Estelle

vagansmom, I love Willa Cather's books too. There's also "Shadows on the rock" that I'd recommend, and "One of ours", a great book but perhaps not very uplifting (as much of it deals with WWI). Unfortunately, many of her books haven't been translated into French... Alexandra, has your mother tried the "Miss Seeton" series, by various authors (Heron Carvic, Hamilton Crane, Hampton Charles)? I don't find it very well-written, but it's quite funny, and really "clean" I think (the main character is a retired female drawing teacher in a small English village in the 1970s, who gets involved in some crime stories but never really realizes what's happening, as she's veru naive and thoughtless, and she helps the police find the criminals a bit by chance...) My brother reads mostly mysteries and dagger-and-cloak stories (and also adventure stuff like the Horblower series and the Aubrey and Maturin series) so I have to find some inspiration for his birthdays and Christmas gifts...

Oh, I thought I had replied before, but it seems that my post didn't get through. I've just finished Sylvia Townsend Warner's "Lolly Willowes", and found it extremely well written, very witty and also quite poetic. The main character is an English women who, in the 1920s, after spending two decades with boring, conventional family of her brother in London, decides to go back to the countryside (where she was born and raised) and settles alone in a small village. Also, I don't know if it has been translated into English, but I love Kenji Miyazawa's books of short stories; they are very poetic and uplifting. The main characters often are animals or natual elements (flowers, mountains...) If you've seen some Japanese cartoons by Hayao Miyazaki or Iseo Takahata, there are some similarities in the atmosphere.

Ah, what a wonderful thread- but it makes me feel all nostalgic... :rolleyes: Among the very first books I read, there were some Babars, and also the "Barbapapa" series... A bit later, a lot of books by the Comtesse de Ségur (actually some of them were quite dark, with a lot of orphans, abandoned children, early deaths, etc. I felt like crying each time I re-read the moment in "The memories of a donkey" when the darling little mistress of the donkey died from an illness), and also some books of the "Fantômette" series by Georges Chaulet, of the "Club des Cinq" by Enid Blyton (I don't know its English name), the Moomins by Tove Jansson (actually I still re-read those ones from time to time, they're worth reading at any age, and the drawings are so lovely), some Nancy Drew except that in the French version she was called Alice (and the author was called Caroline Quine [sic])... And many books of tales, especially two about Russian and Arabic tales, and several books about Egyptian and Greek mythology (according to my parents, when I first visited the Louvre at 6, it was quite hard to make me exit it because I refused to leave the Egyptian department, as I had been offered my first book about Egypt shortly before ) I loved the "Little house in the prairie" books too, actually all that sounded so strange and exotic to me (as I had no idea of the place and period it happened); the only one I didn't like much was the last one (at least, the last one published in French) after Laura's marriage, because it was so depressing. My favorite was the one about the long winter, I re-read it again and again... The first "grown-up" book (not specifically written for children or abridged) I read was a dagger-and-cloark book by Paul Féval called "Le Bossu", I read it when I was about 8 and was quite proud of it- well, actually there were many parts of it that I hadn't understood, as it included some long parts about the history of the Regence (early 18th century period) and its political and economic scandals... But the great duel scenes (ah, Lagardère and the Duke of Nevers in the castle of Caylus...) were enough to please me. Later I would re-read it almost every year, and it was great to understand a bit more of it each time. Well, later I realized that perhaps Féval was not such a great author- however, he was at leasty infinitely better than his son Paul Féval Fils, who wrote some sequels to his fathers' books, and probably is one of the worst author I've ever (to the point that it almost becomes comical). By the way, there have been several films after "Le Bossu", but for me none of them is satisfying (especially that they all have forgotten much of the story and many characters). I also loved Stevenson's "Treasure Island" (in general, I was quite fond of anything with pirates and islands). And there were all the "classical" French-Belgian comics, like Tintin, Astérix, Lucky Luke, Gaston Lagaffe... A bit later, I started reading a lot of Agatha Christie books at my Junior high school's library, and also quite a lot of Dumas (with a fondness for "The Three Musketeers" and "Joseph Balsamo"- by the way, there are some lovely pages by Stevenson about how much he enjoyed re-reading Dumas' books) and some Jules Verne (and also some adventure novels of the "Signe de pistes" collection). Then, when I was about 11 or 12, I started reading a lot of science-fiction, especially Asimov and Sheckley, and also "Wuthering Heights" which started a period when I tried to read everything I could find by and about the Brontë family. When I was around 15 I became interested in Carson McCullers and Stefan Zweig (strangely, those are associated in my mind , because I was given a book by each for a birthday by my aunt), and also, in a less serious style, all the Arsène Lupin and Sherlock Holmes books, and some French popular novels of the 19th century (Eugène Sue, Michel Zévaco...), and some Daphné du Maurier (with a special fondness for "Rebecca" and "The King's General"). It reminds me of a friend of mine who really didn't like reading, I had convinced her to try some Du Maurier, and her mother was baffled to see that she even was reading it during dinner- and she bought be a new copy of "Jamaica Inn", because the one I had lent her had fallen in her bath when she was reading it... Unfortunately, we lost contact shortly after that, so I couldn't continue that "experiment". I also loved quite a lot "Les Misérables"(realizing that it was far bigger than the abridged version I had read as a kid...)

I haven't seen many of his films, but when hearing about the sad news on the radio, I couldn't help remembering him as Captain Horatio Hornblower- a great actor for that role...

Thanks for telling us about your experience, Joseph. Do you remember which works they performed? It probably included Nijinsky's "Afternoon of a faun", as it was one of Charles Jude's best roles...

Two or three years ago, in August, I tried to attend a performance of "Paris Quartier d'Ete" in Paris, in the gardens of the Palais Royal, but it was stopped by the rain. Actually, if I remember correctly, it started raining just when the music started. So everything stopped, people waited until the rain (which was quite light then) stopped, then some stage crew came and started cleaning the stage. Then the dancing was about to begin again... and the rain started pouring down very stronly, with thunder, lightnings, a strong cold wind, and there even was a light which exploded! There was a moment of panic in the crowd, everybody rushed to find a dry place under the arcades which surround the gardens, and the performance was cancelled. The tickets were reimbursed later, but it costed me an umbrella, as mine didn't survive the wind...

Thanks for the information about the Ballet de Marseille's "Giselle". Perhaps they realized that a traditional version would be bring more audience than Quilleré's one?

It reminds me of some French rap groups, for example one from Marseille called IAM which sometimes used very typical Marseille expressions which probably wouldn't be understood by people not used to it; there even are a few rap bands who sing partly in Occitan (regional language from Southern France), like "Fabulous troubadors" and "Massilia Sound System" (curious that they chose English names ;) ) Well, I even remember a song from a French rap singer (MC Solaar) mentioning proust, so everything happens...

A video of "Paquita" was filmed at the Paris Opera one or two seasons ago (with Agnès Letestu and José Martinez, if I remember correctly), and was shown recently on a French cable channel, but I don't know if it is commercially available (I think it isn't so far, but perhaps will be later).

Thanks, silvy! I think I remember his name from some reviews of Ballet du Rhin's performances- a fine company with a large repertory under Jean-Paul Gravier's leadership, but now it dances almost only modern works...

Well, I finally saw that program yesterday evening, and found it a bit disappointing. "The Firebird" was the work that I enjoyed the most, in spite of its dated aspects (one would have almost expected a portrait of Che Guevara to appear at the back of the stage at the end ;) ). I admit that it probably is partly because I enjoyed Stravinsky's beautiful score far better than the other scores of the program... But also I found it more coherent and well-structured that the other works. Karl Paquette was dancing the main role, he's not exactly my favorite POB dancer in general but was quite good in that role, even though his arm movements could have been better sometimes (and, having seen that work only once previously, it's hard for me to know if the fact that some moments looked a bit unmusical is a problem of the choreography or the dancer); Stéphane Bullion was quite good as the Phenix. "Webern Opus V", which had been created for the POB principals Jacqueline Rayet and Jean-Pierre Bonnefous in 1966 (but eventually was premiered by two other dancers, because Jean-Pierre Bonnefous got injured) looks quite different from most typical Béjart works, as it is a plotless pas de deux for two dancers wearing unitards (usually both white, but this time Marie-Agnès Gillot was in black while Jean-Guillaume Bart was in white). I didn't enjoy much Anton Webern's score, but the pas de deux itself was interesting, with some interesting steps and partnering, even though sometimes a bit cold. Curiously, some moments made me think of "Agon" or "Stravinsky Violin Concerto". Both dancers were excellent. I'm afraid I found "Phrases de Quatuor" extremely boring and disappointing: lots of running around and crawling, Pierre Henry's score looked like some random samples of radio stations, and the female roles were totally uninteresting. I could spot some references to earlier works by Béjart (the Firebird, Symphonie pour un homme seul...) here or there- well, isn't it a bit typical of the self-centered aspect of many recent Béjart works? Even Manuel Legris's magical stage presence couldn't save it for me. I found the plot of the "Miraculous Mandarin" somewhat unappealing (well, Béjart can't be blamed for it as it is the original plot of the pantomime, except that what he added didn't improve it... Basically, it's the story of a prostitute attracting men in order for some robbers to kill them and take their belongings, except that the last customer is a Chinese mandarin who is so attracted to the woman that he survives several killings, but finally dies after sleeping with the woman. But Béjart also chose to add Wagner's Siegfried as the first customer, the second customer is danced by a female dancer, and the prostitute is danced by a male dancer). The main dancers were very good, Kader Belarbi being a moving Mandarin (with a little something of "Pétrouchka") while Hervé Courtain danced the role of the prostitute (I'm glad to see that he finally gets interesting roles, but that was probably the ugliest male costume I've ever seen...) Oops, I've got to go.

silvy, do you know the name of that French ballet master? From what you wrote, I think that what was shown only was the last act of "Napoli"- well, that's already great, I wish I had an opportunity to see it here (in France)! I saw it only on video (probably the one that Giannina has on laser disc), with Arne Villumsen and Linda Hindberg.

The casts for "Manon" have been announced on the POB's official web site... and the cast of the premiere (June 12th) features Jean-Guillaume Bart as Des Grieux, Kader Belarbi as Lescaut, Stéphanie Romberg as the mistress, Jean-Marie Didière as GM... and Aurélie Dupont as Manon. Aurélie Dupont got injured at the end of the previous season, and had not performed in the 2002-2003 season. It's good to see that she's back in good shape, and I guess that she'll be welcomed very much by the audience on that day! The other casts are Osta/ Le Riche, Moussin/ Legris, Vishneva/ Legris, and Guillem/ Hilaire.

Well, who knows, perhaps they will tour with it? Else Bordeaux is only 3 hours away from Paris by train... ;) By the way, I realize that not many company perform "Giselle" in France. The Ballet de Marseille had danced it a few seasons ago, with a new production by Eric Quilleré, but it wasn't very successful (I had seen it, and I think that one big problem was the costumes, for example in the first act not two people had costumes with the same color, and also there were some changes- for example Giselle had no mother but a father- which were unnecessary). The Ballet de Nancy et de Lorraine used to perform it under Lacotte's direction, but now it's out of their repertory. So I think that outside Paris there's only Bordeaux (and perhaps Toulouse? But I'm not sure.)

By the way, I'm green with envy when looking at the prices of ballet tickets in Bordeaux: the top price for all the performances except those of "The Nutcracker" is... 30 euros (a bit more than 30 US $), for Nutcracker it's 38 euros. And people under 25, students under 30 and unemployed people can get half-price tickets for all the performances, and all the programs (except perhaps the Béjart- Carlson- Malandain one) are with a live orchestra (the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine), and the Grand-Théâtre is one of the most beautiful theaters I've ever seen... Not to mention the number of good, unexpensive restaurants in the neighborhood of the theater. ;)

Here is the program of the 2003-2004 of the Ballet de Bordeaux: - a triple bill (Nov. 15- 21) including a work by Béjart (to be announced), Carolyn Carlson's "Hydrogen Jukebox" (has someone heard about it?) and Thierry Malandain's "Sextet" (I saw it a few years ago performed by Malandain's own company in Paris and it was an interesting abstract work on Steve Reich's score) -"Casse-Noisette" (The Nutcracker- Charles Jude's production) between Dec 12 and 31 -"Giselle" (Charles Jude's production after Perrot and Coralli) between Feb 28 and Mar 8 - a Balanchine quadruple bill with "Serenade", "The Four Temperaments", "Sonatine" and "Who Cares?" between June 15 and 20. By the way, the Ballet de Bordeaux will soon be performing in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet, with a "Picasso" mixed bill including Massine's "Parade" and "Le Tricorne", Lifar's "Icare" and some flamenco by Cristina Hoyos.

Thanks for your review, sulian. I'm going to see that show next Saturday in the afternoon, and I'm looking forward to seeing it! But it's a pity that Mathieu Ganio who was supposed to danced "Tchaikovsky pas de deux" got injured: Audric Bezard is a good dancer too, but I have a great memory of Ganio in "La Fille mal gardée", and he always looks great in the corps de ballet, so I'd have liked to see him in that role... About Aurore Cordellier, it seems that the direction is a bit too likely to give her some too hard roles: in the previous "young dancers" program, she had danced an excerpt from "Swan Lake" (and I hadn't liked it much), I think that in general such roles might be a bit too hard for such young dancers (and also lose some of their interest when taken out of their context...)

silvy, Azari Plissetski is the brother of Maia Plissetskaya! There's a biography of him there (in French): http://www.bejart-rudra.ch/cv/plissetski.html It says that he was born in 1937, studied at the Bolshoi school with Tarasov, Varlamov and Messerer, joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1957, and then spent 10 years with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, as a dancer, a teacher and a choreorapher. Between 1978 and 1981 he worked as a teacher for Béjart's Ballet of the 20th Century, then as a ballet master for various companies (Kirov Ballet, Roland Petit's Ballet National de Marseille, Ballet Classique de Moscou and some others). Since 1991, he teaches at the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and at the Rudra Béjart school.

Well, from what I've read Jérémie Bélingard is supposed to dance "Phrases de Quatuor" a few times too. He's a good dancer, but very different from Legris (in style, physically, and also much younger) so I wonder what a role created specifically for Legris would look like on him. Yes indeed, Béjart seems more interested in creating roles for male dancers. He did a few big female roles though, for example the original version of his "Bolero" featured a female dancer surrounded with male dancers (and for example some older works like his "Rite of Spring" or "9th Symphony" have big roles more equally shared between males and females). I'm a bit curious about "Webern opus V", as it sounds a bit different from the typical Béjart works, more abstract (I've only seen some photographs of it). I had seen "L'Oiseau de Feu" and "Le Mandarin Merveilleux" by the Béjart Ballet Lausanne some years ago (in two different programs) by the Béjart Ballet Lausanne, I have a good memory of "L'Oiseau de Feu" but found that "Le Mandarin merveilleux" was quite a bore (and the work which was danced with it, some stuff more or less inspired by Pasolini, was even worse- lots of texts, pictures, etc. and very little dance).

Thanks for your review, Naoko. I hope to be able to see that program- mostly for Legris, because he generally manages to be excellent whatever he has to dance, and from what you wrote that piece sounds quite interesting! But now the problem will be to be sure about the casts, as there often are last-minute changes, and I'd be disappointed to see someone else in that role... In general, women don't seem to be dancing much in that program: the only "big" female role seems to be the female role of "Webern Opus V".

And where was the man hidden in the Pas de Quatre?

Err... I wonder where the definition of "northern" starts for that journalist- doesn't Italy have quite a decent record of classical music composers, for example? :confused:

Hans, Agnès Letestu and José Martinez also were filmed in this ballet about five years ago, in a gala honoring Yvette Chauviré at the Paris Opera. However, I doubt it's available commercially- but perhaps it can be found in libraries?

Ed, I'm glad to see that my old (needing much updating) site still can be useful! And thanks for the review, that does sound like a very exciting program. The Ballet de Bordeaux will perform "Parade" in a Massine-Lifar mixed bill in June in Paris, and I'm looking forward to seeing it.

su-lian, I'm not sure (as it was far before I started being interested in ballet) but I think one reason why Eric Vu-An left the POB was because he didn't get on well with Nureyev (and there was a famous incident when, at the end of a performance of "Arepo", Béjart announced that Vu-An and Legris were promoted to principal (both were sujets then), but just after that Nureyev said he hadn't authorized Béjart to do so, and no, they weren't promoted. Legris was promoted soon after, but Vu An wasn't). By the way, I remember reading an interview of Vu An (who now is the director of the Avignon Ballet, a small company in the South of France) in which he talked about his ethnic background; some part of his ancestry is Vietnamese (and his last name is Vietnamese indeed), but he also has some African ancestors, and in fact his family was a bit surprised at first that he got such dark skin and curly hair. If I remember correctly, Raphaëlle Delaunay dances with the Nederlands Dans Theater. There's also Jean-Marie Didière, who has one African parent and one French one (and who's going to retire at the end of this season as far as I know, because he'll turn 45, and who will be missed much, well, at least by me...) I think there are a lot of parameters, some of them economic (ballet classes are expensive, and in France many people of African origin don't have high-paying jobs- well, discrimination has a role in it too ), the lack of exposure, the fact that in some cultures ballet might be seen negatively (for example I think some Muslim parents might balk at having their daughters wearing ballet leotards because it would be considered as undecent), etc. But comments like those mentioned in the initial thread really need to be addressed...