Angela
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Posts posted by Angela
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John Neumeier's latest creation "Dona nobis pacem" is on arte concert now.
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/109725-000-A/john-neumeier-dona-nobis-pacem/
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8 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:
when might we expect the season announcements to start coming in? I know some announce quite late but I think I'm used to seeing others come through in February and March.
Munich March 16th
Hamburg March 18th
Berlin March 27th
Stuttgart - somewhere near the summer holidays 🙄
I'll try to post everything as soon as I know!
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The premiere of John Neumeier's "Lady of the Camellias" will be live streamed from Vienna on March 24th at 18.30 CET
https://play.wiener-staatsoper.at/event/4dfb69e2-63b2-4be0-9ded-6af3a9a56fa1
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Berlin, March 6, 2024 --- Iana Salenko, Principal Dancer of the Staatsballett Berlin, will receive the honorary title «Berlin Chamber Dancer" on March 17, 2024. Joe Chialo, Senator for Culture and Social Cohesion, will present the award after the performance of Giselle at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.
Following her performance as Giselle in the production of the same name, Iana Salenko, Principal Dancer of the Staatsballett Berlin, will be honored with the honorary title «Berlin Chamber Dancer" on March 17, 2024. Senator for Culture and Social Cohesion Joe Chialo will present the award, recognizing her exceptional artistic achievements.
«On behalf of the Berlin Senate, as well as personally, I would like to thank Iana Salenko for the many wonderful and magnificent ballet evenings she has provided for her audience. I thank her for her connection to our city and her commitment on so many levels. Since the beginning of the Russian attack on her homeland, Ukraine, Iana Salenko, who was born in Berlin's partner city of Kyiv, has been extraordinarily dedicated to the needs of war victims and artists in Ukraine. With her ballet gala 'Ballet for Live', she supports needy children in Ukraine. My gratitude is combined with recognition and respect for the achievements of this exceptional artist.»
Iana Salenko herself is delighted with the recognition, which she now shares with her husband Marian Walter, who has also received this award.
«I feel very honored to receive this German honorary title. And I am proud that my husband Marian and I are currently the only chamber dancer couple. The award inspires me to reach new heights in my career. I am looking forward to more exciting dance moments.»
The exceptional artist impresses with outstanding technique at the highest international level, complemented by a great joy of playing. Throughout her career, she embodied leading roles in the most important classical productions such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Onegin, Giselle, La Esmeralda, La Péri and Cinderella. She dances choreographies by renowned choreographers such as Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Auguste Bournonville, John Cranko, Pierre Lacotte, Marius Petipa and Anton Dolin. In personal collaborations, she was able to bring her interpretation to works by Patrice Bart, Yuri Burlaka/Vasily Medvedev, Nacho Duato, Boris Eifman, Marcia Haydée, Giorgio Madia, Vladimir Malakhov, Alexei Ratmansky, Peter Schaufuss, Heinz Spoerli, Christian Spuck and Víctor Ullate.Iana Salenko completed her ballet training at the Pisarev Ballet School in Donetsk, where she also received her first engagement. In 2002, she became a First Soloist at the Ukrainian National Opera in Kiev. After meeting her husband Marian Walter, she joined the State Ballet Berlin as a Demi-Soloist, where she was promoted to Soloist in 2006 and First Soloist in 2007. Since then, she has danced leading roles especially in classical productions and received invitations for guest appearances in over 20 companies worldwide. From 2013 to 2017, she was a Principal Guest at the Royal Ballet in London. Since 2022, she has been committed to her home country, Ukraine, by founding the annual charity gala Ballet for Life by Iana Salenko.
The title «Berliner Kammertänzer*in» has been awarded only to Oliver Matz (1995), Raffaela Renzi (1995), Gregor Seyffert (1999), Vladimir Malakhov (2014), Michael Banzhaf (2017), Polina Semionova (2017) and Marian Walter (2018). The rare honorary title is awarded by the Berlin Senate for outstanding artistic achievements and a minimum of five years of uninterrupted affiliation with a theater.
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Wow that's interesting, Roberta - I rarely read the comments under videos, thank you! Dale Brannon, who wrote this, and Marcis Lesins were both in the creation of the piece in 1976, I suppose. Brannon talks about the circle of light that moves from midstage to the column in the back. As many times as I have seen "Requiem", I never once thought of Christ when I saw that light, but of John Cranko giving guidance and leading the way for his fatherless dancers...
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The casts for Giselle at Staatsballett Berlin:
In five performances in March, new ensemble members will be performing in leading roles for the first time. Kalle Wigle will make his debut as Albrecht alongside Iana Salenko as Giselle and Elisa Cabrera/Vera Segova as Myrtha (March 8th and 17th). Haruka Sassa will embody Giselle for the first time alongside David Soares as Albrecht and Vera Segova/Bruna Cantanhede as Myrtha (March 16th and 22nd). And Polina Semionova will interpret Giselle with Martin ten Kortenaar as the new Albrecht and Eloïse Sacilotto as Myrtha (March 23rd).
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The casting for Vienna State Ballet's Lady of the Camellias is now online:
24.3. (premiere), 26.3.
Ketevan Papava (Marguerite Gautier), Timoor Afshar (Armand Duval), Hyo-Jang Kang (Manon Lescaut), Marcos Menha (Des Grieux), Ioanna Avraam (Prudence Duvernoy), Masayu Kimoto (Gaston Rieux)
5.4.
Olga Esina (Marguerite Gautier), Brendan Saye (Armand Duval), Liudmila Konovalova (Manon Lescaut), Alexey Popov (Des Grieux), Alaia Rogers-Maman (Prudence Duvernoy), Arne Vandervelde (Gaston Rieux)
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8 hours ago, FionaM said:
Forgive me if this is nitpicky, but the link does not provide Neumeier's statement, which I translated from the press release by Hamburg Ballet, but an article critizing Neumeier's decision with a few citations from his statement. The author thinks she is the moral authority on artists and their relations to Russia, she has an ongoing controversy with Neumeier about giving the rights to his works to Russian companies.
Hamburg Ballet does not publish its press releases online, I fear you have to believe my translations without a link.
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On 12/01/2024 at 14:22, Angela said:
A very distinguished guest will present a new work at this years Opera Ball at Vienna, one of the highest society events in Austria every year: Alexei Ratmansky will choreograph the waltz "La Separation" by Mykola Lysenko, a Ukrainian composer (1842-1912). The soloist couples will be Elena Bottaro - Masayu Kimoto, Sonia Dvořák - Brendan Saye, Alice Firenze - Marcos Menha, Kiyoka Hashimoto - Alexey Popov, Hyo-Jung Kang - Davide Dato, Aleksandra Liashenko – Géraud Wielick, Ketevan Papava – Eno Peci and Claudine Schoch – Duccio Tariello.
You can watch this beautiful waltz in rainbow-coloured costumes and with the colours of Ukraine here - go to 32.25', don't be surprised to see Priscilla Presley in a box, and watch till the end to see a very elegant Alexei Ratmansky in tails, followed by the students of the Vienna Ballet Academy.
I hope it works outside of Austria/Germany/Switzerland, it's online until March 1st. Scroll down to see the whole programme and the cast.
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John Neumeier just offered an explanation about three performances of his “Anna Karenina” at the Bolschoi in March: “I have decided to allow the Bolshoi Theater to perform my ballet Anna Karenina - despite the fundamental distance I feel from the Russian state due to its deeply inhumane war of aggression against Ukraine.
Anna Karenina conveys exactly the humane values that the current Russian regime so criminally disregards. This begins with the external form of organization as a German-Canadian-Russian co-production and does not end with the spiritual creator, a homosexual American. Last but not least, it also affects the substance of Anna Karenina: Just think of a character like the free spirit Lewin, who I let appear as a popular figure to the music of Cat Stevens. For all of these reasons, I see it as positive when performances of this work - and only this work - take place in Moscow. I will donate the royalties from the planned “Anna Karenina” performances at the Bolshoi Theater to a charitable cause.
Since the war began on February 24, 2022, it has been natural for me to use my position and my diverse contacts to support Ukrainian artists. I made my ballet “Spring and Fall” available free of charge for performances and a film adaptation by the Kyiv National Ballet, I supported the rehearsal in Kiev by my ballet masters and invited the dancers to our traditional Nijinsky Gala in Hamburg. In addition to the spontaneous acceptance of young Ukrainian talents at our ballet school, the hospitality for Ukrainian professional dancers has developed into a permanent ensemble under the direction of my principal soloist Edvin Revazov: the Hamburg Chamber Ballet, in which refugee Ukrainian dancers find a new artistic home. The company is now established and will soon celebrate its one-year anniversary. In addition to artistic excellence and social commitment, for example with education projects, the Hamburg Chamber Ballet was able to make a significant contribution to Hamburg's urban society through my mediation in November, when the major cultural institutions spontaneously organized an evening of solidarity for the victims of the Gaza war under the motto “Breaking Silence”.”
“Anna Karenina” was created at Hamburg in 2017, with subsequent premieres by its two co-production partners: the Bolshoi Theater Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada.
On the other hand we the French choreographer Martin Chaix, who created a ballet in 2020 for the Bolshoi and posted a statement on his webseite, that the rights for his ballet have expired, but the Bolshoi continues to dance it.
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According to a press release by the BBL, Julien Favreau will be Gil Roman's successor - as he was his successor in the company as leading male dancer.
"Following discussions over the weekend, the Board of Trustees is delighted to announce the appointment of Julien Favreau, currently a dancer in the BBL troupe, to take up the baton. The date of his appointment will be announced in the coming days.
The BBL Board of Trustees is today pleased to announce the appointment of Julien Favreau as Artistic Director ad interim. His talent, his experience, his perfect knowledge of the company and its dancers, and his artistic qualities make him the ideal person to take on this position and to infuse the company with the energy and high standards needed to make the choreographies of his mentor, Maurice Béjart, shine. Julien Favreau has accepted the offer to "continue to bring Maurice Béjart's work to life, through the finest instrument he created, the Béjart Ballet Lausanne, and in the company of the current artistic directors, who will support me in passing on Maurice Béjart's achievements.
From the shores of the Atlantic to the shores of Lake Geneva
Born in La Rochelle and trained in classical and contemporary dance, Julien Favreau entered the Rudra Béjart School in 1994. Quickly spotted by Maurice Béjart, he joined the Ballet a year later and was soon given important roles, including : The Chosen One in "The Rite of Spring", Freddie in "Ballet for Life", the Detective in "The Competition", Zarastro in "The Magic Flute", "Serait-ce la mort?", "Ce que l'Amour me dit", "Light" and numerous pas de deux. He has also danced as a soloist in creations by Gil Roman, Sthan Kabar Louët, Tony Fabre, Andonis Foniadakis and Yuka Oishi. Invited on stages all over the world and recognised as an incredible performer, notably for his role in the Mélodie du Boléro, the Foundation Board is convinced that he will also be an excellent artistic director, whose quality and high standards will enable the Béjart Ballet Lausanne to continue to bring Maurice Béjart's work to life.
The Maurice Béjart Foundation confirms its commitment to the BBL
The Maurice Béjart Foundation, whose committee members have been informed of this decision, is delighted to see the ballet's future secured in this way and confirms that the BBL will be able to continue to benefit from the rights to Maurice Béjart's choreographies under the current conditions."-
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6 hours ago, miliosr said:
Also, the Ballet of the 20th Century as it existed in the 1970s had a high degree of personality, which would be difficult to recapture with today's dancers.
Yes it had, such great dancers! But who knows, maybe today's dancers could do the same, if there were choreographers who challenged their personality instead of using their flexibility. I know it's a cliché, but I honestly can't remember the same feeling of having seen a revelation, something life-changing in ballet that I had when I watched "Ring um den Ring" (the moment when the Ring turned into Parsifal!) , "Wien Wien nur du allein" (Jorge Donn's smile when the Blue Danube started among all the ruins!), "Ballet for Life" and all these evenings.
And yes, jm365, Gil Roman was a stunning, devilish, wonderful dancer.
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At least his Bolero is in the international repertoire, Sylvie Guillem used to dance it very often on tour, in Japan for example. Or Roberto Bolle. Béjart made lots of full-length pieces and some of them were also danced by other companies than his own, the very funny crime-ballet "Le Concours" for example, or "Ring around the Ring", a four-hour ballet of Wagner's "Ring des Nibelungen". The Ballet of the State Opera in Berlin danced his works when Michael Denard was director there, Stuttgart Ballet danced Béjart back in den 1990s because Marcia Haydée loved his work and inspired him. Back in the 1960s, he was quite a revolution, having his company dance in jeans. Together with Cranko and Grigorovitch (all three were born in 1927), Béjart very much changed the aesthetics of the male dancer. Go to Youtube and look for Jorge Donn, you'll get a notion of what Béjart was. The American critics hate him with a vengeance 🙂, and I guess Britian did not see much of him, he was a French/continental thing. The first philosopher among choreographers...
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As reported by Swiss and French newspapers, Gil Roman was fired yesterday as director of the Béjart Ballet Lausanne. He had led the company since 2007, when Béjart died. Roman was a former dancer of the Béjart company and had also contributed his own choreographies to the repertoire.
When the Béjart Ballet was rocked by allegations of sexual harassment two years ago, there was an audit and reforms were announced. The company's production manager was fired due to these allegations. Gil Roman retained his post and was placed under the supervision of the new general director Giancarlo Sergi, a human resources director was hired. According to various Swiss news outlets, Gil Roman invited the former production manager to a performance by the company at the Paris Opéra Garnier in January and then to a private aperitif in the presence of all the dancers. After an examination, the board of trustees of the Fondation Béjart Ballet Lausanne considered this behavior towards the institution and towards the dancers to be inappropriate. Gil Roman will therefore resign from his position on April 30, 2024, the newspapers cite the press release. The foundation wants to find a successor. The planned further performances and tours will take place.
The rights to Béjart's work are in the hands of the Fondation Maurice Béjart which is also directed by Gil Roman; he had threatened to take the rights from the company if he has to leave his post. The company therefore risks no longer being able to perform the works of its founder choreographer. According to Radio Télévision Suisse, Grégoire Junod, mayor of Lausanne and vice-president of the Béjart Ballet Lausanne foundation, said that “It’s not impossible, but we think today that it’s unlikely. We have discussions with all the members of the Maurice Béjart foundation. All the feedback we have today suggests that we have a joint desire to continue the adventure and to continue to entrust the ballets of Maurice Béjart to the BBL. "
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On 26/01/2024 at 10:33, zxDaveM said:
The score was snippets of music (recorded) from a variety of film score sources (a list - and long list it was - in the programme) which did give the piece a rather 'bitty' feel, as most of those snippets were only 2-3 minutes, with blank pauses between.
On 26/01/2024 at 11:30, FionaM said:I too thought the music transitions were a little clumsy in a few places.
On 26/01/2024 at 23:18, zxDaveM said:Still a bit phased by the gaps in the music,
Fiona, you and zxDaveM mentioned snippets and "gaps" in the music. I guess that's why I had the idea that one could use the beautiful, coherent score that was written by the film composer himself especially for the occasion that someone would make a ballet from "La strada". But having seen a Nutcracker recently that mainly used Sleeping Beauty music, I may be wrong. Everything is possible, I'm sure Alina danced to a wonderful score.
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5 hours ago, FionaM said:
regarding music.
In the programme it says “Horecna selected music from Nino Rita’s film compositions so they had an emotional coherence that fitted her ideas for the production”
The programme has a complete listing of the circa 40 pieces of music used including from Il Casanova, Il Gattopardo, La Dolce Vita, and others. Only a handful are from the movie score for La Strada.
Fiona, I guess an important reason to chose different music may be the fact that there is no recording of the one hour long ballet suite. They did not have an orchestra for the production, they had to rely on recorded music. Else it might be a bit ambitious to drop a score that was made for that story, to know better than the original composer about "emotional coherence" and to find it in obviously not so much coherent snippets.
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THANK YOU, Amelia. How I miss to see the Russian dancers on stage.
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5 hours ago, zxDaveM said:
The score was snippets of music (recorded) from a variety of film score sources
4 hours ago, FionaM said:I too thought the music transitions were a little clumsy in a few places.
I don’t know if that is possible to improve. I guess it would be considerable expense to hire a composer to extend and join-up somehow. And that would take more negotiation with the licence holders. Hmm. Might not be possible with limited budget.
If I understand correctly, the ballet uses music from different movies by Nino Rota? But there are ballet suites of La Strada in different lengths by the composer himself, one over an hour long, another half an hour, which don't fall into snippets but sound like a symphonic score, a beautiful symphonic score in my opinion. I know it because it was used for the Munich version of "La Strada" by Marco Goecke, which was 80 min long. Rota himself made a ballet music out of his film score, the ballet premiered in 1966 at La Scala. Does the programme say why the choreographer did not use this original ballet music?
You can listen to the shorter suite here, in an official recording by the HR Orchestra from Frankfurt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLAqaH2VS7I
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7 hours ago, LinMM said:
It was in 1968
Oh my, you could have seen the young, blossoming Marcia Haydée, the first version of Onegin right after the premiere, with Tatyana's children still there. Or a just three year old "Song of the Earth" by MacMillan in blue costumes that were different from the light brown and yellow ones now used in Stuttgart and from the (sorry: ugly) black ones now used at the RB. Imagine!...
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5 minutes ago, Sabine0308 said:
See in Berlin the "Sleeping Beauty" costumes and setting.
They are by Jordi Roig, not Jürgen Rose - only Stuttgart has the original, no other company used his sets and costumes for the Haydée production, because they are just too expensive, I guess. He had three different backcloths handpainted for the three parts, first blue sky, than the rose hedges, than the autumn forest. It would cost a fortune to paint them now. And he used material from Indian sarees for many costumes, for King and Queen, for the princes, the fairy tale figures. It's just lavish over and over.
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12 hours ago, Don Q Fan said:
your ticket even includes local public transport to and from the show
This has nothing to do with Onegin, but it is the case in many German towns: you can use public transport with your theatre ticket before and after the performance.
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Any chance for a tour to the continent??? 🙏
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A very distinguished guest will present a new work at this years Opera Ball at Vienna, one of the highest society events in Austria every year: Alexei Ratmansky will choreograph the waltz "La Separation" by Mykola Lysenko, a Ukrainian composer (1842-1912). The soloist couples will be Elena Bottaro - Masayu Kimoto, Sonia Dvořák - Brendan Saye, Alice Firenze - Marcos Menha, Kiyoka Hashimoto - Alexey Popov, Hyo-Jung Kang - Davide Dato, Aleksandra Liashenko – Géraud Wielick, Ketevan Papava – Eno Peci and Claudine Schoch – Duccio Tariello. The Vienna ballet academy dances to the Ecossaise from the opera "Eugene Onegin", in a choreography by Christiana Stefanou, director of the academy.
For viewers in Austria/Germany/Switzerland, the ball will be live-streamed on 3sat on Feb. 8. from 20.15 CET.
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News from Germany, Austria, Switzerland
in Ballet / Dance news & information
Posted
And here we go, the first season announcement for 2024/2025 - the winner is Ballet Leipzig which has a new director, Rémy Fichet.
Leipzig Ballet explores new choreographic languages
New Ballet Director, Rémy Fichet, has curated a highly emotional programme for his inaugural season. The focus is on new story ballets and the creative further development of classical technique. On 26.10.24, the American choreographic talent Lauren Lovette opens with a new take on the famous love drama »Romeo und Julia«, which she transposes into the world of theatre. A two-part ballet evening by Sofia Nappi and Louis Stiens celebrates its premiere on 1.2.25: »Humans«, to music by Clara Schumann, Henry Purcell, Franz Schubert, Werner Egk and others. The third premiere takes place on 12.4.25: Martin Chaix, whose previous solo career also brought him to Leipzig in 2006 for a three-year stay, is choreographing one of the oldest Japanese legends, »Die Mondprinzessin« (The Moon Princess), to the music of Henryk Mikołaj Gorecki, Koyama Kiyoshige, Sōmei Satō and Arvo Pärt.
In collaboration with the Bachfest Leipzig, the »Black Box« will become a choreographic case study of various forms of artistic expression, and for the first time on 20.6.25, will see Marcelino Libao, Daniel Róces Gómez and Vincenzo Timpa of the Leipzig Ballet engage with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The 24/25 season will feature the return of two choreographies as a special tribute to the legendary choreographer Uwe Scholz to mark the 20th anniversary of his death. Until his passing in 1991, Uwe Scholz played a key role in shaping the identity and programme of the Leipzig Ballet. »Scholz-Symphonien« (Scholz Symphonies), premiering on 6.12.24, includes his symphonic ballets »Siebente Symphonie« (Seventh Symphony), music by Ludwig van Beethoven, and »Zweite Symphonie« (Second Symphony), music by Robert Schumann. The Gewandhausorchester, which plays for all Oper Leipzig performances, also provides live accompaniment for the performances of the Leipzig Ballet. The ballet season gets underway on the 31.8.24 with an open training session, followed by a talk with Rémy Fichet.
Full brochure available at https://www.oper-leipzig.de/de/publikationen