annamicro

yes, I wrote "for me" because I went to Hamburg for the fist time in 2009. Another dancer of the previous glorious time that I love is Lloyd Riggins: every moment he is still spending on stage is a gem, to me. I think the company has slightly improved from a recent period when Jung, Revazov, Trusch and the previous version of Evans were dancing almost everything. I am sure you are delighted as I was 😂 to know that Jung was recently on stage with Alessandra Ferri, so he is still around. Cojocaru may be the only light, but, even if she is always a pleasure to watch, not always Neumeier gives her the chance to really shine as she can (or as I know I can expect from her). I am not sure that the splendid Die Glassmanagerie he created for her and with her is enough for me to forgive him for some obnoxious casting ...😫 If I remember well, you didn't see Die Glassmanagerie in the previous run: If you can, do not miss it this year!

Just a curiosity for most of us, I am afraid (considering the ticket selling strategy and pricing), anyway here the link to the program of the double Nijinsky Gala in Hamburg, on June 25th: https://www.hamburgballett.de/en/news/nijinsky_gala_2021.php to be noted that Alina Cojocaru should dance excerpt from The Glass Managerie and I think this should be her return on stage, after the many things that happened to all of us and her espscially (the birth of her second daughter 🙂 ) since the 23rd of February 2020... Other guests, including the lovely Ida Praetorius, are coming from the Royal Danish Ballet.

A rich season, but with very few shows for each ballet: it seems there are 3 casts rehearsing for Sylvia and just 4 shows in September (3 more the next year), only 3 shows for Winter's Tale... I wonder if dancers will have have enough space to try different things. I'd love to see Riabko more on stage, but also some younger are interesting: Bellussi, Evans (3 years ago I would have never expected to inlcude his name in my list), Frola, Martinez, Paquet...I heard good things about the new Kilpinen and I hope Azatyan will be still in the company and in good health! Among the women, Azzoni has now a different role, but she is still the artistic top for me; I hope to see againg Heylmann fireworks of enthusiasm and among the young, I'd love to see if Larzelere will confirm herself; not very young but I had very good reports about Yun-Su Park. And Cojocaru 😍, of course (but not at any "cast-cost"). So, not a Golden Age, as I was writing in the other post, but a company that seems to have ist quality on the rise again. Still some Neumeier's casting strategies are very very far from my taste, so at the moment the only thing I am really looking forward with full confidence to not come out with a post show gastritis is Die Glassmanagerie first cast 😄

oooohhhh, I miss so much Thiago Bordin!!! Wonderful artist and lovely person. He and Riabko were for me the Golden Age of the company, what a personal tragedy I had when he moved to The Netherlands. 🙂 I saw him dancing Midsummer Night's Dream with Bouchet and Cojocaru (yes, it was exactly 10 years ago february 28th 2011, Alina made her debut -her first Neumeier full lenght- the year before in Copnehagen with Royal Danish Ballet): a marvelous Theseus/Oberon, but I rememember also his Armand and Othello, and he still is my favourite Lensky (sure you have seen many other great ones in this role 🙂 ).

As requested by Beppe Sala, Mayor of Milan, the "Carla Fracci" tram is ready https://www.milanotoday.it/attualita/il-tram-di-milano-che-ricorda-carla-fracci.html

Carla Fracci was a constant presence and leaves now a huge void in Italian culture and art. Italian television (RAI1) is broadcasting right now live her funeral. Here below a video of ATM (Azienta Traporti Milanese) paying respect opposite La Scala Theatre, yesterday, during the wake. Her father was a tram driver and she was proud of it. The Major asked to have a total white tram dedicated to this great daughter of Milan. https://www.milanotoday.it/video/carla-fracci-tram.html

Cojocaru was promoted in 2001, not yet 20, and left in 2013 at 32... more than 12 years (and in the prime) seem quite a lot in dancer career: I would not compare Cojocaru's departure to the Polunin badly managed temper tantrums of January 2012.

Great to have the Ballett-Tage back, even if I suspect it will not be easy to have tickets (I suppose the theatre capacity will be reduced)...and the prices raised horribly (up to 232 euros for the Nijinsky Galas!). In addition, even if I was lucky to have my second dose of vaccine a couple of weeks ago, I don't know if it's possible to travel to Germany in June from abroad without quarantine? Is it? A pity to not have Midsummer Night's Dream DVD with Cojocaru, especially because the clip on Hamburg website seems excellent and, being wise, they could have recorded a full Cojocaru-Evans performance. @Angela, have you seen her in this ballet or you were hoping it "on trust" 🙂 ? She is obviously excellent as Hippolyta, but I especially enjoy her surprising Titania: a casting against Alina's most common types and peculiar movements that she makes her own in an outstanding way (she is truly fearless!). I've never seen Anna Laudere in this and I would expect her to be a good Titania...isn't she maybe a little too tall for the choreography? IMO Edvin Revazov is (was?) a better Oberon than Christopher Evans, on the other hand, Evans is much better as Theseus and his stage presence was finally improving a lot and in a very promising way before the theatres closure. I'd have loved to have Sascha Ryabko, but anyway great to have Karen Azatyan as Demetrius: he was retiring due to injury...in his case maybe the pandemic helped a recovery! He is a good contrast to Jacopo Bellussi poetry as Lysander. I've been spoiled by artist as Alban Lendorf and Sascha Ryabko and definitely I cannot buy Alexander Trusch as Philostrat/Puck... (I am afraid probably I would skip him in everything, but here I definitely found him at the same time annoying and insipid:...but who knows? maybe he has improved from September 2019...) I hope i'll be able to travel again to Hamburg soon...

I am happy to have survived to it (live in Hamburg), somehow. 🙂 I am sorry for Aleix Martinez, a great Artist, IMO, but NEVER again thanks .

Thank you. Everything apparently still ok in my neighborhood.

"Stay positive with us!" ...I'd rather not! 😁 I am not sure if it's meant to be ironic or it's just an odd choice of words...

Coronavirus update: Following government advice, all Sadler’s Wells performances have been cancelled for a period of up to 12 weeks, effective 16 March 2020. Read more

Dancers and staff have the right to protect their health too. Naples Teatro di San Carlo launched #stageathome and will stream some archive performances https://www.teatrosancarlo.it/it/pages/stage-at-home.html

Isn't Ireland locking down right now?

This would be perfectly aligned with Brexit....

La Scala dancers at home 😊https://www.facebook.com/1617128171/posts/10219497139851941/

83 more in UK since yesterday... Enjoy your shows tonight but also the Italian numbers. I am not try to scare you, I care of you. (The global positives are in the secon last column.) https://github.com/pcm-dpc/COVID-19/blob/master/dati-andamento-nazionale/dpc-covid19-ita-andamento-nazionale.csv

...and maybe they should not run to try to surpass us...

Lombardy has a very efficient health care system, but of the usual 900 intensive care unit beds, 466 as today are occupied by Covid-19 patients only. More have been put in place but if the number of critical patients increases they would not be enough for Covid-19 patients and all the others requiring this kind of assistance. The whole Italy has around 5000 beds and at the moment 877 patients: if other regions will reach the number of patients of Lombardy, the system would collapse. This is the reason why Germany and France are already closing their theatres.

I think that Italian experience (and maybe mistakes) should be treasured. I am surprised by the reports from UK. Not by the numbers, but by the way the positive patients are spread all around the Country: this is a respiratory virus, it travels from person to person. All the other countries have one or two points of origin and then a diffusion. The increase is exponential. I hope the results are real and reflects the actual diffusion of the virus in UK, but honestly I feel safer at home here in Milan than in theatre in any part of Europe. I hope my fear is unjustified, but stay safe, friends 🙂

Public buildings (post offices, outpatient ambulatory services, administrative offices etc) are not closed, only schools/universities and "cultural" ones.

It's a new virus, so still under investigation (of course everything is always under investigation, but here all the data are new and more needed). We don't have a vaccine (in Italy flu vaccine is recommended and given for free to risk categories, as people older than 65). We don't know if we already have antiviral drugs effective on this virus: attempts are made, but as part of an emergency situation. For these reasons it better to not spread it, as often happens with normal flu when some "heros" go to the office feeling unwell because in their absence the world could collapse...and the week after, half of the other employees are at home ill. Currently it seems that 80% of people get rid of the virus without symptoms or very mild ones, 15% need medical aid (maybe also hospitalization), 5% need intensive care unit and of this 2-3% can die, mainly elder people with co morbidities that usually are protected from normal flu by vaccination (in some cases more investigations have to be done to identify the actual primary cause of death); pulmonary complications in people younger than 65 (not pediatric) are rare but more frequent than with normal flu (primary viral pneumonia, not secondary bacterial pneumonia as with flu). At the moment 11 small cities/villages, in Lombardy and Veneto, are quarantined; in Milan places where people stay in close contacts for a long time, as theatres or stadiums or museums, are closed and reopening is under discussion (the Duomo is planned to reopen on Monday), schools and universities were closed this week (it is half a week for schools, having Carnival holidays: in Milan carnival ends today, we are peculiar...Ambrosian rite) at probably also the next week, bars had to close at 6 PM, now they can stay open but only with service at the table (people cannot gather at the bar), public transport, shops and restaurants are open as usual. It's interesting to know that a member of La Scala chorus fell ill on February 13th, having sung in Il Trovatore on the 12th: he isolated himself also from his family, staying at home in his room, thinking to have a normal flu he didn't want to spread. He resulted positive to Coronavirus several days after his voluntary isolation: this means he fell ill before Italian patient 1 and until yesterday nobody else in La Scala has been reported to be positive (this after the 14 days considered the maximum time of incubation). I have the feeling that many people around the world have already had Coronovirus infection without knowing or confusing it with seasonal flu....time will say.

In the whole Milan district (more than 3 million people) there are at the moment 15 (fifteen) POSITIVE (so not necessarily ill) subjects. Italy did more than 10.000 tests (when Germany barely was at 1000) and most of the positives are totally asymptomatic (in the most impacted areas probably they are testing also cats and dogs). All the deads were having important comorbidities and were mainly over 80, so an extremely fragile population. A lady was tested post mortem, occurred for myocardial infarction, because she presented also pneumonia: she resulted positive and added to the count (maybe they will review all the cases at the end of the epidemic). I wonder if this is happening in every country. Here below a map updated quite frequently. Btw, I am well 😄 https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2020/02/22/news/coronavirus_in_italia_aggiornamento_ora_per_ora-249241616/

I sent you a PM

Thank you 🙂, I saw your offer but unfortunately it's a little bit more than I want to spend (max 35 pounds).