Alymer

I have a signed photograph of Lucille Grahn taken in Munich, I would guess when she was ballet mistress at the court theatre in the 1870's. She is wearing a very grand velvet evening dress, a a generous maount of jewellery and a very elaborate hairstyle, liberally decorated with flowers. She was still a very handsome woman.

I have a signed photograph of Lucille Grahn taken in Munich, I would guess when she was ballet mistress at the court theatre in the 1870's. She is wearing a very grand velvet evening dress, a a generous maount of jewellery and a very elaborate hairstyle, liberally decorated with flowers. She was still a very handsome woman.

The original cast of L'Arlesienne was Rudy Bryans and the cuban ballerina Loipa Araujo. Petit made it for the Marseilles company which he was then running in 1974.

I wouldn't say it was a good ballet, but it's very effective and has two first-class roles - a good bad ballet perhaps.

I've seen a number of casts a lot of them very good. I'm sorry you didn't like Khalfouni, Alexandra. She's a dancer I very much liked and in roles as diverse as Petit's Carmen and the Opera's La Sylphide.

The first Raymonda I saw was a Kirov video. I've seen Nureyev's version for Zurich (which I think is the same as the production he did for ABT) and his version for the Opera which differed quite a bit from the Zurich/ABT production. I've seen Grigorovitch's version several times and the recent Ray Barra version for Munich. I also saw Plisetskaya in the last act of the old Bolshoi production. Of them all, I found the Paris version the most enjoyable and it was, needless to say, wonderfully danced by both the casts I was able to see.

I have a book of photos by Serge Lido which shows the costumes used when Balanchine mounted Serenade for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1947. The women are waring strapless bodices which finish in hanging panels over short, pleated tulle skirts, finishing about halfway down the thigh. They also weasr long gloves and quite elaborate headdresses. Each of the two women is wearing a different colour - one dark, one light (it's a black and white picture). There's also an elaborately draped structure in the background.

It must have looked very different. But I gather from a contemporary account (Lincoln Kirstein's sister) that Balanchine was delighted with the costumes.

[ March 04, 2002, 12:18 PM: Message edited by: Alymer ]

Alexandra, I can only refer you a book about Fonteyn by Keith Money. He describes how she turned up at his studio one morning just after he'd put on a record of Le Tricorne. She threw off her coat and immediately started to dance the solo of the Miller's Wife. Having danced it all the way through, she fell onto the sofa and said "Oh I used to love doing that. I'm sure I was no good in it at all, but it was such fun to do."

I suspect you can't hear the music to which you've danced without the steps and the mood of the dance coming back, for good or ill.

[ February 25, 2002: Message edited by: Alymer ]

I suspect that the stagione system (straight runs of one programme or production)has grown up in opera houses because that's the way opera productions run these days. Very few opera houses have a complete resident opera company. You hire international diva La Superba and her favourite tenor, cast the other roles, dig out the production from the stores, rehearse the chorus, and away you go. OK, that's an exaggeration, but it's roughly what tends to happen. So, the general intendant doesn't see why his fully resident ballet company shouldn't perform in the same manner.

It's a development of the last 20 years or so. I seem to remember that ballet programmes at Covent Garden in the 70's were more varied and the elements of triple bills were sometimes mixed in various ways. I'm not saying this was always a good thing - often it resulted in 'something for everyone to dislike' as Dickie Buckle memorably put it. On the other hand, it did mean you had the chance of avoiding the one ballet you really didn't want to see.

With regard to multiple casting; I once interviewed the well known director (now retired)of a well known ballet company who switched off my tape recorder and said "the trouble is we put on too many casts". How you deal with this I don't know. Dancers these days are more inclined to speak out loudly and demand what they want. You won't stop your technical virtuoso principal demanding the opportunity to show the public his Albrecht, even if he regards the role primarily as a chance to display his cabrioles.

Peter Darrell did choreograph a full evening Mary Queen of Scots ballet for Scottish Ballet, of which he was artistic director. I didn't see it myself, but I have the impression it lasted several seasons. Now, sad to say, all Darrell's ballets seem to have been abandoned, and they were certainly not without merit.

You mean Lydia Kyasht - or so she claims in her memoirs.

I'm sure you are correct Alexandra and it seems to me a pity that nobody puts a stop to the increasing tendancy for the Pas de Quatre to be performed as a big comedy number.

However, historically there was a considerable dispute before the curtain went up as to the order in which the Goddesses should appear. Everyone concerned agreed that Taglioni should have the place of honour and appear last. However, Cerrito and Grisi had a real spat over who should take precedence for second place. The theatre manager, Benjamin Lumley solved the dilema saying "The question of talent must be decided by the audience", but as to precedence "Let the oldest take her unquestionnable right to the envied position". Since neither lady was prepared to own up to that, Perrot got to decide the order in which they appeared.

Stephen Jefferies as Archduke Rudolph in MacMillan's Mayerling was truly terrifying in the wedding night pas de deux with Stephanie. If the dancer playing that role had run off the stage and locked herself in her dressing room, it would have been quite understandable.

Antoinette is now Dame Antoinette and President of the Royal Academy of Dancing,in succession to Fonteyn. She is married with two children, who must now be grown up. She was at Covent Garden the other evening still looking amazingly young. When Dowell was directing the Royal Ballet she coached a number of dancers, among them Sarah Wildor.

In addition to Barbara Newman's biography, Nicholas Dromgoole who was for many years the critic of the Sunday Telegraph wrote a book about Sibley and Dowell which appeared in 1976.

I saw Excelsior twice, with two different casts and I have to say I enjoyed it hugely both as a piece of real ballet kitsch and also as an example of what brought in an audience in the 1870s. I'm surprised that Katharine Kanter says there is no original Manzotti choreography. The programme states that three separate notations exist (pages from one are reproduced in the programme) and my impression was that Dell'Ara had merely added a number of rather undistinguished variations and pas de deux, leaving the crowd scenes much as they were, although adapted for fewer dancers. Certainly, that is what Horst Koegler wrote when he reviewed the production when it was revived some years ago at La Scala.

As to the dancing - well, an ability to conceal fits of giggles is probably the most necessary quality for the Corps. I thought Durante was fine, dancing strongly and with a nice touch of irony. I was less impressed by Guerra, but I confess I've never been a fan of his. I haven't got the programme to hand, so I can't name the dancers from La Scala, but having seen the company recently in Giselle, there would seem to be some very decent dancers among the ranks.

At the time Hugues Gall was in charge of the Opera in Geneva the ballet company was clasically based, but danced in the main 20th century work or ballets created for that company, in particular by Oscar Araiz who directed the ballet for a while. They also had a relationship with Christopher Bruce. The philosophy behind this was that given the resources it would not be possible to build a first-class company capable of dancing the classics to the highest standards. Therefore, he reasoned, better to have an interesting and varied 'contemporary' repertory performed well with guest companies - for instance the Kirov - to perform the Swan Lakes, etc.

I imagine that he is seldom asked about the ballet in interviews as, in the UK press, only opera ever makes news unless there is a scandal in the ballet. As to his own tastes, all I can really tell you is that when Nureyev originally mounted Kingdom of the Shade for the Opera,M. Gall was very enthusiastic about it. Certainly I have the impression he likes the classics - but to speculate any further about his tastes would be just speculation and probably indiscreet.

The Administrateur de la danse position is one that comes and goes, I think. Nureyev ran the company without one for most of his directorship. Cartier's appointment was made by Pierre Berge when he took over from Andre Larquie as President of the Opera and arond the time he was getting rid of Barenboim who had a contract as music director.

As far as the question of the number of etoiles is concerned, I think I would consider the Premier danseur/se to be the equivalent of a principal dancer in most companies while an etoile is something more and either they are there or they're not. It does however seem unfair that it is only etoiles who get programme biographies.

I think it's easy to underestimate the influence Hugues Gall has on the ballet at the Opera. When he was one of Rolf Lieberman's assistants he was in charge of the ballet company and to my certain knowledge took a great deal of interest in it. For instance he had strong opinions about individual dancers and ballets, although he didn't necessarily express them publicly. Again, when he was at Geneva, he undoubtedly set the policy for the ballet company.

Without wishing to detract from what Brigitte Lefevre has acomplished, I would strongly suspect that she has worked closely with Gall throughout his time at the Opera. It's not impossible that Dupont's departure and her appointment may have had something to do with Gall's arrival and his preferred way of working.

All I know of Mortier's involvement with dance is that his arrival at the Monnaie resulted in Bejart moving his company to Lausanne. Mortier then invited Mark Morris and his company to Brussels.

On a slightly different topic, it may be that no etoiles will be named immediately to fill the vacancies. It doesn't have to be a fixed number. In 1981 there were just 14; eight men and six women. And although I can't recall exactly, I think when I first saw the company in about 1969, there were fewer still - and all listed in order of seniority,Chauvire being the senior woman and Attilio Labis the first listed man. There was outrage among the etoiles when the listing was made alphabetic.

But my feeling is that an etoile of the Paris Opera should be much more than a principal dancer. And if there's no one that fills the bill, then there should be no nomination until the right dancer comes along.

Actually, she was Alicia Marks, Estelle. But how about Belton Evers, better known as Eric Bruhn.

Sonja, I'm glad you enjoyed Raymonda more with a different cast. With the exception of Ganzales, I wasn't really impressed with the dancing on the first night. I was never a great fan of Melnikov, and I don't think time has changed my opinion. I thought Cullem danced nicely enough, but was pretty bland most of the time.

But on reflection, my real problem lies with the production. Those old ballets were conceived with a mix of classical variations and ensembles, character dances and mimed roles and with a structure that provided variety and contrast. In this production everyone dances all the time. At the end of the first act my husband remarked "what a lot of steps". And it was just that.

The White Lady, which has been a mimed role in all the productions I've seen, dances all the time,every step you can think of - everything but fouettes. She even has two gentlemen supporters in fluttering tunics who jump about a bit and carry her around the stage.

The Spanish dance has gone, the Saracen dance reworked and lots of pretty detail - such as Raymonda's first entrance - has been changed, at least from the versions I'm familiar with.

The general impression I came away with was that there were no contrasts and no climaxes. Even the Pas Classiqe Hongrois seemed to be goulash without any paprika. Cullem danced her variation well enough, but without any of the changes of mood that can be found in the chorography and which make it more than just a series of steps. But all those nice Hungarian details were missing. And I could have done without the cute kids who came in instead of the Mazurka.

How much of this bland, single note impression is due to the dancers I can only guess, but I would suspect that much of the blame can be laid on the production. The decor didn't help either. Somewhat abstract, very handsome,it was presumably meant to look medieval,but to me it seemed more Art Deco. And to have Raymonda appear in the dream sequence in a kneelength,medieval style costume, while the corps de ballet are all in tutus, looked really odd.

The one really touching moment I felt was the death of Abderakman where Cullum and Gonzales really made something of it. Otherwise, apart from the orchestral playing,I didn't find the production worked for mewhich is sad as it's a ballet I love.

I saw the premiere of a new production of Raymonda in Munich on Saturday night. It was staged by Ray Barra, formely a dancer with the Stuttgart Ballet and the first Onegin in Cranko's ballet of that name. Lise-Maree Cullem danced the title role with Kirill Melnikov as Jean de Brienne and Amilcar Moret Gonzalez as Abderakhman.

I have to say I wasn't very impressed by the production - and if anyone is at all interested I'll post a longer piece and try to explain just why. The orchestra however was wonderful - it was such a pleasure to hear that lovely Glazunov score so beautifully and lovingly played. I'm also curious about Mr Gonzalez who seemed much of the time to be the only person alive on the stage. I wondered if Sonja knows anything about his background?

[ December 03, 2001: Message edited by: Alymer ]

I've often thought those happy harvesters in Fille were a bit underpriviledged. Only the two bottles provided by Colas and he's already taken a swig of one.

In Alicia Alonso's production of Giselle for the Paris Opera, Giselle's mother ran some kind of a dressmaking establishment. And to judge by the number of girls who went into her cottage and the size of the building, it was clearly a sweatshop!

Estelle, the Dutch National Ballet dances Ashton's Cinderella. They also have/had his Symphonic Variations in their repertoire as well as a huge number of Balanchine ballets - at one time more than any company other than New York City Ballet. They also have a number of interesting works by Dutch choreographers.

Durante seemingly needed to be in Italy for a rehearsal. Hence Tarantella, which was in place of MacMillan's Winter Dreams duet.

The gala at the London Coliseum on 30 September was almost certainly Mukhamedov's farewell performance in London. He has plans to carry on dancing for a while yet - but no London showings. He was pushed on stage at the beginning of the evening to give a speech - heavy with charm and humour, and among other things stated what I had previously heard reported, that he wished he had left Russia earlier so that he could have danced with Leslie Collier for a longer period.

His first dancing appearance was in Balanchine's Tarantella partnering Izabella Milewska, who had learned the role in just 24 hours. In my opinion it's a long time since he had the technique to provide any more than an outline of this number, but the audience adored him. If you remember Villella and McBride this performance was probably best not seen, although the Polish lady put up a good showing in the circumstances.

Mukhamedov also appeared in a number called Sita, all about an Indlian farmer and his wife 'lying' in the furrows of the newly ploughed field in order to fertilise the ground. Yes. Well; again very popular with his fans. He'd previously performed it with Asylmuratova, but this time was partnered by Mara Galeazzi from the Royal Ballet. Tamara Rojo and Slawomir Wozniak (also from the Polish National Ballet did pas de deux from Giselle Act II. I don't think this works as a gala number and on this occasion I didn't even think it was particularly well danced. Rojo was wonderful however as Aegina in an excerpt from Spartacus, partnered by Adam Cooper as Crassus.

If I hadn't seen Maris Liepa who created the role (and Boris Akimov) I couldn't believe anyone could be better in the part. Rojo was wonderful too. Dead serious; dead sexy, but definitely with her tongue in her pretty cheek. If, God forbid, the Royal Ballet should ever revive the idea of taking Spartacus into their rep, she would be amazing.

Evenlovelier though was Asylmuratova who is now, amazingly, a red headed beauty. She did a little number with Mukhamedov to two Louis Armstrong songs. Radiant, gorgeous, in a little blue sequined slip dress and pointe shoes. The sad thing is we shall probably not see her dancing in London again. I wish in a way that she'd brought her tutu with her, but any sighting of this lovely creature is worthwhile.

Four horsemen and a Lady, was a tango number for Mukhamedov, three other men and DAria Klimentova from English National Ballet. This is the first original choreography of Mukhamedov's that we've seen. He talks about expanding into a proper ballet and I hope he does. It was very entertaining with some interesting choreography. That for the men was very good, as you might expect, and there was also a nice duet for Mukhamedov and Klimentova, with some unusual partnering - again not unexpected. But it wasn't by any means recyling, or derivative, and certainly showed more promise than some of our so-called choreographic hopefuls.

The final number of the evening was an exerpt from Lorca Massine's Zorba the Greek, which was new to London. Students from Arts Educational School and English National Ballet School provided the corps very professionally. Mukhamedov was really at home in this as Zorba and Wozniak was excellent as John, stylish, virtuosic and with a real sense of character.

It was a really good evening, well balanced and well presented. Seemingly Mrs M did much of the organising and together they make a great team for getting this kind of gala on to the stage - something which is not as easy as many people seem to think. And I think I've sat through enough dreary so-called 'gala evenings'to be able to draw that conclusion from bitter experience.

It went really well. Mukhamedov looked good and received a tremendous ovation. He also produced a promising piece of original choreography. I'll try and post a fuller description later.

Andrei, thank you very much for that explanation which seems much more plausible than the 'pure Fokine' version.

Here in London we've just had a week of ballet at Sadler's Wells "starring" Anastasia Volochkova. She was supported by the Russian State Ballet Comp;any, a group of dancers from the Polish National Ballet and three guest artists from Kiev. There were two programmes.

For anyone who hasn't seen Volochkova she is tall, blonde, very pretty. She trained at the Vaganova school and danced the lead in Swan Lake very early in her career. She then spent a short period with the Bolshoi.

The most notable thing about her dancing are her high extensions which she displays at every posssible moment. She had a pretty hostile reception from most of the London critics, which wasn't perhaps entirely deserved. In my view her main problem is that she sees herself as a great classical ballerina - we saw her Odile, Nikya, etc. but she was really at her most attractive when she was a (wrongly) flirtatious CArmen in Alberto Alonso's Carmen Suite. She also needs some serious coaching as her technique is far rougher than it was when she came to London with the Bolshoi.

Mukamedov's production of Swan Lake Act III was interesting, and very nicely danced by the Poles. Miss Volochkova as Odile however seemed to be doing her own thing entirely, partnered by an unimpressive Evgeny Ivanchenko.

Much more interesting were the guests from Kiev; Artem Datsyshyn (the only person who seemed to have any idea of what he was doing in Carmen Suite)and Olena Filipyeva and Denis Matvienko. The danced Corsaire p de d and the Vainonen Nutcraker P de d. Style, technique, musicality, beautiful stage manners - it was all there.

The really fascinating thing though were two pieces by the Russian State Ballet - neither particularly well danced. First came a number from Ruslan and Ludmilla. This is supposed to be by Fokine, but to me it looked far earlier in style - unless he was a master of pastiche. I've seen it on video danced by the Kirov in a v ery similar version. Does anyone know anything about this? I can't help wondering if Fokine was commissioned to do the dances, found this one more or less intact, tidied it up a bit and collected his fee. It's been done before. But I found those cute Victorian groupings so unlikely for Fokine in 1916.

The other little wonder was The Naiad and the Fisherman which was attributed to Petipa after Perrot, something which I could really believe. This was quite enchanting and I'd love to know more about its history. If anyone has any knowledge of the piece I'd love ask some questions. I'd also like to see it danced by a really good company. Among other things the extracts included the "Pas de l'Ombre" which Perrot originally created for Cerrito in 1843 and later incorporated into the Naiad and the Fisherman which he made in Petersburg. So a real piece of dance history and I'm grateful to Volochkova for that. But any information or thoughts on either of those pieces, please.