cubanmiamiboy

Jack...it seems like at some point Sylvia was considered, but yes..they ended up doing TPDD. (glad they did... ). Wondering why they didn't make the corrections on the website.

It always amazed me how a different cast can make you feel as if you just saw a completely different ballet... That's what happened tonight...I'm not happy AT ALL with what I saw... Matinee tomorrow, to finally make my final comments. au revoir!

I'm at work right now,and will be off to the Arsht Center when I'm out of here. I'm interested to see tonight's cast and compare. "I'll be back" Terminator Rey.

Ok, ok, ok, people...HANDS DOWN EVERYONE!!! I just got home fresh from tonight's performance rush-(so some clubbing needs to be done to cool off...) Villella's dancers are SHARPER THAN EVER!!! I will be adding more stuff later on, but something needs to be said NOW, and it's that Jeannette Delgado and Rolando Sarabia were ABSOLUUUUUTELY ASTOOOOOOOOONISHING!!!!..in Allegro Brillante. OMG!!!...This is the kind of dancing I've been longing for a long time...Sarabita is back, and he just announced Delgado as HIS ballerina...a magnificent partnership is just born....

There seems to be a last minute program change. According to the MCB website, TPDD is out, Sylvia PDD is in... http://www.miamicityballet.org/

Thank you all for the insights-(and for the videos, Jack). Let's see how it goes.

bart...can you tell me more about "Company B"...? (I mean, I can always do some online homework, but if there happens to be some personal experiences to be told, that's even better...)

Do you mean Graduation Ball, choreography by David Lichine...? No La Valse...No Graduation Ball...but the old Mr. B's "Waltz Academy"... -(I know..it's kind of hard to digest... )

[Moderator Note: This is the thread for posting your thoughts, comments and performance reviews for Program I, whether you see it in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, or West Palm Beach. There will be lots to talk about.] YAAAY!!!...MCB's new season will kick off tomorrow at the Arsht Center-( )-and I will be there, of course . For the occasion, the company's channel on the omnipresent tube has launched a series of short clips of the works to be presented, along with a brief commentary by Villella. (Oh, BTW...I just realized this is the very first time I don't have to repeat the "this is the first time I will be seeing this Balanchine" phrase...(progression, progression... ) Anyway...tomorrow's attire has been picked already, and the rest ...we'll see after the performance. For now, here are the clips. Enjoy!! "Allegro Brillante" "Tchaikovsky Pas de deux" "Symphony in three Movements" ...and... "Company B" (I'm intrigued about this work...any clues you guys can give me on how to face it...? )

(Go, Miss Vi!!)

re: Miss Vi. This is interesting. A while ago, I would have seconded the above question without hesitation. As per now, I'm not sure. For once, it seems that Miss Vi is taking full-(and wise)-advantage of the outcomes from the very few openings for cultural exchanges that have been happening in between Cuba and US, hence getting the possibility to be known and recognized in America without having to be exiled, which then leads me to my second point: If happened-(her leaving of Alonso's company)-I don't really see how could she fit into any of the top American troupes, given the difficulty to deal with her current "diva" status-(something not very encouraged over here, as I perceive)- and the fact that her biggest strength is the XIX Century repertoire, which doesn't seem to be the bulk of the best companies around anymore. Honestly, I would hate to see her die like a fish out of the water, a la Rolando Sarabia. So let's let her stay over there while hoping that she-(and many other Cuban dancers and artists)-can soon benefit from a wider and wiser political understanding.

Ah...so finally Odile made it down here... Hope she stays... (even the Miami weather being kind of hot for a black swan)

..."offending videos"...wow...so the Trust got "offended", ah...? (c'mon...give me a break... )

"I have never seen another dancer who has so perfected the art of standing still. She could balance on the tip of one exquisitely arched foot for such a long time that some in the audience were moved to helpless laughter at the sheer outrageousness of her poise. I joined them; what else could one do? " Sarah Kaufman

There's definitely A LOT of space-(and skin)-in between her bustier upper lines and her neck... Yeah...it looks somewhat weird...(maybe she was one of those people with very long torsos compared to the length from the waist down...?)

"Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix" from Samson et Dalila... and if it is by "La Divina" -(and this coming from a Tebaldista)-then it is heaven... 'nuf said.

Mezzo-soprano Marta Pérez, the first Cuban to sing in Milan's famed La Scala opera house, died on Tuesday, August 21 in her Miami-Dade home. She was 85. Miss Perez was known as Cuba's Diva throughout her long and successful career, during which her remarkable voice took her to the world's most prestigious stages. In 1946, she began a series of tours in the United States with the famous Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona's orchestra. She later performed in Mexico and, in 1955, reached a high in her career when she sang at the renowned opera house La Scala, in Milan, Italy, in the role of Preciosilla in Verdi's opera La Forza del Destino, sharing the stage with Renata Tebaldi and Giuseppe di Stefano. Pérez was born in Havana on Aug. 2, 1924. Her artistic talents surfaced early in life, and as a little girl she studied singing with Marila Granowska. At age 13, she performed as soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Havana. In an unforgettable performance in Havana, Pérez was the first to record Gonzalo Roig's famous zarzuela, Cecilia Valdés. In the 1950s, she toured various cities in Europe and the United States, and in 1961 she performed on The Ed Sullivan Show. In the mid-'60s, Pérez left Cuba and came to live as an exile in Miami, where in 1967, with Pili de la Rosa, Miguel de Grandy and set designer Demetrio, she founded Pro Arte Grateli Society, a Hispanic theater group, which she co-chaired until a few years ago. `Marta loved to help young singers,'' de la Rosa said. "She cared for new talents. Besides being an extraordinary singer, she was a great human being, very religious and a great friend.'' Cuban soprano Blanca Varela remembered the "good artistic friendship'' she had with Pérez since their early performances together on Cuban television. "In Cuba, we performed Madame Butterfly's Flowers Duet in a television concert with Maestro Roig,'' Varela said. ``She had a beautiful mezzo voice. "There was never a rivalry between us. She devoted her entire life to music, never married and had no children,'' Varela said. Cuban baritone José Le Matt considered her ``one of the great figures of Cuban lyric singing of the 1950s.'' "We met when we were both starting our careers in the Philarmonic's choir,'' Le Matt said. "She later became a soloist. We were all very proud when she became the first Cuban to ever sing at la Scala.'' Besides her operatic recordings, Pérez did albums with traditional Cuban songs and classic boleros, such as La bella cubana and Marta Pérez and Enrique Chía. "She was an inspiration for us Cuban singers,'' said Elizabeth Caballero, a soprano who has performed with the Florida Grand Opera. ``I remember when I auditioned for Grateli, she was there. It was a very emotional moment. Maybe some day we'll sing in her honor in a free Cuba.'' Like the majority of the prominent Cuban lyric singers of the time, she chose to exile herself at the beggining of Castro's dictatorship. Like many others, she died without ever being able to go back to her country. RIP, Miss Marta Perez. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83-RGyDKja0 http://www.miamiherald.com/news/obituaries...ry/1195660.html

...and why is that Part still doesn't get a Giselle...?

Can't really visualize Murphy as Giselle...

Oh, and also, let me add that I read somewhere that there are musicians trying to revive this trend in Russia, and concerts are being done this way. Here, an interesting article. http://www.pko.cz/orchestra_en.asp

When I studied in a music conservatory as a teen, I had an amazing teacher-(Miss Gema Alicia Alfonso, RIP)-of History of Music. I vividly remember the day when she went on to talk about the post-soviet revolution trend of the "Orchestra without conductor", a new then practice for musicians to play without the guidance of a conductor, feeding off their own energy and drive. This happened during the early 1920s. An orchestra without conductor was viewed as a more democratic, less authoritative way of expression in the post-tsarist Russia. There was even a quote...something like "Just as the government doesn't need a Tsar, the orchestra doesn't need a director" . Pretty interesting, ah...?

Besides-(and this is the last thing I say about this "consent age" sub-topic)-...why do we keep closing our eyes at reality...? My story was long ago, yes, in another country with a lower consent age, yes, and Quiggin's one relates to a past time also, but...do we really think this is not happening anymore...?! Well...I just wish you guys could listen to my mom's stories-(she's a junior high teacher in one of the centers belonging to a huge private schools chain here in Miami)-of what she hears and see in her school...They make my story and Quiggin story look like fairytales...seriously.

Natasha, Lopez seems to have taken the lead now...let's see what happens next. (Vikharev's SB's reconstruction is up and growing fast in clips, FYI)

Simon, the list was generated with the simple purpose of pointing at issues that have been categorized as "legal" by the American society at one point, some of them now being considered "crimes". Nothing else. My intention was not to argue pro or against each one of them. Yes, they are sensitive things, polemical by nature and subject of controversy-(I would say ALL of them still are), which definitely is not the purpose of this thread. I DID think about each of them well through when I cited them, but again, I would not get more into them, as the world-(and America)-has done it for quite a time. Thousands of books by smarter people than me are written on the subject, so I didn't feel the need to keep digging deeper. I, again, DO consider Polanski's actions as wrong as the most of the people-(mainly because so far the major wight of evidence points at forceful actions done on a person way lower on age than what I think should be the consent number)

Count another on the waiting...