News from Germany, Austria, Switzerland

[Lizbie1]

On 06/02/2023 at 13:21, 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/

 

Well - I've got both my tickets, though not without incident: one of the requests for payment had sat in my spam folder since Wednesday.

 

Many thanks again to Angela for guiding me through this process!

[Angela]

Some pictures from the set of the Cranko movie at Stuttgart (text in German) - it's from the cemetery with Cranko's grave, with Cranko (Sam Riley) and Haydée (Elisa Badenes)

https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/gallery.john-cranko-film-in-stuttgart-gaensehautmomente-an-crankos-grab.ae50ece6-a896-4274-ab60-1a55c7cfb26f.html

[Angela]

Lots of farewell performances at Berlin State Ballet: Dinu Tamazlacaru and Aya Okumura will dance Tatyana and Onegin on May 10 for the last time, where also Iana Balova says farewell as Olga. On the matinee of May 13, Marian Walter will dance his last Onegin for the company, his wife Iana Salenko will be Tatyana. In the evening of May 13, Evelina Godunova, Daniil Simkin and Yevgeniy Khissamutdinov will say farewell in the roles of Olga, Lensky and Gremin. The all will leave the company after this season.

[Jeannette]

I hope that Evelina Godunova will go to a ballet company that’s close to the US…not further away. She’s a real gem.

[FionaM]

With the amount of turnover in Europe at Berlin and Zurich in particular … at the end of this season … it’s getting to be like the annual football transfers!  (Woefully different monetary compensation though) 

[Sabine0308]

On 03/05/2023 at 12:45, Jeannette said:

I hope that Evelina Godunova will go to a ballet company that’s close to the US…not further away. She’s a real gem.

She's a very good jumper, to begin with !

[Angela]

Some news from Hamburg Ballet: After the visits of the Bolshoi and also the Royal Danish Ballet, both were invited guests for John Neumeiers 48th Ballet Days in June/July, were cancelled for obvious or less understandable reasons, there will be a new guest company: the Czech National Ballet will show Neumeier's "A Streetcar Named Desire" in two different casts. Stuttgart Ballet will bring "The Lady of the Camellias", also with two casts. The Ballet Festival 2023 will last four weeks, as it was supposed to be Neumeier's farewell, now he will stay one season more, before Demis Volpi takes over the direction of Hamburg Ballet.

 

Other guests include:  

- Alessandra Ferri will dance Romola Nijinsky in Neumeier's "Nijinsky" on 27./28. June and 6. July, replacing Olga Smirnova

- Composer Lera Auerbach will play the piano herself for the performance of "Préludes CV" on 23. June.

- The Ballet School invited students from Canada's National Ballet School, the École de Danse de l’Opéra de Paris and the Royal Ballet School for their performance on 13. June

- Singers Klaus Florian Vogt and Thomas Hampson will be among the guests for the Gala of the John Neumeier Foundation on 29. June

A new "John Neumeier Award for Choreography" will be offered for the first time on this occasion, the winner will receive 25.000 Euro and will have to do a piece for the Bundesjugendballett.  

 

No news yet about the international guests for the Nijinsky Gala XLVIII on 3. July.

 

https://www.hamburgballett.de/en/news/hh_ballett_tage_2023.php

 

[FionaM]

In the recent London Ballet Circle interview with Olga Smirnova she expressed regret that the Dutch National Ballet calendar meant she had had to drop out of performing in Nijinsky with Hamburg Ballet in June/July (as previously announced).  She said she hopes to be able to perform it later in 2023/24 season.  

[Christine]

16 hours ago, Angela said:

 

 

No news yet about the international guests for the Nijinsky Gala XLVIII on 3. July.

 

 Ops, this is probably just a typo, the Nijinsky Gala XLVIII is on July 9th. I just checked my ticket. 

[Christine]

16 hours ago, FionaE said:

In the recent London Ballet Circle interview with Olga Smirnova she expressed regret that the Dutch National Ballet calendar meant she had had to drop out of performing in Nijinsky with Hamburg Ballet in June/July (as previously announced).  She said she hopes to be able to perform it later in 2023/24 season.  

Sad news! I was hoping to see her.

[Angela]

30 minutes ago, Christine said:

Ops, this is probably just a typo, the Nijinsky Gala XLVIII is on July 9th. I just checked my ticket. 

 

I copied it from the press release, the false date is also in the text of the Hamburg website about the Ballet Days. The correct date is in the list of performances if you scroll down. I'm sorry! But I'm not starting to check the dates which the companies publish... 🤪🤣

[Christine]

Oh, please don't, Angela. I just had a bit of a fright since I had booked my hotel for the 9th... 

[Angela]

 

Guests at the International Ballet Gala at Dortmund on June 17th/18th:

Misa Kuranaga and Max Cauthorn from San Francisco Ballet in Cinderella and the Tchaikovsky Pas de deux, Ksenia Ovsyanick and Dino Tamazlacaru from Berlin in Onegin, Ksenia Ovsyanick also in a solo by Maurice Béjart, Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko from La Scala in Romeo and Juliet and in Mauro Bigonzetti’s Caravaggio. Shawn Wu from Gauthier Dance in Stuttgart will dance Gauthier's “Ballet 101”, other dancers from that company will dance “Envy” from “The Seven Sins” by Sharon Eyal and “Barbalu” by Fabrizio Monteverde. Rachele Buriassi and Esnel Ramos from Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Spartacus, Buriassi also in a solo and Ramos in "Les Bourgeois" by Ben van Cauwenbergh. Ballet Dortmund will dance Wayne McGregors  "Eden | Eden", also "D.A" and "Saturn by its director Xin Peng Wang.

 

 

[Sophoife]

1 hour ago, Angela said:

Ksenia Ovsyanick also in a solo by Maurice Béjart,

 

That's Squeaky Door, coached of course by Miss Gielgud (source: Miss Gielgud's Instagram).

[Angela]

If you want to apply for Artistic Director of the Vienna State Ballet, you'll find the job description here:

https://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/en/staatsoper/jobs/

[Sophoife]

15 hours ago, Angela said:

If you want to apply for Artistic Director of the Vienna State Ballet, you'll find the job description here:

https://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/en/staatsoper/jobs/

 

Ooh, I think so. 50+ years of watching including Nureyev himself, good basic German, and people management skills qualify me, surely? 🤣  The one thing they haven't asked for is some German-language skill/expertise and surely that would be useful especially in dealing with admin...?

[Angela]

3 hours ago, Sophoife said:

The one thing they haven't asked for is some German-language skill/expertise

 

I don't think Manuel Legris spoke a word of German when he went to Vienna, and they still love him there. So go ahead! 🙂

[Sophoife]

Yes @Angela but then he is Manuel Legris 😂

[Sabine0308]

Just got lucky and got a ticket for the (sold out) Premiere of the "Stravinsky" evening tomorrow.

-Petruschka by Marco Goecke

and

-Sacre du Printemps by Pina Bausch

So far, all following performances are sold out but I guess they still have some spare tix a day before.

 

Can't wait!!

[Angela]

Vienna State Ballet published the plans for next season:

 

PREMIERES 2023/24

THE MOON WEARS A WHITE SHIRT
Drittes Klavierkonzert
Music Alfred Schnittke
Choreography Martin Schläpfer
Ligeti Essays
Music György Ligeti
Choreography Karol Armitage
Dandelion Wine
Music Pietro Locatelli
Choreography Paul Taylor
Vienna Volksoper, 12 November 2023

SHIFTING SYMMETRIES
Concertante
Music Frank Martin
Choreography Hans van Manen
In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated
Music Thom Willems
Choreography William Forsythe
Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet
Music Johannes Brahms / Arnold Schönberg
Choreography George Balanchine ©The George Balachine Trust
Vienna State Opera, 23 December 2023

DIE KAMELIENDAME
Music Frédéric Chopin
Choreography John Neumeier
Vienna State Opera, 24 March 2024

LES SYLPHIDES
Les Sylphides
Music Frédéric Chopin / Alexander Glasunow
Choreography Michel Fokine
Eden (world premiere)
Music Franz Schubert & Arvo Pärt
Choreography Adi Hanan
Jeunehomme
Music Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Choreography Uwe Scholz
Vienna Volksoper, 8 May 2024

NUREJEW-GALA
Choreographies of George Balanchine, August Bournonville, William Forsythe, Harald Lander, Hans van Manen, Rudolf Nureyev & Martin Schläpfer
Vienna State Opera, 29. Juni 2024

REPERTOIRE 2023/24
DON QUIXOTE, GISELLE, GOLDBERG-VARIATIONEN, DORNRÖSCHEN, IM SIEBTEN HIMMEL, SCHWANENSEE
Vienna State Opera
COPPÉLIA (revival), PROMETHEAN FIRE, JOLANTHE UND DER NUSSKNACKER
Vienna Volksoper

 

[alison]

Pooh, Promethean fire? Love it.

[Angela]

Stuttgart Ballet's next season is finally online:

https://www.stuttgart-ballet.de/schedule/season-2023-24/

https://www.stuttgart-ballet.de/schedule/calendar/

[Angela]

Promotions, new dancers and leavers at Stuttgart:

Henrik Erikson will be promoted to soloist. Mizuki Amemiya, Christopher Kunzelmann, Daniele Silingardi and Satchel Tanner will be promoted to demi-soloists.

New in the corps de ballet: Abigail Willson-Heisel and Mitchell Millhollin from the Cranko School, former apprentices Aoi Sawano, Ruth Schultz, Emanuele Babici, Joaquin Gaubeca and Dorian Plasse. New apprentices:  Lily Babbage, Farrah Hirsch, Alice McArthur, Maceo Gerard and Leon Metelsky (all from the Cranko School), and from 2024 also Prix de Lausanne winner Soo Min Kim

Leavers: Matteo Crockard-Villa, Coralie Grand, Aurora De Mori, Jolie Rose Lombardo, Christian Pforr and Danil Zinovyev are leaving the company.

[Angela]

Choreographer Beate Vollack, who is Ballet Director at Graz in Austria, will follow Kader Belarbi at the Ballet de l'Opéra de Toulouse from season 2023/2024

[FionaM]

Interesting that Stuttgart take some Cranko school students directly into the corps and others as apprentices.  

[Angela]

I guess it depends on the places that are available.

[Angela]

Bridget Breiner, at present time Ballet Director at Karlsruhe, and Raphaël Coumes-Marquet, at present time freelance ballet master and choreographer, will take over the direction of Ballett am Rhein at Düsseldorf/Duisburg. They will succeed Demis Volpi, who is leaving to direct Hamburg Ballet in 2024. Breiner and Coumes-Marquet share a long and successful career as outstanding soloists and dancers.

 

Bridget Breiner, as chief choreographer, will dedicate herself in particular to the programmation and the creation of new pieces. She is American, was a principal dancer with Stuttgart Ballet, director of the small company of Gelsenkirchen and then for the 32 dancers at Karlsruhe; Ballet on the Rhine has 45 dancers. “We met for the first time in the rehearsal room of Semperoper Ballet Dresden in 2006. Since then, we have continuously expanded our cooperation and enjoy a very strong relationship of trust”, she says about her French colleague. He studied at Paris Opera School, was a principal/soloist at Monte-Carlo, Het Nationale and at Vienna State Ballet. For Coumes-Marquet, the focus will be on the diverse tasks of company management. During his time with the Semperoper Ballet, he developed many cross-genre projects, such as dance dinner, dance à la carte or dance:film.

[Angela]

Cologne, one of Germany’s biggest cities, did not have a ballet or dance company for more than 20 years, just a small contemporary company for some years and touring companies. Which is astonishing, as in Germany even very small towns have dance companies in their town theatres. From 2017, Cologne was in a cooperation with Munich for Richard Siegal’s “Ballet of Difference”, a Forsythe style, flamboyant and virtuoso/modern company. Now they will reopen their renovated opera house and plan to re-establish a dance company there. Just not Siegal, who was very successful in Cologne and on tour; the subsidies for his Ballet of Difference will be cancelled after this year. Cologne plans to search internationally for a new dance director; good luck, as there are so many companies looking for directors in Germany or Austria right now.

[Emeralds]

Vienna State Ballet has some nice programmes planned. I would like to see the Uwe Scholz Mozart ballet on the bill with Les Sylphides (it’s been years - decades?? - since I last saw a British company performing it) and Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet is a beautiful ballet. The name Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet actually isn’t very helpful if someone unfamiliar with it is trying to guess what it looks like or is about ....especially since it’s no longer a quartet after Schoenberg orchestrated it. 😆 It’s in four sections with ballgown type tutus (like the first part of Jewels) and a Gypsy dance style finale, but all very classical. I think our members would love it - one of the British companies should acquire it; it’s also a fun piece to dance. 

[Sabine0308]

5 hours ago, Angela said:

Cologne, one of Germany’s biggest cities, did not have a ballet or dance company for more than 20 years, just a small contemporary company for some years and touring companies. Which is astonishing, as in Germany even very small towns have dance companies in their town theatres...

Ehm...well not all of small towns (you didn't mean to say, I know 🙂). And if they do have dance companies, then these are sometimes very small. Like just 7 dancers who dance several roles in a full-length ballet. I know such a company. But yes, quantity doesn't anything about quality. I saw a Frida Kahlo ballet there and it has touched me very much.

[Angela]

Sabine, I know exactly what you mean, nevertheless people don't have to go 200 kms to see dance, if it's ballet or modern - dance is part of their theatre experience, not only plays, opera and concerts. That's how it should be. And to be honest, I have seen some performances in smaller town theatres that were not only "remarkable", but full-blown, striking artistic events. My last point: so many jobs for dancers in Germany... 🙂

[Angela]

Speaking of smaller theatres: the Aalto Theatre in Essen has also two new ballet directors, the dual leadership seems to be the new fashion in Northrhine-Westphalia. Essen is just some 20 kms from Düsseldorf/Ballet on the Rhine, and also 20 kms from Dortmund and from Wuppertal, so four big companies of 30+ dancers on a rather small space.

 

At Essen, ballet manager Marek Tůma and ballet master/choreographer Armen Hakobyan will succeed ballet director Ben van Cauwenbergh from season 2024/2025. Marek Tůma from Brno in the Czech Republic is a fomer solo dancer and has been working als deputy ballet director and ballet manager since 2008 at Essen. Armen Hakobyan from Erewan/Armenia was also a solo dancer with van Cauwenbergh, he is ballet master since 2018 and started to choreograph in 2010. They want to continue Ben van Cauwenbergs’s classical repertoire “and give more space to contemporary dance in its diverse forms of expression”, they say. Aalto Ballet Essen dances Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake or Cranko's Onegin.

 

 

[Tybalt]

Tonight Lucia Lacarra and Matthew Golding will dance Fordlandia in Munich (Cuvillies-Theatre)

 

https://www.muenchenticket.de/tickets/performances/e2jouwi2eswy/Ballett-Fordlandia

 

Tomorrow in Munich will be a Ballett-Gala with Lucia Lacarra, Matthew Golding, etc... . 

 

https://www.muenchenticket.de/tickets/performances/ef6q21a8w86z/Klassik--Ballett