volcanohunter

Off the top of my head I can think of ballets set to Ravel's Piano Concerto, Brahms' Second Piano Concerto, the Barber Violin Concerto, Bruch's Violin Concerto, Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 9 and Concerto for Flute and Harp, Gershwin's Piano Concerto, Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Winds and Concerto for Two Solo Pianos, Martinu's Double Concerto for Piano, Two String Orchestras and Timpani, Bach's Double Violin Concerto, Brandenburg Concertos and several of his piano concertos, Shostakovich's Piano Concerto no. 2, Adams' Violin Concerto and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto no. 5. Allegro Brillante is set to Tchaikovsky's incomplete Third Piano Concerto, and Chopin's piano concertos form the basis of the score to John Neumeier's The Lady of the Camellias, though they're not necessarily played in order. [Correction: the complete Second Piano Concerto is used as the score to the first act, and the second movement of the First Piano Concerto is used in Act 3.] I'm sure there are others I've forgotten and many more I haven't seen. And although I agree that there is a difference between the voice and other instruments, this hasn't stopped choreographers from using song cycles and vocal liturgical works. Neumeier has choreographed Bach's Magnificat and St. Matthew Passion, Handel's Messiah and the Mozart Requiem. Other ballets set to vocal religious music are MacMillan's Gloria and Requiem, Kylián's Symphony of Psalms and Soldiers' Mass, and Uwe Scholz's The Great Mass. In recent years Alberta Ballet, my local company, has performed Jean Grand-Maître's Celestial Themes, set to Tallis' Spem in alium, Edmund Stripe's Unquiet Light, set to some of the longer sections of Tchaikovsky's Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and Emily Molnar's Portrait of A Suspended Grace, set to Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. Many of these works are heavy on choral music, but song cycles are used also. Think of Tudor's Dark Elegies, Balanchine's Liebeslieder Walzer and Seven Deadly Sins, MacMillan's Song of the Earth, Béjart's Song of a Wayfarer, Rudi van Danzig's Four Last Songs and Neumeier's Winterreise. I don't know whether anyone's ever attempted to choreograph a ballet to the complete Des Knaben Wunderhorn, but William Forsythe set a pas de deux to "Urlicht." Glen Tetley choreographed a couple of ballets to vocal works for the National Ballet of Canada: Alice, to David Del Tredici's Child Alice, Part One: In Memory of a Summer Day, and Tagore, to Alexander Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony. Alexei Ratmansky's Russian Seasons would be another recent example. Among other vocal works, Stravinsky's Les Noces and Orff's Carmina Burana have been tackled more than once. So while I do understand Leigh Witchel's point about structure or lack thereof in contemporary choreography, previous generations of choreographers apparently did like to rely on the structure provided by symphonies, concertos, song cycles and liturgical works. Then I've been very lucky in my ballet-going experience. Perhaps you have been lucky, or perhaps I have been unlucky. I can't think of a performance of Swan Lake during which the playing of the "White Swan" pas de deux hasn't made me cringe. In my North American exprience, the sounds coming out of the pit are usually inferior to the quality of the dancing on stage. This probably wouldn't be the case at the Paris Opera or Vienna State Opera.

Great instrumentalists are also extremely compelling, but choreographers don't hesitate to set ballets to all manner of concerti. Of course, at the ballet you're unlikely to hear a great violinist or pianist. The same would probably apply to sopranos. Modern dance choreographers seem less reluctant to use operatic arias. I've already mentioned Margie Gillis' Rivers Without Bridges for Alberta Ballet and Mark Morris' Dido and Aeneas. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker certainly isn't shy about using operatic music. Duke Bluebeard's Castle Ottone, Ottone Mozart / Concert Arias, un moto di gioia (okay, not exactly operatic) April me

In some of his films, notably Follow the Fleet and Second Chorus, Fred Astaire begins a number as band leader and turns into solo dancer as the music progresses. Of course, I'd never expect a conductor to be able to tap like Fred Astaire, but some music is so danceable that it's hard not to break into a dance. This doesn't concern conductors directly, but I attended a new music festival during which a clarinetist danced. He wasn't a trained dancer, but the choreography had obviously been rehearsed thoroughly. Unfortunately, the choreographer wasn't credited in the program. I have to admit that it made the atonal clarinet concerto much easier to sit through.

In my experience it isn't always a good thing. The Baroque specialist Ivars Taurins, or "Marionette Boy," as I like to call him, spends a lot of time prancing around on the podium and I have to struggle mightily not to giggle when he's conducting. He's very energetic and enthusiastic but extremely awkward. I suppose I wouldn't object to a conductor whose movements were beautiful to look at.

This comment was made in the context of the debate around Simone Clarke, one of two British principals at the English National Ballet. Why is it that Britons are now a minority in the principal ranks of Britain's ballet companies? Is there a deficiency in the way British ballet students are being trained? Is this training incompatible with the current repertoire of local companies? Will the influx of foreign stars bring about the downfall of the English classical style? Since I have few opportunities to observe British companies first hand, I'm very interested in the opinions of posters from Britain and whether they see the lack of British principals as a problem.

The Times weighs in: Sugar plum fairy v the forces of darkness

The DVD will be released on 27 February, as art076 has already pointed out, and can now be pre-ordered at Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Minkus-Bayadere-Scal...t/dp/B000M2EBX8

The DVD is now listed for pre-order at Amazon, to be released on 27 February. http://www.amazon.com/Tchaikovsky-Swan-Par...t/dp/B000L43QJ2

I'm not so sure about that. In a recent issue of Dance International magazine Marc Haegeman used a similar turn of phrase to describe the many productions of Swan Lake that Zakharova has appeared in. Like Cliff, I have wondered about this, although I'm also curious about how dancers keep entirely different versions of a given ballet straight. For example, has Vladimir Malakhov ever confused the Cranko and MacMillan versions of Romeo & Juliet? Presumably it shouldn't happen if a dancer has had sufficient rehearsal time.

This version of the story includes the reference to Ballet Talk: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070112/stage_..._ballerina_dc_1

I was looking over the preliminary casting for the Balanchine/Brown/Forsythe program and I was intrigued by the casting for Agon. Scheduled to dance the pas de deux are Marie-Agnès Gillot, Agnès Letestu or Stéphanie Romberg with Kader Belarbi, José Martinez or Hervé Moreau. I didn't realize that Belarbi was tall enough to partner any of those women. They all strike me as enormously tall.

Sorry, I must have an out-of-date edition. I was quoting the Canadian Book of Common Prayer (1962). It may be translated differently in other countries.

Just for the sake of clarity, let's not confuse the Nicene Creed with the Lord's Supper. The Nicene Creed in both versions (325 & 381) states that Christ is ομοούσιον τω Πατρί (homoousion to Patri). In Latin this is translated as consubstantialem Patri. In Church Slavic it's единосущна Отцу (edinosuščna Otcu). (I apologize for not having proper Church Slavic fonts installed on my computer.) In the Book of Common Prayer it's translated as "being of one substance with the Father," as it is in the Lutheran Service Book. The Orthodox Church of America translates it as "of one essence with the Father." At present the Roman Catholic Church translates this into English as "one in Being with the Father," although the committee responsible for the English liturgy has decided that it ought to be translated as "consubstantial with the Father," to bring it closer to the Latin. The key thing here is that Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans and many other Protestants accept the Creed as authoritative and none of them holds that Christ is "of like substance" (homoiousios) with the Father. Consubstantiation is something entirely different. That term, generally but not entirely accurately associated with Martin Luther, is used for the doctrine that states that Christ's body and blood substantially coexist with the consecrated bread and wine. This doctrine was indeed condemned by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent. The Catholic Church holds to a doctrine of transubstantation, which states that consecrated bread and wine actually change into the substance of the body and blood of Christ, so that only accidents of bread and wine remain. The Orthodox position is essentially the same. But back to the parable itself. I don't think there's much basis for attributing Balanchine's interpretation to the Russian Orthodox Church. It probably has more to do with the personal religious views of Prokofiev, Kochno or Balanchine. I've never seen the translation of the Bible used by Old Believers, but in the standard Church Slavic Bible the father is described as running out to meet his son while the latter is still far away. The word used is текъ (tekŭ) derived from the verb meaning to flow or run, and related to the modern Russian течь (teč'). As for suggestions that the libretto was inspired by Pushkin, Kochno himself seems to have disavowed the idea. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...&pagewanted=all

If you're interested in reading an eyewitness account of the performance, here is a link to Marc Haegeman's review. I hope he doesn't object! www.danceviewtimes.com/2006/Spring/09/lascala.html

The issue at the root of the schism of 1054 was the filioque, not the nature of Christ. It was a dispute over whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone or from both Father and Son. What you're referring to is related to the Arian heresy, which was condemned in 325. I can assure you that both Orthodox and Catholics refer to Christ as homoousios or consubstantial with the Father. (The Church Slavic term is edinosushchna.) On this point there is no dispute.

But that's just it. The father in the parable has always been understood to be God and the son represents repentant sinners. In the notes to the Orthodox New Testament (Holy Apostles Convent, 2000) Blessed Theophylact is quoted as writing, "The man who is introduced here is God, verily the one who loves mankind. The two sons portray the two ranks of men, the righteous and sinners" (vol. 1, p. 357). The parable of the prodigal son comes right after the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, and in both cases they're followed by explanations about there being more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than many righteous men in no need of repentance. And yet both Prokofiev and Balanchine seem to focus on how difficult it is for the sinner to humble himself and repent, rather than how eager God is to welcome back the wayward. Now I see how the other son's subsequent irritation and the father's explanation about the dead coming back to life and the lost being found would be difficult to translate into movement, but that still leaves the punchline of the parable missing.

Why would Old Believers interpret the parable in this way? Presumably their translation of Luke's Gospel would have the father running out to meet his son as in every other translation. Nevertheless, is there any evidence that Balanchine was sympathetic to the Old Believers? I think the real question is why Prokofiev gave the piece such a somber ending. Given the music, I don't see how Balanchine could have choreographed it any other way.

Try accessing the video clip via the Opus Arte web site. My computer didn't seem to have any trouble with it. http://www.opusarte.com/pages/product.asp?ProductID=182

On the contrary. The DVD had been out of print, but it's now been reissued at a lower price.

TDK's next ballet release is the Makarova staging of La Bayadère from La Scala, taped last May with Zakharova and Bolle. Now I understand why the Royal Ballet's production was reissued at mid price. http://www.tdk-music.com/frame_content.php...ng&from_id=2578 http://www.tdk-music.com/frame_content.php...ng&from_id=2267

It is puzzling. The personal web site of Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky lists their scheduled performances in Paris. Perhaps additional information can gleaned from the personal sites of other ABT dancers. http://irinamaxballet.com/schedule.aspx

Apparently La Scala was less than impressed by that scene: La Scala may reslate 'Candide' without drunken world leaders dance http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/ennew...ra_070103120033

This doesn't qualify as a major company, but Kiev has an opera house specifically for children and young audiences, and its ballet company performs a version of the ballet reguarly. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell you which version it is.

Yvette Chauviré said something similar in the film "A Portrait of Giselle." I'm sorry I can't reproduce the original French for you since it was dubbed into English, but Chauviré was translated as saying that Giselle ought to be "simple and noble, noble and simple, but she is a peasant. It could be that she has some noble blood in her veins. You know very well that the nobles always liked to dally with the peasant girls. That my be why Albrecht is drawn to her."

From a geographic standpoint Edmonton, Canada, is extremely remote, but some of the dancers to pass through here include Marcia Haydée, Richard Cragun, Natalia Bessmertnova, Alexander Bogatyrev, Wayne Eagling, Darcey Bussell, Maria Almeida, Jonathan Cope, Errol Pickford, Irina Dvorovenko, Alexei Ratmansky and Mikhail Baryshnikov, in his White Oak phase. The National Ballet of Canada, Royal Winnipeg Ballet and to a lesser extent Les Grands Ballets Canadiens have always made a point of touring the western half of Canada, so the majority of leading Canadian dancers of the past 35-40 years have performed here at some point. Of course, I haven't seen every single one of them