Mashinka

It's a pity no one took the trouble to amend those scanty notes. The assertion that there is no current ballet using Massenet's music when Manon has been around for about three decades proves how little care is taken with accompanying booklets.

It's excellent - buy it!

This was always called Night Shadow in the UK and was danced fairly frequently by Festival Ballet (now ENB) John Gilpin was particularly associated with the role of the poet and must have danced it dozens of times. The very last time I saw it Gilpin danced with Fonteyn as the Sleepwalker. The critics thought the role didn't suit her and they may have be right, but I still remember her quite vividly.

There is some degree of disquiet among the POB regulars about the Ganio promotion, even some whisperings of nepotism and although there is no actual ill-will towards him, the general opinion is that this has happened far too soon. So far Ganio has danced just Basilio (this month) and Kurbsky, which is actually a supporting role and in Russia is sometimes danced by a character dancer. Not really a suitable basis for handing out the title of etoile. Benjamin Peche is a very fine dancer indeed and his promotion is considered overdue. Thibault should also be an etoile and his lack of recognition is still a cause of outrage with most. Still, Osta was created an etoile rather later than usual so perhaps these guys are still in with a chance.

One can almost imagine that Françoise and Juliette attended a different performance from myself and Clement Crisp. I'm sorry but I really don't think this was the case at all. Thibault was to me very clearly an actor of the first rank and his interplay with Gilbert was highly amusing especially in the first act.

I've just returned from Paris this morning and was delighted to read Clement Crisp's review of the Sunday matinee of Don Q. http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?i...arch&state=Form This was a very special performance indeed, with the European ballet world converging on the Opera Bastille for one of the most eagerly awaited debuts in years: Emmanuel Thibault's long over due first performance in a leading role. Quite simply, he was superb. Lets hope this performance indicates a change of heart in the POB management and that his career is set to belatedly Blossom. Other companies would have planned their entire repertoire around this astonishingly gifted dancer.

There certainly are other companies based in Moscow and as far as I know Moscow Classical Ballet is still in existence. Other companies are the Stanislavsky Company based in a street called Pushkinskaya very close to the Bolshoi Theatre, The Kremlin ballet, Moscow City Ballet and Imperial Russian Ballet. As all of these tour, they may be out of Moscow in June and if you can find a website you'll probably discover it's out of date. Checking out dance venues is helpful, but only the Stanislavky Co. has a permanent home. Several companies appear at the Palace of Congress, which is in the grounds of the Kremlin. The best way of discovering what is on is to look at the poster charts in the windows of kiosks around the central area. They list all theatrical events for a week or month and you can often buy tickets at the same kiosk. Of course you will need some rudimentary Russian for the latter. Good luck!

It was only quite recently that I discovered what a controversial figure Emmanuel Thibault is, so I won't enlarge too much on the subject except to say that for anyone seeing this dancer for the first time it is only natural to react with surprise that he doesn't appear to be as well regarded as his abilities deserve. Outside of France his reputation, certainly among dance professionals, is easily equal to that of the POB etoiles. It's fair to say that something of an embarrassment of riches exists in Paris and there are a number of dancers in the POB that in other companies would have risen to more prominent positions, though apart from Thibault, this exceptional talent is more noticeable on the female side.

Rasputin's powers of healing appear to have been quite genuine, but away from the Royal family he led a totally dissolute life. The authorities though were not fooled by his holy image and he was under constant surveillance from the secret police. His eventual death was at the hands of wealthy Felix Yusupov who first poisoned, then shot and eventually drowned him. He was almost impossible to kill. Earlier he had predicted that if he was killed the Romanov dynasty would fall. He was. It did.

I'm sure I speak for a large number of ballet fans when I say that Tsiskaridze's injury was a great source of sorrow to us. It is wonderful to hear that he is back on stage again......and with the divine Platel! Good news also that his close ties with the Paris Opera Ballet continue.

Naoko, there appears to be detailed casting along with the dates on the French language forum Dansomanie.

Who says it has ended? There are some very juicy bits of gossip doing the rounds about certain Russian dancers and their Mafia boyfriends/protectors. But we can only discuss history of course, not the goings on of today.

Rebekah, you are quite right to be unconvinced about the plot structure of this ballet. Two Tchaikovsky symphonies, a large chunk of Martinu and an electronic score don't make easy bedfellows in my opinion and the visual attractiveness of the first two acts was destroyed when the original sets were jettisoned for new designs at the last revival. The first act, which used to have beautiful designs evocative of the Russian countryside, certainly conjured up a sense of time and place as the imperial family relax with one another before the onset of the First World War. The second act is set in a ballroom with reality breaking in (literally) when the red army storms the palace. The final act is totally at odds with the previous two and shows the imaginary life of a woman who tried to pass herself off as Anastasia and her incarceration in an asylum. The choreography is mainly uninspired with characters called "three army officers", "four army officers" etc. and much pointless marching around. There is a real showcase pas de deux in the second act for the ballerina actually named as Kschessinskaya (in real life the sexual plaything of the imperial family) which is ideal for preserving as a separate gala showstopper. The central role of Anastasia is difficult to cast, as she has to make her entrance as a twelve year old on roller skates. Lynn Seymour was wonderful in the role and in the most recent revival Leanne Benjamin was also very good. If I go it will be to listen to the two rarely performed Tchaikovsky symphonies (1st & 3rd) and to watch the second act pas de deux. The last act, with its remote controlled hospital bed comes as a dreadful anti climax.

I also saw Liebeslieder Waltzer in Paris last December. It was only the second performance of the work I'd seen, the first time being when the Royal Ballet danced it some twenty odd years ago. On that occasion it was generally disliked by both audiences and critics and as far as I can remember has never been revived by the RB. I have to say I thought the Paris Opera Ballet's performances were far superior to what I remember from London but the same restlessness was apparent in both cities during the pause necessitated by the costume changes; hence the charge that the ballet is too long. A little off topic, I've often wondered if Liebeslieder Waltzer inspired MacMillan in his ballet Mayerling. The scene where a lieder singer comes on and her singing evokes varying emotions among the onlookers always makes me wonder how much he was influenced by Balanchine at that point. Do British critics dislike Balanchine? Hard to say; I suppose they respond to each performance on the basis of the quality of the dancing on the night, but it's worth remembering that a large number of British critics are now rather young and unless they have actually made the pilgrimage to New York, they won't have seen New York City Ballet as it's so long since the entire company danced in London. With regard to the Dance Theatre of Harlem, I unfortunately had to miss their Balanchine programme though in an earlier programme I saw them dance Serenade and found it a little disappointing, but nowhere near as disappointing as the POB in the same work - their performance on the night I went last December actually bordered on bad, possibly due to mis-casting. London audiences tend to be divided over Balanchine, though interestingly there is more enthusiasm from those of us that saw some of the NYCB London seasons. Quite a few Royal Ballet dancers have excelled in Balanchine choreography: Darcy Bussell for example seems to have a natural affinity with his work. His detractors here seem to regard him as cold and clinical, which to me betrays their ignorance of the Balanchine oeuvre forgetting that along with the abstract there was also the narrative and the humorous. Perhaps the answer is to bring the company back to London for a lengthy season to enable us all to make more educated judgements.

Norman Lebrecht is a first rate critic of the arts scene in general in the UK, but his particular field is music and not dance. If US criticism is bland, then it has to be said that so is dance criticism on this side of the pond. There is no critic here who dares to go for the jugular where our national company is concerned and this has created a culture of cosy mediocrity. Look for challenging journalism and you will find none. The only UK critic who appears to write in a more confrontational way has such eccentric and frequently biased views that his seemingly cutting critiques are actually meaningless. If American arts journalism is insipid too, then it's simply part of an international trend.

I last saw her dance in Paris in November 1998 when she must have been about 73. For all I know she may still be going.

The ballet Association in London is a kind of supporters club for the Royal Ballet. They hold meetings every month or so when they interview a member of the Royal Ballet. Some interviewees are more interesting than others. There is also a dinner held once a year at a London hotel with members of the Royal Ballet present. Good luck with your plans Juliette, I visit Paris as often as I can manage and although I appreciate modern dance as much as classical ballet, I feel the POB should remain a company dedicated to classical and neo-classical dancing and that modern work should only be a very small percentage of the company's work. I fear that Gerard Mortier may prove disastrous at the Opera as he embraces the avant garde and has no respect for tradition and probably no insight into the nature of classical ballet. He cares only for novelty and scandal.

More recently there was the Bolshoi's Gediminas Taranda: better looking than any of the company's premier danseurs, he could out-dance the lot of them.

1) Fonteyn & Nureyev's first performance together in Giselle. 2) Ulanova in Giselle. 3) Dudinskaya & Nureyev in Laurencia. 4) Soloviev in Le Corsaire. 5) Markova in Tudor's Romeo & Juliet.

It's wonderful: Mainly pictures with factual information. If you were a fan of these two I would say it's indispensable. I got my copy signed by them when they were in London in 1999.

I think this is a good example of how opera in the UK is dominated by production values rather than musical ones. Producers think nothing of ridiculing audiences as "canary fanciers" because they admire beautiful voices. Presumably they wouldn't have employed Caballé, Norman or Pavarotti either.

Galina Panova is a natural blonde, but there is a great deal of hair dying in Russia: rather more among male dancers than female (think of Maris and Andris Liepa). Anna Antonicheva of the Bolshoi is blonde but has recently dyed her hair black. I think Tatiana Terekhova was blonde but either dyed her hair black or wore a black wig for certain roles. The Bolshoi's Inna Petrova and Kirov's Irina Golub are blonde too. By the way I always thought Volochkova was blonde as well, but in a couple of recent pictures I've seen she appears to have dark roots.

Memorable Lilac Fairies? Lubov Kunakova of the Kirov and Nina Speranskaya of the Bolshoi.

I don't really think this applies to Britain, as of the eighteen Royal Ballet principals currently listed only two are British. Of the two, one is on maternity leave and her return is in some doubt and the other, aged over forty must surely be due for retirement sooner rather than later. In the near future it is entirely possible the RB will have no British dancers at all at top level.

Yes, I plan to go tonight. Many years ago I attended one of these Benois award evenings in Moscow and found it highly enjoyable. Highlight of the evening should be Lopatkina as she hasn't danced in London for about three years now and is immensly popular here. Also scheduled to dance is the now infamous Anastasia Volochkova: should be interesting.