volcanohunter

Igor Kolb has been appointed director of the ballet at the Bolshoi (Vyaliki) Theater of Belarus, his native country.

Probably largely a symbolic move, but the Tchaikovsky Competition has been expelled from the World Federation of International Music Competitions. The Strad notes that a "statement from Russian president Vladimir Putin is found on the competition’s homepage, as well as a comment from Putin supporter Valery Gergiev. The competition counts the Government of the Russian Federation, the Russian Federation Ministry of Culture and the Mariinsky Foundation among its organisers."

On 4/17/2022 at 3:17 PM, Helene said:

They didn't mention in the announcement screen or the closing credits who sang and played piano in the Vivaldi (for McGregor's "Far").  A recording?  In any case, the singing was beautiful. 

My best guess is Cecilia Bartoli. She recorded "Sposa son disprezzata" with György Fischer way back when. (I also enjoyed "Far" more than the pieces McGregor does for the Royal Ballet.)

I was finally able to watch Dance for Ukraine today, thankfully had no problems with the stream, and I'll definitely try to watch it again tomorrow. There's a great deal to admire.

3 hours ago, Marta said:

A friend who watched it found Osipova not as great as usual in Act I and absolutely fabulous in Act 2.  He was very impressed by Camargo; also said the corps was just bad.  I'm curious to see if anyone here has further comments.

I have to preface by saying that I am not generally an admirer of Osipova. I find her eccentric without being revelatory and extremely self-indulgent. I thought she struggled mightily with the adagio aspects of the second act, basically speeding through the difficult bits. For example, the backbend after the supported développé devant was so small and so quick that she would have been better off not doing it at all. The jumps were there, but there wasn't smoothness and control.

Camargo was closer to Realism than Romanticism, for example the way his torso bent side to side with each step during his second-act entrance would have been better suited to Romeo than Albrecht. Perhaps he was acting with his face, and at times it was hard to tell on a TV screen, but I didn't think his expression extended to his body. His variation was confident.

Ayelén Sánchez as Myrtha had remarkable bourrées, but Zulma and Moyna danced extremely cautiously. 

It does seems like an awfully big box-office gamble.

I have to admit that until I watched the stream of Giselle from Buenos Aires, I hadn't realized that Herrera was no longer director of the ballet at the Teatro Colón. 

https://teatrocolon.org.ar/en/team-members/mario-galizzi 

I am surprised that these dancers are so forthcoming. Normally, I wouldn't expect a dancer to admit that his contract hasn't been renewed, or that Bigwig X makes a her heart sink. I have never thought it a good idea to direct public criticism at my employer or boss, though I've certainly had cause. I always assumed that coming across as disgruntled would make me an undesirable employee.

Unfortunately, the YouTube address no longer leads anywhere. I imagine it's the same on other platforms.

Still, wouldn't it be worth it to keep MacKay for Swan Lake in case of an injury to another dancer?

The Vienna State Opera streamed a performance of Der Rosenkavalier today. I don't know exactly how long it will stay up, but I imagine at least until tomorrow.

Feldmarschallin - Maria Bengtsson
Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau - Günther Groissböck
Octavian - Christina Bock
Herr von Faninal - Adrian Eröd
Sophie - Louise Alder

Philippe Jordan, conductor
Otto Schenk, production

https://play.wiener-staatsoper.at/event/592385c0-15a7-4d1a-acb3-169863e5fcc5

I wish I could tell you, but the streams the Teatro Colón posted on YouTube during the pandemic are still available. 

I also remember that when the theater began streaming on its own site a few years before that, they were crashing constantly.

Let's hope for the former.

P.S. Buenos Aires is one hour ahead of Eastern Time, so in New York the start time is 4:00 pm.

DW Classical has posted a performance of Donizetti's Roberto Devereux filmed in 2006 at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo.

Roberto Devereux – Massimiliano Pisapia
Elisabetta – Dimitra Theodossiou
Sara – Federica Bragaglia
Nottingham – Andrew Schroeder
Cecil – Luigi Albani
Raleigh – Giorgio Valerio

Marcello Rota, conductor
Francesco Bellotto, director

The article is mostly about Olga Smirnova, but it also addresses a broader issue.

"Nicole Cornell, the director of the George Balanchine Trust, which holds the rights to the choreographer’s work, said in an email that it had 'paused all future licensing conversations' with Russian companies. And Jean-Christophe Maillot, a French choreographer and director of Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, said in an email that he had asked the Bolshoi to suspend performances of his 'The Taming of the Shrew,' but that its general director, Vladimir Urin, had refused. 'These conditions obviously make it difficult to resume a collaboration with the Bolshoi,' Mr. Maillot said."

(As for the photo directly underneath that paragraph, I guess it's too early to speculate whether Larissa Lezhnina can do something about Smirnova's horrible hands. )

Right on time time for Maundy Thursday, a staging of Lassus' Lagrime di San Pietro (plus a bit of Ligeti), performed by Marijn Rademaker and the Nederlands Kamerkoor, with choreography by Nanine Linning.

This raises the question of why Anna Netrebko became so problematic (well, saying different things in different languages is part of it), but Hibla Gerzmava flies under the radar, notwithstanding her associations. 

https://operawire.com/editorial-the-curious-case-of-hibla-gerzmava/

While Norman Lebrecht notes that Alexei Navalny's team has been investigating Valery Gergiev's fortune.

https://slippedisc.com/2022/04/first-with-the-news-gergievs-massive-wealth-is-exposed-by-navalny-report/

At least this is an improvement on Ismene Brown's infamous article, "What happens to male ballet greats when they retire." 🙄

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-happens-to-male-ballet-greats-when-they-retire-

2 hours ago, abatt said:

Why would someone with a new baby at home, who has numerous other lucrative, less time consuming  opportunities, even consider doing this?

Yes, it seems to me Copeland has better things to do.

I also remember interviews with McKenzie about taking the job. He was worried about his lack of experience, but was told that since ABT was a sinking ship, no one would hold failure against him. 

3 hours ago, California said:

The bad news is we need a 24-hour negative test to get back into the US.

Entry into the U.S. is allowed with a negative rapid antigen test, which is less sensitive and less expensive. If a traveler is really nervous about testing positive, I would suggest taking along some rapid tests in order to self-monitor and avoid an unpleasant surprise when the official test is administered.

As for entering Canada, a test is no longer required for vaccinated travelers. (But the horrid ArriveCAN app still is.)

The Ballet national de Marseille performs Tempo Vicino by Lucinda Childs, One of Four Periods of Time by Tania Carvalho, Mood by Lasseindra Ninja and Lazarus by Oona Doherty.

15 hours ago, Drew said:

I do NOT endorse this sort of 'calling out' of Russian or Ukrainian artists--well, maybe the guy in Donetsk if he really did line up his dancers in the Z formation as reported both here and elsewhere--but I also suppose the account is run by Ukrainians and I am not inclined to fault them for their rage either.

Yes, I think the main purpose of the account is to point out turncoats from Ukraine in the dance world, and I find these choices uncontroversial, so to speak.

However, the case of Vadim Pisarev, the artistic director of the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theater, is interesting, convoluted and deserving of greater journalistic investigation. When Donetsk was occupied in 2014, Pisarev left the city and gave an interview, which I cannot now find, with his scathing assessment of the new "authorities." He ran unsuccessfully for the Ukrainian parliament that year, and at some point he was persuaded to return to his old job in Donetsk. In 2017 he was on the jury of the Moscow International Ballet Competition, and I remember from the opening ceremony that he was introduced as representing Ukraine (perhaps the only one at that competition).

At the time of the occupation, Pisarev's eldest son was a soloist at the National Ballet of Ukraine, but in 2014 he joined the Kremlin Ballet. However, in 2017 he moved to the company at the Odessa opera house, and as far as I know, he still works there. Pisarev's wife, meanwhile, is a ballet mistress at the opera house in Kharkiv. When the bombing of that city began, she was forced to flee.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10159678433169291&set=a.10154260430624291

So the situation is peculiar to say the least, with Pisarev working in occupied Donetsk, lining up his corps de ballet in Z formations, touring Russia and toeing the party line on Russian television, while his family was living and working in Ukraine proper--and being bombed by the Z army.

3 hours ago, California said:

At the stage door at the Kennedy Center, you can see lots of fans with no masks at all and most of the rest with surgical masks, which are much less effective than the KN95s. 

Gosh. At the very least they could wait for the dancers outside and ensure good ventilation. It's not the dead of winter anymore. The security guards really should insist on it.

Performances are still being canceled because of Covid infections.

Much of the Bolshoi's Brazilian contingent has joined the Staatsballett Berlin.

Ratmansky's works have been withdrawn at his request, but this is to be expected since he, like Smirnova, now falls into the category of "traitor and scum." Vladimir Urin's argument for not withdrawing Maillot's ballet at the choreographer's request is that the company has not violated the terms of their contract--though how exactly royalties will be paid now is unclear to me. Perhaps the Bolshoi still has access to a foreign bank account, from which it can also continue paying to import the Gaynor Minden shoes many of its dancers use.

The Bolshoi may be within its legal rights to continue presenting these works, but surely this poisons relations with the choreographers, who would be unlikely to renew contracts when the time comes and unlikely to accept new commissions. It could also make other choreographers wary of working there in the future. That's why I think it's a stupid move.

Technically, the Postscript program, like Zakharova's Modanse, is not a formal part of the Bolshoi's repertoire, and you won't find it listed on the web site. They are presented by MuzArts, a project run by former soloist turned impresario Yuri Baranov. McGregor + Mugler premiered in London in late 2019 (to poor reviews). It was first performed at the Bolshoi a year and a half later, together with works originally commissioned by Dutch National Ballet, NDT2 and Sadler's Wells. Cherkaoui's Faun had been performed by the Bolshoi earlier on a different one-off program that was a formal Bolshoi presentation, so I assume the theater had secured performing rights to that piece. I am not privy to who paid McGregor for his ballet, but it's possible it was not a Bolshoi commission either.

In any case, tickets to earlier presentations of Postscript were astronomically expensive. The Bolshoi can't hope to charge nearly as much now that the star of this star vehicle has left.

In late June the Bolshoi has scheduled two performances of the Postscipt program. This was very much Olga Smirnova's project and brainchild, centered around her performances in Wayne McGregor's McGregor + Mugler and Alexei Ratmansky's Souvenir d'un lieu cher. The program has also included Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Faun and Postscript by Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot. Like Ratmansky, McGregor, Cherkaoui and Lightfoot have condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

By scheduling the program, I get the impression that the Bolshoi is trying to give Smirnova the finger. I am curious to see which pieces will actually be performed, and whether the Bolshoi intends to continue its thug-like behavior by performing works despite choreographers' objections (as in the case of Christophe Maillot's The Taming of the Shrew). I also can't help wondering how dancers feel about performing ballets when they know it goes against a choreographer's wishes.

The Berlin Philharmonic's annual Europakonzert, which was supposed to take place in Odessa, has been moved to Liepāja, Latvia.

https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/concerts/calendar/details/53922/