Bolshoi cinema broadcasts 2013-2014 - feedback thread

[MAB]

So Lantratov doesn't even deserve a mention because you didn't see your favourite, Vasiliev?  Very unfair in my view,

[Bruce Wall]

So Lantratov doesn't even deserve a mention because you didn't see your favourite, Vasiliev?  Very unfair in my view,

 

Sorry MAB but I personally feel that is a very unfair comment.  I have nothing against Mr. Lantratov as you seem to suggest .... Indeed I have enjoyed much of the work I have been privileged to see him offer - as I have written on this board in the past.  I did not mention him on this occasion as he had been mentioned in the comments by others above.  I trust (indeed I'm sure) that you yourself do not 'mis-favour' the others simply because you did not mention them in yours.  I fear I could not bring myself to believe such a thing about such a generous commentator as your good self and certainly would never state such.  I wish you a most delightful day. 

Edited February 3, 2014 by Meunier

[Ian Macmillan]

The main screen in Cambridge, probably full for Jewels a couple of weeks ago, seemed just over half-full yesterday for the unfamiliar Lost Illusions.  There were lots of good things, with the Principals and company working their socks off - Mlle Shipulina on that table, most memorably - but I found it just too long.  I fear I lost focus in that long first-act pdd and, whilst the Sylphide insert was needed to make the story, for me it went on a bit too long.  The score was a bit on the heavy side for my taste, though I loved all of the inserts for Mezzo, beautifully sung, that got me thinking what might be possible with 'The Field of The Dead' aria from Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky.  There's a good 2-Act piece in all of it somewhere, but I don't think I'd care to sit through the full thing should it ever be brought to London.

[alison]

Just wanted to also mention that I saw this in the relative splendour of the Brixton Rityz's Studio 5 and that it was surprisingly well attended.

Yes, I considered trying to get to that showing, but saw online that there was little seating availability and didn't want to take the risk of getting all the way there and then finding I couldn't get in. I'm so glad they've finally got around to showing seating for the Ritzy, like all the other Picturehouses - have they been doing that long?

[Bruce Wall]

I'm so glad they've finally got around to showing seating for the Ritzy, like all the other Picturehouses - have they been doing that long?

 

Well, I think the Ritzy started out showing the seating to be selected --- and then just making it general (as they did for some of the Met showings).  Realising that some people really enjoyed selecting specific seats they reverted to their original practice (e.g., you can select on line) in 2013 for ballet / opera / theatre screenings/performances.  Hope that helps, Alison.  

[toursenlair]

I really enjoyed this ballet and thought Lantratov was fabulous, especially in those fab solos. Vishneva was also worth the price of admission. I loved the design.

I would buy a ticket to see this live if I had the opportunity.

The cinema in downtown Toronto had about 60-80 people in it (about 2/3 full), which was more than I expected for an unfamiliar title. At least 4 other cinemas in Toronto were showing it.  I knew several people in the audience, and they were all very positive about the ballet.

[Amelia]

I liked Ratmansky's inventiveness. He always brings something new, like the extended 'citations' here from the ballets, which serve to characterising two opposing heroines and also the hero’s aspirations spiralling down from romantic heights into low-minded burlesque. The scanty stylish scenery was well complimented by beautiful costumes. All performers were good but somehow the savour of “La Comédie humaine” was missing for me.

After it ended I and another viewer went to the Wimbledon Odeon manager to complain about cracking sounds (there were seven of them), which were irritating and distracting during the transmission. He apologised of course, gave us some tokens and promised “to take appropriate measures”. Whether it works we will see on the 30^th of March.

[alison]

Thanks, Amelia, you've reminded me about an as-yet-unsent email to the cinema manager re the RB Giselle that I need to write

[alison]

Well, I think the Ritzy started out showing the seating to be selected --- and then just making it general (as they did for some of the Met showings).  Realising that some people really enjoyed selecting specific seats they reverted to their original practice (e.g., you can select on line) in 2013 for ballet / opera / theatre screenings/performances.  Hope that helps, Alison.  

 

Thanks, Meunier.  My problem is that, with several possible options to choose from, I don't want to risk going somewhere which is sold out or virtually so and then missing the chance to go elsewhere, which is why I'm glad I can now see whether I'm likely to be able to get a seat or not.

[Ian Macmillan]

Just remembered - during the first interval, whilst Mme Novikova was doing her delightful thing, we were treated to a bit of 'Can you see me, Mum?' by  a chap in a Lenny the Lion onesie ..... and a fair bit of woodwind arpeggios and so forth when I'd have thought the players would have been taking a break.  Odd.

[Don Q Fan]

The chap in the bear onesie was in the Jewels transmission too!

[toursenlair]

Lantratov was also in on the photo-bombing, sitting next to the bear on the couch.

[Mary]

Marco Spada must be one of the sillier ballets- the spectacle at times beautiful or magnificent but one is left wondering whether it really merits so much effort and expense. At times it seemed to be more  an attempt to get into the Guinness book of records for greatest number of performers in extravagant costumes on the stage at one time ( even a labrador at one point) rather than any kind of attempt at creating an artistic unity.

However, there was some marvellous dancing, in particular the pas de deuxs in the act 2 ball, and Semyon Chudin , I thought, managed to imbue his daft role with some meaning through the sheer grace and dignity of his dancing. David Hallberg hammed it up tremendously. I was greatly impressed but thought he was a bit untidy at times.

But it  is very difficult to know what to say really about such a strange melange !

 

Again the presentation was impressive with trilingual detailed commentary on the ballet's history, choreography, music etc very much putting the Royal Ballet presentation to shame.

Edited March 30, 2014 by Mary

[Beryl H]

This was the first Bolshoi relay I've seen in the cinema and thought it was a triumphant success, already had the old DVD of the Rome Ballet with Rudolf Nureyev so knew a bit what to expect, marvellous dancing especially from David Hallberg, top class technical aspects, really felt I was at the Bolshoi (I went there once). The intervals were full of interesting backstage footage and interviews too, great to see Pierre Lacotte and David Hallberg, please release a Blu-Ray soon!

[Don Q Fan]

I loved Marco Spada full of fabulous demanding choreography brought to life by the wonderful dancers. Great costumes, scenery and music. Bravo the Bolshoi please bring this to London! Ms Novikova's commentary/interviews wonderful as usual.

[polishrose]

My eldest daughter treated me to this as a Mother's Day present and we both loved it.I have never actually seen a ballet before-she has seen several in theatres and a few at the cinema and on DVD.I don't know anything about the technical aspects of the dancing but some of the sequences were breathtaking.We both loved David Hallberg's death scene.All the dancers were outstanding!

I will be on the lookout for more live ballet like this-I can't afford to travel to London and watch in person so this is a great compromise for me

[Terpsichore]

Pathe Live's HDTV transmission from Moscow is the next best thing to being in the stalls of the Bolshoi Theatre. The camera is used intelligently with distance shots of the corps and close-ups only of solos and pas de deux that a member of the audience might want to see. Katerina Novikova is a knowledgeable and personable presenter. There are interesting interviews with those engaged in the production such as the choreographer Pierre Lacotte and David Hallberg who danced the title role. Pathe Live also transmits operas from the Met which I think are the HDTV transmissions around,

 

I enjoyed the performance very much. I loved Auber's score. I admired Lacotte's choreography and designs. I was thrilled by the dancing - particularly that of David Hallberg and Evgenia Obraztsova.

 

In the first interval the camera caught a cute little girl in the foyer practising her turns quite oblivious of her international audience of thousands util her mum moved her out of sight. Obviously she is now smitten with balletomania for the rest of her life.

[stucha]

Apparently, this will be released on DVD next year.

[Bruce Wall]

Went to the Brixton Ritzy to see Marco Spada.  The audience (including myself) clearly loved it ....  So what if the storyline is a little north of Mayerling (and that certainly takes some doing!!!)  This was a lot of fun ... primarily because it was ALL about the dancing .... and there was as much enticing variance in those oh, so many fleet of foot as there was in the truly stunning shades which enhanced the glorious set painting ... and zealous costumes where pastels vibrantly sat proudly atop their associated primary colours.  I so admired ALL of the five principal dancers.  The charisma charged David Hallberg and the radiant Evgenia Obraztsova clearly came into their own in the last act - although that adagio for their pas in the second - in which the partnering was SO difficult - was sublimely satin in its grace.  Loved too the precise clarity of Smirnova and Chudin - (I raced back and watched them again in Diamonds and Oneign - he a wonderfully straight forward Lensky - She a fascinatingly cool Tatiana) - but was also delighted by Igor Tsvirko - so wonderful now that he is getting these broadcast opportunities - so well deserved.  Tsvirko was as fantastic too in that Emeralds Trio in the last Bolshoi broadcast but one.  I also treasured the riveting zeal of the vivacious Anastasia Stashkevich - the woman is such a gift in everything she does - and the ever immaculate Vyacheslav Lopatin - who had been such a fine James in Kobburg's Bolshoi La Sylphide - in the celebratory wedding pas during Act I.  The Ritzy was well over 90% full on a sunny Sunday - and for such a rarity too.  Maybe those 2 for 1s really paid off!!  Might people be wanting more than the seasonal repeats of the Royal;s SL, R&J, Alice, etc.  I couldn't say.  Clearly, however, the Bolshoi/Pathe have this filming technique down pat now.  No one in the market are otherwise able to touch them from my standpoint.  (And that includes the French - and the two technical producers here are both Gallic in origin.).  Apart from what others have quite rightly observed this team shoots the ballet from ALL levels.  It REALLY pays off in terms of the immediacy for the cinematic viewer's theatrical perspective ... It is as electric as Ms. Novikova is now surely a Russian national treasure ... (if the Russian's have such an expression.)  Certainly she is so much more at ease - and happily adept at putting us at ours - than that (now) television personality who the RB insists on employing to (attractively it must be said) gurgle.  It was interesting this time to note that Ms. Novikova only translated her conversations into English and French, e.g., no Russian - and Marco Spada was being broadcast live on Russian Television.  (I'm sure they must have been delighted to hear David Hallberg break twice into a little Russe!!  I wished he had responded in French as well (which he is well capable of).  Still, perhaps the Russians have a different feed.  Perhaps the act breaks are filled with Crimean updates!!!.  One thing I found most amusing:  There is obviously - in that stunningly ornate lobby - a camera behind a mirror.  (Tick box: 'Old trick'.)  Most people didn't notice at all it seems - (quite right too).  One woman, however, with her male escort in strict tow came directly in front of our view.  She was on her phone.  I could just hear her friend on the other end saying:  'Yes, yes.  That's it.  You've made it.  You're looking right at me now ... and around the world.  NOW SMILE'.  She did ... oh, and waved.  It may not have been nonchalant but then neither was the ballet.  Still, it too garnered a happy laugh  ... and the dancing was graced with much rapturous applause from the more than contented crowd I was surrounded by.  One thing is certain:  The WILL be back .... at least for the Bolshoi's more diverse programming.   They clearly left wanting more.  Well done the Bolshoi team.  

Edited March 31, 2014 by Meunier

[Mary]

We all agree the filming was far superior to the RB filming- better angles and choice of shot at every point. The best type of filming allows you to forget about it and feel you are there.The presentation is always  also light years better than RB. For me this is all to the good as I go to the RB a little more often than I go to Moscow!

However, I do not find these huge spectacular 19thC  ballets as satisfying on any level as the diet of well- honed classics and Ashton-Macmillan I was brought up on.

Dancing alone, amazingly virtuousic as it is, is not enough. As a poster said re Sleeping Beauty-'I don't go to it just for the virtuouso solos' - and I agree- it is the whole  that counts.

Interesting isn't it.

[Bruce]

Add my praise for Marco Spada. If you are going to do good old fashioned ballet that's the way to do it.

 

The interesting thing for me was that Hallberg didn't really seem to engage the same technical gear as the other principals until the last act. He is fast, but not as precise as the home team.

 

But this was a great success and much better than Lost Illusions - if its always the dancers that make you lust to see more of the Bolshoi.

[Terpsichore]

Bruce,

 

While trying to research Marco Spada for an article for my blog I came across this interview with Pierre Lacotte by one Bruce Marriott which I found very interesting. I wondered whether you might have been the author and interviewer. If you were then I congratulate you.

 

I enjoyed the ballet and would like to see it again. I wish one of our companies would take it up but I appreciate the reasons why they would be reluctant to do so.

 

Having said that there does seem to be a resistance to importing ballets from Russia and the non-English speaking world generally. Spartacus is a case in point. It has a beautiful score but so far as I can remember no British company has ever danced it and I can't think of any company in the USA or Commonwealth that has ever staged it either.

Edited March 31, 2014 by terpsichore

[annamk]

Add my praise for Marco Spada. If you are going to do good old fashioned ballet that's the way to do it.

 

The interesting thing for me was that Hallberg didn't really seem to engage the same technical gear as the other principals until the last act. He is fast, but not as precise as the home team.

 

But this was a great success and much better than Lost Illusions - if its always the dancers that make you lust to see more of the Bolshoi.

I agree with you re Hallberg. His presence at the Bolshoi puzzles me, I find him technically and dramatically in a lower league than the current roster of Bolshoi men. That's not to say he's not a very good dancer just IMO not good enough to warrant him being at the Bolshoi.

[MAB]

terpsichore, I think you will find that the Australian Ballet have a version of Spartacus in their rep.  Very different to the Bolshoi's but very well done with the emphasis being on the gladiators rather than the Romans - a bit homo-erotic in my view, but a very effective production.  Try and get a DVD of it and you'll see what I mean.

[alison]

Let's face it, most ballet companies aren't exactly abounding in the sort of male dancers who could convincingly carry off something as bombastic as Spartacus, especially not Bolshoi-style . I did see the Byelorussian Ballet do it at Sadler's Wells sometime in the late 80s/early 90s, though. And of course the Mikhailovsky brought their version to the Coliseum a few years back, so it does seem to be a predominantly "Russian" sort of thing.

[helpop]

I really enjoyed it.  The plot was clearly absolutely bonkers, even by ballet's fairly loose standards, but it was certainly a fantastic visual spectacle.  The dancing was amazing, not to mention the costumes and the set.

 

All 5 principals danced superbly.  I thought David Hallberg came across with great charisma, and was a better actor compared to the other principals - in the scene at his house where the ladies are dancing, I found myself watching him just sitting in the chair, as he was reacting really convincingly.

 

I could have probably done with a bit less act II - there seemed to be an absence of narrative, and a lot of what I would term "gala pieces".  I found the continued mid-performance applause from the Russian audience during this section got a bit irritating; when you're sitting in a silent cinema and there are continued curtain calls mid-scene you start thinking get on with it!  

 

The narrative pace throughout was a bit strange, with the story shoved into about 5 minutes of mime, following 20 mins of pas de deuxs.  The sudden appearance of a stage full of bandits in act III was also a bit peculiar - where did 20 lady bandits suddenly spring from?  And why did his daughter go from being crushed by Dad turning out to be a villain and ruining her engagement at the end of act II, to being really happy to join in the bandit fun in act III?  I feel a bit sorry for the dancer trying to make sense of that characterisation!

 

But putting huge gaping plotholes aside, it was a really enjoyable performance.  You have to be in awe of the sheer scale and ambition of it.  I'm not surprised it hasn't yet been tried by other companies, it must cost an absolute fortune!

[Bruce]

Bruce,

 

While trying to research Marco Spada for an article for my blog I came across this interview with Pierre Lacotte by one Bruce Marriott which I found very interesting. I wondered whether you might have been the author and interviewer. If you were then I congratulate you.

Yes, my piece and thank you.

 

 

I agree with you re Hallberg. His presence at the Bolshoi puzzles me, I find him technically and dramatically in a lower league than the current roster of Bolshoi men. That's not to say he's not a very good dancer just IMO not good enough to warrant him being at the Bolshoi.

 

Hallberg is a class piece of work but the Bolshoi, at principal level, are gold in work like this it seems. He has a hell of a 'brand'/following and I was generally surprised to see him outshone as he was in a technical sense. I think there is a lot of interest in 'westerners' training or dancing with Soviet companies and that suits all. Hard to say more, based on one piece, but be interesting to know what (realistic) Moscow fans think, based on seeing much more of him in the rep. BUT he is very good dancer - who most companies would kill for. It really points out the strength in Moscow.