Josette

I hope Rojo does not focus on scheduling ballets that she has danced.  When the 2023-2024 programming was announced, there were photographs of her in several roles. On the SFB website and Facebook, her husband and her brother-in-law, both principals and deservedly so, are a bit too frequently featured in comparison with other male dancers. 

SFB has done three McGregor works, which the dancers enjoyed performing.  I like McGregors’ works and consider them the opposite of rubbish. SFB consistently commissions new works. Frankenstein was a coproduction with The Royal Ballet and performed two seasons and was liked by SF audiences, apparently more than London audiences.  

I assume that the $60 million anonymous donation (and its apparent earmarking for mostly new works) to San Francisco Ballet is reported elsewhere as well as the promotion of lovely Jasmine Jimison to principal.  I’m in London currently but it appears that both events were announced on February 15, 2024. 

I very much enjoyed three out of the four very different works and agree with PeterS above. I am attending Thursday and Friday and looking forward to seeing the program again.  

3 hours ago, TSR101 said:

 

To be fair though Darcey was MacMillan's last muse and the last he created a full length on. So if anyone could talk about MacMillan from that perspective, even if it wasn't for this ballet, then it is Darcey. 

Yes. 

I get such a sense of peace from Paradiso.  Purgatorio goes so deep for me.  It all makes sense and does mirror Dante's Divine Comedy for me.  I had no idea so many of you have read it.  

Marguerite and Armand is being performed by San Francisco Ballet in February along with Song of the Earth.  My Mother took me when quite young to see Marguerite and Armand with Fonteyn and Nureyev and I have not seen it since, except for the film of Fonteyn/Nureyev, which does not do justice as to what I saw them do on stage.   I have tickets to see two casts in San Francisco.  

I have loved this brilliant, deep work from the premiere of Inferno in Los Angeles and my second viewing the next night in July of 2019, through the five performances when I came from Los Angeles to London  during Covid in October of 2021, to the four performances I saw last spring danced by the Paris Opera Ballet, and I am looking forward to the four performances that I will see in this run, making the trip from California on Nov. 28.  I also heard the Los Angeles Philharmonic perform it twice in April of 2022 with Dudamel conducting and had the opportunity to thank Ades.  

8 hours ago, Sharon said:

And Nikisha Fogo - principal at Vienna and now SFB....🤷🏾

And those of us who support and attend performances of the San Francisco Ballet are thrilled that Nikisha Fogo decided to join SFB. Her Myrtha and Juliet last season were extraordinary. I’m looking forward to her Odette-Odile this coming spring. 

9 hours ago, JohnS said:

. I’m hoping Olivia Cowley will reprise her spine-chilling Devil.

Yes,  she was dead-on as Satan. 

Adding other definitive, revelatory performances to my list:

Tatiana            Marcia Haydee

Onegin            Pierre-Francois Vilanoba 

Le Jeune Homme et la Mort        Nicolas LeRiche

Serenade Walz Girl                      Yuan Yuan Tan

Fall River Legend        Isabella Guerin with Laurent Hilaire

Raymonda, Act III        Elisabeth Platel 

Not that I have not seen other superlative, moving performances, but my definitive list:

Giselle              Margot Fonteyn

Albrecht            Edward Villella (no, Fonteyn and Villella did not dance together)

Odette/Odile   Margot Fonteyn

Mayerling       Mathieu Ganio with Ludmila Pagliero

La Sylphide    Eva Evdokimova

Swanhilda      Carla Fracci

Mercutio         David Blair

Tybalt             Gary Avis

Kingdom of the Shades        Fonteyn, Nureyev

Lin and Dave, thank you so much!

Maybe this is slightly off-topic, but can someone tell me how to get to the Clore Studio? I have a ticket for November 30. 

It's wonderful to learn that Alban Lendorf is still dancing.    The last time I saw him on stage was in Ratmansky's Whipped Cream with ABT.  What a fortunate audience that saw him in Le Jeune Homme et la Mort. 

When Woolf Works was announced, I figured that Gillian Murphy would dance Woolf Works.  Murphy was highly esteemed for her performance in Fall River Legend.  She and Devon Teuscher are the two ABT principals I can imagine in Woolf Works.  ABT dancers do not have the dramatic depth and projection of The Royal Ballet dancers, with some wonderful exceptions, but I would rather see Woolf Works again than the previously scheduled mixed bill with Ballet Imperial.   
 

Having seen all three casts in London last season, I do hope that Ferri will perform the premiere and another performance on the weekend. (I live in Southern California.) 

What will Marco Masciari be dancing? 

I know there was discussion earlier this season in this forum about the price and itinerary for the Japan trip offered.  Can someone point me to where I can find that discussion? I want to start saving!
 

A big Thank You to all who reported on the events and the performances.  

Aran Bell danced Juan once in Orange County in March, at the Saturday matinee, but Bell did not dance Juan on opening night.  I was there.  He was wonderful - dashing and charismatic.  

Carlos Gonzalez danced Juan on opening night and sizzled.   I was happy to see that Gonzalez will be dancing Pedro in New York and I suspect that he will be more satisfying than one or two of the Pedros I saw in O.C.  Daniel Camargo was the stand-out Pedro - as good as The Royal Ballet Pedros, whom I all saw last June in London. Given that Camargo was a Principal with Stuttgart, it was not surprising that he would have all the qualities to give a beautiful performance with depth, projection, and superb dancing and partnering  I am also happy to see that Skyler Brandt, who portrayed Gertrudis wonderfully with ABT, will be dancing Tita in NY, and that the delightful Zimmi Coker will dance Gertrudis in NY.  

Generally speaking, ABT dancers did not come across with the same energy and understanding as the dancers of The Royal Ballet, but The Royal Ballet is a tough act to follow and ABT's performances were a letdown from my having seen five performances in London.   I had a hard time with the first-cast leading couple, whom I have enjoyed many times in other works.  Additionally, I very much missed not having "supporting" cast members Isabella Gasparini, Calvin Richardson, and Gary Avis, among others, to watch.  The scene with Mama Elena with her suitor and family went for next-to-nothing (notwithstanding Christine Shevchenko excellent as Mama Elena) with ABT, but that scene made a dramatic impact with the insightful Royal Ballet dance-actors. 

I’m glad to see Diop acknowledged as an Etoile in the press release, as the flyer/poster has him listed  on the second line of POB dancers. Yes, it could have been designed at the time he was a sujet but he was promoted on March 11, 2023. 

I saw the photo of Joseph Sissens earlier today and thought he looked terrific and I like the leotard.  I hope that there will be some clips of the ballet online to watch. 

We were in the company at the same time.  

Luc Amyot, National Ballet of Canada. 

7 hours ago, bridiem said:

 

 

And, I suppose that means no programme notes... after all, if he wants to strip away the meaning there should be nothing further to say.

For The Dante Project in Paris, there were extensive notes/essays in the programme. I was happy to read them after having seen it five times (seven for Inferno), and would say that the creators' comments got it right! I wish I were in London to see Untitled, all the more with Sissens and Masciari creating roles.