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2017-18 season


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Thank you for the link, California. Just for the sake of having the complete rep here on the board:


Nov 10-12, 15-19
Wheeldon/Talbot: The Winter's Tale


Nov 22-25
Neumeier/Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich: Nijinsky
 

Dec 9-10, 13-17, 19-24, 27-30
Kudelka/Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
 

Feb 28-Mar 4
Binet/Melnyk: The Dreamers Ever Leave You
Kudelka/Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Pite/Beauchesne: Emergence


Mar 8-11, 13-18
Petipa (Nureyev)/Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty


June 1-3, 6-10
Lepage, Côté: Frame by Frame
 

June 13
Gala


June 16, 17, 20-22
Peck/Martinů: Paz de la Jolla
Côté/Lau: Dark Angels Kudelka/Cash: The Man in Black
Ekman/various: Cacti

 

Tours:
Oct 3-8
Nijinsky
Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris

Jan 25-27
Nijinsky
National Arts Centre, Ottawa

Apr 3-8
Nijinsky
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco

Edited by volcanohunter
additional tour
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2 hours ago, mussel said:

Is Nureyev's Sleeping Beauty staging for NBoC different from POB?  I remember watching NBoC Beauty DVD with Veronica Tennant and Nureyev, it's much abridged, less than 90 minutes long.

 

It's pretty much the same, but with different sets and costumes (better ones for POB in my opinion). The DVD is abridged because it had to fit into a 90-minute slot for TV. They chopped the fairies, among other things.

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The only choreographic difference is that the NBoC Princes perform the choreography originally danced by Nureyev, which you can see on the DVD. At the POB he later jacked up the difficulty level even more. And there aren't quite as many fairy attendants in the prologue, which is understandable given that the NBoC is half the size of the POB.

 

I remember one performance during the last run in Toronto when Tanya Howard had a different role in each act. She danced the first fairy, one of Aurora's friends, a countess and then one of the jewel fairies. Presumably this is seldom necessary in Paris.

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I'm not really sure what to make of this programming. There is just so much that are repeats? 

I am excited for Emergence because I saw it in Seattle and really enjoyed it. Always good seeing the company a piece was made on dance it.

I love Sleeping Beauty and will be curious as to how the production compares to others. Would love to one day see the POB dance it as referenced earlier. 

Havent seem Nijinsky but have seen enough of his other work to assume it will be very very long and very very serious.

I feel like I just saw Winter's Tale and don't particularly want to see it again.

I refuse to suffer through the art gallery ballet one more time but find hope in the Peck work. I find his stuff thoughtful and musical. 

The Robert Lepage looks quite interesting as an idea at least and I've heard more people than I can count claim Four Seasons as a masterpiece. 

Definitley won't be getting season tickets. Will prefer to just purchase tix for the small amount I haven't seen or I think looks good. 

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Casting for The Winter's Tale. More than three weeks in advance, which has to be some sort of record, at least in the Kain era. (There was a time, ancient history now, when principal casting for the full-lengths was printed in the company's subscription brochures, i.e., up to a year in advance. No guarantees it would hold, of course.)

 

Leontes, King of Sicilia
Piotr Stanczyk (Nov 10, 15, 18 mat)
Evan McKie (Nov 11, 16 mat, 17)
Guillaume Côté (Nov 12, 18 eve)
Harrison James* (Nov 16 eve, 19)

 

Hermione, Queen of Sicilia
Hannah Fischer (Nov 10, 15, 18 mat)
Jurgita Dronina (Nov 11, 16 mat, 17)
Heather Ogden (Nov 12, 18 eve)
Sonia Rodriguez (Nov 16 eve, 19)

 

Perdita, Princess of Sicilia
Jillian Vanstone (Nov 10, 15, 18 mat)
Elena Lobsanova (Nov 11, 16 mat, 17)
Rui Huang (Nov 12, 18 eve)
Tina Pereira (Nov 16 eve, 19)

 

Paulina, Head of Queen Hermione’s Household
Xiao Nan Yu (Nov 10, 15, 18 mat)
Svetlana Lunkina (Nov 11, 16 mat, 17)
Greta Hodgkinson* (Nov 12, 18 eve)
Tanya Howard (Nov 16 eve, 19)

 

Polixenes, King of Bohemia
Harrison James (Nov 10, 15, 18 mat)
Brendan Saye (11, 12, 16 mat, 17, 18 eve)
Félix Paquet (16 eve, 19)

 

Florizel, Prince of Bohemia
Naoya Ebe (Nov 10, 15, 18 mat)
Francesco Gabriele Frola (Nov 11, 16 mat, 17)
Skylar Campbell (Nov 12, 18 eve)
Dylan Tedaldi (Nov 16 eve, 19)

 

*Debut
All casting subject to change.

 

https://national.ballet.ca/Productions/2017-18-Season/The-Winters-Tale

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Nijinsky casting

 

Vaslav Nijinsky

Guillaume Côté (Nov. 22, 24 eve, 26 mat)

Francesco Gabriele Frola (Nov. 23 mat, 25 eve)

Skylar Campbell (Nov. 23 eve, 25 mat)
 

Diaghilev

Evan McKie (Nov. 22, 24 eve)

Piotr Stanczyk (Nov. 23, 25 mat, 23, 25 eve)

Ben Rudisin (Nov. 26 mat)
 

Romola

Heather Ogden (Nov. 22, 24 eve)

Svetlana Lunkina (Nov. 23 mat, 25 eve)

Sonia Rodriguez (Nov. 23 eve, 25 mat)

Xiao Nan Yu (Nov. 26 mat)


https://national.ballet.ca/Productions/2017-18-Season/Nijinsky

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Did anyone see Winters Tale? It doesn't seem like it.

We saw Nijinsky yesterday and I feel almost the same about this one as I did about A Streetcar. In a nutshell there are some beautiful moments but as a whole it is just too much all round. It was like Neumier was over ambitious with what he wanted to do. There are so many characters and references you can't possibly bring justice to each. He has an incredible sense of theater though and knows how to see the big picture and leave and impact. If only he could of cut down about 30%. I am now a major fan of Frola. Completely engaging and articulate in every way. Lunkina was fine I guess. Would have prefered to see Ogden.

One thing I thought was so obvious was that the structure of the work was identical to A Streetcar. External vs. internal world blending, and then everything where it started. And it works. I am not certain that this is the kind of ballet that will bring new audiences. In fact I am certain that if this was seen by someone completely new to ballet they would have no idea what was going on. 

It also looked like they closed one or two of the levels near the top of the theater. I can't help but wonder if this is normal or maybe they decide the sight line isnt good for ballet. Or maybe they close it because then they can shuffle people around and say it sold out lol.

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they are not likely to announce it until a few weeks before.  I expect first, second, third cast will be same as in Toronto though, which you can find in detail here:

http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/2017/11/detailed-nijinsky-casting-national.html

the only difference being that Piotr Stanczyk, who was injured in November, will likely be back as second cast Diaghilev.

I am on the NBOC's media mailing list and post casting to my website as soon as I get it from them so if you subscribe to the website you will get it promptly.

 

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So if they are performing on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Ottawa, and I want to see Guillaume Cote in the lead, which night should I get tickets for?  I know it's no guarantee; just trying to maximize my chances.

Not sure of "first cast" means they perform on the first night of the engagement, or on the Saturday night.

Subscribed to your website.

Thanks for your expertise!

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If you want to see Guillaume, I would say that opening night is a safe(-ish) bet.

First cast means opening night, 2nd cast 2nd performance, 3rd cast sometimes 3rd performance but sometimes a matinee. But they don't have matinees in Ottawa.

Glad to be of help!

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Common sense prevails. Dark Angels is a poor ballet, and Guillaume Côté doesn't really have time to attempt to fix it because he's working on a new evening-length work. If that one were to turn out poorly as well, and Côté's track record is not great, it would mean the company will have presented two deficient Côté ballets in the space of a month, and it would be very difficult to justify commissioning any more works from him. 

Dark Angels was commissioned by the National Arts Centre, and I don't know whether the National Ballet of Canada is contractually obliged to present it at some point. If the idea is to delay the premiere, and the company decides to present it in one season with a revival of Côté's poorly received Le Petit Prince, which it's almost duty-bound to put on stage again given the enormous private contribution that funded it, the company will still be in the same bind.

The Man in Black is a known quantity. I find it somewhat thin and slight, but at least it's not a stinker.

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The revised program won't have a lot in the way of ballerina power. The cast of Dark Angels included Hodgkinson, Lobsanova, Lunkina, Rodriguez and Yu. I wouldn't expect any of them to appear in The Man in Black or Cacti, so unless the company is planning to throw all of them into Paz de la Jolla, the program isn't going to rank terribly high on the glamour scale.

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Saw Sleeping Beauty yesterday (Sunday March 11).  A few notes/observations:

* once again there were a number of changes to ladies' casting.  Couldn't follow everything, but it would seem that Ms. Fischer didn't dance yesterday, so changes were made around her.  This impacted the Variations in the First Act in particular.  One of the cast who danced but wasn't on the program for that performance was Elena Lobsanova; she did not look happy.  Who knows if this had anything at all to do with casting - she just didn't seem herself or look as happy/content as she usually does onstage

* Aurora was danced by Xiao Nan Yu, who as always was pretty flawless.  I'm sure she was more than patient with her partner (more in a bit).

* The Prince was danced by Peng-Fei Jiang, who is new to the company this season and is a corps member.  He has two shows as the prince.  By comparison, Brendan Saye only has one.  Mr. Jiang has a very princely air about him - I could certainly see coaching from Lindsay Fischer on the acting part of the role.  Mr. Jiang looks like a prince as well, and he does have potential.  In my view however it's a bit too soon for him in a lead role.  Some of his jumps lacked finesse, he fell out of turns, and he kept forgetting to point his feet.  Argh.  

Will have to finish later - sorry!

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37 minutes ago, McJagger said:

My daughter was at the SB dress rehearsal and said the same things as you regarding Peng-Fei Jiang. She couldn't figure out why they had given him the role so soon.

On the other hand, she was ecstatic about Harrison James and Jurgita Dronina.

anyone has any reviews on elena's debut? I'm sure she was wonderful. I'm wondering if anyone saw her performance...

going back to mom2's comment, she was most likely not happy because she had to dance the fairy role right after her massive debut as aurora for which she should have had a good day off.....

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Xiao Nan Yu needs a big. strong partner, and even they sometimes have trouble with the task. Maddox is gone, and McKie is unavailable, so the ranks of tall partners is a little thin. Under the circumstances, I'm not sure Saye is complaining about the job assignments.

What the company really needs is another tall male principal, and at the moment he probably needs to be imported.

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I just used Saye as an example.  They could have used Ebe with Nan Yu I think (though I have trouble judging height beyond tall/short from the audience).  I was happy to see Ebe dance Bluebird - he was pretty perfect I must say - but it made me wonder why he was doing Bluebird and Jiang the Prince.  According to the program, Ebe has two performances as the Prince, with two different Auroras.  Lobsonova was to debut on the 13th, so today - did they change the dates from the program?

Another note - I had noticed Sephesihle November the week before at the mixed program - wondered who he was.  He seems quite short, and with a stockier build than most of the men (even the shorter ones) in the company.  He is also first year corps, and is apparently the youngest member of the company. Saw him do "Pussycats" on Sunday.  Wow.  Can he ever jump!  Amazing.  HE and Miyoko Koyasu were very cute in the role.  Mr. November is definitely one to watch!

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