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stucha

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Posts posted by stucha

    Don Quichotte at Opera national de Paris

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    On 04/04/2024 at 04:48, Emeralds said:

    It used to be the same production, down to the same designer - Nicholas Georgiadis (both Nureyev and MacMillan liked collaborating with him). But the Paris Opera changed the designs recently, and  commissioned new sets from Alexandre Beliaev and new costume designs from Elena Rivkina. 

     

    Georgiades never designed Don Q at the Australian Ballet. The costumes were by Barry Kay and the sets by Anne Fraser and it was this production which entered the the Royal Ballet  repertoire in the early 2000s. The most recent production had new sets and costumes based on Nureyev's famous film version for the Australian Ballet which were by Barry Kay. 

    • Thanks 1

    La Fille Mal Gardée at Palais Garnier, Paris

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    15 hours ago, Sophoife said:

    I wrote this comment about entry to POB back in 2018. It's definitely an advantage at the concours externe to have competition experience, e.g. Prix de Lausanne or YAGP.

     

    For promotion, each class (quadrille, coryphée, sujet) is divided into male and female. It is announced how many positions at each level (coryphée, sujet, premier(e) danseur/se) for each gender are available, e.g. two female and one male coryphée, two female and two male sujets, one each for PD.

     

    Each class is given a compulsory solo, plus a list from which to choose a second solo.

     

    Each entrant at each level must dance both solos in front of an invited audience and judges.

     

    Each class is ranked by consensus, with only the top six (or less, some years - Bianca Scudamore was promoted sujet and was the only one "classified" that year!) listed as "classified".

     

    The top one or two or very occasionally three are the ones promoted.

     

    Nomination as étoile is by recommendation of the Director of Dance to the Director of the Opera - not considered a promotion but a naming.

     

    It is possible to zoom up from quadrille to PD in three years, Sae-Eun Park and Hannah O'Neill being prime examples.

     

    Germain Louvet had passed for premier danseur, contract to take effect from January 1 2015, so technically nominated étoile from sujet on December 28 2014.

     

    Guillaume Diop had already danced Romeo, Basilio, Solor and Albrecht before being nominated, as a six-month-old sujet, to étoile.

     

    Both Diop and Louvet were 23 at the time.

     

    A recent change to the system sees promotion to première danseuse and premier danseur removed from the concours system,  and changed to recommendation by the Director of the Opera and director of Dance.

     

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    Dutch National Ballet’s Giselle - cinema broadcast

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    12 hours ago, Tattin said:

     

    It's not the first time I've seen a pas de quatre in Act I but I can't remember the company or production. What I did notice was that some of the music for this, I think the first girl's solo, was very unfamiliar. Can any of you elucidate this point? Was it Adam music?

     

     

     

     

    I have not seen this yet, but can tell you that the music for the peasant pd2+ is by Burgmuller not Adam. Whether other music has been added as well I don't know.

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    Photos and report on Ratmansky’s COPPELIA (15 Dec. dress reh. at La Scala)

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    6 hours ago, Jeannette said:

    I saw this colorful report on yesterday’s dress rehearsal of Ratmansky’s new COPPELIA at La Scala, Milan. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s livestream of the premiere on Medici.

     

    https://www.gramilano.com/2023/12/alexei-ratmansky-coppelia/

     

    Admins might want to include this in tomorrow’s Links. I checked before posting here.

     

    Thanks for posting this @Jeannette

    Please let us know what you think of the performance.

    I will be watching the replay on Italian TV on the 28th December.

    • Like 1

    46 Entrechat six

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted · Edited by stucha

    21 hours ago, FionaM said:

    Last night at the Bolshoi, young principal  Dmitry Smilevski performed 46 entrechat six in Albrecht’s second act solo.  
     

    This is a ‘quantum leap’ from the 32 introduced by Nureyev many decades ago.  
     

    It’s also not possible to do more (without being unmusical or changing the choreo) as Giselle enters on the next notes.  


    His Giselle was Elizaveta Kokoreva.  
     

    Both are around age 22 only, and were promoted to principals earlier this year having graduated in 2019.  I think (but please correct me) that this was only their second performance of the main roles in Giselle.   

     

    https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyaY4UZotnS/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

     

     

    It really is quite remarkable.

    And also the way he performs them entirely in character is excellent.  After all Albrecht has been commanded by Myrthe to dance until he can dance no more. There is no element of circus in his performance.

    There are several different versions of the solo at this point in the ballet and it is often up to the performer as to which version he performs. It is quite a dramatic moment too and the entrechat six repeated like that builds the tension as the music rises to its climax.

    I think that virtuosity should be recognised and applauded when deserved, as it is here. He is obviously very talented and is also a very modest young man.

    • Like 2

    Classical V. Contemporary Choreography

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    8 hours ago, capybara said:


    IIRC the ‘rumour’ of there being ‘a problem’ surfaced when, firstly, there was some fairly widespread talk of Fille being mounted to provide a feel good factor after the pandemic - then it wasn’t……. The ‘explanation’ was a little vague and a number of BCF members seem to have heard it informally from within the RB. But that was 2/3 years ago and I, at least, have not heard anything being said officially.

     

    Meanwhile, I went to Ruddigore at Opera Holland Park today, a Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta dating from 1887. It has a character called Mad Margaret and, as far as I can remember, she was played and referred to disparagingly as originally written. But the audience did not appear troubled by this in the slightest, with some people near me seemingly laughing along at the character’s expense.

    I was uneasy because I felt that mental illness (or, at least, someone who was ‘different’) was openly mocked on stage and off (and at a ‘relaxed’ performance too).
     

    And I am left wondering how it was deemed ‘OK’ for that production, with its more extreme portrayal of a disorder, to be shown when doubts continue to surround Fille.

     

     

     

    There are many 'mad' scenes for sopranos in 19th century opera, Lucia di Lammermoor probably being the most famous.  As I understand it, the character of mad Margaret was based on Lucia and was intended to be a parody of the extremes of operatic excess of the times and not a realistic portrayal of mental disorder. I understand that it may raise issues with some in these treacherous times.

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    Australian Ballet - Royal Opera House, 2-6 August 2023

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    11 hours ago, capybara said:

    Did anyone else encounter the 'alternative show' which was going on around Nikolai Tsiskaridze this afternoon?

    It doesn't seem 30 years since he blew away the audience at the Royal Albert Hall when the Bolshoi performed 3 acts, each from a different ballet.

    Two of his former students joined the Australian Ballet. Maxim Zenin, and Misha Barkidjija. He may have taken the opportunity to catch up with them too.

    Giselle some additional changes

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted · Edited by stucha

    10 hours ago, Ondine said:

     

     

    The full cinema version obviously has the Peasant PDD, and yes beautifully and flawlessly danced

     

    but the verve and bouyancy of the Kokorova & Gusev pairing was a delight to watch.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Yes, I agree with you re Kokoreva and Gusev. Just magic.

     

    Kokoreva was recently promoted to the rank of Principal.

     

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