cubanmiamiboy

I wonder if this score differs somehow from the recording of Dutoit, which I believe contains what is so far known as the 77 original music.

Interesting observation. From what I remember of the ballet as i saw it in Havana to what I saw here at first, there are two different animals. I saw a very young Rosario Suarez on it-(many years ago)-and what I remember was a SPITFIRE of dancing...AND FAST AS HELL. If anything, I know the pacing I have seen recently is definitely slower and more mannered.

Oooooh..Thanks, Natasha...I NEED to get me this..!

Not "Prima" material at all, on my eyes.

Ok...so let's say you didn't know all those works mentioned above. Let's say you have seen lots of ballets. Let's say you see them for the first time, without the word "ballet" being mentioned in the programme. Would you had said afterworks you went and saw this or that "ballet"...? Would you-(and no one else)-had catalogued them as ballets...?

There are probably some other examples just like the one just mentioned, but I don't think it is something people will digest very well-(at least I would not..). They are probably exceptions to the general rule.

As the world goes on, things are more cataloged, differentiated, defined and re defined with more and more subdivisions and specifications. After milestone choreographers ended up shaping the current face of modern dance at the turn of the XX century, ballet has earned the pointe work reference/distinction with much proper justice. When Fokine did Sheherezade, there was not Martha Graham or Taylor or Cunningham with their very distinctive "no pointe" red flag. Now the reference is huge and the differences impossible to ignore. I don't think I've ever seen a recently made no pointe/barefoot/slipper work being called "ballet" by its choreographer.

Amen to that. A while ago MCB had a program that included the piece, along with some Tharp and something else...can't remember what. The night didn't feel AT ALL like a "night at the ballet"...(which is lately the common case with this company, BTW...)

One of my best friends was a promising member of the corps de ballet in Cuba, and right when she was starting she sustained an injury. Such injury was not properly treated, and she didn't progress much after that. She ended up giving up the world of ballet and now is a real estate agent here.

Such a WONDERFUL ballet. And yes...the diagonal right before the polonaise is indeed beautiful...

Let's note that there's no O/O formula in Miami. This is the version with the condensed white acts by Balanchine.

Les Syilphides is a ballet that I treasure in my mind (and I'm sure as the bulk of the Cuban balletomanes)-backed by wonderful memories of great performances from the golden era of the company. It was always a huge audience favorite, and it was scheduled in seasons as much as Giselle, as well as equally loved. When I saw the ballet again in NYC, I saw a totally different animal. The pacing was different...the orchestration was different, the costumes...even some sequences and poses were different. Fokine continued revisiting the choreo constantly, and this is a late rendering, cherished with much care by Alonso, who danced to said latest revisions. Up until now she has been firm in her notion that the version presented here is the one that the Cuban company will always have, and that not changes will ever take place. Here is a video of a performance from the 80's. I hope you will enjoy it.

I saw Ferri dancing in Cuba during the 90's. There was always buzz about her, of course, but for some reason when I remember her, she doesn't come as someone who really awed me a lot. She was a better actress than a huge technician, and on that matters there were always lots of home grown talent back then that surpassed her easily. I still enjoyed her performances, of course, particularly her dramatic Giselle. R&J is not my favorite ballet, but I will be there too. It will be, as many have said already, an event based on nostalgia.

I second that thought...

Mashinka, I did not have time to get down to Granada, due to a busy schedule, but I went to the lovely ancient city of Toledo, which seems to be frozen in the middle ages. It is a little jewel of a place. While in Barcelona I paid a couple of visits to the beach, mainly at La Barceloneta, which was very crowded. The food was INCREDIBLE. All that olive oil dripping from every chorizo and paella...just the way I like it!! ;-)

Hello everyone!! Back in hot Miami. Well, well...what a GORGEOUS country Spain is. On a curious note, I became a member of the national library of Madrid, and while paying a visit to its grand building, I searched thru its XIX century newspapers with the "Petipa" keyword. Surprise! A few results came on, one of them announcing the ballet Giselle, in which Petipa was to do his debut in the city, substituting a native dancer who apparently owned the role. The ballet was renamed "Gisela". I find very strange that such a big, beautiful, cultured European capital, who housed Petipa before St. Petersburg, doesn't has a main ballet company.

I just find quite unnerving that now that the modern society has access to the original librettos/endings/scores, one will still be presented with a truncated version of a ballet. Makarova's staging is a winner, for which it tries to conduct the viewer along the original path. She just didn't have access to the modern resources that Ratmansky. Burlaka, Vikharev and others have nowadays.

Hi everyone! I'm vacationing this summer in the hot Spain, in between Madrid and Barcelona. I have tried to catch any ballet performances, but the only offerings are the ever present Russian touring troupes that I see in every European country, with their less than satisfactory productions of Swan Lake. So I have passed. Instead I settled for opera, and last night, while in Barcelona, I went to see a performance of Carmen at the magnificent modernist theater "Palau de la Musica Catalana". Just the building itself deserves a full review, but the highlight for me was the dancing sections, where authentic tablao flamenco bailaores did the honors. I'm usually not a fan of tablao-(kind of harsh for my taste)-but with the Bizetian French perfume, it was very nice to see. Anywhow...now I'm back in Madrid, and I'm planning to attend a performance of a Sarzuela, "Luisa Fernanda". Barcelona is just a LOVELY city. I'm totally sold.

I find even more rude to disrupt a performance once it has started. I admire certain theater policies that have absolutely ZERO tolerance for late seating, so the process of moving quickly to better seats once the doors are closed and right before the music starts is smooth and "legal". On the other side, I've lived thru very absurd policies, as with the Arsht Center here in Miami, where I was told to leave an empty seat in orchestra even though the woman next to me took the time to explain to the usher that it was her husband's and he would not be coming. "It doesn't matter, ", the usher said. "The Arsht Center has the policy of honoring a patron's seat even if said patron is not coming. So get up.." Eutopean theaters are very flexible about moving to empty seats. It is an extended practice among youngsters with limited pockets. I've even seen ushers fishing such seats for standing people. How nice.

Ohh, yes...that damned candelabra!!

Meanwhile, Mother Russia's Bolshoi still deals with Grigorovich horrible versions...

That site has always been a useless disaster.

All this inventions with the finale. Leave the original double suicide/going to the heavens ending, which is way more logical and beautiful.

It is interesting how the score of the adagio is, at many times, cut off after the to climatic two accords, erasing much of the most difficult parts of the choreo-(this is more or less the one after Ivanov). That's why I love Sir Peter Wright's staging, for which it shows off the whole thing-(which is devilishly difficult). There's a video somewhere of Leslie Collier coaching a young couple on this adagio.

Yes...the video shows up in the section dedicated to the "Mao suit". There are some interesting fouettes in there...