Estelle

The 2004-2005 season of the Ballet de Toulouse has been announced on its web site: - a "Homage to Balanchine" with "Theme and variations", "Apollon musagète" and "Slaughter on 10th avenue", in october. - "The Nutcracker" (production by Michel Rahn) in december. - a triple bill with Nils Christe's "Sync", Luca Tozzi's "La jeune fille et la mort" and Jiri Kylian's "Sinfonietta" in february. - "Giselle" (production by Nanette Glushak) in june. The ballet will also perform in Offenbach's "La vie parisienne" in december, and in a "Gala d'opérettes" in june. All the programs, except the modern mixed bill, will be with the Orchestre national du Capitole. The 2002-2003 season had been a reduced season, because of some renovation works at the Théâtre du Capitole. I think that the Ballet de Toulouse has by far the largest Balanchine repertory among the French companies except POB, having also performed "Allegro brillante", "Rubies", "The Prodigal Son", "Liebeslieder Walzer", "Raymonda Variations", "Square Dance", "Scotch Symphony", "Tarantella pas de deux", "Who cares ?", and "Stars and Stripes" (I think the three works in the triple bill are new in the company's repertory, but I'm not sure). I wish they had toured more, as many of those works aren't in the POB repertory, or haven't been performed there for decades. http://www.theatre-du-capitole.org

Last week-end, the Ballet de Marseille performed a mixed bill at the Marseille Opera, including Balanchine's "Violin concerto", Forsythe's "Approximate sonata" and Saarinen's world premiere "The Captain". "The Captain" was supposed to be premiered earlier, in a different mixed bill with two Pietragalla works, but it was postponed because of the conflicts in the company (it seems that, as Roland Petit did before, Pietragalla has withdrawn all her works from the repertory). The temporary director is Norbert Schmucki, 64, former POB dancer and répétiteur and also former ballet master of the Ballet de Marseille between 1986 and 2000. Nothing has been announced so far about the next season.

That program does sound quite exciting indeed (I wish the POB could program something similar, instead of coupling "Les Noces" with two not very interesting modern works in their recent mixed bill...) I think that "Le Spectre de la Rose" is a work which can easily look dated, especially with that male costume... The most convincing "spectre" I've seen so far was Manuel Legris on video, he managed to look so light and ethereal. About "L'après-midi d'un faune", the "mechanical" aspect of the movements might come from the fact that Nijinsky was inspired by some drawings on ancient Greek vases (with the bizarre arm angles and all that)... It was the first ballet I ever saw (on TV, around 1991) and just the beautiful sets and music, the special atmosphere (and Charles Jude in the main role) were enough to fascinate me

That discussion is especially interesting for me, as I saw that ballet only once, a few years ago, and it was by the POB school- probably not a very suitable choice, as it's quite a dark and complicated story to be danced by young teen-agers! I wish it had entered the POB repertory instead (I wonder what people like Hilaire or Legris would have looked like as the Poet, for example).

Thanks for your review, AntoP- and welcome back! Who danced the main roles in "Rubies" and "The Cage"? I was impressed by "The Cage" too when it entered the POB's repertory a few seasons ago (and it is interesting to notice all the similarities with "Giselle"'s second act). I hope that some people will be able to tell you more about that work.

There's an article about it (in French) in "Le Figaro" (it might be available for only a few days): http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/20040522.FIG0170.html The article insists on how surprising that promotion is (considering that so far, Hugues Gall promoted mostly experienced dancers) and underlines that Mathieu Ganio's only big roles were one performance as Kourbski in "Ivan the Terrible" and three Basilio in "Don Quichotte", which is "much for a 20-years old dancer, just promoted to sujet at the last POB competition last December, but not much for an étoile" (as far as I know, the only demi-soloist role he's danced is one of the demis in Balanchine's "Symphony in C"). Indeed it is what surprises me the most too: even Manuel Legris and Nicolas Le Riche, who also had "fast" careers (promoted respectively at 22 and 21), had danced several big roles before being promoted, and had been in the company for a longer time, while Mathieu Ganio joined the company only in the fall of 2001 (and also missed part of the previous season because of an injury). I really don't mean to criticize him, he's very good looking and his Basilio was very good considering his young age, but being promoted so young can be quite a poisonous gift as there will be a lot of pressure on him, and also it doesn't sound very fair for some of the present premiers danseurs and especially Benjamin Pech (who's danced Solor, Désiré, Siegfried, Albrecht, James...) And now all sorts of crazy rumors are flying, so it's hard to know what to expect. :shrug:

I saw him tonight in "Don Quixote" with Agnès Letestu, and while I found him extremely promising, I can't say I got the feeling to see someone already at the level of an étoile, and think that perhaps it was a bit too early, especially considering that he got promoted to sujet just last december and that it's only his second big role (after Kourbski in "Ivan the Terrible" a few months ago) and that he's only 20, nobody was promoted so young since Sylvie Guillem nearly 20 years ago... Well, I hope that he proves me wrong and wish him good luck for his career as an etoile And there was indeed a need for more male étoiles at the POB: for example, not a single one is cast in "Don Quixote" , as they are either too old (Hilaire, Belarbi, Legris), already busy in Ek's modern "Giselle" (Martinez, Le Riche) or injured (Bart), and two of the young premiers danseurs (Moreau, Bélingard) are injured for several months... Well, I hope that someday they'll finally promoted Benjamin Pech too, as he has shown in so many roles that he deserves it. [edited to add] Being promoted so young is a great gift, as he will no longer have to worry about competitions, promotion, etc. but on the other hand it's quite a large responsibility too, because what can be easily forgiven to a young dancer (like yesterday's little mistakes...) won't be for an etoile... Well, the POB direction has announced he will dance James in June (Basilio and James in a few weeks, I guess "emploi" is a word they've never heard :grinning: ), I'm looking forward to seeing his performance.

The French composer Marius Constant died on May 15, aged 79. http://www.edicom.ch/news/culture/040517111125.mo.shtml His biography on the web site of France Musiques (French public classical music radio, which he had helped founding): http://www.radiofrance.fr/chaines/france-m...e.php?numero=93 Between 1956 and 1966, he had been the musical director of Roland Petit's ballet company, composing works such as "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1956), "L'éloge de la folie" (1966) and later "Nana" (1976), and between 1973 and 1978 the musical director of the Paris Opera Ballet. He also had composed "Haut voltage" for Maurice Béjart. Anecdotically, he also wrote the musical theme of the series "The twilight zone".

Thanks for the explanation about the "Yes, Virginia". :-) Actually I saw only one part of that ballet, on TV (I caught it by chance) and found it very funny (even though it would probably have been funnier if I had seen "Dances at a gathering" more than twice!)

Just a question: why the "Yes, Virginia" in the title?

Well, so far the longest trips that I've made only to see some ballets were to Bordeaux (Ballet de Bordeaux in a mixed bill, mostly because it included "The Four Temperaments") and Edinburgh (three NYCB programs). But if time and money weren't a problem, there are quite a lot of places I'd like to go to see some ballet, including New York to see the Balanchine works that can't been seen in France, London to see some Ashton, Copenhagen to see some Bournonville...

Oh yes, thanks Françoise, I had forgotten there would be a special program for the first performance of the season. But it' s a pity that it will be performed only once...

All those reviews made me wish the POB would bring back "Sonatine" soon- unfortunately, it hasn't been danced since, I think,1995, and next season there won't be any Balanchine I only saw it once, in 1995, with Legris and Platel, and it was quite lovely.

That makes quite a lot of roles for young dancers of the corps de ballet (more than in previous seasons). It's a pity Jean-Guillaume Bart is injured, but that will be a great day for Mathieu Ganio (and for Dorothée Gilbert and Emmanuel Thibault in the other cast). But it's a bit worrying that there are so few POB principals able to perform such roles now: as far as I know, no male principal will dance (only premiers danseurs Pech and Paquette and sujets Thibault and Ganio), the male principals are either a bit too old for the role and don't dance it any longer (Belarbi, Hilaire, probably Legris) or prefer to be cast in Mats Ek's "Giselle" which will be performed in the same period (Le Riche, Martinez). While it can be interesting for the audience to see some guest dancers, I think that it's not really normal that a company as large as the POB doesn't have any available male principal to perform a classical role as Basilio That could be a great opportunity to promote Benjamin Pech, a very talented dancer who has already performed most classical roles of the repertory, but either the direction doesn't want to promote him, or they just stick to some figures (not wanting to have more than 6 male principals), which I would find a bit silly as some of the present principals are over 40 ans perform fewer and fewer classical roles (and fortunately Nureyev hadn't waited until the late 1980s to promote a younger generation of dancers...) And even for Kitri, only three female principals are announced (Letestu, Dupont and Pujol), along with two premieres danseuses (Abbagnato, Moussin) and one sujet (Gilbert). Among the other non-principal dancers, it would have been interesting to see some dancers like Alessio Carbone, Hervé Courtain or Christophe Duquenne.

I saw "The Pirate" yesterday: wow!! :hyper: The plot is completely silly, but it was so funny to watch, and those crazy costumes (ah, Judy Garland's hats, Gene Kelly's purple belt and cloak... ) And did he have nice legs!

Perhaps you know that quote by Blaise Pascal "Le nez de Cléopâtre, s'il eût été plus court, la face du monde en eût été changée" (If Cleopatra had had a shorter nose, it would have changed the whole world).

Probably cygneblanc or Juliette would know this better than I, as they are history students, but it seems to me that in fact the Code Napoléon often made things worse for the women from that point of view (and also the condition of women had somehow deteriorated at the moment of the Revolution- the Salic Law was for the succession of the kings, but there were some circumstances or regions where women could indeed inherit). Also I vaguely remember reading than in the 18th century a lot of female performers at the Paris Opera in small roles were not paid, so there was no other way for them to earn a living than finding a "protector"... But I don't know how reliable it is.

Also, I guess that (at least for the audience) it surely didn't help that it was yet another of those POB programs without any logic (I sometimes wonder if Ms Lefevre puts some papers in a bucket with the names of ballets and makes some random choices ) : three modern works followed by "Liebeslieder Walzer", so the change in atmosphere was huge (and the sets didn't help), and much of the audience, who had come for the Brown or Preljocaj works, was not very receptive to "Liebeslieder Walzer", to say the least... (And indeed it must have required quite a lot of concentration from Laurent Hilaire to change in a few minutes from a rather brutal Preljocaj duo to being an elegant gentleman in "Liebeslieder"!) By the way, Alexandra, in "Violette and Mr B", the dancers that Violette Verdy coached in an excerpt of "Liebeslieder" are not from POB (unlike in the other works), it was Lucia Lacarra and Cyrille Pierre. When reading that discussion, I was trying to think about what could be said about French critics and Balanchine, but I'm afraid my main conclusion was that anyway "French critics" is becoming almost a nonexistent entity as far as ballet is concerned, as most critics in the newspapers are interested only in (and review only) modern works, and detailed, non-superficial reviews in the dance magazines are rarer and rarer (especially after the end of "Les saisons de la danse" a few years ago) However, I think that in general Balanchine would be seen very positively by most of the existing critics (well, there are those who just dislike any kind of ballet, or perhaps it's a problem of "not getting it" indeed...) But I was a bit amused to imagine that probably some people could easily start a similar discussion in a French forum about how American or British critics "don't get" Béjart for example...

In the "Ballet videos" section, Petite_Arabesque asked the following question: If someone can help, please reply in the "Ballet" videos section! The discussion is there: http://balletalert.com/forum/index.php?sho...=0entry134893

There was a video in four parts called "Les enfants de la danse", filmed at the POB school around 1988. But I seem to remember another documentary filmed at the POB school a few years earlier, but am not sure. I'm going to post a link to your question in the POB section of this board, so perhaps some people more knowledgeable than myself (cygneblanc, Françoise, Juliette?) will be able to help.

Thanks for your reply, Jane. I seem to remember that the Ballet de Toulouse did stage "Illuminations" a few seasons ago, but am not totally sure. It would be great to see some more in 2005-6, and also if some of those works would continue to be performed in the next seasons... The problem of needing a smaller theater sometimes happens in Paris too. For example, I remember reading that some works of Tudor looked really better in the (smaller) Opéra Comique when Nureyev had added them to the POB's repertory in the mid-1980s than later when they were performed on the larger stage of Garnier (but now, there is, as far as I know, no link between the Opéra Comique and the Paris Opera).

Françoise: yes, that season will be difficult for the people who don't like Ashton's ballets. But well, then they can always cross the Channel and come to Paris to see all the modern works in the POB season :grinning:

So, what do the RB fans here think of the upcoming season? By the way, I was wondering: among the works of Ashton which are still "alive", which ones won't be shown next season? The only ones coming to my mind are "Les deux pigeons", "Les patineurs", and "Monotones", but then I'm not an Ashton specialist at all... According to what's written on the RB web site, it will be the first performance of "A wedding bouquet" in 15 years, and also of the full-length version of "Sylvia" since the late 1960s; also the "Divertissements" in the mixed bill will include a pas de deux and male solo from "Devil's holiday" (1939), staged by Frederick Franklin. It's so great to see a program which emphasizes so much the company's unique repertory and heritage (very far from the "National Ballet of Anywhere" programs that seem to become the norm for many companies). Ari, I had wondered about Monica Mason's influence too (that definitely is very different from the Ross Stretton years programming) and indeed she deserves to be applaused for that.

The 2004-2005 season of the Royal Ballet has been announced on its web site: http://info.royaloperahouse.org/News/Index.cfm?ccs=578 There'll be quite a lot of Ashton The season will include: -a mixed bill with A wedding bouquet (Ashton), Requiem (MacMillan), Les noces (Nijinska) -Ashton's Sylvia -an Ashton mixed bill with Scènes de ballet, Divertissement and Daphnis et Chloé -Ashton's Cinderella -Dowell's production of Swan Lake -Ashton's La fille mal gardée -MacMillan's Manon -a mixed bill with Symphony in C (Balanchine), a new work by Christopher Wheeldon, Rhapsody and Marguerite et Armand (Ashton) -a mixed bill with Tombeaux (Bintley), Enigma variations (Ashton) and The rite of spring (MacMillan) -Ashton's Ondine -a mixed bill with Ashton's The Dream, a new work by Christopher Bruce and alternatating The rite of spring (MacMillan) and Symhony in C (Balanchine) -a mixed bill with Les biches (Nijinska), Symphonic variations (Ashton) and A month in the country (Ashton) Wow! What a season! Compared to the extremely unexciting 2004-2005 season, it really makes me wish I lived in London!

The program has just been posted on the web site of the Edinburgh Festival: http://80.75.67.98/2004/details.asp?ref=4478 so the Ballet West will perform "The Leaves are Fading", "Lilac Garden" and "Offenbach in the Underworld". And also the Rambert Dance Company will perform a Mahler mixed bill including "Dark Elegies".