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cubanmiamiboy

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Posts posted by cubanmiamiboy

    Hello...back and with some great news!

    in Welcome

    Posted

    16 hours ago, diane said:

    That is amazging! I am so happy for you! You will never be the same again, you know; your life is about to change forever! 

    Congratulations! 

     

    Congrats as well on your new job! Challenging, for sure, but probably also rewarding. 

     

    -d-

     

     

    Thank you diane!! I'm really looking forward to those:wub::wub: challenges!! 

    Hello...back and with some great news!

    in Welcome

    Posted

    Hello friends!  It has been quite a period of time since I have been active on this board, which I miss dearly. Ever since I came back from Russia I have been extremely busy with some great challenging life events, which I would love to share here with all of you, as I REALLY find this cyber place, on a personal level,  very warm and friendly.  So allow me to share some great news. Without any more delays, it is my pleasure to announce that I will becoming a father this November.  A beautiful baby girl named Elizabeth Cristina will be coming to this world as a result of a long and lovingly crafted process between me and my very best friend.  I am really happy, and we are paving her way in a grand manner. I come from a very short family.  I'm an only child, and didn't have any cousins either.  My mother has only one sister, and she has three sons, older than me, who never had kids of their own.  So this baby will be the ONLY daughter, niece and grandchild.

    On other matters, I started a new job in a new hospital, in an oncology/surgical step down unit.  It is a very demanding post, but one I'm willing to conquer.

    So...this is it.  Just wanted to share my happiness.  Cheers!!!!

    :P:P

    Stars of the White Nights 2016

    in Other Performing & Fine Arts: Performances, Exhibits, Films, and Events

    Posted

    It was fun to read your impressions, Cubanmiamiboy.

    My pleasure.

    Let's move to the performance of Anna Karenina, which I also saw at Mariinsky II. Leads were Koundarova, with Konstantin Zverev as Vronsly and Islom Baimuradov as Karenin. Even with Big Red as the heroine, this product couldn't really arouse my interest. This is another dramballet in the best Soviet tradition....one long-(and most of the times boring)- succession of adagios that can't really convey the allure of Tolstoy's rich masterpiece. The ballet has an ample use of video projections-(the work of Wendall Harrington)- as backdrops, and the costume designs, by Mikael Melbye are nice but that's about it. Anna Karenina is a very complex story that goes beyond the mere Anna/Vronsky/Karenin triangle. It has been years since I read the novel, but I seem to remember a more complex array of characters and sub stories. Trying to make a distillation here in order to present some dancing is a faux pas, although it has its innovative moments, like the segment taking place at the racecourse, in which the all male corps mimic the group of animals. Shchedrin's score is the best example of "anti musique-dansante".

    After dozing up a bit, I woke up for the suicide scene, and that was it.

    I don't think I would try to go see it again.

    Asaf Messerer's "Swan Lake"

    in Mikhailovsky Ballet

    Posted

    Here is a link to a feature (w. interview) on the Baryshnikov production of Swan Lake that premiered at ABT in the late 80's. I never saw it, but remember it received a mixed reaction--as alluded to in this feature piece. What he says in the interview doesn't address your question directly, but indirectly perhaps. (As the article mentions, too, Baryshnikov never danced Siegfried in the Soviet Union.)

    http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/07/arts/baryshnikov-searches-for-the-heart-of-swan-lake.html?pagewanted=all

    Thanks for the link, Drew! Very interesting indeed. About the double suicide..

    "None animates him more than the double-suicide of Odette and Prince Siegfried, who choose finally to die for love and liberate the corps of swans from the spell of Von Rothbart. With respect to the leading characters in ''Swan Lake,'' Mr. Baryshnikov has scrutinized their motivation in detail. Their death is an issue that is relevant. This ballet questions: Can a human being sacrifice himself for love in our modern times?'' he says. ''It happens not very often - love, patriotism, justice are the big romantic reasons. And a person who dies for them demands attention. I think it's probably the most beautiful death, because you have to rise with the momentum. Other people kill themselves because they are in disagreement with reality. But for love? Very few people can do that. It's like a sacrifice. That's what I wanted to introduce. And it's in the music, too - the Wagnerian touch at the end is very much a sacred epiphany for the characters".

    Asaf Messerer's "Swan Lake"

    in Mikhailovsky Ballet

    Posted

    "In one of Gorsky’s versions - and I’m not joking - he had boys in grey shorts dancing the cygnets' dance" (from Messerer interview--link below).

    The 6 cygnet choreography was added or, rather, restored to the Mikhailovsky production fairly recently. Plans for the change are mentioned in a 2010 Mikhail Messerer interview with Ismene Brown that also gives a lot of background to the production. One thing I found quite interesting in view of recent discussions of Ratmansky's Swan Lake:

    "After all, if you think about it, the original Swan Lake got altered because it was constantly restaged and reworked by its creators... You know, I am sceptical about those Harvard notations - I don’t think it’s possible to recreate from notes. It is not easily recreated even from film, even if you danced in it yourself..."

    He also responds to Brown's question about the ending:

    "One can have the tragic ending, but there aren’t any in Russia that are famous. But it’s not my job to make changes for the better or for the worse. I wanted to preserve a complete period piece as a piece of art of its time - the 1937 version as performed famously in London in 1956."

    Thank you for the insight, Drew. I remember reading somewhere, a while ago, that the cygnets dance has passed from company to company, from continent to continent and from century to century famously identical, which could be a case of having right there a real piece of Petipa-(or Ivanov) as it was originally created. I also recall seeing a picture of a very detailed diagram of the notation of the pas, so in this case I'm not very sure of the benefit of reworking it, although I see the point on trying to present Messerer's production as much faithful to the way it was presented back in the 30's.

    About the ending...well, I keep my fingers crossed that they always keep the original double suicide in ABT so people can have an idea of how the real story line for the finale is, given that "there aren't any in Russia that are famous". (And thinking of it...and this questions goes for the NYrs...How is that Misha didn't import this Soviet staple during his tenure...?)

    Stars of the White Nights 2016

    in Other Performing & Fine Arts: Performances, Exhibits, Films, and Events

    Posted

    Puling out some of my programs of the Festival now, and here comes the performance of "Jewels"

    For some reason I got confused when buying the tickets, thinking that it was going to be Lopatkina dancing in "Diamonds", but this was not to be. I got instead Tereshkina partnered by Askerov, and they danced it beautifully. I was there with an old friend who had never seen the ballet before, and got very excited with "Rubies"-(my least favorite section of the triptych), while I am all about the Tchaikovsky section. Emeralds' leads were Osmolkina in the Verdi role partnered by Maxim Zyuzin, Their rendition was very dreamy-(the orchestra sounds really luxurious at the Mariinsky II). Rubies was danced by Renata Shakirova and Philipp Stepin-(whom I would see later on partnering Cojocaru in La Sylphide). I have heard others noting the differences perceived in the way Russians dance this section compared to dancers more used to the Balanchine repertoire and style. I couldn't really detect any faults. All the jazziness and energy and power walking and everything else was there. As I say...it is my least favorite part of the ballet-(I always find Stravinsky very hard to digest)-but even so I still can appreciate the allure of an epoch...the whole Balanchine/Karinska/Stravinsky/60's allure, and it made me remember the very illuminating pre performance talks Villella gave before his staging for MCB. The "tall girl" was danced by Zlata Yalinich.

    And then comes Diamonds, and I FEEL about this music, as I ADORE the Polish Symphony, particularly its third mvt-(the pdd in the ballet). Oh, was it beautiful. It is probably up there in my upper three top favorite Balanchines, right along-(and sometimes after...depending on who dances it)-T&V and Symphony in C. As I said, the leads were Tereshkina partnered by veteran Askerov, who really made her shine through the whole ballet. This is a pdd that I enjoy tremendously, and I often play the music in my car. A little anecdote. When I started working as a new grad nurse, and during the training phase, I had to start driving to the hospital very early morning...still dark outside-(I am now a nigh shift nurse). So I was very nervous on my way to the hospital and I used to play the Polish Symphony over and over in my CD player...and I did so during the whole time I trained, so I associate this music with a soothing, almost healing property in my life. Now..back to the ballet. I had a weak moment during the pdd. There are certain "moments" in life in which given factors convey, almost mysteriously, to create a magic feeling, and that was it...it happened during the pdd. Watching this gorgeous suple Russian dancers costumed in Karinska's exquisite designs paying such great tribute to the grand imperial Russian ballet right in the beloved city of Tchaikovsky and Balanchine during the time of its unique white nights and next to my dear friend was really a dream come through. Oh yes...Cubanmiamiboy even got a bit tearful... :happy:

    "Diamonds" is definitely BALLET at its grandest.

    Asaf Messerer's "Swan Lake"

    in Mikhailovsky Ballet

    Posted

    Thanks so much for the precis here. With the wealth of new information that we've been absorbing over the last several years about the Petipa repertory, I think we're all thinking about how we got where we are. This production is a fascinating example of one of the intermediary steps.

    I think so too. As a side note, I was just looking at the video online of this production and got confused, for which it shows the Act II's Pas de Quatre-(cygnets)- as we all know it, with the traditional choreo, instead of the reworked Pas de Six I saw at the Mikhailovsky. One thing that still upsets me-(and that I've always been very vocal about)- from all the Soviet productions-(K.Sergueev for the Kirov, Grigorovich for the Bolshoi and Messerer's at the Mikhailovsky)-is the altering of the libretto at the end. I have had talks with people about Swan Lake, and have been asked what is the story about. I always proceed to recount the storyline...the encounter, the ballroom with Odile faking as the other girl and Odette's decision to die as the only way left to brake the spell, followed by her lover. I have also been told sometimes in reference to videos that I suggest, some of them Russians, that this is not what they saw, to which I go to explain the Soviet decision to rework the finale and make it a silly "happy one" unrelated to the afterlife concept of Vladimir Begichev and Vasily Geltzer's original libretto.

    As per Mikhail Messerer, who was responsible for the reconstruction of this production..."To my mind, the production corresponds to modern society: everybody wants a happy end today, and our Swan Lake will provide it".

    That "everybody" is quite a generous generalization...

    Asaf Messerer's "Swan Lake"

    in Mikhailovsky Ballet

    Posted

    The second of three Swan Lakes I saw while in Petersburg was the reconstruction of Messerer's production for the Mikhailovsky. I really didn't write anything down, so my recollections are now a bit foggy. It is quite a beautiful, colorful production, with a heavy vintage 40's/50's feeling. One of the first noticeable things from Act I is the use of character shoes for all the girls in the garden party, except the two soloists of the Pas de Trois, who wear pointe shoes. The customary Soviet jester is there, of course-(he has never bothered me that much, and with him we always have the opportunity to listen to the Petipa deleted "Dance of the Corps de Ballet and the Dwarves" in the ballroom act).

    Act II's MAJOR minus is the refashion of the Pas de Quatre-(Cygnets)-into a weird Pas de Six. This dance is probably one of the very few in the classical repertoire that never changes from company to company, from continent to continent. I think this is the only time I have seen it reworked, and the result is less than successful. The dancers split and dance separately, so the whole magic of the pas gets completely broken. They dance, turn and do many silly steps I can't remember, but I guess they have been trying to stay 100% faithful to Messerer's choreo so Pas de Six we have. The other faux pas I found, in my book, is the entrance of the swan corps before Odette, right with the accords of the famous theme, along with the hyperactive little winged Rothbart. I find this entrance really breaks the magic of Odette's entrance, which is usually the first white tutu we see in the ballet-(unless proven different in the recent recon, which I haven't seen ). What also happens is that the following usual iconic entrance of the corps of maidens is not then as effective.

    The Love Duet stays pretty much the same as we all know it, except for a longer that what I remember harp cadenza for its beginning.

    The ballroom act is very luxurious...The Mazurca, Czarda, Spanish Dance and Tarantella are all very pretty. I always enjoy the Russians in the national dances in Swan Lake. They really know how to do czardas and mazurcas!

    The Black Swan pdd was also pretty much as we know it, with the exception that, for Siegfried's solo it uses the 1877 orchestration, which starts with a tremolo violin solo that connects its beginning with the end of the adagio, and uses more of violin than brass in the bulk of the music.

    The last lakeside act has Siegfried and Odette dancing to the Petipa deleted "Andante con Moto" from the ballroom act's '95 omitted Pas de Six. The end is the standard Soviet silly re invention of Swans turning into humans while one winged spasms-driven Rothbart dies on the floor.

    Odette was nicely danced by Anastasia Soboleva and Siegfried by a disconnected Victor Lebedev, who seemed to be comfortable only when dancing by himself.

    Generally speaking, I enjoyed the production. Again...being in such a beautiful theater, with a great sounding orchestra and a terrific corps made up for a great night.

    Skorik

    in Dancers

    Posted

    I think the audience might have seen technical COMPETENCE, up to a point, but did they see a true Mariinsky ballerina? Did they see artistry? I was not there, but I highly doubt it.

    One doesn't have to go to the Sahara to know it is hot in there. I have seen Skorik a few times in different roles-(most recently as O/O)-and although thinking that she has GREATLY improved since the first time I saw her years ago in a disastrous Black Swan, I have never felt that I was in the presence of a Mariinsky ballerina-(in the footsteps of the female legends that have graced such stage) . She looks to me as a capable soloist who can dance CERTAIN roles and with luck, without major anticipated mishaps. But that's about it.

    Opening of new Mariinsky II Opera House in St. Petersburg

    in Kirov-Mariinsky Ballet

    Posted

    Hello!

    Some of the performances I went to during the White Nights Festival was at the Mariinsky II, and here are my impressions.

    I really liked the place. It is comfortable, spacious and done with great taste. The lobby is spacious and its Swarovsky ligting fixtures are really a focal point. On the outside it is a little boxy and underwhelmed, but I really think it serves perfectly the purpose of not outdoing in high or presence its neighboring historic green nemesis. I sat at three different places, orchestra and in second and third rings, and had excellent views at all times. The place really looks solid and built to stand the pass of time. It is obvious from every single corner that they really wanted to build a place for years to come. Limestone in the outside and onyx and marble on the inside are in abundance and floor to ceilings windows in the main foyer provides unique views of the historic theater across the canal. Two thumbs up. :flowers:

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