assoluta

I actually "blame" them for playing gimmicks of this kind. They should refund the money automatically, without necessity for us to open those forms, reading them, filling them up, submitting, and so on.

12 hours ago, Stevie said:

And as someone rightly predicted earlier its Olga Smirnova, again, in the live streaming and the first night. She is certainly taking more than her fair share of the burden of performance. Don't know what to do now.

That wasn't tough knowing that O.S. replaced Vaziev in the functions of the one who decides casting/promotion/publicity at Bolshoi. Vaziev remains, nominally, the head of the ballet company, he is concentrating on improving the quality of the corps. This is how they share their duties now.

On 15/02/2020 at 00:34, FionaE said:

Ovcharenko is named as Siegfried.  But I believe Smirnova usually dances with Belyakov or Chudin.  Intrigued to see how this one plays out.... 

She took away Belyakov from Stepanova only recently, after those two had a series of sensational duets together. I went to Moscow to see some of them, I can confirm that those two together this can be magic.

10 hours ago, Stevie said:

Does anyone know who is dancing the lead role for the Bolshoi Swan Lake live streaming on the 23rd Feb 2020. The cast sheet has been on their web page for some time, but it only shows the lead casting for the middle two performances. The first and last are missing.

Olga Smirnova. Every Bolshoi ballerina that is being broadacst is named Olga Smirnova. They all have the same name and surname, and they all look the same.

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Loved revisiting Sleeping Beauty @RoyalOperaHouse but... there is a very good chance it was my last.

There is a very good chance it was his last appearance in the "Sleeping Beauty" at the Royal Opera House.

No, it isn't. Lopatkina's shoes are on display at the Theatre Museum, next to Vishneva's and of Petersburg ballerinas of previous generations. Lopatkina is very tall, Vishneva isn't, but their shoes are both shockingly big, when compared with their predecessors.

Saying that "many photographs were retouched to show a very narrow point" is misleading. The next thing we will hear, I am afraid, is that the old recordings were similarly retouched frame after frame. Enormous enlargement of the blocs is not a one person's illusion, it has happened relatively recently. I know very well from my own experience, after all I am not very young, how the blocs on the point shoes have been expanding and, having an opportunity to examine pointe shoes worn by dancers from a number of companies, over an extended period of time, I made the comment that the Royal Ballet, unfortunately, has been at the forefront of this tendency, deplored by coaches and teachers. A direct comparison of the pointe shoes used for the same role by Fonteyn and by Nuñez shows the extent of the process. I was staring at them in a state of shock accompanied by colleagues from the Vaganova Academy and from Hamburg Ballett who were visiting London.

2 hours ago, Xandra Newman said:

Any dancer chooses their pointe shoes according to their own very specific needs...

Within certain limits, yes, "any dancer is entitled to choose according to their own ...," etc. The abuse of what is allowed leads to what we are witnessing now: a catastrophic situation with the pointe shoes. Regretfully, the Royal Ballet has been at the avantgarde of this destructive movement, this is why for some London ballet goers there may be nothing to be concerned about. The photo of Margot Fonteyn posted above provides an excellent illustration of what I am talking about, one can see her pointe shoes, together with the size and the shape of the blocs. Now, compare this with the two photos of Miss Naghdi posted earlier in this thread by Rob S. You'll have a clear view of the shoes, together with the size and the shape of the blocs, worn by Naghdi in her last Aurora appearance. Another, truly shocking, comparison was on display at the Royal Opera House earlier this year: the pointes and the tutus of Fonteyn and, I believe, Nuñez, were displayed next to each other.

7 hours ago, JNC said:

What I was trying to say was if any dancer is technically unable to perform the choreography (and yes, everyone has off nights I accept that) they shouldn't be dancing it.

Not so simple and, fortunately, this was never the case. What separates a great artist from an average one is not just the level of technical competence, especially if by technique one understands a narrowly defined repertory of acrobatic tricks. The more you know about ballet the better you understand that some of the greatest artists of the past couldn't do certain things or were so afraid of doing them, they wouldn't want to do them on stage. Thus, I wasn't particularly persuaded in Mark Monahan's report by his complaint about Osipova not holding the balances in Rose Adagio. Yes, they look terrific, when properly done, yet they hold no value for me if I see that Aurora's pointe shoes boast colossal blocs like, e.g., Miss Naghdi's. This will offset any esthetic pleasure I might otherwise have. For me a problem with Osipova's Aurora lies elsewhere and manifested in a way similar to her recent misreading of Raymonda, something that Monahan noticed too.

On 07/11/2019 at 14:47, clare stark said:

it seems Smirnova/Belyakov would be chosen for the broadcast/premiere.

Smirnova wasn't "chosen", she will be the first cast (was there ever any doubt about it?).

On 29/10/2019 at 12:17, Fonty said:

On the question of the conductor, something struck me during Osipova's second solo - the one with all the releves  that begin slowly and speed up.  It looked to me as if Osipova was definitely dictating the tempo, and the conductor was following her.  Did anybody else notice?  Was this my imagination, or is this normal?

No, it isn't your imagination, for Osipova it is normal to ignore the tempi and dance at the speed comfortable to her, ahead of the conductor. I am saying this with a heavy heart yet what Osipova did had nothing in common with the name of "Raymonda". I know, this is my own fault, because I had a misfortune to see ballet named "Raymonda" several times over the last thirty years, Kirov, Bolshoi and the Paris versions.

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Honestly, I don't know what Vaziev is thinking. Yes it is clear that he clearly wants to push Smirnova as the new Zakharova of the Bolshoi but in the process, we can't even catch a glimpse of any other principal, not in live broadcasts or on World Ballet Day.

If it is not, in fact, Vaziev who "wants", then everything else is also going to look different in your reasoning. Bolshoi used to be a jungle and we are, I am afraid, once again close to where we were before.

On 04/11/2019 at 12:57, ElenaF said:

Olga Smirnova was an absolutely gorgeous Raymonda: a dazzling, glorious, blindingly beautiful young lady born to medieval French aristocracy . This part is considered to be among the most difficult and technically demanding in classical ballet, and Olga Smirnova is absolutely brilliant in it. Her stage presence is exactly what this big, lavish, imperial ballet needs. I absolutely adored her impeccable technique, and exquisite, fluid, yet accurate arms and body movement in a true St. Petersburg style. I also loved her take on the character. Her Raymonda is, on one hand, an impeccable, well-bred and refined young lady, destined for a "perfect" marriage to a similarly impeccable young knight de Brienne. Yet deep inside she is still a living woman, with emotions, passions and desires, which she has been taught not to display openly, let alone act upon.

That sounds absolutely fabulous, I realize I must have gone to a wrong theatre, in mine, Raymonda was, unfortunately, none of that. I believe that this work of Marius Petipa was meant to be a hymn to femininity, every variation of Raymonda was supposed to celebrate one of its aspects. The Raymonda I saw was glacial, straighforward, not interested in her partner, marriage, etc. It seemed as if her main objective was to prevent de Brienne from marrying somebody he would love to be with instead of being forced to be with her.

4 hours ago, maryrosesatonapin said:

On a good day (which  is nearly every day) you can't beat the Mariinsky.  Their corps members would be principals in most other companies.  You were so lucky to see this - I'm jealous!  Thank you for the lovely write-ups.

One of the World's greatest ballet companies, yet there are goodly many days when the corps can be lethargic and apathetic, and a sizeable portion of the soloists lousy. I witnessed this many times during my recent visits to their home town. "Their corps members would be principals in most other companies?" Well, some are, in fact, much better, artistically speaking, than many principals in other companies, even in their own company, this has been a well known paradox of the personnel policies at the Mariinsky during the last ten years. Take, for example, Svetlana Ivanova, a glory of the modern ballet, who should be flooded with praise and awards by critics while she is, sadly, hardly ever mentioned. How often do we mention her in these pages? The praise, attention and the awards are flooded on others, some much less deserving yet very well promoted, which is a good reflections on the critics themselves, on their supposed knowledge and understanding of ballet. The majority, however of Mariinsky's corps are just corps members who are better trained than their peers in other companies, with a notable exception of the Bolshoi. To be a principal requires a lot more than technical competence.

9 hours ago, HelenLoveAppleJuice said:

Raymonda can end in two different ways. One way is the couple happily marry together with a proud Raymonda. Another is that Raymonda marries Jean de Brienne but she has hidden sadness for the Abderakhman because she grows an affection of him before he dies.

 

The original novel has Raymonda falls in love with Abderakhman but after Abderakhman dies, some magic removes Raymonda's love memory but she will never be the same girl as before.

What "original novel" do you have in mind? What ballet called "Raymonda" has that "another" ending? The libretto of "Raymonda," according to what I know, was an original work of Lydia Pashkova, a well traveled literary figure of the late Imperial Era, and wasn't an adaptation of any novel. Are you perhaps talking about the 1938 Soviet production? That production discarded the original libretto and replaced it by a new one. Whatever the source of the inspiration for the authors of that production, in the context of "Raymonda", the ballet, it cannot be considered "the original novel".

3 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

I saw her in Spartacus this summer & thought her acting was quite good in that, so it doesn't seem to be that she can't act, more that she's chosing not to. Which is annoying!

I am sure she isn't. Taking acting classes can make you a competent actress, the old truth is, however, that a ballet artist can show on stage only what he or she really has inside. Conscious acting cannot get you everywhere, no matter how competent it may initially seem, it will feel insincere, artificial, "manufactured" (as a friend of mine aptly said). Additionally, acting the role of a Roman courtisan poses entirely different challenges from acting a tender, pure-of-heart medieval princess. Still, Jann Parry thought that her Aegina "Not for any money could she plausibly seduce a campful of mercenary gladiators."

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As to Smirnova, her lower half was technically close to perfection but whatever has happened to her vaganova hands?

She never had those "Vaganova" hands, in the first place, so nothing could have happened to them. Everybody in the trade is aware that her hands, wrists and shoulders, are her greatest problem. Her pedagogue at the school tried to rectify it for several years, without success. Concerning the lower half, the form of her feet is another problem and it only will get worse in the future.

3 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

I've just finished catching up on this on the Bolshoi's website & can't say that I enjoyed it much (admittedly I do currently have a heavy cold so am not enjoying anything much!). As in last season's La Bayadere cinecast, I didn't think Smirnova & Belyakov had much chemistry together or did much acting. She seemed to have pretty much the same expression when dancing with Belyakov, who she was supposed to be in love with, that with Tsvirko, who she was supposed to be afraid of. Tsvirko's acting was pretty OTT, but I'm not sure he could have done anything else with his character than play him as a pantomime villain. The production could do with a bit of updating. Some of the wigs & helmets are frankly risible.

 

I'm starting to think the 19th century classical ballets are rather like baroque opera: while technically the plots are different, in practice very similar things occur in each of them. The plot of Raymonda could have probably been got through in about 20 minutes, leaving at awful lot of dancing for the sake of it. I'm now glad that I only have to see the RB doing one act. When I think of the emotion of the recent Manons I've seen & compare them with this, Raymonda comes up as deeply unsatisfactory by comparison.

Undeniably, Smirnova is capable of strong characterization yet not of the kind that makes those great classical ballets really touching. Instead of radiating warmth and deep feelings she is always wearing a mask of an unstoppable cold conqueror. So the problem lies not with "Raymonda", "La Bayadere", and other classical ballets. The problem is the lead who cannot touch your soul.

On 26/10/2019 at 14:14, FionaE said:

First soloists at Bolshoi dance principal roles almost exclusively, so I consider them in the same bracket.  Unlike at RB where first soloists do principal roles occasionally and soloist roles more often.

First soloists at Bolshoi most of the time dance soloists roles, not principal ones.

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So in Akimov’s class we saw Ovcharenko, Belyakov, Tsvirko, Motta Soares and Anna Tikhimorova.  As well as others in Alkash class that I am not familiar with.   I think that’s a pretty good representation as any that performed on the previous night couldn’t be expected to be in class at 10am .... an hour earlier than usual.  
 

There obviously is a timing overlap of the normal day between Bolshoi  and RB.  The organisers of WBD need to have a rethink about timings.  My suggestion would be to show pre-recorded rehearsals ahead of classes at normal time, and then a few live rehearsals afterwards.

 

You probably have missed that but the Allash class was pre-recorded. If it wasn't, Olga Smirnova could not be shown as she had the evening performance on the WBD while, according to Shipulina, the purpose of that class was apparently to feature Smirnova without other prima ballerinas of Bolshoi, like e.g. Shipulina, present.

Shipulina wrote: "This whole comedy here (i.e., at Bolshoi) was recorded ahead of time and those to be recorded were strictly preselected. No "live coverage" of any kind, as in other theatres" (apparently, Miss Smirnova's credo is "Bolshoi that's me".

17 hours ago, Angela said:

 

I fear there is no high court for reconstructed ballets, but only our opinion as avid balletgoers. I don't think there is a wrong and a right in staging old ballets, only a better and a worse.

Your comment is in response to my remark about Smekalov's production. That was not, I repeat it, meant to be a "reconstruction" at all but an on original work wrapped up around Yuri Burlaka's Grand Pas.

Considering your comment standing on its own - the reconstructions can be evaluated by competent professionals, "avid balletgoers" can only say how much do they like them. Yes, there are no more than a handful of those , more or less, competent professionals (I happen to know nearly all of them first hand). We analyzed, for example, number by number, leaf by leaf (I am talking about the score and the Stepanov notations at Harvard, Ratmansky's recent reconstruction of "Harlequinade", from the first to the last bar.

17 hours ago, Angela said:

How can you be faithful to the old style by chosing the wrong designer, over and over again? For my part, I just can't believe that the steps are those of the 19th century if they are wrapped in polyester floral prints or in glittering materials.

I concur with your sentiments re. "choosing the wrong designer, over and over again". Ratmansky admitted in a long recent article published in the Spring-Summer 2019 issue of Ballet Review, that previously he cared essentially about reconstructing the steps, much less about reconstructing the costumes. This has changed, he said.

29 minutes ago, Angela said:

 Where Sergei Vikharev’s reconstructed Raymonda for Milano was a glimpse of lost paradise, Ratmansky’s Paquita at Munich proved for me that with some ballets it may be better to move on and change the plot, the choreography, the mime. And along came Yuri Smekalov who did exactly that.  Maybe Paquita was never a work of the quality that we see in La Bayadère or Le Corsaire, that might explain the disappointment.

If he did it right, I would be the first one to greet him. As it is, I prefer a piece of balletic archeology à la Ratmansky to this stillborn production. When comparing the quality of any productions it is unfair to compare the quality of the forces involved, yet it would be even more unfair not to mention that the premiere cast Paquita in Munich, Daria Sukhorukova, represents the same Vaganova standard as Tereshkina and, in fact, may be a more refined dancer.

"Raymonda", set to a richly textured, post-wagnerian symphonism of Glazunov comes from the very last years of the 19th Century, while "Paquita" is a typical, light, Romantic musical theatre of the mid 1840-ies. They are incomparable in every respect. Whether Vikharev actually succeeded in his undertaking, is a separate question that we need not to address but I would say that Ratmansky succeeded even more because he was more faithful. It is worth to be reminded that just a few years after "Raymonda" premiered, the press in Paris, and even so more in London, was totally dismissive of "Giselle", denying it any merit.

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  Smekalov’s version has a clear storyline which he recounts with admirably few mime scenes

   

The storyline is very thin and the mise-en-scene amateurish, in my opinion. I saw this "remake" of Paquita several times, with the best casts, and every time the first two acts felt spurious to me, with uninteresting ensembles and unimaginative choreography. The third act is, essentially intact, Grand Pas, as staged by Vaganova. It could be exciting, if danced with panache, finesse and, most of all, conviction. Alas, none of this in the shows I saw. The criteria for selecting the soloists were on every occasion a puzzle to me, one variation danced by a refined artist, another one — by a crude craftsman. Why, if there are sufficiently many fine artists in the company? I prefer Ratmansky's reconstruction to this Mariinsky's tired, and danced without conviction, Grand Pas, preceded by two incongruous, poorly constructed, acts.

8 hours ago, Pas de Quatre said:

It is interesting that the Vaganova Academy film, and put on Youtube, all their exams every year. I wonder why more of the top schools don't do this.

I've been to many exams and school showcases and, based on what I see, most schools are reluctant, for understandable reasons, to put them online.

13 hours ago, MrsBBB said:

One thing that struck me about the final exam was the complete absence of partnering which is, as mentioned several times in the documentary, an essential skill for a professional dancer.

Partnering is a separate exam, for rather obvious reasons.

In the context of this Japanese documentary, one should take a look also at the official school recording of the Graduation Exam: