Estelle

I agree that Ms Lefèvre really had gone too far in the "let's program a lot of modern works with at most 4 dancers on stage" (and which generally were never danced again)... Thanks for the explanation. I only went once in my life to Saint-Germain en Laye, and it was to attend a program by the Balelt du Capitole de Toulouse... Really the conseiller municipal should have kept his mouth shut (moreover, I really doubt that people make their voting choices depending on the scheduling of cities' theaters...) There might also be some misconceptions about ballet in general. For example, a few years ago, my husband and I invited his parents to a Robbins program at Garnier, and my father-in-law (a doctor in his 60s) was very reluctant, claiming that "he wouldn't understand anything"... and finally he enjoyed the program a lot. My husband himself said he probably wouldn't have thought about attending a ballet program if we hadn't met. And unfortunately, there are so few ballet performances in France outside Paris and also so little ballet on TV (far less than in the 1970s and early 1980s, I think) that most people get zero exposure to ballet, and so have no opportunity to get their prejudices challenged...

Thanks a lot for such information, naomikage ! So there is some good hope to have Jean-Guillaume Bart teaching at the POB.

Well, perhaps Pietragalla isn't an especially coherent person... Also, I think that most of her popularity comes from ballet (I somehow doubt that many people would attend her choreographies if she wasn't known as a former POB étoile, who had been involved in some ads on TV, etc.) She recently was awarded the Légion d'Honneur, so perhaps it means that she is in good terms with the powers-that-be ? Well, "profitable"... It depends on what you count (how much is the subsidy per seat for each Paris Opera performance ?) It seems to me that some of the switches from ballet companies to contemporary companies were motivated partly by cuts in subsidies (e.g. in Nancy): it's expensive to have a ballet company as you must have a rather large number of dancers in the corps de ballet, you must pay for pointe shoes, costumes, sets, etc. while you can have a much smaller modern company, dancing works with no sets and minimalist costumes. Of course it's a rather short sighted choice (especially if you realize a bit too late that there are almost no viewers for the new company's performances...), but it's a kind of argument which is unfortunately appealing to politicians. If it helps reviving the POB repertory, it's a good thing, but let's hope that it won't go too far (there are parts of the classical repertory which are very interesting but probably not very "profitable", e.g. it would be simpler to fill the theater programming long series of "Swan Lake"/ "Bayadère"/ "Sleeping Beauty"/ "Romeo and Juliet"/ Béjart than for example to stage lesser known works by Lifar, Tudor, Fokine...) That's an interesting anecdote. Was it an official POB tour ? And who wrote the article, was it some "conseillers municipaux" of the city, and who were they blaming, the city mayor ? Anyway, that sounds like a really stupid article... I'm not really sure of that (a lot of people, for example, are somehow intimidated by ballet and afraid to attend it because they think they "won't understand it", and some others, on the other hand, consider it as too childish, generally without having seen any of it...) But I agree that much of French modern dance definitely isn't very accessible for most of the audience, and that some of it has little to do with dance (rather with a sort of mix of theater, reading of texts, video experiments, etc.) And what a pity that there still is so much animosity against ballet from a lot of modern dance fans, critics, etc.

I suspect that working at the POB can be quite exhausting nervously sometimes... What a pity that there are so few ballet companies in France now, perhaps Jean-Guillaume Bart could have done a good job as a company director (at least he has a genuine interest in the classical repertory and is interested in coaching and teaching...) I wonder what people will think of her tenure in retrospect. Dupond was criticized for his tendancy to cast himself a lot (a problem shared by many directors who are also dancers, alas...) but in my opinion he had some really interesting programs. And it might not be entirely Lefevre's fault, but I have the feeling that the present generation of dancers isn't as interesting as the previous ones (and some choices of principals were really controversial). Lefèvre seems to have no real policy, and sometimes says one thing one season and then the opposite later... Oh, I hadn't thought that it would appeal to people from other countries, too. What surprises me, then, is that they chose "Raymonda" as the only full-length 19th century classic. As far as I know, it's far from being the most popular Nureyev work, or the most popular classic in the POB repertory... Something like "Swan Lake" or "La Bayadère" or "The Sleeping Beauty" or "Coppélia" would probably have sold far more seats... Also, staging only such a work in the season might not be enough to train the corps de ballet (especially as there have been complaints in recent years about the corps de ballet behaviour in some classics).

I do hope so. But I don't know how popular he is with Ms Lefèvre, especially as he definitely isn't afraid to speak his mind about repertory choices... Do you know if he works as a teacher now ? Oh yes, I forgot, I was only thinking about the company (who hasn't danced it since the Dupond period, I think). How paradoxical that there are several Balanchine works which are danced mostly or only by the school (e.g. Le Tombeau de Couperin, La somnambule, Western Symphony) and not by the company... If the change of director means that there will be more ballet, well, that's great news ! By the way, I wonder for how long Ms Lefèvre will stay. It already feels as if she had been there forever (more than ten years ? Isn't it the longest POB directorship since Lifar ?) Do you mean the Paris audience will rush to get tickets, or would there be another reason too ? Now I just have to hope that the calendar is such that I can go to Paris at the right moment and see several programs

Thanks a lot, cygneblanc !! I'm looking forward to the NYCB tour, especially with works like "Divertimento n.15", "Duo concertant" or "Episodes" which haven't been seen in Paris for a long time (by the way, will the POB ever perform "Div. n. 15" again ? Sigh...) I wonder which casts we'll see in the POB/ NYCB Gala (might "Suite of dances" be suitable farewell program for Manuel Legris, or is he supposed to have his farewell performances before ?) I'm very happy to see that there will be a Robbins triple bill, as not many of his works had been performed in recent years. I regret the POB won't be dancing "Dances at a gathering" (they haven't danced it for a long time, and I had missed it when they last performed it...) I guess it will be a somewhat nostalgic moment to see "In the night", as nearly all the dancers who had performed it when it was staged by Robbins himself now have retired or will soon (Hilaire, Guérin, Loudières, Legris, Platel, Belarbi, Arbo, Romoli, Delanoë, Gaïda... I do miss them !) And "The concert" is such a lovely work. Nice to see that "Suite en blanc" is back- I guess that the Lifar-Petit-Béjart program was quite successful on tour, so that they decided to perform it again "at home" ? And also I hope to be able to see "La fille mal gardée" this time Compared to previous seasons, this one is richer in 20th-century neoclassical works, and with fewer modern works (Preljocaj, the triple bill, and I don't know where to count Martinez's new work). The only 19th century classic is "Raymonda", which is a bit surprising- well, at least they haven't scheduled two big classics at the same time in December, as they did this year (which generally leads to a lot of injuries, cast changes, etc.) The school program includes nothing new, but it's interesting nonetheless (and at least an opportunity to see some choreography by Jean-Guillaume Bart again. But what a pity that, unlike fellow principals Belarbi, Le Riche and Martinez, he never was commissionned a full length work for the company...)

Great ! I'm looking forward to knowing more about the programs they will bring

Thanks for that link, Alexandra, it is very interesting ! I was a bit surprised to see no Bournonville in the 2008/9 repertory, but I understand it better thanks to Eva Kastrup's article. What do you think of that repertory ?

Bernadette Chirac, the wife of former French president Jacques Chirac, is said to be very interested in ballet (and she was involved in the organization of some ballet festivals).

Oh pitié ! Actually there already is a sort of Sarkozy which has been showing on all the French media for months (and in fact years: it also was like that before his election as president, he also managed to show himself nearly everyday when he was in the previous government) so for me it's far enough... Moreover, Edward Villella was far better looking

I've just seen that the softcover version of Justine Lévy's book now ranks #21 in the list of Amazon.fr bestsellers... I guess its sales increased in recent weeks (a sort of sweet revenge for her...) I had a look at it when it was published, but had found it not very interesting and a bit too self-centered (and actually there had been some controversies about the media coverage it had, with many reviews, interviews, etc. Many people thought it was mostly because of her father. By the way, some French consider him as a "leading intellectuel", but quite a lot of others consider him as a sort of joke...) I'm a bit fed up with all the authors pretenting to write "novels" which are just thinly veiled self-serving autobiographies (generally including enough scandalous details to ensure selling...) Thanks for the link to the New Yorker article, it's interesting to see a foreign point of view about those recent events (by the way, in the part about the photograph of Beauvoir in the nude on the cover page of "Le Nouvel Observateur", the article forgot to mention that the cover was criticized by many people as voyeurist and sexist- a lot of people mentioned that they would never consider publishing similar photographs of, say, Sartre or Camus...) Traditionnally the French press didn't talk much about politician's private lives, this is changing and I don't find is especially positive (the present situation with Sarkozy is all the more amusing- or infuriating- as a few months ago he had criticized the press harshly about talking to much of his marital problems with his former wife Cecilia and had said he wanted to protect his private life, while a few months before he was showing himself as much as possible in the media with her and their children...) Bart, I wouldn't like to turn this board into gossip, but the list of former lovers of our present "First Lady" is indeed far shorter than what can be found elsewhere (and acknowledged by her), but I guess most of the other ones are not famous in the US... It hasn't exactly improved Sarkozy's popularity with the most conservative voters.

Has it ever been performed by someone else ? I haven't heard about it being performed at the POB since the season it was premiered (it was Ms Doisneau's last season before her retirement...) And probably some parts of the content would have been to be modified to suit another performer's career/ thoughts (not that I'm looking forward to seeing it again- I found some parts a bit amusing, but to me it was really anecdotical, and easily forgotten...)

I had the same reservations, and like you, really loved the movie ! I've just heard that it won the latest prize of the listeners of the radio program "Le Masque et la Plume" (a program which exists since 1955 and deals with cinema, literature, theater, and occasionally opera. Alas, no ballet !) for French films. The prize for foreign films was won by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's "The lives of others").

Welcome, Benvolio ! Actually no, from the examples which were mentioned in this thread (including the one by volcanohunter just above your message...)

Well, at least you are better paid as a sujet than as a coryphée (for example), and also in general you are obliged less often to perform small corps de ballet roles which are not considered very interesting... But it must be frustrating indeed to get promoted and yet don't get interesting roles. Also now there are far more premiers danseurs than there used to be a few years ago, so it's likely they get fewer roles for each...

There are 5 categories of dancers at the POB: étoiles (principals), premiers danseurs, sujets, coryphées and quadrilles. The étoiles are chosen directly by the director of the Paris Opera (generally it's a premier danseur, but not always: for example, Manuel Legris, Laurent Hilaire and Mathieu Ganio were only sujets when they were promoted). For the other categories, the promotions are decided by an internal competition called the Concours, which takes place every year (in the last years, it was in december). Not all dancers participate in it (I don't know the rules exactly, but usually those who don't participate are injured or pregnant dancers, and also dancers a bit old who don't expect any promotion any longer). Each dancer must dance two variations from the POB repertory: one variation is compulsory, it's the same for each category (e.g. one variation for the male quadrilles, one for the female quadrilles, etc.) and one is chosen by the dancer himself/ herself. There is a pianist on stage to accompany the dancers. It is not a public event: there is some audience, but one must get an invitation to get into the theater this day, so the audience includes mostly some families and friends of dancers and some critics. Applauses are forbidden (in order not to influence the jury). The jury includes the Paris Opera director, the director of dance, the ballet master, some dancers elected by the corps de ballet (who of course don't participate in the competition- in general, they are étoiles or premiers danseurs, or some senior corps de ballet members) and some "exterior" people chosen by the direction (e.g. this year I think Nikolaj Hubbe was part of the jury). The number of promotions is fixed in advance (and some years there is zero position available in some categories), I think it depends on the number of retirements in the previous year but it seems more complicated and I never really understood how it works. There often is a lot of controversy about the results of the Concours... It is supposed to take into account the performance on the day of the competition itself and also the work of the dancer during the season, but there always are some rather surprising or controversial promotions (as in any company, I guess). On the positive side, it can give an opportunity to be seen (by the direction and the critics) to some dancers of the corps de ballet who rarely get to perform solo roles, and also it is an incentive to work some difficult variations. On the negative side, an unlucky dancer who is sick or injured the day of the Concours has to wait one more year to have any hope to be promoted, and two variations might not be very significative of a dancers's qualities or shortcomings, and also there sometimes are some rather complicated motivations for the votes (it can happen that for example there is only one position and two dancers are considered as the most likely to be promoted, but their respective supporters among the jury can't reach an agreement and so a third dancer, less interesting, is promoted because it was the only way to get a majority... For example, it was what was said to have happened about 15 years ago with the promotion of Nathalie Riqué (now retired) to première danseuse, when everybody expected Letestu or Moussin's promotion.) Also there's the problem that some dancers get promoted but then almost never get the roles corresponding to their new status if the direction doesn't appreciate them...

Thanks for your review, legwarmer. It seems to have been a very memorable evening for you ! Azulynn, thanks for the correction about the casting. But really one can't blame legwarmer for trusting the casting which was printed by the POB, and indeed it shows that unannounced changes can be somewhat misleading, as most of the audience doesn't know the faces of the dancers (especially people coming from abroad, as legwarmer)... cygneblanc and Azulynn, have you seen Ms Lunkina in that role too ? Was she planned to be invited from the start, or was it because not enough POB dancers were available for that role ? There have been so many cast changes at the POB in the last weeks (unfortunately, probably because of injuries- what an idea to put the two biggest classical productions at the same time, moreover in the period of the corps de ballet Concours...) that I've stopped counting them... And the number of available étoiles who can actually dance big classical roles seems quite low in this period (injuries, maternity leaves, étoiles who are in their 40s and don't dance much like Moussin, Romoli, Belarbi...)

I wonder if there would be any way to contact Lacotte or Bessy about that photograph ? I don't find that the fourth woman from the right looks like Vaussard, actually I was wondering about the first woman from the right (but the only times I saw Vaussard besides the portrait on the Japanese page were either photographs in roles with costumes or videos filmed when she was in her 1970s...) I'm also still wondering about the second woman from the right, it seems that she has her right arm on the shoulder of the woman with the handbag (perhaps Chauviré) and her left arm holding her other neighbor. Could have she been a professor of the company, or from the school ? I was thinking about "La Grande Mademoiselle" Carlotta Zambelli (who taught Chauviré and Vaussard, among others, and who was the school's director until 1955) but I've no idea if she was part of that tour- and the only photographs that I could find of her were taken decades ago in works such as "Les deux pigeons"...(After more thinking: Zambelli would have been 73 in 1948 so she would have looked much older...)

Some portraits of POB dancers (I guess it's from the 1950s or very early 1960s) are on that page: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/soorce/20071005 It includes a portrait of Madeleine Lafon, she could have been the lady on the first row, with light curly hair and a sort of hat, kneeling on the ground, with a dark jacket and dress and raising her right hand and holdiing something in her left hand. The dark-haird man on her side could be Jean-Paul Andreani (but wityh a very different haircut...)

Mel, thanks for the explanation. I didn't know that the POB could have such reputation after the war... By the way, while searching some information about Lifar, I came across some excerpts of the book "La vie musicale sous Vichy" by Myriam Chimènes, Josette Alviset (on google books) which are quite appalling for him (especially an excerpt of correspondence of 1940 in which he claims his antisemitism): http://books.google.com/books?id=qcBpfEu74c8C rg, thanks a lot for these scans ! So Lacotte was a part of that tour indeed- it seems likely that he was the man with the raised hand... Like you, I don't understand well the reason for the loose leaf, it seems to give the cast for "Palais de Cristal" but with hierarchical order rather than by movement. The list of dancers on the other paper seems to be by hierarchical order too. I wonder if, back then, there still were 7 categories in the corps de ballet instead of 5 now (seconds quadrilles, premiers quadrilles, coryphées, petits sujets, grands sujets, premiers danseurs, étoiles). I don't understand why there is a difference between "Melles" and "Mmes", as usually all female ballet dancers are called "mademoiselle" whether they are single or married... The beginning of the list clearly corresponds to the étoiles (the list beginning with Chauviré and Ritz) and Lafon, Moreau, etc. were premières danseuses, but I'm a bit lost with the organization of the rest of the list. Anyway, it's interesting to spot in the list the names of dancers as Claude Bessy (born in 1932, who joined the corps de ballet in 1946 and became a principal in 1956, and POB school director in ), Jean-Paul Andréani (who became a principal in the 1950s, and was the first male Franz in Coppelia), Serge Golovine (who was to become a principal dancer of the Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, and later a teacher at the POB school and Claude Bessy's second husband), Raymond Franchetti (premier danseur in the 1950s, and POB director between 1972 and 1977)...

Thenks for sharing your recollections, atm ! I saw "Palais de Cristal" only once, around 1994, and loved the colorings too (and of course the choreography), I regretted it when they later chose to perform the "Symphony in C" version with the black and white costumes (they were beautiful too, but what a pity to abandon a tradition which was part of the POB's history...) "Mirages" was one of Chauviré's best roles, and the music by Sauguet is especially lovely. The Guignol ballet probably was "Guignol et Pandore" (in the program scanned by rg, it appears as "Punch and the cop"- actually "Pandore" is a slang term for "gendarme" (cop), and not a very positive one, it comes from a 19th century song...) Why was there some picketing outside the theatre ? Was it because of Lifar's war behavior ?

The post-war period was quite complicated for Lifar, as he had been accused of collaboration with the Nazis during the occupation of Paris and so had to leave the direction of the POB by the "comité d'épuration" for some time (between 1945 and 1947, I think, but I'm not sure of the exact dates) and went to Monte-Carlo then, and came back later. I don't know what his exact title was after he came back (also, he was 43 in 1948, so probably danced less often then- even though he really liked to cast himself in his ballets...)

Yes, I did see that tour and it was the first time I saw Chauvire The woman with the handbag does resemble her, but I think not. The one dancer I know I could recognize is Michel Renault and he is not among them. Toumanova was not a part of this tour. Ah, atm, you really saw *everything* ! If you have some time, I'd really be interested in knowing more about what you saw then (which ballets, which dancers, the audience reaction, etc.)

Mel, I hadn't thought that identifying the ship could be a mystery too rg, I hope that you can find that program, perhaps the names of the dancers could help... If the man in the background is Lacotte indeed, perhaps he could be able to help identifying the other dancers (but I have no idea how to contact him). If I can manage to find Guest's POB book, I'll have a look at it to try to find who were the principals back then. Among them, there probably were the dancers of the first "Palais de Cristal" cast (Max Bozzoni, Lycette Darsonval, Alexandre Kalioujny, Roger Ritz, Tamara Toumanova, Michel Renault, Micheline Bardin- sad to think that probably all of them have passed away) and also Chauviré and perhaps Peretti. But I always find it quite hard to recognize dancers when they wear everyday clothes (especially women, as often the haircuts look so different from their looks onstage...) And finding online phorographs of dancers of that period really isn't easy. I also wonder about the older people who are on the photograph, were they ballet masters or teachers ? For example the relatively older woman on the right side, wearing a hat... I wonder if atm saw that POB tour back then ?

RG: as far as I know, for the POB the term "corps de ballet" also can be used for the whole company (including étoiles, premiers danseurs, etc.) Unfortunately I know too little about the dancers of that period to recognize anybody... To me, the lady with a dark skirt and a handbag looks like Chauviré but I'm not sure (I'm not even sure that she was with the POB in that period, considering all the mess with Lifar at the end of the war). Edited to add: the dark-haired man raising his right hand, on the left hand side in the background, just under the ropes and close to the man with the hat, looks a bit like Pierre Lacotte, but I'm really not sure: Lacotte was indeed with the company back then, but he was only 16 in 1948 and the man on the photograph doesn't look so young...