Rosa

Vadim Muntagirov was promoted to lead principal at the curtain call following the opening night of ENB's The Nutcracker. Congratulations to him!

http://www.independe...on-8412527.html

Thanks for the list, Rosa. Any particular likes or dislikes from your list?

Good question!

Murder Most Austen was a total disappointment. I was really looking forward to it because it incorperated Northanger Abbey, one of my favorite novels by Austen, but how its use was disappointing, as well as the mysetry itself.

Both Ausgutyn's and Kain's books were very insightful. Flipped was a surprise, the first YA book I've read in a very long time that I truly, simply enjoyed

*Murder Most Austen by Tracy Kiely

*Dancing from the Heart: A Memoir by Frank Augustyn

*The Runaway Dragon by Kate Coombs

*In the Company of Stars: The Paris Opera Ballet by Gerard Uferas

*Violins of Autumn by Amy McAuley

*The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

*The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic by Allan Wolf

*Karen Kain: Movement Never Lies by Baren Kain

*Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

*Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Thank you for the videos, Helene. I think Davis and White translate Giselle to the ice very well.

And Tchaikovsky is well represented this season: 1 Nutcracker, 2 Sleeping Beauty, and about 3 Swan Lake/Black Swan programs!

Have Mariinsky and Bolshoi stayed with the Soviet ending? I'd be interested in thoughts on this issue, especially from BTers familiar with the current environment in Russia.

The Mariinsky, yes, still has the happy Soviet ending. The Bolshoi had a happy ending until...about a decade ago? Now their ending involves Siegfried being left alone, his ideal dreams gone (Odette is not real).

http://youtu.be/RMqs3rHhYsk

Another big debut for Olga on the 11th, Anastasia in Ivan the Terrible -- http://www.bolshoi.r...formances/576/. When was the last time the Bolshoi did Ivan?

So Misty's only 'major' role in a full-length classic is Gulnare...which is the #2 female role?

Don't forget her Gamzatti debut last season, too.

Part debuts as Kitri and Sylvia. (And gets her Sleeping Beauty with Gomes, thank goodness!) Hammoudi and Seo in Swan Lake. Herman finally gets his chance at Siegfried!!! And Sarah gets Aurora again.

Just noticed Osipova is to guest at the La Scala next July in Swan Lake.

http://www.teatroallascala.org/en/season/opera-ballet/2012-2013/il-lago-dei-cigni.html

...It may just be a matter a time before she's given the opportunity to do the ballet at ABT.

Thank you everyone for the reports! I've enjoyed reading them.

By the way, did everyone see the video of the cat running across the stage as Tereshkina was dancing the Black Swan coda? Someone here posted it! Made me laugh! Whoever posted it should post it again!

http://youtu.be/Te9S-zaYYJA

Multiple videos of last night's opening Raymonda are now available on YouTube. This one of Novikova dancing the Act II variation is noteworthy, as she reinstates a bit of the 1898 Vikharev-after-Petipa reconstruction to the Mariinsky: the sequence of multiple entrechats-six, here only 24 (instead of the 30+ at La Scala) but still mighty impressive. Also, you will notice that she performs the sequence in a diagonal, rather than the La Scala positioning straight down the stage (backstage to front).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgeubylR69s&feature=plcp

Thanks, Natalia! Novikova looks so lovely and confident.

Pregnancy tally (thus far...there may be more!)

Terioshkina

Somova

A. Matvienko

Selina

+ Perren & Borchenko from the Mikhailovsky

for the mothers-to-be!

Hallberg in the Bolshoi roster and Vasiliev in ABT's. What a sign of the end of the cold war..!

(Has he ever danced Albrecht, BTW...?)

Yes, both as a guest artist with other companies and (just once, I think) at the Bolshoi.

Cubanmiamiboy, I believe that you are referring to the original Zakharov (not Lavsrovsky) version at the Bolshoi, 1945?

That is correct, Natasha. I got mixed up with Lavrovsky's Giselle, but it was Sakharov' the version I was thinking of-(which I sometimes see in the recording with the great Strutchkova). Sergeev' version I don't know, but in any case I don't understand why Russian ballet is willing so often to let go previous beautiful productions-(as with the Imperial Little Humpbacked Horse, which I'm sure could have been resurrected)-to favor all this new stuff...

At least Zakharov version is still active at the Bolshoi, I believe...

Actually, I think the Bolshoi now does Yuri Possokhov's Cinderella which premiered in 2006 (I saw it when they brought it to DC the following year). ...Someone please correct me if I'm wrong!

And here is another video of her in Firebird:

http://youtu.be/VNW7j6L3TQI

Kain and Augustyn have both written good autobiographies, Rosa.

I was not aware of that. Thanks a lot, dirac!

I just finished Passion to Dance: the National Ballet of Canada by James Neufeld. (My only prior knowledge of the NBC before reading Neufeld's book consisted of the 1970s recording of Nureyev's Sleeping Beauty, Karen Kain and Frank Augustyn in the Footnotes TV series, and passing references in books of Erik Bruhn's Swan Lake which featured a female Rothbart.) A very fascinating and informative read about the company and its history.

The Paris Opera Ballet will have three broadcasts in France and Belguim during the 2012-2012 season that aren't part of the Ballet in Cinema series:

Don Quixote (Nureyev version) - December 18, 2012

Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony (Neumeier) - April 18, 2013

La Sylphide (Lacotte after Taglioni) - June 27, 2013 (retransmission) (Perhaps the Dupont/Ganio recording from 2005?)

http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/2012/08/paris-opera-ballet-live-broadcasts.html

Did anyone hear last Wednesday's Proms featuring Prokofiev's complete Cinderella performed by the London Symphony Orchestra? I just listened to it on the BBC Proms website. Valery Gergiev's tempo was quite fast at times. There were parts of the score that were played in ways I'd never heard before, and wondered if it was due to the number, and/or balance of the instruments. Overall, a lovely performance that reconfirmed this as one of my favorite ballet scores, and left me longing for my out-of-reach DVDs of the ballet.

Congratulations to Janie and Sebastien!

Those clips are beautiful! If it was released on DVD, I would get in line for it.