volcanohunter
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Posts posted by volcanohunter
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Some time after this video was posted, a geoblock was added, but it is easily circumvented with a VPN.
Fracci's production has plenty of peculiarities, including a prologue featuring Albrecht, Bathilde and her father, and the second act beginning with the entire court following Albrecht into the forest (but unlike Hilarion and Albrecht, they appear to remain unmolested by the wilis). The resulting reordering of the music is frequently jarring, not least the interruption of the mad scene, when Giselle retreats into her house to retrieve a wedding veil. The wilis' fugue is included, though the choreography is not especially interesting, and at the ballet’s end Bathilde comes to Albrecht, but he pushes her away - which feels emotionally and dramatically true in the moment.
Comparisons with the video from the Polish National Ballet are inevitable, and in most respects I found Susanna Salvi superior to Chinara Alizade. Salvi is not a spectacular technician, but her jumps were lighter and easier, her adagio smoother and more sustained, her style pure and unmannered, her acting persuasive, and she didn't fudge with the music. Michele Satriano was not elegant or aristocratic, but he performed more demanding choreography than Vladimir Yaroshenko, including 33 entrechat-six. My only prior exposure to the Rome Opera Ballet in Giselle was when its corps supplemented a production in Naples, and here it looked stronger than it had then. Only Alessandra Amato let the side down.
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I can understand not wanting to acquire U.S. citizenship. I know all too well what it means to have to file double income tax returns. Perhaps Froustey also has good reasons for not applying for permanent residence in the U.S. But if she is thousands of miles from her workplace and will miss at minimum the first three programs of the 2023 season, this strikes me as a very unsatisfactory arrangement for everyone. I don't follow her online, but I remember that the visa issue has surfaced before.
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1 hour ago, pherank said:
Well it IS a broken immigration system. And there are a lot of Americans who don't want to see any immigration at all.
Froustey should qualify as a "first preference immigrant worker."
"You may be eligible to apply as [an] immigrant worker if you are a first preference immigrant worker, meaning you:
- Have extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics..."
https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-eligibility-categories
There are lots of foreigners working at SFB, and I would think they would be encouraged to get green cards as soon as they are eligible, since it would save the company the huge bother of getting them new work visas every year.
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This glimpse [which personally I find horrifying
] is not especially recent. Sergeenkova hasn't been seen on stage since late June, although she is scheduled to return in two weeks' time.
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4 hours ago, California said:
I believe this troupe did this production in Paris in the fall, but I know nothing about that casting.
The main troupe of the National Ballet of Ukraine just finished a run of Giselle in Paris, but it was not performing the Ratmansky version.
Transliterating names from one alphabet to another can be tricky, and I think the Kennedy Center is actually notorious about typos on its site, but Olshanskyi has not changed the transliteration of his name since moving to Miami City Ballet.
https://www.miamicityballet.org/portfolio/stanislav-olshanskyi -
Only for two weeks, Rai Play is streaming the Nureyev production of The Nutcracker from La Scala, with Nicoletta Manni as Clara and Timofej Andrijashenko as Drosselmeyer/The Prince. Sign in is required.
https://www.raiplay.it/programmi/loschiaccianociteatroallascala
In 2014-15 the company introduced Nacho Duato's version into its repertoire, and in 2018-19 it performed the Balanchine production, but unsurprisingly, under Manuel Legris the company has reverted to Nureyev's (creepy) version, which has been the dominant production in its repertoire since the 1970s.
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It's fair to say that NYCB is a longstanding dream for Ratmansky. In a recent Zoom interview for the London Ballet Circle he mentioned first encountering Balanchine's choreography while working at Royal Winnipeg Ballet, loving it and loving what Balanchine classes did to elongate his naturally muscular body. He wanted to dance with NYCB and auditioned twice, but unsuccessfully. After he left the Bolshoi directorship he was offered a resident choreographer position at NYCB that he considered too restrictive at the time, so he chose ABT. But it's been noted many times that the ballets he made for NYCB during this period proved to be more enduring than the works he produced for ABT.
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How can it be that after 10 years with San Francisco Ballet Froustey doesn't have a green card?
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Also, I thought Mai Kageyama was delightful in the peasant pas de deux.
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To be honest, I was surprised the broadcast was given to Alizade. Throughout she jumped low and with obvious effort. Her legs looked beautiful, but surely the lion's share of Giselle's choreography is jumping. I have seen great Giselles with no jump, e.g., Evelyn Hart, but they did everything possible to disguise the fact that they couldn't jump with their port de bras, and they compensated with a great many other things - things Alizade didn't have.
Yaroshenko looked convincingly young to be behaving so thoughtlessly, although I think his expressiveness is hampered by his heavy brow bone: it's hard to see his eyes unless he's looking upward. I also couldn't remember when I'd last seen Albrecht's variation without double cabrioles. Even Ratmansky’s reconstruction includes them.
Szabó came perilously close to being too handsome to play Hilarion. He seemed to be thoroughly agreeable fiancé material.
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From the Inoue Ballet Foundation, a Bournonville program, including a technique and mime demonstration led by Henning Albrechtsen, the second act of La Sylphide and the pas de six and tarantella from Napoli.
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A little interview with Maina Gielgud about the production.
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The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has posted its 2022 opening-night gala, including excerpts from Mauro Bigonzetti's Festa Barocca and Ailey's Night Creature, and complete performances of Robert Battle's Unfold and Ailey's Revelations. Available until January 2nd.
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The Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo has posted two complete performances of Don Quixote filmed in September.
Added: These will be available until 10 January 2023.
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3 hours ago, nysusan said:
Too bad so many performances are taken up by Ahn, Boylston, Seo, Royal, Stearns, Teuscher and Whiteside. And let's not forget that Copeland will be back at some point.
Boylston, Seo, Stearns and Whiteside are in their latter 30s, and Copeland is 40, so they are closer to the ends of their careers than to their beginnings.
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52 minutes ago, nysusan said:
I have zero interest in seeing most of ABT's current principals with the exception of Cornejo, Camargo, Bell, Forster, Brandt and Hurley. Ok, I'm also a little interested in Shevchenko and Trenary, but not enough to go see them with a partner I don't like.
This is quite a lot of dancers, all but one of whom began in ABT's corps. Perhaps the home-grown strategy is not entirely hopeless.
Although I certainly agree that ABT doesn't necessarily need a resident choreographer. It didn't have one before Ratmansky took on the position.
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I'm pretty sure that the economic fallout of the pandemic remains. I'm still finding it easier to buy tickets to just about anything, than I did, say, five years ago. People are also contending with inflation.
It would be difficult for anyone to fill the Met. I just looked at sales for the new year's eve performance there. Lots of unsold tickets.
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The Ballet of the Grand Théâtre de Genève performs Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Ukiyo-e.
Available on demand until 3 March 2023.
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Following the deaths of Artem Datsyshyn and Oleksandr Shapoval, formerly leading soloists of the National Ballet of Ukraine, and Vadym Khlupyanets, a dancer at the National Operetta Theater, Serhiy Shkvarchenko, a soloist with the Virsky National Folk Dance Company of Ukraine, has been killed in battle.
(Irina Dvorovenko's parents were dancers with this company. Leonid Sarafanov is descended from two generations of Virsky dancers.)
Meanwhile, Oleksii Potiomkin, who had been in the field as a medic, has reunited with the National Ballet of Ukraine to dance Albrecht on tour in Paris. The run of Giselle begins today.
Amazingly, another part of the company is touring Japan. There haven't been any flights out of Ukraine for nearly a year. Tours now involve long train and bus rides, and indirect routes.
A third contingent is performing at home between blackouts. A few years ago this wasn't unusual at Christmas. I have no idea how they are managing it now.
A rehearsal for forthcoming performances of The Snow Queen:
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Only until January 6th, Glyndebourne has posted its 2015 staging of Handel's Saul.
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The cast for this performance includes Chinara Alizade as Giselle, Vladimir Yaroshenko as Albrecht, Natalia Pasiut as Myrtha, Kristóf Szabó as Hilarion and Mai Kageyama and Diogo de Oliveira in the peasant pas de deux.
https://operavision.eu/performance/giselle
I have very fond memories of the Gielgud production from when it was performed in New York by the Australian Ballet more than 30 years ago. Back then it received pretty much universal acclaim. (But for the life of me I can't remember the name of the guest artist who danced such a sensational Myrtha. Something Irish...)
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Starting on December 26 at 9:00 am Eastern, Maina Gielgud's production of Giselle for the Polish National Ballet will be streamed on YouTube. It can be watched on demand until 26 June 2023.
The company streamed rehearsals of the production during World Ballet Day.
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I can understand why a ballet company will not necessarily come down hard on public criticism by an employee. Sadly, ballet companies have seen physical violence, sexual harassment, psychological abuse, sexism, racism, bullying, extortion and various forms of corruption. There has been a history of sweeping things under the rug. They are not especially numerous, but ballet professionals have been convicted of violent and/or sexual crimes and sentenced to prison terms. Ultimately, it is healthier and safer to err on the side of speaking out.
I cannot know how individual dancers cope with uncomfortable partnering assignments. However I can imagine a female dancer finding it more comfortable to work with an ex, rather than a dancer with a prurient interest in looking at nude photos of women who are not his life partner. The first did not necessarily disrespect or objectify women. The second did.
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Another United Ukrainian Ballet alumnus, Stanislav Olshanskyi, has joined Miami City Ballet as a principal dancer. Tonight he already made his debut as the Sugarplum Fairy's Cavalier, which I don't think was the original casting, but I guess he jumped right in. This wouldn't necessarily preclude him from appearing as Albrecht at the Kennedy Center. Miami is a lot closer than The Hague.
] is not especially recent. Sergeenkova hasn't been seen on stage since late June, although she is scheduled to return in two weeks' time.
Giselle from Rome
in Ballet Videos, Films, Broadcast Performances, Photos, and Interviews
Posted · Edited by volcanohunter
Perhaps there was an explanatory article in the program, but there was nothing like that in the link for the stream. The choreography is credited to Fracci after Coralli, Perrot, Petipa and Dolin. Julio Bocca and Gillian Whittingham are listed as the repetiteurs. My guess is that Fracci wasn't aiming at a reconstruction, but expanded some sections because she thought the ballet needed it.
She begins with the overture, which after its bombastic opening goes directly into her prologue using the music that announces the arrival of the hunting party in Act 1. After that the pastoral part of the overture resumes and continues into the usual opening of the first act. I don't think the prologue adds anything. The scene between Albrecht and Wilfried explains the situation, and I think it's better if the audience sees Bathilde for the first time together with the villagers and is as unaware of her significance as Giselle is. When the hunting party arrives, the usual music is repeated.
What Ratmansky, Gielgud and Fracci share is that Albrecht's first-act solo comes after Giselle's variation, even though every recording of the score I've heard places it just before Berthe's entrance, so I assume that's where Adam actually put it. (Things like that never stopped Petipa from rearranging the order of the music.)
In this version Bathilde and the Duke do not retire to rest in Berthe's house, but go back out with the hunting party. Presumably this allows the harvest festival, Giselle's variation and other boisterous stuff to go on without attracting their attention. After the Spesivtseva variation, there is an added duet with Albrecht, a second variation for Giselle, and then Albrecht's solo, his usual duet with Giselle and the coda with the villagers. Giselle shows Albrecht her new necklace at the start of the gallop.
The scene at the beginning of the second act with Albrecht heading out to the forest, followed by Bathilde, her father and a group of courtiers, takes place during the introduction to the second act, before moving on to Hilarion's arrival at the grave. (There are no gamblers.) I guess Fracci didn't want Bathilde appearing out of nowhere at the end, but it does dull the impact of Albrecht's entrance later on.
Personally, I don't care for the 32 entrechat-six. It's more of a trick than dramatically meaningful choreography. But lots of productions include them as though they were canonical.