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Jeannette

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  1. Jeannette
    I’m afraid that the same dilemma is brewing in the USA...maybe at Kennedy Center Opera House? My KC-Dance Series renewal letter came last weekend and I’ve been assigned two seats (double cost) instead of just my old seat. My usual seat mate (pays separately), who I telephoned, has been assigned two seats further down our row. I suspect that there will be very few, if any, seats left for “one-show-only” tickets...such as the Mariinsky’s run in late-April 2022. I may have to renew my full subscription - at double the price - just to ensure seeing the Mariinsky next year...even if I’m not thrilled with the other season offerings - many with a political “woke” tinge that I don’t wish to patronize. We old subscribers have until June 4 to renew. Is one show - a night at the Mariinsky’s Jewels - worth $1,000 ($500 per seat subscription to 6 shows x 2)? Being in the USA, your letter wouldn’t apply to me but I feel your pain!
  2. Jeannette
    Excellent points, Rina. Not sure what we could do other than to intelligently discuss...bend the ears of Board members on troupes, who think mostly about bottom lines & pulling-in paying audiences with full-length Draculas & Peter Pans (speaking for regional troupes in the USA).
  3. Jeannette
    Right, Sheila. BalletWest’s excellent streams were free (like NYCB, Miami, and others). PaB (spring portion), PNB (all), Sarasota (all) and SFB (all after initial Spring 2020 series) presented seasons for a fee. I should’ve added to the short list of US troupes that presented multiple-ballet seasons for a fee: Tulsa Ballet - they’ve been live-streaming shows since Oct 2020! A season-end Gala remains: https://tulsaballet.org/the-celebration/ Carolina Ballet of Raleigh, NC (with NYCB guests like Amar Ramasar, Megan LeCrone, etc) - I’ve thoroughly enjoyed their winter/spring season of live shows, which ends with Robert Weiss’ Cinderella next week https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157757129086008&id=40694341007 warning: Carolina Ballet doesn’t have online ticketing...I had to telephone their box office & read a credit card #...
  4. Jeannette
    Very few companies have pulled off this sort of digital paid season quite like Pennsylvania...along with PNB (Seattle), Sarasota and San Francisco. True heroes!
  5. Jeannette
    Oh, this deeply saddens me! Jacques d’Amboise was one of the first celebrated dancers who I saw when he danced as a guest with Ballets de San Juan (Puerto Rico) during the the early ‘60s. I’ll never forget the overall JOY that he conveyed, even more than the technical steps. May he Rest In Peace.
  6. Jeannette
    I absolutely loved it, too. I thought that the final solo danced by Riho Sakamoto was particularly touching... searching and finding hope. The more I see of Dawson, the more I admire him. Remember that fabulous Anima Animus from San Francisco last year?
  7. Jeannette
    Yesterday, the National Ballet of Peru (Lima) released their complete Romeo & Juliet by Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros. For many years Miami City Ballet’s resident choreographer, De Los Heros passed away last month after a long illness. This stream is in his honor & memory. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TL2fOJfg1O8
  8. Jeannette
    According to the Youtube page’s description, Alessandra Delle Monache. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpV8Zkp57QVVgYn9fkgJ1ug
  9. Jeannette
    Of course. Very happy that the troupe is weathering COVID. Ashton not so important.
  10. Jeannette
    Obviously I’m the only one concerned that the Sarasota Ballet will present only a whoppin’ 16 minutes and 10 seconds for old Ashton in 2021/2022!
  11. Jeannette
    Thanks for your report, FLOSS. Unfortunately, next season sees a marked diminishing of Ashton at Sarasota Ballet, with Valses Nobles et Sentimentales his only work to be danced during the entire season. Just before COVID hit last spring, the troupe was about to perform Ashton’s R&J and, in April 2020, Dante Sonata. I was a bit surprised to not see them on the bill for 21/22...maybe due to post-COVID budget...yet we see choices of new ballets about which I’ll shut up to not offend good people.
  12. Jeannette
    Thanks so much, Dan! 💕
  13. Jeannette
    P.s. The following may be a more direct link to the Joffrey’s stream on 30 April: https://joffrey.org/season-and-tickets/performances/under-the-trees-voices/
  14. Jeannette
    Happy reminder of two upcoming streams in the next two days: Thurs, 29 April: Dutch Natl Ballet in the new full version of David Dawson’s Metamorphosis, to Philip Glass’ music. Details: https://www.operaballet.nl/en/dutch-national-ballet/2020-2021/metamorphosis Fri, 30 April: Joffrey Ballet (Chicago) premieres Nicolas Blanc’s Under the Trees’ Voices, to Ezio Bosso’s score. Details: https://joffrey.org/ Both are free. Both are substantial full ballets (about 30 mins long).
  15. Jeannette
    I also enjoyed this latest all-Ashton program, Alison! I last saw Valses Nobles at the 2014 Ashton Festival in Sarasota. It’s a moody but elegant piece of the “haunted ballroom” genre that was so popular in the ‘30s and ‘40s. Much of its allure is due to designer Sophie Fedorovich’s pinks and reds...and those gorgeous transparent screens! So nice to see all of the details now in the film, much of which I missed from the cavernous Sarasota Opera House’s balcony in 2014. Victoria Hulland and Ricardo Rhodes were gorgeous as the leading pair. Next up was the heart-wrenching 10-minute pas de deux,The Walk to the Paradise Garden, to Delius’ interlude from his opera Village Romeo and Juliet, which ends with the lovers purposely sinking a barge on which they consummate their passion. Ashton hints at all of this in a vague and poetic manner, as the boy & girl are slowly swallowed into the folds of the cape of a tall figure of Death. Danielle Brown and Ricardo Graziano danced with passion and sensitivity as the lovers. [My viewing of Paradise Garden was greatly enriched by also watching the Ashton Foundation’s film of a 2016 coaching session by one of the originators of the ballet, Dame Merle Park. Check it out! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J26MkUZowSs ] The mood lifted considerably with the final ballet, Ashton’s early (1931) rollicking hit, Facade! I enjoyed it this time although I missed the giggles and energy of my audience neighbors at the Sarasota Opera House in 2014...especially in (for me) the most hilarious segments - Yodelling/Milkmaid, Popular Song/two natty gents, and the Tango/Debutante & Dago. However, with repeated viewings, my absolute favorite, for sheer dancing delight, is the first segment: the totally fleet-footed Pas de trois titled “Scotch Rhapsody” - here perfectly rendered by Kennedy Falyn Cassada, Asia Bui & Yuki Nonaka. It’s a lesson in the hallmarks of early-Ashtonian nods to Nijinska’s torso bends and port-de-bras...while the feet go crazy below! Kudos to the Sarasota troupe & its leaders, Iain Webb and Margaret Barbieri, for this marvelous program. Yet... How sad that the company’s return to live performances in the 2021/2022 season will include only one Ashton work - the short Valses Nobles et Sentimentales that we saw today. 😔 Hopefully this means that Ashton is being put to rest temporarily and might return with a vengeance in 2022/23? 🙏 p.s. - Quick edit to note that the final (7th) digital program will include one Ashton ballet - Birthday Offering. One last digital Ashton blast!
  16. Jeannette
    This may be the very performance that was being streamed, although it may not include the extras on behind-the-scenes filming in Madrid: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Handel-LAllegro-Penseroso-Moderato-Morris/dp/B00WGEAJBI
  17. Jeannette
    FYI, subscribers to Medici can watch another famous (shorter) Hynd ballet- The Sanguine Fan, to Elgar’s score. It’s half of a double bill by London Fest Ballet/ENB that also includes Lichine’s Graduation Ball. https://www.medici.tv/en/ballets/sanguine-fan-graduation-ball-elgar-strauss-london-festival-ballet/ I have this from an old VHS traded tape...so it’s great to now have the opportunity to see this sharply.
  18. Jeannette
    The Colon in Buenos Aires completely redid (restored) sets & costumes after the originals! How many institutions have the wherewithal and personnel to do that? After COVID, with national coffers running low? I’m afraid that future generations may not see this sort of luxury on stage. As costumes & sets crafted in the ‘70s/‘80s/90s are falling apart, they’re often replaced with budget-friendly options...as we saw, say, with ABT’s newer version of Cranko’s Onegin at the Met four seasons ago...a shadow of the magnificence of the old sets & costumes. Newer audiences will never know what they’ve missed. We’ll treasure our old films of the 3-act ballets by Hynd...and Cranko, Stevenson, Prokovsky, etc, etc...the authentic-style sets/costumes of the Sergei Vikharev-Petipa recons. Good grief, those all deserve professional filming.
  19. Jeannette
    Very interesting that many of Hynd’s biggest triumphs have taken place in the Southern Hemisphere, such as Australia, South Africa, Argentina & Chile. We can thank Chile, Uruguay & Argentina for much of his work currently on Youtube...for ex, to find the complete Diable a Quatre, search the Spanish title Las Desventuras del Diablo...which follows the scenario of the original 1845 Mazilier version, with music by Adam, to a T...page 215 in Beaumont’s Complete Book of Ballets. What gorgeously produced and designed ballets! All crafted the old-fashioned way. The real deal, not dependent on projections.
  20. Jeannette
    Or perhaps the choreography had to be adjusted due to filming/streaming, to be suitable for all ages?
  21. Jeannette
    English choreographer Ronald Hynd celebrates his 90th b’day today! Cheers to the gentleman who created a number of full-evening traditional narrative ballets, most notably The Merry Widow. It’s quite an output, including his own versions of Diable a Quatre, Le Papillon, Rosalinda (Fledermaus story) and Nutcracker. Several of these might be found online, with a bit of Youtube sleuthing. 😉 https://www.houstonballet.org/seasontickets/2018-19-season/merry-widow/ronald-hynd/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Hynd
  22. Jeannette
    Indeed! Wasn’t it Zhang who danced the initial (“rough” - my term) pdd with Lauretta Summerscales? Very different than at ABT!
  23. Jeannette
    Wonderful news! Not every ballet company is coming through COVID with such an ambitious and satisfying schedule. Perhaps not the number of Ashton ballets as in the past but understandable.
  24. Jeannette
    I saw the ABT premiere in person & the Munich rendition on film (in January & again yesterday). The initial pdd in the ABT version was cruder (more “hands-on” and “bouncy”) and performed with rather vulgar facial expressions by James Whiteside and Misty Copeland. None of that apparent with the Munich pair. Choreographers often rework things, Scarlett no different.
  25. Jeannette
    ABT returns to in-person performance, inside a true theatre with proscenium, at Costa Mesa, CA, on 25 April...the very place where they last performed live on 8 March 2020. Luckily, tickets may be purchased to watch a stream of the quadruple bill, commencing 12 May, through two weeks. Details: https://www.scfta.org/events/2021/uniting-in-movement?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MKT_Movement10amPre-saleAPR12(213B)&utm_content=version_A
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