Kirov in London 2003 - pre-visit discussion

Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Mon Jun 23, 2003 2:27 pm

Hi Nino! Hope we can meet up when you're here.

Kevin Ng · **Posted:** Mon Jun 23, 2003 6:08 pm

Hi Nino, hope you are well. Ilya Kuznetsov will be dancing Conrad in Le Corsaire, and I guess also von Rothbart in Swan Lake. I will really miss Diana Vishneva however, but I understand her absence is due to her guesting with Vladimir Malakhov in the World Ballet Festival in Tokyo at the same time.

Sofia Gumerova has developed considerably artistically in the past year, and I look forward to seeing her in different roles, as well as Irina Golub and Natalia Solgub.

Nino · **Posted:** Wed Jun 25, 2003 11:54 am

Look forward to seeing you both! And, Kevin, I'll give Ms Gumerova a second chance on your recommendation

Matthew · **Posted:** Wed Jun 25, 2003 1:04 pm

I just scanned the nice Kirov website posted above. Is it my imagination, or is this the largest ballet compnay in the world?

Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Wed Jun 25, 2003 1:52 pm

I make it 206, including the reserve troup. The Bolshoi have 110 names on their website, but I expected more. I believe Perm is also well over 100 strong. I don't know how large the National Ballet of China are. I'm not aware of other companies that are 100+. Later: Except, of course, Paris Opera Ballet with around 150 dancers.

[ 26 June 2003, 12:41 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]

Kevin Ng · **Posted:** Wed Jun 25, 2003 5:50 pm

Stuart, no way the National Ballet of China is as large as the Kirov. I have a feeling though without counting that the Bolshoi is slightly larger than the Kirov in size.
Nino, I last saw Sofia Gumerova in "Diamonds" last winter, and she was superb.

Andre Yew · **Posted:** Wed Jun 25, 2003 6:20 pm

According to Boris Akimov, AD of the Bolshoi, in a preshow talk before their performance of La Bayadere in Orange County, California last year, the Bolshoi has about 245 dancers, and the total number of people in the company numbers around 3000. What do you do with this many people? Apparently, the company splits in two and performs in different parts of the world.

--Andre

Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Wed Jun 25, 2003 10:54 pm

Thanks for the additional information, everyone. As I mentioned above, The Bolshoi website lists 110 names without any indication of status, so that must be excluding the Corps de Ballet.

Unfortunately, the English part of the National Ballet of China website does not list the dancers. It would be interesting to know how they compare size-wise with the Western companies, taking Kevin's point that they are smaller than the Russian companies.

[ 27 June 2003, 04:54 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]

Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Fri Jun 27, 2003 1:01 am

Cast Changes

Well folks, it’s time for Round 1 of the Kirov cast changes, as described on the ROH website. If you scroll up to the casting information in the posting above, I have made the revisions and marked the changes with # and additional information with *.

The changes are:

22 July – Corsaire: Vishneva for Tereshkina
9 August (mat)– Corsaire: Tereshkina for Kondaurova; Ruzimatov for Sarafanov
9 August (eve) – Corsaire: Saraf for Ruzimatov

26 July (mat) – Swan Lake: Sologub for Tereshkina

28 July - LES NOCES: Yosifidi for Makhalina
29 July – SCHÉHÉRAZADE: Zakharova for Makhalina
30 July (mat and eve) – SCHÉHÉRAZADE: Tkachenko for Makhalina

31 July – Bayadere: Pavlenko for Zakharova
1 Aug – Bayadere: Zakharova for Pavlenko
2 Aug – Bayadere: Pavlenko for Zakharova

4 and 5 Aug - THE RITE OF SPRING: Pavlenko for Makhalina

There is additional casting information for "Chopiniana".

[ 27 June 2003, 03:11 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]

Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Fri Jun 27, 2003 2:27 am

Having got the mechanics of updating our cast list information out of the way, I've had a chance to think about the impact. Overall, the changes strengthen the programme in my view.

We all have our favourites and not-so-favourites. I enjoyed Yulia Makhalina in "The Dying Swan" in Tallinn recently, but her "Firebird" and "Schéhérazade" did not hit the mark for me. She smiled throughout the former, which did little to give the impression of a mythical bird and there seemed little chemistry with Ruzimatov in "Schéhérazade". I hope that the cancellation of her performances is merely administrative rather than due to injury or other problems.

[ 27 June 2003, 04:33 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]

Emma Pegler · **Posted:** Fri Jun 27, 2003 2:29 am

All my Christmases have come up once - Vishneva substituting in the day I go to see Le Corsaire. Is Makhalina injured/just not coming? And I am not familiar with Tkachenko? and yes, Stuart - I chose the boys. Nice of them to oblige, isn't it?

[ 27 June 2003, 04:33 AM: Message edited by: Emma Pegler ]

Matthew · **Posted:** Fri Jun 27, 2003 7:59 am

I saw Vishneva dance once before! Wow, how is that for good luck

!

Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Fri Jun 27, 2003 8:31 am

With luck like that Matthew, maybe you should take up gambling. But let's all remember that this is only the second version of the casting.

[ 27 June 2003, 10:34 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]

Kevin Ng · **Posted:** Fri Jun 27, 2003 7:34 pm

I am really pleased also to see that Diana Vishneva is now coming though only for one performance. It would have been unthinkable if she had totally missed this season. Actually I've never seen Vishneva dancing Medora in Le Corsaire. I hope to see Andrian Fadeyev and Anton Korsakov as Lankedem.

Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Mon Jun 30, 2003 1:46 am

The competition for the new Kirov/Mariinsky theatre has a winner:

Quote:

French architect Dominique Perrault won an international contest Saturday to modernize the 19th-century Mariinsky Theater with a giant glass and marble cocoon.

Our coverage for this topic is in our "Managing Dance" forum.


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