nanushka Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 1 minute ago, cubanmiamiboy said: We had Mearns last night. The whole of her performance was of an overall coldness. Oh wow. That is not a word that I would ever have associated with Mearns, based on past experiences seeing her (though never in Swan Lake). Very interesting. Link to comment
Kathleen O'Connell Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 36 minutes ago, cubanmiamiboy said: I was quite shocked to the whole lackluster of the production in act I scene I to really appreciate the dancing to its fullest. But I noticed something. What is being told as "speed" sometimes translates better in this production as "rushed"...what is meant to be "streamlined" looks in fact naked and pointless. I'm talking about the garden scene particularly. The pas de trois was there...but it was as if it wasn't. The costumes didn't give an idea of who they are and why are they there. In some productions they are three villagers, in some others is Benno with two courtesans. Here it was just three dancers trying to dance and jump as fast and high as they could. The whole feeling of the dancing comes out pretty much as what we see in Nureyev or Grigorovitch choreos...fill, fill, fill with steps every bar of music as much as you possibly can. cubanmiamiboy, you have beautifully summed up some of my major complaints about this production. Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted February 15, 2020 Author Share Posted February 15, 2020 I'm watching Reichlen now. Intermezzo from Act 1. I sat on the first balcony right purposely to see her face in the love duet. She obviously wanted "anguish" to be her pointer. They're really tweaking with the score. Many da capos are eliminated, and whole bars of music are gone. Link to comment
Emma Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 22 minutes ago, cubanmiamiboy said: They're really tweaking with the score. Many da capos are eliminated, and whole bars of music are gone. From my understanding, the Lakeside scenes are adapted from Balanchine's one act version. Has there been further changes from that? Link to comment
Helene Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 [Admin hat on] Re: deleted post. If you post about overhearing anything, you can be damn sure it violates our official news policy. Which is described in detail in this post: And if there's some new technology or social media newbie you're unsure of, PM me or send a message to Contact Us to ask about it before posting. Human ears are not a new technology. [/Admin hat on] Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted February 15, 2020 Author Share Posted February 15, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Emma said: From my understanding, the Lakeside scenes are adapted from Balanchine's one act version. Has there been further changes from that? Not only in the lakeside scenes, but overall everywhere. For example...right after the Black Swan pdd, what follows on the 95 score-( which is tweaked from the 77)- is an incidental music passage to clarinet, in which Von Rothbart engages Siegfried in a mime to make him swear eternal love to Odile. When he does that, the music then falls into a variant of the ballet leit motif in a fast, sinister form with brass instruments while the charade unveils. Here that whole passage before the brass is eliminated, and for some reason that's beyond me, Martins chooses to play...THE WHOLE MAZURKA IN ITS PLACE..!! So then you see Rothbart and Odile on one side and the Queen and Siegfried on the other trying their best to stretch a dialogue that is supposed to be quite shorter. The endless mazurka plays while the only thing happening is Rothbart telling Odile "We fooled him" on one side and Siegfried telling his mom "I will marry her" on the other. And it takes forever.... Edited February 15, 2020 by cubanmiamiboy Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted February 15, 2020 Author Share Posted February 15, 2020 Reichlen was cautious. There was not a lot of drama in her Odette, nor seductive power in her Odile. It was obvious she was carefully going through the choreography, but there was no nervousness either. She chose single fouettes intertwined with double pirouettes two to one. They were not fast but she did complete the whole of the music, which seems to be a task nowadays . Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted February 15, 2020 Author Share Posted February 15, 2020 45 minutes ago, Leah said: Are you seeing Bouder tonight? Of all the O/Os she's probably the most adept at fouettés now that Peck is injured. I am very surprised that Mearns didn't do as well, she's not the greatest technician but she usually has a lot of power. Of course I'm going. She is my favorite City Ballet ballerina!🥰 Link to comment
cobweb Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 On 2/12/2020 at 10:18 PM, SingerWhoMoves said: For those members of this board who were fans of Athan Sporek in Nutcracker (as both Fritz and the prince) he will be performing the Jester Trio in SL on Feb 14, 15 (eve) 16 (mat) 18, 20 and 22 (Eve). Thanks, SingerWhoMoves! As it happens, I have a ticket for Feb 18. I'll be glad to see him again! Link to comment
yukionna4869 Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 Was the Act 3 pas de quatre removed? Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted February 16, 2020 Author Share Posted February 16, 2020 Hear, hear!! Very ready to see my favorite City Ballet ballerina, Miss Ashley Bouder!! And who's her Siegfried..? Our very own Jovani Furlan from MCB!! ♥️♥️♥️ Let the music begin!! Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted February 16, 2020 Author Share Posted February 16, 2020 Ashley and Jovani are ON 🔥 tonight!!! Her Odette was a dream come true. Link to comment
BalanchineFan Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, Leah said: Are you seeing Bouder tonight? Of all the O/Os she's probably the most adept at fouettés now that Peck is injured. I am very surprised that Mearns didn't do as well, she's not the greatest technician but she usually has a lot of power. Tiler Peck is back and scheduled to dance SL according to the NY Times yesterday. Or do you mean she was injured AGAIN????? Edited February 16, 2020 by BalanchineFan Link to comment
BalanchineFan Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 I understood that part of the article completely differently. I took it as her first SL rehearsal back, a few weeks ago (the author mentions it being the beginning of last month) where she decided to stop at 10 fouettés even though she felt fine. She was never "having difficulty" with the step, she was just being cautious and, like a good athlete, building her strength and endurance step by step, over time. For example, you don't return from an ankle injury and do two hours of hops on pointe the first day. You do a few hops on day one and add hops each day to strengthen yourself and to be sure your body holds up. I found it funny that Tiler is quoted as saying she used to consider fouettés a "rest step." If her endurance and her health hold I see no reason to doubt her fouettés. Link to comment
canbelto Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 17 minutes ago, Leah said: I hope you’re right, it’s just that her injury is a scary one and I did get a different sense from the article. Swan Lake is a big thing to do right after coming back from an injury and I doubt she’ll be 100% of what she was before- even if she decides to limit herself out of caution which I respect. I saw her in Allegro Brillante and she was still doing those triple pirouettes like nothing. She was however slower and more careful, and not the speed demon she used to be. Link to comment
vipa Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 50 minutes ago, BalanchineFan said: I understood that part of the article completely differently. I took it as her first SL rehearsal back, a few weeks ago (the author mentions it being the beginning of last month) where she decided to stop at 10 fouettés even though she felt fine. She was never "having difficulty" with the step, she was just being cautious and, like a good athlete, building her strength and endurance step by step, over time. For example, you don't return from an ankle injury and do two hours of hops on pointe the first day. You do a few hops on day one and add hops each day to strengthen yourself and to be sure your body holds up. I found it funny that Tiler is quoted as saying she used to consider fouettés a "rest step." If her endurance and her health hold I see no reason to doubt her fouettés. I agree, I think the point of the fouette mention was that in that initial rehearsal she was going to do 10 turns, ended up doing straight doubles and then stopped and said she thought it would be fine. I wouldn't be worried about the fouettes. Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted February 16, 2020 Author Share Posted February 16, 2020 The fouettenometer report: Bouder was brilliantly doing the fouettes, with great speed and intertwining double pirouettes with her arms up, but...she stopped short of some 28/29. Unlike Mearns, she did not fill up the rest of the music...she just stood and Furlan started his pirouettes right away. In this production, as there is no stopping to applaud the fouettes, the miss is not as obvious as other companies where ballerinas have to bravely bow even if said section was a disaster. I loved Bouder nonetheless. Link to comment
Rock Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 (edited) No report on whether or not the Tsch Pas was there? Edited February 16, 2020 by Rock Link to comment
abatt Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 4 hours ago, yukionna4869 said: Was the Act 3 pas de quatre removed? Yes it was removed. Link to comment
abatt Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 39 minutes ago, Rock said: No report on whether or not the Tsch Pas was there? Having seen two SL performances today at NYCB, this confirms that Tsch pas is not part of the NYCB Swan Lake. Link to comment
cargill Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 20 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said: 20 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said: And why was the queen seated in a 1980 tv/entertainment/bookshelf module...? It's Danish modern. Link to comment
JuliaJ Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 In any case I hope we do get a Huxley/Woodward Tsch pas in the near future Link to comment
California Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 Thanks for those references to other productions that used some of the Tsch pas music. Very interesting historically. I wonder if contemporary productions, at least in North America, avoid it because the Balanchine Tchai pas is now so sell-known. I remember listening to an orchestral recording of what claimed to be the "real" score back in the 60s. I was startled that so much of the familiar music from the ballet was re-ordered. Link to comment
nanushka Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 (edited) 21 minutes ago, California said: I remember listening to an orchestral recording of what claimed to be the "real" score back in the 60s. I was startled that so much of the familiar music from the ballet was re-ordered. Yes, there were numerous changes made to the ordering and inclusion of musical material from the 1877 version to the 1895 version, as the track samples for these two recordings show: https://www.amazon.com/Tchaikovsky-Swan-Lake-1877-Version/dp/B07JB3JGYQ/ https://www.amazon.com/Tchaikovsky-Swan-Lake-1895-version/dp/B00LTJDOQ8/ Edited February 16, 2020 by nanushka Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 (edited) On 2/15/2020 at 4:51 PM, kbarber said: Erik Bruhn's production for National Ballet of Canada used it for the Black Swan pdd. The Burmeister production also uses the adage for the Black Swan pd2, but in a grotesquely souped-up orchestration. The Grigorovich production uses the male variation for Siegfried instead of the traditional variation to the music recycled from Act 1. (Last autumn I even attended a performance of Swan Lake in which Marian Walter did the Balanchine choreography during the Black Swan instead if the traditional variation.) However, I've never run across the female variation being used for Odile. Every audio recording of Swan Lake I've ever owned has used the 1877 order. Edited February 16, 2020 by volcanohunter Link to comment
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