Estelle

On the first page of the POB site http://www.opera-de-paris.fr/ there is a message from Hugues Gall saying: Communiqué : "A l'occasion de la nouvelle saison 2003-2004, j'ai été conduit à prendre quelques décisions dans le domaine de la publicité. Ainsi le journal Le Monde n'aime (presque) aucun de nos spectacles et ses critiques classent les productions actuelles de l'Opéra dans un registre «ringard», étranger à tout esprit d'innovation... Il me semblait pourtant que notre très nombreux public voulait bien approuver et soutenir notre travail. Quoi qu'il en soit, il m'a paru, dans ces conditions, inhumain d'imposer au Monde des encarts publicitaires invitant à aller voir ce qu'il condamne si radicalement. J'ai donc décidé de ne plus faire de publicité dans Le Monde et je souhaitais vous en informer. Hugues R. Gall" Basically, he says that most of the reviews of the Paris Opera performances in "Le Monde" (one of the two or three main national French newspapers) are negative, ans so he has decided that there won't be any advertisements for the Paris Opera in "Le Monde". That's the first time I see such an announcement- does anyone know about some similar "advertisement boycott" of a newspaper from a theater or company? I suspect that it has more to do with opera than with ballet. There aren't many ballet reviews in "Le Monde" now (I do regret the period when Sylvie de Nussac, who retired in the mid-1990s, was writing there), their main ballet critics, Dominique Frétard and Rosita Boisseau, don't seem to be much interested in ballet and mostly write about modern dance. Their POB reviews are almost only about the new productions, and especially when there is some modern dance (for example I don't think that there has been any review of "Jewels" this year). But those reviews are quite positive in general. So the problem probably is mostly about opera, this is a topic I know nothing about, and I don't read opera reviews that often, but I remember reading quite a lot of negative reviews, and also some harsh criticism of Hugues Gall's artistic policy in general (accusing him, if I remember correctly, of being interested only in selling tickets at the expense of the artistic quality). Well, the POB is free to spend its advertisement money (well, somehow it is everybody's money as it is paid mostly by the taxpayer) as it wishes, but such a decision is strange. At least it is open, it would have been even more hypocritical to make some secret pressures on "Le Monde", threatening them to cancel the advertisement if their reviews still were negative... Yet I find it questionable. And now when "le Monde" will publish a positive review of a Paris Opera program, everybody will wonder if it is only to get some advertisement money next season! Also I wonder if it might have something to do with the fact that "Le Monde" did publish several articles about the POB school affair and the moral harassment scandals at the Paris Opera, some of them criticizing quite a lot the Opera's direction and Claude Bessy... In general, the relationship between some newspapers and critics and the cultural institutions seems quite complicated in France, and the deontology isn't very strict sometimes. For example René Sirvin writes some texts for the POB programs, and his newspaper "Le Figaro" is an official partner of the Opera, so sometimes one can't help wondering if it has something to do with his almost always positive reviews of POB programs; also Dominique Frétard used to write (I don't know if it still is the case) in the season brochures of the Théâtre de la Ville and also reviews their programs, etc.

vila, Koegler's dictionary gives the second libretto too. But it mentions an earlier version, also by Saint-Léon, in Rome in 1843- I wonder if it was the same story (probably, as the title was the same... The other plot sounds like a twisted version of the story of Pygmalion!) Err, Alexandra, which two videos are you talking about? The "ballet du Kirov" and which one? I've only seen the "pas de six" once, in a "young dancers" POB program, and it really was lovely to see (I believe it was staged by Lacotte, but am not sure). I wish it were danced more often- and I also wish Saint-Léon would have notated more of his works, the little few things which remain are such gems that it makes one hungry for more! Also, vila, thanks for bringing the Thessaly ballet to our attention, it's nice to know that there is some ballet performed there!

I've just received the brochure for the next Edinburgh Festival, and here's what's listed for the ballet: From Aug 21 to Aug 23: a mixed bill "Picasso and Dance" by the Ballet de Bordeaux, with Massine's "Parade" and "The three-cornered hat", Lifar's "Icare" (Icarus) and Balanchine's "The Prodigal Son" (well, the connection between Picasso and "The Prodigal Son" isn't exactly clear ) They will dance this program in Bordeaux this season, and also later in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet (but with some flamenco by a guest company instead of "The Prodigal Son"), I'm looking forward to seeing it. From Aug 28 to Aug 30: the San Francisco Ballet, with a Christopher Wheeldon mixed billl, including "There where she loves", "Continuum" and a world premiere. Also, in the dance (non ballet) section, there will be the Cullberg Ballet (Aug 11-14) with a Johan Inger- Mats Ek double bill, and the compagnie François Verret (Aug 17-18) with "Chanier-Musil'.

So am I... especially as so far I've only seen it on video (the POB hasn't danced it for quite a long period... I wonder if those revivals at the same time are just a coincidence, or is it also a matter of staging (for example is it staged by the same person?) Now let's hope that it won't be forgotten after that... By the way, which ballets by Nijinska are still "active" (I mean, which ones are still danced or could be revived in a decent shape)? "Le Train Bleu" and "Les Biches" were danced by the POB in the early 1990s, but I don't know how faithful the stagings were, and unfortunately they haven't been danced again since then...

Jane, thanks for the information. But I think you meant: http://www.royaloperahouse.org/Custom/Docu...RoyalBallet.pdf (The link you gave dealt mostly with education and ROH2). Is there a wave of "Four Temperaments" now in Europe? Last fall in Bordeaux, this April in Marseille, next fall in Paris and London... But I won't complain about that For me it's interesting to see that the press release includes some information about the dancers who are leaving. It's something that is really lacking at the Paris Opera, it's really hard to find some information about the dancers who retire (even for those who have spent 25 years with the company) or who join another company.

ducklingdance, both Dance View and Ballet Alert are available on subscription only, but one can subscribe from all continents (I'm a subscriber and I live in France). On can subscribe online on this web site (using a credit card). You can have a look at that page for some information about it: http://www.balletalert.com/housekeeping/subscribe.htm The rates for Asia are $40 for a year subscription to "Ballet Alert" and $50 for a year subscription to "Dance View" (and $80 for both). Hope this helps...

The Ballet de Bordeaux will dance "Parade" and "Le Tricorne" in June at the Theatre du Chatelet (along with Lifar's "Icare"), I'm really looking forward to seeing it, as all what I've seen by Massine so far is a video of "Le Tricorne" filmed around 1992 at the POB (and my mother has erased it accidentally and it's not commercially available ), and it's such a wonderful work. The POB used to have "Les présages" in its repertory, but hasn't danced it for at least 15 years. Around 1995, the Ballet de Nice had done a Massine program, if I remember correctly it included at least "Le Beau Danube", Massine's version of "The Rite of Spring" and "Parade" (and perhaps something else). I think that it was in the period when Jean-Albert Cartier was its director, and tried to enlarge its repertory (if I remember correctly, they also danced Ashton's "Les deux pigeons", it's so rare to see some Ashton in France!) Unfortunately, since then the direction has changed several time, the company has shrunk, and now they only dance some home productions of full-length works- and no French company dances Massine works...

Bilbobaggins, probably some people who are more knowledgeable than me will reply later, but well, as far as I know, there is no such equivalent in general. Several systems of dance notation exist, the most common ones being the Laban system and the Benesh system, but not all choreographers and companies use it, and it is much more complicated to write and to read than a musical score (it takes a lot of time to write the notation for a few minutes of dance, and it has to be done by a professional notator; all composers can read a musical score but I doubt that many choreographers know a dance notation system!) So it wouldn't be very useful for an ordinary audience member in general... So there are only written librettos (sometimes with quite a lot of details, for example like Gautier and Vernoy de Saint-George's original libretto for "Giselle"), and also sometimes some texts depicting the variations (I remember reading something like that about "Giselle") but it can't be as exact as a musical score. The easiest tool probably is video, and it's used quite often to stage some ballets, but it often isn't available for audience members, and it has some shortcomings (it depends on a particular set of interprets, some video materials get old quite quickly, sometimes it misses part of what happens on stage, etc.) Actually that's one of the really frustrating sides of ballet for me: when one is interested in a play, musical piece, opera, etc. in general it's not too difficult to find a text or musical score and also often a recording. The magic of live performance is missing, but at least one can know what that work looks like (and also it makes it relatively easy to stage even though it has been forgotten for decades). But for ballet, there are so many great works that either got lost, or are still performed but rarely or far away from one's country and there's no way for the eager balletomane to know what it looks like...

Thanks for the news, Marc. Has "Les Noces" already been danced in Russia? I wish Josette Amiel could stage "Etudes" again for the POB too, as they haven't danced it in years (while it used to be one of the main works of their repertory)...

"Grand Pas Classique" also was filmed at the Paris Opera about four or five years ago during a homage to Yvette Chauviré, with Agnès Letestu and José Martinez. Unfortunately, as far as I know it's not available commercially- but perhaps some libraries might have it?

Yes su-lian, I had forgotten to list the program "étoiles de Chine". I'm wondering about the Nureyev repertory too. I'm not really a fan of those choreographies, but as you wrote, for most of them they are the only productions of the classics in the repertory... This season too, there has been only one Nureyev production ("Swan Lake"), while in the previous seasons there were at least three of his works per season. I don't know if it's an artistic choice, or perhaps just a question of money (I don't know how the copyrights work), or perhaps after showing so many of them the direction prefers to stop a little bit for a few years, and they'll be back later? Also Brigitte Lefèvre, in spite of what she said in some interviews, really seems to be more interested in the modern repertory than in the classical one... Another choice I'm a bit puzzled about is that there will be no less than 14 performances of "Clavigo", and it might be a bit difficult to fill the theater for it (as it was this season for Neumeier's "Sylvia", for example): such recent full-length works generally attract fewer people than the classics or the Balachine mixed bill, especially when they have already been programmed two seasons ago... And I wonder if there are some plans to revive Kader Belarbi's "Hurlevent". It had some weaknesses, but it was an interesting work, and I'd really like to see it again.

Oh, the order I listed won't necessarily be the order of the program, so it's possible that "Palais de Cristal" will be the last work of the evening... I'm really looking forward to seeing it...

Thanks cygneblanc! So here is a detailed list: -a Balanchine triple bill with "Palais de Cristal" ( :) :) it hadn't been danced for about 8 years...), "The Four Temperaments", and "The Prodigal Son" (Oct 2-16) The first performance of the series will include the Défilé and "Tchaikovsky pas de deux" (and, as it seems to have become an habit now, will be more expensive ) --Roland Petit's "Clavigo" (Oct 23- Nov 6), which had been created in 1999 for the company -a Balanchine-Robbins mixed bill with "Concerto Barocco", "Serenade", "Tchaikovsky pas de deux" and "Afternoon of a faun" (Dec 1- 31) -Grigorovich's "Ivan the Terrible" (1975)- it's probably because of the exchange with the Bolshoi, yet I find it somewhat surprising, as it hadn't exactly received good reviews when the company had performed it in the late 1970s... (Dec 12- Jan 7, at Bastille) -a Kelemenis- Balanchine- Brown- Preljocaj mixed bill with Kelemenis' pas de trois "Pavane" (from his work "Reversibilité created for the POB in 1999), Trisha Brown's "Glacial Decoy" (1979, new in the repertory), Angelin Preljocaj's "Un trait d'union" (1989, new in the repertory) and George Balanchine's "Liebeslieder Walzer" (1960, new in the repertory). For me, it wins the prize of the most bizarre program- what a lack of unity in choreographic style, and also in music (Ravel- silence- Bach- Brahms...) (Dec 17- Jan 3) -"Giselle" (production by Patrice Bart and Eugene Polyakov) (Feb 2- Mar 4) -a Kylian mixed bill with "Doux mensonges" (created for the company in 1999), "Stepping Stones" and a new work (Feb 17- Mar 3) -Carolyn Carlson's "Signes", which had been created for the company in 1997 (Mar 16- April 3, at Bastille) -a special homage to Claude Bessy on March 30, 2004 -a Nijinska- Taylor- Bombana triple bill, with Nijinska's "Les Noces", Paul Taylor's "The rite of spring" and a new work by Davide Bombana (April 16-29) -Nureyev's production of "Don Quichotte" (May 11- June 3, at Bastille) -Mats Ek's "Giselle" (May 18- June 1) -Lacotte's reconstruction of "La Sylphide" (June 28- July 15) And also the POB school's program including Claude Bessy's own choreographies "Concerto en ré" (1977) and "Play Bach" (1966) and George Skibine's "Daphnis et Chloé" (1959) (April 1-8), and the Bolshoi as a guest company with three programs: Grigorovich's "Swan Lake", Lacotte's reconstruction of "La Fille du Pharaon", and a mixed bill with Fokine's "Chopiniana" and Petit's recent "La Dame de Pique". Well, once again that's a season that's quite heavy on the modern-contemporary repertory (Kelemenis, Brown, Preljocaj, Carlson, Taylor, Ek, Bombana, Kylian) and curiously, there's only one Nureyev production ("Don Quichotte"). No Lifar, no "Etudes", no Ashton, but I guess we'll have to get used to that... But for me there are some good surprises, and especially the numerous Balanchine works (how great to be able to see "Palais de Cristal" again... but I wonder about the casts), and "Les Noces".

On the Paris Opera site, there is now a new subsite dedicated especially to the ballet: http://www.opera-de-paris.fr/ballet/ So there is (at last!) a list of all the dancers of a company, biographies and photographs of the étoiles and premiers danseurs (but I'd like to see some biographies and photographs of the corps de ballet dancers). It also includes a list of all the étoiles since that grade was officially created in 1940 (Lycette Darsonval being the first étoile), and some information about the history of the company, with a few nice little pictures and photographs (like Zambelli and Staats in "Javotte", Spessivtseva in "Giselle", Renault and Chauviré in "Les Mirages", Ritz and Toumanova in "Palais de Cristal"... But it's a pity they can't be enlarged).

Melissa, Marie-Agnès Gillot has her own web site at: http://www.marieagnesgillot.com/ She's 27 or 28, and has been dancing with the POB since 1989, she was promoted to premiere danseuse in 1999. Since then she has danced quite a lot of big roles, including Odette-Odile in "Swan Lake", Kitri in "Don Quixote", the main roles in "Paquita" and "Raymonda", the soloist in "Rubies" and the main female role in "Diamonds" in Balanchine's "Jewels", and she premiered Roland Petit's "Clavigo", Mats Ek's "Appartement", Kader Belarbi's "Hurlevent" and Edouard Lock's "AndréAuria".

It's interesting to read about Yann Trividic, he used to dance with the Ballet de Marseille for a while; in 1999 he had danced Romeo in Van Dantzig's "Romeo and Juliet", partnering Pietragalla, but I had only seen the second cast. He probably will have a more interesting repertory to dance in Miami...

On March 6th, I attended the last performance of this series, and the cast was partly similar to that of March 5th. In "Emeralds", Pujol was indeed a bit pale, and Karl Paquette lacked stage presence and had somewhat stiff arms, and I was disappointed by the rather unmusical "sicilienne" solo by Eleonora Abbagnato (replacing Nolwenn Daniel who was supposed to dance on that evening- I hope that she's not injured). Things improved a tiny little bit during her duo scenes with Yann Bridard- but, even though I was happy to see the rarely cast Bridard, I wondered why cast him in such a role, while he generally is at his best in roles with a lot of acting like "Le jeune homme et la mort". In the Pas de trois, I liked very much Christophe Duquenne clean style and joy of dancing (he also danced one of the four demi-soloists in "Diamonds", and it was a pleasure to see him lead the polonaise). In "Rubies", Clairemarie Osta was dancing this time with Alessio Carbone and Emilie Cozette. I agree with Marc and Francoise about Cozette being miscast in that role, she looked a bit weak and bland, especially when compared with former performances by dancers such as Marie-Agnès Gillot or Delphine Baey. But as the main couple Osta and Carbone both were very good; it was the first time I saw Carbone in a big role (he was promoted to premier danseur at the last competition) and he danced it very well, with a lot of charm. In "Diamonds", the main roles were danced by José Martinez and Delphine Moussin. Moussin was not as technically secure as Agnès Letestu, but she was more expressive and moving, and her partnership with Martinez (very elegant, and doesn't he look great in that silver costume? ) worked very well. By the way, Marc, could you explain why you think Letestu and Martinez are not well suited to those roles? I realize that I have seen very few casts in it (Martinez, Le Riche, Bart in the male role and Letestu, Gillot, Moussin in the female one) so am lacking elements of comparison... Also the whole corps de ballet deserved to be thanked, as they were excellent during the whole ballet, and especially the impressive finale of "Diamonds".

"Dark elegies" is a work I'd really like to see today- unfortunately, the only French companies which have it in their repertories are the POB and the Ballet de Toulouse, and they haven't danced it for while... And the Limon company never tours to France Mel, if I remember correctly, the ballet de Toulouse danced Ashton's "Illuminations" a few seasons ago, I really regretted not being able to go there and see it (and indeed it's really striking to see the good work that Nanette Glushak has done there in a few years... In the last few seasons, I've noticed that the repertory became less original and included more home productions of full-length classics, but it's probably for financial reasons...)

Thanks for all those reviews! Did Legris dance "Suite of dances" or "Other dances"? "Suite of dances" sounds more likely to me, as it is a solo while "Other dances" is a duo... I didn't like much that work when I saw it for the first time at the Paris Opera around 1996, by Patrick Dupond, but when I saw it again with Manuel Legris I liked it much more, and for me it's one of this best roles (but perhaps not very well suited for such a gala). Letestu and Bart might not be a very well suited pair: physically it's OK, but when I saw them together there often was very little connection between them and it was a bit too cold.

The bizarre "Swan Lake" you mention was performed in Paris one or two seasons ago. I didn't see it- actually the weird photographs on the posters and what I had read about it didn't make me feel especially eager to see it... It got reviewed in several newspapers, and perhaps more than if it had been a "real" classical ballet (some critics are interested only in modern dance, and will never review a traditional production )

This is just to say that there also was a review of that program, by Jack Reed, in the "Joffrey Ballet" section of the board: http://www.balletalert.com/forum/showthrea...&threadid=10072 I've seen "Les Noces" and "Le sacre du printemps" only on video... and I'm getting quite jealous when reading this thread!

Michael, you mentioned Jean-Sébastien Colau. Has he been given some interesting roles so far? Until the previous season, he and Lise-Marie Jourdain were in the POB's corps de ballet, and I'd be interested in knowing what they're doing now...

CDM, oh yes, I had forgotten to mention the Stuttgart Ballet (and perhaps I should have added that it is my own impression, but perhaps some other French ballet fans might have different impressions), sorry for the mistake. And also to some extent the Dusseldorf Ballet and the Dresden Ballet. But if I remember correctly, the only German companies that tour regularly to France are those of Frankfurt and Hamburg (and more recently the Leipzig Ballet which came several times to the theater of Saint-Quentin en Yvelines near Paris), and that probably explains partly why they're better known that the others (and also that their respective directors have choreographed some ballets for the POB). Diane, thanks for the additional information. By the way, I remember reading that more and more POB school students learnt German at school (instead of Spanish which is a bit more common as a second language in French high schools) because there were more employment opportunities for them (if they aren't accepted into the POB) in German companies than in Spanish ones!

Thanks for the information, Diane. I had never heard about the Koblenz and Wiesbaden companies... Here the best known German companies are those of Frankfurt (because of Forsythe) and of Hamburg (because of Neumeier), and to a lesser extent those of Munich, Berlin and Leipzig, but other companies really are unknown. Please if you find more information about them (their current repertories, their artistic directors, etc.) tell us more! Do they only perform in their home towns, or do they tour to other German cities? Are the working conditions good for the dancers (for example are they paid all year long)? What you wrote about some companies turning into modern companies because they don't have enough dancers to perform ballets really makes sense to me, unfortunately it happened to several French companies. Indeed it must be quite hard for those ballet masters to continue working in spite of the lack of money and media attention.

Just to say I've created a thread about "Small German companies" in the "Other international companies" forum.