Lidewij

I've been wondering for quite some time about this question; a forum search brought me to this old thread. Did anyone find out? Thank you.

I have seen a movie on youtube, quite some time ago (it has been deleted, I think), with the title "Pavlova", and the description said it was from 1983; although it was in black and white, and dubbed in English (the original was in Russian, I believe).. So I don't think that would be the movie you mean..

I own the Kirov's version of the Nutcracker on DVD, and I now wish to buy a traditional version, because I only recently found out that I do not know it at all. (I did see a 'non-Vainonen' Nutcracker some years ago, but I seem to have forgotten all about it ) So, to get to know the traditional Nutcracker, I understand the Peter Wright version would be a good choice? Or which other ones could I consider buying? Thank you.

Thank you for that, innopac, I'm going to watch these videos right away.

Well, unfortunately it isn't possible for me to get there today, so I'm a bit sad now.. Did you go, Marc? If so, how was it? I'm quite curious about Ivan Vasiliev in the role..

Not entirely sure yet whether I will go to tomorrow's performance; I'll see. Today's was very impressive in my opinion, but then it was my very first Spartacus, so that could kind of influence my opinion.. Yegor Khromushin did a fine job as Spartacus, his jumps were good, but on practically every pirouette he did, he almost lost his balance when he got to the 4th or 5th turn.. Whereas Crassus (Vladimir Neporozhny)'s turns were all perfectly executed, but his jumps weren't so impressive. Still, he did bring the role very well in my opinion. And he really impressed me with the ugly faces he can make. About it seeming a strange choice for Khromushin, I really can't tell. I think he brought a convincing Spartacus today; his acting was fine to me, and his technique was okay (just the pirouettes..). Of course, I haven't seen him do anything of the classical repertoire.. Can't really say anything about Anna Antonicheva; she danced very nice, but I haven't seen enough Phrygias to really tell.. And then Maria Alexandrova was absolutely stunning; to me she was perfect as Aegina, and I just couldn't take my eyes off het whenever she was onstage. There was one other thing I really liked about this performance; Vyacheslav Lopatin as one of the three shepherds. He was smiling constantly and seemed to have so much fun on stage, it really made my day. (The other two were Denis Medvedev and Ruslan Pronin, they were fine too, just didn't seem that enthousiastic to be on stage.) I was a little annoyed by Antonicheva's tights that were full of makeup from the first lift, but then I had chosen for seats in the front to see the dancer's faces, so it's my own fault, really.. Well, I absolutely loved the ballet and if I ever get the chance to see it again, I certainly will. And this also made me look forward to my October trip to Moscow even more.

I'll go for Larissa Lezhnina, Maria Alexandrova, Ekaterina Shipulina and Yevgenia Obraztsova I'm not very familiar with the current non-Russian dancers, I'm sure some of them are lovely, but I don't know them so that's why I only have Russians in my list.

I'm actually going quite here, perhaps I should make a new thread for this question..? My mother (who was going with me) has to go to a funeral on the day of the performance. I didn't really know that person, so I still want to go, but I would like to get rid of the ticket. I don't really have any friends I can ask to come to the ballet with me (well, actually I could try that.. But I think I'd have to 'prepare' them for it. Maybe next time.), so I would want to sell it. Now, selling it that day at the theatre would not be appreciated by the theatre people, I think.. Is it possible to return the ticket to the theatre (and getting my money back), so they can sell it last-minute or something like that? As you can see, I'm not at all experienced in theatre-going..

I think I found out. Dmitry Belogolovtsev, who was cast for the performances on the 25th and 27th is badly injured, so Vasiliev-Kaptsova get to do these two performances, and Anna Antonicheva who was supposed to dance with Belogolovtsev twice, now does one performance with Yegor Khromushin. Oh, and the Dutch newspaper I got this information from says that it is Vasiliev's debut in the role. Well, I just hope Belogovtsev will quickly recover..

Thank you for the information, Marc! I hadn't heard of him either. I emailed the Bolshoi about it, I always like to know the cast before I go to a performance.. And in any case, there's still Maria Alexandrova to make me happy; I'm sure it will be fine with both casts.

Hmm, I was just looking around on the Bolshoi's website, and two different pages give two different casts for the performance I'm going to see. So it's possible that I won't get to see Ivan Vasiliev and Nina Kaptsova, but Yegor Khromushin and Anna Antonicheva. I still hope for Ivan & Nina, but the other cast will be amazing as well, I suppose. But then I won't be able to tell you about Ivan Vasiliev in the role of Spartacus, of course.

I think he already danced the part before (I'm not sure), but still it is probably just his second or third performance in the role. I will of course tell you about it after I've seen it, but I have to warn you that I'm not an expert, and as I said, it will be my first Spartacus; so at times I might be a little too busy with watching the ballet itself to watch the dancers carefully.

Thank you for your reply, innopac. I had seen some clips on youtube, but I hadn't seen all of them apparently. Seeing those different interpretations is very interesting.

I've looked for another thread about this ballet, but couldn't find one; I'm sorry if there already was one. I will be going to a performance of Spartacus by the Bolshoi ballet in two weeks (the 26th). I have never seen this ballet before, nor have I seen any full version on film. (I did see some excerpts; the two Phrygia-Spartacus adagios and a dance by Aegina) If I order a film now I don't think I'd be able to watch it before the performance, so, just to be prepared I want to ask any of you who have seen it whether there is something to bear in mind during the performance, or anything like that? I'd also be interested in your overall opinions on the ballet. The announced cast for the performance is Nina Kaptsova as Phrygia, Ivan Vasiliev as Spartacus, Rinat Arifulin as Crassus and Maria Alexandrova (can't wait to see her live!) as Aegina. Thank you very much.

By the way, nowadays mr. Vladimirov is trying to make a classical dancer out of young Ivan Vasiliev. (I mean he's his coach. )

Bits of the premiere with Maria Alexandrova have appeared on Youtube. I'll give the links for the Danse Basque (the well-known pas de deux is also online): , and . Nina Kaptsova is Adeline.I actually think she did quite well here, but then I know absolutely nothing about Russian character dance..

It is the same Vladimirov. You can also see him in the videos of the 1982 gala for Asaf Messerer on youtube (it is in 8 parts, you can find the first one here: ; I know the title says part 1 of 6, but there are 8 parts..), he is the man with the long hair on the right of the barre in the back, right next to Ekaterina Maximova. The next parts also show some centre exercices, you can easily recognize him by his white socks - or maybe they're leg warmers, whatever they are - in black shoes.

Vasiliev and Maximova are in the Grigorovich version. The Vainonen version is available on DVD with Larissa Lezhnina and Victor Baranov. I actually like the Vainonen version very much, but I think that probably is because I grew up with it - you can't believe how many times I saw that video..

Thank you for that, drb! I like her very much, and in july I'm finally going to see her live.

Well, there is some of Spessivtseva's Giselle posted on the internet; you can imagine, I think, that when I accidentally found it, I was very very happy. You will find it, if you type "gispe" in the search box on http://video.yahoo.com/

There is a very short clip of his Albrecht on Youtube, in a video about Giselle with Nina Ananiashvili and Natalia Bessmertnova. If you search for "Ananiashvili Bessmertnova Giselle" you will find it, it is in the middle of this video. It is very short, so I don't know if it will be of any use for you, but still..

That history is certainly very interesting! I knew it was some kind of special building, but I never knew why. Thank you! I will go see Spartacus and The Bright Stream; if I have some money left I would also like to see a Swan Lake but I'll have to see about that. Amsterdam isn't that close by for me, so perhaps a hotel room will be necessary, and the tickets are pricy as well.. Anyhow, I'm very much looking forward to this event.

Well, I finally found out. I'll post the information here, in case anyone would be interested.. The Bolshoi Ballet will perform in theatre Carré in Amsterdam. Ticket sales start on the 13th of May.

Diane Vainonen's Nutcracker or Grigorovich's?

I wasn't sure where to post this question, so I'm very sorry if I did it wrong. The Bolshoi website says they will perform from 16-27 July in Amsterdam (The Bright Stream, Spartacus and Swan Lake), but I just can't seem to find out where exactly this will be and where to get tickets. I emailed het Muziektheater (which seemed the most obvious place for them to perform to me), but they answered the Bolshoi will not perform there. If anyone can help me to find out where they will appear and where to get tickets, thank you very much!