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And OMG (as the MySpacers say), Carmina Burana was over for me the first time I heard it. Pianists like Balanchine and Aurelie Dupont are naturally going to have greater access to certain music than other dancers, although I don't know enough about her to know if she's a choreographer yet. She would know how to use the French repertoire, perhaps even things like 'Le Marteau sans Maitre', as she is one of the most musical of all dancers. I can see her knowing what to do with many of the Preludes and perhaps some of the Etudes even (of Debussy). Anyway, 'research process' is not always a deliberate thing, you just run across things sometimes by happenstance. I picked up this VHS with the Kylian I mentioned above at the library, but had no idea that someone I had known quite well was in it till I was watching her all of a sudden. Things like that, random ways of discovery, but I definitely must reiterate that I think Kylian's use of 'Cathedral Engloutie' is one of the most fantastic moments of dance genius I've ever seen (HOW did he know to do this?), easily equalling almost anything I've seen of Balanchine--and light-years beyond everything i've seen of Peter Martins ballets, among most others. It's also just being curious to look through old scores, isn't it? Frankly. I was watching the Kylian just to be 'up on things', never having seen any, so to find this masterpiece all of a sudden with an old friend in it was totally unexpected. So I think method and process on some of these most-inspired things is often less important than just chance. Most artists talk about the 'craftsmanlike daily work of art', but that is because it is the only thing you can say: You can't say, well, I 'get inspiration', even though one does. The workaday persistence is, in fact, one of the things that unearths the 'inspiration', but the inspiration has a life of its own beyond the workaday, otherwise what's the point? just go to the office and do a little accounting. I mean, what you say about 'discovering the incidental music of Shylock' is true, but how on earth did Menotti think to make an opera about a fake spiritualist, her daughter, and a mute Gypsy boy? That's inspiration as much as it is hard work. Occurred to me that even 'Pelleas et Melisande' has at least 2 scenes in it that might be used for ballet--there is no reason these characters cannot both be sung and danced (by different performers, of course), and Debussy's opera is just made for the crepuscular world of Arkel, Pelleas, Golaud and Melisande.

Which reminds me of one of my favourite of all novels, 'Lost Empires', by J.B. Priestley, which was made into a wonderful 7-part Masterpiece Theater in 1986. This is de rigueur for anyone who wants to get a wonderful re-entry into the world of music hall in England and the Empire Theaters. And it inspired me to go to the Empire Theater in Liverpool, one of the remaining ones, and become a cinema in 1987, when I went. I don't know if it's still there now though. The Masterpiece Theater version made a couple of ingenious improvements on the novel, so that the ending was less sentimental, making Julie Blane seem less predatory and the young wife less important in her self-righteous condemnation of Julie, the West End actress who'd had drinking problems and had to go into Music Hall for awhile. The Masterpiece Theater version is nearly impossible to get, as it was not one of their big hits, and I'm even surprised they made it--you'd never see something like that now, just 20 years later. But the book also has things you wouldn't have found in the miniseries, things like doing special daytime presentations in the department stores of the cities in which they'd be performing at night. Do you know this book, dirac? Priestley is one of the best on England, IMO. I'm not reading anything except new drafts of my own work right now, otherwise have stopped reading books altogether for the first time in years. It's a nice break. Last read was Spillane's 'I, the Jury', which thoroughly enjoyed.

These are good ideas, I think. And made me think of Harry Partch and the concert I heard about 10 years ago with most of the original Partch instruments. Can't remember now the name of the guy who conducted and has control of these, but it was a full-time dedication. This sort of thing used to suggest modern dance more than ballet, but things seem to have changed enough so that many more kinds of music could be used. If people want to dance to Ives and Glass and call it ballet, then I would say anything could be considered. As, for instance--Kylian's use of 'la cathedral Engloutie' is one of the most arresting uses of Debussy I've seen, with all those wind-sounds (whether the desert of 'immorality' I don't know, but than hadn't known that the cathedral had sunk because of all the Roman-style indulgence till I saw the silent-movie type intro-paragraph to this)--much more beautiful and mysterious than 'Six Antiques Epigraphes'. But this Kylian in particular was definitely more impressive to me than anything I've seen in almost any new one-act ballet works in the last 30 years. He has had some great dancers too, of course. The Bartok Second Piano Concerto comes to mind as a possibility with that boisterous opening, but then there are obviously thousands of pieces. [Looked up the guy who is custodian of the Partch instruments--Dean Drummond.]

Saint-Saens Piano Concerto in G Minor would be an absolute natural for ballet, and should be claimed immediately by someone. The first movement's grandiosity is then followed by the confection of the 2nd Movement (easily the greatest of the three) and the 3rd is a marvelous Tarantella that is just begging to be danced.

Found one, and for NYCB. People must have seen this, from all those symphonies. Would love to hear what ye olde veterans from '92 thought of this Haydn ballet: 'Mercury' by Lynne Taylor-Corbett. http://www.nycballet.com/company/rep.html?rep=115

Thanks Mel, and all. Most interesting, all of this and I will look forward to taking a long look at Mel's link when I have some time. I knew someone who described herself 'in the Metropolitan Opera Ballet', but that was ages ago, and then it seems I never knew anyone else again. Now some of the business of the supers comes back, because I knew a kid who did that for awhile (who was not a dancer.)

I just found and watched this DVD of one of the better-known Haydn operas. It's thoroughly charming, and one could easily mistake it for Mozart. Just quickly: Antonella Manotti (Grilletta) ; Carmen Gonzales (Volpino) ; Luigi Alva (Sempronio) ; William Matteuzzi (Mengone) ; Orchestra della Svizzera italiana ; Marc Andreae, conductor. Usual competition for love among commoners and noblemen and maidservants, etc., as in Mozart. One of the strangest things in important music is the way people forget Haydn, who is easily one of the greatest composers of Western music. He is almost always paired in people's minds unfavorably with Mozart, which makes even less sense than those tales in which endless guilt about Mozart's life takes the form of vilifying Salieri (Peter Gay's Mozart biography clears this up and that's it for 'Amadeus' for most of us...). But after childhood people often don't want to play Haydn unless they specialize. Yet much Haydn is better than at least some Mozart. I didn't hear any arias here that had quite the lyric beauty of those from 'Figaro', 'Don Giovanni' or 'Cosi Fan Tutte', but it was probably as satisfying or more than some of the lesser Mozart offerings, to be sure. Would be interested to know of live performances of Haydn operas actually attended. I believe NYCO did a few in the 70s and maybe since, but I think they are even less well-known than Handel's. This is a kind of provincial performance with the names I've pasted above, and this Lugano, Switzerland, orchestra is quite good--just the right kind of gentleness for a simple and perfectly-crafted bit of 18th century comedy. I do sometimes wonder if Haydn's unusual professional success--which never was reversed once it set in--colors some laypeople's lack of interest in his work. Of course, there is so much of it in terms of symphonies alone that he is hardly endangered, but my impression has always been that he's underrated, and that the public does not particularly want to hear him. I've heard several great musicians express this sentiment; all of us forget about Haydn, and then we remember that to do so makes no sense: He was one of the great musical geniuses, but tends to remind us more of WQXR than going to a big Philharmonic concert. I admit to not thinking of him all that much myself, but did remember that Nadia Reisenberg was a big Haydn enthusiast and recorded a fair amount of sonatas, I believe. Anyone have any other recommended DVD's or CD's of Haydn operas? I bet Helene has seen some before, whether in Seattle or New York. Edited to add: Are there any ballets to Haydn? There must be, but I can't think of any!

Thanks, Natalia, that helps a lot, and I might have remembered given that I've been to performances at both fairly recently--but probably hadn't because with really big companies like ABT and Kirov, I hadn't thought through that it might be something a bit more practical than that NYCC was the only alternative, this place they would have to 'squeeze into.' In 2005, I saw Martha Graham NY season at both NYCC and NJPAC, and did enjoy the NYCC one better only because there was a live orchestra. I guess I would say Martha Graham Company does not seem too cramped at City Center, it may be the one time I really thought the place had some charm, and you do get a feeling of history when you see the old 'Errand into the Maze' and 'Appalachian Spring' there. Saw V. Redgrave in 'Hecuba' at BAM, but had forgotten that Pina Bausch and other companies do perform there. Still would like to know what the story is for NYStateTheater in July and August. That is probably expensive, too, and the Universal Ballet, as I remember, rents it for only a couple of days. Enjoying all these reviews though, can't wait to see Vishneva from my uncomfortable seats!

I think it's a shame that there is no 'second house' besides City Center. I'll be there next week at one of these performances (fortunately, my Somova experience won't have to be in public, or she's not scheduled for that day), but I hate it every time I go there. This is one 'historical treasure' that ought to have been razed, or either build a new auditorium with decent raking already. That the choice is either the Met or City Center is what I find strange for this city--the Met is hardly at fault, being only one house and it's for opera mainly and should be. It's probably common knowledge, but I don't understand why the State Theater in the summer--July and August at least--is not used for other ballet companies besides the Reverend Moon's company (or it used to be, I don't think I noticed this past summer). Aren't there fairly long periods when NYCO and NYCB aren't using the place? I just called the theater and, due to renovations, NYCO is not having its fall season, but the person said that July and August usually have only occasionally Lincoln Center Festivals. There must be a simple reason why big ballet companies don't use the theater, but I don't know what it is. Would be so much better than NYCC. Please inform.

Googling didn't answer this, so lots of people will know. I've seen 'them' plenty of times, but do they come from different companies, are some or all of them always dancing for the Met operas themselves, or what? I think I used to hear about them more often as such, but they can't be the same kind of thing as the Paris Opera Ballet is all I know now. Nobody goes to a performance of 'The Metropolitan Opera Ballet'. Anyway, the only thing I found was a single sentence "the Metropolitan Opera Ballet is the resident ballet company of the Metropolitan Opera House. They are based at Lincoln Center.'

Don't you need musicality for those? She is the most unmusical star dancer I have ever seen just from YouTubes alone. Having just watched Aurelie Dupont, an extraordinarily musical dancer, in 'Don Quixote', I don't see why Somova would be good in that. That POB production let me know what 'Don Quixote' could really be--a lot more than just hokey. Yes, it might even work in a low way with squawky orchestras which lag in rhythm and can't stay together, because she's one dancer they could keep up with 'in the hard parts.' I can't even get to the 'taste' part. Musically, she should dance without music, so that whatever she does, it could be like a musical improv in dance. Because, in one of the Odette pieces, she not only is not a musical dancer, she just barely keeps with what poorly-played music there is.

I just watched a couple of the YouTubes, one of Odette/Odile, then Rose Adagio. It's strange movement, almost as if 'double-jointed', but the rest of the dancing (as in rather easier steps as Odette in this 'White Nights 2006' clip) is also like the air-splits with the legs looking like asparagus. Quite a spectacle. There's something lethargic about it, a weird sort of (naturally) being slightly out of control; the legs scissoring up look a little like a form of seizure.

Fred Fredburger and/or Edward Villella. Mrs. Phoebe P.B. Peabody or Chris d'Amboise?

Thanks, Estelle. I found the 'l'appartement' thread and enjoyed the discussion. I may look into some of the other works, maybe I will like the ones with original scores instead of these deconstructions of old ballets and their scores--I mean, the worst thing is that I thoroughly enjoyed it despite myself and went on to hell... There is something dangerous about someone parodying every aspect of a noble score that one loves (as I do SB), and then I knew I should turn it off after 2 minutes, but wanted to be 'in the know' about this sort of thing, so sold my soul...there was just so much derriere-wiggling and wrongful groping I positively died in the Rose Adagio and all the Lilac Fairy music. Truly some of the funniest stuff I've ever seen. The EGG even reminded me of Syberberg's film of 'Parsifal', why I'm not sure, but by then I had gone somewhat insane.

Guillem. 'Romeo Plus Juliet' or 'Romeo or Juliet'? [vicious] Okay, too mean to NYCB publicity. Mats Ek SB or Petipa SB?

Prokofiev. Dupont or Dupond?

Since I didn't know this wasn't a more or less traditional SB, just took it out of the library, you can imagine how startling. Didn't know who Mats Ek was. Anyway, always depraved and malignant, sometimes disgusting, but hilarious beyond belief sometimes. Probably terribly unhealthy, reminds of me of 'marat/sade' or Bellevue or something. Plus a lot of 60s, 70s alternative spaces and trendy Flash Art things and Chelsea art galleries. One scene is like Sandy Skoglund's green and blue dog-room sculptures. Didn't quite finish watching, but the Egg birth is hilarious, as is the Puss 'n' Boots crudeness, and the Jewel Fairy number is side-splitting--some hybrid with this Patti Lupone type in tight mini-dress swinging London. I mean--you can write anything about this, because they just do anything--skillfully, I admit. Sort of like dropping acid, I imagine. Anyway, enjoyed, but probably won't do any more of this sort of thing. Anybody see this?

Weren't they talking about this over a year ago? Maybe way back in 2006 even. But that paper is almost non-existent by now, it lost all of its trademark radicalism (even if you didn't agree with it, it had a tough obnoxiousness to it that you couldn't help admiring) by late 2004, and now its little more than a bunch of restaurant reviews and gross sex articles. They've fired most of the big names they had for decades, there's still Nat Hentoff and Wayne Barrett--although I don't know what he'll do now that Giuliani isn't a hot topic at the moment--and the gossip things. Yes, no 'short-lived economy measure'; things like this are never reversed.

This sort of thing is okay once in awhile, but only if it is being indulged in by, say, Stravinsky or Balanchine. In the former, you hear 'the music doesn't express something else, but rather itself.' In the latter, you hear talk of dancers being encouraged not to be political, or related anti-political sentiment. Both are to some degree silly elitisms, but they are at least not only silly when you have really delivered the goods. What about those vulgar 'tone poems?' Nadia Boulanger once said something about 'the little bird' in the Pastorale Symphony, after making the disclaimer 'I don't like to make literature about music.' There may well be plenty more to say (how can anyone really write something like 'There is nothing more to say' and not be laughed at?), but I could have lived with his not having said this and gone forth with the assumed existence of both art and much else (if there is anything else, given that sublime strict demarcation, in which all that is 'justified' is relegated to the dustbin). You'd think the professional highbrows like Lionel Trilling and Samuel Lipman were back on payroll. I don't find this provocative, but rather insufferable and thoroughly ordinary. How compelling! How rubbish! Those wonderful useless arts which thereby secrete honour--but only in being unjustified. This almost makes me nostalgic for some more Sascha Radetzky prose.

This is ravishing, one of the best things I've ever seen. Well, one of the things about 'Parisian precision' I most like is that it's 'typical'. They're both just superb, and so true about the POB corps, they are peerless. I also always seem to like the costumes by POB better than any other company's.

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/the...tml?ref=theater Here's Brantley on the new improved Gypsy (better wigs, more focussed perf. that sends even Ben up into rarefied air, etc.) at the St. James. Anyone sees this, please report, because I won't be...I'm sure it's good, BUT...once is enough for me...He says nothing about the sets, which were the worst aspect of the Encores production. I hope they've been spiffed up.

I cannot imagine that there could be. I saw it at a Saturday matinee in the late 80s, or could have been '86 or '87, and she was perfection. Who else saw this utter delight back in the day?

Do you mean that sincerely... In that case, may I respectully suggest that One Man's Summer Fun is Another's Summer Hell! I lost all faith in Ms. Streep after 'Devil Wears Prada' and 'Prairie Home Companion', both of which I loathed.

That Tarantella is just wonderful, irresistible. And the sets--mountain and sky in the distance--give this one a certain miniature kinship with 'La Sylphide' too. I believe there is a Bournonville thing in Cuban Nacional Ballet that I saw several times when I was a student usher at the Met--yes, there has to be, but what that was I don't know. I didn't even know Bournonville was someone's name at the time, thought it was some term for a style that came from anywhere. That and this, with this knicker-costumes (please correct), always remind me of Fragonard and Boucher, which nobody has every been able to turn me against--and many homely people have tried...they can't take that much prettiness. Continuing, I did find the Second Act until Gennaro enters the weakest part--as you'd mentioned, the 'too much dancing' and the '20th century corps dancing' is too tame not in the gentle sense I've been noting, and getting something of an eye for, in Sylphide and the rest of what I see here, but just too long and unfortunately suggesting other Demons and Monsters with more energetic and interesting dancing and dancer-creatures around them. That part of Act II doesn't seem to work. I also don't know if the Flower Festival of Genzano from 'The Art of the Classical Pas de Deux' is any of this, even though that definitely was also Hindberg and Villumsen--I'm pretty sure I remember lime-green on Villumsen in that, but these white, black and reds do look pretty. Was it? She's very beautiful, but his dancing is very sharp and magnetic. Also, still don't know when there is change of composers, although it all sounded nice, I just didn't know when the Rossini was happening. Toward the climax of the 3rd Act, it is this wonderfully elegant but what I imagine country-Danish to have been once--that positive kind of provincialism that gives a style this folk-classical charm. The Hans Beck variations in Act III were okay, I thought, much better than the first part of Act II (I don't know if that was Beck too.) Input from anyone appreciated on some of these questions I have, plus other enlightenment welcomed too.

Alexandra--I started watching this last night, unfortunately could get only VHS with poor quality in several ways compared to DVD, but thought maybe I should put my thoughts on this thread. FORTUNATELY--I copied your pointers to Word so I could use them, as that has disappeared from the Sylphide thread. I might not have known that the Streetsinger was miming an aria, for example, as well as I'm sure many other things. Have now remembered that 'Flower Festival of Genzano' is on 'Art of the Classical Pas de Deux' tape, which I watched a few years ago, and also has Villumsen and Hindberg. I think that is a different performance, though, because all of them had that not terribly attractive backdrop and it was made with the old LA Ballet, there was Patricia McBride and a Los Angeles dancer doing Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, etc. May be also where I saw Denard/Thesmar do Sylphide. Wiki mentions the composer of this part, so I guess I will get to it in one of the succeeding acts. I remember lime-green on Villumsen with white shirt, thus far the girls wear dresses and the boys these clever shorts in the first act. This one is easier than 'Sylphide' for me, I think. And I guess that first act is the 'sunshine' you mentioned, you can almost taste the gelato in such a setting. Wiki mentions 4 composers of the music here, but the tape also mentioned Rossini, which is the only name with which I am familiar. I wonder if there is a piece of an opera piece in there somewhere... May have something to say after finishing this, but thanks for the 'guidebook', as it really helps, even though I find this one more accessible.