volcanohunter

Sadly, this is not relevant for most North Americans, but the December 16 cinema broadcast of the Paris Opera Ballet's Sleeping Beauty is scheduled to star Eleonora Abbagnato and Mathieu Ganio. In addition to a number of French and German cinemas, the ballet will be shown in a smattering of Austrian, Belgian and Italian cinemas, and at six movie theaters in Quebec. http://www.fraprod.fr/offre_cinema.php?id=91 http://www.operadeparis.fr/saison_2013_2014/Ballets/la-belle-au-bois-dormant/decouvrir/distribution-la-belle-au-bois-dormant/

If this interview with Carlos Acosta has been posted elsewhere on the board, my apologies. http://www.pointemagazine.com/issues/octobernovember-2013/new-side-carlos-acosta

This trailer was made for domestic consumption without subtitles, but the video shows Anna Nikulina rehearsing Phrygia in Spartacus with Lyudmila Semenyaka. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do4LjPcezAw The cast list for Sunday's broadcast: http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/performances/47/roles/#20131020190000 Some relevant distributor links A listing of distributors by country: http://www.pathelive.com/fr/bolshoi-worldwide U.S. cinema listings, plus some background articles: http://www.emergingpictures.com/titles/spartacus-bolshoi-ballet/ A list of Carmike Cinemas showing the ballet: http://www.carmike.com/Showtimes/movie/3031 Canada (1pm local time): http://www.cineplex.com/Events/DanceSeries/Home.aspx UK: http://tickets.picturehouseentertainment.co.uk/gb/bolshoiballet/ France: http://www.pathelive.com/fr/sp/spectacles/spartacus

It's not the most Christmassy DVD, but Kultur is releasing the Joffrey Ballet's film of Kurt Jooss' The Green Table on December 17, and that is fantastic news. http://www.kultur.com/The-Green-Table-Kurt-Jooss-p/d4920.htm

According to his Bolshoi bio, Denis Rodkin is now under the tutelage of Yuri Vladimirov, whose most prominent pupil is Dmitry Gudanov.

March is a long way away, but the Royal Ballet has announced that its broadcast of The Sleeping Beauty is to star Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae. http://www.roh.org.uk/showings/sleeping-beauty-2014

The remaining mixed bill casting is up. Program B OPENING NIGHT – Saturday, October 19 – 2:00PM Trio Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Conductor: Martin West Mathilde Froustey*, Joan Boada Dana Genshaft, Ruben Martin Cintas Damian Smith* Frances Chung, Taras Domitro INTERMISSION Ghosts Choreographer: Christopher Wheeldon Composer: C.F. Kip Winger Conductor: Martin West Maria Kochetkova, Vitor Luiz Lorena Feijoo, Ruben Martin Cintas, Shane Wuerthner INTERMISSION Suite en Blanc Choreographer: Serge Lifar Composer: Édouard Lalo Conductor: Martin West Vanessa Zahorian, Tiit Helimets, Sofiane Sylve [This, no doubt, is a mistake; it ought to be a second male dancer] Frances Chung, Esteban Hernandez*, Francisco Mungamba, Wei Wang, Lonnie Weeks Sarah Van Patten Davit Karapetyan Yuan Yuan Tan, Tiit Helimets Sofiane Sylve Program A – Saturday, October 19 – 8:00PM Trio Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Conductor: Martin West Vanessa Zahorian, Vitor Luiz Sarah Van Patten, Tiit Helimets Anthony Spaulding Maria Kochetkova, Davit Karapetyan INTERMISSION Ghosts Choreographer: Christopher Wheeldon Composer: C.F. Kip Winger Conductor: Martin West Yuan Yuan Tan, Damian Smith Sofiane Sylve, Tiit Helimets, Shane Wuerthner INTERMISSION Borderlands Choreographer: Wayne McGregor Composer: Joel Cadbury and Paul Stoney Conductor: Martin West Maria Kochetkova, Jaime Garcia Castilla Sarah Van Patten, Pascal Molat Frances Chung, Carlos Quenedit Sofiane Sylve, Anthony Spaulding Koto Ishihara, Lonnie Weeks Elizabeth Powell, Francisco Mungamba Program D OPENING MATINEE – Sunday, October 20 – 2:00PM Suite en Blanc Choreographer: Serge Lifar Composer: Édouard Lalo Conductor: Ming Luke Mathilde Froustey, Vitor Luiz, Davit Karapetyan Simone Messmer*, Esteban Hernandez, Francisco Mungamba, Wei Wang, Lonnie Weeks Vanessa Zahorian Taras Domitro Yuan Yuan Tan, Tiit Helimets INTERMISSION From Foreign Lands Choreographer: Alexei Ratmansky Composer: Moritz Moszkowski Conductor: Ming Luke Russian: Sasha De Sola, Jaime Garcia Castilla Frances Chung, Gennadi Nedvigin Italian: Joan Boada, Mathilde Froustey*, Dana Genshaft, Dores Andre German: Jennifer Stahl, Anthony Spaulding*, Luke Ingham, Lonnie Weeks Spanish: Frances Chung, Joan Boada Mathilde Froustey, Gennadi Nedvigin Polish: Jennifer Stahl, Sasha De Sola, Dores Andre, Dana Genshaft Jaime Garcia Castilla, Anthony Spaulding, Luke Ingham, Lonnie Weeks* INTERMISSION Symphonic Dances Choreographer: Edwaard Liang Composer: Sergei Rachmaninov Conductor: Martin West Frances Chung, Jaime Garcia Castilla Sarah Van Patten, Anthony Spaulding Lorena Feijoo, Vitor Luiz

PDF versions of the program for the screening are now available on the ROH site. In addition to English, they are available in German, Spanish, French, Italian and Dutch. http://www.roh.org.uk/showings/don-quixote-2013

According to Mathilde Froustey's Twitter feed, she will dance in Trio at the October 19 matinee, and in Suite en Blanc and From Foreign Lands on the 20th. https://twitter.com/MFroustey

Casting for three of the mixed rep performances has yet to be posted. Don't despair just yet.

For Francophones. On the eve of her official retirement, Agnès Letestu was interviewed on the midday news today. http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/les-adieux-dagnes-letestu-etoile-eternelle-143075

Many of the dances are re-ordered in sequence, invariably to the detriment of the drama. But nearly all of the bits are still there, except the mime, of course. Your approach of going in order to see the dancers is absolutely the correct one. But it might still be a good idea to watch the production in advance on video, just to get the shocks behind you. Otherwise you may find yourself so distracted by the irrationalities of the staging that you won’t be able to enjoy the performances fully.

The DVD and Blu-ray versions of the Royal Ballet's 'Ashton Celebration,' which includes La Valse, Meditation from Thais, Voices of Spring, Monotones I & II and Marguerite and Armand, with Tamara Rojo and Sergei Polunin, will hit the North American market on October 29. Amazon is taking pre-orders. LA VALSE - Hikaru Kobayashi, Ryoichi Hirano, Samantha Raine, Bennet Gartside, Helen Crawford, Brian Maloney ‘MEDITATION’ FROM THAÏS - Leanne Benjamin, Valeri Hristov VOICES OF SPRING - Yuhui Choe, Alexander Campbell MONOTONES I AND II - Emma Maguire, Akane Takada, Dawid Trzensimiech; Marianela Nuñez, Edward Watson, Nehemiah Kish MARGUERITE AND ARMAND - Tamara Rojo, Sergei Polunin, Christopher Saunders. Gary Avis The performer information on the Opus Arte site does not match the DVD's jacket, but the site does provide a trailer for Marguerite and Armand. http://www.opusarte.com/details/OA1116D#.UlQ5RBBl1i1

There also used to be a lot more government and non-profit money around. Those Royal Ballet tours were paid for partly by the British Council. However, corporate money was also an important factor. The company was forced to cancel its U.S. tour in 1990 when Barclays Bank balked. I was relying on an old article from the International Journal of Arts Management. Apparently a 50% increase in ticket prices was part of the plan all along. If the company found that it had overestimated ticket demand, then naturally it made little sense to give that many performances. The current total of 77 performances in Toronto (if I've counted correctly), including 23 of The Nutcracker, falls in between the old Hummingbird total and the initial Four Seasons projection. ABT also seldom sells out the Met, so it's entirely possible that its audience could fit into a smaller venue without increasing dramatically its number of performances. But what makes very little sense to me is ABT and NYCB continuing to compete head-to-head when neither is filling up their venue.

Yes, the POB performed at the Met; Manuel Legris was made an étoile on its stage. Lots of companies visited in the 1980s: the Kirov, Royal Danish Ballet, Australian Ballet, London Festival Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, among others. (For whatever reason, when the Bolshoi visited in 1979 and 1990 they performed at the State Theater.) In the spring of 1990 Anna Kisselgoff even wrote a piece in the NYT that began: "Imagine the unimaginable – the Metropolitan Opera House in the summer without companies like the Royal Ballet from Britain, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Kirov Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, the Netherlands Dance Theater, the London Festival Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, Roland Petit's National Ballet of Marseilles and so on." http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/15/arts/dance-view-ballet-at-the-met-a-british-bundle-of-fresh-ideas.html I really miss those days.

Filin has formally returned to work as artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet. Galina Stepanenko is now company manager, a post that had been vacant since Ruslan Pronin's dismissal. http://izvestia.ru/news/558348

Presumably ABT could break up its usual spring-summer season into two parts. A 'spring' season (March-April) following NYCB's winter season, and a 'summer' season (June-July) after NYCB's spring season. I would think that for New Yorkers having access to live ballet year-round would be a great boon. Such a schedule might also be easier on ABT's corps de ballet.

ABT spends quite a bit of time on the road, so its sets have been made to fit into a variety of venues.

When the National Ballet of Canada moved from the O'Keefe/Hummingbird/Sony Centre (3,200 seats) to the Four Seasons Centre (2,070 seats) it accommodated its subscriber base by increasing its total number of performances. The company had to deal with a significant decrease in available orchestra seats also, but the move hasn't bankrupted the National Ballet, so obviously it can be made to work.

This is a French television report about the imminent retirement of Agnès Letestu. http://videos.tf1.fr/jt-we/2013/a-l-opera-garnier-agnes-letestu-tire-sa-reverence-avec-la-dame-8282941.html

Male casting for the forthcoming run of Onegin has been shuffled. Wieslaw Dudek of the Staatsballett Berlin will appear as Onegin opposite Evgenia Obraztsova. Artem Ovcharenko takes over Dmitry Gudanov's performance as Lensky, and Ivan Alexeyev goes into Ovcharenko's original spot. Oct 10, 12e - Smirnova, Lantratov, Tikhomirova, Chudin, Biktimirov Oct 11 - Obraztsova, Dudek, Stashkevich, Ovcharenko, Vodopetov Oct 12m - Kretova, Skvortsov, Khokhlova, Alexeyev, Khromushin

Owing to injury, the part of Crassus in the Bolshoi's broadcast of Spartacus will be danced by Vladislav Lantratov rather than Alexander Volchkov. http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/performances/47/roles/#20131020190000

If anyone is interested in seeing Waltz's Sacre performed by her own company, a complete performance is available on the La Monnaie web site. Be warned that unlike the Mariinsky version, this one includes nudity. Available on demand until October 20. http://www.lamonnaie.be/en/mymm/media/1792/Sacre%20-%20Sasha%20Waltz/

The Royal Ballet has posted more detailed casting for its October 16 screening of Don Quixote. Subject to change, of course. Kitri - Marianela Nuñez Basilio - Carlos Acosta Don Quixote - Christopher Saunders Sancho Panza - Philip Mosley Espada - Ryoichi Hirano Mercedes - Laura Morera Gamache - Bennet Gartside Lorenzo - Gary Avis http://www.roh.org.uk/showings/don-quixote-2013 The linked page also includes a search box to find nearby screenings. Some relevant presenter links. U.S. http://www.fathomevents.com/#!don-quixote Canada http://www.cineplex.com/Events/DanceSeries/Home.aspx France http://www.cotediffusion.fr/thematique/ballet

The Roots, a piece by Kader Attou for his company Accrorap and presented this month at the Maison de la Danse in Lyon, is available for viewing on demand for the next half year or so. http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Kader_Attou_presente_The_Roots/