SFB 2015: Program 1 Casting

[PeggyR]

Opening night cast only so far. (Apparently it's no longer possible to link to a specific program, just to the general cast page.)

Program 1 - Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 8pm - Opening Night

SERENADE

Choreographer: George Balanchine

Composer: Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky

Conductor: Martin West

Waltz Couple: Maria Kochetkova, Vitor Luiz

Russian Girl: Mathilde Froustey

Angel: Frances Chung

Dark Angel: Joseph Walsh

INTERMISSION

RAkU

Choreographer: Yuri Possokhov

Composer: Shinji Eshima

Conductor: Martin West

Yuan Yuan Tan, Carlos Quenedit*

Pascal Molat

INTERMISSION

LAMBARENA

Choreographer: Val Caniparoli

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach and traditional African rhythms and music (as arranged by Pierre Akendengue and Hughes de Courson)

Lorena Feijoo

Kimberly Braylock*, Ellen Rose Hummel*

Joseph Walsh,* Daniel Deivison-Oliveira*, Hansuke Yamamoto*

[Josette]

The Giselle principal casting is also posted on the SFB website. Frances Chung is getting a Giselle! She danced Myrtha in previous seasons.

[PeggyR]

The Giselle principal casting is also posted on the SFB website. Frances Chung is getting a Giselle! She danced Myrtha in previous seasons.

Thanks for the heads up Josette. When I looked at Program 2 yesterday, there was only the opening night cast with no Myrtha listed, so I held off posting since I consider Myrtha a principle role (I’ll go to Giselle regardless of who’s dancing G&A if there’s a Myrtha I want to see). I hope she’s listed soon.

Also, in past years casts were only posted one week ahead of time. This is pretty early for both Programs 1 and 2; plus the site was updated on a Saturday, which I don’t remember happening unless there was an injury cast change. Strange times!

[Quiggin]

Wednesday's cast list and an update on Tuesday's Dark Angel.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015, 8pm – Opening Night

SERENADE – Balanchine / Tchaikovsky

Waltz Couple: Maria Kochetkova, Joseph Walsh*

Russian Girl: Mathilde Froustey

Angel: Frances Chung

Dark Angel: Vitor Luiz

RAkU – Possokhov / Eshima

Yuan Yuan Tan, Carlos Quenedit*

Pascal Molat

LAMBARENA – Caniparoli / Bach,

Lorena Feijoo

Kimberly Braylock*, Ellen Rose Hummel*

Joseph Walsh,* Daniel Deivison-Oliveira*, Wei Wang*

Wednesday, January 28, 2015 - 7:30pm

SERENADE – Balanchine / Tchaikovsky

Waltz Couple: Sofiane Sylve, Carlo Di Lanno*

Russian Girl: Vanessa Zahorian

Angel: Kristina Lind

Dark Angel: Tiit Helimets

RAkU – Possokhov / Eshima

Yuan Yuan Tan, Carlos Quenedit

Pascal Molat

LAMBARENA – Caniparoli / Bach,

Frances Chung

Grace Shibley*, Dores Andre*

Steven Morse*, Pascal Molat, Hansuke Yamamoto*

[Terez]

Saw the performance last night - it was a treat to see Joseph Walsh perform with Maria as Waltz Couple. They paired well together. He also paired well with Lorena Feijoo in Lambarena. Nice versatile dancer; great addition to the SFB roster, it would seem.

RAkU was just astonishing. Right now, casting isn't showing any other female besides YY taking that role. I'm not surprised; she is so iconic in it, so inimitable. The ballet was so well done, so affecting. I'm still sort of reeling over the intensity of it. (I've never seen it performed before.)

I wish I could see the Wed pm cast perform in Serenade - sounds like a great mix of dancers. If anyone's going tonight, I'd love to hear your impressions. Always fun to see the new dancers in good roles, i.e.: Carlo di Lanno, paired with Sofiane Sylve.

[Josette]

I believe that Lorena Feijoo danced RAkU during its first season, before her pregnancy.

[Josette]

As Yuan Yuan Tan is dancing Giselle on Friday, Feb. 6, there is likely to be a different cast for RAkU on Feb. 5 and at least one of the two RAkU performances on Saturday, February 7. I am attending the Feb. 5 RAkU. We shall see.

[PeggyR]

I believe that Lorena Feijoo danced RAkU during its first season, before her pregnancy.

She did; Feijoo was wonderful, but last night Tan left me speechless. The role was made on her and it shows: uses all her best qualities, particularly her astonishing flexibility.

I liked Walsh too, but surprisingly I didn’t care for Kochetkova in Serenade. I’m a great admirer of hers, but for some reason I just didn’t feel the role showed her at her best: for the first time she seemed small. Her dancing is usually so stage-filling you don’t notice her petite size. Here she seemed small-scale and out of proportion with Chung (Angel) and Froustey (Russian Girl).

As to Lambarena: well, it took a little while to get used to 13 white people (mostly) dancing African moves to African rhythms. On the whole, I thought the dancers acquitted themselves pretty well, although there were definite moments of ‘ballet dancers trying to be ethnic’. Lorena Feijoo totally got it though; she had the subtlety most others missed. Ellen Rose Hummel got it too; she was a great fun. Unlike many, she just completely let go of ‘ballet dancer’ and and gave Feijoo a run for the money in the shimmy and shake department.

I’m seeing the same program again Friday, mainly to see Serenade again (different cast); but although casts are the same as Tuesday for RAkU and Lambarena, I’m very much looking forward to seeing Tan, Feijoo and Hummel again.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Please, please...somebody to report on Feijoo's Giselle...

[PeggyR]

I bought a ticket for that performance just to see her, so I hope hope hope the casting doesn't change.

[cubanmiamiboy]

The role should be already a challenge for her due to her age...but she has SO MUCH experience on it...

[PeggyR]

Meet the Artist: New principal Joseph Walsh will be interviewed at 7:00 pm before tonight's performance (1/30/15).

[Josette]

Koto Ishihara is doing RAkU in the performances immediately preceding and following YuanYuan Tan's Giselle on Friday. Casting is up for all performances through February 10.

[pherank]

Koto Ishihara is doing RAkU in the performances immediately preceding and following YuanYuan Tan's Giselle on Friday. Casting is up for all performances through February 10.

Thanks for the notice, Josette - it's about time they posted the castings. I will hopefully get to see Froustey as Russian Girl on Saturday. I seem to be missing her in everything else.

Edit: Apparently Elizabeth Powell is now out with injury (she revealed this on her Instagram page). Ex-principal Damien Smith wrote back: "You know what? Injuries can be a blessing in disguise. You will learn and understand more about your body and gain strength. Probably not a single professional dancer who hasn't had their moment of injury. The smart ones comeback even stronger. You can do it."

Bummer. I was expecting to see her with the corps in Serenade.

[Quiggin]

I saw several Serenades and didn’t think that any of them quite gelled. Very beautiful, but I wanted it to be more rough-edged and each section needed more variation in texture and tempos to set it off from the other ones. And now and then very startling, like a loom that suddenly reverses the arrangement of strings and something shuttles through ... Also the orchestra to play less silkily, with more contrasts between instruments, the strings to cackle and strain a bit, the voices more idiosyncratic and separate.

Maria Kochetkova was cool and business-like and Frances Chung, as accomplished a technician as she is, didn't make her part look much different from the one she did in Lambarena. Mathilde Froustey tried to sell the Russian Girl part to the audience, smiling and trying to catch their eyes with hers which really went against the tone of the piece. And the beautiful play within a play, the arrival of the blind poet – sort of a variation on Orpheus – didn’t seem to stand out as a special thing as it did a couple of years ago.

Sofiane Sylve and Carlo Di Lanno, however, were wonderful together, subtle and low-keyed.

*

Will this be the last year of RAkU? Yes, Yuan Yuan Tan put in an incredibly intense, almost painfully so, performance first night – but the part is not an ennobling one at all; the rape, blankly against a wall, completely gratuitous. And the orientalizing makeup that poor Carlos Quenedit had to wear made him look like just stepped out of the Mikado – or A Majority of One in Cedric Hardwicke's role.

[pherank]

I arrived in SF just in time for the big "Pineapple Express" storm. And that kind of mucked up some of my plans. But I did make it to Program 1, Serenade on Thursday, Feb. 5 - straight from the airport - leaving before the next ballet due to having slept little and not feeling well. I missed seeing Frances Chung in Lamabarena (a bummer), and I just didn't have a driving need to see Ishihara in RAkU (no offense to her). Serenade was fortunately anchored by Sofiane Sylve and I consider her the best Balanchine dancer at SFB. It was great to see Zahorian back, and she was lovely as the Russian Girl, looking well rehearsed that night. Helimets was rather less interesting in his role, and too tall to work well with his angel partner. The performance was good, though I found little things not to my liking. When Sofiane fell to the stage and then needed to release her bound hair, she struggled rather too long with it (and given that she's the only person on stage, it's a little too noticeable). I liked the 'new guy', Carlo Di Lanno - he looks promising, especially as a partner.

Serenade
Waltz Couple: Sofiane Sylve, Carlo Di Lanno
Russian Girl: Vanessa Zahorian
Angel: Kristina Lind
Dark Angel: Tiit Helimets

Quiggin mentioned that he thought Serenade wasn't quite 'gelling' - I think I would rate this Feb. 5 performance a "very good", but not great, not exceptional (which we always hope for). I still think the Corps doesn't have quite the right feel: too academic, not enough expansive, joyful dancing as I've seen with amateurs/students (who are just so darn happy to be dancing Serenade for an audience).

After seeing the updated casting, I bought an orchestra seat for Program 1 on Saturday night (the 7th), which was mostly 1st casts. I was looking forward to the combination of Froustey and Kochetkova in Serenade on Saturday, but as it turned out, Kochetkova and Vitor Luiz dropped out to concentrate on Giselle (next day's matinee). And who should be the replacement for Masha? But Sofiane (yeah!). So I was happy enough. I personally really enjoy Froustey's dancing and manner, and she does well with Balanchine when you consider she has no in-depth training in that approach. This was a more exciting performance than the one on Thursday - most everything clicked this time. However, Sofiane once again struggled getting her hair undone - as much or more than the first time I saw her, so that was a visual glitch. But from then on the Elegy section was wonderful.

Waltz Couple: Sofiane Sylve, Carlo Di Lanno
Russian Girl: Mathilde Froustey
Angel: Frances Chung
Dark Angel: Luke Ingham*


RAkU
Yuan Yuan Tan, Carlos Quenedit
Pascal Molat

A rather visually confusing ballet that is probably too difficult in conception to really succeed. For the viewer, it's really important to not only have read the program notes, but to have an understanding of what Buhtoh dance is, before one sees the ballet.

As for the performers, Tan and Molat were both tremendous. Between RAkU and the Little Mermaid, Tan has proven herself to be one of the most gifted 'actors' in the ballet world. She received a standing ovation from much of the audience (as she seems to each time she performs this ballet). I was struck by how difficult it was for her to leave her character behind at the bows. She was standing alone at the center of the stage and looking completely devastated, very much still in character, but as the other dancers came out to join in the bows, she gradually became her old self and was smiling and moving again as a classical ballerina normally does.


Lamabarena
Shannon Rugani
Kimberly Braylock, Ellen Rose Hummel
Joseph Walsh, Daniel Deivison-Oliveira, Wei Wang

I was originally hoping to see either Chung or Feijoo dance the lead role, but Shannon Rugani was wonderfully enthusiastic, and ever smiling (much like Froustey tends to be), so she won me over. The ballet was a fun crowd-pleaser, but fantastically different from where we started: Serenade. Lamabarena doesn't try to be deep, but its communal, celebratory feel is mostly satisfying.

The orchestra sounded great to me for both Serenade and RAkU (with SF Zen Center musicians). [Lamabarena uses pre-recorded music.]

[Josette]

I was at the February 5th performance of Serenade, RAkU, and Lambarena. I was delighted to see Vanessa Zahorian on stage again. Ms. Zahorian obliterated the technical demands of the Russian Girl in Serenade and danced with great speed, lightness, and beauty. It was a pleasure seeing Kristina Lind dance one of the principal parts with such grace. I thought Tiit Helimets had the right compelling presence in his role in the last section and he partnered the dancers superbly. I have to agree with Pherank that it was distracting to see the gorgeous Sofiane Sylve taking a bit too much time pulling her hair down. (When I saw Yuan Yuan Tan dance the Waltz Girl with great spirituality a few years back, her hair became a minor distraction during the last dancing passage before the fall to the earth because it was becoming loose.)

I've seen RAkU five times previously with Yuan Yuan Tan, its creator. This work seems to have its detractors but I have always found Yuan Yuan Tan subtle, exquisite, and devastatingly moving, making the ballet well worth seeing five times. Koto Ishihara danced the lead and she gave a remarkable performance for a young soloist. She had the femininity, vulnerability, and flexibility that the role requires, and had obviously absorbed everything she could from thorough coaching. It made me wonder how Yuan Yuan Tan would have performed the role with Ms. Ishihara's level of experience. Ms. Ishihara also had the valuable support of Pascal Molat in the role he created - he was extraordinary.

Lambarena was a good closing ballet with the entire cast dancing with verve.

[pherank]

Zahorian was indeed dancing well, as if to say "Don't forget about me!". Kristina Lind certainly has the right look for Serenade - her limbs are incredible.

I wonder if Ms. Ishihara was in part coached by Tan? Who else knows the "princess" role inside and out? Or did she just rely on Possokhov's instructions?

[Josette]

Hi, Pherank-

Have you had the opportunity to watch the rehearsal in SFB's portion of World Ballet Day, where Possokhov was working with the RAkU cast including? Possokhov was incredible, going deeply into the technical and emotional aspects of the ballet.

[pherank]

Hi, Pherank-

Have you had the opportunity to watch the rehearsal in SFB's portion of World Ballet Day, where Possokhov was working with the RAkU cast including? Possokhov was incredible, going deeply into the technical and emotional aspects of the ballet.

Yes I have - that was one of the high points of the SFB segment for me. Possokhov is really entertaining. I've learned recently that someone I work with takes adult ballet classes with Possokhov - she thinks he's a genius. ;)

[Josette]

Need to clarify: In my previous post above, the "?" should have been "Yuan Yuan Tan." Thanks to everyone for their comments for the SFB season. It's a pleasure reading them.