now voyager

27 minutes ago, MJW said:

 

I did the same thing! I don't really understand why the old system couldn't have been used and which shows all the seats available to select in a particular part of the auditorium. They could have simply blanked out those seats not available to book. Anyway let's hope normal booking resumes for the autumn!

As did I!  And I join in that hope!  I have no idea whether my preferred seating choices were available, but my repeated efforts failed to procure any,  and I was even more disappointed in the location of the few single seats I found avaiiable in my preferred price bands.

I will never forget her Myrtha (those bourrees!) or her Lilac Fairy.

1 hour ago, oncnp said:

Sorry - add 5 hours to those times

For most on here, but not in my case, though! Thanks, oncnp.

What are the booking dates for the various categories of Friends?

23 minutes ago, DanJL said:

Didn't the announcement from the ROH mention three ballet programmes for the spring / summer season? With Petipa mentioned for one of them.

 

It did.  From the 10 March announcement: 

The Royal Ballet is thrilled to return to live performances with three programmes of works ranging from Crystal Pite to Marius Petipa. 

Scenes de Ballet.  It's been far too long...

That is indeed what is shown, although I believe it was Dominique Meyer who announced her promotion (Legris embraced her and gave her the flowers.).  "First soloist" is the highest rank in the Vienna State Ballet--equivalent to "principal" or "etoile" elsewhere.

I thought Mair's Swanilda in Pierre Lacotte's production of Coppelia was charming and beautifully danced.

1 hour ago, Bluebird said:

 

During his Ballet Association Zoom interview, KOH said that streaming was very expensive.  If they don't stream the performances, this could well be the reason.  

Perhaps they could reduce the cost a bit by not paying for presenters?  (I omitted the series of adjectives that came to mind...)

17 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

I remember that many years ago black and white photos by Leslie E. Spatt used to be sold at Dance Books, relatively inexpensively. That was wonderful!

I agree wholeheartedly!  I still have several on my wall.

My email from Sarasota Ballet announcing the programs states that ticket holders will have 5 days to watch the program.

1 hour ago, alison said:

 

Oooh, Napoli!  You mean he didn't mess around with Act II like the Schaufuss production?

 

Must try and see this.

I'm afraid I never saw the Schaufuss production (though I did see him dance Gennaro in the RDB's former production), so can' t compare. 

Andersen's second act uses the traditional storyline, which I gather that Schaufuss may have "tweaked."

45 minutes ago, Bruce Wall said:

Ballet Arizona and the Phoenix Symphony will stream one act from their production (staged by Ib Andersen) of Bournonville's Napoli, on three successive Sundays, July 12th, 19th, and 26th. Each will be available for 24 hours only and will be posted on the Phoenix Symphony’s YouTube page here.  

 

 

I attended the premiere of this production 5 years ago and then returned to Phoenix for its return last fall.  I think it's a very good production, truer to Bournonville than the RDB's current production that was streamed earlier during the pandemic, and in particular I find Ib Andersen's second act far more satisfying and far better suited to the ballet.

2 hours ago, Bruce Wall said:

 

Lovely notations, Sheila, as ever ... 

 

The first four times I saw Square Dance were with the Caller.  Balanchine stopped this after the original Caller died.   No two performances were ever the same in terms of the exact narrative - apart from the beginning and end - and interim bits.  He would make different rhymes up for the names of the different dancers.  He always seemed to do it off the top of his head.  I once saw him do it twice in the same day and he had me chortling both times!!  Here is a film with the original cast - including the wonderful Patricia Wilde - and the Caller.  Shockingly this was filmed ON A CONCRETE FLOOR!!!  You can see Magallanes protecting himself.  Who can blame him?  It was a different time; a different world.  

 

 

 

Sadly I never saw Patricia Wilde dance - but did hear her speak and watch her coach a few times.  She was so wonderfully strong; a mighty exemplar of the balletic art form.  Here is a film made about her when she retired as Artistic Director of Pennsylvania Ballet.  (A bit of trivia - She coached Susan Jaffe, then an ABT principal, in Balanchine when Wilde was a Ballet Mistress at that same Company as she was for 15 years ... NOW the same Susan Jaffe is about to take over as AD of PA Ballet.  It's a small world anyhow.)  In this tribute film you get to see yet another role Pat Wilde originated for Balanchine - That in his Raymonda Variations.   Here also is an article about Pat Wilde from 2016 when she was 88.  What a whirlwind.  

 

 

Pat Wilde was the AD of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (NOT Pennsylvania Ballet, a quite different company which is based in Philadelphia), and it is also Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre that Susan Jaffe will head as of July 1.

I did see Wilde dance, and she was one of my favorites in that era, but I had quite a few favorites back then!

 

 

I prefer MacMillan’s 2d movement, which I think is not only very beautiful, but also  better suits the way I hear the music, while the other movements are for me a much closer call.

5 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

Found it!

 

 

Thanks, Lizbie!

5 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

To me the difference between the 2D of streaming and the 3D of live performance is figurative as well literal - that's the best way I can explain it.

 

An opera critic recently described the experience of hearing a great voice in person as a "full body shiver" - I think that translates to certain dancers as well. It just can't be replicated on screen!

That is a great turn of phrase!  Do you remember which critic it was?

22 hours ago, SheilaC said:

Well worth watching the San Francisco streaming. Mathilde Froustey is wonderful as Juliet, her dancing is musical and very expressive, her acting utterly convincing. She was one of my favourite dancers at Paris, I was disappointed when she got permission to move for a period to San Francisco and even more when she later decided not to return to Paris;, but she hadn't been promoted to Etoile and the rep at SFB is fantastic so who can blame her. Helgi Tomasson's production is fairly similar to other versions, but gives the nurse a slightly bigger role.

Sheila, Froustey is another favorite we have in common! I, too, loved her performances in Paris (did you by any chance see her DonQ with Alu?), but thought her move to SFB a wise one, as it looked like her career in Paris was stalled..

I thought her Juliet was beautifully etched and danced, and also enjoyed Gennadi Nedvigin's Mercutio and Joe Walsh's Benvolio.

While I appreciate the chance to learn something about companies, dancers and productions I've never, or only rarely, seen, and on occasion to revisit, in sharper detail than my memory nowadays permits, my experience in actually having attended the same performance that is now being streamed, there is no way for me that watching a video can ever come near experiencing a live performance--it's not just the loss of the third dimension, or the fact that no matter how skillful the camera & editing work, there are inevitably choices made that would not be mine, but the tangible excitement of a live performance--those moments when one holds one's breath, or mentally (or physically) gasps in response to something amazing onstage, or is just deeply and profoundly moved.  Dance captured and shown on a screen (no matter the size) simply can't do that for me.

I loathe the truncated version, but it WAS all Balanchine’s doing, when he revived the ballet for Baryshnikov.

As for interpretations and style, for many years Jacques d’Amboise and Eddie Villella were the house’s most frequent Apollo’s, and they brought a rawness to the role missing in Martins’ ready-made Greek godliness.

4 minutes ago, jmhopton said:

Hi Bruce all I'm getting is an invitation to download the app. Is there a way of getting the Information without doing this? 

I got the same invitation using my phone, but using my laptop gave me the schedule itself.

On 20/04/2020 at 10:59, SheilaC said:

 

 

 

 

The most powerful and moving Giselle I ever saw, despite many other truly wonderful performances, Alina, Osipova, Fonteyn, Anette Delgado etc, was Vasiliev and Maximova in Paris, guesting with the Kirov, at the Palais des Congres, scarcely a suitable setting. It was in January 1979, the same week that Rudy introduced Sylvie to Covent Garden, also dancing Giselle. In Act 2 Maximova had an exquisite Romantic style, and like Alina she conveyed frailty and vulnerability despite her superb technique. I have never seen a performance where the two so moved as one, they were so much more than just dancing together. His expressiveness was infinite, the way he bent his back spoke volumes of his grief and despair-  to this day I partly measure an Albrecht by how expressive his back is! And his acting.... in a good performance you feel their emotion but it's the only time I have even felt that I could read a dancer's thoughts as the character. At the end of the ballet, after Giselle had returned to the grave, Vasiliev danced out his grief and remorse by passionately leaping round the stage instead of walking slowly to the front.The next day we went to the ballet bookshop, the equivalent of Dance Books but in Paris on the Right Bank (and like Dance Books, long since gone) and we met the owner, a well known ballet critic, and she was in rhapsodies about the fabulous performance (she also raved about his legs!- he always wore very fetching blue tights, not black, for Act 2).

 

 

SheilaC (and Ballet 448), I saw both their Giselles with the Kirov in Paris, too!  But the performances I saw were in January 1988, and I think those are the performances to which you refer (among other things, Guillem would have been about 13 in 1979).  It was my first time seeing Maximova's Giselle, and I found both those performances extraordinary.  I need to add a special word for Tatiana Terekhova's Myrtha, the best I have ever seen.

3 hours ago, Naomi M said:

The new ensemble of Vienna State Ballet can be seen in this brochure. Many changes could be seen.

 

https://www2.wiener-staatsoper.at/fileadmin/Presse/Saison_20_21_PK/Textmaterial_Saison_20_21_PK/Saisonbuch202021_Presse.pdf

Some prominent omissions, indeed!  San Francisco Ballet has already announced the addition of Nikisha Fogo (Vienna's loss is definitely SFB's gain!), and I see that James Stephens is going to Royal Danish Ballet.  Any news of what Natascha Mair and Jakob Feyferlik will be doing?  (I could but won't speculate...)

Did any participants of the Forum see Vladimir Vasiliev dancing on stage?

Many, many times (though not as many as I'd have wished), and each time was unforgettable.

1 hour ago, ninamargaret said:

just watched the POB Jerome Robbins programme, with slight difficulty - I think my set up, Internet on st tv dislikes French Tv as the picture kept breaking up, stopping, and similar problems. have had no trouble with anything else. However, it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the programme. Does anyone know if this is a fairly recent performance?

This program was danced in the Paris Opera Ballet’s last (2018-2019) season. I believe this was the performance that had a live cinecast in France in November 2018.