Estelle

Wow ! So there are even more rankings than the POB (which now has five categories: étoile, premier danseur/ première danseuse, sujet, coryphée, corps de ballet, and used to have seven because there used to be grand sujet/ petit sujet and premier quadrille/ second quadrille, at least until the 1960s). I wonder if there are other ballet companies with as many categories as the Cuban National Ballet ?

That event makes me think of, for example (that comparison is definitely not meant to be disrespectful) , a good student who gets a surprisingly high mark, with raving comments from the teacher, for a work most people, including himself, considered only as "promising" (and not finished)... and so the student finds himself somewhat embarrassed and has the difficult task to find an clever way to thank the teacher for the good mark while not looking pretentious...

I'm afraid my main reaction when hearing about that news was (besides being a bit surprised) snickering when imagining President Sarkozy feeling jealous

Actually, that autobiographical book was published 4 years ago, and back Frédéric Mitterrand was not into politics but was just known as a TV person and film maker (and as the nephew of the late president François Mitterrand). I guess the public reaction back then would have been completely different if he had been the minister of culture then. "Like Polanski many of the sex crimes against children being prosecuted go back decades, in the London Borough of Ealing last week a Catholic priest was sentenced to 8 years for abusing the boys of the school where he was a teacher, those crimes dated back 30 years. " In France, the prescription laws are a bit different: for a rape committed of a children below 15, if I remember correctly, the prescription delay is 10 years after the victim turns 18 (so a crime committed 30 years ago couldn't lead to a trial if nothing has been done since then). Actually, it could be considered as a crime under the French law, if the "boys" were below 18 (there are laws punishing sex with prostitutes under 18 which also apply for facts committed by a French national in other countries. But those laws are recent and have been applied very seldom- I guess that it's because in general, it's hard to get any proof, to find the identity of the victim, etc.) So much of the debate now is whether the prostitutes were older than 18 or not. I've read only excerpts of the books published in the press, but actually it books seems to include quite a lot of guild and self-deprecation.

Thanks for that link, bart, it's very interesting. I didn't know until a few days ago that France doesn't extradite its citizens. Actually, I wonder what would happen if a French citizen committed for example a murder in another country and then fled to France... One things that really annoys me in some of the articles published in France about the Polanski affair include a lot of inaccuracies about the US judicial system... For example, I recently came across an article, supporting Polanski and comparing his present situation to that of Oscar Wilde ( ), which included things such as "he should be considered innocent until proven guilty", which are really inaccurate considering that he did plead guilty... The French and US laws are very different (for example, pleading guilty didn't exist in France until 2004, and is limited to offences or crimes punished by a fine or by less than 5 years of jail, also I think the prescription/ statute of limitation systems are quite different). But journalists should at least make some effort to get properly informed...

The following open letter to French ministers Bernard Kouchner and Frédéric Mitterrand (who both supported Polanski) has been published in the online edition of the French newspaper "Le Monde" (I don't know whether it is also in the printed version): http://www.lemonde.fr/opinions/chronique/2...47376_3232.html The author, writing under the pseudonym "Manu A" (and saying he's now handicapped and unemployed) writes that 20 years ago, he has sex with a 14 years old girl, whom he thought was consenting. He was charged for rape, waited for 2,5 years before the trial, and then spent more that 6 years in jail (it didn't write what the official sentence was). He said that during his stay in jail, he finally realized, with the help of a psychoanalyst, that such a young teen-ager is far too young and immature to be really consenting, and that it was fair that he was convicted for rape. He then criticizes Kouchner and Mitterrand for their attitude (and calls it an insult for all the inmated convicted for similar facts and now in jail). He also talks about the fact that now, 20 years about the rape he had committed, a new law has forced him to go to the police twice a year to confirm his address, and blames Kouchner and Mitterrand for their lack of coherence because they support such a law (actually he writes that they voted for that law, but I think it can't be true in the case of Mitterrand, who never has been a deputy): they say that Polanski should not be extraded because the facts happened decades ago, but former criminals have no "right to be forgotten" even for those who have spent years in jail and paid their debt to society...

I think that some polls showed that a majority of French people were in favor of extradition (well, I suspect that probably a majority of people have no opinion about it, so maybe it was only a majority of the people who replied...) There is probably a discrepancy between some politicians and intellectuals who support Polanski, and the rest of the population, who basically pays little attention to it... I'd say it's quite amusing to see that the conservative party UMP (the party of President Sarkozy) has expressed its support for Polanski, while in general it always asks for longer jail sentences, more severity for criminals, etc.

Actually, it seems to be that Bardot's present image in France is not positive at all, especially among the generations who were born after her successful years as an actress... As far as I know, she was convicted not twice but 5 times of incited racial hatred, and her latest book published around 2003 has been criticized quite a lot because of its homophobic comments and some far-right opinions... And she's become so caricatural that it seems that she's more a drawback than an advantage for the animal rights movement. Bart, I guess I share your cynicism about her (and her voice makes me cringe...) There's such a world of difference between her interviews and those of, for example, Jeanne Moreau (now 81, still very active in cinema and theater, and such a very bright and fascinating lady )

Thanks for the links, Bart ! It seems that "Jewish memories" was a site selling postcards about Jewish themes (one of its foundators was Gérard Silvain, who owns a huge collection of such postcards), but I have no idea why it has been deactivated. Melle Lobstein is listed in the following book (archives of the Paris Opera): http://books.google.fr/books?lr=&id=Sr...n#search_anchor She's listed with the dates 1892-1909, but I have no idea of what it means.

Thanks, Bart ! I also found another reference mentioning "Désiré" and "Lobstein" dancing together in Ascanio, and the following reference (which has a lot of typos...) mentions a "Mademoiselle Désiré" and a "Mademoiselle Lobstein": http://www.archive.org/stream/lecostumeaut...riuoft_djvu.txt The following article appears in a google search about "lobstein ballet: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html...9629C94679ED7CF There's a short excerpt: "Lobstein, an of the ballet of the Opera, in a dress of rose-colored satin. Another is the Marquise de C. in a toilet of green changeable silk with a white" but unfortunately, the article itself isn't freely available. (Edited to add:) RG, there are some other photos of Melle Lobstein there: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/...RPWD=4%24%2534P A search on "Lobstein" gives 13 results, with some beautiful photos by Nadar. The photos come from Chabrier's "L'étoile", and were taken by Nadar's atelier.

Wow Mel, I had completely forgotten that old thread... There is a drawing of ballet costumes mentioning Melle Lobstein (as the "déesse des flots bleus" in the ballet "Le rêve") on the following page: http://richet.christian.free.fr/costume/costume.html

Thanks a lot for the advice, Mimi !

My husband, who goes to Amsterdam twice a month for his job, plans to attend the following program next week (on Sept 15): http://www.het-nationale-ballet.nl/index.php?lang=uk He's never been in that theater (and has never seen the Dutch National Ballet). I was wondering if there were people here familiar enough with the theater, who would be able to give some seating advice (for example, are there some seats to avoid...)

I liked the few works by Jean-Guillaume Bart that I saw (for example "Péchés de jeunesse" for the POB school and "Chaconne" for a "young dancers" program). They were maybe sometimes a bit too flat, but there are so few ballet French choreographers (for example, in the most recent programs showing choreographies by POB dancers, nearly all of the works which were shown were modern dance...) that it's heart-warming to see works which are real ballet. And I do regret that he wasn't given much support by the company: for example, three other male étoiles, Kader Belarbi, José Martinez, and Nicolas Le Riche, were commissionned to choreograph full-length works for the company (even though Le Riche had very little previous experience at choreography), while Bart, who has shown constant interest for choreography since the beginning of his career, only was commissioned a shorter work for the POB school and a pas de deux for the "Young dancers" program... I don't know if that lack of support was because of the style of his choreographies, or for some other reasons (Bart isn't afraid to speak his mind in interviews, and disagreed several times with the repertory choices of the direction).

Oh, what sad news ! Poor Hervé Moreau, I hope that he will recover as quickly as possible.

I hope that you'll enjoy your trip and the performance, Amy ! And also I'm looking forward to reading your comments here when you've seen it. :-) Azulynn, I thought that tipping was forbidden at the Paris Opera (but I might be confusing with another theater). By the way, tipping habits are quite different in France from the US. For example, restaurant prices always include the service (and also taxes), so people are not expected to always give a tip: in general, people give a tip only when they think the service was especially good.

I don't think there's any English version available online, as there are only some excerpts of the book (scanned) which are available online. I don't know if the book (dating back from 2001) has been translated into English, but it seems rather unlikely... If I have enough time, I can translate some excerpts. About Lifar: it's not very surprising that Yvette Chauviré speaks well of him, considering that it was Lifar who promoted her to étoile, and that he created many roles for her (in "Suite en Blanc" and "Les Mirages" especially), so bad-mouthing him would have been quite ungrateful. I guess that there is some consensus about the fact that he was quite a lot self-regarding, creating many roles for himself, programming mostly his own choreographies when he was the POB director, and also dancing on stage until his 50s (actually that makes some common points with Nureyev... ) One criticism I've read about him as a director was that he left very little room for other choreographers at the POB, so that he had no successors in terms of choreography (and that may be part of the explanation for the dearth of ballet choreographers in France...) His choreographies are more and more forgotten, even at the POB. I've only seen "Suite en blanc" (twice), "Entre deux rondes" (once) and "Les mirages" (once) so it's hard to have an opinion, but what I found what I saw interesting. The POB direction has shown very little interest for Lifar in the last decades (well, in general they have shown very little interest for neo-classical choreography in general, alas), it seems that only Claude Bessy at the POB school was interested in programming his works.

Actually it seems to be a somewhat controversial subject among dance critics, even now (in general, there are a lot of debates about the behavior of many writers and artists in France during WWII...) Lifar fans say that his purpose was to protect the POB, while others say that he was indeed an eager collaborationist (doing far more than what was required) and was interested only in his own interests. I came across the following book "La vie musicale sous l'occupation" http://books.google.fr/books?id=qcBpfEu74c8C which seems to be well documented and is very severe for Lifar (seen as fiercely ambitious and self-serving, mutiplying his salary by more than 8 between 1940 and 1943), it includes (p. 120) an excerpt of a somewhat nauseating letter by Lifar written in 1940 in which he mentions having been antisemitic since his youth, insisting about his own "pure aryan blood"...

Thanks for the explanation, cygneblanc. It's nice to see that in recent years several POB principals have been able to babies and continue their careers (Dupont, Osta, Moussin...) I'm looking forward to seeing your photos.

What a great evening it must have been... Of course, I'm green with envy! Is it already known when Manuel Legris will come back as a guest star ? But I guess that within a few months he'll be busy as the director of the Vienna Opera Ballet... I didn't know about such rules... Had they been injured for a long time ? (Poor Mathieu Ganio seems to have been injured quite a lot since his promotion a few years ago...) Were some étoiles absent from the Défilé ? That's the end of an era for the POB... But the previous generation still is quite influent, as teachers and ballet masters.

Thanks a lot for those links ! Generally I don't like much TF1's 1 PM news, but these reports are quite interesting (and given that it generally has a large audience, that's good for ballet !) Rosa: yes, I think this is Phavorin.

Her biography on the ROH web site says that she was born in 1980, so she's only 28 or 29. What a young age for retirement ! I regret never having had any opportunity to see her :-(

An obituary of Eva Evdokimova was published in the French newspaper "Le Monde" on April 18: http://www.lemonde.fr/carnet/article/2009/...82499_3382.html

Thanks for the news, and congratulations to the newly promoted etoiles. I've seen Ciaravola a few times, and so far she has left me really cold (and I've had no opportunities to see Heymann, who is much younger). The promotion policy always is hard to understand- there have been years with almost no promotions, and now many promotions recently, and the number of females étoiles has changed a lot (without much rational explanation...) Also, there used to be nearly no promotions to étoile after 30 (I remember that when Carole Arbo and Fanny Gaïda were promoted in 1993 at 31 or 32, many thought it was a bit late) and now there have been several "late" promotions (Romoli, Moussin, Ciaravola...)

Thanks for your review ! It sounds like a very enjoyable program. I agree that such a choice probably is not very suited to a young dancers program... It reminds me a of a Swan Lake pas de trois a few years ago in another young dancers program (I don't remember who danced it), which looked a bit out of place too... Lighter works generally work better. Nice to hear about another member of the brilliant Ganio-Khalfouni family ! About Allister Maddin: has he been given interesting roles since he joined the company ? I've never seen him on stage, but remember a lot of very positive comments about him when he was in the school, and much disappointment when he wasn't taken into the company at first, in complicated circumstances. It's great that he finally managed to get a position... Do you know how the dancers are chosen for such a program ? For example, Charline Gienzendanner is not "so young" as she joined the company at the same time as Mathieu Ganio, but her career was much much slower than his...) She's a dancer I generally like, I wish I could have seen her. I understand your frustration about the lack of Balanchine works... ;-) By the way, I guess that you'll probably see the School program (which includes "La somnambule") soon ? I really regret that I couldn't get tickets for it :-( I didn't know that Manuel Legris had choreographed a pas de deux. Do you know if he has choreographed something else ? In general, I'm a bit cautious when some dancers start choreographing a bit late (unlike someone like Jean-Guillaume Bart who has always been interested in choreography...) About Aunis: I saw it several times (in Marseille, and also in a previous Young Dancers program) and find it really lovely. I wish there were a video of it with its first POB cast (I think it was with Denard, Guizerix, Franchetti) somewhere... And also I regret that there are no opportunities to see other works by Jacques Garnier (I've only seen this one, but it made me wish to see more). There is a video of Aunis filmed in the 1990s with Kader Belarbi, Wilfried Romoli and Jean-Claude Ciappara (Jean-Claude Ciappara was Garnier's last partner), it was filmed partly outside (on a beach mostly) and I like it a lot. I think that it still can be found on youtube.