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Counterculture - Do the Woke/Left-Leaning Arts deserve a £1.5 billion bailout? Who gets it? This fascinating discussion (34 minutes) by four right-wing commentators has just appeared on you tube. They address the question of how the £1.5 billion bailout fund should be distributed. The conversation is not directed specifically at ballet, but is a wide-ranging discussion about the museums and the performing arts. The Government is not being altruistic, but is merely supporting a major part of the UK economy to recover and continue contributing to the future wealth of the nation. The Government is not very interested in how the funds are distributed. The funds are distributed by the Arts Council, who no longer refer to "the arts", but to "creative people and places". Should the funds be targeted at the freelance workers in the arts, who have derived little support over the last six months, in order to sustain the fabric of the arts industry, rather than being targeted exclusively at institutions? In the current world of equality and diversity, should funds be targeted at the high arts, or at encouraging and rewarding community participation in the creative world? Should the arts reflect the current movements in society, or should they lead the way with social engineering? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nef88x0gUzs

Tuesday, 7 July sees the first World Ballet School day, organised by Viviana Durante, and with 12 ballet schools and competitions participating, including ENB School and The Royal Ballet School. https://www.worldballetschoolday.com/

Dutch National Ballet have continued their enterprising programme of streaming, partially to reflect the live performances lost this season. Last week they streamed the hip-hop ballet, Grimm, which was due to tour Holland this spring. They have cancelled their new ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, which was to be created by a group of three choreographers for the main company, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. Under lockdown conditions, the three choreographers have each created a solo on the Prometheus theme. The solos were filmed on the stage of the Dutch National Opera House and the world premiere was given online this evening. The link is here

A few weeks ago, I got very excited about Stuttgart Ballet's stream of Initials R.B.M.E. Now I am looking forward to the David Dawson programme (25 years at Dutch National Ballet) and in particular to Citizen Nowhere, an extended solo which David made for the highly talented Edo Wijnen. I was fortunate enough to see this live in Amsterdam and it was mesmerising. The starting point was Antoine de Saint-Expery's Le Petit Prince, but the little prince stands for the lonely, stateless refugee. Don't miss Citizen Nowhere. The introduction to the evening is here

Tair was one of Astana Opera Ballet's five male principals. Here is a half-hour tribute here to Tair, showing some of his roles. R.I.P.

With DNB about to stream Grimm, their second full evening hip-hop ballet, choreographed by Ernst Meisner and Marko Gerris, I thought you might be interested in some of the background to this creation. Meisner and Gerris have created two full-length hip-hop ballets, but neither has been performed outside Holland, nor have they been shown in the cinema or on TV. Dutch National Ballet has worked on archive tapes of two separate performances of Grimm, to produce a film of suitable quality for streaming. Ernst Meisner is remembered in London as a student of the Royal Ballet School and then a long-standing member of the Royal Ballet. During this time, he took part in many choreographic initiatives and produced a string of short ballets, including one pas de deux for Melissa Hamilton and Sergei Polunin - and another for Daria Klimentova and Vadim Muntagirov. During his time at the Royal Ballet, he also danced in the first performances of Wayne Macgregor's early ballet, Qualia, with music composed by Scanner. Scanner is Robin Rimbaud, an electronic musician, who uses cell phones and police scanners in live performance. He sat in solitary isolation in the orchestra pit, mixing the music from a desk. Meisner moved to Dutch National Ballet in 2010 and was soon choreographing there as well. His first project was The Little Big Chest, a dance performance for toddlers (4-6 years), which is taken on small scale tours and has proved popular in a market where there is very little theatre available. The Little Big Chest is about a group of dancers finding a box of costumes in the attic and dancing an extract of each role as they try on the costumes. At the end of the performance, children and parents are invited to look in the box and talk to the dancers. In 2012 Meisner directed the remarkable Canta ballet, with a large television budget. The Canta is a two-seat microcar from Holland, specifically created for disabled drivers. The ballet was set for 55 Canta cars and their drivers and 50 dancers from Dutch National Ballet. In the build-up, the television company showed a series of documentaries, presenting the back stories of some of the drivers, who had variously been disabled from birth or as the result of an accident. The series culminated in a televised, live performance in the disused Amsterdam Gasholder. The whole event was a triumph of co-ordination over the production challenges. To fill the cavernous space of the venue and to be heard over the noise of 55 car engines, Meisner commissioned Scanner to compose a score for the work. The highlight of the ballet was a double pas de deux, first for DNB principals Marisa Lopez and Casey Herd - and then for Casey Herd and a Canta car driven by Dutch writer, Karin Spaink. The double pas de deux can be seen here and the whole performance is also available on you tube. It was very moving, when the disabled drivers paraded their cars around the ring and their families clapped and cheered them - particularly as many had witnessed the challenges of their lives in the TV series. In 2013 the Dutch National Ballet opened its junior company and Ernst Meisner was appointed its artistic co-ordinator. He began a series of choreographic creations for the new company, alongside further works for the main company and elsewhere. In 2015 Meisner teamed up with Marco Gerris, the director of ISH - a hip-hop dance company based in Amsterdam - to create Narnia, a full evening ballet based on the children's book by C.S. Lewis. The work was created on the combined cast of the junior company and the hip-hop dancers. Meisner turned once again to Scanner for a specially commissioned score. The production relied heavily on laser projections, rather in the manner of Wheeldon's Alice in Wonderland. The chemistry worked from the outset, both Meisner and Gerris collaborating on the choreography - and the conjunction of the junior dancers and the hip-hop company took off. Narnia opened at the Dutch National Opera House in Amsterdam and then toured medium-sized theatres across Holland. It proved very popular with children, who were attracted both by the story and by the energy of the movement and lighting. The work was an artistic and a financial success. Many of the original cast are now soloists and dancers in the main company. Narnia was announced for a revival in the 2017-18 season and went on sale. In advance sales it was the top-selling show of the season. A routine application to the Narnia estate for performing rights produced an unexpected shock. The estate had sold the world-wide exclusive rights to Hollywood for two years and it was not possible to grant the rights to DNB. One weekend in early summer 2017, Meisner and Gerris disappeared for an emergency think tank and came up with the idea of Grimm, based on a selection from the Grimm fairy tales and with no copyright complications. Somehow the DNB found the finance to convert a revival into a new production and Grimm was born out of necessity, rather than planned per se. DNB was obliged to contact everyone who had purchased tickets to offer a refund, but the overwhelming majority decided to see Grimm. Here is further information about the transition from Narnia to Grimm https://www.operaballet.nl/en/ballet/news/narnia-becomes-grimm Meisner and Gerris worked to the same formula and once again commissioned a score from Scanner. Grimm repeated the artistic and financial success of Narnia and met with considerable critical acclaim. It was scheduled for its first revival in the spring of 2020. There is a short film about the creation of Grimm, which illustrates in detail the working methods of Meisner and Gerris and the artistic chemistry between them. Meisner and Gerris are scheduled in the Spring of 2021 to create a full-length work for the main company.

Lizbie1 asks for a bit of background about Hubbe and RDB. I have no knowledge or opinion myself about this matter. The Dancing Times, however, in its February 2020 edition, published the following letter from the ballet critic Gerald Dowler, under the title "The death of Bournonville?" Dear Editor - It was with at first dismay and then mounting anger that I read Paul Arrowsmith's interview with Royal Danish Ballet director Nikolai Hubbe in last month's magazine, I have rarely encountered such self-serving, disingenuous cant from a former dancer who should, frankly, know better. The Bournonville tradition in Denmark is/was truly precious, a direct link to the world of Romantic ballet and a surviving repertoire that, until recently, continued to entertain and satisfy its audience and form dancers of the highest artistry. What Hubbe has done in the name of updating is to break a line which took us back to the early days of the 19th century; the Bournonville tradition is now quite clearly dead, with the internationalisation of both the company and its repertoire and the vital link between the school and the ensemble severed. Auguste Bournonville, until so recently at the heart of Danish ballet, is, from the words of Hubbe, whose responsibilites as director must surely include the curation of something unique for future generations, now a resource merely to be plundered at will, all integrity, all respect gone. The Bournonville technique and style have produced male dancers in particular who have been loved, respected and sought after the world over; to claim that classes in them were sparsely attended and for that reason discontinued only serves to highlight the lack of importance accorded by the company director - not to dance Bournonville would never have been an option under any previous incumbent. It was Bournonville who made the ballet world turn towards Copenhagen from the 1950s onwards; the trashing of his legacy by Hubbe means Denmark risks becoming an irrelevancy in terms of dance. That will be Hubbe's legacy.

The triple bill is still available until Saturday tea-time. No Time Before Time features the entire 2019 junior company of twelve dancers. Out of the 12, 4 are now listed as apprentices in the company, 3 appear to have moved on and 5 are still members of the junior company, now in their second year. Manu Kumar makes a double appearance in the programme, appearing as a young student at the Dutch National Ballet School in the 2012 Paquita and featuring in the 2019 junior company performance. He appears about half-way through No Time Before Time in a duo with Dingkai Bai. Amongst the Junior Company dancers are Conor Walmsley, now an apprentice in the main company, who joined the Junior Company from English National Ballet School and Sander Baaij, who joined the Junior Company from the Royal Ballet School.

It is some while since Mark Morris and his dance troupe appeared in London, but once seen, never forgotten. He has a choreographed Lonely Waltz, a 2-minute version of Ravel's La Valse, for his company performing under lockdown in each of their homes. It brought a smile to my face.

Dutch National Ballet has continued streaming a new programme every week, reflecting the range of their repertoire and with interesting documentary clips to support some of their shows. After the Ratmansky Don Quixote, they showed Wayne Eagling's Nutcracker, Peter Wright's Sleeping Beauty, Ted Brandsen's highly original version of Coppelia, Rudi Van Dantzig's Swan Lake and two separate Hans Van Manen programmes. Hans Van Manen is as distinctive to Dutch National Ballet as Neumeier is to Hamburg or Cranko to Stuttgart. They are currently showing Ted Brandsen's Mata Hari, which he created in 2016, featuring Anna Tsygankova in the title role. Ted Brandsen has been the Artistic Director of Dutch National Ballet since 2003, in succession to Wayne Eagling. Mata Hari is available until next Saturday, June 6. In 2013, under Ted Brandsen's direction, Dutch National Ballet has set up a highly successful junior company, comprising 12 dancers either in their final year at the Dutch National Ballet School or first year apprentices with the company. The dancers stay for two years, although sometime they graduate early into the main company. About half the junior company progress into the main company, which now includes more than 20 former juniors, including one principal dancer, Jessica Xuan. The junior company sometimes take class with the main company and sometimes take their own class. They form part of the corps de ballet for the main company's large scale productions, but also undertake an extensive tour around Holland each Spring, presenting a mixture of classical pieces, Hans Van Manen works and new creations. The junior company offers a rewarding route towards a mainstream company, where the young dancers gain early experience of dancing featured roles alongside more routine corps de ballet work. As the junior company has become increasingly recognised, there is much competition to join it. From the outset, Ernst Meisner, previously at the Royal Ballet School and Royal Ballet, has been leading the junior company as artistic co-ordinator. He has been choreographing both for the junior company and the main company. In 2014, he collaborated with Marko Gerris, the artistic director of ISH - a hip-hop dance company, to make a full-length ballet for children, Narnia, based on The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - using the combined resources of the junior company and the hip-hop company. The same forces came together again in 2018, to create another full-length children's ballet, Grimm, based on the Grimm fairy tales. From tonight Dutch National Ballet will be presenting a triple bill comprising Paquita, in a version by Rachel Beaujean from 2012, with Anna Tsygankova and Matthew Golding (who was then a principal of DNB), Remi Wortmeyer's pas de deux Penumbra, made for Anna Ol and Artur Shesterikov and No Time Before Time, which Ernst Meisner created on the junior company. It was seen during the junior company's Linbury Theatre season in 2019. From 6 June, DNB will be streaming Grimm and the following week a David Dawson double bill - more of these later. I will come back to post the links to these programmes, as they appear. In the meantime, Anna Ol introduces tonight's triple bill and commences with a heartfelt expression of hope, now that Dutch National Ballet has returned to the studios. I understand that each class is for limited numbers and it is quite a logistical exercise to stagger classes throughout the day. Anna Ol is also happy that the explosion of streaming has enabled so many performances and dancers to be seen by a new audience around the world, including DNB's own repertoire. The link is here

Dear Bruce and Jeannette I watched Donizetti Variations, a ballet completely unknown to me, before I read your comments. I was totally knocked out by it - what an exceptionally delicate and beautiful ballet, requiring amazing reserves of technique and stamina by the entire cast. I say to everyone, don't miss it. Although I am very familiar with the Balanchine warhorses, Serenade, Apollo, Jewels, Symphony in C, The Four Temperaments, I have been bowled over during this season by the diversity of moods and techniques across the Balanchine repertoire. It has been such a pleasure to encounter less familiar works like Divertimento No. 15, Western Symphony, Allegro Brillante and now Donizetti Variations It is also a great opportunity to be able to watch the repertoire two or three times over and get to know it better. Bruce posted Vienna Waltzes here, which led me to discover a frustratingly poor quality clip of Liebeslieder Walzer, bringing back memories of the Royal Ballet performance with the likes of Lesley Collier and Monica Mason. The introductions have been succinct, informative and respectful - a welcome change from the gushing divas who host the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. As you suggested, Bruce, I have completed the questionnaire on the NYCB website, which hints at the possibility of some kind of internet subscription service in the future. I hope to be able to follow this company, its repertoire and dancers, on a more regular basis in the future - even though I am unlikely to make the long journey across the pond again. It has been a great pleasure to meet the NYCB dancers twice a week and to get to know them. I hope some of the dancers in New York are following this thread and are aware how they are making a difference to those of us in lockdown and self-isolating in the UK.

Why is Initials R.B.M.E. so special? Cranko was appointed director of the Stuttgart Ballet in 1961, at the age of 34. It was a provincial German dance troupe, valued more for its contribution as the opera ballet for the likes of Carmen and Die Fledermaus than as a self-contained ballet company. Over the next ten years Cranko built Stuttgart Ballet into a world class company, the foremost in Germany, with a varied and demanding repertoire and an outstanding group of dancers. He frequently referred to the company as a family. Part of his success was to encourage large-scale challenging works to music from the concert hall, notably in 1966 when he invited his friend Kenneth MacMillan to create Song of the Earth for Stuttgart, whose music has been turned down by the Royal Opera House as inappropriate for a ballet. There is a moment towards the end of the third movement of Initials R.B.M.E., when the corps de ballet freeze into poses from the final song of Song of the Earth - a tribute to Cranko's friend? Ten years later in 1971, Cranko wanted to express the family and friendship in the company in a new ballet and he turned to another unlikely large-scale concert work, Brahms' second piano concerto. I am sure that Cranko had been influenced by Ashton's 1968 success with Enigma Variations "to my friends pictured within", both with the Elgar characters and Ashton's group of dancers. Although Brahms dedicated the concerto to his teacher, Eduard Maxsen, each movement was inspired by a different personality (himself, Robert and Clara Schumann and the Hungarian violinist, Joseph Joachim a close collaborator). The famous cello solo which opens the third movement, is said to be the melody from a song composed by Clara Schumann. Cranko wrote a programme note: "A ballet for four friends, Richard, Birgit, Marcia and Egon, to the music of Johannes Brahms, whose passionate feeling for friendship and love is confirmed by his compositions, in his letters and by the testimony of others". Cranko created each movement around one of the friends who had been with him since his earliest days in Stuttgart. Each of them had a supporting group of dancers, but they also appeared in one another's sections - not necessarily to play any very active part, but just to be there, evoking the real-life situation, where each was a strongly defined individual with a life of his or her own, but all helped and sustained by their friendships. The ballet was premiered in Stuttgart on 29 January 1971. Remarkably for a "provincial" German company, the Stuttgart ballet undertook a Russian tour in the summer of 1971 to Leningrad, Riga and Moscow. In summer 1973, there was a triumphant tour of America, with three weeks at the Met, followed by performances in Washington and Philadelphia. In ten years Cranko had put his company on the world map. Initials R.B.M.E. was in the repertoire of both tours. In Autumn 1972, Cranko was in the audience at the Coliseum. He was approached by Sir John Tooley (who passed away last month) and was invited to bring the Stuttgart Ballet to the Royal Opera House in summer 1974. Cranko was scheduled to return home and to bring his new company with him. Initials R.B.M.E. would be in the repertoire for London. On 25 June 1973, the company flew home from Philadelphia to Stuttgart with PanAm at the end of the American tour. Cranko was a bad traveller and had taken a mild drug to help him sleep, The drug caused him to choke on his own vomit and he was found unconscious in his seat The plane made an emergency stop at Dublin Airport, but Cranko was pronounced dead on arrival at Dublin Hospital. The company flew on to Stuttgart. Cranko was 46 years old. Glen Tetley was contracted to choreograph a new ballet for the company in the Autumn season. He dedicated Voluntaries to the memory of Cranko. In 1976 Kenneth MacMillan was to choreograph Faure's Requiem for the company, which is also dedicated to the memory of his friend. Those of us who attended performances of the four programmes during the packed two-week season at the Royal Opera House in July 1974, remember vividly the emotion, the grief and regret - it was like Hamlet without the prince. At the same time, there was great excitement at the dancers and repertoire. It was such a rich cultural experience with the UK premieres of Onegin, The Taming of the Shrew and Voluntaries, as well as Initials R.B.M.E This ballet said everything about Cranko, the friends he had made and the company he had built. I rushed out and bought the vinyl record - I have come to love this wonderful piano concerto. I am not sure whether the Stuttgart Ballet ever brought it back to London, but I have not seen it since July 1974, despite the strong memories. I was glued to my screen yesterday. In the streamed performance, Adhonay Soares da Silva dances the first movement (Richard Cragun), Elisa Badenes the second movement (Birgit Keil), Alicia Amatriain dances the third movement (Marcia Haydee), a pas de deux with Friedemann Vogel - and the demi soloist Moacir de Oliveira dances the fourth movement (Egon Madsen). There is no commercial recording of this iconic ballet - don't miss it. It is available until Sunday afternoon.

Dear Bruce (and SheilaC) You have done it again! I was enthralled by the five-star evening of NYCB, with such wonderful dancing and variety of repertoire. My enjoyment, however, was enhanced by the perceptive analysis and detailed commentary which you have provided. A fulsome thank you for taking the time and effort to provide so much additional information about the performance, including debuts and departures - so sad for the dancers about the depart. Whilst I was aware that Tanaquil LeClerq created Afternoon of a Faun, I had never made the connection that Robbins was creating this ballet on Balanchine's wife! I also found this succinct (2 minute) and perceptive introduction to Western Symphony by Edward Villela no less.

BEETHOVEN, IMMORTALITY, LOVE (Raimondo Rebeck) - synopsis The rolling credits give a detailed synopsis in Kazakh, then Russian and finally English. They roll rather fast, so I have transcribed them in the attachment here, which you can also use to follow during the performance. Incidentally a presidential decree in October 2017 ordered that the Kazakh language be transitioned from Cyrillic script to Latin script, to be completed by 2025. This is to aid communication of the Kazakh language in the digital world. Beethoven synopsis.docx

Astana Opera Ballet have now posted online the second performance (15 February 2020) of Raimondo Rebeck's "Beethoven, Immortality, Love" with the second cast - Daler Zaparov as Beethoven, Mariko Kitamura as Immortal Love, Gaukhar Ussina as Euterpe (Inspiration) and Serik Nakyspekov as Deafness. The ballet is in two acts and six sections

YEEEEES !! Stuttgart Ballet presented Initials RBME at the Royal Opera House during their 1974 season with the original cast and it made a profound impact on me. It lingers in the memory and I have never seen it since - what a wonderful opportunity! However, rather like Marguerite and Armand, I wonder how the ballet will fare without its original cast.

Astana Opera Ballet now appear to be streaming on you tube, rather than the very limited real time streaming. Swan Lake is here - but I do not know how long it will stay here. The next stream due is the second cast of Raimondo Rebeck's Beethoven ballet on Saturday, 9 May.

Dear Bruce Thank you so much for your interesting and informative postings, which are adding much to my enjoyment of the NYCB streamings. You are educating and entertaining me. I do not know the current cohort of NYCB dancers at all, since it seems so long since the full company came to London, so it is a joy to discover new dancers with each streaming. Thank you for the clip of the Third Campaign from Stars and Stripes. I don't think I have seen this ballet, since NYCB performed it on the opening night of their Covent Garden season. I dug out the programme and the third campaign was danced by William Weslow, not a name familiar to me. Suki Schorer, Jillana, Melissa Hayden and Jacques d'Amboise were the other principals in Stars and Strips - Maria Tallchief, Karin von Aroldingen (corps de ballet), Mimi Paul, Edward Villela, Suzanne Farrell, Patricia Neary, Arthur Mitchell and Patricia McBride were also dancing that night.

How wonderful to see up-to-date clear footage of the current NYCB dancers, who appear so seldom in London. I am so used to struggling with grainy historical footage to see the NYCB repertoire and so much of it is never seen on the internet. It is a very long time since I saw Allegro Brillante (with Vyvyan Lorrayne, Barry McGrath and the Royal Ballet Touring Company). I watched it straight through twice - exhilarating. I am going to enjoy the whole NYCB season. I once saw Robbins' Goldberg Variations in New York and I would love to see it again. Bruce - indeed a 72 hour smile.

Wow! The Beethoven ballet was ambitious in its scale. The Astana Opera Ballet mounting a massive full-length work by the contemporary choreographer, Raimondo Rebeck, from Berlin. Like any new ballet it had its challenges, but the closing section danced to the final movement of the choral symphony was uplifting and a remarkable feat in crowd control - moving the entire opera and ballet companies around the stage. They were all dressed in sparkling white and it seemed like a vision of paradise. I found Beethoven's final moment on stage was very moving. This was a recording of the world premiere on 14 February this year and it evoked a very enthusiastic response from the audience. I cannot wait to watch the second, younger cast, who were recorded on the following night. They are showing it on Saturday, 9 May at 1 pm.

The Astana Opera Ballet has now provided detailed information about casting for forthcoming streaming. All broadcasts start at 1pm UK time on Saturdays and Sundays and at 2 pm UK time on weekdays. They are showing two different casts of the new Beethoven ballet by Raimondo Rebeck and of the new production of Roland Petit's Coppelia. Saturday, 18 April - Manon (Kenneth MacMillan) - performance of 27 February 2020 - Aigerim Beketayeva (Manon), Olzhas Tarlanov (Des Grieux), Arman Urazov (Lescaut) and Anel Rustemova (Lescaut's mistress) Sunday, 19 April - Beethoven, Immortality, Love (Raimondo Rebeck) - performance of 14 February 2020 - Bakhtiyar Adamzhan (Beethoven), Aigerim Beketayeva (Love), Assel Shaikenova (Euterpe - inspiration) and Olzhas Makhanbetainov (Deafness) Saturday, 25 April - 21st Century Ballets - performance of 9 December 2018 How Long is Now? (Raimondo Rebeck) - Serik Nakyspekov (Time), Nazira Zayetova and Aibar Toktar (Youth), Madina Basbayeva and Arman Urazov (Adulthood) and Assel Shaikenova and Tair Gatauov (Maturity) Sounds of Time (Ksenia Zvereva) - Olzhas Tarlanov (Ansar), Anel Rustemova (Nuriya), Zhanibek Imankulov (Gunar) and Anastasia Zaklinskaya (Anais) Wednesday, 29 April - Coppelia (Roland Petit) - performance of 22 November 2019 - Aigerim Beketayeva (Swanilda), Bakhtiyar Adamzhan (Franz) and Luigi Bonino (Coppelius) Sunday, 3 May - Swan Lake - performance of 10 March 2018 - Madina Basbayeva (Odette-Odile), Yerkin Rakhmatullayev (Siegfried), Arman Urazov (Rothbart) and Serik Nakyspekov (Jester) Saturday, 9 May - Beethoven, Immortality, Love (Raimondo Rebeck) - performance of 15 February 2020 - Daler Zaparov (Beethoven), Mariko Kitamura (Love), Gaukhar Ussina (Euterpe - inspiration) and Serik Nakyspekov (Deafness) Wednesday, 13 May - Coppelia (Roland Petit) - performance of 23 November 2019 - Shugyla Adepkhan (Swanilda), Arman Urazov (Franz) and Rustem Seitbekov (Coppelius) Sunday, 17 May - Ballet Gala - performance of 16 March 2016 - Madina Basbayeva, Aigerim Beketayeva, Gaukhar Ussina, Zhanibek Imankulov, Anel Rustemova, Anastasia Zaklinskaya, Sheraliyeva Saniya, Eldar Sarsembayev, Doszhan Tabildi, Tair Gatauov, Arman Urazov, Rustem Seitbekov, Zhanibek Imankulov, Ildar Shakirzyanov and Bakhtiyar Adamzhan The link is here https://tengrinews.kz/tv/#

Astana Opera has announced a new series of streaming Operas, Ballets and Concerts, including the new Raimondo Rebeck ballet. The Astana Opera website states that these performances have not been streamed previously, but copyright restrictions have been waived during the quarantine period. Streaming starts at 2 pm UK time during the week and at 1 pm UK time on Saturdays and Sundays - on TengriTV as before. Tomorrow (Wednesday) - Chopiniana and Scheherazade - as previously announced The new programme Saturday, 18 April - Manon (MacMillan) Sunday, 19 April - Beethoven, Immortal, Love - the new ballet by Raimondo Rebeck, which premiered on 14 February Saturday, 25 April - a double bill of 21st century ballets - How Long is Now? (Raimondo Rebeck) and Sounds of Time (Ksenia Zvereva) Wednesday, 29 April - Coppelia (Roland Petit version) - new production premiered in November 2019 Sunday, 3 May - Swan Lake Saturday, 9 May - Beethoven, Immortal, Love Here is the Astana Opera website. http://astanaopera.kz/en/эксклюзивные-спектакли-астана-опер/ and TengriTV for the streaming is here https://tengrinews.kz/tv/#

The programme for this afternoon's Ballet Gala was Giselle Act 2 pas de deux - Anastasia Zaklinskaya, Olzhas Tarlanov Duet from Carmen (Roland Petit) - Gaukhar Ussina, Rustem Seitbekov Gypsy Dance from Don Quixote Duet from Notre Dame de Paris (Roland Petit) - Aigerim Beketayeva, Bakhtiyar Adamzhan Duet from Sounds of Time (Aktoty Raimkulova, Ksenia Zvereva) - Anel Rustemova, Olzhas Tarlanov Harlequinade pas de deux - Zhulia Adepkhan, Serik Nakyspekov ***** Tamir solo (Kuat Shildebayev, A. Sadikova) - Gumar Sultanbek Duet from Scheherazade - Anastasia Zaklinskaya, Serik Nakyspekov Le Corsaire - Anel Rustemova, Erkin Rakhmatullayev (Ali), Daler Zaparov (Conrad) Paradise Lost (John Williams, Ksenia Zvereva) - Gaukhar Ussina, Zhanibek Imankulov Drum Dance from La Bayadere Grand Pas from Don Quixote - Aigerim Beketayevam Bakhtiyar Adamzhan

I think Altynai's daughter, Anastasia Zaklinskaya, will be dancing Zobeide in Scheherazade. I do not know which version of Don Carlos they will perform.

Alison, you ask me about the "ghost" Tatiana and I can only express my interpretation of what was going on. In the opening quartet of the opera, Madame Larina is chatting with the Nurse, as they listen to the two girls singing. Madame Larina becomes nostalgic as she recalls the English romantic novelist Richardson (she mentions his name in the Russian text and refers specifically to his novel, Grandison). Apparently Richardson was all the rage in late 18th century Russia. Larina says, "Not that I read his books, but my cousin kept on to me about him". History repeats itself with Tatiana, who unlike her mother has her head in a book and actually reads the material. She tells her mother, "the account of the torments suffered by these true lovers moves me". Richardson's novels are epistolary - the whole novel takes the form of a long series of letters. The main characters report all their actions and feelings in letters, they do not confront each other directly. The first two novels, Pamela and Clarissa, featured an innocent heroine threatened by a villainous rake. Richardson was pilloried by Fielding for his caricature villains - so he wrote a third novel, Grandison, featuring an honourable nobleman. Pushkin is of course also parodying the Richardson craze. Tatiana's letter scene and Onegin's letter in the final scene reflect the epistolary nature of Richardson, where characters express their feelings by letter. The reference to Grandison suggests hopes for an honourable hero, which are dashed by the unfeeling behaviour of Onegin. I think Madame Larina was reliving her girlhood dreams through Tatiana. History repeats itself. So she reverted to her adolescence, when she too had heard about Richardson and imagined writing romantic letters. Later on, she was overwhelmed by the grandeur of the St. Petersburg palace, achieved by her daughter, which was far beyond the country estate she herself had managed - beyond her wildest dreams for her daughter. In the final scene, when Madame Larina realised that Onegin had been no Grandison to her daughter but rather a Mr B., she burnt his letter in disgust. Well you did ask !! I may be completely wrong about it all.