volcanohunter

Oh, wow! What a beautiful performance from Maria Alexandrova and Ruslan Skvortsov in Swan Lake. I will try to write more, but I'm inclined to write quite a bit, and at this hour it would only come out as gibberish.

Balanchine was partly restored to official Soviet history following the NYCB tours. He had a cursory entry in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, for example. The link includes Cyrillic characters, so I hope it works. http://slovari.yandex.ru/~%D0%BA%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B8/%D0%91%D0%A1%D0%AD/%D0%91%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%87%D0%B8%D0%BD%20%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B4%D0%B6/ Another encyclopedia entry, which I can't reference because I'm far from home, described him as a representative of formalism, which was bad, of course.

Regardless, if the Bolshoi has been forced to resort to microphones after the renovation, it's a tragedy, and whoever was responsible for monitoring the acoustics should answer for it. We can only hope that the situation can still be rectified.

From an interview with Valery Gergiev published today: - How would you assess the acoustics of the renovated historic building of the Bolshoi Theater? - When we arrived there, they were always putting up microphones for us. For "Pelléas et Mélisande" I asked that every last one of them be removed, because to sing Debussy into a microphone is a small crime. They then assured us that without amplification [singing] at the Bolshoi was inaudible. If microphones really are necessary, this is very bad. Perhaps the [technical] services have not had time to sort these things out, haven't checked the acoustics. http://izvestia.ru/news/554321 When the Bolshoi re-opened, this appeared in one of the wire stories: Iksanov, in charge of the Bolshoi since 2000, says his building is now back among the world’s top 10 best acoustic stages, up from 55th position before the main stage reconstruction in 2005. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-25/medvedev-hosts-bolshoi-gala-after-scandal-on-680-million-refit.html Apart from the matter of whether such an acoustical ranking even exists, the question still remains, was Iksanov lying? Was he speaking from a position of ignorance? Or is Gergiev up to some mischief? Is he still smarting from being denied the position of Grand Czar of All the Russian Opera Houses? Is he trying to deflect some of the criticism directed at Mariinsky-2?

Another change. Now it's Krysanova dancing Princess Aurora on August 5. Obraztsova dances on August 7, as before, and Alexandrova on August 8. http://www.bolshoi.ru/about/press/articles/2013/2633/

Thank you for your report, Swanilda8. I envy you for having had the opportunity to see such performances. I hope you keep the blog posts coming.

The Paris Opera has uploaded a slide show from the POB's season. Lots of beautiful photos on display. http://www.operadeparis.fr/#diapo_ballet

A performance of Elektra from the festival in Aix-en-Provence is available on demand for the next two months. http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Elektra_Richard_Strauss_Festival_d_Aix_en_Provence_Esa-Pekka_Salonen_Patrice_Chereau/ It should be of particular interest to New Yorkers--and residents of Milan, Helsinki, Barcelona and Berlin--because Patrice Chéreau's production will be coming to the Met.

The last-minute casting changes begin. Nina Kaptsova is not going on the tour (for as yet unconfirmed reasons that have nothing to do with injury). Her performances in the Swan Lake pas de trois will go to Kristina Kretova (June 29, Aug 14, 15) and Daria Khokhlova (Aug 10e). Opening night of Sleeping Beauty will now be danced by Obraztsova (Aug 5), Obraztsova's previous performance goes to Krysanova (Aug 7), and Alexandrova is reinstated as Aurora for what was to have been Krysanova's performance (Aug 8). Anastasia Stashkevich will dance 'Emeralds' on August 13. In Flames of Paris Anna Rebetskaya will dance Adeline at both performances on August 17. As Mireille de Poitiers Kretova will dance both evening performances (Aug 16, 17), and Anna Tikhomirova will dance on the matinee of August 17. http://www.bolshoi.ru/about/press/articles/2013/2633/ There is still no casting for the Marquis. Originally Gudanov had been announced for the evening performances and Skvortsov for the matinee. But the festival in Peralada, Spain, claims that Gudanov will be appearing at a gala there on August 16. Who knows? http://www.festivalperalada.com/programacion-2013/danza/gala-grans-estrelles-del-bolshoi-marinsky-eifmann-i-mikhailovsky/?lang=en

What a horrible way for Vladimir Urin to have to begin his tenure. New tragedy for Bolshoi as violinist dies in orchestra fall http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g-fgZ9vbKlVpF5wXhKVQtYHMgTxw?docId=CNG.136d93fdfc8c2c150da0132f0cc8012b.5f1 Apparently the pit floor of the newer theater had been raised to stage level, but a trapdoor was left open and unmarked, leading Sedov to fall about four meters to his death.

No, Chroma is done in soft shoes. The first four photographs linked below show the Bolshoi performing the piece. http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/about/press/photo/oneactballets-2/

No visa. Yikes! Well, I've had first-hand experience with this sort of thing, so I really feel for McKie. Hard to say if it's old-school shenanigans or merely some bureaucrat's incompetence. The sponsor of the production posted a little behind-the-scenes video online. (Unfortunately, the video credits the performance footage to the Stuttgart Ballet when it's actually the National Ballet of Canada.) In it both Nina Kaptsova and Ruslan Skvortsov talk about how happy they are to be dancing in the ballet. Kaptsova says she "always dreamed of dancing Tatiana" because of her strong personal identification with the character, while Skvortsov talks about how pleased he is to be "among the first" to dance in the ballet's first Russian production. Different priorities from Zakharova's, I guess. But look at the bright side. The casting reshuffle that followed Zakharova's walkout resulted in Kaptsova and Skvortsov getting an additional performance of the ballet, and they obviously deserve it.

Act 3, scene 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bY5pFsmYkM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbZ7xzsHQsg

Act 3, scene 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwsHnwTPmf4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL7F2n0NUm4

Act 2, scene 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBXIcaUyexI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CAZlYF5o0Y

Since these have already been posted on Russian boards, and the Bolshoi's video police is likelier to spot them there than here, I thought some posters may want to watch four available scenes from July 12 and July 14 side by side. Act 2, scene 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EenWkduh4do http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdqIDnrk2fw

The thing is that if audiences come to the ballet version expecting Luhrmann-esque special effects, they're going to be disappointed.

I'm going to be less diplomatic and say that I dislike Moulin Rouge intensely, so I share your frustration completely. But obviously someone persuaded someone else that it would sell. Honestly, I would prefer an all-out Vegas version with multi-million-dollar production values rather than RWB's version, which falls short on flash and fails even more miserably as choreography.

Some videos from today’s performance with Nina Kaptsova, Ruslan Skvortsov, Kristina Kretova, Artem Ovcharenko and Yegor Khromushin have been posted on You Tube, but I’m reluctant to link them because the user recently had a previous account closed, thanks largely to the Bolshoi Theater. The clips show most of Act 2 and both duets from Act 3. I was vastly more impressed by these than by the videos from opening night. This was definitely a Muscovite take on the ballet—vivid, extremely dramatic, even operatic, with highly individual performances. Perhaps Ovcharenko was a bit lightweight in comparison to the other four, and he wasn’t quite up to the technical challenges of his solo, but at least he was less mannered than Semyon Chudin. I was struck by the detail and originality of the performances from Kaptsova, Skvortsov and Kretova, and the final duet packed a full-frontal wallop. (The tempo was still too slow, but this pair coped with it better.) Pity that there doesn’t seem to be any video from Act 1.

As reluctant as I am to form an opinion based on You Tube, from what I've seen I have to say I'm underwhelmed. I'm accustomed to greater physical abandon in the Tatiana-Onegin duets (never expected to say a Bolshoi performance lacked a sense of physical abandon), and I do think the duet with Gremin should reflect genuine contentment and not merely poise. Perhaps the final duet was simply too slow to appear really desperate. I'm hoping for better from other casts.

I have not seen it recently, but I saw Evelyn Hart do it a few times and adored her in it. Yes, I would say it holds up for the duration. And the set is admirably efficient. If I can dig up my tape of the RWB studio version, I'll rewatch it and report back.

There are precedents for this sort of casting in Onegin. For example, when the National Ballet of Canada first performed the ballet in 1984, the first Tatiana was to have been Veronica Tennant, who'd been anointed by Cranko when she was still a teenager. However, when injury prevented her from dancing in the premiere, her slot went to her understudy, soloist Sabina Allemann, rather than another principal dancer learning the part, Karen Kain. Tennant would ultimately dance the ballet, sensationally, but Allemann retained her place in the company's "first" cast as long as she was with the company. When the Paris Opera Ballet first performed the ballet in 2009 the first night went to Isabelle Ciaravola rather than one of the company's étoiles. Of course Ciaravola was ultimately promoted during that run, crowning a season in which she'd been heavily involved in new repertoire. Age was not a factor in either case. I bristle at the notion that Zakharova, at age 34, qualifies as an aging ballerina. Tennant was 37 in 1984, and Ciaravola was 37 when she first danced Tatiana.

The Bolshoi's daily news dispatch today included an interview with Olga Smirnova about preparations for Onegin. She said that the Сranko repetiteurs tried different combinations of dancers before deciding which pairings would work best. She also noted that her initial partner was not ultimately cast in the ballet. Hallberg arrived in Moscow late, so he would not have participated in this process, but he's danced the ballet before. It's entirely possible that Zakharova spent part of the rehearsal process learning the choreography with the Bolshoi's other Onegins, and that ultimately she was paired with Hallberg almost by default, since, as far as I know, he hasn't danced much, if at all, with the Bolshoi's other Tatianas.

You could try spelling it the French way, Ourine, but that isn't necessarily much better. Or maybe Ooreen, though every linguist would cringe at that transliteration.

No, no, Google is wrong. Malakhov said that he regarded the building of the new theater and the reconstruction of the old one to be successes. I don't know why the computer got it exactly backward.