volcanohunter

In Russian the stress would fall on the first syllable: something like MYA-seen (Мясин). (It's not really a YA sound. It's actually a palatalized M, as in m'as'in.) http://www.bolshoi.ru/ru/season/ballet/rep...amp;dynid26=480 Putting the stress on the second syllable was probably the influence of French. The same goes for Fokine, which should be pronounced FO-keen. I was under the impression that in Georgian, -shvili surnames were stressed on the penultimate syllable: ah-nah-nyash-VEE-lee.

The Bolt will be released in North America on June 12 http://www.amazon.com/Bolt-Shostakovich/dp/B000NVL4MY

Is anyone familiar with the Bayadère Malakhov staged in Vienna and Berlin?

I apologize for posting this at short notice. This evening (Monday, May 14), Canada's Bravo network will be showing the documentary Ballets Russes at 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT. Also on Bravo tonight: the National Ballet of Canada performs Matjash Mrozewski's A Delicate Battle (7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT) and Celia Franca: Tour de Force (7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT).

Here's an aside the French-speakers among you may find interesting. It's a brief interview in which POB étoile Kader Belarbi discusses his Algerian heritage. http://www.tv5.fr/TV5Site/webtv/player1.php?id_video=601

Personally, I thought Ciaravola was the more dazzling of the two. Cozette made no impression on me whatsoever. I wonder if this nomination isn't an attempt to find a height-compatible, long-limbed partner for Mathieu Ganio. What's the opinion of those who saw them together in Cinderella? Does the partnership work?

My heavens, I didn't know Heathcote was still performing. I'd assumed that all the Australian Ballet dancers I first saw perform in New York in 1990 had long since retired. I'm glad to have been proven wrong. Congratulations to Steven Heathcote on a long and splendid career.

Kultur is promising to release a DVD that includes From a Classical Position with Mr. & Mrs. Forsythe and an interview with William Forsythe titled Just Dancing Around? on June 26. http://estore.websitepros.com/1652646/Detail.bok?no=951 http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Position-J...d/dp/B000P6R714

Jérémie Bélingard did an interview for France 2 midday news today, Thursday, April 19. Skip ahead to the last segment of the program. There is some footage of him rehearsing the Film Star in Nureyev's Cinderella. http://jt.france2.fr/13h/ You can access the clip for the next week under Les éditions précédentes.

I think I would have retained more if my university had offered courses in conversational Latin. As it was, I would spend the first hour of my Latin finals writing out grammar charts from memory, and the next two hours actually writing the exam using my handy-dandy reference. Not much retention there.

Perhaps you meant "in vino non est veritas"? "Sum" means "I am," as in "Cogito ergo..."

But if I'm not mistaken, Ould-Braham won't be going to Australia. If the management decides against promoting Cozette or Abbagnato during the run of Cindrella, perhaps it will make an étoile of Ould-Braham or Gilbert (if she recovers in time) during Fille.

I share your opinion about those two dancers, and would definitely be disappointed to see one of them promoted... Indeed that's not what I'd expect from a POB étoile But now that a man of questionable classical technique has been promoted, there's nothing to prevent the promotion of women who don't really measure up to étoile standards either. Since Cozette has been given two performanced of Cinderella (with Ganio), versus one for Abbagnato (with Bélingard), the odds in her favour are perhaps stronger. Two articles in today's Sydney Morning Herald also make a point about Cozette--and Karl Paquette--having proper POB pedigree: "Karl and Emilie represent the company very well," said Lefevre. "They both attended the entire school dance program, they know all the ballet techniques and they get to interpret major roles. They are very, very good dancers who, I think, are very smart and generous." http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/ah-the-thr...4761668608.html http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/little-rat...4761668605.html Interesting that the company should have sent Paquette to Australia just as Bélingard was about to be promoted. Yes, she's excellent. And what elevation! But what can those poor sujets do? There are many premières danseuses but the management seems reluctant to promote any of them, so the company states that no female p.d. positions are available at present, nixes the promotion exam for the rank, and the female sujets are stuck waiting (for a new étoile? for Riqué's retirement?). How long has Fiat been a sujet now? Eight years? I hope she won't give up on the exam altogether.

So Gillot is too tall for most partners, limiting her classical roles. A portion of female étoiles are also likely to take maternity leave at some point in their careers. There are objective reasons why the POB's ballerina ranks may be thin at times. Yet in the past three years the Opéra has promoted two women and five men. Wouldn't it have made more sense to promote a woman at this point rather than yet another man?

I've had little exposure to Bélingard. I gather he is admired in the contemporary repertoire, but that he's danced few classics, and mostly demi-caractère roles in that repertoire. I was underwhelmed by his Neapolitan dance on the Swan Lake DVD. He struck me as rather muscle- and earthbound. I was much more favourably impressed by Myriam Ould-Braham in that dance. I have difficulty imaging him as a ballet prince, which is why this nomination surprises me. For me, the title of étoile is like a seal of approval that guarantees the highest standard of performance in the great classics. Is Bélingard the sort of dancer who can make a convincing Albrecht, Solor and Romeo?

I suppose that with Belarbi, Legris and Romoli approaching retirement and Bart not dancing many leading roles anymore, a spot would have opened up eventually. Nevertheless, it seems strange to have 10 male étoiles and only six female. Isn't Bélingard a bit injury-prone like Moreau and Pech?

This is very interesting. The Don Harron/Norman Campbell Anne of Green Gables musical has been playing to sell-out crowds every summer at the Charlottetown Festival since 1965. http://www.confederationcentre.com/anne.asp As for ballet versions, Jacques Lemay choreographed one to Campbell's music for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1989. Trivia: Cambell's connection to ballet was longstanding. He directed many ballet telecasts for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and won Emmy Awards for telecasts of the National Ballet of Canada's Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Harron got the idea for writing an Anne of Green Gables musical while reading the book to his daughter. Mary Harron grew up to direct I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page. Go figure.

You're right, bart, the crucial factor that determines acoustics is shape, not size. Some of the worst acoustics I've ever encountered are at the Opéra Bastille, a large house, to be sure, but not as large as the New Met. The fatal flaw there is the fan-shaped auditorium. Absolutely lethal. My understanding is that the Old Met was narrower than the new one, which would have a large impact on acoustics. Is that correct? My own preference is for horseshoe-shaped houses that seat 1,000-1,500 people. Occasionally these have sightline problems around supporting pillars in the gallery, but they are usually minimal. Orchestra seats can also be a bit problematic unless the stage is raked very steeply, but as someone who prefers an overhead view, it's not my headache to contend with. What I don't like are the massive all-purpose auditoriums that litter the North American landscape. I believe it was Shirley MacLaine who once described Toronto's 3,200-seat O'Keefe/Hummingbird Centre as the best-decorated aircraft hanger in North America, which strikes me as a pretty apt description of that style. (Incidentally, the acoustics there were so bad that the musicians in the pit had to be miked.)

On Friday, March 23, France 2 evening news included a report on former POB étoile Marie-Claude Pietragalla and her show Conditions Humaines, currently playing at the Palais de Sports in Paris. Skip ahead to the last segment of the broadcast ("Marie-Claude Pietragalla en tournée"). You can also access the broadcast for the next week under Les éditions précédents. http://jt.france2.fr/20h/

I've seen the Butler done by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and Alberta Ballet. It's set to Dvořák, and unlike Limón's ballet, there is no Emilia character. I'm rather sorry that Alberta Ballet is replacing it with Kirk Peterson's new version to Jerry Goldsmith (?!!). Though Butler's version was conceived as a vehicle for Carla Fracci, it's the men's roles that stick out in my mind: low-cut tights, lots of pelvic thusting with torsos leaning back and arms bent behind the back, and these big hovering jumps (legs extended backwards, torsos forward with arms stretched overhead). It will be performed next month at the Joyce, if you care to take a trip to Manhattan . http://www.joyce.org/calendar_detail.php?event=51&theater=1 Neumeier's full-length version to Pärt and Schnittke hasn't been performed recently, which could suggest that Neumeier wasn't entirely pleased with it. Certainly his other Shakespeare adaptations (Romeo & Juliet, A Midummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, As You Like It, What You Will) are performed more frequently. http://www.hamburgballett.de/e/rep/othello.htm

Details of the next DNB season have been posted on its web site. September 11-30: to mark his 75th birthday, a Hans van Manen festival made up of five separate programs, which will include performances by members of San Francisco Ballet, Kirov Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, Bavarian State Ballet, Introdans, Stuttgart Ballet, BallettMainz and the Amsterdam National Ballet Academy. One of the programs will tour the Netherlands in November. October 13-November 3: Rudi van Dantzig's Romeo and Juliet, with a Dutch tour in May December 10-January 1: Peter Wright's staging of The Sleeping Beauty February 14-March 4: Ted Brandsen's new version of Coppélia March 18-April 6: Alexei Ratmansky's Russian Seasons, Harald Lander's Études and Mark Morris' Sandpaper Ballet June 14-20: In Space, a new collaboration by Ted Brandsen, Hans van Manen and Krzysztof Pastor June 19-20: the DNB's annual choreographic workshop www.het-nationale-ballet.nl

One of the consequences of Berlin's division after WWII was that each side of the city had it's own opera house. There's still a lot of hand-wringing over what to do about the situation, so the Deutsche Staatsoper ("Unter den Linden") and the Deutsche Oper remain separate institutions. However, a few years ago their ballet companies were merged into one large troupe of about 90 dancers, and it performs at both houses.

Thanks, FauxPas!

The company's next season has been announced. The repertoire looks like this: Alice's Wonderland (new ballet by Giorgio Madia, Komische Oper) Giselle (staged by Patrice Bart, Unter den Linden) Onegin (Cranko, Unter den Linden) Sleeping Beauty (staged by Vladimir Malakhov, Deutsche Oper) All-Robbins: The Concert, Afternoon of a Faun, Fancy Free (Unter den Linden) All-Balanchine: Serenade, Ballet Imperial, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Apollo (Deutsche Oper) The Nutcracker (Bart, Unter den Linden) Sylvia (Ashton, Deutsche Oper) Glories of the Romantic Ballet: Le Papillon, Les Trois Graces, Pas des Déesses, La Vivandière, Paquita (Deutsche Oper) Cinderella (Malakhov, Deutsche Oper) La Bayadère (staged by Malakhov, Unter den Linden) Tchaikovsky (Eifman, Unter den Linden) La Sylphide (new production by Peter Schaufuss, Deutsche Oper) Swan Lake (staged by Bart, Unter den Linden) Ring um den Ring (Béjart, Deutsche Oper) With/out Tutu: Forsythe's Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Clark Tippet's Bruch Violin Concert, new ballet by Jodie Gates (Unter den Linden) There will be visits from the Bolshoi, with Swan Lake and Ratmansky's The Bright Stream, and the Hubbard Street Dance Company. Stuttgart Ballet principal Mikhail Kaniskin and Dresden Semperoper Ballett principal Dmitry Semionov will join the company as principal dancers. Shoko Nakamura and Iana Salenko are promoted to principal dancer. Maria Seletskaja and Dinu Tamazlacaru are promoted to soloist. Stuttgart soloist Elisa Carrillo Cabrera joins the company as a demi-soloist, and corps members Sarah Mestrovic and Sergej Upkin are promoted to demi-soloist. The press release doesn't indicate whether any leading dancers are leaving or retiring. http://www.staatsballett-berlin.de/detail....ch=none&active=

The Bolshoi's Bolt is being released on DVD in France next week. I couldn't tell you about a North American release. http://www4.fnac.com/Shelf/article.aspx?PR...a9deaa5975&Fr=0 http://www.alapage.com/-/Fiche/DVD/934913/...ext=bolt&sv=X_L