cubanmiamiboy

See you tomorrow, Jack..!

Who saw it, even at the place or via streaming in cinemas...? I went to the movie theater, and...oh my...what a GORGEOUS performance by both Liudmyla Monastyrska in the leading role and La Bo in her usual greatness as Amneris. Poor Alagna was really looking like a piece of cheese in a sandwich between the to wonderful ladies. He was beautiful too, to be honest, but the show was all about those two women. Lavish production, I must say... A big applause for maestro Luisi.

He is indeed, Natasha. Here's a performance of Gounod and Valdes in the Coppelia Grand Pas during the November Havana Ballet Festival. She's pretty spectacular, too - especially those rock-solid unsupported balances! But that orchestra - good grief! Did they forget to tune their instruments or are they all tone deaf? I've heard better from high school orchestras...no, make that junior high... Live music was always an issue there, as I remember. For a long time the orchestra even dissapeared, and recorded music was used. It seems it should have stayed like that...

He is indeed, Natasha. Here's a performance of Gounod and Valdes in the Coppelia Grand Pas during the November Havana Ballet Festival.

A very recent clip of MIss Delgado in the Black Swan PDD from a gala performance during the November Ballet Festival in Havana.

I saw his Bayadere with Seo and very little do I remember of that performance from both...

Best: Part/Gomes Bayadere, ABT Staging of Lichine's Graduation Ball, Ballet Etudes Florida Ballet Imperial, MCB Jeanette Delgado's Coppelia, MCB Moradillo/Carreno's Giselle Being at the Garnier during Ashton's Fille, POB. Being able to see the Bolshoi's opening online. Hallberg's Desiree-(not Zakharova's Aurora), BB. Worst: Scalet's Viscera Wheeldon's Liturgy Tharp's In the Upper Room Ratmansky's Symphonic Dances

Ditto

I'm a lavishness fan, admittedly, but Ballo's designs did work for me...I found the production elegant, even if minimalistic. And how about Blythe saying how she loved her vocals here..."OOOh, nice and low!..."

Having grown with a derivative staging of The BRMC version, hence not with kids in mind, not a "show for the entire family" affair, I'm happy with the idea of conveying the weight of the ballet in people's minds around the three central ballerinas and their respective formal dances. Momentum keeps growing in the sense that Clara does dance less than Snow Queen, whom dances less than Fee Dragee. Actually the whole thing, the entire ballet becomes an anticipation that leads in relief to the Gran Pas, and the very design of the fairy not being present onstage just until the very end, makes her debut even more dangerous...the dancing couple KNOWS that they better put on an excellent show, for which all those balletomanes are essentially there for them-(for HER more than for him, actually...ballet is woman, let's remember... )

Casting wishes and predictions...Rothbarts and Sylvias...ah..how lucky you New Yorkers are...

Yes, I found it in I Remember Balanchine. Mary Ann Moylan – Isn't her name Mary Ellen, Quiggin....? Anyway, here are the three excerpts I translated for an older T&V thread. It is about Alonso reminiscing on its staging. Mme.Alonso on "Theme and Variations"-(I) "In 'Theme and Variations" Balanchine kept testing me all the time, establishing a kind of fight in between my technical strength and his choreography. So he would ask me, for instance: G.B-'Miss Alonso...do you think you could do entrechat-sixes here...?' A.A-'I'll do them..' ...and then he would say... G.B-'So, could you now do pas de chat en tournant..?' A.A-'If you want me to, of course I'll do them..' ...and like that, on and on he would keep torturing me , adding new steps, new difficulties, just to see if I would say 'No, I can't ' at one point, but... I never gave up! That's why the version of 'Theme and Variations' that was presented in the premiere was technically and musically very, very complicated. When other ballerinas danced the role later on-(some of them friends of mine like Maria Tallchief, who was Balanchine's wife)-they would tell me 'But Alicia, how did you let him put this or that in the choreography...?!; Now we are all in trouble!', I would just answer: 'Well, what could I do...?; It was your husband who put it there, Maria!... Another thing that I can't forget is that with 'Theme and Variations' Balanchine made his debut as a conductor, and besides the historical importance of it I will always remember it because the tempo he chose was MADLY FAST. We all ended up breathless!" Alicia Alonso on "Theme and Variations".(II) Youskevitch's variation: "The variation that Balanchine made for Youskevitch, so celebrated by the critics, had its evolution during the early staging phase of the work. Initially, I remember that Balanchine created a variation very par terre and technically simple, based on positions and designs on different angles of Youskevitch body line. Then he overheard that Youskevitch wasn't particularly pleased with it, because he considered that it had few technical complexities. Balanchine accepted the challenge and said: G.B: 'All right, we will do a variation based on three different choreographic themes', and it resulted in what probably is the variation with the highest technical virtuosity among all those that he created for his men" Alicia Alonso on "Theme and Variations" (III) "In 'Theme and Variations' Igor and I developed a hard and passionate work, achieving our own particular concept of the PDD, essentially with a distinctive expressive feeling. We wanted to be like a dialogue, very warm and personal and way far away from the form being established by Balanchine. That's why we couldn't avoid , on the execution of the new choreography, interpreting it in our own personal way, as much as what the enormous technical demand would allow to. We decided that we were to give a sense of dancing to the melody, to express a sensibility, to follow a theme, to achieve a humanization, or in other words, to make a duo between a man and a woman. As it was expected, Balanchine noticed the shift right away, but for some reason, he didn't criticized us; he kept staring at what we did in silence...and he respected it. At the end of the first rehearsal he just told us: G.B-'It is not exactly what I'm asking for...but I like it..." This is the thread in question.

Koundarova is indeed beautiful, although I must confess I have a weakness for two interpreters here...the F I E R C E offering of ice princess Pointois and the wonderful, tragic-(and soooo R E G A L too)-abandon of QUEEN Mme. Bessmertnova. Those are two "clapping variations" for the history. Eyes, head positions and neck tilts are so different on both, and convey such different aspects of their characterization, which I find really fasinating. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNTcInkuSIE

I voted already! Manuel Legris, for many reasons...

Mine too, bart. "Fee Dragee and Prince Coqueluche"...that's the way...!

It would be interesting then to see this staging done for Valdes in film. It is well known that the "mythical ballerina" has never followed the Trust' policies. A pre-Kirkland T&V showing sounds like a gem. I think I read somewhere that Mr. B wanted to give the role originally to Mary Ellen Moylan.

Ah...so regal our Big Red...! (This is BALLET for me, people... )

A while ago I saw a documentary that showed Tsikaridze at home-(I think it was here in BT)-and I was surprised at how small and non luxurious it looked...

If your user name has to do with Dolin's choreo, then you got me..!

I was talking about Balanchine's development of neoclassiscism, something which began as long ago as the late 1920s. I was NOT talking about what might happen at some point in the future, as your reference to Jennifer Homans' book implies. I was joking, bart... It is perhaps that the whole "dying" scenario has been repeated and predicted for so long by so many that we-( I )- can get a little defensive-(let's watch the "dying" corpse as much as there's still some life within it!)-that I actually and definitely tend to oversee Mr. B's unique contribution to such work, which still even after his own death, keeps inflicting life into our venerated art form. But you know me by now, right...?

In only for Horovstovsky it was worth to see this, Helene. He DEFINITELY knows about himself...!

Right along "Apollo's Angels" lines, bart..? (That funeral has been predicted since forever, I guess...)

I went to see it! (at the cinema, or course.. ). Anybody else...? I really liked Alden's production, and found the cast superb, led by Sondra Radvanovsky as Amelia, Marcelo Alvarez as King Gustave, and among all, wonderful Stephanie Blythe as Ulrica and super Divo Dmitry Hvorostovsky as Renato. Horovstovsky stole the show for me, and ended up blowing kisses to the audience during curtain calls.

Quiggan, I know what you mean, especially after a second viewing. For example: you say "It has no propulsion." This is an almost heavy ' --"imperial" in a bad sense -- version of what we saw MCB doing in Paris. I'm glad he didn't decide to strip down T&V...And considering that Symphony in C was just in the process-(off wth the sets and costume colors, you oldies!)-I wonder if it would had ended up also sans tutus at one point. Glad it didn't happen either.

Something wrong with the sound... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZbogIXpZgk&playnext=1&list=PL102DFB8BD657D1AC&feature=results_video