cubanmiamiboy

Once more, as a courtesy of our new member Nick Wallace. , here's this little sweet clip from 1906. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz-S7PG_mII&feature=related

Jeanette was ECSTATIC to be able to do Giselle and more than ready...Kronenberg can't no longer hold the technical demands of difficult roles, and the pairing of Albertson/Cerdeiro is just painful to even imagine it. If there's someone who is NOT Albrecht, is that young, fragile kid... The whole thing is just a major disaster, disheartening and beyond comprehension. I need personal input on this-(not to worry, I know it can't be posting material...). But as I said...WHATEVER.

Ah...whatever...really...

What's your personal assessment, Natasha...?

That casting-(whith a few exceptions)- is a major JOKE. Thank God for the 90 %-(my own guess/speculation, and assuming all responsability for it)-of the Miami audience, who won't be able to notice it.

Ah, Helene...this is heartbreaking...really.

Whaaaaat....?!?!?! ARE THEY FRIKING' KIDDING..?!?! NO MIAMI GISELLE AND ALBRECHT FOR THE BEST BALLERINA AND BAILARIN OF MCB...?!?! JEANETTE DELGADO AND RENATO PANTEADO A NON SHOW...?!?! Jesus. This is beyond ridiculous. Let's bring a new change of direccion soon in the company, if that's what it takes, honestly. I will seriously consider even going to any performance.

Not to mention your great collection of clips on Youtube-(many of which I've used here very often). Nice to see you here, Nick!

Oh...Fille, Grand Pas de Quatre, Spartacus..!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrick_Ohlsson

Houston simply had set her standards too high in people's minds to be able to pull out an acceptable material with her damaged chords. Her fans had been mourning her lost for a while now...

It is here... http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/3309-question-3-how-does-giselle-die/

Where's that other thread in which we discussed this same matter...? I remember many valuable sources were cited, as back I think as the original libretto.

Oh, Sizova was TOO MUCH...!! Aurora..I think there's a simple explanation to why do we see things different. Or better, could it be that you truly SEE what 'm not really capable to...? I think the teacher's approach, after so many hours in the studio dissecting every single fragment of a movement and position to its very bare bones, is a completely different animal, which makes quite difficult to take a look at a piece of movement without getting into a proper formal analysis. On the contrary, me, a non expert , when faced with the lack of that type of knowledge, have to rely, rest and respond to different signals, which can become-(and indeed HAVE become)-, in my inexperience eyes, monumentally important.

How can I describe my spending of two and a half hours listening to the Holy Grail of classical music...? With such a magnificent group of performers like the Seraphic Fire and Firebird Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Mr. Patrick Dupre Quigley, it is quite impossible to go wrong. I have attended in the past to a couple of their renderings of sacred music-(Rachmaninoff Orthodox All Night Vigil and Brahms' Requiem, for which they just received a Grammy nomination), but here they just outdid themselves big time. The Missa was sublime. http://www.seraphicfire.org/ http://www.grammy.com/nominees?genre=5 (Entry # 72)

We've lost one of the TRULY GRAND DAMES of Pop. RIP Miss Houston, and let's hope for some awarness...

Last night I had the immense pleasure to witness one of the most moving renderings of Chopin's "Piano Concerto # 2". Considered one of the world leading interpreters of Chopin's music, Garrick Ohlsson did the honors at the Arsht Center, along with the wonderful Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, from Poland-(Wroclaw, the old capital of Silesia, place of our long time friend Albrecht, Duke of Silesia.. ;-) Anyhow, Giselle aside, the magnificent orchestra was superbly conducted by maestro Jacek Kaspszyk. The program also included Lutoslawski's lovely "Little Suite" and Schoenberg's magnificent orchestration of Brahms' "Piano Quartet # 1". Bravis!

I really thought pointed feet in passe was pretty standard to ballet. I guess I was wrong (as were all my teachers at the Joffrey and SAB) Definitely NOT wrong...(and please, allow me to take the liberty to say so, even if I know nothing about what life in a ballet studio is and feels like). Yes, it is standard to ballet technique, but not enough to make a female ballet dancer a ballerina...

I think the ultimate prove that some dancer's careers-(rather than what we perceive as "proper technique" based on current aesthetics, which are continuously subjected to all types of trends)-are still holding over time is how they are kept in such vivid form in writing, video and, most importat, in collective memory. The list, if one looks at it from that point, gets extremely narrow...

I've been aimed to ask this question before to those who have had performance experiences. Many times during over-shoulder lifts, I see the ballerina's tutu getting into the most diverse positions and forms, many times displaying in full unflattering view its insides, and others right in the bailarin's face. What should be the correct way for a tutu to be up there...? Should the ballerina actually seat on its back side-(and thus opening its whole front)-, or should she try and seat so the tutu covers her completely...?

I always believed the choreography of everything but the Grand Pas and Mazurka des Enfants to be lost, but then I also wonder if there's was something else notated from other acts. If anything, the Bolshoi only chose to reconstruct the last Act. It is known that Lacotte had Mme.Egorova at one point nearby to give him some sort of help on what she remembered-(at least for his Sylphide), so maybe there was some verbal knowledge of some sort passed on Paquita as well...?

Well, BB, there's also Michael Tilson's orchestra and his New Wolrd Center and also the Cleveland...! ;-)

True, but there is the fact that Villella is one of not that many Balanchine dancers still active and passionate about Balanchine's choreographies purity AND physically capable enough to be there in the studio to oversee things at all times. I is also a plus that he lives in Miami full time. It would not be the same to get thru the whole process of bringing a stager from out of the city every time a ballet needs to be re-staged. Even if the stager does come, he/she wouldn't be, as Vllella, here all the time watching every single performance from the beginning to the end of the season.

Trying hard not to especulate, but if Villella's exit wasn't a soft event, California's predictions could be a real, devastating fact...