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volcanohunter

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Posts posted by volcanohunter

    Nutcracker Grand Pas De Deux

    in Ballets and Choreographers

    Posted

    Here's a shocker: My favorite is Balanchine's, even tho it doesn't have a male variation (which I regret).

    I have to agree. When you compare Balanchine's version with the traditional text as it's performed by English companies, you realize that he wasn't choreographing in a vacuum. Balanchine's pas de deux is like a commentary on the original. A year ago Alastair Macaulay wrote: "Actually, though Balanchine did take considerable liberties with music and scenario, his proves closer to the original 1892 conception than almost any other."

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/arts/dance/01nutc.html

    Here's the other thing I love. Apparently Hanya Holm would say that once a movement was initiated, it would continue in space along its trajectory to infinity. This idea is most clearly visualized in Alwin Nikolais' Tensile Involvement, but I also can't help think of it when watching the intersecting limbs in Balanchine's Nutcracker adagio.

    SFB's Nutcracker at the movies

    in Ballet Videos, Films, Broadcast Performances, Photos, and Interviews

    Posted

    The SFB Nutcracker was broadcast on PBS in Seattle tonight. One second viewing, for me the waltz of the flowers and the grand pas de deux really dragged, although Karapetyan and Kochetkova danced beautifully.

    I watched the same broadcast. This morning the Paris Opera Ballet's performance of Nureyev's production aired for the third time, and in comparison Tomasson's waltz and pas de deux positively gush and flow.

    New Year's Day from Vienna on PBS

    in Ballet Videos, Films, Broadcast Performances, Photos, and Interviews

    Posted

    From the PBS web site.

    Stage, screen and recording legend Julie Andrews rings in the new year as she hosts From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2010 on Friday, January 1 at 2:30 and 9 p.m. (ET) on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances on PBS (check local listings). Joining her for the annual Vienna Philharmonic holiday extravaganza will be celebrated conductor Georges Prêtre, who will lead the orchestra in a sparkling program of Strauss Family waltzes, marches and polkas. The telecast marks the second appearance for Andrews as host and also for Prêtre as conductor of the program, beamed around the world to an estimated 1.2 billion viewers from the Musikverein, the gilded hall that houses the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Also featured are dance sequences performed live on location at Vienna’s magnificent art history museum by members of the Vienna State Opera and Volksopera ballet, with guest appearances by Paris Opera Ballet principal soloists Nicholas Le Riche and Eleonora Abbagnato, choreographed by Renato Zanella and costumed by world renowned fashion designer Valentino.

    http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/fro...he-concert/901/

    John Neumeier

    in Ballets and Choreographers

    Posted

    I believe John re-worked Hamlet after he returned to Hamburg. I do remember sending him the notated score. It was possibly a big success in Germany. I never did a follow-up but the choreologist there would probnably know.

    The Hamburg Ballet web site does list Hamlet Connotations. In 1985 he also mounted a full-length Hamlet to music by Michael Tippet for the Royal Danish Ballet.

    http://www.hamburgballett.de/e/rep/fall_hamlet.htm

    http://www.hamburgballett.de/e/rep/hamlet.htm

    Tutu Much documentary

    in Ballet Videos, Films, Broadcast Performances, Photos, and Interviews

    Posted

    Elis Swerhone's documentary Tutu Much will be screening at Cineplex cinemas on 17 & 20 January.

    Through the eyes of 9 young girls from around the world, TUTU MUCH is the behind-the-scenes story of what it takes to become a dancer. These girls have been given the chance of a life-time, a four week long summer audition to get into a professional ballet school. Which girl will have the perfect ballet body? Who will have the passion, the drive and the endurance to make it? And will she and her family be ready to make the sacrifices? TUTU MUCH gives us all a rare look at 9 remarkable girls and a summer that no one will ever forget.

    http://www.cineplex.com/Movies/MovieDetail...Much.aspx?tab=2

    I could be wrong, but judging by the trailer this looks like a reworking of the Ballet Girls series about the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School that aired on television a couple of years ago.

    Royal Ballet's Nutcracker

    in Ballet Videos, Films, Broadcast Performances, Photos, and Interviews

    Posted

    There was no cast sheet at the screening I attended today. This much I knew going in.

    Clara - Iohna Loots

    Nutcracker - Ricardo Cervera

    Sugarplum Fairy - Alexandra Ansanelli

    Cavalier - Valeri Hristov

    Drosselmeyer - Gary Avis

    The end credits sped by, but I did catch Elizabeth McGorian and Christopher Saunders as the Stahlbaums, Alastair Marriot as the Grandfather, Genesia Rosato as the Dancing Mistress, David Pickering as the Captain and Mouse King (and possibly in the Arabian dance), Jonathan Howells as Drosselmeyer's Assistant, James Hay as Clara's dancing partner, Brian Maloney as the Harlequin, Jose Martin as the Soldier Doll and in the Spanish dance, and Lauren Cuthbertson as the Rose Fairy. I couldn't help but notice Sergei Polunin in the Waltz of the Flowers.

    I'm assuming general familiarity with Wright's production since this is the third time it's been filmed. I must admit that I've never shared the enthusiasm of British critics for the production. For all its detail, I've always found it a little dull and pokey. I have to say that I HATE seeing the grandparents turned into an object of grotesque comedy. Balanchine's production treats them respectfully, and so does Tomasson's for the San Francisco Ballet, but choreographers like Wright (and Nureyev and many others) ought to be ashamed of themselves for depicting the elderly as completely decrepit, and then making them dance decrepitly on top of it. The children, it has to be said, danced very well indeed.

    Those who thought San Francisco's Nutcracker had too many quick cuts would have been driven batty by the editing of the party scene. In general the camera focused in too closely on Drosselmeyer, so that, for example, you could see Avis blinking rapidly as the confetti he threw up fell into his eyes, which spoiled the effect; his descent on the stage's little elevator didn't register properly and neither did most of his magic tricks. Although the screening was billed as a high definition event, the lighting up to the snow scene was too dim, resulting in a fuzzy picture on more distant shots of the stage. Those who were bothered by the blurred picture of rapid movement in the POB's Jewels wouldn't like this film any better. The effect doesn't bother me, since I see it as an attempt to convey kinetic energy.

    On the other hand, the big-screen presentation made the growth of the Christmas tree very effective, and the snow scene, which usually strikes me as a bit of a dud in Wright's version, benefited from the camera work. It may be my imagination, but the company seems to have sped up the tempi in this scene.

    The RB corps seemed to be in better shape than in other recent transmissions. I liked Loots very much. She and Cervera didn't have the conspicuous lightness, elevation or star quality that Cojocaru and Putrov had displayed in the previous film, but they were plenty believable, though Cervera's second-act mime didn't register with ideal clarity. Avis was a charismatic, likable Drosselmeyer, not at all mysterious, but not creepy either. In the second act I especially liked the warmth and graciousness of Cuthbertson's dancing.

    I liked Ansanelli's Sugarplum Fairy much more than I expected to, since I'd disliked her Aurora. Her claw hands didn't jive with the very English production, but I did my best to ignore them. My date, however, didn't like her at all, found her very mannered and would have preferred to see Cuthbertson in the role. Rhythmically she did some idiosyncratic things that made it impossible for Hristov to stay in sync. Him we both liked very much, his dancing both gallant and elegant.

    On balance this performance made me enjoy the production more than I had in the past. The greater sense of excitement could be a result of watching it on a movie screen, which goes a long way to restoring the energy that's lost when dance is filmed. Whether the market can sustain a third DVD of the production will be Opus Arte's call, I suppose.

    John Neumeier

    in Ballets and Choreographers

    Posted

    Those are completely valid questions. The name probably stayed because that's the title of the score. I suppose that while Neumeier tried to free the ballet from its seasonal dependence, public demand turned it into a Christmas tradition nonetheless.

    For the last few years in Hamburg the Christmas-free Nutcracker has been running concurrently with Neumeier's more explicitly seasonal ballet to Bach's Christmas Oratorio.

    John Neumeier

    in Ballets and Choreographers

    Posted

    I will be watching a Neumeier production of Nutcracker by the Dresden SempOper Ballet on Christmas Day. The storyline is very different than what I have seen in the past and I don't really know what to expect.

    His Nutcracker is not at all weird or bizarre, so no need to worry on that score. It isn't set at Christmas but at the heroine's birthday party. (Nonetheless, the Hamburg Ballet performs it nearly every Christmas.) Drosselmeier is a Petipa-like figure, and the second act is essentially a tribute to the history of ballet.

    http://www.hamburgballett.de/e/rep/nussknacker.htm

    POB's Nutcracker

    in Ballet Videos, Films, Broadcast Performances, Photos, and Interviews

    Posted

    The good news is that the ballet was shown in its entirety. When this was filmed two years ago there was a great deal of consternation about the fact that French television opted to air a "digest" version of the ballet. The Nutcracker is short enough as it is; you wouldn't think there'd be much to cut. On the other hand, given the general weirdness of Nureyev's version, if a Nutcracker production could stand cutting, I suppose this would be it.

    I am a little surprised that this performance hasn't been released on DVD yet. There haven't been any other Nutcracker releases this year, so I can't help thinking that market conditions would have been favourable.

    Complete Forsythe ballets on dvd

    in Ballet Videos, Films, Broadcast Performances, Photos, and Interviews

    Posted

    RAI is scheduled to broadcast La Scala's forthcoming Forsythe program, consisting of Artifact Suite, Herman Schmerman and In the middle, somewhat elevated. Since the program is scheduled to star Roberto Bolle and Svetlana Zakharova, there's probably a good chance of a DVD release.

    http://www.teatroallascala.org/it/stagioni...elevisione.html

    http://www.teatroallascala.org/it/stagioni...a_Forsythe.html

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