volcanohunter

What a loss. Truly a national treasure. Requiescat in pace, Maria Tallchief.

I fear that 3D is inherently cheesy. I would like to ask the opinion of those who have seen ballet in 3D, because I have not yet seen such a thing. I did see a couple of operas filmed in 3D at the Royal Opera House, and there was an exceedingly strange effect that could really hamper a dance performance. When a shot was taken from a downstage corner camera, you would expect people standing closest to the camera to look very large. Instead they looked like microcephalic midgets. I'm guessing it was some sort of misguided overcompensation, but it was extremely disconcerting to see such a bizarre change in a performer's proportions. Has anyone noticed this in the Mariinsky's 3D ballets?

If Matvienko hadn't thought of it himself, I'm sure Tsiskaridze advised him to consult a lawyer. But it appears that Matvienko isn't interested in working under the same roof with the theater's general director and its personnel manager. I don't know whether he'd be willing to take a legal battle far enough to try to unseat the current management. Tsiskaridze has been trying for years, and he still hasn't succeeded. In these circumstances administrators have all sorts of levers of influence, but ultimately they lose the war. Rudolf Bing may have won his battle with Maria Callas, but can anyone honestly say that the Metropolitan Opera was better off for having the most iconic diva of the 20th century give only 20 performances on its stage? Obviously, Matvienko isn't Callas, but my point is that in battles between artists and administrators, the audiences is usually the ultimate loser.

The 3D Swan Lake that never materialized on Valentine's Day has been rescheduled for June 6. Note that the trailer states "captured live" rather than "live." And no, I don't know why the trailer begins with Sleeping Beauty references.

This episode of "Ticket to the Bolshoi" begins with a story on the 60th anniversary of Marina Kondratieva's work at the theater. In it you can see a tiny bit of Smirnova rehearsing Odette, starting at about 7:21.

Yes.

It would be nice of Beloserkovsky could be persuaded to take the job, though I've heard him say that he feels like a thorough New Yorker and wouldn't be inclined to live anywhere else. Another possibility would be Ivan Putrov. His parents still live in Kiev, he returns from time to time to perform at the opera house where they were once dancers, he's underemployed at present, and he could potentially expand the company's repertoire in a Royal Ballet direction. If I had been in Matvienko's position, I would have directed my attentions somewhere other than Class Concert. There probably is some basis for believing that he was too much of an absentee director. In a television interview on Monday he couldn't remember the name of his successor, only that she had a Georgian surname starting with an R. This despite the fact that his company had performed her ballets seven times since November. I couldn't help wonder whether he'd seen them.

In this case, I suspect the theater's general director is being fundamentally dishonest. He complains that a double bill of Edward Clug ballets is performed to recorded music, and that this is incompatible with an "academic" theater, while failing to mention that a couple of months ago Matvienko also brought in Makarova's La Bayadère, which, obviously, is accompanied by a full orchestra. The Minister of Culture, who is new to his post, "has been informed" that Matvienko has failed to stage a single new production, when in addition to the Klug double bill and Bayadère the company has acquired a new full-evening ballet by former director Viktor Lytvynov, a new full-evening program by Radu Poklitaru (performed by his own company, the Kiev Modern Ballet, mind you) and revivals of several other ballets, including the somewhat hoary Class Concert. But apparently the problem is that Matvienko himself did not do the staging, which allows the general director to tell the poorly informed minister that Matvienko hasn't done anything. This is phenomenally hypocritical, because at the beginning of the last season, the National Opera announced that the forthcoming season would see new productions of Don Carlo, Otello, Samson et Dalila, Die Zauberflöte and Król Roger. A new Don Carlo appeared only in late spring, an opera already in the repertoire was given a revival, there was a single concert performance of Król Roger and the other operas never materialized. As far as I can see, the opera company has not mounted a single new production this season, but Matvienko is accused of doing nothing because he did not act as choreographer or producer of any of the ballet company's five new productions during his "unofficial" tenure. Then there is the matter of Matvienko's appointed successor Aniko Rekhviashvili, whose experience with classical ballet seems to be a little tenuous. Her bio states that she studied at the studio of the Virsky National Folk Dance Ensemble of Ukraine. No shame in that. Irina Dvorovenko's parents were Virsky dancers, and Leonid Sarafanov is descended from two generations of Virsky dancers. The bio gives no information about what sort of performing experience Rekhviashvili had subsequently. Then she apparently graduated from the Kiev Institute of Culture, and that sets off alarm bells for me. In the old days, it had a reputation as the place where the untalented children of illustrious artists went to study because no connections or bribes could get them into "real" schools like the Conservatory, the ballet or folk dance divisions of the Choreographic School, the theater or film faculties of the Theatrical Institute, the Institute of Visual Art or the Institute of Decorative and Applied Arts. The Institute of Culture primarily produced teachers who would work in extracurricular settings leading choirs, dance ensembles and drama groups. More recently the Institute has been grandiosely renamed the National University of Culture and the Arts, though National University of Show Business would be more appropriate. In addition to its previous functions, it's now also known as the place where pop stars go to get a degree (in pop music, of course), and has been augmented with departments of fashion, design and advertising, film and television technology, IT, and even hotel, tourism and restaurant business. The dance department includes departments of classical choreography, folk choreography, ballroom dance choreography and contemporary choreography (whose faculty includes Poklitaru). But the tone for the whole place is set by its director Mykhailo Poplavsky, a.k.a. the Singing Rector, not because he had previous experience as a musician, but rather because after spending so much time in the presence of real and budding pop stars, he decided to become one himself. Frankly, he is a figure so absurd that a Ukrainian television program recently gave him the "screaming goat" treatment. Fairly or not, Rekhviashvili is going to carry the Poplavsky taint because she worked at his university for many years. She has staged a couple of full-lengths ballets for the National Opera, and they seem to be classical in nature, stultifyingly so. But it's like Tsiskaridze said, if he'd never heard of her, neither has anyone else, and such an appointment seems unlikely to do much for the reputation of a troupe of 150 dancers. Finally, Ardani Artists has gotten in on the act, stating that if Matvienko leaves the opera house, the Kings of the Dance will stop coming to Kiev. Make of that what you will. http://gazeta.ua/art...danilyan/492037

He does not lack for work. On April 13 he will perform in Swan Lake with Nina Ananiashvili in Tbilisi, and on April 27 he will dance Spartacus as the Bolshoi.

The social media person for the opera house is decidedly not onside with the decision. For the past three days the Facebook page and Twitter feed of the National Opera of Ukraine has been updated with pro-Matvienko press material and quotes from angry dancers. Its Facebook poll asking whether users agree with the decision shows 97% opposed. Mind you, as of about two hours ago the Facebook page is now described as "unofficial" but up to this point it has been posting casting updates, conducting contests for free tickets, and the like. Nikolai Tsiskaridze was in Kiev yesterday performing, and now he's speaking out in Matvienko's favor.

The Royal Ballet would have been limited in its ability to hire Makarova because at the time membership in the company was restricted to British nationals and citizens of the Commonwealth. Nureyev was never especially happy that he was always a "guest artist" with the company, but it was the only possible solution at the time. In 1980 EEC rules forced the company to open up its hiring practices, and the first foreigner hired under the new scheme was Alessandra Ferri. Many others followed, of course, but whether this was a good thing for the Royal Ballet and its style is another matter. Now, as is well known, most of the RB's principals are not British, and following the retirement of Leanne Benjamin, Steven McRae will be alone in carrying the banner for the "colonials." Opening the audition process to foreigners does not necessarily mean that a company will be overrun by outsiders, obviously. The Paris Opera Ballet is also required to open its auditions to EU citizens (and makes them open to others as well), but it continues to hire primarily French dancers.

On this score I think the Bolshoi may actually be doing him a favor, because, to put it kindly, Tsiskaridze's performances now have a quality of, shall we say, high camp. https://www.youtube....h?v=rXlDiLoi4nw It is worth noting that Anzhelina Vorontsova has not been cast for anything on the tour, even though the casting lists not only principal characters but also the names of dancers who will be appearing as Aurora's Friends or in the ensemble of "Emeralds." Perhaps she does not wish to travel while Dmitrichenko is in police custody. Tsiskardize's other pupil Denis Rodkin will be going, and in light of Dmitrichenko's arrest and the current paucity of interpreters of the role, Rodkin will be making his debut as Spartacus in a couple of weeks. And Batyr Annadurdyev, who was in the alleged "stake-out" car with Dmitrichenko on the night of the attack, and who submitted his resignation following a heated telephone conversation with Filin, has since withdrawn his resignation and is going to London, too. I did notice that in the television interview above Tsiskaridze tried to distance Vorontsova from Dmitrichenko a bit, stating, when asked to clarify, that she is Dmitrichenko's girlfriend, not his common-law wife. Dmitrichenko's father, in the meantime, has stated on television that he and his wife regard Vorontsova as their son's fiancée.

The Royal Opera House has posted extremely detailed casting lists for everything except Swan Lake, which I expect the webmasters simply haven't finished yet. No doubt a good chunk will be reshuffled by the time the season starts, but as noted there have been changes since the initial announcements in January: The principal artists listed for London are (female) Maria Alexandrova, Maria Allash, Nina Kaptsova, [Kristina Kretova], [Ekaterina Krysanova], Svetlana Lunkina, Anna Nikulina, Evgenia Obraztsova, Natalia Osipova, Ekaterina Shipulina, Anastasia Stashkevich, Olga Smirnova, [Anna Tikhomirova] and Svetlana Zakharova; (male) Semyon Chudin, [Dmitry Gudanov], David Hallberg, [Vladislav Lantratov], Mikhail Lobukhin, Vyacheslav Lopatin, [Andrei Merkuriev], Artem Ovcharenko, Ruslan Skvortsov, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Ivan Vasiliev and Alexander Volchkov. The Osipova/Vasiliev Flames of Paris is close of sold out already. http://www.roh.org.uk/about/bolshoi Olga Smirnova has not done an Odette-Odile yet. She may yet make her debut in May before performing the part in London.

That information was made public by the impressario within the last couple of hours, and it's way past business hours in London. No doubt the Royal Opera House site will be updated soon. Of course the casting can and probably will change, but for now there is no indication that Hallberg will be participating. Other dancers initially announced that have since disappeared from the schedule are Svetlana Lunkina (for known reasons), Maria Allash, Mikhail Lobukhin and Nikolai Tsiskaridze, though Rothbart casting hasn't yet been announced. On the other hand, Ekaterina Krysanova and Dmitry Gudanov have been added. The Facebook page also has photos of Ekaterina Shipulina as Gamzatti, a part she's not scheduled to dance in London at present, so I don't think the pictures mean much.

Follow the link to Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bolshoi-Ballet-50th-Anniversary-in-London/475849139138467

This is the version without narration, songs and cartoons. (Yay!)

No, it appears that the list is more or less complete. The only one missing is the August 15 performance of Swan Lake, which had previously been announced to star Olga Smirnova and Semyon Chudin.

Casting for the Bolshoi London season was posted on the Facebook page of its presenter today, and no appearances by Hallberg are scheduled. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bolshoi-Ballet-50th-Anniversary-in-London/475849139138467

A triple bill of works by Benjamin Millepied--Amoveo, Le Spectre de la rose and Les Sylphides--as performed by the Ballet of Geneva's Grand Théâtre is available on demand through September. http://liveweb.arte...._la_Danse_Lyon/

It's a new apartment. The television program mentioned that it was a gift from an oligarch.

At least one story published Tsiskaridze's building number, and a television program that aired today showed the floor on which his apartment is located. I wouldn't be surprised if the apartment number were made public eventually. http://izvestia.ru/news/547205 http://www.ntv.ru/peredacha/Bolshoy/

As one tweeter puts it, American-ish Ballet Theater. https://twitter.com/FakeKMcKenzie

In most countries the "national" designation is given to institutions by the government. For example, in France, besides the Paris Opera, the "national" title is also held by the Opéra national du Rhin, Opéra national de Bordeaux, Opéra national de Lorraine and Opéra national de Lyon, which prefers to go simply by Opéra de Lyon. I don't know why these particular opera houses have been given the title. If the central government were going only by population, the designation should have gone to Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Lille and Toulouse. Perhaps it's a desire to give the highest official ranking to opera houses spread throughout the country, in which case at the moment, the south (Marseille?) and the northwest (Nantes?) are underrepresented. In North America, the term tends to be bandied about much more loosely. The National Ballet of Canada was not a project initiated by the federal government of Canada. Rather, it was the brainchild of ballet-loving socialites from Toronto, who invited Celia Franca to come from England to start a private company from scratch. Under the circumstances, to adopt the name "National Ballet of Canada" was audacious to say the least, and along the way Franca was symbolically "punished" for this hubris. When time came to hand out Governor General's Awards for lifetime contribution to the performing arts in Canada, the first batch of inductees in 1992 included Royal Winnipeg Ballet co-founder Gweneth Lloyd (by then Betty Farrally had died), in 1993 they included Les Grands Ballets Canadiens founder Ludmilla Chiriaeff, and only then was it considered proper to induct Celia Franca in 1994.

Some houses like the Met and the ROH invested in their own HD equipment, but this isn't necessarily required. When performances of the Bolshoi Ballet are filmed, Bel Air Media trucks in the equipment and crews from France for the occasion. The reasons why the National Ballet of Canada pays for the use of the opera house in Toronto are well known. When the house was being built, the Ballet opted out of a proposal to become co-owner of the facility, leaving the Canadian Opera Company to do all the fundraising and investing on its own; COC director Richard Bradshaw felt abandoned and betrayed by the NBoC and remained bitter about it to the end of his days. The Ballet pays rent because it made a strategic decision to become a tenant rather than a co-owner of the Four Seasons Centre. Besides the behind-the-scenes Romeo and Juliet program, Ratmansky has permitted the filming of The Flames of Paris, Bolt and The Bright Stream, and productions of Le Corsaire and Don Quixote that he worked on have also been filmed, so there's every reason to believe he would approve the filming of his Romeo and Juliet. Likewise, Kudelka's Nutcracker, Firebird and Four Seasons have also been filmed, so he's not opposed to the idea either.

The recent Mariinsky telecast of Leonid Lavrovsky's Romeo and Juliet with Diana Vishneva and Vladimir Shklyarov is available on demand on Arte Live Web for the next 5+ months. http://liveweb.arte....onid_Lavrovski/