Estelle

Dirac, I love your comparisons! Actually, I was a bit puzzled when reading that article by Ismene Brown, many of her points were interesting, but it ends with (listing some potential candidates to replace Stretton): "The stars should include Mikhail Baryshnikov, 54, a giant of both classical ballet and modern dance, and the Royal Ballet's French ballerina and Nureyev protégée, Sylvie Guillem. Both would frighten the hell out of the board, but most ballet-lovers will feel that excellence is what is needed now at the Royal Ballet, however bumpy the ride, and not more fumbling mediocrity." Well, excellence at what? Both are or were excellent dancers, but it has little to do with the direction of a company; Guillem has zero experience of such a job, and Baryschnikov's experience at ABT doesn't seem to have been totally positive... Moreover, as far as I know Baryschnikov has nothing to do with the traditional repertory of the Royal Ballet- and Guillem's interviews when she produced her version of "Giselle" for the Finnish Ballet and La Scala (calling the traditional version "outdated", "silly", etc.) are worrying...

Here's an obituary of Mrs Reinhart which was posted on the "Dance Insider" site: http://www.danceinsider.com/f2002/f0924_1.html

I haven't attended it yet, but here is an article about it: http://fr.news.yahoo.com/020925/202/2rlj4.html It's at the Maison de la Culture du Japon until Dec 14. Isn't the lyre the one from "Orpheus"?

The first ballet performance I saw was the opening gala of the Biennale de Lyon in the fall of 1992, when I was 17. I had become more and more interested in ballet in the months before, reading everything I could about it, and had finally managed to convince my parents to book some tickets for it. The program included all sorts of things, if I remember correctly it began with a solo of traditional basque dancing (the theme of the Biennale that year was "Pasion de Espana"). Among the ballet works it included, there was "Diana and Acteon" by Julio Bocca and an Argentinian dancer whose name I have forgotten, a solo from Massine's "Le Tricorne" danced by Patrick Dupond, the pas de deux from "Esmeralda" danced by Agnes Letestu and Nicolas Le Riche (both in the corps de ballet then) and the pas de deux from "Don Quichotte" by Monique Loudières and Patrick Dupond. I also remember vividly Jose Limon's "Chaconne" danced by Jean Guizerix.

It reminds me of something which was done by the region or the city when I was a student in Lyon: there was something called "chèque culture" for students, you could buy it once or twice a year for a very low price (less than the equivalent of 10$, I think), and it gave you something like one cinema ticket, one opera or dance ticket for some institutions (Lyon Opera, Maison de la Danse...), one museum ticket, and a reduction on the price of a book (in a large list of bookstores) equivalent to the price of the whole stuff. So I knew some people who bought it mostly to get the cinema ticket or the book, and then decided to attend an opera or a ballet because anyway it was free (I had just started my dance pages then so some people asked me for advice about the programming of the Maison de la Danse). I don't know if that program has ever created ballet or opera fans, but I think it was a good idea. Of course it was subsidized quite a lot by the region or the city, but perhaps some cultural institutions could do similar things (a bit more expensive perhaps) to try to enlarge their audience? Another convenient idea was a ticketing system of the Lyon Orchestra, which was a bit like the "Diva night": people under 26 could buy a four-ticket card, and those tickets could be used by between one and four people to get tickets for their performances on the day of the performance (the best remaining seats), so it was quite convenient when a group of friends wanted to attend a performance. The first performance of the Lyon Orchestra I attended was thanks to that system, three friends of mine had planned to attend and had asked me if I wanted to be the fourth one... The only problem with such systems limited to people under a given age is that when you get older but your income remains the same, you suddenly realize that ouch, it's expensive

Effy and KayDenmark, thanks for your reviews! Myself I'm not really a fan of galas, as it sometimes is frustrating to see only pas de deux and short excerpts of pieces out of context (and also the prices are often quite high). Pujol seems to be injured: she was supposed to dance in two POB programs soon (see the POB part of the board) but doesn't appear any longer on the cast list. That's really bad luck, as it would have been her first "Swan Lake". Actually POB female principal are a rare species now, the only others are Dupont (now injured too), Letestu and Maurin... I don't know if Bélingard is injured too. I'm not too surprised to learn that there wasn't much interaction between Saiz and Abbagnato, as far as I know they rarely perform together (and personally I find Saiz a rather uneven dancer). It's great to see that Isabelle Guérin is still active, I'm looking forward to seeing her soon with the POB (last time I was supposed to see her she had got injured a few days ago, and had to cancel her performances).

Yes, it's nice to see that there will still be some dance coverage (hoping that it won't be a critic writing every 4 months...) But I do hope that Tobi Tobias will find a place elsewhere to publish her reviews.

I would who the new New York Nagazine critic will be. I won't be an easy task to be the successor of Tobi Tobias (by the way, has Ms Tobias found another employer?) I wonder if NY Mag really intented to hire a new critic from the start (but then why saying at first that they fired Tobi Tobias because of financial problems?), or if it is because of the large reaction in the world of dance that finally they decided to hire one?

Well, as Ballet Dad wrote, perhaps having several different curtain hours would be a good compromise? For example there is a theater in Marseille whose curtain time is around 7:30 PM on some days and around 9 PM on other days, so people can choose what suits them best. I'm not that much diurnal, but for example when attending performances in some suburbs of Paris relatively far away from my home, like Saint-Quentin en Yvelines or Saint-Germain en Laye, I really appreciate early curtain times because it enables to to take the RER and metro to come back home (else I wouldn't attend the performances). On the other hand, sometimes I find the 7:30 curtain time at the Paris Opera a bit too early, as dining before is nearly impossible (most restaurants open at 7) and dining too late isn't very convenient when attending it with a close relative having juvenile diabetes- but anyway it's hard to find an hour suiting anybody!

Err, I don't think that there is a wedding in "The Nutcracker"... But it's true that it's quite difficult to find wedding-less 19th-century ballets.

Also there's Tudor "Lilac Garden", which takes place before a wedding (probably not a very happy one...) And the secret wedding of Romeo and Juliet. If I remember correctly, there's a wedding in the last act of "Napoli"?

Well, I said that because Guérin and Legris both are among my very favorite dancers. I haven't seen Guérin in that role, but I saw Legris (dancing it with Arbo) and he was wonderful, it's a role which suits him perfectly.

The casts for both programs have been updated on the POB web site. Laetitia Pujol is absent of both casts, probably because of an injury For "Swan Lake": Delphine Moussin is dancing instead of Laetitua Pujol. There also are some changes in the pas de trois, for example on Oct 1st it's now Fiat-Hurel-Carbone and for Oct 2nd Daniel-Averty-Duquenne. For the Robbins-Petit mixed bill: instead of Laetitia Pujol, Eleonora Abbagnato will dance "Other dances" with Jean-Guillaume Bart, and Laure Muret will dance "The Cage" once. Giannina, the cast for Oct 4 is supposed to be: Abbagnato, Bridard and Riqué (all premiers danseurs) in "The Cage", Isabelle Guérin and Manuel Legris in "Other Dances" (that should be great ), and Clairemarie Osta and Jérémie Bélingard in "L'Arlésienne". But of course it might change...

Andrea Quinn at NYCB? Also I think that Claire Gibault had some responsibilities at the Lyon Opera a few years ago.

Nice to see you back, Cygne! Mozart's only ballet was "Les petits riens". I found the following CDs on amazon.com: "Mozart: theatre and ballet music, Polygram Records #422525, conductor Neville Mariner, 2 CDs" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00...9941076-1991109 There's also a CD called "Moizart: Les petits riens, K229b" (Cbc Enterprises #5095, conductor Georg Tintner) but it seems that only the first track is from "Les petits riens". Hopes this helps.

Err, actually I'm not sure they really were married, perhaps they just lived together- I'm not exactly an expert about the marital status of Truffaut :rolleyes: I think that, in general, it's very difficult to make a successful movie about such a great character...

Alexandra, I think that your last sentence applies to the US, but perhaps not to Europe, as there have been several female directors of ballet companies: Verdy, Hightower, Lefevre (POB), Haydee (Stuttgart), Bjorn (Norwegian ballet and Finnish ballet), Terabust (Milan- Florence- Naples), Pietragalla (Marseille), Glushak (Toulouse), Samsova (Scottish ballet), Gielgud (RDB). However, except Verdy, Hightower and Haydee, all those examples are quite recent, so it could be a recent trend, and probably there are some nuances between European countries.

Actually I've seen some posters for a movie about her, which will be released soon. According to imdb.com, it will be directed by Franco Zeffirelli, and will star Fanny Ardant (French actress, Francois Truffaut's widow) in the main role and Jeremy Irons as Larry Clark.

After having a look at the season program of the Teatro Comunale of Florence, it seems that the season of MaggioDanza there will include: -"Carmen" by Amedeo Amodio in october -"Donne" (women) by Gheorge Inacy in october -"Coppélia" staged by Charles Jude in December -"Tout Satie" by Roland Petit in April Also the post on ballet.co.uk mentioned that Elisabetta Terabust will become the director of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.

I've just seen a post on ballet.co.uk saying that the former POB principal Florence Clerc has been apointed director of the company MaggioDanza in Florence. The following page on the site of the RAI (Italian television) seems to be announcing that (I don't speak Italian): http://www.televideo.rai.it/televideo/Noti...Sezione=Culture The former director of the company was the former dancer Elisabetta Terabust (who also had been the director of the ballet of the Scala in Milan a few years ago). As far as I know, Florence Clerc, who had retired officially from the POB in 1991 (when she turned 40) has no experience as a company director. But I think she worked with Eugene Poliakov, who was the director of MaggioDanza for a while in the 1970s and 1980s. Also I remember reading very positive comments in some interviews about her teaching and coaching (especially by Jean-Guillaume Bart). She's the wife of Charles Jude, who is the present director of the Ballet de Bordeaux.

I remember an article in "Ballet 2000" (French version of "Balletto Oggi") by, I think, Roger Salas, which was about that point, and said that choosing artistic directors solely because of their fame as dancers often lead to bad results (not always- I suspect that the reason why the French ministry of culture chose Nureyev as the POB director in 1983 was mostly because he was world famous as a dancer...) I'd say it's likely to be even worse when it is an active dancer: being an artistic director is a full-time job so it's difficult to go on dancing while performing, and also in general it leads to advertisement policies too centered on the dancer's stardom, which doesn't help developing the company... PS: another example of former dancer with no direction experience being chosen as a ballet company director is the former POB principal Florence Clerc who has just been chosen as the artistic director of the company MaggioDanza in Florence, according to a post on ballet.co.uk.

I have read "Jane Eyre" as a teen-ager but don't especially remember that line about French manners- perhaps it's time to read it again! (Actually it reminds me of the Captain Hornblower books by C.S. Forester, it became quite amusing to read all those comments about those French with their nice ships and their lousy, undisciplined sailors...) A Bronte-related book about which my opinion changed a little bit was a biography of Emily Bronte by Jeanne Champion. I had read it when I was 12, just after reading "Wuthering heights" at my school's library (on the advice of a friend who had told me it was a "good frightening book"). I had loved both, and reading the biography made me read also "Jane Eyre", "The professor", "Agnes Grey", "Villette", "Shirley", some poems by Emily and "The tenant of Wildfell Hall" in the two following years (some of them were really hard then to find in French translation- they were re-published recently). And also a biography of Branwell Bronte by Daphne du Maurier, and one of Charlotte by Margot Peters which were quite interesting. But reading Champion's biography against later, I found its style a bit too melodramatic. Also as a teen-ager I used to read a lot of sci-fi, and especially tenths of books by Asimov, but when re-reading some of his books I really liked it less. On the other hand, Matheson's short stories stood well the test of time.

I think that one problem of "niche-programming" is that it can't really make people discover new things: only ballet fans would subscribe to a ballet channel, only boxing fans to a boxing channel, etc. If there are some arts on a "general" channel, then some people might have a look at it by chance and start appreciating it. Also, not all people have satellite or TV channels (in France, I think that less than 30% of the population subscribes to it). By the way, there is a French cable channel, Mezzo, which is devoted to classical music, jazz opera and dance. In fact there's far more music than ballet, but that's not too bad. I have no TV (and my parents don't get it), but if I had one I would perhaps consider subscribing.

I think that one problem of "niche-programming" is that it can't really make people discover new things: only ballet fans would subscribe to a ballet channel, only boxing fans to a boxing channel, etc. If there are some arts on a "general" channel, then some people might have a look at it by chance and start appreciating it. Also, not all people have satellite or TV channels (in France, I think that less than 30% of the population subscribes to it). By the way, there is a French cable channel, Mezzo, which is devoted to classical music, jazz opera and dance. In fact there's far more music than ballet, but that's not too bad. I have no TV (and my parents don't get it), but if I had one I would perhaps consider subscribing.

I'd like to have gala farewells for all principal dancers regardless of their gender, too. And also I think that farewell performances of corps de ballet members should be a bit special too: even if it's in a small role, it should be noted on the cast list, and why not some special applauses or bouquets at the end (and also some warnings before so that the people whoi especially like that dancer can book seats for that day)? I always feel a bit sad when noticing that a dancer's name has disappeared from the POB listings without anything special. Not many male POB principals have retired since I started paying attention to the company: only Jean-Yves Lormeau and Charles Jude (Patrick Dupond also left the company, but it was a bit different as there was a conflict between him and the direction). I don't remember in which conditions Lormeau retired, but for Jude his last performance was as Albrecht in "Giselle" (at 45- but he still looked very good, and now still performs from time to time in Bordeaux) and I think there were some special applauses and flowers. In general, the POB dancers don't have real "gala farewells", but for their last official performance they generally perform the main role in a full-length work (La Sylphide for Legrée and Platel, Juliet for Gaïda, Giselle for De Vulpian, Ek's Giselle for Loudières) and there is a long ovation at the end with bouquets and confettis, and also sometimes a special poster of the dancer is included in the program. An exception was Carole Arbo's retirement two seasons ago: her last performance was in a Robbins' mixed bill, and she danced only "Other dances", which was in the middle of the program. I have some friends who attended it and said it was a very sad evening.