News from Germany, Austria, Switzerland

[Jorgeb]

After today’s premiere Director Laurent Hilaire announced the promotion of António Casalinho to New First Soloist at the Bayerisches Staatsballet.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CmhpHCVolTp/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

[Sabine0308]

1 hour ago, Jorgeb said:

After today’s premiere Director Laurent Hilaire announced the promotion of António Casalinho to New First Soloist at the Bayerisches Staatsballet.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CmhpHCVolTp/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

And of Carollina Bastos to Soloist! I am especially happy for her,  it was about time!!💐❤️

[Angela]

William Forsythe will donate his extensive archive to the ZKM Center for Art and Media at Karlsruhe, Germany. The archive covers William Forsythe’s entire creative period since the 1970s: from his time at the Stuttgart Ballet beginning in 1976, at the Ballet Frankfurt (1984–2004), and The Forsythe Company (2005–2015) to the present. It contains an extensive collection of archival video recordings of rehearsals, performances, and installations, as well as programs, posters, reviews, photographs, publications, correspondence, awards, and other documents. In the longer term, William Forsythe’s personal production notes will also be added to the archive.

 

The ZKM Center for Art and Media is a museum of all media and genres, a house of both spatial arts such as painting, photography and sculpture and time-based arts such as film, video, media art, music, dance, theater and performance. ZKM was founded in 1989 with the mission of continuing the classical arts into the digital age. This is why it is sometimes called “the electronic or digital Bauhaus”. With its select preliminary and posthumous collections from artists and theorists, it enables new insights and facilitates the deepening of knowledge about the intermedia arts of the 20th and 21st centuries. The long-term preservation of the valuable video holdings of the William Forsythe Archive is ensured by ZKM’s proven expertise in the field of audiovisual media as well as that of the ZKM Laboratory for Antiquated Video Systems.

 

https://zkm.de/en/event/2023/02/the-performative-archive-william-forsythe-and-peter-weibel-in-conversation

[Angela]

At Stuttgart Ballet, the Italian dancer Martino Semenzato was promoted to Demi-Soloist. He graduated from the Académie Princesse Grace in Monte Carlo in 2018, then joined Stuttgart Ballet, which has the record number of nine male Demi-Soloists now, compared to eleven male corps de ballet dancers.

[Angela]

The casting for John Neumeier's version of Sleeping Beauty at Hamburg:

 

Aurora - Ida Praetorius (27./29.1.) + Madoka Sugai (1./3.2.)

Désiré - Alexandr Trusch (27./29.1.) + Alessandro Frola (1./ 3.2.)

The Rose - Anna Laudere  + Xue Lin (same dates as above)

The Thorn - Karen Azatyan + Matias Oberlin 

Catalabutte - Christopher Evans + Alexandr Trusch

Florine - Xue Lin + Ida Praetorius

King Florestan - Florian Pohl + Edvin Revazov

The Queen Hayley Page + Anna Laudere  

 

 

[alison]

What's his version of Sleeping Beauty like, Angela - completely different from the traditional ones?

[Angela]

Alison, I haven't seen it, it had disappeared from the repertory for a long time. Apparently is has a Rose and a Thorn instead of the Lilac Fairy and Carabosse, the Prince is a modern young man in jeans who gets lost in the woods and finds himself in Aurora's time. There are some pieces of Petipa's choreography left, but most of the choreography is by Neumeier, I think. And it has a 80 meter long moving panorama for the panorama scene, beautifully designed by Jürgen Rose.

 

[Naomi M]

I have seen Neumeier's Sleeping Beauty about 17 years ago (2005) at their Japan tour and also in Hamburg in 2007 (it was Heather Jurgensen's farewell performance) but as it was quite a while ago I have forgotten many of the work. (What I wrote below is from a note I wrote at that time) and I suppose Neumeier might have added changes for the latest version.

 

The prologue fairies represent planets such as Mercury, Venus, the Moon and the Morning star. The little Aurora is quite mischievous and practices ballet (Catalabutte is her dance teacher, and he was danced by Alexandre Riabko). It was not Carabosse but one of the four princes at the Rose Adagio who carry a rose with a poisonous thorn (The Thorn is the name of the role) that sets Aurora into her sleep. During Act 1, the Prince is present but he is invisible to Aurora and he tries to save her in vain., there is a pas de trois of the Prince, Aurora and the Thorn.

 

I recall the Act 3 wedding grand pas de deux was classical, quite like the Petipa one, but the Bluebird was danced by Riabko (who was Catalabutte) and of course he was sensational as he was still quite young at that time. I won't tell how the story ended as it will be a spoiler, but as Angela mentioned, the Prince is a modern young man in jeans who travels beyond time to her era so you can guess. 

[Lizbie1]

On 20/05/2022 at 16:58, Angela said:

If you order by mail or email, do it NOW, and order the tickets with immediate payment - the bookings are made in order of arrival, around ten weeks before the performance. But there is another date two months before the performance when direct online and telephone booking starts - normally two months before (same date, two months before, if it's a Saturday or Sunday, call on the Friday before). It was all disturbed by Covid, right now they sell one month as a whole. I'm sure they will go back to the normal system for next season. Half of the tickets are sold by mail, the other half online and by phone.

I guess this is better than my jabbering:

https://www.staatstheater-stuttgart.com/tickets_service/booking-information/

 

Sorry for resurrecting this from last year, but is there any more clarity about when emailed orders are processed? Specifically, if I've requested tickets for mid-July, when might I expect to hear about them?

 

This is not just me being impatient, I'm trying to work out whether I should hold off on booking flights (while watching the prices rise) or take a chance now.

[Angela]

2 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

Specifically, if I've requested tickets for mid-July, when might I expect to hear about them?

 

A little bit prior to two months before the event, that would be at the beginning of May. Booking by telephone, at the box office and online starts exactly two months before, same date, advance booking by email or letter starts some days before that, so that you should know if you have tickets BEFORE the online sale starts. If you did not book the gala, which will be difficult to get tickets for, but Remember Me, Cranko School or Shrew, and you booked last year already, I guess you should get tickets. But I can't promise. I don't know when the Stuttgart booking system got this complicated...  🙄

 

https://www.staatstheater-stuttgart.com/tickets_service/booking-information/

[Lizbie1]

Thank you - helpful as always!

[Lizbie1]

5 hours ago, Angela said:

 

A little bit prior to two months before the event, that would be at the beginning of May. Booking by telephone, at the box office and online starts exactly two months before, same date, advance booking by email or letter starts some days before that, so that you should know if you have tickets BEFORE the online sale starts. If you did not book the gala, which will be difficult to get tickets for, but Remember Me, Cranko School or Shrew, and you booked last year already, I guess you should get tickets. But I can't promise. I don't know when the Stuttgart booking system got this complicated...  🙄

 

https://www.staatstheater-stuttgart.com/tickets_service/booking-information/

 

Sorry, another question: I've just noticed that start times for performances are apparently invisible (are they considered vulgar, perhaps?). Should I assume a 7pm start? 

[Angela]

Yes, that's strange, it started with the pandemic. The start times are fixed around two months before, they have to finetune with the playhouse next to the opera house so that both start at a different time, I guess. Ballet normally starts at 19.30, sometimes 19.00, very very rarely at 20.00 CET. Matinees start at 14.00 CET.

[Angela]

Mayara Magri and Matthew Ball from the RB will be guests at two International Ballet Galas at Salzburg Landestheater, Austria on Feb 18th, with other guests from Munich, Stuttgart, Toulouse, Bucarest and Miami City Ballet. I'm sorry I don't know which other guests or what they dance.

 

https://www.salzburger-landestheater.at/en/produktionen/internationale-ballettgala-10.html?m=449

[Christine]

18 hours ago, Angela said:

Mayara Magri and Matthew Ball from the RB will be guests at two International Ballet Galas at Salzburg Landestheater, Austria on Feb 18th, with other guests from Munich, Stuttgart, Toulouse, Bucarest and Miami City Ballet. I'm sorry I don't know which other guests or what they dance.

Thank you for this, Angela. Do you know who is dancing? I haven't been able to find a progam or detailed cast sheet in the announcement.

[Angela]

53 minutes ago, Christine said:

I'm sorry I don't know which other guests or what they dance.

 

No. Again: I'm sorry. If I would know, I would post it here.

[Sabine0308]

OMG. According to some reliable news media, choreographer Marco Goecke attacked a journalist during an intermission in Hannover Opera House yesterday. More here:

https://newsout.co.uk/at-the-premiere-in-hanover-the-ballet-director-throws-dog-shit-at-a-critic-ndr-de-culture/

 

 

[Ian Macmillan]

On the face of it, that must have been an extraordinary incident, carrying the implication that Herr Goecke had come with a bag of excrement at the ready. 

[FionaM]

The article says the negative criticism of a previous performance affected ticket sales at that venue … which raises again the question: what is the purpose of critics / dance writers.   Is it really to undermine the career of a creative or performers?   Perhaps writers who don’t like a performance should stick to description of the content of the show.  

[Sabine0308]

6 hours ago, Ian Macmillan said:

On the face of it, that must have been an extraordinary incident, carrying the implication that Herr Goecke had come with a bag of excrement at the ready. 

Indeed. Maybe he had taken his dog Gustav for a short walk and had just returned. I don't know of course, I wasn't there. Why should he bring this sh* bag inside the Opera house... I read that a statement from the Goecke team will follow soon. 

I'm shocked. And sad. 

[Sabine0308]

1 hour ago, FionaE said:

The article says the negative criticism of a previous performance affected ticket sales at that venue … which raises again the question: what is the purpose of critics / dance writers.   Is it really to undermine the career of a creative or performers?   Perhaps writers who don’t like a performance should stick to description of the content of the show.  

I don't think that's the point here. Critics can be a pain in the a* and there are a lot of "writers" who have no expertise for dance but scribble anyway. I have been upset about a certain stupid German online magazine more than once.  However,  the incident crossed a VERY red line. 

I think Goecke's work is difficult to grab for the "normal" audience. This is certainly a reason why ticket sales dropped. I love most of his work, but find it hard to describe why. It's a matter of very intense feelings.

Edited February 13, 2023 by Sabine0308

[Angela]

1 hour ago, Sabine0308 said:

This is certainly a reason why ticket sales dropped.

 

Ticket sales didn't drop at Hannover, on the contrary - since Goecke's "A Wilde Story" a year go, the house was often sold out in dance performances, even the triple bill where the incident happened was very well sold.  I remember 25, 30 per cent of attendance when Goecke started there, he really won over the audience in very few years. I think he was affected on a personal level by the constant bad reviews of this writer - but my god, nearly ever other serious German, Swiss, Austrian or Dutch ballet critic wrote rave reviews about him. So why bother about her.

 

1 hour ago, Sabine0308 said:

I love most of his work, but find it hard to describe why.

Because it's on the same level of genius as van Manen, Kylián, Forsythe are. He invented his own new movement language, based on the beautiful lines of classical ballet, but keeping the utmost distance from it. I just saw the NDT 2 with one of his pieces two days ago, it's so incredible from every point of view - inventiveness, dynamics, expression, musicality, the pure craftmanship of choreographing.  What a sad, sad incident.

 

[Sabine0308]

@Angela but he himself said it's because of her criticism that ticket sales dropped 🤔. Well, he must have had a very very bad nerve day.

[Sim]

His behaviour was appalling and unacceptable, and it clearly wasn’t just a random fit of pique…it was pre-planned.   I will be interested to see what happens next.

[Ian Macmillan]

Sim:  The Opera House's holding statement is here:

 

https://slippedisc.com/2023/02/just-in-german-director-throws-dog-shit-at-faz-journalist/

 

Beyond that, time will tell.

[Sim]

So is s**t now an acceptable word to use in online magazines?  

[bridiem]

4 hours ago, FionaE said:

The article says the negative criticism of a previous performance affected ticket sales at that venue … which raises again the question: what is the purpose of critics / dance writers.   Is it really to undermine the career of a creative or performers?   Perhaps writers who don’t like a performance should stick to description of the content of the show.  

 

So we would only have positive or descriptive reviews? That would undermine the whole point of reviewing which is to assess a performance/work whether positively or negatively (and, ideally, educate readers in the process). Negative criticism would only affect sales if the critic is very powerful/respected or if all the reviews were negative (in which case maybe justified). Critics should be aware of their privileged position, and of the fact that they're writing about fellow human beings, but they must also be free to express their opinions honestly - they're writing as critics, not fans.

[Angela]

1 hour ago, Sabine0308 said:

but he himself said it's because of her criticism that ticket sales dropped

 I guess he said subscriptions dropped, not ticket sales - but I'm pretty sure that's not the real reason behind all that, but he was seriously offended by her reviews.

[LinMM]

Oh dear only half an hour ago I just criticised this very man’s work on a Facebook clip!! Only to read this! 
Well it wasn’t actually the choreography I criticised and the dancing was amazing but he had used one of the Hungarian Dances for his piece and it just didn’t relate to the music at all except in one or two places but it didn’t really express the music either. 
As I love Brahms Hungarian Dances perhaps I feel extra picky about what’s danced to them. 
I thought the piece needed it’s own music which is what I said in the post. 
 

[bridiem]

1 hour ago, LinMM said:

Oh dear only half an hour ago I just criticised this very man’s work on a Facebook clip!! Only to read this! 
Well it wasn’t actually the choreography I criticised and the dancing was amazing but he had used one of the Hungarian Dances for his piece and it just didn’t relate to the music at all except in one or two places but it didn’t really express the music either. 
As I love Brahms Hungarian Dances perhaps I feel extra picky about what’s danced to them. 
I thought the piece needed it’s own music which is what I said in the post. 

 

Duck, LinMM!!

[Guest oncnp]

23 minutes ago, FionaE said:

I agree with Ricky Gervais re critics …

https://www.instagram.com/p/CocvKi5KU77/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

Taken to its logical conclusion then, none of us who have not created or danced in a ballet are allowed to criticize? 

 

Nothing improves without criticism. And yes it should be done per @bridiem post above. 

Edited February 13, 2023 by oncnp

[LinMM]

As it happens I did some choreography to two of the Hungarian Dances back in the 1970’s for a school show. 
Im of course not in the class of this choreographer by any means but did think my pieces reflected the music pretty well!! 

[Christine]

It is too sad! I agree with Angela that he was probably seriously offended by this ciritic's review.

 

Yes, his behaviour was inexcusable and needless to say he has done himself absolutely no favours.

The criticism by the way did not just say that the audience was  "maddened and murdered by boredom". As I read it, it also accuses him of making no effort to produce meaningful choreography, or, in other words, of being a brazen lazy bum -in the German original the piece was a "Blamage und Frechheit" /"profoundly embarassing and an outrage".

Which is criticism levelled straight at the person. And there are more demeaning descriptions.

 

Nevertheless, it is such a shame he felt he had to stoop to this,  an artist of this calibre!

 

I, too, attended the NDT II performance of his piece last Saturday. Having seen it before as a live stream, it was great to see it performed live, and it was breathtaking.