Estelle

I voted for "Romeo and Juliet", because I've never been especially a fan of that ballet (and of its music). But in fact the choice for ballet isn't that large in France, as there are fewer and fewer companies, so it's hard to have too much of any ballet... And please, if some people want to get rid of "Serenade" for a while, please send it here (as far as I know, it last was danced in Paris in 1997)!

Two more articles about that topic, in "Le Monde": http://www.lemonde.fr/article/0,5987,3246-...308435-,00.html http://www.lemonde.fr/article/0,5987,3246-...308436-,00.html But those ones deal not with the POB school, but with other problems mentioned in the initial report by Socialconseil (moral harrassment in some departments of the Paris Opera), and also with some serious security problems. A brief summary: It seems that the relationship between the direction of the opera and the unions are getting worse and worse. The union complain about several problems, some cases of moral harrassment (seven cases are being studied), and also some security problems (potential problems of fire, of dangerous chemical substances... And also both articles mention a very serious accident which happened in may 2002 at the Opera Bastille: a "pont lumière" (I don't know the technical term- well, a bit piece of metal with some lights on, which was above the stage) which suddenly fell on the stage. Fortunately there was no one then, but it seems that there have been some heated debates about it, and about the security of Bastille in general. An expertise (is it the right word?) was done in july and august 2002, and said some emergency repairing was needed, but it would mean that Bastille would need to close because of that. It seems that in fact, some technical parts of Bastille have been dysfunctional since its opening (actually I remember reading that when it was built, many stagehands who had worked in Garnier for decades complained about what was done and said it wouldn't work correctly, nobody listened to them and in fact they often were right...) Hugues Gall doesn't want Bastille to close, and there are disagreements between the ministery of work (which wants it to close) and the ministery of culture (which doesn't). Now it depends on a decision of the minister of culture- or perhaps of the "inspection du travail" which might force it to close. Well, it's surprising to learn about all that- and closing Bastille wouldn't be a small thing, as most operas are performed there! But using unsafe material could be very dangerous (the Paris Opera already was condamned a few years ago because some chorists died during a tour a few years ago, because of badly made sets which collapsed during a rehearsal)...

Grace, it's not very easy for me to check the pronunciation, because sometimes I don't know exactly how what you wrote would be pronounced by a native speaker! And also some French sounds don't exist in English: for example the "u" in "une" is not like "oo", but probably it is too difficult in general for a native English speaker to pronounce it... What you wrote seems OK to me, except perhaps that in ‘pe-TEE pah d Basque on toor-NON’ I'd rather write "pe-TEE pah d BASQUE on toor-NON" (however, one should keep in mind that in French accented syllables- I don't know if it's the right term, well, the syllables written with capital letters) are not very strong, less strong than in English- and even if you put the accent on the wrong place it would be understood by a French person).

I've checked the books I have at home (a recent "Dictionnaire de la danse", Jacques's Baril dictionary and another one whose author I don't remember) and all of them give 1923 as the year of Legnani's death.

You're welcome! And it's interesting to read the point of view of someone who's much more familiar than me with Balanchine works. Actually, the Ballet de Toulouse is one of the only things in French ballet which make me feel optimistic now- it shows that with a good leadership, much progress can be done in a few years...

Thanks Marc and Viviane for the explanation! I had misunderstood Viviane's initial comment, and I agree that often the management "stops" the applause too soon (but it seems to vary a little bit depending on the performances), and it's a pity. I wonder why they do that- "Paquita" isn't even a very long ballet? Marc, perhaps Pujol and Legris need more time: Letestu and Martinez have been dancing together for many years (and they are a couple in real life- it doesn't always make great partners on stage, but probably it means at least that they work a lot together), while the partnership between Pujol and Legris is more recent (ah, to see him again with Monique Loudières...)

Could someone explain what "tag team" is, for non native speakers like me? (I think I understand but am not sure).

Viviane, I saw the Pujol- Legris cast too, on Jan 30th, and have little to add to your comments. Legris was wonderful (as usual, would I say), and Pujol was quite convincing as a young, naive Paquita. I had only seen that ballet once before, two seasons ago with Gillot and Martinez (a last-minute cast, as Gillot was supposed to dance with Bart and Martinez with Letestu but both got injured); while the plot really is far-fetched and the choreography might not be a masterpiece, I had found the whole work very pleasant- and at least it was an opportunity to see much of the corps de ballet, and to see a lot of real variations (more interesting, in my opinion, than most of the new works premiered by the POB in recent seasons). I agree that Martinez was a bit cold, on the other hand Gillot was quite moving. This time, the partnership Pujol- Legris worked very well (it's the first time I see them together in big roles)- and who wouldn't dream of a partner like Legris, so kind and elegant? The only shortcoming I could find is that in my opinion, the costumes were a bit less suited to the blond-haired Pujol and Legris than to the brown-haired Gillot and Martinez, but that's really a detail. Inigo was danced that night by Stephane Phavorin, who was excellent in that role (and made me regret once more that he's rarely cast), both in the acting (what a bad guy!) and the dancing department. Jean-Marie Didière was Don Lopez, and looked totally villainous (especially with his shaved hair), perhaps a bit over the top sometimes, but so enjoyable (I wish some choreographer would create a role especially for him before he retires in a few seasons, he's so great in all the "senior" roles like Don Quichotte, most bad guys, etc.) Hervé Courtain danced the pas de trois, and was absolutely charming (I'm glad he finally decided to come back from Boston- he's one of the most interesting sujets of the company in my opinion), his partners were Géraldine Wiart and Muriel Zusperreguy, both good but not as sparkling as Fiat and Osta that I had seen in those roles two seasons ago. The final part was a joy to watch, with so much enthusiasm from the corps de ballet- and a lovely grand pas danced by Isabelle Ciaravola, Caroline Bance, Miteki Kudo, Muriel Zusperreguy, Céline Talon and Marie-Solène Boulet. I didn't find the applause so "restrained" that evening, to me it sounded very enthusiastic!

So you were at that "Sylvia"? (When reading your post, I first thought "but how did she know what I look like?" before remembering the wedding photographs thread ;) ) I'm sorry not to have noticed you- well, I had no idea someone was looking for me, and my husband and I went home quite quickly to have dinner! That's a missed opportunity I agree that seeing Legris is quite something- well, that was the main reason why I attended that performance!

Thanks for all those reviews. Now I'm even more jealous I saw "Chronicle" a few seasons ago near Paris, and found it impressive, but as it is a reconstruction of an early work, I was wondering how authentic it was? Also when seeing "Steps in the street", strangely I thought about "Serenade"- two works made in the same periode, with a rather large female corps de ballet, but with little in common, except perhaps some dark sense of fate...

Here are some links which might be useful: -the official Paris Opera site: http://www.opera-de-paris.fr/ Most of it is only in French, but there are some pages in English about online booking. And now there are some pages especially dedicated to the ballet, with a list of the dancers and some biographies of the étoiles and premiers danseurs: http://www.opera-de-paris.fr/ballet/ -some personal pages of POB dancers: Nicolas Le Riche (étoile): http://www.nicolasleriche.com/ José Martinez (étoile): http://www.josecarlosmartinez.com/ Manuel Legris (étoile): http://www.antinea.com/legris/ Well, I'm not sure that it works well, as I can't go past the first page... Marie-Agnès Gillot (première danseuse): http://www.marieagnesgillot.com/ Gil Isoart (sujet): http://www.gilisoart.com/ Alexandra Cardinale (coryphée): http://www.mcdesign.dpn.ch/alex3/ Sophie Parcen (quadrille): http://mapage.noos.fr/sparcen/ Her site often includes some interesting information about the casts (especially those of the corps de ballet, which generally don't appear on the official POB site) -a site by a former student of the POB dance school: http://mapage.noos.fr/nina-opera/ It also includes some pages about the première danseuse Karin Averty -a site about the POB (I don't know who made it): http://www.balletdelopera.com/

I remember seeing a version of "Romeo and Juliet" by Maryse Delente, on Berlioz's music., and I liked it. But Delente is a modern dance choreographer, not a ballet one. Nijinska did a "Romeo and Juliet" in 1926 for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, on a score by Constant Lambert (has anybody heard it), with Lifar and Nikitina in the main roles, and some sets by Max Ernst and Joan Miro. If I remember correctly what I had read about it, at the end the lovers escaped in an aeroplane... The few photographs of it that I've seen looked interesting.

Leigh, I've just had a look at the web site of the hôtel Castex, and it's not especially chep any longer indeed! A decent very cheap hotel I've heard about is the hotel Flatters in the Quartier Latin (5th arrondissement) near the Port-Royal station, my brother stayed there several time when he had to come to Paris for some exams and there were single rooms for less than 45 euros (but it's only one-star, so don't expect something wonderful...) Finding good restaurants not too expensive in the neighborhood of the Opera Garnier is not that easy... Two days ago we discovered, thanks to a friend, a restaurant which offers typical food of Southwest France (it is associated to a farm in Corrèze) at really low prices, all main courses (cassoulet, confit de canard, magret de canard...) are below 9 euros and even the wines are quite cheap. It's called "domaine de Lintillac"- but if you don't like duck food better not go there... Else there are some restaurants on the Boulevard des Italiens, but most of them are not very original and are often crowded. Now, if you don't care about the price, you can try the "café de la Paix" on the Place de l'Opéra...

The casts for the upcoming performances of "Jewels" at the Paris Opera have just been published on the POB's website: http://www.opera-de-paris.fr/0203/fiche/fi...?rnd1=232415130 Of course, some changes are likely to happen... It already is a bit different from the names which had already been published on the web site (without dates). Briefly, there will be (* means "new role"): Allegro Brillante (on the first day only): Maurin and Bart Emeralds: 1st pas de deux: Pujol *-Paquette * (7) Maurin- Romoli (6) Averty *- Duquenne (2) Rique *- Moreau * (2) 2nd pas de deux: Osta *- Belarbi (6) Daniel - Belarbi (2) Abbagnato *- Bullion (3) Moussin- Novis (2) Moussin -Bridard * (2) Daniel- Bridard (2) Pas de trois: Abbagnato, Daniel, Hurel, Kamionka, Doisneau *, Muret *, Fiat, Cardinale Moreau, Thibault, Phavorin, Carbone *, Duquenne Rubies Moussin- Legris -Gillot or Averty Abbagnato- Legris- Averty or Gillot or Romberg Daniel *- Thibault (Katharine, book your seat! ;)- Rique Fiat-Courtain- Romberg Osta *- Belingard - Averty * or Romberg Osta -Carbone *- Rique or Averty Diamonds Letestu- Martinez Gillot- Bart Moussin- Moreau Averty- Duquenne I'm a bit skeptical about the current policy of having a lot of different casts, and some dancers dancing many roles in the same program (for example Moussin and Averty will be dancing in all three parts): probably the dancers like it, because it gives them an opportunity to have a large repertory, but it seems to me that it probably means that not much rehearsal time is spent on each role...

Mel, I haven't read anything either about the age to pointe (neither in what was written of the Socialconseil report, nor in the comments of the journalists). The complaints were indeed about the "psychological terror", and also about the lack of medical care sometimes (and some children still dancing in spite of stress factures). I had already reacted about the article in "The independent" in the "links" section- and, as Jaana, think that the journalist really is sending his own daughter to a "Dolly dinkle" school and should seek more information about ballet, he doesn't seem to be someone really qualified to write about it! Also, one point which isn't clear in the article is that, so far, the debate in France has been specifically about the POB school, and not about "ballet schools" in general: I haven't read any complaint about the other top ballet schools, like the Conservatoires de Paris and Lyon or the Rosella Hightower school in Cannes. Actually, there are people on both sides (I mean, in the French press or audience) who try to transform it into some debate about ballet training in general: the people who defend the POB school training saying that "ballet always cause some suffering, it's always been like that and will never change" (while in my opinion it's not really the issue- for example Aurélie Dupont, who can't be accused of being a bitter failed dancer, pointed out that, while she's fully conscious of the hard work required by ballet training, a little bit ot humanity and understanding wouldn't make the students dance badly), and the people who are prejudiced against ballet in general and use the same argument to show that, according to them, ballet is inherently bad. That doesn't lead to a very sensible debate...

Thanks for the news, cygneblanc! We'll see what Jean Guizerix will be doing (and also what financial means he'll be given, and what are the ministry's plans), but in my opinion that sounds like a good decision. Guizerix has no experience of leading a company, as far as I know, but he's been an assistant ballet master at the POB for a while, has a long experience as a teacher (especially at the Conservatoire) and a real interest for the repertory. I have a very good memory of the few performances of him that I saw (he officially retired from the Paris Opera in 1990, when he turned 45, but he and his wife Wilfride Piollet still perform from time to time, also he commissionned several solos from contemporary choreographers), some of them had a pedagogical side which was very interesting (presenting different solos from various periods and explaining the context or reading some texts about it). I really hope that he'll be able to do something good at the Ballet du Nord, it must be hard to work in such a situation... And I hope that the Ballet du Nord won't disappear (as it might be tempting for some institutions to cut their subsidies) and that it will have an interesting repertory- "repertory" companies (as opposed to one-choreographer companies) are so rare in France nowadays!

I've seen on the site of the Martha Graham Dance Company that they're currently performing at the Joyce Theater (for two weeks). Has anobody seen some performances? And do the company have any plan to tour abroad? I really hope that they will come back to France someday, all their last tours here have been very successful, and there are so many works in their NYC repertory that I've never seen ("Appalachian Spring", "Night journey", "Phaedra", "Embattled garden", "Dark meadow"...)

Françoise, thanks for the explanation- I remember wondering where Marie-Elise Chalumeau had gone, and also who was this Marie-Elise Ropers? ;) A link to an article about that topic in "Le Nouvel Observateur" by Raphaël de Gubernatis: http://www.nouvelobs.com/articles/p1994/a88787.html The title is "Des petits rats pris au piège", something like "The "little rats" are caught in a trap". De Gubernatis clearly doesn't like much Claude Bessy's policy, and also criticizes the attitude of the direction of the POB and of the ministery of culture. He mentions some harsh criticisms by unnamed male POB etoile, and also from the director of a big company (but well, that director seems to think that the only future of the POB is Pina Bausch or Merce Cunningham, so personally I'm a bit cautious about what such people have to say...)

A page about Zambelli's classes in the 1950s or 1960s, written by a former POB dancer (and former student of the POB school): http://mapage.noos.fr/nina-opera/Mademoiselle.htm By the way, the whole site is very interesting, with a lot of personal anecdotes about life at the POB school (at that time it still was inside the Opera Garnier), the "petits rats" who managed to climbed on the POB's roof, Lifar's teaching, some nasty mothers of students, the joy of being on stage in the operas, etc.

http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?i...arch&state=Form A re"view of that gala by Clement Crisp.

Err, Leigh, where does your quote come from? Katharine, I'm going to see "Paquita" next Thursday with the same cast (Pujol and Legris), and I'm really looking forward to seeing them! You might try to go again next Tuesday, it's basically the same cast but Miteki Kudo will be dancing in the pas de trois (with Hervé Courtain- I wish he had more roles) , or on the 31st (Thibault again- and Phavorin as Inigo)- well, at least if the information on the POB web site is accurate! About the euphoric reception for the Défilé: well, I think that it's always like that for the Défilé! Which makes me regret more and more that it's been scheduled so rarely since Brigitte Lefevre became the director of dance.

Well, considering what happened with the Bournonville heritage at the Royal Danish Ballet, and the way some works (which surely were wonderful) have been gradually forgotten (Alexandra, what's the link to your online article), unfortunately there are some reasons to be pessimistic... And for example there are quite a lot of Ashton works which haven't been danced in a while.

I've always wondered about how it worked for the French dancers. The compulsory draft has been suppressed very recently (something like two or three years ago), before that it was supposed to be compulsory for all men, but it was becoming easier and easier to be excused for it (is that what "extensions" mean?) for medical reasons, or also to make a "civil" service (in general longer). For example, many of the maths students I know managed to do a "scientific" service, e.g. teaching in military schools. Also the students could postpone it until the end of their studies most of the time. High-level sports champions could do a special military service, but I don't know about the dancers. I remember reading that Cyril Atanassof had done a "real" military service in the early 1960s, but the biographies of other dancers never mention it.

Well, katharine, perhaps the discussion would be clearer if you used the choreographers' real names, instead of disparaging nicknames...

Well, for "Stars and stripes" it depends on the country, because I suspect that in France it would probably be welcome with laughs (not specifically because it's about the American flag, a ballet about the French flag would probably cause even more laughter, here people aren't especially keen on flags), and most people would just pay attention to that and not notice its balletic qualities... Probably it depends also on what you mean by "get it"- for example, would a version of "Western symphony" which would be much inferior choreographically have the same success, just because of the costumes, the music, the easily recognizable themes?