Sabine0308

Onegin cast for January 2024 in Munich:

https://www.staatsoper.de/en/productions/onegin

Great idea, I am sure you will enjoy your trip to Germany!

Cast list for Onegin is out in Munich, but not the February dates yet, sorry.

https://www.staatsoper.de/en/productions/onegin

As for Berlin: there's also a Snackbar inside Deutsche Oper of course. You can order a table and food/beverages the day before your visit.

Also, if you need more information regarding getting around in Berlin or Munich, sightseeing recommendations etc, send me a PM. I would love to send recommendations.

Merry  Christmas to all here! Be safe.🎄❤️

@Darnedshoes thank you for your report, I really appreciate it to read about this performance. As for your last paragraph: I'm so tired of all the artificial political correctness for classical ballet. Nobody can re-write history. And a fairytale (e.g. Bayadere, dropped by our company administration in Berlin) is a fairytale. Ballet audience is usually not stupid and knows historical context, also for Onegin!

14 hours ago, oncnp said:

...

19    Principal

...

NINETEEN principals, wow. That's expensive for a company 😳

This Video was shared yesterday by Soprano Elmira Karakhanova, her partner is Alexey Kursanov, and dancer is Shale Wagman. Obviously, either the whole ballet or at least the Romeo&Juliet piece has been shown on France TV:

Lauretta is booked!❤️

I don't think he would be able to do both theatres justice. A younger person would have a hard time, and Gergiev is 70. I fear for the Mariinsky. The only things that might protect it is the fact that there would an outcry in Russia if someone touches this iconic theatre, especially the ballet company. And that Putin is from St. Petersburg. But what would that actually mean, to "unify Bolshoi and Mariinsky"?

2 hours ago, alison said:

"He will replace Vladimir Urin, who has led the Bolshoi for ten years and ‘will leave of his own free will’."

 

Hmm ...

That statement sounds weird, to put it nicely.

Congratulations!💐

Would love to see this!!

After missing out last year, I see again 3 candidates from Monaco's APG (quality screams🙆), and a few from Munich and Dresden. Nice.

7 hours ago, alison said:

 

Seems to be quite a regular thing in Germany nowadays: The Guardian had an article about it a few weeks ago.  It seems the days of German trains being reliably punctual may be over.

There are a lot of problems with Deutsche Bahn, yes. But of course people only post bad things on social media when they faced a travel problem, nobody reports a "I arrived in time and comfy". The trouble with many overcrowded trains happened in summer. Politicians decided to offer this for 3 month, when people could buy a monthly "9 Euro" Ticket and could use almost all local trains (no Express trains) within Germany to get from A to B. Highly uncomfortable for long distances though. Example: from Berlin to Munich, change trains 3 or 4 times, arrival after 9 hours.🤪

(Instead of 4 hours with ICE sprinter). It was better for short distances, so lots of people travelled especially during weekends. Overcrowded trains due to a lack of coaches and drivers created A LOT of frustrated people. The idea behind (more public transport,  less cars) was good, but made without brain. When you don't have trains and or drivers, the special ticket is useless. And since DB also fired a lot of people and closed repair factories, the lack of punctuality is the other consequence.

Ahh the Holidays...October 31st here, November 1st there...well it wasn't a holiday in Berlin, so they have no excuse!😉

I was surprised to see that some companies did not go live, but showed recorded classes/rehearsals. E.g. Staatsballett Berlin and Munich. Was it the case with other companies as well?

Re Munich, the "Le Parc" rehearsals (with Corps and soloists, coached by Laurent Hilaire) were interesting to watch. Premiere is November 25. Still some work to do...

@Estreiiita aww I was there as well with a friend, would have loved to say hello. I did say hello to Victor Caixeta though, who sat behind me😀.

I agree that Polina,was marvellous, her "Emma" different from Weronika Frodyma's (premiere cast). I loved the PDDs with Polina and Martin, just beautiful dancing.

The whole company did an impressive job!

@Estreiiita glad you enjoyed the performance. Leipzig is indeed worth visiting for Culture (Opera House, Gewandhaus) and the beautiful Zoo.

Side note: please make Trump a tramp in your post...I was slightly shocked😀.

Just saw an ig story posted by Maria Baranova, rehearsing Le Parc with Jinhao Zhang. 🙂

2 hours ago, Angela said:

Casting for "Le Parc" at Munich:

Madison Young and Julian MacKay

Laurretta Summerscales and Jakob Feyferlik

Maria Baranova and Jinhao Zhang

The premiere is on 25. November, of course Laurent Hilaire is coaching the dancers himself, after all he created the male role for Angelin Preljocaj at Paris in 1994.

 

I think I saw rehearsal photos of J. Feyferlik with Maria Baranova, but can't find them anymore. Jinhao Zhang and Lauretta Summerscales seem to be very busy in the US resp. In the UK in Nov/Dec, according to their ig posts. So my guess is the premiere of Le Parc will be danced by Young/Mckay.

35 minutes ago, Ondine said:

 

That was an unexpected treat this morning,  thanks for the heads up!

 

 

You're welcome, hope you enjoyed!

5 hours ago, alison said:

Thanks for the reminder, Sabine - I'd completely forgotten this was on.

Hurry...it's on only until 10 am Munich time

Behind the scenes interviews:

The free livestream and Video on Demand (still available until tomorrow on youtube or here https://www.staatsoper.de/tv

gave a wonderful opportunity for many people to watch this fun ballet without leaving home. My actual plan was to go to Munich and watch 2 performances live, but health issues stopped me. So I was grateful for the livestream.

The ballet and/or the story is certainly well-known to forum members here, so I want to focus on the dancers:

Madison Young was as delicate and kind young lady who certainly had a soft spot for Jack from the beginning. Her confusion and curiosity about the happenings in Wonderland was convincing. Jakob Feyferlik, in his debut as principal dancer in Munich in the role of Jack, was a good and strong partner and their romance was a joy to see in the beautiful Pas de Deux.

Since I LOVE weird scenes and characters, my favorite scenes were with the infamous Queen of Hearts (brilliant: Elvina Ibraimova), and the butcher scene. OMG how morbid and actually not for kids to watch, I thought🤪. So much to discover. (But then, kids today are used to even worse scenes on TV, unfortunately.)

I once saw the Royal Ballet dancing this ballet, and this is where Steven McRae jumped into my ballet heart forever as Mad Hatter. He was just brilliant, so I was looking forward to the tea party. Antonio Casalinho delivered a good tap dancing but didn't grab the character for me. His Hatter looked rather dumb than sly and owning the party, as Steven did, so it was a bit disappointing.

Whereas Shale Wagman as kind and caring Carroll Lewis, and especially as neurotic White Rabbit was totally in character. The Rabbit ears and feet fit him like a glove, so to speak. A clean and fine technique, combined with weird, neurotic behavior, yet also a secret caring (about Alice) made his performance the highlight in the evening for me.

All dancers did a good job, and I certainly felt their joy to dance and tell the slightly weird story🤪.

Aside from the ballet, there is also a video with interviews with Wagman, Young and Feyferlik on youtube, about the process of jumping into the characters.

I hope I can go in March to see the ballet live in the theatre.

A review I can fully support can also be found here:

www.lanottemag.com

Oh this is good news! Raymondo Rebeck, a Berliner, was one of a bunch of wonderful talents trained at the Berlin Ballet School (Mario Perricone, Angela Reinhardt, Gregor Seyffert, to name a few and my favorites) in the 1980ies. Rebeck participated in the Prix de Lausanne in 1987, if I'm correct, so as a citizen of East Germany back then. He won a cash prize, according to the PdL archive, but did not/could not chose a partner school. Guess why.

I remember him as a beautiful and passionate dancer, who also had lyrical talents (e g. in a Bejart Triple bill "Night" at Staatsoper Berlin alongside Mario Perricone and Barbara Schroeder, who is a ballet masters with Staatsballett Berlin since many years). Sweet memories come back.

A loss for Dresden, but it will hopefully solve the problems in Zurich.