Palais de Cristal / Daphnis & Chloe

[sandik]

Oh, thanks for the link to the Lacroix -- how lovely!

[kbarber]

I was at this performance last night and really liked the costumes. They were very glittery! The green ones looked a little like a tinsel-bedecked Christmas tree, but the midnight blue ones were stunning. A Ballet Met dancer was in attendance and reported that almost 50% of the steps were different. It's not as if I have Symphony in C engraved on my brain, but I certainly did notice some differences to what I am used to.

[volcanohunter]

The conclusion of the first movement of Palais.

http://www.operadeparis.fr/videopera/le-palais-de-cristal

[sandik]

Oh, thanks for the link -- those are really red costumes!

[volcanohunter]

Gosh, more Palais cast changes before Tuesday's performance. Valentine Colasante is now scheduled for the third movement, and Pierre Arthur Raveau and Emmanuel Thibault will switch places in the third and fourth movements.

[volcanohunter]

The entire program is now online and is supposed to stay up for the next six months. For the moment I am not encountering a geo-block--though I was prepared to start using all sorts of tricks to work around it. For those of us with only fuzzy memories of how Palais de Cristal differs from Symphony in C, it is a fascinating comparison.

The ballerina in the second movement is Ludmila Pagliero rather than Marie-Agnès Gillot.

http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/live/danse/le-palais-de-cristal-par-georges-balanchine-157321

[Dale]

Wow. This is amazing to have up there. Thank you, volcanohunter!

[kbarber]

It seems to be geo-blocked for me (in Toronto).

[volcanohunter]

I can work my way around French TV's geo-block with a VPN, but their block is cleverer than most. First I have to clear my browser's cache of everything, so that no cookies can be used to figure out where I've been. In fact, I use one browser exclusively for watching French TV online and never open it without first masquerading as a Parisian.

(My browser's default language is also not set to English, which probably helps in this case.)

[sandik]

I ... never open it without first masquerading as a Parisian.

This has all kinds of possibilities!

[volcanohunter]

Bien sûr!

[miliosr]

Lovely to see Thibault again . . . but bittersweet knowing that the top prize will most likely elude him.

[canbelto]

Wow the second and fourth movements almost unrecognizable ... so many iconic movements not there. Interesting to see.

[Helene]

Ludmilla Pagliero is exquisite.

[emilienne]

It seems to be geo-blocked for me (in Toronto).

I use Incognito Mode in Google Chrome. No need to clear caches or masquerade as a Parisian (best I can do is Belgian). Popped up and started streaming immediately.

EDIT: I'm a dope (and should not answer questions after eight hours of hiking). The broadcast is available in the US, so the Incognito workaround only applies when you want to hide your web browsing habits from the server (e.g. volcanohunter's problem). People experiencing geoblocks (that is, being blocked by country or by IP address) would need to find a good VPN service from France or from the US (where it is not blocked) to stream the video.

[pherank]

That was really enjoyable. Great to see an earlier Balanchine work that has been well preserved. Even the camerawork was decent. And the ornate costumes (Lacroix?) interested me - a good choice to keep the colors dark and saturated though to keep the decorative appliqué from looking way over-the-top (as with the pink costumes). But it felt a little weird to watch a POB production without Letestu, Dupont, Osta, Pujol or Gillot (though those last two are still with the company). Very much a view of the new generation of POB.

Note that I watched this in the U.S. without any special software 'maneuvers'. Shocking.

EDIT:

Millepied's Daphnis et Chloé has some terrible Op Art geometric visuals to watch during the musical introduction, as in, "lets throw in something completely unrelated to the myth or musical thematics and see what happens!" Golly. Mixing impressionist music together with plainly soulless, anti-organic visuals and you get a needless disruption of the mood that should be created by this passionate music. Not a good start to a ballet.

But we do get to see Dupont dance, and that is something.

[kbarber]

It seems to be geo-blocked for me (in Toronto).

I use Incognito Mode in Google Chrome. No need to clear caches or masquerade as a Parisian (best I can do is Belgian). Popped up and started streaming immediately.

Thanks for the tip! For some reason Palais de Cristal is not geo-blocked but Daphnis is. I will try your workaround.

[pherank]

From California, I've tested the video broadcast in Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome (all on a Mac) and each have loaded properly, though with Safari it recquired a second try - I recieved a blank video space the first time.

[cubanmiamiboy]

The version POB is dancing this May has new (coloured) costumes designed by Christian Lacroix

...and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM..!! Oh, the ballet looks SO regal in its full original regalia..I very much would love to see it like that live-(same as with Ballet Imperial)

[Amy Reusch]

I think they are beautiful but I do not like the way the corps tutus move.

[canbelto]

I like the color scheme but I don't like the fit of the tutus. They're too fluffy and floppy for my tastes.

[diane]

Oh, I enjoyed this. So glad I was able to view it w/ no apparent regional restrictions.

(I also did not think the tutus were the most flattering nor supportive; they seemed to distract through floppiness, but there are worse things... )

-d-

[pherank]

I didn't mind the "fluffy cake" tutus in that they impart a sort of "retro" look; however, the originals were fairly discreet in size:

Toumanova with Roger Ritz, as Black Diamonds

http://lesballetonautes.com/2014/05/09/le-palais-de-cristal-la-cousine-du-vieux-continent/

There is also a nice photo of the soloists with Balanchine as the backdrop for this video of Bizet's Symphony in C:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVxRWvKSQ-g

[sasark]

I caught the final performance of these works in Paris last month. With "Palais," I thought the corps costumes were stunning. For that reason, I would overall give the costumes high marks. However, to me, the solists' costumes were much less beautiful, particularly in the first three movements, where the solists all wore lighter and brighter colors than those of the corps (who were in gorgeously dark shades). To my eye, the brighter colors were less elegant and beautiful. Also, I thought the soloists' costumes looked cluttered, with odd embellishments on the bodices.

With the Millepied piece, I thought the geometric background visuals worked when seen live. I also liked these costumes; I thought they were sophisticated and worked well with the piece. I hadn't been sure what to expect with this work, not knowing much about Millepied. Overall I enjoyed it -- for me, the high point was the choreography for the men's solos, which I found fresh and interesting. To me, the problem with the work is the plot: Chloe is kidnapped by pirates and rescued. Nothing about that is relevant or interesting. By contrast, there's a hint of actual dramatic tension early in the piece, when Daphnis is unfaithful to Chloe. But that plot twist is completely ignored in the second half of the work, which I found a little boring, except for an invigorating solo by Fabien Revillion, who portrayed one of the pirates.

[Helene]

On camera, the corps costumes looked to be black woven with whatever based color the soloists wore.