Estelle

I had planned to post it earlier, but had forgotten to do so: "Les meilleures années" won the 2003 Prize for the best foreign film of the listeners of the weekly cultural radio program "Le Masque et la Plume" (about six thousand people sent a postcard to vote, I had forgotten to send mine but would have voted for it), the oldest French radio program (created in 1954). The following films in the ranking were Gus Van Sant's "Elephant", Lars Von Trier's "Elephant", Wolfgang Becker's "Good bye, Lenin" and (ex-aequo) Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" and Denys Arcand's "Les invasions barbares", while the prize for the best French film was for Lucas Belvaux's trilogy "Un couple épatant", "Après la vie" and "Cavale" (just before Sylvain Chomet "Les triplettes de Belleville", Julie Bertuccelli's "Depuis qu'Otar est parti" and André Téchiné's "Les égarés"). The previous recent winners of the prize for the foreign film were in 2002 Ari Kaurismaki's "A man without a past", in 2001 David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" and in 2000 Wong Kar Wai's "In the mood for love". "Nos meilleures années" still is shown in two cinemas in Paris, and a DVD of it will be available next month. PS: a review of it in English: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...753C1A9659C8B63

Yes GWTW, with Moniques Loudières, and also Manuel Legris (Roméo), Lionel Delanoe (Tybalt) and Charles Jude (Tybalt). The DVD is listed on amazon.co.uk, but not on amazon.com, it seems.

I'd say that in France Gautier is better known as the author of the novels "Le Capitaine Fracasse" and "Le roman de la momie" than as a dance librettist and writer... Especially as several movies were made after "Le Capitaine Fracasse". I was a kid when I had read both (and for "Le roman de la momie", it probably was an abridged version) so my memories are not very precise. The main character of "Le capitaine Fracasse" (which takes place in the 17th century) is the young baron of Sigognac, who lives poorly in a very old and dusty castle with his old domestic, his dog and his horse; one day a travelling group of actors comes to his castle for the night, and he decides to join us, taking the stage name of "Capitaine Fracasse", falls in love with a young actress, and I don't remember much of the rest except that there are some duels. ;) "Le roman de la momie" is, I think, shorter; two archeologists discover the mummy of a young Egyptian woman, and a papyrus which explains her life (some of the characters of the story are Moses and pharaoh Ramses). For the people who can read French, both novels are freely available online.

I've just seen the following news: http://fr.news.yahoo.com/040321/5/3pjv1.html http://fr.news.yahoo.com/040321/202/3pjlm.html She had started her career in 1939, aged 15, with the Ballets de Monte-Carlo. She played in quite a lot of films, including "The red shoes": http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0853481/

Among recent POB dancers, I'd mention Jean-Marie Didière (now officially retired, but I've heard he'll be back soon as a guest for "Don Quichotte"). Alymer, I'd be interested in knowing in which roles you saw Denard

The discussion in the modern dance forum is there: http://balletalert.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16424 And I'm going to close this thread so that it's simpler.

Wow! That's quite a surprise (especially as principals rarely get promoted just after a role in a modern work)! I'm not as much a total fan of Marie-Agnès Gillot as some (generally I tend to prefer her modern roles, or character ones, than in classical ones- however she was great in "Paquita", for example), but among the present premieres danseuses, that's the most logical promotion (I regret that Delphine Moussin never got promoted, but now she's a bit too old), she definitely has a great stage presence, and has danced a very large repertory. Congratulations to her! :party:

BattementCloche, thanks for reviving that thread, I had missed it last August... Juliette, it's interesting to see that the French history schedules have changed a little bit since I was in high school (1988-1991), mostly for the first year of high school ("seconde"- if I remember correctly, when I was there it was mostly about the 18th and 19th century). By the way, in France in junior high school and high school, history is taught by the same teachers as geography- I wonder if it's the same in other countries?

Naoko: those programs do sound exciting- the Japanese audience is lucky to get to see Monique Loudières again, she and Legris are such a wonderful couple on stage! Please, if you attend those performances, don't forget to tell us about it!

Naoko wrote: Well, the Japanese TV audience is very lucky from that point of view! Here, the French- German cultural channel Arte shows some dance from time to time, but not often, and mostly short modern works, and the other general channels show nearly nothing, there is some ballet on the music channel Mezzo but not many people get it. Well, I started paying attention to ballet only around 1992 so don't know much about the French TV before, but from what I've read (Françoise, perhaps you could tell us more?) there used to be more ballet on TV, in cultural programs like "Le Grand Echiquier" (and also the series "L'âge heureux" in the 1960s, which took place at the POB school, seems to have impressed quite a lot of children back then). ButI guess that in that period, TV channels were less interested in making money and getting a larger audience... That's a pity, as TV is about the only exposure to ballet that many people get. Juliette wrote: It's interesting to know about the opinion of the dancers. Well, in general I'd say I'm a bit cautious about the dancers' opinions, because they sometimes tend (which is natural) to focus on what they get to dance, and also on their own relationship with the choreographers, so that sometimes they'd prefer to perform a ballet which is uninteresting to the audience but which includes a long solo for them, or was created by a choreographer with whom they like to work as a person. :grinning: But indeed the next season won't include many interesting things to do for the corps de ballet, and indeed one might wonder why having such a large corps de ballet and never really using it... I'd respectfully disagree about Ek's works (which I generally like a lot, by the way) being called "classical", even though the French press generally calls it "néo-classique": to me, Ek's technique seems very far from classical technique to me, and much closer to modern dance, using deep pliés, turned in feet, etc. Actually I've often wondered about the use of "néoclassique" to depict his works (but sometimes I think the French press would perhaps call Martha Graham's works "néoclassique" too :green:). About your categories of ballet-goers (by the way, perhaps we, as French speakers, should be cautious that in French "ballet" often is used more loosely than in English, as in English "ballet" generally means what we'd call "danse classique" or "ballet classique", so I'd rather say "dance goers" in general) I'd agree in general, though perhaps not about the "money" issue as I don't have the feeling that there's much difference of wealth between ballet fans and modern dance fans... I'd say that there are many prejudices against ballet (in the classical sense), and unfortunately in France it often is considered as"not intellectual enough", not a "serious" form of art (while classical music or opera, for example, would be treated better), ballet is not considered as part of "culture générale" (e.g. any "cultivated" person is expect to know at least a little bit about, say, Bach or Beethoven, or who composed "Carmen" or "La Walkyrie", but that's not the same for Petipa or Fokine) and that probably influences the reactions or many people. If the Comédie-Française, for example, said "well, next season we will perform only one play by Molière, nothing by Corneille, Racine, Marivaux, etc. and only works dating from the last 20 years" , it's likely that there would be a lot of surprised and angry reactions in the press... But it's not the same for dance.

Juliette: yes, you summarized quite well, the situation... Naoko, yes indeed, you're lucky to have Clement Crisp, and more generally to have several critics who are really interested in modern dance and regularly publish some reviews about it. In France, in general newspaper (not dance magazines) there are not many articles about ballet, René Sirvin does write some in "Le Figaro" (but well, he very rarely disagrees to anything done by the POB direction, which can become a bit annoying and predictable) but most of the time the reviews are only about new productions (don't expect to see any review of the upcoming series of "La Sylphide", for example). But I'm not so sure about "French people": yes the Théâtre de la Ville often is sold out, but so are some POB performances of classical works (and some modern works danced by the POB don't sell so well, for example I've heard that there still are quite a lot of available tickets for Carolyn Carlson's "Signes"- also several modern works created by the POB were received quite tepidly), and I think that in a lot of cities outside Paris there's an audience who'd like to see more ballet productions (and for example the galas organized independently by some POB dancers seem quite successful). Some people see modern dance as more "fahionable", but that's not everybody. Well, that's a country big enough to have both an audience for ballet *and* for modern dance, isn't it? But the opportunities to see some real ballet are rarer and rarer- all the more as there is very little ballet shown on TV at a decent hour (unlike, from what I've read, before the mid-1980s, when more ballet was shown on TV, and it probably created quite a lot of vocations among children). What is worrying is that it should be the role of the POB's direction to be interested in preserving its repertory (and also to create some new ballet works, but the problem is that ballet choreographers are an almost extinct species in France), but now they seem to consider that just doing a few Nureyev productions in a season is enough (and I'm not even sure they have more interest in it than just financial reasons)... Lefèvre's interest in promoting modern dance when she left the POB in the 1960s to create her own company with Jacques Garnier was worth admiring, as in that period modern dance was very scarce in France, but now it's just the opposite and she hasn't changed much her behavior (though claiming in interviews her love for ballet, but there often is little logic between what she says and what she actually does).

Oh yes, unfortunately Lefèvre seems to have very little genuine interest in the classical repertory. I have no idea of what might really influence the POB direction's policy (and also of what was decided by Lefèvre herself, or by the new director Gérard Mortier, or by the soon leaving Hugues Gall). Yes, they have big subsidies, and I haven't heard of plans to reduce it (and, as Drew pointed out, reduced subsidies would perhaps lead to more low cost, recorded music, three people on stage modern works). I'll try writing to the direction, but I am not sure that I'm a "big" enough customer for them to pay any attention to it. And the AROP association seems to focus mostly on opera and not on ballet (and most French critics are interested only in modern dance, so they probably think such a programming is a genius idea)... That's quite depressing

Juliette, I wonder if Fanny Fiat's red hair is natural (in some old videos of the POB school, her hair looks blond). Also there used to be Peggy Grelat, who left for the Frankfurt Ballet a few years ago.

Oh yes, I agree with you completely, Juliette! Also, being required to switch so often between so many different styles and techniques often causes many injuries. Naoko, yes the Paris Opera is very rich, however I think that in general more money goes to opera productions than to ballet productions. But I have no idea of what costs more... And there will be a lot of new works in the next season which usually costs quite a lot (new sets, new costumes, sometimes new music). A large majority of the modern dance works created by the Paris Opera Ballet during the last decade (e.g. Lionel Hoche's Yamm, Jean-Claude Gallotta's Nosferatu, Odile Duboc's Rhapsody in blue, Darde's Orison...) were not performed after their first season and are unlikely to be performed again- so even it they were less expensive than classical productions, that's not a wise investment... Also what is saddening is that there really is some audience who wants to see more classics (for example, Lacotte's "Paquita" was received with much enthusiasm by the audience, the Bolchoi's performances were sold out, etc.) but the direction seems to pay very little attention to that, and seems to think now that the POB's role is to dance about any kind of dance.

Thanks for the explanation, Hans! Well, he doesn't look especially macho on that photograph, but surely good-looking!

Err, what does "stud muffin" mean?

Marga wrote: Perhaps it depends also on what place lives in, and on the average hair color (perhaps some people who are considered to have "light brown" hair in Iceland would be considered as blond in Marocco, for example). I don't know about how common "yellow blond" hair is in the US, but in France I'd say it's quite uncommon, in fact (and so it doesn't seem less common in the POB than in the general population, I think).

When reading about that that story (about Debora Voigt), I was wondering whether her body shape really was the reason why she wasn't cast, of whether it was just a pretext for something else. It remined me of the whole Volochkova story: for "outsiders" it looked like a ballerina was fired for weight reasons, while in fact it was a more complicated story with company politics, diva temper, etc. I know nothing about opera singers, and would be interested to know what people think of Ms Voigt as a singer.

At the Paris Opera, there is at least Eleonora Abbagnato (premiere danseuse), and in the corps de ballet Juliette Gernez, Emilie Cozette, Sandrine Marache, Véronique Doisneau... But I don't know how "yellow" blonde they are, and if it's natural or not. Also, among the former principals, Claude Bessy was a blonde (and I think also Lycette Darsonval).

Actually I fail to understand the POB's policy in terms of videos... Perhaps it's a matter of costs and coyprights? And Naoko, thanks for your comments about "Le Parc". It is indeed an advantage of video that one can see a work again and again, and learn to appreciate it, while often one view at the theater is not enough (and seeing several performances isn't always possible). It makes a while I saw "Le Parc", and perhaps if I saw it again I'd appreciate it more.

Well, I think that I know what it is: a typo. :grinning: Probably they meant either "chassé" (past participle, or noun) or "chasser". And I don't know how relevant it is, but "chasser" can be "to hunt", but it also can mean, depending on the context "to chase away, to drive away, to chase out"...

Thanks for the precision, Françoise. Yes, it's a really sad season And I really wonder if they'll find enough people to fill the theater to see such programs...

Err, I don't understand how Petrouchka could be about Communism, as it was created something like 6 years between the October revolution?

And one more little gift by the Paris Opera: the prices will increase quite a lot (more than +10% for some categories, and some seats will be in a more expensive category than before).

The season was announced today to the AROP members. It's not online yet, but here's what was announced (thanks to Françoise for the information)- unfortunately, the rumors were true and I find that season really dreary :angry: So here is the 2004-2005 season: -a triple bill: Jérôme Bel (new work)- Harald Lander (Etudes)- Jerome Robbins (Glass pieces) in September. The first performance will also include the défile and Balanchine's Sonatine (and, as it has become usual in the last few fews, will probably be overpriced ) -A Preljocaj double bill (with MC 14/22 and a new work) -a triple bill: Trisha Brown (Glacial decoy and a new work)- William Forsythe (Pas/ parts), Francine Lancelot (Bach suite) -Nureyev's production of The Sleeping Beauty -Kader Belarbi's Hurlevent -Nureyev's production of Cinderella -a triple bill: Suzanne Linke (Les familiers du labyrinthe)- Michèle Noiret (new work)- Laura Scozzi (The seven deadly sins, premiered a few seasons ago during a homage to Kochno) -John Neumeier's Sylvia -Pina Bausch's Orphée et Eurydice -Nureyev's production of Romeo and Juliet -a Roland Petit triple bill with Carmen, Le jeune homme et la mort and L'Arlésienne And that's all for the company. As you can see, there's a sad lack of classical works: only three big productions by Nureyev, and (in the neoclassical field) only Etudes, Glass pieces, Neumeier's Sylvia (which I don't find very interesting- and which was performed for a half-empty theater last season) and the Petit works. All the new works in the repertory are modern works. There's a definite slant towards modern works. I don't know if it has anything to do with the arrival of Gerard Mortier as the successor of Hugues Gall... But that season sounds indeed like one of the Théâtre de la Ville, not one of the Paris Opera Ballet! And much of the repertory of the company is completely ignored: no Lifar (who was born in 1905), no Balanchine, Tudor, no Ashton, no Fokine... Also the two guest companies of the season will be modern: the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and Alain Platel's company. The school program will include a new work by José Martinez, Balanchine's Le Tombeau de Couperin (the only Balanchine work of the season <sigh>) and Aveline's Les deux pigeons. Well, I guess I'll save some money on ballet tickets next season.