Lidewij

If anybody should be interested, this video appeared on youtube today ( , and ) Quality is bad, but I think it's still worth seeing.

A clip of his debut as Abderakhman in Raymonda yesterday has now appeared on youtube, you can see it . Anna Nikulina is Raymonda.

I'm in Belgium and cannot watch it, I think it is for UK viewers only..

And according to the interview, she will also do Coppélia and Esmeralda (next year). Happy as I am to get to see these productions, I was secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of some of the other great Bolshoi soloists/principals in the leading roles.. Not that it matters that much to me; the fact that we get to see 'Esmeralda' alone makes me feel

Is it possible that she is one of the act I pas de trois girls in the 1957 Swan Lake with Plisetskaya? It looks a little like her, but I'm not sure...

The whole Nutcracker perfomance is on youtube now, in 8 parts: Part 1

I know my local cinema has it, unfortunately only once (they do a repeat of the opera screenings..) and I cannot make it. So I'll have to count on the other Ballet Talkers to know how it was

I'm not in New York, nor will I be able to go and see this program (I have to do an exam on Monday and really cannot go unfortunately); I just wanted to come in and ask if you would be so good to report back about it? Thank you in advance!

Another bit of Russian TV about the program:

Maybe it's just the fact that it's a film instead of a real life performance. I didn't really 'feel' the love in any of the Don Q films I saw, and when I saw it live the sparkle was just so clear and cute. It might be just me (btw the pair I saw live was Lezhnina/Shesterikov. In that performance Sasha Mukhamedov was the street dancer and I also absolutely loved her there! I didn't even recognise her in the different costume)

I watched it today, and I liked it! I already saw the production live, but I thought the filming was well done, too! It's a pity, though, that the prologue was cut. Usually when I watch a filmed Don Q I don't miss it at all, but I really liked it when I saw this one live. I noticed one other small cut; the beginning of act III (the beginning of the tavern scene in this production). No entrance of Kitri's friends - I thought it quite odd for the real action to start 5 seconds into the act. Another thing that bugged me, in the film and in the live version, is the corps screaming "wooo!" a couple of times in the first act. You don't even hear it that hard against the orchestra, and it seems quite ridiculous really. If they're making noise then, they should do it all the time. It's a busy market square in Barcelona, after all. I find it a very pretty production, very nice costumes and sets and it's all very colourful. I was also VERY glad to notice that the annoying sound the fans made (all of the fans were the same plastic kind, in different colours) was edited out. The principals and soloists did a wonderful job. The leads were great technically, but they couldn't really convey their romantic love (maybe they could do so live, but I didn't really feel it on screen). I also really liked the street dancer and even more the queen of the Dryads, but I do not know their names. It also crossed my mind that (even though I thought she did great!) they could've given some other dancers the chance to feature on the new DVD, rather than Tsygankova who is already in last year's Giselle. I think you did a great job, 3minuteswest, thank you!

The female dancers as identified in the video blurb are Somova, Lopatkina, Osmolkina, Goncharova. However, I think jsmu is right that the third movement may be Vishneva instead. I think the fourth movement may be Maya Dumchenko. We may be talking about a different video but I've watched that Russian TV Bizet a dozen times and the one I've seen is Noradze, Lopatkina, Vishneva, Ayupova. I don't know any of the danseurs The danseurs for that performance are Viktor Baranov, Alexander Kurkov, Sergei Vikharev and Stanislav Belyaevsky. I did not watch the video in the link so I cannot confirm if it's the same.

I saw the production live this year and loved it! I'm not at home when it's broadcast, but I will certainly tape it and watch it later!

Congratulations to all of them!

I heard on the radio today that she will finish her contract that runs until 2012. edit: on the news today she reacted in English, for those who want to see, you can do so here.

Royal Ballet of Flanders AD Kathryn Bennetts resigns, because she disagrees with the minister for Culture's plans to let the opera and the ballet company merge and be led by 1 person in 2013. I only know what's in the paper, if any other members can tell anything more about the situation, feel free! I haven't found anything about this in English yet, but it might follow.

Now I'm wondering who his wife is, ksk04? This sounds all really bad.. I also thought Sarafanov was 'golden boy' at the company (I don't really like his dancing, though)

Thank you for all of your replies. This question just bubbled up in me today, but now I realise that it's a difficult question to answer. I understand that it's pretty much impossible that a production of the 1930's, like said Nutcracker, would be the same now as it was on its premiere..

That's a good one too, perhaps. About the Shades scene, I was thinking of productions (perhaps 'stagings' is a better word?), not about bits of choreoghraphy (even though they may be very interesting historically ;) )

I was just wondering about this.. What's the oldest ballet production still running? My first guess was perhaps Vainonen's Nutcracker at the Mariinsky, but I'm far from sure about that, so I thought I'd ask the BT'ers who know more about this than me

I saw her dance live today for the first time! I can die happy now.. It was a performance of Don Quixote, she made a really lovely and cute Kitri. I waited at the stage door after the performance, after an hour and 15 minutes (I was the last one there, all the others had given up!) she came out and I asked her autograph, she was so sweet! And apart from some wobbles in the pas de deux, the dancing was excellent. And her smile..

She was the lead in 'Paquita' in the new years' performance that was broadcast on Arte, and that may end up on DVD..

My favourite version is the Vainonen, the only thing that really bothers me is that (at least in the Mariinsky's version) part of the music of the Sugar Plum Fairy is left out!

I'm Olga in Onegin, and second and third are Juliet and Lady Capulet..

The cast announced for the dates that are to be filmed are Larissa Lezhnina & Artur Shesterikov (if I remember right, I don't have the booklet with me now..) edit: I now see that the DNB replied to someone in the guestbook on their website, and there they say the two last performances will be filmed, these are with Anna Tsygankova & Matthew Golding in the lead.