Tonight was the second performance about Othello with Cyril Pierre and Lucia Lacarra. The ballet is really very interesting. Lubovich arrive by choreography to depicted really fine the character and their personnality. The pdd are absolutely wonderful. Music remains to me also Dutilleux works and especially Le Loup. <BR>Act II is really a success, with this alternative group dance and pdd so intensive between Othello and Iago, the pdd where Othello ask for the handkerchief and Desdemona'reaction, Bianca dance and so on... In Act 3, the first picture in Othello's room is really a marvellous thing, the suggestion by Iago and the illustration of Othello thinks. Pdd in first act are so sensuality and announced the drama with the handkerchief around Desdemona neck.<BR>Garnier was full tonight and it was a great success. Lacarra and Pierre are a couple in life and we see it on stage, the relationship between them are more closer. You believe completely in their passionate love. <BR>Pierre's Othello is more convincing that Possokhov one. Possokhov is more "one piece", he is not tortured as Pierre. Pierre suffers, he has more feeling. Besides of him Lacarra is really beautiful in the role. She is lyric too but less cold than Tan. Julia Adam is always perfect in Emilia. Damian Smith is a more cynical Iago than Parrish Maynard and somewhere he is a few more human. Gonzalo Garcia is always brilliant in Cassio role. Alice Lu An Lewitzke is a good Bianca but it miss to her the peps of Feijoo. Against she dances very well but she has a lack of presence on stage.<BR>It was a big success tonight. I don't know how will be Pierre-François Vilanoba tomorrow in this role but Cyril Pierre was really magnificent.<BR>The corps de ballet is always good.<P>A little link about the first programm <A HREF="http://fr.news.yahoo.com/010514/1/1a0f9.html" TARGET=_blank>http://fr.news.yahoo.com/010514/1/1a0f9.html</A> <P>The cast for tomorrow matinee is<BR>Othello.........Pierre-François Vilanoba<BR>Desdemona.......Katita Waldo<BR>Iago............Damian Smith<BR>Emilia..........Julia Adam<BR>Cassio..........Gonzalo Garcia<BR>Bianca..........Alice Lu An Lewitzke<BR>for tomorrow evening it's<BR>the same that yesterday Possokhov, Tan, Adam, Maynard, Garcia and Feijoo.<P><p>[This message has been edited by Cathy (edited May 18, 2001).]

Many thanks Cathy. I'm surprised that SFB are not bringing 'Othello' to London given the preference in the UK for full length narrative work.

Last performances of Othello. <BR>This afternoon it was Pierre François Vilanoba and Katita Waldo who interpret the main roles. It's not because I'm french, that I will say I saw the best Othello. Vilanoba is Othello, he has the beast instinct, dances with necessary strongh, musicality, fluidity. He completely understands the character. His partnership was absolutely perfect. Really lover of his Desdemone, hated her, love, hate all is fine. The final pdd was absolutely wonderful and his death is a great moment so strongh and full of emotion. Besides him, Katita Waldo is the best dramatical Desdemona even she is certainly not the best technically speaking, but she is Desdemone and her acting is really amazing in all the final scene of the "Ave Maria" and naturly the pdd before her death. This scene is absolutely wonderful. Garcia was again Cassio, more better day after day, I think he would be principal. Damian Smith is also wonderful as Iago as well as Julia Adam whose acting is really a marvellous thing. Alice Lu An Lewintsky in Bianca was better than yesterday night. Corps de ballet was really good too.<BR>Tonight for the ending night it was again Tan and Possokhov, they were wonderful too but don't play at all as Waldo and Vilanoba. Possokhov is more human, he danced like a cat. Here again the last pdd was absolutely perfectly danced. Parrish Maynard doesn't act as Damian Smith, he is more "awful", more devil. <BR>Really this ballet is a wonderful piece, it's a little masterwork, by the intensity of the dance, the quality of pdd, intelligence of movement. All in this ballet is really so well studied. I hope they will add it at POB repertory. <BR>Really good performance, really good ballets and good company I hope you can see it really often. <BR>Garnier was full for the both performance and acclamations prove that SFB has make the good choice in the ballet and in the dancers. At the ending curtain, all the company was here around the Othello dancer to say Goodbye to Paris audience. I hope we will see it very sooner so they were good, brilliant and their repertory really interesting.<BR>Thomasson makes certainly the best choice for the France Capitale with mixed bill typically american ballet and full lenght version of Othello.

Cathy, it is unfortunate you didn't see Stephen Legate as Cassio. I thought he was perfect for the part; beautiful and graceful, exactly the kind of personality that Iago would hate.<P>And what did you think of the Iago madness scene where he goes through manic gyrations? I always thought that was a pivotal moment in the development of the character -- it really showed you how crazy this person was.<P>More later.

It seems that Stephen Legate is not come with the troup, he was cast on no ballet at all as well as Vadim Solomakha, but perhaps are they injuried.<BR>But we saw almost the principal or soloist.<BR>I love all Othello and every scene, the madness scene is really amazing and Maynard and Smith are completely the character. I particularly enjoy also the pdd between Emilia and Iago where she is completely "his thing" and after when she understand his husband wants to cheat Desdemone. Julia Adam was really a great interpret so well as dance level than as characterization of Emilia.<BR>Do you know if Smith could become a principal as well as Garcia. <BR>In the corps de ballet, I saw again Michael Eaton and I saw particularly in the comedian troup a young female dancer, blue dressed, I believe it's Elisabeth Miner besides of Ikolo Griffin, who is always smiling, he looks happy to dance.<BR>One question has the role of Emilia other interpret than Julia Adam and which is the creator of Bianca role ?<P>My only regret is to not dare to speak to them, Wait to see them yesterday night and don't dare to say to Miss Adam, she was a wonderful dancer and a wonderful choreographer, and don't dare to speak to Thomasson, to thank him for this magnificent company where the level is homogeneous and really high.<BR>Only regret, one more time, the french ballet lovers don't come to see really them, just one time when they come.<BR>Very strange as attitude, I saw the 7 performances and I'm sad it's finished so I find them good.<BR><p>[This message has been edited by Cathy (edited May 20, 2001).]

Such devotion:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><B>They love Paris in the spring <BR>Exchange promotes esprit de corps</B><P>Carolyne Zinko, SF Chronicle<P>It's a terrible duty, but someone had to do it. More than 100 San Francisco arts patrons flew to the City of Lights to watch the S.F. Ballet perform this week and party, Parisian style, as part of a cultural exchange with the Paris Opera Ballet and its supporters.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/05/20/DD196641.DTL" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A>

Catherine -- I'm glad that the SFB ended successfully (though it may not have pleased all French balletomanes) and I hope that they'll have this kind of exchange more in the future. I'm particularly touched by the fact that there's an exchange like this between US and European companies. And Cathy, thank you so much for the wonderfully insightful reviews!!

Cathy, thanks for your reports. You mentioned Elizabeth Miner--she is one of my favorites, too. I find she can be really lyrical. As for Ikolo Griffin, this was his last season with SFB. He's moving on to Dance Theater of Harlem.<P>You really have an eye for talented dancers. I agree completely with your picks.<P>

>My only regret is to not dare to speak to them, Wait to see them yesterday night and don't dare to say to Miss Adam, she was a wonderful dancer and a wonderful choreographer, and don't dare to speak to Thomasson, to thank him for this magnificent company><P>Catherine, you should have thanked them in person, and I guess that they would have liked meeting you!<P>

I want to thank you, too, Cathy, for your wonderful reporting. You have been the eyes and ears for us.

I'm sad to not follow the company in England or Spain, I would like discover the other ballets.<BR>1. I saw every time the company came in Paris with Swan Lake or their two mixed bill the last time and I always found it marvellous.<BR>His level is better than ever<BR>2. It's true that without Vilanoba, I perhaps don't go so often to see, but even I was not been deceived by him at contrary I found him better than ever, I discover a true company. And I was happy to discover every day a new dancer, principal or soloist.<BR>3. I don't dare to speak with them because if in wrote langage I can write even with faults. My speaking english is not good, and I never find my word.<BR>4. Do you have some informations about Elisabeth Miner, Damian Smith, Michael Eaton Alice Lu An Lewitzke ?<BR>Which age they have, have they chance to go up soloist for Miner, Lewitzke and Eaton, Principal for Smith ?<BR>Two principal and a soloist don't dance Solomkha, Legate and Hench. But it seems I till see Legate.<BR>"Merci pour votre gentillesse à tous". <BR>Thanks for your kindness.<P>

Cathy, Stephen Legate was injured during the "Sleeping Beauty" run.

Cathy, I'm afraid I haven't been able to find a lot of information on the dancers that you've mentioned. As for Alice LuAnn Lewitzke, I don't know how old she is but I believe she won an "Art Recognition and Talent Search" Competition in 1994. The last time I saw Damian Smith, I thought he would make a wonderful Tybalt -- I wonder if he has danced it. I too found Elizabeth Miner very charming. I believe all of them have the opportunity to become soloists or principals -- it is a matter of how they keep on developing as dancers. But SFB seems very competitive and I wouldn't be surprised to see some of these talented dancers not being able to dance enough roles!

<font size=2><B><BR>Le Ballet de San Francisco au Palais Garnier </B></font><BR>René Sirvin - Imagidanse : <P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><BR>Le Ballet de San Francisco est la plus ancienne compagnie classique des Etats Unis, précédant de peu l’American Ballet Theatre et le New York City Ballet. Fondé en 1933 par Adolph Bolm -qui fit sensation dans les Danses Polovtsiennes de Fokine en 1909 au Théâtre du Châtelet avec les Ballets Russes- le San Francisco Ballet est aussi la première troupe américaine à avoir inscrit à son programme les grands ballets du XIX ème siècle, Coppelia, Le Lac des Cygnes ou Casse-Noisette. Depuis 1985 le San Francisco Ballet est dirigé par Helgi Tomasson, beau danseur classique au style le plus pur, que les Français ont pu découvrir tout jeune avec le Harkness Ballet dans les années 1960. Né en Islande, formé à l’école danoise et remarqué par Jérôme Robbins, Helgi Tomasson fut engagé en 1970 au New York City Ballet où il mènera une brillante carrière de soliste pendant quinze ans, avant de prendre la direction de la grande compagnie de l’Ouest américain.<BR><HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><a href="http://www.imagidanse.com/francais/presse/14-Mai-01/SanFrancisco.html"target="_blank"><B>pour en lire plus</B></a><P><BR>An other link about Cyril Pierre, one of french dancer of the troup. <BR> <A HREF="http://fr.news.yahoo.com/010518/1/1aef4.html" TARGET=_blank>http://fr.news.yahoo.com/010518/1/1aef4.html</A> <P><BR>I'm a few surprised that french press don't speak at all from Pïerre-François Vilanoba, he is a french Principal as well as Muriel Maffre or Cyril Pierre. Why don't speak about him, is it because he was at POB before. I don't really understand.<BR>I deplore the lack of french reviews about SFB company.<BR><p>[This message has been edited by Cathy (edited June 19, 2001).]

Cathy, about Elisabeth Miner, she's been getting quite a lot of good roles for a corps member the last few seasons, and I certainly wouldn't be surprised if she got promoted soon. Another corps members who's frequently cast in soloist roles is Nicole Starbuck.