La Belle au bois dormant - 9/3 au 23/4 & 27/6 au 14/7/25

[Gimi]

À noter que les représentations des 7 et 10 avril doivent faire l’objet d’une captation pour une diffusion dans des salles de cinéma “en direct” le 10/4/25, puis ultérieurement sur des chaînes de France.tv.

[NEOPHYTE]

Quelques places pour ce soir sont en vente sur le site de l’opéra de Paris

[TAHbKA]

Marque is completely removed from the cast, Park is dancing all her 5 shows with Lelli.

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I don't speak French and use an automatic translation to/from English. If I don't make sense it's not me:)

[Gimi]

[Jonquille]

Merci, Gimi. Des premiers danseurs pour les chats ? Etrange... Aurez-vous le temps de préparer un nouveau tableau avec les modifications annoncées ?

[Gimi]

[Jadzy]

A friend and I watched the Sleeping Beauty performance on 31st. March 25. I had come specifically to see Shale Wagman's debut as Bluebird. Since I discovered him at Prix de Lausanne 2018, where he won the first place and the Rudolph Nurejev award for exceptional artistry, I follow his career. After seeing him in London and St. Petersburg I was very happy when he joined Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, so it was easier to travel to see him.
His Bluebird was a true bird onstage for me with fluttering hands, quick head movements and beautiful jumps. His usual "all heart and art" dancing made it such a joy to see him. Alongside the exquisite Inès McIntosh as Princess Florine, they performed very well together and with charm and elegance.
The audience gave them roaring applause and lots of Bravos, which was very well deserved.

Meanwhile, I read that some people were not happy with Shale Wagman's interpretation of the Bluebird. Well. There is always room for improvement, but nasty comments about a debut are just that, nasty and snobbish.
I would like to share here the opinion of a person I do not know, but found their post on bluesky. It's in French, so I translated it for me, and I couldn't agree more. I quote the poster RomainFall:

"Alors je vois très bien ce qui peut déranger (voire agacer) dans son interprétation, mais personnellement j'ai adoré. J'ai vu un véritable oiseau et pas un danseur qui danse le rôle de l'oiseau bleu. Et j'ai trouvé qu'il y avait un vrai dialogue entre lui et Ines McIntosh sur le pas de deux.
Mais c'est ça qui est intéressant. Voir un artiste arriver en scène avec une vraie proposition. Ça ne plait pas à tout le monde, mais on s'en souvient. (Et ça donne matière à débattre sur les réseaux, et ça on aime)"

Yes indeed. An artist cannot please everyone, and in my opinion, it is their right and obligation to be different.
As long as management gives them artistic freedom, taking into account the choreography of course, then artists can grow. And the production can also benefit from fresh air.
I hope the upcoming release on French cinema can be watched in Germany and other countries too, from May 2025, at least that's what I read.
I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful evening, Thomas Docquir and Heloise Bourdon were a very elegant Prince and Aurora. The fun part, "Chat/Chatte" (Manuel Garrido/Claire Gandolfi) was also a joy to watch, and the costumes took my breath away.
Since Berlin is about to lose its classical repertoire, I congratulate POB for keeping the torch alive!!

[Katharine Kanter]

If the shoe fits, wear it!

The "nasty and snobbish" cut there, was likely intended for the author of these lines.

Oh well - Life in the Big City as they say.

This Blue Bird pas de deux is serious business. The Bird's role was created by our friend Cecchetti himself, and Florine was Varvara Nikitina.

The Paris Opera version is a difficult one, and has been filmed with several of the theatre's exceptional artists. Which one is expected to study before launching into One's Own Thing.

Given the fact that this is one of the world's four or five greatest theatres, held up as an example to the profession. Or so one hopes.

Mr. Wagman is no beginner. He is 25 years old, has been performing since childhood, and on stage as a professional for nearly a decade.

The pas de deux refers to a real social issue: until VERY recently, women who declined to marry the individual they had been ordered to, were wont to be placed under virtual house arrest, or sent to a convent. Or, as here, locked into a tower from which the only escape was by "flying" down ... sometimes to unfortunate results. (My very own granny escaped through a window and down a ladder at midnight to marry the chosen one. That was in Manchester, a mere century ago. Led to complete social ostracism and general disaster...).

Forced marriages were still a Big Thing in Russia when the pdd was composed. Pushkin often refers to this.

So one is acting a part, with layers of metaphor; it's only partly a fairy tale - there is a serious undercurrent. While the technique is there to serve the part.

Technically, that's far harder than barrelling through the steps at gale-force wind. And ending up a gust of hot air.

One can play it a thousand ways, but one must play the part.

People in Europe have just lived through two World Wars, with some nutters attempting to thrust a Third upon them. Which may explain why European artists tend - I say tend and not invariably - to dig deeper into themselves. Whether consciously or pre-consciously, they intuit that their art, is the fine line separating our society from .... YOU KNOW WHAT.

Do we still perceive what it is to be moved, as opposed to being gobsmacked?

[Jadzy]

[Katharine Kanter]

Since the curious Blue Bird events of last week here have unleashed arguments on all fronts, I'd like to raise the "virtuosity" issue once more.

The word is from the Italian virtù. Italianate/Latin root: Vir, which means Man.

The idea being courage, resoluteness, moral purity and generally - pushing the boat out.

In the ballet, we need to ask ourselves what we mean by an art form.

We've had this problem with "pianistique" in the USSR and USA - as opposed to "componistique" - people piano-pounding "competently" as opposed to little ol' Badura-Skoda or lil'old Scott Ross for example.

Piano-pound for Liszt if you wish, but piano-pound for the Biggies ? Perhaps not?

The purpose of an art form is to make people THINK.

Think about ideas - whether consciously or PRE-consciously, outwith their everyday ho-hum field of endeavour.

Anything that detracts from that, lies outwith the domain of art.

In the ballet, we have a major problem : gravity, which the musician has to combat with far lesser intensity.

We must disguise the pull of gravity, one of the major objects of technique.

After Vaganova and Pushkin died, the Soviet school, damn impressive under their rule, pretty much went to hell with all the pushing and thrusting. Dominated by the demands of terrible choreographers oblivious to accident and injury, and whose names we Shall Not Mention.

Rather than keep up the brilliant achievements of Vaganova, rectifying a few touches here and there - the forward head posture and clipped-together shoulder-blades for example- and improving the batterie - the USSR unfortunately opted for Guillemitis in the late 80's. The idea being "anything the West can do we can do better".

This has wrecked their school. Sorry, but it's been wrecked. "Jambolâtrie" as Miss Sophia has put it here.

This does NOT mean they are terrible dancers. It means they are ON THE WRONG TRACK.

So it comes down to what are the Paris Opera and the Royal Ballet in England and Denmark doing, to keep the aspidastra flying?

The ball is in our camp.

Next chapter, later on today.

[NEOPHYTE]

Shale Wagman danse ce soir..l’oiseau bleu
Héloïse Bourdon danse la 6eme variation
Et il y a quelques places en vente 🤔

[Jonquille]

Je pense que c'est plutôt Lorenzo Lelli qu'il ne faut pas rater. Et ça tombe bien : il danse le rôle principal...

[NEOPHYTE]

Effectivement 😂

[Jadzy]

1. You live, you learn. Means every performance is different.
2. Jose Martinez has cast Wagman for 4 performances, including the two that will be recorded/broadcast for theaters on April 7 and 10. If Martinez wasn't happy with Wagman's two previous performances, then he could have easily dropped him from the cinema runs. But he didn't. End.

[CatherineS]

Il ne va pas déprogrammer Inès McIntosh et il joue justement sur la renommée de Wagman, même si [édité par la modération] le grand public même présent ne voit pas ce que beaucoup reproche à l'Oiseau bleu de Wagman.

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https://blogdecathyblog.wordpress.com/
https://dansespluriel.soforums.com/index.php
https://www.mesopinions.com/petition/art-culture/defense-repertoire-tradition-opera-paris/38922