cubanmiamiboy

I really do think being free to focus on choreographing instead of on the managing of the company must help some choreographers.

That was the downfall of Villella down here.

Spot on, Cubanmiamiboy! That's it.

Besides my 52 years of general knowledge since seeing my first SWAN LAKE at the Tapia Theater in San Juan (starring Marjorie Tallchief), I prepped for this trip by watching all or parts of 25 SL DVDs and listening multiple times to two CDs of the music: Bonynge's rendering of the 1877 original and Fedotov's conducting of the 1895 StP definitive version. So all of this was punched in my mind...and I'm carrying a big matrix that compares every number of the 1895 scenario among four versions that come closest to 1895. So you can imagine what this means to me (& many other nuts like me).

Oh, I really CAN imagine what it means to you, just because I'm also a nut case when references to the Imperial productions are made. It is really a shame that such a beautiful ballet has been subjected to all sorts of malignancies and "revisions", so I'm glad that a cleaning process is on its way. Hopefully the ballet masters, little by little, will start going back to the original sources when staging the classics. Well, at least Vaganova's idea to exchange the original Overture with that of The Voyevoda didn't stick too long. Can you imagine..? ;-)

Keep your thoughts coming, Natasha!!!

"Black pdd" - no need for an "extra Siegfried" to dance the solo...BIG REVELATION: it is new to us...full of beats/entrechats & danced to a gentle tune rarely heard from Tchaikovsky's 1877 Moscow score: the waltz just before the coda in the 1877 A1 pdd music.

Thanks for the report, Natasha!!

From what you wrote, it looks as if they did a mix in between the 1877 and 1895 scores for this pas. In the 77, Tchaikovsky's original, the Act I "Pas de deux for two Merry Makers"-(for which most of the music was re fashioned by Drigo for the Black Swan PDD)- goes as follows:

1. Tempo di valse ma non troppo vivo, quasi moderato (Standard entrance in current productions)

2. Andante – Allegro (The standard variation for Sigfried, sort of buffed up by Drigo with less violin solo and more orchestration)

3. Tempo di valse ( eliminated [??] in the 95 version, which I assume is the one that you refer to as given to Siegfried. There is quite a mistery surrounding this variation. Some sources cite it as the original male variation of the two Merry Makers, giving Chabukiani the credits for having first used, in the 30's, the Allegro part of No. 2 instead, and one can also find sources that say that this valse was retained as the original male variation of this pas in 1895 while others cite it as deleted . I had always assumed that this was the female variation in 1877, so I keep wondering who danced what if BOTH the Andante-Allegro AND Tempo di Valse were kept. What is a fact for sure is that L'espiegle was re fashioned for Odile in 1895, so I again wonder what was danced by the female dancer in 1877 as a solo.

4. Coda: Allegro molto vivace (standard coda)

Anyhow...it was wonderful to read your reports. Thanks, Natasha!!

"Black pdd" - no need for an "extra Siegfried" to dance the solo...BIG REVELATION: it is new to us...full of beats/entrechats & danced to a gentle tune rarely heard from Tchaikovsky's 1877 Moscow score: the waltz just before the coda in the 1877 A1 pdd music.

Edited: double post

The poster is pretty, but sort of a generic pose. They should had gone with the iconic Raymonda hand touching head position.

I want to be there!!!!

To be honest, I don't really care about the casting, and I knew I was to have my share of Skorik, but Raymonda is not a role of fouettes, so she should be fine. I will be there just to see this rarity.

In preparation for the upcoming run of the Mariinsky's Raymonda at DC, I have been revisiting the DVD of the Bolshoi, with Mme. Bessmertnova in the title role. I'm very fond of this production for personal reasons. Some of you here might remember that a while ago-(exactly 8 years now)- I went trough an extremely hard situation related with my mom's health, and countless days and nights I found myself seating in hospital waiting areas and praying for the best-(which thank God was the end result). Anyhow...I always had my laptop and my ballet DVD's, which I used to revisit over and over and over. The Raymonda with Bessmertnova was a usual pick, and I used to scrutinize her magnificent solo in the last act-(the "clap variation").

I don't think I will ever watch, live or recorded, a Raymonda that convey all that I love in a ballerina. Mme. Bessmertnova is a class act in this solo. We know that she was already past her prime here, so it is in this section-(which is not a hyper technical one)-where she demonstrates what made her one of the most celebrated ballerinas of her generation.

Mme. takes a very languid approach to the solo, while incorporating a wonderful royal bearing that I have not seen in any other Raymondas. This is a Raymonda that slides around the stage in a way that, when others rely on hard claps and too serious faces as if saying "look at me!",has a total command of her domains by saying "You KNOW you have to look at me..". There's an almost hypnotic quality to her solo, and if looking carefully, one can even see that certain movements start from her head and neck down to her pointes. It is simply amazing to watch this amazing body control in which you SEE the head of a ballerina guiding the rest of the body with such beauty.

I am sure that Bessmertnova's age played an important role in how this subtleties were achieved, and I also know that I am attracted to ballerinas who are not too young anymore. That was the usual case during my formative ballet viewing days, so I guess I started to absorb very early the unique way in which experienced dancers approach roles, particularly if a dramatic portray is required.

RIP Natalia Bessmertnova,

I think the first time I saw Catoya, it was Emeralds, she was in the Verdy role, and I had to stand at the back of the auditorium, having arrived late, no thanks to Miami's wonderful traffic. I had seen Verdy herself in the role many, many times, and from a distance I couldn't get out of my head that I was seeing her again!

Reading my program at intermission, I earned that Very had coached Catoya. Excellent! An excellent coach, and a dancer who was prepared to absorb what Verdy had to offer - and as I saw from good seats at subsequent performances, who could add her own fine qualities! (When you have Catoya to watch, you go back, and then you go back again.)

And Ballet Imperial, as MCB was calling Concerto No. 2, an opposite kind of role - a "non-stop outpouring of kinetic exuberance" as Nancy Reynods says - was made for her too. (A supposedly astute person told Villella, when Villella announced the ballet, that MCB wasn't ready for it. I think they rehearsed it on and off for seven months, and, oh boy, were they ready! I wonder now whether Catoya's presence might have been the main reason Villella mounted it.)

In the Upper Room is not my kind of ballet, but there's a moment near the end, when two boys would pick Catoya up and toss her in the air. She never failed to crack a smile up there. She loved it, and because she did, I loved that moment too.

What a dancer! What a range!

Looking forward to Cristian's report.

I will definitely report, bart. Here's an excerpt from bart's impressions on Catoya's Swannilda, back in 2012. Not having her contract renewed was, I think, a huge mistake on MCB's Powers That Be. Boo!!

How about Rolando? What is he doing now?

He seems to be living and dancing in Rome.

http://www.rolandosarabia.com/wordpress/biography/

Here's something of a shocker: the Sarabia brothers, Principal Rolando and Soloist Daniel are no longer listed on the MCB roster of dancers.

An update on Daniel Sarabia. He is listed as a Principal dancer with the Arts Ballet Theater of Florida, the same company where Mary Carmen Catoya is dancing now.

http://www.artsballettheatre.org/dance.html

Catoya will be dancing Swannilda in the Arts Ballet Theater of Florida's upcoming production of Coppelia. This is a minor-(although professional)-company in which Catoya has danced ever since her departure from MCB. She was my favorite Swannilda/Coppelia in Villella's production. I'm going to see her.

http://www.artsballettheatre.org/p3.html

Ok...so this is a recurrent fantasy that I always have on ballet. There are some wonderful PDD's that were created as gala performances showpieces, and otherwise we never get to see them. Have you ever fantasized on the idea of including them as a part of a whole ballet, so said full lenght work would look enhanced and more exciting to watch...? I have, and every time I watch Tchaikovsky PDD I wish it could be as a part of a whole Swan Lake, either on the ballroom scene or in the first act. Other times I think of Grand Pas Classique, and given the VERY limited amount of times that we get to see it, it woyld be-(in my mind)-a wonderful addition to my Fantasy Nutcracker-(another opportunity for Fee Dragee and Coqueluche, and an extra chance to show the usually neglected male dancer here). Other times I'm even more ambitious, and I would put the WHOLE Sylphides within Act II of Giselle!! He,he...call me nuts, but hey...one can always dream, right...? ;-)

Any other ideas...?

[meida]

I have read enough books by both Markova and Alonso to know that, back in their days, this was a role reserved only to the capable ones. There were only a very few Giselles in the world, and even some famous ballerinas of the times didn't feel up to it, so they passed. Nowadays everyone dances Giselle...and even choreographic esentials, like the sautes in question, are being chopped off, and this is simply non acceptable.

I always go back to this two legends of ballet, the two Alicias, when I want to refresh how the Pas Seul OUGHT to be danced. About the sautes, let's look how a blind 43 years old takes them in such a slow pace that the strain on that pointe must had been unbearable. The hopes seem to go forever, and Shapran...THAT is how the section must be danced.

Alonso, Moscow, 1958

Alonso, Havana, 1963.

Markova, 1954

Welcome, pilarsings!

But Natasha...this last video also shows the diagonal being modified. She does some sautes, but still interchanges them with off pointe sections...

I think there is a generalized lack of strength around the ankle section in the contemporary ballerinas when compared to those from past generations. Sautes on pointe are here and there in different sections of choreography-(the Cuban black swan coda, Balanchine's lead Marzipan, and the Tarantella in Anyuta, to cite some examples). When Anyuta was revived, Obratzsova changed the section of the choreo in which she is supposed to do the backwards traveling sautes in arabesque, from pointe to flat feet.

Maximova, @ 0:43

Obratzsova @ 0:47

"Rodeo in the Upper Room"

(Ehem, I think I liked a lot your title, Kaysta, so I stole it....)

Her pirouettes on the left went only en dedands, and the sautes on pointe section looked like it had been carefully changed and re choreographed to suit her weakness. That's not a role for her. There are many adagio-based/Juliet type for that type of dancers. Leave the technical roles for the capable technical ballerinas.

So Dvorovenko and Herrera were the only ballerinas who danced in the full production...? How about Kent...or Murphy..?

You might want to consider going in Spring (they are bound to finish listing ballets for March, April and possibly May pretty soon). Some ballets are already listed for those months.

My traveling partner-(my mom)-who is still an active teacher, doesn't get off her school schedule by then, so I will have to settle for June.

Odette returns to Rothbart, leaving Siegfried alive but bereft, if we're keeping score.

But...the original libretto calls for a double suicide, so I don't see how keeping Odette and Siegfried alive can be considered a faithful rendition.

Thank you Natasha. I was just thinking about mid June. I won't wait for details. I need to ask for that time ASAP.

Let's not forget what made us clap with excitement or yawn with boredom!

Best: Ratmansky's "Sleeping Beauty"

Worst: MCB's "Carmen"

Let's add some other memorable moments.

Best.

The two retirement performances of Giselle, specially the magical night with Reyes/Cornejo.

Bolle's Albrecht.

Worst.

Poor Osipova's huge fall during her Giselle...

Hello!

I'm trying to put my dates for my summer vacation...this year to Russia! I've been delaying the request at work trying to see if the website of the "Stars.." gives performances info, but to no avail so far. It's there any way to have an idea about it, or which month-(between June or July)-would be the most convenient...?

Any info appreciated!!!