Rosa

It seems a good amount of Swan Lake productions performed nowadays include a prologue at the beginning of the ballet. "The audience is made aware that something strange is going on." "It provides background." And "To show whose story it is" are a few of the reasons I've heard/read.

Most of the prologues I've seen (ABT, POB, La Scala,) show Odette being captured and turned into a swan, while others (Staatsoper in Berlin, Royal Swedish Ballet) center on Siegfried.

Is the prologue a necessary addition to the ballet, or really desirable? Does it make the ballet better? More complicated?

I'll be seeing the Part/Gomes Swan Lake and was wondering who will be dancing the pas de trois. Is that casting usually announced in advance, or will it just be in the program the night of the performance?

Dvorovenko and Gomes opening night... Have they danced together before?

I wonder if any of Rogers and Hammerstein's musicals would make good ballets. A full-length Carousel, King and I, or Oklahoma... With the famous scores or original music?

Casting of ABT's Giselle run in Ottawa, Canada, is now up. Simone Messmer dances Myrtha on the 27th, and Maria Riccetto Giselle at the matinée on the 28th -- both debuts I believe.

I love both of those books, but I have to confess -- I originally read them because Dorothy Sayers mentions them in her Peter Wimsey books!

Your comment made me chuckle, sandik! I ended up reading the books when I discovered my library had BBC miniseries of them which sounded interesting -- I'm one who 98% of the time reads the book first before viewing the film/TV adaptation.

Re Wilkie Collins. Rosa, I confess that my experience has been limited to (a) a Classics Comic Book in the case of Moonstone, and (b) a British tv miniseries in the case of Woman in White. I loved both but have never attempted to read the actual works, possibly because my local library's edition of Moonstone had (or so it seemed) several thousand words crammed on to each page with very little white space. Based on what you say -- and my elusive memories -- I am tempted to try Woman in White. Is this a good place to begin with Collins?

Wow, a Classics Comic Book of The Moonstone, bart? I had no idea the classics had received that sort of treatment! Very interesting...

I've seen two miniseries of The Moonstone which were very good, but not The Woman in White yet.

Either The Moonstone or The Woman in White (both!) would be a good place to start with Collins. Both books have very good plots, lots of suspense, twists and turns, and are uniquely told from several first-person points-of-view. I would recommend trying the former first; as I said above, The Woman in White is a better crafted work, and may be enjoyed more if read after The Moonstone. But that is just my suggestion.

Just finished Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White. A finely crafted novel with the narratives more engaging and the characterizations stronger IMO compared to The Moonstone, I can understand why this is considered Collins' best novel. I really connected with the characters and I often swung between despair and faint hope as each character related their part of the story.

This was an excellent and suspenseful read. The Moonstone is still my personal favorite.

The Bolshoi acquired Yuri Posokhov's version of Cinderella a couple of years ago. It would be great to have that one on film as well.

I agree! I saw the Bolshoi's new production in 2007 with Svetlana Zakharova and (now retired) Sergey Filin and thought it was marvelous -- despite some weak choreography and Zakharova's more spunky than vulnerable Cinderella. Since then I have been hoping this version will someday be filmed.

It seems like those DVDs you linked to are the same version (even though one is labeled 79 minutes and the other 89 minutes): same year, same dancers listed...

Nina is doing Giselle w. Gomes.

Now this is a performance I got to SEE!!

Have those two every danced together in a large scale ballet like Giselle or Swan Lake before?? I've always felt they would be a perfect match

Nina and Gomes did Swan Lake together last year; Nina replaced an injured Vishneva.

How terrible! Poor Fadeev. Poor and brave Tereshkina.

Sibley/Dowell

Christopher Wheeldon or Alexei Ratmansky?

Also noticed that Copeland and Matthews are down for 2 Tchai Pas, on the same days as the first 2 Lane/Cornejo performances of T&V.

That second Lane/Cornejo T&V is now Kajiya/Stearns (seems like Cory will be partnering everyone in the spring); Sarah and Herman will do the last performance of T&V.

Yes, it is the same production.

Three DVDs of the Bolshoi Ballet's Swan Lake with Bessmertnova/Bogatyrev, Mikhalchenko/Vasyuchenko, and Plisetskaya/Bogatyrev (all recorded in the 1980s, I believe) have a happy ending. But I think I remember reading somewhere that their version was changed to a more traditional sad ending recently -- someone correct me if I'm wrong, please.

Also according to the official site for Max and Irina, Part/Beloserkovsky will do the May 23 matinée for Mozartiana, which was originally Kent/TBA

Congratulations Kent and Barbee!

I voted for the Royal Danish Ballet -- I've longed to see them do Bournonville for a long time: La Sylphide, A Folk Tale, La Ventana...

Runners up: Mariinsky in Raymonda with Gomes/Part and Gedemidas Taranda as Aderakhman(!!), Pennsylvania Ballet's Swan Lake, MCB in Jewels and Balanchine's Swan Lake.

Recently a performance of Cinderella starring the beautiful 52-year-old Ekaterina Maximova in the title role has been uploaded on YouTube. Vladimir Vasiliev plays the Stepmother, Andris Liepa the Prince, and the all the other roles are done by the Kremlin Ballet. This version is choreographed by Vasiliev.

Of the many productions of Cinderella I've seen, this is the most wonderful IMO.

The videos can be found by putting "Cinderella Maximova" in the search field.

Those clips are wonderful, giving us a few glimpses of what goes on behind the scenes at the ballet. I particularly liked the clip of Gillot and Martinez rehearsing and viewing footage of Nureyev.

I am looking forward to the DVD.

I'm considering seeing American Ballet Theatre at the Kennedy Center in Feburary, but haven't been able to find any casting. Does anyone have any idea when this information will be available? Thanks.

Thank you for the reports Rockand carbro. I'm pleased to hear the partnership between Pereira and Peiffer is growing.

The recently-released CINDERELLA was filmed in April of this year...so in about 8-9 months, we may have a RAYMONDA.

Actually Cinderella was filmed in April of 2007. So a possible DVD of Raymonda would likely arrive in about a year -- in the USA at least.

Thank you, volcanohunter, for "reviewing" the documentary. Does it have English subtitles?

I am currently reading Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria, by Julia P. Gelardi. So far I've been really enjoying this fascinating book about Alexandra of Russia, Marie of Romania, Victoria Eugenie of Spain, Maud of Norway, and Sophie of Greece. (Of the five I'm only familiar with Alexandra's tragic story.) Mrs. Gelardi has done a good job of weaving the stories of the queens together.

Beautiful pictures, Marc! Thank you!

There are clips from the November 17th performance of "Paquita" featuring Zakharova/Uvarov at YouTube. They can be found by searching the keywords "Svetlana Zakharova Paquita."