Mashinka

Peter Watson's book was utterly appalling in my view: an opportunistic piece of rubbish written by a hack with no knowledge of ballet whatsoever. It was packed with inaccuracies and scandalous unfounded speculation and the editing was so bad it made reading the book confusing. Some of the biographical books written during Nureyev’s lifetime give a fairly accurate picture of his abilities as a dancer, the ones by Alexander Bland, Clive Barnes and John Percival are all worth reading. Since his death only the Diane Solway book has been an honest measured account of his life, but the Kavanagh book will contain material about Nureyev from people closest to him that refused to collaborate with the previous biographers.

Thibault is now officially a premier danseur and if he is underestimated it is by the POB management rather than the general ballet-going public. Possibly though he is being punished for being a classicist and out of sympathy with the increasingly modern rep in Paris. The latest etoile is something of a nonentity, confirming the suspicion that promotions at POB lack rhyme or reason. The Kirov Ballet is becoming notorious for neglecting the more talented dancers in the company whilst the bland contortionists all flourish. Zhelonkina in particular gets a rough deal, as does Scherbakov. Russian companies seem to also suffer from a balletic form of ageism with experience and stage craft counting for very little and more senior dancers consistently excluded from prestigious foreign tours.

The casting for Jewels looks downright strange to me, rather as if whoever selected the dancers doesn’t have any real knowledge of the ballet. Instead of naming the casts this early I would have thought the RB management could have waited and let whoever is mounting the ballet be allowed to choose the dancers. Agree about Roja and Nunez. I have mixed feelings about the revival of Dances at a Gathering; it’s one of my favourite ballets of all time and the original RB cast was so amazing that it might prove too hard an act to follow. It might be possible to scrape a good first cast together, but I doubt if there is a second cast out there. If I remember rightly that cast was: Laura Connor Ann Jenner Monica Mason Lynn Seymour Antoinette Sibley Michael Coleman Anthony Dowell Jonathan Kelly Rudolf Nureyev David Wall My suggestions for the revival would be: Leanne Benjamin (Jenner) Lauren Cuthbertson (Seymour) Sarah Lamb (Sibley) Marianela Nunez (Connor) Tamara Roja (Mason) Carlos Acosta (Nureyev) Johan Kobborg (Dowell) Steven McRae (Coleman) Rupert Penneyfather (Kelly) Ivan Putrov (Wall) A couple of others would be good too, but I can’t think of another ten dancers of the right personality and level of technique (in certain of the roles) to name a full second cast. If anyone has other suggestions to make, please go ahead.

That's a bit of a blow, I'll pass on that information as I wasn't the only Londoner hoping to go to Paris to see him in the role. In the female lead you need a good jumper, Fanny Fiat? The woefully ignored Miteki Kudo would also make a good Lise. Or will these two also be sent to Oz?

Alexei Ratmansky gets better as he gets older. He created a minor masterpiece with The Bright Stream, given time he will create a major masterpiece. Hopefully Forsythe's work will sink like a stone.

I enjoyed reading that wonderful review Azulynn, when I went to Thibault’s first performance in the role a couple of years ago the audience was ecstatic at the end and were chanting ‘Manu, Manu’ when he took his curtain calls. It seems there is no lack of enthusiasm for this dancer from audiences; it’s just the POB management that seems to disregard him. Do you think that there is any chance that Thibault might get the opportunity to dance Colas when the POB performs La Fille Mal Gardee this summer? As a Londoner who has been watching this ballet for decades, I know by now the qualities the role needs – and believe me Thibault has those qualities, in fact he strikes me as being more of a natural Ashton dancer than anyone currently in the Royal Ballet.

The recent discussion about Handel has prompted me to ask a question about the Ballet "Love in Bath". I have a CD of the music for this ballet which was adapted by Sir Thomas Beecham from music by Handel and Sir Thomas clearly made a good job of it. However the sleevenotes on the recording say absolutely nothing about the ballet itself. Was it actually performed or was it a score that suffered the same fate as Britten's "Plymouth Town", written for the ballet and then never used?

I'm generally tolerant towards children, but I draw the line at babies. Covent Garden actually encourages them, as there is a designated baby-changing room on the Amphitheatre level at ROH.

I don't agree with Artist's assessment at all. I find no lack of emotion in Handel’s works - quite the contrary. His operas are sublime.

I would have bet on Karl Paquette becoming the next etoile as he is - A. Very good looking B. A reasonable dancer C. Slightly less injury prone than most of his colleagues At present I'm racking my brains as to what I've seen Jérémie Bélingard dance or even what he looks like! Thibault: Couldn't get to Paris for his Don Q. this time around but when I saw him first perform the role, ballet fans from across Europe had turned up in droves to see him dance. Seems he's massively admired everywhere except in Madame Lefevre's office. Out of interest, when is Madame Lefevre coming up for retirement?

Well, believe it or not I actually preferred the lady as Cesare. When I returned to the production last year I went with a Wagnerite with little love of opera seria in the hope of converting him, but his response was “too many counter tenors”. As there were actually three in the opera whereas the year before there had only been two, I realized he had a valid point. Sarah Connelly was a very convincing Cesare and had been well coached to actually move like a man; so long as I didn’t use my opera glasses I could suspend disbelief sufficiently to imagine she really was a bloke. On the other hand David Daniels was vocally superior in the role which seemed to push Connelly to the limit, she was far more at home as a brilliant Agrippina at the Coliseum a couple of weeks ago with the more dramatic role suiting her better than the very demanding Cesare. I think the opera was originally sung by Senesino, Handel’s favourite castrato so it figures that purists would prefer a female voice these days. The greatest Cesare I ever heard was the divine Janet Baker and luckily her performance in the role is recorded for posterity. Regarding a counter tenor singing Octavian, I can think of only one I would be eager to hear in the role and that is Andreas Scholl as his voice is perhaps the purest and the most beautiful I’ve ever heard in the c-t range, in fact I can remember him commenting in an interview of how he had been advertised at a concert in Italy as “the man who sings like a woman”. The fact remains that Strauss wrote strictly for a woman and that glorious trio at the end, for me one of the loveliest moments in opera, should generally remain as written, however if Scholl could be persuaded to sing the role I could be persuaded to listen. BTW, that wonderful Glyndebourne production of Guilio Cesare of 2005 is available on DVD with Danielle de Niese’s Cleopatra stealing the show. A special treat for balletgoers is Christophe Dumaux’s Tolemeo kitted out in the costume of the Golden Slave from Scheherazade in the scene where he attempts to seduce Pompey’s widow. When he stepped on stage in that outfit I was convulsed with laughter and I’m smiling still at the memory of him as I write this. The DVD has the most fulsome buyers reviews I’ve ever read on the Amazon site and I wholeheartedly agree with the suggestion of one reviewer that David McVicar should be knighted. Returning to the subject of ballet: I’ve a feeling that de Valois was actually referring to some of the variations rather than the leading role in Raymonda. In the years I’ve been going to the ballet I’ve watched dancers getting taller and taller and previously fast variations getting slower and slower whilst intricacies of technique have all but disappeared over the decades. Some ballet masters are aware this poses problems and I remember a conversation I once had with Sergei Vikharev when he reminded me that Mathilda Kschessinskaya was under five foot tall and how taller dancers are going to give a completely different look to a work (we were discussing his revival of La Bayadere). It appears to me that there is a policy of favouring taller girls at the Kirov at the expense of smaller girls; compare those currently in favour to those that are neglected and those allowed to depart. Those former Vaganova graduates that don’t get into the company and that can be seen elsewhere also tend to be shorter than the new Kirov average height. As for Sarafanov and Somova, he is a wonderful dancer dancing all the wrong things whereas Somova would be better suited to a career other than classical ballet and I agree with every word of Cygnet’s post, particularly the reference to RDB as with different training Sarafanov could have become a dancer of similar calibre to Niels Kehlet. Sarafanov is actually quite brilliant but with the poor guidance he seems to get from the Kirov management he will continue to disappoint those that look for more than a display of pyrotechnics.

Would anyone think it acceptable to cast a counter tenor in that role seeing as mezzos/contralto's seem interchangeable with counter tenors in opera seria these days. For example at Glyndebourne in 2005 I saw Sarah Connolly in the title role of Handel's Guilio Cesare but David Daniels sang the role in the same production last year.

I’ve always been fascinated by Alla Shelest, not only are there no filmed records of her dancing but even photographs seem in short supply. In his autobiography Rudolf Nureyev claimed she was the greatest of the Kirov dancers and Russians I’ve spoken to of an older generation would concur. The only thing I can add to that brief but otherwise very good piece on Mr Haegeman's site is that not only was she the muse for Grigorovich’s early works, she was also his wife.

There is an earlier pas de deux in the ballet for an actress and her partner danced in full 18th century finery. I've seen it and I'm racking my brains as to where and when, but will confirm that it is extremely attractive.

This is my pet hate: either pin it up and keep it that way or cut it off.

As Don Q. is playing at the Opera Bastille with its vast capacity rather than the tourist attraction Garnier, there is a fair chance of getting in. If you ring and book right away you should still be able to pick up a ticket.

A life for the Tsar is an opera in three acts of which the middle act is almost entirely danced. The second act action takes place in Poland in the palace of a nobleman and in the video version I have of the Bolshoi, it is a mixture of classical and national dancing. The picture on the portrait card doesn't have her in the lavish ballroom costumes the dancers currently wear, so I can only assume that in the past there was dancing in the other two acts that concern themselves with the patriotism of the Russian peasantry.

If Baron Cohen as Borat had done the presenting, even I would have watched!

To answer part of the question, it's to do with personal preference as to whether dancers prefer old or worn out shoes, were you sitting close to or at a distance? If the latter then they need to tidy up a bit, but let me assure you it's not just Bolshoi dancers that choose to wear their most comfortable shoes at a big performance. Surely soundless shoes are a cause of celebration? If it's noise you want, check out the Kirov - their shoes (with a couple of noble exceptions) are thunderous.

Good or bad, the Brits didn't do too well in the final analysis. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle1442389.ece

Benedict Nightingale ponders the question of why top shows often flounder when they cross the Atlantic. I recognize the Cynicism vs Sentimentality argument: we are a bunch of cynics over here - and proud of it, and yes, we don't care for mawkish sentimentality one bit. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle1432331.ece

Juan Diego Florez appears to have won over the audience at La Scala. Although I was a little disappointed when he sang five b flats instead of nine C's, he is wonderful in this role and I can't imagine the Milanese reacting any differently. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle1421347.ece

I’ve really enjoyed reading these thoughts on Cinderella. It received a mixed response in London last year, but it seems I enjoyed it more than most. The Cinderella of choice here was Shipulina, who managed steps the others couldn’t, Zakharova wasn’t rated very highly in the role, but it’s fair to say that she is light years from British taste in just about everything. Krysanova is a lovely young dancer and it would be wise to catch a performance of hers at this early stage of what is going to be an illustrious career. I loved the dancing crockery – and the slides down the banister! Agree the horses were a mistake though. Adored Gennadi Yanin, but then again I always do. But I’m sorry Washington won’t get to see Dmitri Goudanov’s classically perfect prince. Were I a Washingtonian I’d be sobbing my eyes out over his absence.

Judi Dench, Helen Mirren and Peter O’Toole are all over sixty and therein lies a serious problem, add to their names actors such as Alan Howard, Derek Jacobi, Ian Mckellen and a couple of others and you have the cream of the British acting profession. Trawl around for actors of genius under sixty and the only one you will net is Simon Russell Beale. My favourite American actor? Jack Nicholson: and he’s over sixty too. English character actors of course get a good deal whatever they do, frequently having faces like the rear end of a horse, Hollywood can’t get enough of our uglies to fill the casting gaps created by image conscious Americans that crowd out the plastic surgeons waiting rooms for every tiny imperfection. And what American blockbuster these days doesn’t boast an English villain? Steven Berkoff in particular must be raking it in. French actors are probably the worlds finest, though audiences here, and I suspect in America too, are often resistant to foreign language films, but there is a never-ending stream of talent in French cinema that I don’t pick up on from either America or the UK. Obviously the article is a tie in to the Oscars, but the UK BAFTA awards have already happened and although British and American taste can be oceans apart, I’ll be very surprised if America doesn’t follow the UK in awarding best actor to Forest Whitaker. Check the BAFTA nominees against those of the Oscars: http://www.bafta.org/site/page287.html

I agree with the last comment concerning Corella, although he clearly wowed the audience in Bayadere and Black Swan, I found him altogether rather manic preferring dancers with more of the danseur noble about them in those roles. Unfortunately the other Solor I saw, Beloserkovsky, wasn't good at all, looking as if he was making up the steps as he went along and completely omitting the double assembles.