There are some beautiful photos of the joint gala of the Kirov and Paris Opera Ballet that took place in Paris on 6th November on the excellent French language site Dansomanie. http://www.dansomanie.net/

Click first on FORUM in the left hand colomn, then on TOUT SUR LA DANSE, scroll down the page to GALA MARIINSKY 06 11 2005 and scroll down to some mouth watering pictures of Lopatkina and Vishneva with their French patners, Bart and Thibault.

Cassandra, THANK you!
The costumes for Diamonds are absolutely gorgeous! Do you happen to know who designed them? Some of their best fashion designers ocassionally create costumes for Paris Opera.

And Uliana is beyond gorgeous. Unbelievable lines - so soft and fluid! Like music they flow and music "flows like a river".

Christian Lacroix designed the costumes, but I don't really like them! (Esp. Rubies).

I totally agree with you, @urelie about Rubies. This might be a nice outfit for a society debutante, but does absolutely nothing for a ballerina. But Diamonds costume is very exciting. Strategically placed, if numerous, crystals make dancer’s eyes catch light. Or perhaps it is Uliana Lopatkina that makes this costume look so stunning? What do you think, folks?

Uliana is simply stunning! Lacroix's designs are indeed an acquired
taste. I agree that Diamonds looks the best. Fedora, I think Lacroix may have been thinking 'Spring haute couture' when he designed the Rubies costumes. I agree: The off the shoulder bodice isn't a good idea in this segment. I'll give him a B+ for being original and giving us his 21st century vision on this ballet. IMO nothing beats Karinska's original designs for "Jewels." Her Rubies were much more red than Christian's. I think it makes their dainty shoulders and arms look bigger than they are, and draw attention to them.

I went to the performance of Jewels the night before and have to report that the audience clearly loved the sets and costumes. They stopped the show with their applause when the curtain rose on Diamonds.

By the way, I don't know if it's permissable to keep referring back to another website, but Dansomanie always has loads of outstanding photos illustrating the ballets performed by POB. Check out their thread 'Joyaux (Balanchine) octobre-novembre 2005' There are pictures of all the changes of cast so do look at every page as almost all, including the last, have the most fantastic pictures.

I would be very interested to know what others think of Marie-Agnes Gillot in the Rubies costume. I thought WOW when I first saw her, she looks like a cat walk model!

Thank you, Cassandra. Beautiful pictures indeed. I liked all the costumes except the Rubies. I would have preferred to see a brighter shade of emerald, but it's still gorgeous.

In Diamonds everybody seems to pale in comparison with Uliana. But in Emeralds and Rubies beauteous Eleonora Abbagnato catches the eye. And Diana, of course. I am also a big fan of Mattheu Ganio

BTW, there seem to be 2 different sets of costumes for Diamonds. Do you happen to know why this is?

This is OT, but I wonder if the new costumes are going to be seen in the upcoming POB Jewels video. Judging from the pictures, I like the Rubies costumes, too.

--Andre

Fedora, I understand some of the pictures were taken at a general rehearsal which may explain why certain costumes were unready. As far as I remember Emeralds has always been danced with skirts of a light green shade with darker bodices.

Andre, on the whole I liked the rubies costumes too and yes you'll see the new costumes because they were filming the performance on the night I went and I imagine that may well be the performance that makes it onto video.