova and Plisetskaya. It was filmed in Leningrad and Shelest was supposed to dance Zarema(which was one of her greatest roles),but she was in a car accident, so Plisetskaya got a call to come over to Leningrad and repalce Shelest. Her timing was just unlucky. She was the brightest star in the Kirov galaxy, but at the time when Dudinskaya was the most powerful woman at the Kirov together with her husband Sergeyev,no star, I guess, was allowed to shine brighter.I am not trying to take anything away from Dudinskaya who was indeed a great dancer, but Shelest never opened a season,never had an honour of the premiere even of ballets that her then husband Grigorovich made on her. The Kirov and it's management are the villains responsible for robbing ballet lovers of appreciating the genius of a unique artist.

Alla Sizova was an uncomparable Aurora,but her Giselle is another story.Technically there were no hurdles. She was light as a feather,practically weightless,but she didn't move you,didn't make you weep the way Bessmertnova did, especially when she was partnered by Baryshnikov. Sizova was actually Baryshnikov's first Giselle,but there was no chemistry, no fire you could feel when he danced it with Bessmertnova, and later with Makarova or Kirkland in the States. Of all Kirov Giselles, Yelena Yevteyeva ,though not the greatest Giselle,but a excellent one,was better suited to Baryshnikov,than Sizova or Kolpakova(another great Aurora if not the greatest,but again,though technically perfect,did not belong to the list of great Giselles). Alla Shelest ,of the older generation of Kirov dancers,was by all accounts both- a great Giselle and a great Aurora. She was young Nureyev's favourite partner at the Kirov,the exact contempary of Fonteyn,both being born in 1919.

I don't know Ostrich if it's a Russian phenomenon. I am just a lot more familiar with Russian dancers, especially of late sixties and up to late seventies,since I was born and raised in Leningrad and left before it has become St.Petersburg again. But I doubt that it's typical of Russian dancers primarily. Dancers' lives are pretty much the same in all major ballet companies : class,rehearsals,performances,touring,guest appearances etc.

A lot of Kirov(Maryinsky)dancers are or have been married,that have not been mentioned,like Tatyana Terehova and Sergei Berezhnoi. Olga Chenchikova used to be married to former Kirov principal Marat Daukayev with whom she danced.Now she is married to former principal and current AD Mahkarak Vaziyev and they used to dance together. The late Yuri Solovyev was married to Tatyana Legat,though I don't know if they danced togrther since she wasn't a principal. At the Bolshoi Ludmila Semenyaka used to be married to Michail Lavrovsky.I think that's why she moved from Kirov to the Bolshoi and they did dance together.Then she used to be married to Andris Liepa ( Maris's son),but I don't know if and how much they danced together. Generations wise,Semenyaka falls somewhere between Lavrovsky and younger Liepa.She is some 10 years younger than Lavrovsky and 10 years older than Liepa. Back to the Kirov,the incredibly beautiful Inna Zubkovskaya was married to outstanding dancer Nikolai Zubkovsky whose name she took upon marriage and kept after their divorce.Then she was married to another Kirov principal( I think Oleg Sokolov).Zubkovskaya is an unusual example of Moskow trained dancer,whose whole proffessional career was spent at the Kirov. On another note,off stage relationship or marriage is not a guarantee for great patnership.Case in mind Altynai Asylmuratova and Konstantin Zaklinsky.I attended their performance of Giselle in early nineties at the Kennedy Center and was no chemistry whatsoever. One of the reasons might be that she is one of the greatest dancers of all times and he is merely a very very good dancer.

Maya Plisetskaya never danced Giselle. She was a marvelous Myrtha by all accounts and in her book she mentions that she was always paired with Ulanova as Giselle. Plisetskaya actually says in her autobiography that Giselle is the only major part,that she never danced,and that wasn't because she wouldn't be given that part( Bolshoi was quite more liberal than Kirov in those days,when it came to a question of " emploi "),but something inside her resisted.If she wanted to dance Giselle very much,she probably could,but she never wanted. I think it was very smart of her,because she definately would have been a miscast,as she actually was as Princess Aurora.She should have stuck with the Lilac Fairy.