cubanmiamiboy
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Posts posted by cubanmiamiboy
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1 hour ago, YouOverThere said:
I think that everyone knows what you meant, Unless there is a safety issue or if performers are using the aisles, audience members are never prohibited from leaving at any time.
Right. And so I was reflecting on that. How great it is to do so. You know....escaping the destructive weapon that is totalitarian communist Cuba has probably made me paranoid about restrictions. Asking for permission to leave a place....asking for permission to enter a place etc. So you leaving the theater on your own account, even it it looks ridiculous, is something I don't take for granted after 28 years on that he'll of a country/system.
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Out of curiosity....are there any theaters that you guys know of that might be accepting religious exemptions for the non vaccinated...?
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1 hour ago, YouOverThere said:
And you have a higher infection rate and a higher fatality rate than we do. Florida mandates vaccinations against 12 different diseases in order to attend school (either public or private) or be in a daycare facility, so don't expect anyone to believe that resistance to covid mask or vaccine mandates is based on any sort of "individual rights" considerations.
I don't expect anything, dear. I just stated a fact. A fact being that you left the theater on your own account. That nobody forced you to. And that I find great that you could do so. As your individual right. That's it.
Peace out. 😘
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47 minutes ago, abatt said:
No doubt Ms. Delgado can get work without Jusitn Peck.
She does indeed. And her sister Janette, now retired....? Psst...even better. She was our own Tiler Peck. We truly miss them both down here....😒
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My holy Christmas trilogy.
1-The Bishop's wife.
2- It's a wonderful life.
3- White Christmas.
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I applaud your personal decision. Exactly for that....for being personal and not forced upon.
We don't have forced mask mandates down here. It is optional on indoor settings.
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27 minutes ago, Helene said:
That is not to deny that plenty of Americans lump all Hispanic/Latino/Brazilian people into one giant group, just like the person who killed a Chinese man because he thought the man was Japanese, and the killer believed the Japanese had destroyed the US auto industry.
Yes. The targeting of Puerto Ricans in NYC, or New York Ricans, is certainly an item on WSS. I guess other Hispanics are not meant to identify with the specifics of the story, but the whole accent mocking is quite a much broader umbrella, that goes from Desi in "I love Lucy" to WSS to Sofia Vergara in Modern Family. "América" sounds and feels 100% like a caricature. And at times a grotesque one. But true to the core...I don't feel identified by it.
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On 12/14/2021 at 1:28 PM, Helene said:
I'm planning to see it at some point for Rita Moreno, and I'm also curious to see what Peck has done.
But I'm not a big fan of many of the songs, so I'd rather be in a place that I can fast-forward/skip.
"América" always makes me cringe. It has the effect of nails on a chalkboard on me. If Balanchine’s "Tea" fingers is supposed to be offensive, then "America" is the Queen Mother of Offenses for us Hispanics. Note....I don't "feel" particularly offended whatsoever, and would NEVER EVER advocate for its killing or even worse...a "re imagining". It is what it is and we should be able to see it as it was originally composed and created. But man....that's awful....🤣
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Merry Christmas!!!🎄🎄🎄😍😍😍🎁🎁❤❤❤🍷🍷🍷
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I went to three performances of the Nutcracker, with three different casts.
First of all, I need to declare, once again, my complete devotion to this masterpiece. Balanchine’s Nutcracker ought to be, among the current array of productions of this classic, the one that approaches itself with most devotion, honesty and simplicity to its honorable Imperial past.
I have said this over and over, but Balanchine’s greatness here is seen first and foremost in the simple, yet not very used way in which he approaches the ever present issue of this ballet ever since it was first conceived. The fact that its heroine is not a full-fledged ballerina, but a soft slipper user…a little girl . From Vainonen to Sir Peter Wright to Alicia Alonso to Grigorovitch they all have felt the need to try to get Clara/Masha to be THE ballerina…the Aurora, the Odette/Odile…the Kitri of The Nutcracker. As if fearing that following the original conception could diminish the whole work. Well…not Balanchine. I still look in awe as he fully dives into a full act I full of kids. As he fearlessly presents his little heroine sans pointes. As he makes magic…pure, wonderfully crafted magic the real hero of the night. And I’m willing to bet he wasn’t afraid that this would prove a failure among hardcore balletomanes, because I don’t think a real hardcore balletomane could resist himself/herself to the beauty of a creation so close to the XIX Century Russia where it was generated.
It is a strange feeling, but Balanchine makes his whole ballet in a quasi-hypnotic way. Simple yet full of little surprises. Surprises that never cease to pop up here and there for the first time no matter how many times one has seen it. The dramatic development of his miming scenes remind me of how many of his dancers have described the way he wanted movement. To be a constant development without impasse. One moment morphing into the next. He gives the children constant movement, mimed actions, bits of “drama” and mini stories to be followed if one wants to change sights after a while. He’s such a brilliant choreographer for children, and one wonders how much of this did he take from the Nutcracker of his own childhood while at the Imperial Ballet School.
The other thing I always find fascinating about the first act is how Balanchine presents the children as an important piece of the societal ladder, with expectations from adults as well as carriers of little lessons on norms, rules and regulations….something sadly disappearing in our modern society. The adults are not shy about scolding them in front of everyone else when needed, as well as praising them when they merit it. We see fathers introducing their daughters in social dancing with the deference of little ladies in the making. Later on the kids themselves prove the effectiveness of such early social dancing training by emulating with success their parents minuet. That’s precious.
The growing tree sequence in the Miami production is a complete failure. A disaster. They tried to go very high tech by morphing real scenery with 3D animations and the result is just awful. Now we don’t have a tree during the whole of the battle scene. Some weird décor that stays after the animations are over that are supposed to be the lower foliage of the tree, but which for the untrained eye doesn’t really mean anything. I asked my companion, who had never seen this production, what had happened with the tree, and he answered…”I t disappeared, right…?” So no. It is NOT clear that what’s left onstage is the lower foliage.
Balanchine genius is again seen in how he tackles the always overdone “transformation music scene” . Choreographers usually feel the need to fill all this music with elaborated choreography either for a Snow Queen and King or for Clara and the Nutcracker in a usually weird pseudo-romantic way. Not Balanchine. The moving bed and the Nutcracker leading its way into the Snow Kingdom is just enough…relaxing in the eyes and great for the ears. Almost as an overture leading to the first grand balletic moment of this production. Actually one of the grandest balletic moments in the whole history of the art form, in my eyes. His unsurpassed, always emulated but never conquered Snow scene.
What can I say about this marvel…? I place it along the Shades scene from Bayadere and the Willis and Swans sections among the best “ballet blanc” moments ever.
Second big faux pas of the Miami production. The absence of the children chorus. C’mon…It can be done with a recording. Many companies do it this way.
And as I always say. Nobody tops Balanchine’s Snow. Period.
To be continued.
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On 12/14/2021 at 1:27 PM, canbelto said:
I've said this many times but when it comes to Bugaku the fact is if a company wants to acquire a Balanchine ballet they're going for Jewels/Serenade/Concerto Barocco/Apollo/Agon and the list goes on every time. Bugaku on its own merits isn't top Balanchine. It's mid-tier at best.
It's unlike Balanchine's Nutcracker, where Tea has been "cleaned up" but the ballet is still staged by many companies. The strength of that Nutcracker overrides the problematic Tea.
I went to three performances of MCB's Nut. Three different casts for Sugarplum and Dewdrop. In the three of them-( two of them a double Saturday bill)- the two girl dancers of Tea were the same one. Two Asian girls. So I guess that's the best idea they thought they could come up with. Oh....and I haven't checked, but they looked to me as they were not professional dancers but students. They looked EXTREMELY young. That shows that the directives down here haven't really made peace with the fact of having to present, for "Tea from China", non Asians without the former wigs and makeup. They have obviously made an effort to present the dancers as Asian looking as possible.
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On 11/30/2021 at 2:47 AM, l'histoire said:
There is such richness in the Chinese performance tradition that is recognizably "Chinese" without being an outdated caricature, and that would actually work quite well with classical ballet (see the National Ballet of China's Peony Pavilion - one of THE great classics of Chinese theatre. I would much rather see an actual Chinese opera performance, but you know, you watch the ballet version & the port de bras, épaulement, etc. are definitely riffing on Chinese theatre & "classical" Chinese dance while still seeming "at home" in a ballet). I have no doubt there are plenty of experts that choreographers could consult to create something referencing "China" without being absolutely absurd and offensive. And if audiences can't get past the fact that it's not dressed in stereotypically "Oriental" fashion with ridiculous hand motions, well, that's on the audiences. Movie directors & game producers seek out expert consultants, why shouldn't ballet companies & choreographers do the same (yes, I'm aware that some have)?
If you've never seen the worlds actors in the subtler genres of Chinese theatre (like Kun opera) can create with the flick of a wrist and tilt of the head, you're missing out. It's one reason I find this discussion baffling - there are performance traditions in Asia that could be drawn from, and hell, performers from traditional "Western" backgrounds and disciplines might learn a thing or two, as well.
Has anyone seen the current Chinese variation of the Pacific Northwest Ballet version, which I believe has new costumes this year? I saw a few references on the dedicated PNB Nutcracker for this year, but nothing in depth.
The dances of the Nutcracker are not meant to be so serious and correct. Just as the singing Texan cactus with sombreros cartoons or the exaggerated accent of Desi Arnaz in "I love Lucy". They are meant to convey a lose, happy feeling, not to create a scholar generated museum exhibition piece. I never felt the wigs, pointed fingers, the mustache or the eyeliner were "caricature-like". More like "cute". Of course...this is all subjective and personal. I have seen both Pekin Opera and Kabuki performances. There's no way I can ever relate the Nutcracker to the seriousness of those.
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On 1/1/2021 at 1:57 AM, pherank said:
😉
2) Western dancers wearing traditional Japanese makeup and headdressI just saw the Royal Ballet Nutcracker. The Chinese dance lost all makeup, headdresses and end gestural reference to Orientalism. Now it looks like a sad lazy dress rehearsal, halfway done. They better excise it completely.
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I attended the November 23th performance of Sir Peter Wright’s Nutcracker. This is a gorgeous production, beautifully crafted and with emphasis on traditional grand ballet rather than Christmas gimmick. I went eager to see it, given that I had, for many years, successfully avoided its recording. I don’t enjoy ballet on videos, and even less on little screens -(cell phone)-, so I was able to get a real and complete fresh approach to the famous British staging. Of course…comparisons inevitably arose to the two Nutcrackers I’m most familiar with. Alicia Alonso’s after Alexandra Fedorova for the Cuban company and Balanchine’s for both MCB and City Ballet.
The ballet starts with a prologue to the score’s overture. Alas…I’ve never been a fan of re imagined prologues to overtures. Choreographers usually get too carried away with them, and this is no exception. Here we get a glimpse of Herr Drosselmayer and his nephew preparing their visit to the Silberhaus home, and getting all the toys ready. I would gladly send the prologue to time out in the corner to make company to McKenzie’s Swan Lake one. There the Drosselmayer's Nutcracker toy can make friends with Von Rothbart's stuffed swan.
Act I opens and after a brief sidewalk scene, we get the Silberhaus household. The multilevel sets are much elaborated, with identical side flying of stairs leading to the Christmas tree. In general, the whole party scene is bigger and fuller than Balanchine’s. There are many children, parents and servants. And here’s where we are faced with the main problem of this production, which has actually been the main issue of this ballet since its very conception. And the issue is…WHO IS THE LEADING CHARACTER OF THE BALLET…?
Throughout the years, choreographers have tried to resolve this issue in all possible ways. What the original production was is still not clear to us, given that the famous pics we have seen show Stanislava Belinskaya’s character not as a small kid like Balanchine’s Clara, and neither as an adult fully fledged ballerina as with the Mashas of Vainonen, Grigorovitch or Sir Peter Wright’s Clara. To make things more complicated, Belinskaya was 12 at the time she was chosen for the role, and the pictures show her with pointe shoes, although I don’t believe any notation exist of any of her dances…that if she even danced.
Balanchine, being the genius that he was, doesn’t get a headache over this, and simply fallows the original libretto. A sweet little girl for Clara in act I who becomes a complete passive spectator along her equally small Nutcracker friend in act II. Fee Dragee and Prince Coqueluche are then secondary characters, even if they are the ones who do the classical Grand Pas of the ballet.
So for Balanchine, the leading character of his Nutcracker is not a ballerina, but a non-dancing miming little girl.
Sir Peter Wright attempts to keep Clara as the leading character, and he does so by giving the role to an adult dancer on pointe playing a somehow coming of age teenager who apparently falls a bit in love with her rescuer Nutcracker, another full-fledged adult dancer. And here is where things start not working for me. In his quest to do so he decides to give her steps and more steps all over the place at all times. Unlike the Soviet versions where all Clara’s girlfriends are on pointe, here she’s the only one wearing them, with the rest of the girls in soft slippers. There are steps for Clara everywhere, with the first act finishing with longer dances for her and her Nutcracker during the transformation scene AND the Snow scene, where we’re introduced to the constant dancing interventions of the couple that we will be seeing all along the divertissements in Act II.
As I said…the whole of the production seems grander…more expanded than Balanchine’s. Even the variations for the dolls are longer, as they use the music that in Balanchine's version accompanies Fritz and Drosselmayer bringing the boxes onstage and winding them up. The tempi are also slower here and the variations more elaborated. Hence…the whole act looks more “balletic”…more “serious” than the simple charm of Balanchine’s.
Nobody tops Balanchine’s spectacular growing three sequence. Period.
The battle scene is also more elaborated and adult oriented than Balanchine’s. And very well done. A highlight of it is a huge wheelchair that the mice bring with the Mouse King on top. The entire scene is very exciting, and Clara killing the Mouse King with her slipper is clearer seen than in Balanchine’s, where many Claras miss the head of the mouse because the slipper is thrown from a distance. Here Clara places herself behind the mouse and gives him a resounding and lethal beating with her slipper. Loved it.
A long adagio between Clara and the Nutcracker to the transformation scene music. As with the Soviet versions….lifts and running…and more lifts and more running. Pass.
Nobody tops Balanchine’s Snow scene. Period. Clara and the Nutcracker again dance with the snowflakes.
Act II is more or less the same as all productions. I welcomed back the sight of the Three Ivans in the Trepak, a segment that Alberto Alonso staged in Havana using the choreography he danced in the 1930’s for Aurora’s Wedding during his tenure with the Ballet Russes de Montecarlo. But I still missed the precious piece of original Ivanov that Balanchine gives us with his Candy Cane.
No Mother Commedia. AND I LOVE MOTHER COMMEDIA!!
The waltz of the flowers follows the original Ivanov scheme of couples, with a Dewdrop-like character named Rose Fairy. It was a beautiful waltz, but here, just as with the Snow, I’m completely partial to Balanchine.
Nobody tops Balanchine’s Snow and Flowers. Period.
The one thing that annoyed me the most was, as I said earlier, that Sir Wright, in his quest to position Clara and her Nutcracker as the lead characters of the ballet, has them intervening and dancing in all the divertissements. In this sense, Balanchine also prevails , for he gives each of the soloists of his divertissements a bit of a choreographic moment to shine, and this is particularly wonderful with his Candy Cane and his Dewdrop. At the Royal, with the exception of the Arabian dance, it is Clara and the Nutcracker who get the leading bars and finale with the ensembles. I think this as a real faux pas.
The Chinese dance has lost all traces of Western Orientalism-(makeup, wigs, miming gestures)-, as I could see when comparing it with photos of past seasons. But that also happened, in a less dramatic way, to Balanchine’s.
The very highlight of the ballet is the Grand Pas de Deux, a huge chunk of original Ivanov that has been lovingly kept intact from Imperial times and that I learned to love via Alonso’s staging after Fedorova. This is, for me, the most beautiful classical adagio of the whole Imperial repertoire…even more than the White Swan or the Sleeping Beauty one. And Marianela Nunez with Vadim Muntagirov were as regal and poised and marvelous to watch as they could be. It was indeed wonderful.
At the end of the ballet, I found myself really liking it, but in a different way than Balanchine.
I just wish Clara and the Nutcracker would had stayed quietly seated in act II.
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On 11/19/2021 at 1:32 AM, cubanmiamiboy said:
Sir Peter Wrights's RB production charmed me on certain aspects but not on others, both choreogtaphically and structurally. The most alluring first thing my eye caught were the sumptuous sets and costumes for Act I. Both huts, Giselle's and Loys' are beautifully crafted, and the backdrops and lighting revolt around lovely terracotta tones. The medieval attires of Berthe-( Kristen McNally)-and the Court lead by the Duke of Courland-(Christopher Saunders)-are also painstinkly done to the minimum detail.
The entrance of the Duke Albrecht of Silesia is done to the soft leitmotif we hear after the first bombastic accords of the overture. In this production the action actually starts right away with the interaction of Berthe and Hilarion. All that, plus Albrecht-(Vadim Muntagirov)- and his squire Wilfred-( Tomas Mock)- entrances are all within the overture music. The triumphant, heroic melody we usually associate in US and Russia with Albrecht entrance is here used for him to reveal his deceitful Loys after coming out of his hut dressed as a peasant. This detail took me to my beloved Cuban production, which also follows this musical scheme on Loys/Albrecht-( although there the whole of the overture is done with closed curtains up until the beginning of the peasants leitmotif).
Muntagirov as our Loys/Albrecht last night was oh boy...such a charm!. A veteran now of the famous British company, he's a real joy to watch. His jump is still high, and his entrechats very lovely, with wide open legs while in the air, reminding me of those of the great Soloviev. Oh...and he doesn't cheat on his Act II diagonal of triple turns on l'air! (You know...like many dancers who start the first turn with their bodies already half turned). He's also a gentleman, showing his ballerina first and foremost. Don't we all love that....?
Miss Nuñez, our Giselle, is another veteran by now and definitely one of the current top ten world wide ballerinas. She shows leisure in her dancing, making obvious that by now she can focus on her characterization rather than her steps. She's an incredible turner, and her pique menage circle of her Act I her Pas Seul was grand. The one thing I frowned upon a tiny bit was at the pace she did her diagonal of sautees on pointe. A bit too fast, although always controlled.
The mad scene was interesting. Here Sir Wrights's choice is to put the whole court as witnesses of the whole affair up until Giselle's death, after which they depart the stage. Other companies make their exit earlier, usually having only the peasants witness her demise. So here Bathilde-( Christina Arestis)- watches curiously all the evolutions of her fiancee. She's not terribly worried. Upset, yes....but not worried to death for sure. When the Court lives, it is more of a "ok...this is over...show is done" instead of "Oh Jesus...what a horrifying thing we just saw...!"
More to come on Act II.
Act II of wright's production has also its personal touches, some of them more appealing than others. So there are two moments related to the religious nature of the work. The first one, when Hilarion crosses himself when he feels the presence of the forest evil spirits. That's a nice touch. The second one is not as good, which is the climactic moment when the audience needs to realize about the protection that the crucifix of Giselle's grave is supposed to give him against the willis’ diabolical power. In this version Albrech not only doesn't goes behind the cross, but he actually completely walks out of it, standing tall while watching Giselle starting to dance before joining her in the adagio. So that detail becomes lost, something Ratmansky carefully designed and exposed with great success in his recent reconstruction. Another detail I didn’t quite like is that here, unlike other productions, the willis don’t seem to grab Hilarion too violently during his famous deadly dancing sequence. They merely touch him. They also never totally complete the famous dancing circle around him, but they do chase him in very interesting undulating patterns. Another missing moment is that of the two willis trying to pull Giselle and Albrecht out of their embrace. Hilarion is given some interesting pirouettes a la seconde while dancing on Myrtha's command. And keeping on the Hilarion subject, one big change I saw is that here he's not pushed to death by the willis, but instead he's made to climb a rocky prop and commit suicide.
Another detail I was not very happy with is the choice of lighting for act II. The whole scene never looks greenish or bluish as most of the companies. Instead, a shade of brown permeates the whole act, which goes in detriment of the willis ghostly white well known by now scheme.
I saw four casts. Marianela Nunez/Vadim Muntagirov, Yasmine Naghdi/Matthew Ball, Lauren Cuthbertson/Federico Bonelli and Francesca Hayward/Alexander Campbell. To be honest, I didn’t really see any technical faults on any of the leads, nor on any Myrthas. If anything, I noticed that Bonelli was the only Albrecht who did a whole round of 32 entrechats during his near-death sequence. The rest did a nice combination of entrechats plus other steps. Also, Nunez was the one Giselle who actually noticeably advanced during her act I sautes on pointe diagonal. The others quite stayed within a very short space…one of them not going past a meter. Marianela was really superb on the technical side. Not too convincing as a peasant young girl, but definitely a grand tragic willi and a marvelous glacial Myrtha. I will go further to say I truly enjoyed her Myrtha more than her Giselle.
Sir Peter Wright’s ending has the now all popular slow made-for-Pavlova re orchestration. I believe the only companies that still keep the original fast ending are Alonso’s and now Ratmansky’s recon for the Bolshoi.
The house was full, and people were very enthusiastic. I had a wonderful time.
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8 minutes ago, sandik said:
However you celebrate, I hope you spent time with people you love.
I spent it with my patients at the hospital....!🤪
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7 hours ago, dirac said:
Thank you, cubanmiamiboy, and I hope everyone had a great day with friends and/or family, or just kicking back.
The funny thing is that your traditional Thanksgiving dinner really isn't so bad for you even if you overindulge. Poultry, vegetables, potatoes, dressing, pumpkin pie - not a true artery buster in the bunch.
That if you keep within the boundaries of tradition. If no, like me and many Cubans, you might overindulge in a whole roasted pork, apple on mouth and all.🤪
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Don't overeat! Watch those calories intake...😜
But...in all seriousness...have a blessed and bountiful night with friends and family. And that God always provides for you and your loved ones forever and ever.
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13 hours ago, Ashton Fan said:
Cubanmiamiboy, I am not sure that I would describe what you saw this afternoon as "scandalous". We have several new Myrthes this season one of whom is Roscoe. I have a feeling that Roscoe danced Myrthe earlier in the run but that was at a closed performance of some sort, perhaps for schools, rather than one open to the paying public. Today's matinee while not strictly a house debut for Roscoe was the first time that the public, friends and family have had the chance to see her in the role. The number of bouquets she received seemed completely in keeping with a debut in a major role. It would be interesting to know what you thought of the second act of Nunez's Giselle.
Giselle is a far more difficult role to pull off than a lot of people think. I am not talking about the technical aspects of the role but of the difficulty some dancers find in being equally convincing in both acts as the title role calls for a dance actress and not just a superb dancer. There are Giselles who are better in the first act than in the second and others who come into their own in the second act. I think that Nunez is just such a dancer but then her second act is so compelling that you forget that she is not entirely convincing as a member of the peasant community of the first act.
Oh....I believe Nuñez was SMASHING!!!. I'm a sucker for strong technicians who deliver. I don't have a soft spot in my heart for the weak willowy posers of the ballet world, and Marianela is one of those rare cases of technical reliability at all times. She's one year from being forty, and she can put to shame dancers half her age. Yes...she was a bit too regal in act I, but who cares. Her pointes were even more regal and that's what really matters!. Much after Markova's steps.
Roscoe was a wonderful Myrtha as well. Is just that....I don't think I had ever seen THAT situation EVER on a Giselle curtain call! Stories came to mind on dancers of the past...some of them very ego-centered and proud to the point that they would not perform Myrtha or Giselle to certain Myrthas and Giselles out of fear to be outdone. In her memoirs, for instance, Dame Markova says that such thing happened to Mme. Danilova, who would ONLY do her Myrtha to Markova's Giselle, out of the strong friendship they shared.
I have seen three casts so far, and they have ALL delivered big time. I'm very happy!!
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Scandaaaaaaaal in the house this matinee!!!
Julia Roscoe-( Myrtha)- got three huge bouquets to Cuthbertson' sole one!! Oops..!
Audience even gasped at the sight. I don't think I would had been very pleased if I was that Giselle...! 🙃
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Sir Peter Wrights's RB production charmed me on certain aspects but not on others, both choreogtaphically and structurally. The most alluring first thing my eye caught were the sumptuous sets and costumes for Act I. Both huts, Giselle's and Loys' are beautifully crafted, and the backdrops and lighting revolt around lovely terracotta tones. The medieval attires of Berthe-( Kristen McNally)-and the Court lead by the Duke of Courland-(Christopher Saunders)-are also painstinkly done to the minimum detail.
The entrance of the Duke Albrecht of Silesia is done to the soft leitmotif we hear after the first bombastic accords of the overture. In this production the action actually starts right away with the interaction of Berthe and Hilarion. All that, plus Albrecht-(Vadim Muntagirov)- and his squire Wilfred-( Tomas Mock)- entrances are all within the overture music. The triumphant, heroic melody we usually associate in US and Russia with Albrecht entrance is here used for him to reveal his deceitful Loys after coming out of his hut dressed as a peasant. This detail took me to my beloved Cuban production, which also follows this musical scheme on Loys/Albrecht-( although there the whole of the overture is done with closed curtains up until the beginning of the peasants leitmotif).
Muntagirov as our Loys/Albrecht last night was oh boy...such a charm!. A veteran now of the famous British company, he's a real joy to watch. His jump is still high, and his entrechats very lovely, with wide open legs while in the air, reminding me of those of the great Soloviev. Oh...and he doesn't cheat on his Act II diagonal of triple turns on l'air! (You know...like many dancers who start the first turn with their bodies already half turned). He's also a gentleman, showing his ballerina first and foremost. Don't we all love that....?
Miss Nuñez, our Giselle, is another veteran by now and definitely one of the current top ten world wide ballerinas. She shows leisure in her dancing, making obvious that by now she can focus on her characterization rather than her steps. She's an incredible turner, and her pique menage circle of her Act I her Pas Seul was grand. The one thing I frowned upon a tiny bit was at the pace she did her diagonal of sautees on pointe. A bit too fast, although always controlled.
The mad scene was interesting. Here Sir Wrights's choice is to put the whole court as witnesses of the whole affair up until Giselle's death, after which they depart the stage. Other companies make their exit earlier, usually having only the peasants witness her demise. So here Bathilde-( Christina Arestis)- watches curiously all the evolutions of her fiancee. She's not terribly worried. Upset, yes....but not worried to death for sure. When the Court lives, it is more of a "ok...this is over...show is done" instead of "Oh Jesus...what a horrifying thing we just saw...!"
More to come on Act II.
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Ok, so Marianela, still kicking high and strong! Act I is done, and she still rules on. More to come next.
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Hello there!!
Anybody going....? I just arrived to the city, and will be going the whole week to the Giselles. If you're at the theater, hit me with a message! 🙂
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15 minutes ago, lmspear said:
I wasn't commenting on Peck's shape, which I think is lovely. It was about my surprise at realizing that other dancers received comments on their physiques in reviews and that with Peck the dancing was the focus. Here are two examples of what I mean. They may both be from Alistair McCauley, but I don't have a way to trace them. The first was an ode on David Hallberg's arches and the other was a review of Janie Taylor and her hair. My point was the delight I found that Peck's artistry is the primary focus of her reviews.
But again....Peck's body has never been on the "offending" side of the spectrum. She has never been on, let's say, Kathryn Morgan's shoes, nor does she belongs to the Joy Womack/Megan LeCrone/Oksana Skorik/Svetlana Zakharova "ideal" shape club-( one that has never been favored by me, btw).
Her body has the curves, but not heavy.... she's not super tall, but neither short. And because there are really not noticeable "faults" on her physical appearance, she has been lucky to be left along on such matters. That besides the brilliance of her dancing, of course.
No vaccine, no show
in COVID-19: Ballet and the Arts
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Oh....the Pope....