volcanohunter

Yelizaveta Matvienko was born at the end of January. I think we had a thread on the birth. This Ukrainian TV spot is pretty detailed: Anastasia gained 17 kg while pregnant, labor lasted 6 hours, Mom is breast feeding, and Dad reports that the little girl is blond and (not surprisingly) long-limbed. http://www.ukrinform...a_donka_1791218

This topic came up on another thread, and I think that the information hadn't yet appeared on the board. On April 23 the Dance Open Festival posted the following information: "The wonderful couple of Artem Shpilevsky and Viktoria Tereshkina, a regular participant of the DANCE OPEN Festival, gave birth to a daughter today." https://www.facebook...&type=3 Hearty congratulations!

Tereshkina gave birth on April 23, so she couldn't possibly be performing yet.

Thank you for the timings, Helene!

That was quick. Unfortunately, the part of "Diamonds" that dropped out during the live transmission is still missing. Incidentally, Vladimir Putin acknowledged the controversy surrounding the theater's appearance in his speech, but he seemed to say, "Don't worry. It doesn't look like much, but what matters is that the technology is state of the art, and the sound is great, which is more important in an opera house anyway."

As best as I can reconstruct: - video tour of new theater to music from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet - entrance of the Shades from La Bayadere, but not the complete dance - Gounod's "Ave Maria" sung by children's choir - Ildar Abdrazakov sings "La calunnia" from Il barbiere di Siviglia - Denis Matsuev plays a piano transcription of "Largo al factotum" from the same opera - Evgeni Nikitin and chorus in the coronation scene from Boris Godunov (poor pit/stage balance, but impossible to tell how it sounded in the hall) - Leonidas Kavakos plays the entr'acte from The Sleeping Beauty (not especially well) while Uliana Lopatkina performs an excerpt from Neumeier's The Nutcracker - Vaganova students, followed by company in finale of Etudes, with Anastasia Kolegova, Kim Kimin and Filipp Stepin (?) - Ekaterina Semenchuk delivers a rather dreadful "Les tringles des sistres tintaient" from Carmen; hampered by absence of Mercedes and Frasquita - Diana Visheneva in an exceprt from Carmen Suite - Alexei Markov sings "Kto mozhet sravnitsia s Matildoi moei" from Iolanta - Yuri Bashmet plays "The Swan" (on the viola, obviously, and not always in sync with the harp) while Ekaterina Kondaurova performs The Dying Swan - Mikhail Petrenko and men's chorus sing the "Song of the Volga Boatmen" - opening of The Rite of Spring (Hodson reconstruction) followed by the version Sasha Waltz is choreographing for the company - Rene Pape sings "Le veau d'or" from Faust - "Fra dolci e cari palpiti" from Il viaggio a Reims - Olga Borodina sings "Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix" from Samson et Dalila - Olga Esina and Alexander Sergeyev perform Petit's "Leda & the Swan" - Placido Domingo sings "Wintersturme" from Die Walkure - Oxana Skorik and Vladimir Shklyarov in the finale from "Diamonds" - Anna Netrebko sings "Vieni, t'affretta" from Macbeth - Netrebko sings "La ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni with Markov, Petrenko, Pape, Abdrazakov and Domingo (in the pit) - Netrenko et al. in the finale from Iolanta Too much substandard singing, not enough ballet. There were quite a few empty seats, which doesn't look great on television. But that's what you get when you invite VIPs rather than giving real fans access. The Bolshoi re-opening was full, but the frequently lethargic response of the audience gave them away as not real admirers of opera or ballet.

This would be two hours before the start of the performance. At this time of year the time difference between the east coast and St. Petersburg is 8 hours. I wonder whether the network is planning "from the red carpet" coverage.

Side ring seats will inevitably have incomplete views of the stage. A curved balcony with an insufficient incline often makes for very poor sightlines. I'm wary of anyone who promises me a "perfect" anything.

The posting makes reference to AOL On. Not that I know what that is either, but here is its web site. http://on.aol.com

The Bastille seats more people, which would be a big incentive for performing the bigger and more popular of the two December ballets there.

In effect, this is what the Paris Opera did, not because the Bastille has better acoustics (they're a disaster!), but probably because of the Bastille's new-fangled technical possibilities. The ballet generally doesn't require a tilt-a-whirl stage. About two-thirds of opera productions are staged at the Bastille, and about two-thirds of ballet performances take place at the Garnier. Operas by Mozart and earlier composers are usually done at the Garnier, I would guess primarily for acoustic considerations.

I feel your pain!

Spoke too soon. Aunis is here. http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Aunis_Opera_de_Paris/

The gala marking the 300th anniversary of the Paris Opera Ballet School is available to view on demand for the next six months. The performance includes ballets by Nicolas Paul, Léo Staats, Pierre Lacotte and Jean-Guillaume Bart. Most are performed by the school's students, the exception being Lacotte's ballet, performed by POB dancers, with Ludmila Pagliero and Mathieu Ganio as the lead couple, plus Gil Isoart taking on the role of Louis XIV at the beginning of the program. http://liveweb.arte....caise_de_Danse/ This is the program of the gala, which took place on April 15. Jacques Garnier's ballet and the défilé are not included (unfortunately). http://www.operadepa...e-danse/detail/

In the past I tried watching live streams on Mariinsky.tv and had absolutely no luck. I might get two or three seconds of the stream, and then the picture freezes up, though the sound usually continues. I don't have a super fancy internet package, but generally I don't have difficulty watching streams. Unfortunately, Mariinsky live webcasts are the exception. http://mariinsky.tv/n/ So if it isn't geo-blocked, I will be trying my luck with Arte Liveweb. http://liveweb.arte....nt_Petersbourg/

Truthfully, I don't remember whether I've ever been asked about leprosy, drug addiction, kidnapping or crimes of moral turpitude when entering the EU, but I will try to make a mental note of it the next time I cross an EU border

In Canada the Cineplex chain shows the Bolshoi the same day but with a time delay of several hours, so everyone sees the performance at 1 pm local time, regardless of time zone. (There were a few times when the Bolshoi forgot to turn on the geo-block on its live YouTube stream intended for Russia, and I would end up watching the performance twice. Now that the company has moved to paid cinema screenings in Russia as well, that's not likely to happen again.) The Royal Ballet is also shown the same day with a time delay, and since these performances take place on weeknights, the screenings take place at 7 pm local time. The same is true of National Theatre "Live." It's not a bad compromise, but perhaps it's easier to pull off in a multiplex. I agree that it's better than nothing, and I definitely believe it's an enterprise worth supporting. I would be crushed if the screenings, whatever their flaws, stopped for lack of interest.

I've heard EU citizens complain about the information they're required to submit in order to get travel authorization to the U.S. under the VWP, particularly under the "do any of the following apply to you?" section. https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/WebHelp/ESTA_Screen-Level_Online_Help_1.htm#ata2

Even though Ukraine decommissioned its last nuclear weapon in 1996? I would think that even in the absence of security threats in many cases the U.S. would be worried more about economic migration--people arriving in the U.S. as tourists and then going to ground as illegal immigrants. Recent economic downturns notwithstanding, what the countries on the VWP have in common is that they're rich. Canadians also require no visa to enter the U.S., but that's not a question of a visa being waived, but rather of there being no visa to begin with. Governments can make money on processing visa applications, but since they could make even more money off actual tourists, I wouldn't think that throwing up travel barriers would be to their economic advantage. Many countries insist on reciprocity; if the U.S. requires a visa of its citizens, they will require one of Americans. But some countries take a more practical view. Ukraine allows Americans, Canadians, Japanese, Swiss and EU citizens to enter the country visa-free for 90 days. It was a temporary measure put in place for the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest and was never revoked subsequently. Having visa requirements is not necessarily a deterrent for tourists. Australia requires visas of all foreigners--even though the U.S. does not require visas of their tourists--but short-term tourist visas for Americans cost only 20AUD, and EU, Norwegian, Swiss and Vatican citizens can get them for nothing. Citizens of most countries have to pay a lot more. So yeah, all things considered, Americans are spoiled in this regard.

Oh, yes. And that ballet's most active audience is 65+ is testament to the remnants of the dance boom. (Table 2f) http://www.nea.gov/research/SPPA/trends.pdf Ballet was also different while Balanchine, Ashton and Tudor were still alive. Even when they were older and not necessarily prolific, there was still the possibility of going to the ballet to see the premiere of a new masterpiece, which gave ballet-going an excitement it does not have today. Sorry if we're veering

But remember that the National Endowment for the Arts audience participation surveys show that the number of people attending opera has fallen since the surveys began in 1982. Ballet attendance has fallen by an even larger percentage, but more Americans go to the ballet than to the opera--for a variety of reasons. http://www.nea.gov/r...PA-brochure.pdf

Last summer I took a young cousin to see his first ballet, the POB's Giselle. He'd previously been to the opera quite a few times, his parents being committed Wagnerites, but he claimed to have preferred the ballet. (He said this not to me but to his horrified parents.) He cited not having to read titles as one of the reasons for enjoying ballet more.

Even Gergiev must realize that the ballet brand is much stronger, including domestically. In St. Petersburg tickets to ballet performances are generally more expensive than those to the opera. Orchestra seats at the main theater: Swan Lake - 7,000 RUB ($225); Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker - 6,000; The Fountain of Bakhchesarai - 4,300; Pique Dame - 3,840; Don Quixote, Ruslan & Liudmila, Il trittico, Le nozze di Figaro, Faust, Evgeni Onegin - 3,200; Carmen - 2,560 Orchestra seats at the new theater: Jewels - 5,300 RUB; Bolero/Symphony in C - 5,000; Prodigal Son/Rite of Spring - 4,300; Un ballo in maschera - 3,800; Apollo+, Iolanta, Il trovatore, Tosca, Rusalka - 3,200 Exceptions would be opera performances with international stars, for example, a main-stage performance of Nabucco with Placido Domingo and Maria Guleghina for 10,000 RUB or a new-stage performance of Iolanta with Anna Netrebko for 8,000 (vs. 3,200 without her). At the Bolshoi, the difference is even more pronounced. Main theater orchestra: Swan Lake, Spartacus - 12,000 RUB ($385); La Bayadere - 10,000; Giselle (Grigorovich), Jewels - 9,000; Romeo & Juliet (Grigorovich) - 8,000; Onegin (ballet) - 7,000; Prince Igor, Turandot, Der Rosenkavalier - 4,000 New theater orchestra: Romeo & Juliet (Stuttgart Ballet) - 8,000 RUB; Rite of Spring (Finnish National Ballet) - 6,300; Giselle (Vasiliev) - 4,000; La Sylphide, Flames of Paris, Anyuta, Ek/Baganova - 3,000; Evgeni Onegin (opera), La sonnambula - 2,000; Die Zauberflote, Nabucco, Iolanta, Le Coq d'or - 1,200 This is completely different from our experience in the West, where opera tickets are generally more expensive than ballet tickets, presumably because opera singers are paid a good deal more than ballet dancers. At the Paris Opera the top-price tickets to the opera, regardless of work or house, cost 180€, while the top-price ticket to the ballet is 92€. Top tickets to forthcoming operas at Covent Garden range from £150 to £225 depending on the opera, while the Royal Ballet maxes out at £93, with the Bolshoi fetching higher prices (£110-120). At the Met a weeknight orchestra seat for Die Walkure costs $350 and Rigoletto costs $370, while a weekday performance of Don Quixote by ABT, with its fancy-pants dynamic pricing, costs $95 for Part/Whiteside, $110 for Semionova/Stearns and $140 for Osipova/Vasiliev.

In fairness, it's like that everywhere. Opposing attorneys wrangling for stiffer or more lenient charges is part of the process. Intent matters, but so does the degree to which a plot succeeds. There will be differing levels of punishment depending on whether someone succeeds in depriving another person of his life, his arm or his finger. In this case the maximum degree of punishment would apply if Filin were completely blinded and/or severely disfigured, and a somewhat milder sentence would be applied if he were not completely blinded or permanently disfigured, though there would be jail time in either case.

Me too!