Jeannette

9 hours ago, Buddy said:

I've just watched the first few minutes so far. Very touching, Jeannette. Thank you.

Why no audience, do you suppose ?

Another testament to the power, value and 'magic' of the arts.

The Odessa Opera/Ballet Theatre is still too close-for-comfort to the action. Relatively speaking…even though that city no longer appears to be in the Russian priority list for take-over. We usually see only the lovely facade in photos but the back opens up to a hill and park overlooking the Black Sea. The famous staircase in the Eisenstein film, Battleship Potemkin, is but a few steps away.

I don’t know what’s happened to the main opera/ballet theater in Donetsk…the big theatre with a ballet troupe in Donbas. 😢 

3 hours ago, Stevie said:

Amazing how they can do this, but very emotional for me to watch under present circumstance, thanks for posting, Steve

Emotional for me too! Seeing those corps ladies in their Dance of the Hours tutus…the tiers of empty boxes in the background. Nothing short of miraculous. May the Higher Powers protect them all!

From Odessa, Ukraine, a very recent (12 June 2022) gala of classical works, with soloists and corps de ballet…on the stage of their gorgeous theatre…still standing, in all of its glory! 🇺🇦 🎉 👏 

“Ballet Extravaganza”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W6g8P24Fj8Q

Not a livestream but a recent performance (15 April 2022) of the famous Bashkir-Tatar ballet Song of the Cranes, courtesy of the Bashkir Theater of Opera and Ballet in Ufa…Nureyev’s home town! Most balletomanes know the acrobatic pas de deux that occasionally turns up in galas; here’s the full ballet:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=27gDXXy9z5w

Up until ???

Music by Lev Stepanov & Zagir Ismagilov

Choreo by Nina Anissimova & Haliafa Safyullina 

Cast Leads

Zaitungil - Gulsina Mavlyukasova

Yumagul - Rustam Ishakov

Leader of the Cranes - Lilia Zainigabdinova

I read somewhere that Nureyev’s mom took him to this ballet…and the rest was history.

This Saturday, 11 June at 20:00 (Zurich local time) there will be a livestream of Zurich Ballet in Spuck’s Sleeping Beauty:

https://www.opernhaus.ch/en/stream/

Some preview events will begin two hours before the performance. My understanding is that none of this will be repeated, so one must attend the livestream.

Thanks for this thread. It’s wonderful to see that a number of western nations are participating in the competition (Japan, Italy, Brazil, Korea, among others). This is so decent & refreshing, compared to the witch-hunt tactics going on in figure skating, aiming to isolate Russian athletes and coaches because of the actions (however deplorable) of political and military leaders.

Interesting to note that, concurrently, the Helsinki IBC is happening, with several USA dancers participating. Some countries, like Italy, are participating in both contests. Awards to be announced this evening.

https://ibchelsinki.fi/news/archive/the-competitors-performing-in-the-finals/

53 minutes ago, Silke H said:

My curtain call photos. Apologies in advance, everyone moved very fast hence not many great still moments for good photos.

 

Facebook

 

Instagram - 02/06/22 premiere

Thank you, Silke. I love the conductor’s suit, inspired by mariachi outfits…great idea! 

20 hours ago, Angela said:

…. it's the Requiem, not Gloria!

Best news: It’s the Macmillan Requiem with music by Faure from the late-1970s, rather than his late-1980s edition for ABT, to Lloyd-Weber. Hallelujah! 

Thanks for the tip on pre-ordering tix, which is normally done via this form: https://www.staatstheater-stuttgart.com/tickets_service/booking-information/ticket-reservation/?Event=5311

As a patron from outside the EU, I couldn’t use the online form but, instead, was directed to send the request via email.

tickets@staatstheater-stuttgart.de

So now I patiently - happily - wait for their response for one of the Initials/Requiem shows. I’ll deal with airline & hotel later! 🙏 

1 hour ago, Angela said:

Sorry to interrupt this thriller with very ordinary news:

 

The programme for next season at Stuttgart Ballet was published today. The main attraction is a new Nutcracker, choreographed by Edward Clug and with sets and costumes by - tada! - the famous Jürgen Rose. The last Nutcracker at Stuttgart was in the 1960s by John Cranko, and then a small, modern production at the Chamber Theatre by Marco Goecke for two seasons. No Nutcracker in the Opera House for 50 years...

The rest is repertoire. As John Cranko died 50 years ago in June 1973, there will be a big commemoration gala and lots of Onegin and Taming of the Shrew throughout the season. His Initials RBME will be combined with Kenneth MacMilllan's Requiem in a double bill named "Remember me". The season offers Neumeier's Lady of the Camellias (on tour to Hamburg in July), Jiri Kylián's One of a Kind (on tour to the Amare theatre Amsterdam in spring),  the Pure Bliss triple bill by Johan Inger (on tour to Berlin in September), and three new creations by N.N. in a triple bill in the playhouse.

 

Promotiones: Mackenzie Brown, Daiana Ruiz, Veronika Verterich, Fabio Adorisio, Clemens Fröhlich and Matteo Miccini from demi-soloists to soloists. Vittoria Girelli, Elisa Ghisalberti, Alicia Torronteras, Adrian Oldenburger and Flemming Puthenpurayil from corps de ballet to demi-soloists.

 

Leavers: Alicia Amatriain and her husband Alexander McGowan, Jessica Fyfe (going to Tolouse), Roman Novitzky (he will become Artist in Residence as choreographer and company photographer), Louis Stiens and Shaked Heller (going freelance as choreographers).

 

Joiners: New to the corps de ballet: Jolie Rose Lombardo, Joana Senra, Irene Yang, Lassi Hirvonen and Danil Zinovyev, who were apprentices last year. From the Cranko School: Ava Arbuckle. Florencia Paez from Mexico. 

New apprentices: Lily Babbage, Aoi Sawano, Ruth Schultz, Emanuele Babici, Lincoln Sharp, José Costa (all Cranko School), and Dorian Plasse (winner Prix de Lausanne).

 

https://www.stuttgart-ballet.de/schedule/season-2022-23/

 

 

You’ve made my day, Angela! 🎉 

My biggest post-COVID dream may come true:  to see INITIALS R.B.M.E. live!!! 🥳 👏 🤩 🔥 🌟 🎊 

Oh, 401K Plan, don’t let me down!  

1 hour ago, oncnp said:

 

Not in my neck of the US unfortunately. The closest Swan Lake is 70 miles and with gas prices being what they are, not feasible.  The one theatre in my are that did show the ROH (six months later) closed down d/t COVID and is being "redeveloped"

So sorry about that, oncnp. Not the rosiest of times now for anyone. I try to hang on to life in the DC area, close to independent cinemas, but it’s all becoming very expensive.  Even here, things are closing down or quality of everything, in general, is going downhill while prices go up.

4 hours ago, stucha said:

Igor Zelensky next director of the Bolshoi or the Mariinsky ????

Maybe. I’m not so sure that Vaziyev will easily leave the Bolshoi…but Fateev leaving his job at the Mariinsky? Maybe. Fateev has forever been the “interim” A.D., after all.

Imagine history repeating itself: Russia’s family-in-power occupying the Tsar’s Box again…the Putins instead of Romanovs! (Shudders)

This is a great line-up of ballets. Wonderful! I hope that they’ll all be offered in US cinemas too. Also, I wouldn’t mind purchasing the DVDs/Blu-Rays after the cinema airings. 💕 

OH MY G**!!!!!!!! 😮 

This sort of thing cannot be made up. 
So we thought that Olga Smirnova was the most famous ballet figure in this sad Russia-Ukraine Operation (war) saga.

On 17/05/2022 at 02:50, Sabine0308 said:

How sad, I had no idea that the Folies are closed as well!

That was decades ago…but the historic Folies-Bergere Theatre continues as a popular concert venue.

https://www.foliesbergere.com/uk

1 hour ago, miliosr said:

San Francisco Ballet has announced its season for 2023:

2023 SEASON - San Francisco Ballet (sfballet.org)

 

next@90 Festival

'A' - Jan 20-Feb 11, 'B' - Jan 21-Feb 8, 'C' - Jan 25-Feb 7

NEXT@90 - San Francisco Ballet (sfballet.org)

 

Giselle (Helgi Tomasson)

Feb 24-Mar 5

 

Program 5 (Helgi Tomasson/Myles Thatcher/William Forsythe)

Mar 14-19

 

Cinderella (Christopher Wheeldon)

Mar 31-Apr 8

 

Romeo & Juliet (Helgi Tomasson)

Apr 21-30

 

Tomasson programmed this season and, as I understand it, will oversee the next@90 Festival. So, we won't have any ideas about Tamara Rojo's plans for quite a while.

 

No Ratmansky, Balanchine, Robbins…no full-length (or any length) Petipa/classical tutu ballet…no ballet from the Ballet Russes heritage (Diaghilev era or ‘30s/‘40s B.R.).  I almost wrote “a big shunning of Russia” but I see two full-length Prokofiev scores. Big meh, sorry.

Jaffe inherits economic challenges. How will she balance a tight budget? Can ABT afford guest stars from overseas?…although we know that they won’t be coming directly from Russia any time soon…bad news for Kimin Kim fans, as he’s chosen to remain at the Mariinsky.

The $64-million question related to the tight budget is: Will/Can Alexei Ratmansky’s current contract as artist-in-residence be renewed next year? 

11 hours ago, miliosr said:

This news should come as a relief to the ABT faithful. Jaffe spent her entire performing career at ABT and she knows the company's repertory and ways well. She also held herself to high technical standards during her career so she will be unbendable on that point. The big question will be what she does with the roster she's about to inherit. Angel Corella took over the Pennsylvania (now Philadelphia) Ballet and generated a raft of bad press for himself by dispensing with most of the then-current roster. My guess would be that Jaffe will move slowly and let retirements and departures present opportunities to her to shape the roster. We'll find out soon enough.

Every change in management results in some staffing turnover - in every industry.

I am extremely relieved with Jaffe’s appointment. 😅 She’s just completing her first (and, as we now know, last) full post-COVID season as A.D. in Pittsburgh. Wonderful balanced programming…I loved the first mixed bill in October - Diamonds, G-P Classique, Helen Pickett’s masterpiece Petal! What’s more telling is her 8-year tenure as Dean of the Dance Faculty at North Carolina School for the Arts, in which she upheld classical training over all. No pandering to wokeism or ticking boxes…just cultivating  talent in a natural manner, allowing the very best to move to the top.

p.s. My secret wish is that she somehow find a way to bring the late Clark Tippett’s masterwork - Bruch Violin Concerto - back to the ABT repertoire….as there was some sort of squabble about that particular ballet between the Tippett heirs & the current ABT leadership. 
 

15 hours ago, alison said:

Me too - but I believe Ratmansky was due to revise the work for the RB, so I guess he needs to make a lot of room in his schedule  

Maybe Ratmansky will return to London during the 2023/2024 season to revise Preludes? 
Unless a geopolitical miracle happens, his planned works for the Bolshoi & Mariinsky are off his schedule, opening up time for the rest of the world.

On 30/04/2022 at 11:23, Angela said:

Next season at Vienna State Ballet: 

At the Opera House: a new Sleeping Beauty by Martin Schläpfer and a double bill of The Goldberg Variations by Heinz Spoerli and Tabula Rasa by Ohad Naharin

At the Volksoper: "Yolantha and the Nutcracker", not the opera and the ballet as in the premiere in 1892, but a "Dance Opera" for the whole family which unites both, choreography by Andrey Kaydanovskiy. A mixed bill "Promethean Fire" with Paul Taylors "Promethean Fire", "Lontano" and "Ramifications" by Schläpfer and "Beaux" by Mark Morris, as well as an evening for the young choreographers of the company.

 

Speaking about Vienna’s 2022/23 season announcement….

I’m thrilled that they’ll be presenting Ratmansky’s 24  Preludes (to Chopin) at the Volksoper  during May/June 2023, as part of their “Begegnungen” triple bill. This is the work that AR created for the Royal Ballet which was to have been revived in London in June 2020 but was cancelled due to COVID. I was saddened when it didn’t appear in the Royal’s 22/23 schedule…but Vienna steps up! 🎉 

Dates & details on the 3ple bill:

https://www.volksoper.at/production/begegnungen-2022.en.html

2 hours ago, alison said:

Getting back to the original subject  , I finally got around to finishing the novel - and am wondering even more how on earth you translate it to the stage, but I guess we'll see in a few weeks!

Indeed. I’m guessing lots and lots of projections (films). How I miss the crafting of true 3-D sets. Sigh.

3 hours ago, FionaE said:

somewhere recently it was announced by Royal Ballet that every production would be filmed for cinema relay or streaming (not necessarily live). 

Wow! If only New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre could do the same here. (Ha ha…impossible, I know, due to funding patterns, union rules, etc. We can dream.)

The Royal Ballet and Vienna Staatsballett are my hero companies of the 2021/2022 season with honorable mention to Stuttgart and a few others that I’m undoubtedly forgetting.

This is spectacular news! I’m so happy for John Neumeier. Wouldn’t it be great to have similar museums for, say, Ashton or Balanchine?  
There is a fabulous collection dedicated to Jerome Robbins at the NY Public Library’s Lincoln Center site. I’ve visited it many a time. 😉 

On 02/05/2022 at 05:53, Jeannette said:

 …looks like the June 4, 7:30pm, performance is being filmed for a future showing…live (or later) stream? DVD/blue ray?

https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/like-water-for-chocolate-by-christopher-wheeldon-details

 

June 9 too…same cast at both filmings (Hayward/Sambe/Morera/Ball)…so it appears that a streaming &/or DVD is in the works. Hurrah!

On 25/04/2022 at 10:38, Rob S said:

Upcoming streams appear a couple of days ahead on my homepage of Youtube with an option to set a reminder, it's p0ossible they would also appear as a thumbnail on the ROH channel's page too 

Apologies if this is already being discussed elsewhere (JNC and Alison mention above)…

It looks like the June 4, 7:30pm, performance is being filmed for a future showing…live (or later) stream? DVD/blue ray?

https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/like-water-for-chocolate-by-christopher-wheeldon-details

I’m so looking forward to today’s livestream from Vienna…premiere of a ballet to The Seasons cantata by Haydn, choreographed by Martin Schlapfer. Following the live premiere, it will be available for 72 hrs.

https://play.wiener-staatsoper.at/event/60463333-2ccc-4628-9942-8e15f9e393d1