volcanohunter

In vino non sum veritas?

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

Unfortunately, Mashinka, Emmanuel Thibault won't be dancing Colas. He is scheduled to tour Australia with the company in late June instead. This is sad news, because the role would have fit him perfectly. I can see why the POB doesn't want to cast him in princely roles, but there's no excuse whatsoever for not letting him dance Colas, or even Frantz in Coppélia...

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'd say the most likely candidates among the women at this point seem to be Eleonora Abbagnato and Emilie Cozette, both scheduled to dance Cinderella, but they have embarassing weaknesses in the classics. Eleonora Abbagnato is nowhere near the required level technically, although she's liked for her acting skills and does a lot of creations. Emilie Cozette is IMO the least interesting "première danseuse" - she is technically strong (as far as the legs and feet go) but her upper body is stiff. She has always seemed to lack grace and projection on stage when I've seen her, most lately as the Queen of the Dryads.

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.

By the way, there's a dancer I really regret not seeing in that list: Fanny Fiat, who is in my opinion at least as talented as several dancers of that list, but has never got all the recognition she deserved...

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.

(By the way, isn't it a problem with Marie-Agnès Gillot to some extent too ? She seems to be performing fewer and fewer classical roles, that might be linked to partnering problems as not many male dancers are tall enough to partner her, but it seems to me that she used to perform more classical roles a few seasons ago...)

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.

It's possible to over-romanticize the "old Met." This is especially true as to size.

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/

The Limon version is still my favorite, though I've seen only those two. I don't even know who most of the choreographers on Dale's list are. Has anyone seen one or more? How about the Neumeier? The John Butler?

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.

"The Gay Parisian" is on DVD now on a bonus disc of the new three disc collector's edition re-release of "The Maltese Falcon" with Humphrey Bogart.

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

In my opinion mass scenes do not work well on TV, on example here being the new Swedish Swan Lake, it was far too dark and I found it useless on a screen.

It's unfortunate that DVD is so dark. The Dutch National Ballet's Sleeping Beauty is also dark and grainy. This needn't be the case. Lighting can be adjusted for television cameras, and you'll notice that the Royal Ballet's Swan Lake from the early 1980s is perfectly visible throughout.

Yes, the absence of a Royal Ballet Giselle on the market is pretty glaring, and it's beyond me why Sylvia hasn't been released.

It would be a great pity to keep the Guillem/Jude Cinderella and Maurin/Hilaire Nutcracker unreleased because the POB is planning new telecasts of them. I realize that Dupont's face is more beautiful than Guillem's, but Guillem has the more fabulous physique and, I think, more glamour. The ballet was clearly designed for her particular talents. Since there's so little film of her available on the market, I am still hoping that this telecast will be re-issued someday. The film also captures the fabulous nastiness of Isabelle Guérin's stepsister.

Does anyone know who owns the rights to NVC Arts programs? Kultur has been releasing them steadily, and I wonder whether the POB would be in a position to prevent the release of these two telecasts.

An incomplete list:

Peter Schaufuss' Dancer series

Natalia Makarova's Ballerina series

Any and all Balanchine from the Dance in America and Live from Lincoln Center vaults

Ashton performed by the Royal Ballet, especially A Month in the Country with Lynn Seymour and Anthony Dowell

Tudor performed by ABT

Ballets Russes repertoire performed by the Joffrey Ballet, especially The Search for Nijinsky's Rite of Spring

Hollywood's The Gay Parisian (Gaîté Parisienne)

Cranko performed by the Stuttgart Ballet

London Festival Ballet's La Sylphide (Bournonville; w/Eva Evdokimova, Peter Schaufuss, Niels Bjorn Larsen)

Paris Dances Diaghilev (Petrushka, Le Spectre de la rose, L'Après-midi d'un faune, Les Noces)

National Ballet of Canada's Onegin (Cranko; w/Sabina Allemann, Frank Augustyn, Jeremy Ransom, Cynthia Lucas)

Ballet National de Marseille's Les intermittences du coeur (Petit; w/Dominique Khalfouni, Denys Ganio, Jean-Charles Gil, Patrick Dupond, Maya Plisetskaya)

Ballet National de Marseille's Coppélia (Petit; w/Altynai Asylmuratova, Cyril Pierre, Roland Petit)

Paris Opera Ballet's Cinderella (Nureyev; w/Sylvie Guillem, Charles Jude, Rudolf Nureyev)

Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Romeo & Juliet (Dantzig; w/Evelyn Hart, David Peregrine)

National Ballet of Canada's Alice (Tetley; w/Kimberly Glasco, Karen Kain, Rex Harrington, Peter Ottmann)

Nederlands Dans Theater's Symphony of Psalms and Cathédrale engloutie (Kylián)

A really good Swan Lake. I have more recordings of Swan Lake on my shelf than any other ballet, none of them entirely satisfactory.

Hello, stippdmel!

I think it's been a good long time since the Kansas City Ballet has been discussed on Ballet Talk, so I'm very much looking forward to reading your impressions of the company's performances. And since you've got so many years of ballet experience under your belt, I'm sure you've got lots to say on all sorts of topics that come up here. It'll be great to have your input.

To some extent reaching the non-Parisian taxpayer is accomplished through the POB's annual broadcasts on state-subsidized television, as is the case in many European states.

It's a pity we North Americans can't swing a similar arrangement.

In James Kudelka's Four Seasons, a season-of-lifecycle ballet, there's a wonderful dancing part for an older dancer, and I saw Hazaros Surmeyan, a character dancer with National Ballet of Canada, perform it.

Yes! I don't especially like the ballet, but I think the winter adagio, in which the protagonist dances with four older dancers, is its loveliest and most moving part. In the original cast I believe the four "seniors" were Victoria Bertram, Lorna Geddes, Tomas Schramek and Surmeyan.

It is so sad that the artists have to perform in such a tacky, vulgar looking venue.. absent scale, or charm and certainly architecture that will be torn down and not missed.

I agree completely with your assessment of the Met. In addition to being hideous, it's gargantuan. 3,800 seats is much too large for an opera house. It makes for less than splendid acoustics, leading many a freaked-out singer to push way too hard, and leaves much of the audience very far from the action.

The stage is designed to hold massive opera sets and is too big for certain ballets. I remember watching La Sylphide from the balcony of few years ago, and although ABT's corps of sylphs strove mighily to stretch the floor patterns out as much as they could, the rear quarter of the stage remained completely unused for the duration of the ballet. I wondered why the designer hadn't positioned the sets further down the stage to "shrink" it a little.

My mother and her sister began their opera-going days in the early 1960s, and they both still mourn the Old Met. They're quick to tell you how good the acoustics were, how easy it was to get tickets, and so on and so forth. As for me, I tolerate the new Met best when the lights go down and I don't have to look at all that gold paint anymore.

I really detest the portrayal of the grandparents in many productions of The Nutcracker. There's usually a bit where they totter and stumble about trying to keep up with a quick dance, which is an offensive way of fishing for a laugh.

I don't know whether this fits your bill, bart, but in Neumeier's Illusions like Swan Lake the King's Mother and his Uncle, while not exactly aged, seem to be engaged in politicking, at least from the King's paranoid point of view. While these roles are usually danced by dancers in their mid-late thirties, they're not character roles in the usual sense and require "full-out" dancing.

Yesterday Alberta Ballet held an official presentation in Edmonton of its 2007/08 season.

September: The National Ballet of Canada tours with Peter Wright's production of Giselle.

October/November: Kirk Peterson's new Othello

December: Mikko Nissinen's The Nutcracker

February: a revival of Jean Grand-Maître's Dangerous Liaisons

April: Jean Grand-Maître's new ballet to Mozart's Requiem.

I am sorry that there are no mixed bills. Presumably this is a response to box-office pressures. I would like to have seen a revival of Balanchine's Prodigal Son. I'm also surprised that apart from the Nutcracker, there is no kid-friendly programming. I rather expected the company to bring back Edmund Stripe's charming Alice in Wonderland. I'm also sorry that the season doesn't include a tour by Ballet BC. It's been several years since they've performed here, and I half expected a reciprocal visit after Alberta Ballet's run of Romeo & Juliet in Vancouver last September. I am glad that this will be the last run of Nissinen's Nutcracker because the production is very tired, and I will be curious to see how Dangerous Liaisons works on the large stage of the Jubilee Auditorium, as the company had previously performed it in much smaller venues.