tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post3378741126425985776..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Dazzling woods, stagnant lakeDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-15820524896197906512015-01-16T16:02:57.386+00:002015-01-16T16:02:57.386+00:00Agreed, a great performer is integral to the exper...Agreed, a great performer is integral to the experience. It just amazes me that these ballet nuts see very often an ENTIRE RUN in their worship of the stars. You'd think you'd choose the couple who you know will never let you down.<br /><br />You've used the King Philip instance many times before. But there are plenty of occasions where I reckon applause where an aria comes to a full stop is absolutely fair game. Again, it's about the balance the composer establishes between creating a world and serving the singer.<br /><br />Anyway, it's nothing like the endless clapping in the movements and/or variations of a Pas de deux...so delicious to hear the sequence in harmonic relations as the composer intended.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-45400478412838981862015-01-16T15:44:36.477+00:002015-01-16T15:44:36.477+00:00I would argue that the performer who can be differ...I would argue that the performer who can be different as Odette and Odile IS a central part of the performance. And this can apply generally to different artists in opera also, thus justifying visits to varying artists. I know that so many people go to the ballet or opera to enjoy themselves and not to open their hearts to the drama ( in which case your criticism is very valid). Cries of "Bravo" after the King's aria just before the Grand Inquisitor comes in ( Don Carlo) were terrible. David Damanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18409591480349323761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-7450454757396200662015-01-16T14:59:08.819+00:002015-01-16T14:59:08.819+00:00Two points, David - one, that ballet lovers in the...Two points, David - one, that ballet lovers in their seeking out the different dancers on different nights are like voice queens who care more about the performer than the work (just saying) and the other, that a poetic Odette might not always be a compelling Odile (and vice versa, as with Cojocaru - at least as my relatively untutored eye could tell). Adam Cooper was simply magnificent as both - such a sexy, compelling and - given the context - rather upsetting Black Swan in leather.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-38040189466717558342015-01-16T14:42:35.909+00:002015-01-16T14:42:35.909+00:00I remember one of my colleagues in the City - he a...I remember one of my colleagues in the City - he and his wife were madly keen ballet lovere, going to more than one performance if there was a different performer in a key role - saying that Margot Fonteyn as Odette was absolutely different as Odile, and that other dancers in the roles just did not cut the mustard (though as this was some time ago he probably did not use that phrase]David Damanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18409591480349323761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-56965331264833933442015-01-16T13:01:10.269+00:002015-01-16T13:01:10.269+00:00So much ballet choreography strikes me as super ta...So much ballet choreography strikes me as super tacky, or else more gymnastics than art. The scores started to become top-quality with the arrival of Delibes' Coppelia (some make a case for Adam's Giselle, but Jurowski came a bit of a cropper on that, and then you have to go back to Rameau). But having had my Coppelia craze indulged on Building a Library some years back, I found it's now hard to plead the case of 'ballet music' on that eminent programme.<br /><br />Of course Rodgers and Hammerstein made significant a big ballet in a musical, from Oklahoma! onwards. Just like the Paris Opera.<br /><br />One last thought: I'm working on a note for Schnittke's Epilogue to his Peer Gynt ballet music, and realized how I HAVE to hear that full score. Choreography John Neumeier had remarkable vision when it came to commissioning works like that, or using great masterpieces. It doesn't often work, for me, but I appreciate the enterprise.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-16582007268318357152015-01-16T03:38:37.204+00:002015-01-16T03:38:37.204+00:00David: Yes, good point about the change in how bal...David: Yes, good point about the change in how ballet has been perceived over time. Susan Scheidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09250142489341777926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-51913646740495185162015-01-15T22:31:27.445+00:002015-01-15T22:31:27.445+00:00Absolutely, Sue, and the more time passes, the mor...Absolutely, Sue, and the more time passes, the more I fancy Tchaik was up there with Mozart. And of course the situation is analogous with Sondheim in that before Swan Lake (and Delibes' Coppelia and Sylvia) ballet scores were pretty low art in the 19th century at least, and Tchaikovsky changed all that just as Sondheim upped the ante with musicals that didn't just have roles for opera singers but either verged on the operatic (Sweeney Todd) or did such ingenious things with a score that one can only call it highest music theatre. Maybe I go a bit far, but Into the Woods is almost as good as Turn of the Screw for tight musical organisation and cross-referencing (ie the ubiquity and transformations of the 'five beans' theme).Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-11676318260865384632015-01-15T15:32:08.226+00:002015-01-15T15:32:08.226+00:00David: Among many things I enjoyed about this post...David: Among many things I enjoyed about this post was the juxtaposition of what might be perceived in some quarters as "high" v. "low" art, demonstrating that, in the hands of the right artists, there is at best a very porous divide. Whether I can persuade the Edu-Mate to go remains to be seen, but you've made a wholly convincing case, and I want to see it. Swan Lake provides another example, one of many, in which your recommendations have served me well: in that case, the Jarvi CD, which I snapped up, as I did Jarvi’s Sleeping Beauty. Tchaikovsky really was a master, wasn't he? As is Sondheim.Susan Scheidhttps://prufrocksdilemma.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-4381364926107037012015-01-15T15:01:47.860+00:002015-01-15T15:01:47.860+00:00I'm absolutely delighted that you responded as...I'm absolutely delighted that you responded as you did to RuPaul's Drag Race, Elizabeth, and expressed its essence so beautifully - I've duly replied with gratitude back there.<br /><br />Swan Lake was the first 'classical' LP I was ever given, aged 7 - Music for Pleasure, Ballet Theatre Orchestra conducted by Joseph Levine, an unusual selection in parts. Since then I've come to love Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker more as scores, but this one has perhaps the most raw power.<br /><br />I've been rather timid of going to see Black Swan or renting it, because of the putative violence, though I remain curious: it does seem to have something to say about the schizoid Odette/Odile temperament(s). But your absolute first stop on DVD must be the Matthew Bourne production with the male swans, of which I never tire. Get the first-time-round version with Adam Cooper and Scott Ambler, if you can. I keep saying that Tchaikovsky would have been absolutely amazed and delighted to see his great Act 2 Pas d'action danced with such poetry and tenderness by two men.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-13105176041661305892015-01-15T14:39:50.413+00:002015-01-15T14:39:50.413+00:00David, I have just left a comment on your earlier ...David, I have just left a comment on your earlier post, Drag as high art. Sorry to pull up a post that's almost a month old, but it still seems most appropriate submitted there. And I needed the preparation time, as you'll understand, when you read my love note!<br /><br />Now for a word about your review of Swan Lake. It must be the most famous, even most popular, ballet in the world; and its music is special to me as evocative of early exposure to the arts. In high school, a teacher I admired, partly because she represented herself as a cultured person, mentioned one day that Swan Lake was the most beautiful ballet she had ever seen. I pulled out a record my parents had of musical highlights and from that day listened to it as often as I could, for a long time before actually seeing the ballet danced. The music became part of a combined sense memory, along with the novel I was reading when I started, and the scent I began wearing around that time. Any one of them still recalls the other components, and the period in my life, in general. I don't tire of the subject of Swan Lake and so am glad and interested to read your impressions here, especially because you are familiar enough with both the music and dance to analyze and compare. By the way, your remark about wanting a tall Odette and the possible issue of her being too much for a small Vasiliev reminds me of Tom Courtenay's line in The Dresser, "He wants a *light* Cordelia!"<br /><br />I'm mostly writing to ask your opinion. I never saw the film of Black Swan, having been warned off it as too dark. It has even been described as a psychological horror film. Have you seen it, and would you recommend it, as having very much to do with the ballet and offering any insight into the music and dance? -- ElizabethAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-18287393467809181932015-01-14T21:29:42.407+00:002015-01-14T21:29:42.407+00:00Gavin, where have you been all these months? I did...Gavin, where have you been all these months? I didn't twig for quite some time that you'd stopped writing your blog, and we haven't coincided.<br /><br />Anyway, delighted to see you here and, yes, Cojocaru struck me as cold. I like Nunez very, very much but not seen her in Swan Lake - indeed, the Mariinsky in the 1990s was the last time I saw a 'trad' version and I can't imagine Zakharova being rivalled. Except by Lopatkina. Nunez isn't tall either, though, is she? It's a challenge if not. I also saw some archive film of Mrs Shchedrin, Maya Plisetskaya, as Odile: incredible. <br /><br />Isn't Durante on the Bjornson-designed Sleeping Beauty which I seem to remember you loved as much as I did?Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-90968023601184690592015-01-14T17:11:49.310+00:002015-01-14T17:11:49.310+00:00Interesting to read your thoughts on Cojacaru... a...Interesting to read your thoughts on Cojacaru... a wonderful dancer, but after the flush of appealing girlish youth when she first danced Giselle and Aurora at the ROH, I grew bored, often finding her cold and unyiedling (the glories of her dancing aside). My favourite Aurora is still Viviana Durante. Nobody 'got' the difference between the giggly entrance Allegro giusto and the Rose Adagio better than her. Marianela Nuñez is my go-to Odette/Odile.Gavin Plumleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08367649538228383713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-7834753797100700202015-01-14T11:54:59.199+00:002015-01-14T11:54:59.199+00:00Literary, yes, much more so than my list, though p...Literary, yes, much more so than my list, though possibly at the expense of generosity re my special pleading...Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-68876432049958030682015-01-14T00:02:17.715+00:002015-01-14T00:02:17.715+00:00Wanderer - you get the Damant Prize for that sente...Wanderer - you get the Damant Prize for that sentence. How it builds up clause by clause until the punch is delivered in the principal clause, preceded correctly by the only comma. <br /><br />Magnificent. Rather like Handel's Zadok the Priest<br /><br />As for the "maybe" it detracts from the punch, but legitimately so. It undermines the whole argument - or places the two possibilities in parallel. One is left reflectingDavid Damanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18409591480349323761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-61684734492608937332015-01-14T00:01:31.172+00:002015-01-14T00:01:31.172+00:00wanderer: a) Disney gives free rein to the Dark Si...wanderer: a) Disney gives free rein to the Dark Side, b) I didn't know who half the cast were, and as you see it's not nearly as starry as the readthrough group of 1995, c) Jonny Depp is onscreen for less than 10 minutes, and does his song as well as he does Sweeney Todd, d) Meryl, who's had too much stick just for being a great actress with a sense of humour, can sing, and not embarrassingly as in the horrid Mamma Mia, e) it does what a film does at its best and makes you forget the different world of the staging, and f) the Red Riding Hood and the Jack are both kids rather than Infant Phenomenon drama-school graduates. Just go.<br /><br />But heck, didn't I say most of that up top? So maybe there's no convincing some people. Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-23502351853755137782015-01-13T21:54:12.040+00:002015-01-13T21:54:12.040+00:00Saddled with an aversion to Disney Perfection and ...Saddled with an aversion to Disney Perfection and Endless Hollywood Stars (exceptions apply) and being thoroughly over Jonny Depp (peaked early in Dead Man for me) not to mention finding Meryl Streep increasingly being Meryl Streep being clever and having been tickled to bits with Into The Woods at Lindbury some years ago and overcome by the sheer energy of youth and joy of performance and its immediacy, I wasn't going to go but now I might, maybe.wandererhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08196036534397389760noreply@blogger.com