volcanohunter
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Posts posted by volcanohunter
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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.
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I'm confused -- I'm not seeing any cast for SB on August 7 or 9 -- is it posted somewhere else? That's one of his roles with them. http://www.roh.org.u...yuri-grigorovic
Follow the link to Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bolshoi-Ballet-50th-Anniversary-in-London/475849139138467
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This is the version without narration, songs and cartoons. (Yay!)
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But do note that casting is missing from several performance.
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.
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My read on these comments is that Hallberg has been unable to rehearse w. the Bolshoi due to his continuing injury. He is appearing w. the Bolshoi in London, I believe, this summer. It would appear that he had to give up some of his ABT time in order to rehearse w. the Bolshoi in preparation for his upcoming performances with the company.
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
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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.
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Christopher Wheeldon was shown visiting Tsiskaridze's apartment in the BBC documentary on the making Wheeldon's ELSINORE (a.k.a. Misericordes) ballet. He may have even mentioned the number as he stood at the front door of the building, trying to punch-in the code (shivering in the cold). Anyway, Tsiskaridze's apartment building & unit # seems to not be a secret.
It's a new apartment. The television program mentioned that it was a gift from an oligarch.
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Out of interest, is it common practice to publish the address of victims of an attempted break-in in Russia? It certainly isn't in the UK, furthermore a compensation claim could be made for such a disclosure and the paper involved would probably be fined.
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.
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interesting note about the congressional recognition, considering how few Americans dance in the company, particularly in starring roles.
As one tweeter puts it, American-ish Ballet Theater.
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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.
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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.
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"National Ballet of Toronto Canada which occasionally does very limited tours west."
Is this NBOC bashing necessary? EVery other year to Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, and Vancouver Island is not what I would call "occasionally" and "limited".
The biennial tour which should have taken place this fall is not happening, and the tour before last was cancelled at the last minute, leaving local presenters in a real bind. I agree with Helene on this one. It's not a question of bashing the company per se, just wondering whether it should really be called "National" when its reach is anything but.
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It is not for nothing that those times are remembered as ‘the Golden Age of the Bolshoi’ - because Grigorovich’s standards were so high. The quality of performance was his goal and he was achieving it by working with talented dancers. He had an eagle eye for talents.
Except that by the time of its U.S. tour in 1990 the company's performances were greeted with headlines like "'Bolshoi' means big, 'bolnoi' means ill."
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I don't know why they'd have to replace broadcasts on TV: Public Broadcasting (PBS) in the US airs the Met HD's. There's usually a lag between the Encore performances and the free TV dates, although I'm not sure if they are a season behind and after the handful of re-runs we get at the beginning of every summer here in Vancouver (where Seattle Public TV is one of the basic cable stations). The Met even produces DVDs of many of the offerings.
Yes. In fact I suspect that one of the reasons the Met turned to movie theaters in the first place was because its PBS broadcasts had dwindled to a trickle, down from highs of 7 or 8 broadcasts per season in the 1970s and '80s.
2000-01: 3 telecasts
2001-02: 2 telecasts
2002-03: 1 telecast
2003-04: 1 telecast
2004-05: 0 telecasts
2005-06: 1 telecast (the Volpe retirement gala)
But once the cinema series began, PBS was more than happy to broadcast an already finished product. Typically, the performances are aired with a delay of about 4 months. But it may also be that the opera broadcasts have reached a point of diminishing returns. I think I mentioned on the Met HD thread that the two PBS stations I get no longer air all the Met transmissions, and the number of productions that don't air seems to increase with each season.
There have been complaints in the UK that performing arts programs on the BBC are becoming less frequent, and there is some irritation that having already paid taxes that go toward subsidizing the Royal Opera House, people are being asked to pay again to see performances at movie theaters, rather than being able to see the fruits of their taxes on television as in years past. On the other hand, as with the Met, the number of performances being filmed has increased.
So I suppose it could go either way.
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I live in Seattle where public broadcasting shows the bare minimum of dance programming.
There is a PBS spot I find really irritating. If memory serves, it features Desmond Richardson relating that as a child he saw Rudolf Nureyev (I think) dance on PBS and how this inspired him to become a dancer. I wanted to shout back at the TV: "And what are the chances of a kid from small-town South Carolina seeing Desmond Richardson dance on PBS today?!!"
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If the Oslo Philharmonic concert is being broadcast throughout Norway, could this be at least some of the answer to sharing the wealth across the country? If I can get up for a 9am "Francesca da Rimini," surely I can go to an 11am showing of most of NBoC's reps. I suspect there would be an audience in France, where time zones aren't an issue, for Paris Opera Ballet HD broadcasts.
The Paris Opera does HD transmissions to movie theaters, about 45 cinemas domestically and about as many in Austria, Belgium and Germany. This season's schedule includes Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Carmen, Don Quixote, Falstaff, The Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler, Hänsel und Gretel, La Gioconda and La Sylphide. http://www.fraprod.fr/index.php
Unfortunately, the transmissions' reach is not as international as I'd like, and frankly they could do more ballet. Perhaps we should encouraged by the fact that this year's Royal Opera House HD season features 6 operas and 3 ballets, while next season's will have 5 of each.
The big potential downside of this model is that it could eventually replace broadcasts on state television. Perhaps cinema broadcasts are more viable financially, but inevitably, they're going to have a smaller audience. I would guess that the chance of the uninitiated forking over a fairly substantial sum of money to go see a ballet or symphonic concert at a movie theater is pretty slim, whereas there's probably a better chance of someone stumbling upon opera for the first time on (more or less) free television and getting hooked that way.
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Thank you. I asked because it's not unusual for theater chains to stick to opera or ballet presentations from a particular distributor. For example, here are three upcoming ballet performances being presented in French cinemas, and you'll see that there is no overlap in the movie theaters. But if you live in Marseille, for example, you will be able to go to three different cinemas to see each of the performances.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler
In France Pathé Live presents the Bolshoi Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater and the Metropolitan Opera, Côté Diffusion presents the Royal Opera House and dramas from a variety of French theaters, François Roussillon et Associés distributes the Paris Opera, and they don't mix.
In Canada the movie chain business is virtually monopolized. When Cineplex definitively swallowed up its primary rival Famous Players, it had to sell some of the old FP locations because even in larger cities it would have owned virtually all the movie theaters, a few art-house cinemas excepting. This allowed Empire Theatres, previously located only in Atlantic Canada, to go nation-wide, though of the four Famous Players multiplexes it bought where I live, two have since closed.
When the Met first began direct-to-cinema transmissions, no one was sure whether they would fly, and during the first season the broadcasts were shown Canada-wide by both Cineplex and Empire Theatres. However, the screenings did take off, and apparently Cineplex used its far stronger position to insist that it be the primary Canadian presenter of the Met in HD, because since the second season Empire Theatres has shown the Met only in its native region of Atlantic Canada, where Cineplex has no theaters. Empire attempted to counter by going into partnership with a Canadian distributor of Opus Arte productions, and although these were not live performances (which many people seem to value very much, though to me it's unimportant), I appreciated the series because it endeavored to show as many ballets as operas. Sadly, it lasted only a few seasons, and the distributor eventually went out of business.
Thankfully, Cineplex eventually began presenting a regular ballet series, initially the Bolshoi, expanded as of this season to the Royal Ballet as well. But you're right, while the Royal Ballet seems to be okay, the Royal Opera is still inaccessible, and La Scala is right out. In order to see any of those opera productions, I'd have to drive 8 hours to do it. Prior to the start of the current Met season Cineplex did show a couple of operas from Covent Garden, but these were 3D versions of Carmen and Madama Butterfly, and neither was live.
If Regal, AMC and Cinemark have locked themselves into the Met, leaving Carmike--located more in the South and West and frequently a bit off-the-beaten-track--to screen performances distributed by Emerging Pictures, this does make it difficult for the ROH to make inroads. But even if the Met were less jealous in guarding its turf, I wonder whether the big chains would be interested in showing performances from other opera houses. Perhaps they'd calculate that the market is saturated already and that there wouldn't be much appetite for more than the Met's dozen or so transmissions, which are being cut back to 10 next season as it is.
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One thing that bothers me about Gelb's approach is that he has prohibited movie theaters showing the Met Live in HD from also showing HD performances presented by other opera companies. This has created a significant problem for European houses - specifically the Royal Opera - in showing their HD opera performances in the US. In New York, there are 2 or 3 minor movie houses that show the Royal Opera performances (though never live). I think in part due to Gelb's anti-competitive stance, the opera broadcasts from the Royal Opera House have gotten very little expsoure in the US.
I have a very poor idea of how movie chains function nation-wide in the U.S., though it seems to me that they are less centralized, or monopolized, than in other countries. Where Met broadcasts in the U.S. are concerned, are they shown primarily by chains?
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Last month Makarova staged her version at the National Opera of Ukraine. I believe it was the first instance of her production being staged in the former USSR. The stage at the opera house in Kiev is not enormous, certainly smaller than the Met, but from these photographs, you can see that this time she used two ramps and 32 shades.
http://www.opera.com...13_IMG_9501.jpg
https://www.facebook...0000.1364063580
So my guess is that this is primarily a question of company size. The National Ballet of Ukraine lists 147 dancers and 12 apprentices on its roster, a big corps from which to draw.
http://www.opera.com...solisti-baletu/
http://www.opera.com...artisti-baletu/
Les Grands Ballets Canadiens has just announced that this Bayadere will be coming to Montreal next February, which would give people on the east coast a chance to see what Makarova's production looks like with the full 32 shades (assuming they all come on tour).
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Perhaps Filin's leadership is not all that popular within the troupe. Now don't anyone wig out on me; I'm not suggesting that this justifies any sort of violence. But despite our sympathy for him as the victim of a monstrous attack, it may not be all that productive to turn him into a plaster saint. We should consider that perhaps the Bolshoi's dancers have legitimate grievances, which may be coming to light under extremely regrettable circumstances and which unscrupulous people will, no doubt, seek to exploit. (Obviously, the conspiracy theories out there, along the lines of Filin being scarred by a chemical peel gone horribly wrong, are absurd.)
That Filin continued to head the Bolshoi performers' union after he left to work elsewhere is problematic, and that he continued to hold that post for another two years after he returned as artistic director, even more so. If Dmitrichenko was willing to challenge Filin on this point, other Bolshoi artists may have gravitated toward him as a champion unafraid of "speaking truth to power." And if the Dmitrichenko that appeared in court seemed very different from the combustible loudmouth they knew from work, it may explain why they were unwilling to believe that his confession had not been coerced. Again, I'm only trying to understand this from their point of view.
What I have to say about Tsiskaridze's television appearance the other night is that, as always, he was extremely careful in what he said. (That the way he says it comes across as totally tone-deaf is another matter.) The wildest accusations came from show host Tina Kandelaki, who turned self-appointed expert to declare that Filin was not being treated as a real burn victim would be treated, though her co-host Margarita Simonyan expressed doubts that a conspiracy involving multiple doctors in at least two countries was feasible. Most of the mud slung around was directed at Anatoly Iksanov, whom Anastasia Volochkova again insisted on calling Tahir Iksanov, and who had fallen to the rank of pimp by the time the show was over. Dmitri Tcherniakov's production of Evgeny Onegin, the one Galina Vishnevskaya hated so much, was again trotted out as Exhibit A for everything that's wrong with today's Bolshoi, and it was all Iksanov's fault.
But again, some of the grievances have merit. Why, for example, does an institution that can renovate its theater to the tune of something close to $1 billion by the latest count and which receives 4.1 billion rubles--or more than $132 million--in state funding annually pay members of the corps de ballet a base salary of 9,000 rubles--less than $300--a month? The Paris Opera receives about $137 million in state funding annually (54% of its budget) and pays its dancers a whole lot more; a rookie corps member receives about $3,400 each month. It's unfortunate that these questions are being asked against a backdrop of a horrible tragedy, but they should be asked, because I can certainly understand how Bolshoi dancers could be unhappy and dissatisfied.
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Wow...this is getting more and more bizarre each time. So Dmitrichenko is indeed popular among ballet dancers, even after his arrest...?Anna Antonicheva has confirmed Dmitrichenko's election. Apparently, the opera section of the performer's union elected him prior to his arrest, and the ballet section did so "last week."
In the interview Antonicheva was asked about that.
- Is it true that Mr. Dmitrichenko is the leader within the ballet troupe?- Yes, we think so. At least within our union.
Mezzo-soprano Alexandra Durseneva gave a description of how the voting took place.
According to Bolshoi Opera soloist Alexandra Durseneva, the performers' union currently has approximately 300 members: the opera section has roughly 50 members, and the ballet section has approximately 250. Incidentally, the ballet artists, voting already after Dmitrichenko's arrest, demonstrated a rare degree of solidarity."The meeting was legitimate, the entire choir rehearsal hall was filled," Durseneva noted. "The overwhelming majority voted for Pasha, perhaps only 10 people were not for him."
According to another account, a few artists abstained, but no one voted against Dmitrichenko.
http://izvestia.ru/news/546889
According to Izvestia, this vote took place on March 9, the opera singers having already voted on March 2. Since members of the opera company were also present at the dancers' meeting, it was considered something of an AGM.
Because Dmitrichenko is not able to perform his duties at present, the union is currently being run by company manager Ruslan Pronin. Other dancer representatives include Maria Alexandrova, Elena Andrienko and Denis Savin. The dancers are demanding to be included in the artistic advisory board formed last week at the Bolshoi Ballet. Its head, Boris Akimov, says he is not opposed to the idea.
However, the problem of the performers' union being headed by a member of the theater administration remains, so Pronin is to hold the position for only three months. If by that time Dmitrichenko has not been released from police custody, another election will have to be held.
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Moreover, there have been reports of Dmitrichenko being elected "unanimously" or "almost unanimously" to be the chairman of Bolshoi's labor union, after his detention---this was claimed by Tsiskaridze in the video posted above and then found its way into a number of Russian newspapers. While all these stories certainly create the impression of many Bolshoi dancers supporting Dmitrichenko and questioning Filin, these reports are all vague on the number of people present at all these meetings. Do these reports have more than one source? I wonder.
Anna Antonicheva has confirmed Dmitrichenko's election. Apparently, the opera section of the performer's union elected him prior to his arrest, and the ballet section did so "last week."
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And, as Mr. Gelb said in the phone interview, the Met can rightly take pride that broadcasts have “extended the operagoing life of older customers,” those people who have become too frail to make as many trips to Lincoln Center as they used to.
Surveys have shown that the decline in the Met’s audience has come from “outlying areas of New York,” Mr. Gelb said, with people who used to visit the Met now simply finding it easier to stop by the local movie house on Saturday.
Anecdotally I can confirm this. I have an aunt who lives right across the GWB. At one point in her youth she was going to the Met practically every night as a standee; later she was a subscriber for decades. But she can no longer afford the subscription, and limited mobility makes it difficult for her to get into Manhattan. While seats high in the Family Circle may be within her reach financially, they're not accessible to her physically. But she does occasionally attend the live transmissions, because in suburban New Jersey she doesn't have to pay the bridge toll, she doesn't have to pay for parking, she doesn't have to negotiate a lot of steps, and she finds the experience more satsifying than watching the television replay.
Bolshoi: London 2013 (29 July-17 Aug) @ Royal Opera House
in Bolshoi Ballet
Posted
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 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.