Estelle

Naoko, there probably are some posters here that know better than me how it works, as it happened to me to buy tickets on the day of the performance only once or twice and so I don't remember much of the details... But yes, in general it's possible to buy some tickets on the day of the performance. I think that officially the box-office re-opens at 6:45 PM (the performances are at 7:30 PM) but I'm not sure of the hour, and in general people start queueing there earlier (how early depends also on how popular the performance is). But at least you can try going to the box-office during the day (between 11 AM and 6:30 PM), Bastille is big and so it's likely that there would be at least a few available seats (and one advantage of Bastille over Garnier is that even from the cheapest seats one can see the stage quite well).

dancedevil, I'm a bit surprised about the cast you mention. As far as I know, the "Sleeping Beauty" that was filmed at the Paris Opera was with Aurélie Dupont and Manuel Legris, but not with Elisabeth Platel nor Laurent Hilaire. On the other hand, Platel and Hilaire both were filmed in "La Bayadère", with also Isabelle Guérin... :confused:

The POB has finally announced the content of the "Young dancers" program which will be performed four times between May 21 and 25. The casts haven't been announced officially yet. So it will include: -the pas de trois "La Sieste" from Lifar's "Suite en Blanc" -Bournonville's "Flower Festival in Genzano" -"Esmeralda" (I assume it's the pas de deux) after Marius Petipa -a pas de trois from Nureyev's production of "Swan Lake" -a pas de deux from Nureyev's production of "Cinderella" -the rose Adagio from "The Sleeping Beauty" (Nureyev's production) -a world premiere by Jean-Guillaume Bart, "Javotte", on some music by Camille Saint-Saëns -José Martinez's "Mi Favorita" (he had created it for some galas but it hadn't been danced at the Paris Opera yet), on some music by Gaetano Donizetti -Balanchine's "Tchaikovsky pas de deux" I'm quite happy to see that there will be some Lifar and some Bournonville at last, and also I'm looking forward to Jean-Guillaume Bart's new work . On the other hand, I rarely enjoy much the excerpts of ballets in such programs, and I think that choosing a young dancer to perform the Rose Adagio, for example, might be a poisoned gift. Such "Young dancers" programs are performed every second year approximatively, and it's one of the only opportunities to see some dancers of the corps de ballet in big roles (but there aren't enough such programs to see everybody, unfortunately). For example, as far as I know, the last time "Tchaikovsky pas de deux" was performed in such a program, in 1993, it was danced by Aurélie Dupont and Nicolas Le Riche...

Thanks for your review Treefrog! By the way, I have a question: you mentioned Fabrice Calmels as one of the dancers of the company, do you know if he's a former Paris Opera Ballet school student? If I remember correctly, there was a student with that name who had performed in "La Sonnambula" in the school's annual program five years ago, and I had always wondered what he had done later, as he didn't enter the POB.

Here's an obituary (quite short, and unsigned) of Max Bozzoni which was published in "le Monde": http://www.lemonde.fr/article/0,5987,3382-...317968-,00.html It lists Patrick Dupond, Agnès Letestu and Aurélie Dupont among Max Bozzoni's former students. From what I've read, Emmanuel Thibault, Karl Paquette and Fanny Fiat also took their first ballet classes from him before entering the POB school. He is survived by his wife (also a ballet teacher) and two daughters.

Hi cygneblanc, actually I had already posted that link, but in another forum ("news and events"), here's the link: http://www.balletalert.com/forum/showthrea...&threadid=10977 It's better to have only one thread about that topic, so I'm going to close this one (and to move it to the POB forum).

There's an obituary for Max Bozzini in "Le Figaro": http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/20030423.FIG0068.html Max Bozzoni was born in Paris on May 30, 1917, studied at the POB school and joined the company in 1936. He was promoted to étoile in 1947 by Serge Lifar, and retired in 1963. He created quite a lot of roles, especially in Lifar's "Les Mirages" (1947), "Zadig" (1948), "Blanche-Neige" (1952), "Fourberies" (1952), "Grand Pas" (1953), George Balanchine's "Palais de Cristal" (1947- he danced the fourth movement, and I believe he was the last surviving member of the 8 soloists of the original cast), John Cranko's "La Belle Hélène" (1955), George Skibine's "Daphnis et Chloé" (1959) and Victor Gsovsky's "La dame aux camélias" (1960). After his official retirement from the POB, he became the ballet master of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, and later opened his own studio in Paris, where he taught until June 2002. One of his most famous pupils was Patrick Dupond (who talked about him with very much respect and affection in his interviews and his autobiography, calling him his "Master" and also saying he somehow was a second father for him). He also taught the "classe d'adage" at the POB school between 1973 and 1994, and can be seen in some documentaries about the school.

There are several articles on the "Dance Insider" site about Bertram Ross's death, at the age of 82: http://www.danceinsider.com/f2003/f0422_1.html http://www.danceinsider.com/f2003/f0422_2.html

su-lian, on imdb.com I found the following production, dating back from 1995, by Claude Lelouch: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0113828 I hadn't heard about it either, though the cast includes quite a lot of famous French actors (Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Marais, Annie Girardot, Philippe Léotard, Robert Hossein...) Lelouch's wife, Alessandra Martines, has one of the main roles. Giannina, was it that production? I remember reading that Martines had had some ballet training, and Lelouch seems quite interested in ballet (Laurent Hilaire played in his 1998 film "Hasard ou Coïncidences", and also Jorge Donn had a role in "Les uns et les autres" in 1981).

su-lian, do you really think that Jean-Guillaume Bart is blond? For me he's brown-haired... Or perhaps you meant Manuel Legris (whose hair is between blond and light brown)?

About the campaign of Egypt: I guess that the only positive outcome of all that was the scientific expedition which accompanied the army (no less that 167 people)... About Napoleon: I remember that in Gilberte Cournand's "Beauté de la danse", the first book about dance I have ever read (I was 9 or 10), there were some excerpts of a book of memories of a ballet master who taught Napoleon and Marie-Louise, I don't remember the details but it was quite funny (and Napoleon didn't seem to be a good dancer ;) )

Well, I'm replying to my own post, because I've found a bit more information in the online catalogue of the New York Public Library. They have the following documents: -"Catalogue de livres anciens et modernes, et des manuscrits originaux des ballets", note: "Photocopy of sale catalog for the library of French choreographer Henri Justamant. "Ballets, scénarios et divertissements composés par M. H. Justamant": p. [15]-20. With this is included a photocopy of the Inventory of manuscript works by Justamant possibly acquired at this sale by the Bibliothèque de l'Opéra, Paris, and now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Département de l'Opéra (C. 891, B. 217, and 2366)" So perhaps a lot of documents still are hidden in the Opera department of the French National Library? -some "Choreographic instructions, in red and black ink, illustrated by stick-figure notations and floor diagrams" about the "Ballet des Erynnies" created in 1876 on some music by Massenet, about the "divertissement" or the drama "Les Fugitifs", created in 1868 on some music by Léon Fossey, and also a rather big stuff from the Lincold Kirstein collection about many ballets between 1866 and 1885 I wonder how many treasures still are hidden here and there in some libraries...

This week-end, there were some "open-doors" events at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Danse et de Musique de Paris, with a lot of public classes and also some small performances of the students. I'll tell a bit more about it in another post if I have enough time, but this thread is about a choreographer I've just learnt about. I attended a public class given by the former POB principal Wilfride Piollet to the female ballet students of 4th year. It was a class of "repertory variations", and the class included several variations from "the Sleeping Beauty"... and also some variations from Henri Justamant, dating back from the 1880s, reconstructed after some notations. Actually it was mentioned by Jean Guizerix (Piollet's husband) in his interview by Katharine Kanter: http://auguste.vestris.free.fr/Interviews/...erixFrench.html Guizerix said that Maris-Françoise Christout, dance historian and critic, had found some hand-written notes dating back from 1888 by Justamant at the Paris Opera library. When presenting her class, Wilfride Piollet said that Justamant had worked at the Paris Opera only for one year, and had left because he considered he was badly paid. She said that, for her, Justamant's variations were masterpieces, and insisted on the fact that some combinations of steps were very original (she said she had never seen in any other work she had danced), and often very difficult (though it could look easy to the audience). Unfortunately, the musical score for the variations which were show, which came from an opera "Le pied de mouton" (strange title, as it means "The sheep's foot"- but it's also the name of a mushroom...) were lost, one could only known which rhythm it needed but not the melody... Justamant also had choreographed the ballet for the opera "Faust" at the Paris Opera in 1869. Piollet said that when she studied at the POB school (she was born in 1943), the variations from "Faust" were used very often in all the exams for the students (and also some from "Coppélia"), but she didn't say whose version, as it is unlikely that Justamant's version was preserved (I seem to remember that Leo Staats did a version in the 1900s, but am not sure). Back home I've tried to find a bit more about that mysterious Justamant, but it's not easy... He's not listed in Ivor Guest's "Le Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris", nor in all the ballet dictionaries I have (Koegler and four French ones)... And a google search gives almost no results one page about "Faust", and also one page on the site of the Folies-Bergères mentioning that during the Allemand-Marchand direction, about 50 ballets were created there, two thirds of which with arguments (I think that it that context it also means choreography) by Mariquita and Justamant. (By the way, Mariquita herself seems to have been quite an interesting character). So I'm wondering if anybody else has ever heard about Mr Justamant, or can find a bit more information about him? That story sounds quite fascinating...

I've just found a site about Liane Daydé: http://www.lianedayde-danse.com/ She still has a dance studio in Paris. It includes a detailed biography and quite a lot of photographs.

Jacqueline Rayet and Liane Daydé both were Paris Opera Ballet principals of the same generation (born in 1932) but Liane Daydé's career was faster, as she was promoted to principal in 1951 while Rayet was promoted to principal ten year later; also both created quite a lot of roles for Lifar. But Daydé left the POB in 1959 and joined the Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, while Rayet stayed there until her retirement (and also premiered Petit's "Turangalila" in 1968, and danced the company premiere of Béjart's "Rite of Spring"). I've only seen some photographs of them, and would be interested in knowing more... Dominique Khalfouni (born in 1951) started her career with the POB and became a principal in 1976, but she left the company in 1980 to join Roland Petit's Ballet de Marseille, and created many roles there. She retired in the mid-1990s (I had the luck to see her in "Le jeune homme et la mort" around 1997). Actually she might have been more famous in Japan than in France... I wonder what her career had been if she had stayed with the POB? Probably she would have danced more roles, but on the other hand working with Petit gave her an opportunity to have many roles created especially for her, and also to be the big star of the company. I too find that her son Mathieu is a very promising young dancer, but sometimes I think it must be a bit hard for him to have to bear the shadow of his parents (his father, Denys Ganio, was a principal of Petit's company), a bit like Miteki Kudo who is almost always called "Noëlla Pontois' daughter"... Edited to add that I found some (short) articles about them on the "Encyclopedia" part of yahoo.fr: http://fr.encyclopedia.yahoo.com/articles/...0000515_p0.html http://fr.encyclopedia.yahoo.com/articles/...0001074_p0.html but I think there's a mistake in the article about Daydé (it says she died in 1986 and I think she's still alive).

I saw the last performance of that program on March 14th, so here are some belated comments... The first work of the program, "Air", by the Japanese choreographer Saburo Teshigawara, was set on some music by John Cage ("Four Walls, Act I, Scene VII" as recorded music, and "Dream", "One^5" and "In a Landscape" played by Frédéric Lagnau). Some picture of it can be seen there: http://www.imagidanse.com/francais/presse/.../critiques.html http://www.imagidanse.com/francais/presse/...ars-03/Air.html I found that work rather pleasant, and especially the parts on "Four Walls" and "In a Landscape" (which sounded a bit like some Satie, while the other two works had long silent parts and I didn't like it much) which were calm, peaceful and flowing, with an atmosphere which reminded me for example of a calm wind in the trees. One thing I liked in his choreographic style is that it pays much attention to the arms and to the upper body (unlike many modern French choreographers who seem to be interested only in the legs), and especially in the main female role which was danced by Miteki Kudo. I was less convinced by the solos of Jérémie Bélingard, whose costume I didn't find especially flattering (bare chest and some white trousers which made him look a little bit like a gymnast). Teshigawara also had created the costumes and the scenography (mostly in black and white), some costumes were very pleasant (like the semi-transparent dress worn by Miteki Kudo or white tops and large pale blue trousers worn by the female dancers), while some others were quite weird (for example boxer shorts and tee-shirts with long sleeves for some men, or black long trousers with strange tops stopping under breast level for some others)... There was a strong contrast with Ek's "Appartement", the second work of the program, which had been created in 2000 for the company. It includes nine scenes, with names like "The bathroom", "The television", "The kitchen", "March of the vacuum cleaners"... "Appartementt" was as noisy and energetic as "Air" was serene and calm. The cast was mostly the same as that of the premiere, with Marie-Agnès Gillot in a stunning solo with a "bidet" (I don't know the English name for that) which used very well her tall silhouette with long limbs and her way of being funny. José Martinez's solo as a television addict was as funny as in my memory- and it made me realize that my first sight of Martinez had been nearly ten years ago in another Ek work, as Hilarion in his "Giselle"... Ek's work seem to be very well suited to Martinez's talent (perhaps partly because one of Ek's favorite former dancers, the great Yvan Auzely, has the same kind of tall, slim silhouette as Martinez?) and it enables him to show other qualities as those that he uses in classical works (it was strange to think that one week before I had seen him in "Diamonds"). I also especially liked Kader Belarbi and Clairemarie Osta in the dark "Kitchen" pas de deux, the march of the vacuum cleaners" with Osta, Gillot, Romberg, Talon and Wiart (it included some movements which looked a bit like Irish dancing, and I wondered if it was a kind of parody of shows like "Lord of the Dance"), and the final pas de deux by Nicolas Le Riche and Céline Talon. The whole cast, which also included Alessio Carbone, Wilfried Romoli, Mélanie Hurel and Hervé Courtain, was wonderful, dancing with a lot of energy and strength, and the audience was especially enthusiastic at the end.

I wonder if there have been some similar cases in other countries recently?

Well, it seems to me that many of Depardieu's last films were not especially good, and so I was wondering if he was motivated mostly by financial reasons...

Well, perhaps you have heard about Napoleon's famous sentence to Talleyrand, "vous êtes de la merde dans un bas de soie" (you are sh.. in a silk stocking)- it was said in 1808 because Talleyrand because he was doing some secret plots with Russia and Austria... Also that's another quote by Chateaubriand "Tout à coup une porte s'ouvre : entre silencieusement le vice appuyé sur le bras du crime, M. de Talleyrand marchant soutenu par M. Fouché." (Suddenly a door opens: silently enter the vice and the crime, M. de Talleyrand walking supported by M. Fouché"). Strange to think that he started his career as a bishop! I haven't seen that film (actually it was done for TV, not for cinema), but it didn't get very good reviews here. One problem might be that here Christian Clavier is known mostly for his over-the-top comical roles (myself I don't care for it) so it looked like a strange choice. And Depardieu, well... he must have many taxes to pay, considering the films he's played in lately.

Well, it takes some time to develop a company, and nearly all the dancers of Roland Petit's time left, there has been quite a lot of turnover... Also, perhaps one problem might be that I'm not really sure that Pietragalla wants to develop other "stars" in the company besides herself: her name and face are everywhere, the advertising for the company is based mostly on her (which I find not such a great idea, because when she doesn't dance many people are disappointed, and if she leaves ot stop dancing everything will have to start again from zero) and I doubt she'd like to share it... Do you remember which dancers danced in "Capriccio"? I wish I could have seen the company, but going to Versailles was too far from me. su-lian, I'm not sure, but it seems to me that they will perform another program in Poissy. Perhaps the content of the programs will be written on the Ballet de Marseille's web site?

Thanks for your answer, Giannina!

Who choreographed that version of "Romeo and Juliet", and also the works of the triple bill?

Paquita, I think that "Spirited away" was quite popular in France (and also received excellent reviews), it sold more than 1.5 million tickets (here the films are ranked according to the number of tickets and not according to the money it brings) which is a very good score for France. It was shown both in dubbed French version and in Japanese version with subtitles (which sometimes caused problems with unattentive parents bringing their kids to the Japanese version... But in many cinemas the dubbed versions were in the afternoon and the Japanese ones in the evening, so it was unlikely to happen). "Princesse Mononoke" was released in France earlier (actually Miyazaki's last film is "Spirited away", Mononoke was made earlier), it had been quite successful too (about half a million viewers) but not as much as "Spirited away". I had liked Mononoke too, but it was a bit more violent, and I had found it a bit less original. Also, a few months ago, an earlier work of his "Laputa, the castle in the sky" (dating back from 1986) and was quite successful too, and I've read that some other of his works will be released within a few months- probably the producers have realized that there really is an audience for it in France (and especially in Paris)! Among his earlier works, there also is "My neighbor Totoro" (very very cute) and "Porco Rosso".

I saw "Far from heaven" two days ago (and found it very beautiful)- it seems that the ballet school of the little girl definitely belongs to the "Dolly Dinkle" category... More seriously, some elements reminded me of Antony Tudor's ballets. Has anyone here seen Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited away"? It's an extremely beautiful cartoon, very original; probably there are a lot of elements which are meaningful only to the people familiar enough with the Japanese culture, but even without that it's a great experience in my opinion (it's not a "just for children" cartoon).

Thanks for all those explanations, Alexandra. Actually my problem is that, since I haven't seen that many other companies, it's really hard for me to distinguish what is typical of the POB style and what isn't...