Guillaume Cote's Prince Florimund

[Paquita]

This just in:

"GUILLAUME CÔTÉ TO TRAIN AT PARIS OPERA BALLET FOR

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

December 16, 2003...Toronto, Ontario...First Soloist GUILLAUME CÔTÉ will train at the Paris Opera Ballet with Étoile MANUEL LEGRIS, a protégé of Rudolf Nureyev's, to prepare for the lead role in The Sleeping Beauty. Mr. Côté will spend two weeks (December 28- January 10) with Mr. Legris at the Opera Garnier studios in Paris. The Sleeping Beauty opens on February 14th at The Hummingbird Centre. "

Lucky him!

[Estelle]

I'm not really a fan of Nureyev's production, but indeed working with Legris must be a great opportunity!

[Leigh Witchel]

It's useful to note here that Nureyev did either six or seven stagings of Beauty. POB has the last, and the Canadian production is from almost two decades earlier. I think it's a bit more orthodox! I'm not crazy about the POB setting either, but I'm interested to see the NBoC one to see the differences (I've seen their Act III).

We know Cote and Marcelo Gomes will do Desiree, any guesses on Aurora?

I'm guessing Greta Hodgkinson, Chan Hon Goh among the principals (pretty easy guesses. . .) any others, and do you think any of the rising dancers (Heather Ogden?) will get a shot? She's often paired with Cote.

[Paquita]

I'm guessing that Hodgkinson will be paired with Antonijevic... as for Gomes? Does anyone know how tall he is? Because I think Xiao Nan Yu should deffinately be given Aurora, but her usual partner, Ryan Boorne, is not really suited to dance the Prince. Sonia Rodriguez might be a good choice? Leigh, you may be right about Odgen... it seems quite probable, just because she is Cote's regular partner and the audience wants to see this partnership grow.

[Leigh Witchel]

Gomes is tall, and could easily partner Xiao Nan Yu.