5 minutes ago, Birdsall said:

I didn't feel the NYCB tree was "mammoth" but maybe it was. I liked both the NYCB tree and the MCB tree in the end.

The new MCB production is,indeed, quite enjoyable despite the projections.

1 hour ago, Birdsall said:

It looked like it grew to about the same size as NYCB's tree to me, but I thought it might not be exactly the same size......so you confirmed that Lopez says it is not as big

As per the measurements, hell yeah. None of the trees of MCB-(the old one and the current semi-growing invention)- can really compare in size with the NYCB mammoth tree.

Oh... just GO. As proved by her recent Sylvia I just saw at the ROH, she has become an ARTIST with capital letters. 

5 hours ago, Birdsall said:

Another BA member I met with and ate dinner with felt the same way I do about MCB's tree. But we all have our differing opinions.

Well, I didn't have dinner with Lourdes Lopez, but I sat next to her on Sunday at her box during the matinee, and told her that going away with the real tree had been a minus. Her response was that she would had hoped to replicate the measurement of the NYCB tree, but it wasn't possible due to the lack of that huge trap door the State theater has just for this purpose.

On 12/29/2017 at 12:49 AM, Birdsall said:

I was really expecting to be disappointed by the tree due to previous reports, but I sat close and I saw the tree growing. I could be wrong, but it might have grown as tall as the NYCB tree. I just saw two performances by NYCB earlier in the month, and that tree did not look bigger to me than the MCB one. However, the MCB one had lit up projections on it as it grew and the projection grew larger so spreading beyond the actual physical tree and eventually the physical one went up and away as the projection became the main focus. The actual physical tree that grew behind the video projection might have been smaller than NYCB's tree, but to me it looked about the same size. So I actually did not mind the tree, and during the fight it made sense for them to be the toys and mice under the tree imho.

 

The tree-(projection or physical)- totally dissapears during the whole of the battle scene. Only a backdrop of a lower foliage is in view once the growing section is over. 

11 hours ago, dirac said:

Or to put it another way – ballet companies may realize that there are things in work X that are embarrassingly offensive and which they would rather not present regardless of whether their audience is particularly alert to the offense, and try to acknowledge and address those problems. 

I strongly believe that's the case with ABT's Raymonda, even if some others believe that the ballet got dropped due to being a poor production.

13 hours ago, Helene said:

They're also like Shakespeare because there were periods where the plays were chopped up, speeches from other sources were interpolated, the endings were changed for the sensibility of the times, etc.  They haven't always been sacred text.

Exactly my thought, Helene.

57 minutes ago, Josette said:

I have only seen The Cage in the taped version shown on TV some time ago with Heather Watts and Bart Cook, and found it compelling and brilliantly executed.  Loved the music. I also am looking forward to seeing it on stage as danced by SFB in March. 

It is indeed quite compelling.  I have never been too much of a fan of Stravinsky-(including Petrushka or Firebird, which are, in my book, more visually attractive than, let's say, Symphony in 3 Movements or Stravisnky Violin Concerto.)- but this ballet really caught my attention enough to come back to see it again. 

Here are some stills from the original cast, including Nora Kaye and Nicolas Magallanes.

Excising the violence in Petroushka would totally changed the very core narrative of the ballet.  Ha...I can almost see the Russians saying.."and then you westerners dare to criticize our Soviet revisionists and their new SL ending...!" 

Attitudes toward certain art form narratives might change with the times, but if works of art are being chopped off, tunics to Greek classical sculptures are placed or countless paintings-(in which, like the "Olympia", the black character is relegated to a maid in the background)- taken away from museums, then then end is near. And it is VERY easy to get viewers used to alterations and changes. 

For God's sake...the Russians themselves have been watching the wrong ending of Swan Lake for more than half a century now!

Kschesinskaya, Markova, Toumanova,  Mary Ellen Moylan, Kirkland.

19 hours ago, rg said:

CIRCUS POLKA was created as a piece d'occasion for NYCB's 1972 Stravinsky Festival - the final tableau had the S.A.B. students grouped as a capital I with a period and captial S with a period. Robbins played the ring master.

over the years it was given for festive occasions, for ex. for Kirstein's 80th birthday, to finish with the initials L. K.

etc.

 

Here they finished the act with the initials J. R, for Robbins.

I went back yesterday mainly for "The Cage". Very interesting, and very reminiscent of Giselle's second act. I enjoyed it a lot, mainly for its mid century perfume. The jerking movements of The Novice when she is first brought to the world reminded me of those of Apollo's. Setting this work apart from some other  leotard pieces is, undoubtedly, it's quick design and sharpness...so different from modern  bores of endless armpits draggings. The Cage builds momentum at its right peak and finishes high. It is a short ballet, but one I could watch with pleasure more than once, and one where you can think of ideal casts. Osipova I'm sure would be wonderful on it. 

Simone Messmer and Renan Cerdeiro danced "Other Dances". He was SUPERB, particularly in those Mazurca-spiced moments during his first variations. Lourdes Lopez was sitting bext to me-( I exchanged so thoughts on the new projections of the Nutcracker with her)- and she cheered some "bravos" at him. Messmer was subtle, but very pleasant to watch in this lyrical piece. I think she's more this type of dancer than that of a bravura moments.

8 hours ago, Drew said:

 For others getting rid of little blackface children in Bayadere is also NOT Petipa. It's not the Bayadere they believe in, it's fundamental censoring--very different from, say, redesigned costumes etc. 

Well, if a XIX century carbon copy of Bayadere was to get staged, the blackface children wouldn't even be there, as this was a XX Century Soviet addittion. I believe Vikharev included it in his recon out of the great popularity the Golden Idol section has.

2 minutes ago, pherank said:

I couldn't stop laughing after reading your last comment.  ;)

Is that really considered to be one of his masterworks?

I doubt it. I would think it is not even appropriate for a formal "all Robbins" night, but more for a ballet school performance 

Thanks for the response

1 hour ago, pherank said:

Well, The Cage is very controversial.  ;)  (Just read the very first comment in the thread Are there ballets that should no longer be staged? )
But it is admired, by still other people. SFB is also going to be performing The Cage as part of their Robbins program in 2018.

Thanks for the response. I hear you...all the predatory,sexual innuendo on it, right...? Well...let's see. 

On the other side, I got bored by Circus Polka. It was mostly parents cheering at their little ones onstage. Lourdes Lopez performed the Ringleader.

Here I am, and once again faced with the unknown. The program includes stuff I am familiar with- ( In the Night, Other Dances, West Side Story)-, and some new to me material-(The Cage, Circus Polka). I am intrigued by The Cage, and have always loved Nora Kaye's iconic pic in her character. 

What am I in for....?

Whereas there are certainly truth and good intentions behind many of the current array of public figures sexual harrassment cases there is also, I am sure, those no so honorable people willing to jump on the "when in doubt, sue" wagon, foaming at the perspective of a big monetary retribution from a big pocket.  We don't Marcelo's case deep in details, but he might very well be on either group. In any case,  " ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat "

Today it was all about 80's Glam Metal. I am a sucker for them!!😎

Sexual harassment witch hunt can quickly turn from a valuable asset in the fight for equality to a terrifying blacklist designed either to end flirty interaction between men and women-(or men and men)- or to easily profit from it.

1 hour ago, minervaave said:

Really?  It's OK for an adult male to date a 16 year old....?

You might want to add "in NYC" to the otherwise too broad statement. I was a legal adult in full consent age by 16.

I think it is a tragedy that ABT, for example, can't think of a better solution for it's Raymonda than to drop it altogether from repertoire.

Geezzz....so many double standards, so much puritanism....

1 hour ago, sandik said:

Just curious -- did you see an Odile you liked last year?

Maybe Teuscher's, although I seem to remember I liked her rehearsal more than the actual performance.

Best: Kim's Solor, Osipova's Sylvia, Tereshkina's Nikiya, Jeanette Delgado's Walpurgisnacht.

Worst: Copeland's Odile, Seo's Odile, Gomes' ABT departure. 

I know some of this pics have been posted before, but here they are again.  A pictorial tribute to the Imperial production.

Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara Silberhaus. Sergei Legat as the Nutcracker Prince. Act II

Lydia Rubtsova as Marianna,Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara & Vasily Stukolkin as Fritz -1892. Act I

Stanislava Belinskaya and Vasily Stukolkin.

Belinskaya . Act I.

Belinskaya during the Battle Scene.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjZl8CHuanYAhVB0GMKHSs_Bp0QjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.littleone.ru%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D1693511%26page%3D159&psig=AOvVaw1PY9vJseoDroigINT-SDA9&ust=1514437711557598

Antonieta dell'Era as Fee Dragee and Pavel Gerdt as Prince Coqueluche.

Olga Preobrajenskaya as Fee Dragee and Nikolai Legat as Prince Coqueluche-(and the infamous pdd upside down lift/swinging, in the second pic)

Snow Scene corps.

1 hour ago, sandik said:

 (except that Barbie film...)

That was a disgrace.

On 12/20/2017 at 10:00 PM, vipa said:

... everyone  goes to Corsaire to see dancers do tricks. 

"Everyone" is quite an ambitious word...