aurora

2 hours ago, Fleurfairy said:

It’s a real shame because Baca and Jared Matthews could be killing it at ABT right now if not for McKenzie’s total mismanagement. He really only had himself to blame for the lack of good male talent. 

I don't think it is fair to say that re: Jared. I do agree he would have done well as a principal and was sorry to see him leave. But he had stalled for some years and really not delivered in his roles. He then got back in form but with both him and his fiancee (who I also loved) wanting principal status moving back to his home town where they could both have that is kind of a no brainer.

I really AM VERY sorry they left but I don't see that it was due to any fault by McKenzie

1 minute ago, California said:

Me, too, and I saw it four times in Milan lat year. Also hoping they record and release on DVD. Any more info on dates, theater?

Oh I'm so jealous!

I actually timed a trip to Italy in 2016 based on when they were doing it, but only had a chance to go once.

9 hours ago, sandik said:

Ok, it's road trip time.

 

I'm with you. I really want to see this again, and not jetlagged this time!

7 hours ago, Ashton Fan said:

Aurora,

You don't appear to have heard of the purges and show trials which took place in the Soviet Union during the 1930's. They did not only affect the political elite they affected people engaged in the arts as well. It is said that Bulgakov only escaped being purged because Stalin admired him as a writer. In general if you failed to follow the party line you were quite likely to be purged. If you were lucky you only lost your job , if you were unlucky you lost your life. What was being suggested was that if people like Messerer and Dolinskaia who staged Swan Lake during the thirties  had failed to provide the ballet with an upbeat happy ending in accordance with the party line they might well have found themselves in a great deal of trouble politically. Messerer would probably have been particularly careful to follow party diktats because members of his close family had been purged and executed. If you were purged and put on trial rather than simply being shot then you had to be charged with an offence of some sort and  being an "Enemy of the People"  or a "Japanese spy" were the sort of amorphous allegations you might face.

 

I believe you misunderstood.

I did indeed think it odd that "japanese spy" in particular would be the accusation made if someone didn't alter the end of a ballet (you note I didn't ask why "enemy of the people."

But I know the change was made because it was forced on Messerer and Dolinskaia by the soviet party. I never claimed M&D wanted a happy ending--the government did.

1 hour ago, ABT Fan said:

Teuscher is not doing Kitri. But, regarding fouettes in general, given what I saw Teuscher do on Monday night in SL, traveling extensively forward then actually going backwards/sideways while just doing singles at that point (with a sloppy working leg/foot) that nearly got away from her, there's reason to worry about hers too.

She looked very solid last night (It sounds at least like yesterday was, overall, a more successful performance)

She did travel but yesterday it was forward in a straight line, which I have no problem with. There was never any concern she would lose her grip on them (and I do tend towards nervous having seen plenty of dancers mess up the fouettes over the years!). Maybe opening night jitters got the best of her Monday!

45 minutes ago, LadyBubbles said:

I see that Lane has been posting rehearsal footage on her IG stories. It looks like she's going for gimmicks in the fouettes (standard singles with a few doubles with the fan over the head and hand on her hip). I hope she doesn't regret it. I'll be holding my breath for the whole 32 music counts. When Murphy does gimmick fouettes I feel at ease, but with everyone else I get anxious. Looking forward to my short stay in NYC again. It better not rain and thunder like there's no tomorrow this time 😁

No need to worry with Shevchenko or Teuscher

16 minutes ago, abatt said:

Anyone else notice that Whiteside is replacing Hammoudi in tomrrow night's SL (partnering Murphy)?  It's on the ABT calendar.

4 minutes ago, alexL said:

As long as Murphy is still performing I'm fine with it. I just hope that she doesn't pull out after the white act last she did about 2 years ago. 

I know a lot of people don't like Whiteside very much on here, but there is no way that is anything but a VAST improvement!

3 minutes ago, Laurent said:

If by "they" you mean Messerer and Dolinskaïa, then, I presume, they wanted to produce ballet Swan Lake at Bolchoï without being first put on trial as the "enemies of the people", or "Japanese spies", and then murdered by one of the most oppressive state machines in the history of humankind.

Why would the original ending suggest Japanese spies?

In any case this meant they went with a "happier" ending. I'm not saying it was Messerer and Dolinskaïa's personal preference. 

2 minutes ago, Laurent said:

I don't have such information.

You said yesterday:

"The 'happy ending' was introduced by Asaf Messerer and Evgeniya Dolinskaïa in their 1937 production of Swan lake at Bolchoï. If you know what has been happening in Soviet Union in 1937, you should not be surprised that this was then the only possible ending. Sergeev simply inserted that ending into his Kirov production, most likely he was forced to do that. We know that Grigorovich's version of 1969 had the tragic ending, but he was forced by the party authorities to revert to what was euphemistically called the "optimistic" ending."

But it wasn't because they wanted a more "optimistic" ending?

22 hours ago, Laurent said:

In Swan Lake, the death of Odette, I don't see it as the culmination, dramatically or choreographically, it is rushed, and no canonical choreography is attached to it. The execution of the 4th Scene from the very beginning caused problems to its creators, this is a likely reason why that scene has been constantly modified and varied in subsequent versions.

 I do (as clearly do a lot of other people). It loses all poignancy with a slapped on happy ending. The original ending HAS good triumphing over evil.

It was modified because people wanted a "happier" ending. This is the same reason Prokofiev wanted to tack one on R&J. That is the parallel I was making--obviously the libretti are quite different and from different types of sources.

11 minutes ago, fondoffouettes said:

I’ve never seen the house so full for a Wednesday matinee. I think Family Circle may have been closed but it otherwise felt like a packed house, 

It was also packed last week for R&J weds matinee.

14 hours ago, Laurent said:

You summed up my own feelings about the new Royal Ballet Swan Lake very well in the last paragraph of your post. Concerning your thoughts about the endings, my views differ. I don't consider the triumph of Good over Evil to be "wrong at its root"

But good triumphs over evil in the original text. That is the point. Their deaths free them and free the remaining swans.

I agree with Drew. The "happy" ending is a jarring dissonant note to the entire story. Does it ruin a good performance for me? No, but it leaves a very sour note at the end.

I mean you might as well have gone along with Prokofiev's idiotic idea of making Romeo & Juliet live happily ever after.

1 hour ago, nanushka said:

I wonder if there's been a trade-off: in a season with so many dancers' debuts in leading roles and with two new ballets, the coaching staff may have been spread rather thin, and so they weren't able to prepare as many younger dancers for roles such as the three shades, the peasant PDD, the SL PDT, etc.

Not an excuse (many on here have criticized the company for its rather shallow coaching roster), just a possible explanation.

Sounds feasible to me. Especially when considered in combination with the current lack of soloists (2, effectively) --who would normally expect to do many (if not all) of these roles.

Just now, angelica said:

I'm not sure what you mean by her turn at the first shade.

She performed one of the 3 shades on June 1st (I believe). There was discussion on here about how it was so beneath her to do a (barely) soloist role but she ended up falling off point in the rapid series of releves across the stage in arabesque and it was not a good showing.

14 minutes ago, angelica said:

I had a very different response to her Bayadere debut. I thought she was exquisite except for the turns in the scarf dance, which were wobbly, I admit. But, at least in my eyes, the rest of her performance was gorgeous.

Kristen was talking about her turn at the first shade, which was not good.

14 minutes ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

As per dangerous self inflicted weight loss in order to blend into the rigid ballet physical standards, well... that's more than well documented out there.

Certainly, but it is not documented with regards to Johnsey.

21 minutes ago, nanushka said:

Just curious, what role did Bell dance in Harlequinade?

The unnamed friend who partners pierette

Just now, angelica said:

Perhaps my eyesight is poorer than most, although I do not think so. I just know that the mime passages in ballets have become more meaningful for me now that I can see them close up. Also, though, I believe you're right that not everyone understands all the mime. It took me some time over the years to learn the mime vocabulary and to appreciate its role in a ballet.

Angelica--I'm not meaning to imply your eyesight is poorer than most, but rather to let you know (as you said you hadn't seen it yet) that the mime in this ballet is quite broadly performed (whereas not all dancers really broadcast the mime in Odette's meeting Seigfried in Swan Lake for example), perhaps because this is, at its heart, a rather slapstick comedy.

I can imagine it would be easier to see from closer, but the first cast made it quite legible even at some distance.

2 minutes ago, angelica said:

I agree completely with your view, Juliaj, (even though I haven't seen the ballet yet!) Reading the comments, I'm wondering if the distance of most of the seats from the stage make the mime virtually unintelligible with or without binoculars, which I find annoying to have to use. Personally, I enjoy mime when I'm close enough to "read" it easily, rather than have to work to fill in the blanks.

On Monday it read perfectly clearly from dress circle.

Not everyone understands all the mime certainly (not saying that of people here) and perhaps that is a problem for some viewers. When they do a ballet like this, which is mime heavy, another promo video they might want to consider is a primer on ballet mime.

1 minute ago, fondoffouettes said:

I'd much rather seem them present Harlequinade than that dreadful Merry Widow or similar "light" fare. 

Oh good, we're back to agreeing!

4 minutes ago, fondoffouettes said:

I wasn’t expecting grand-scale or whiz-bang dancing. I just wasn’t expecting so much of the dancing to look uninventive and repetitive (I’m speaking of the ensemble dances, which take up much of the evening).

Some sections of mime were funny and engaging; others dragged.

Maybe my feelings about this ballet are similar to Fille mal gardee. Lots of “oh that’s charming” moments that don’t add up to a great ballet IMHO.

I have tickets to the Saturday matinee that I was going to give away, but I almost want to go again to see if I can feel what others feel about this ballet. I don’t deny it had its moments; it just didn’t work as an evening-long entertainment for me.

I also love Fille Mal Gardee

Different tastes! That is fine. I was just really responding to the idea (not expressed by you) that the ballet was unsuccessful when clearly it is a matter of opinion as many of us didn't seem to find it so.

2 hours ago, Inge said:

The program itself is unsuccessful because something vital has been lost in translation, and it's not the right company/venue for it. At least in the performance I saw. Who knows, maybe on Thursday I'll change my mind. 

See I thought it was so successful that I ran out and bought additional tickets. I thought it was a perfect endearing gem of a ballet.

I can see why people wanting large scale wizzbang dancing might have been disappointed but that doesn't mean the program was unsuccessful. It means it wasn't successful for you.

And the kids Monday were perfect.

Just now, fondoffouettes said:

It's so lively and exciting there -- not to mention beautifully tied to the music. And...it takes all of a minute? We don't have to watch children stomping and prancing for I don't know how long. It was awful.

I thought it was fantastic. And I generally get bored as hell at kids dancing in the ballet. So your mileage may vary.

12 hours ago, Fosca said:

what I heard from people who care for their beloved Bavarian State Ballet dancers and not so much for a certain tribute to ballet history, they thought there was way too much pantomime in Paquita, and that the story was silly (compared to Le Corsaire).

Having a sillier plot than Corsaire takes some doing!

(I think your explanation makes a lot of sense, that just struck me)

1 hour ago, Marta said:

I think it's odd too.  Despite cutbacks, they should at least have reviewed Lane's debut and Kimin Kim's performance.  I saw Seo, Murphy and Kim. He gave a thrilling performance as did Murphy.  Macaulay has said more than once that he dislikes ballet costumes that bare the midriff.  I say get over it!

At least ours don't have Solor bearing his!! 😂

I really really really think that is a horrific look

1 hour ago, Marta said:

I think it's odd too.  Despite cutbacks, they should at least have reviewed Lane's debut and Kimin Kim's performance.

I agree they should have reviews, but I'm not surprised. Last year was really bad re: reviews as well. So much so I tweeted at him about it. And he promptly blocked me.