Peter Martins on the New York City Ballet: it’s what you can wish for, only we have it!

 ballet, video  1 Response »
Nov 092012
 

is releas­ing a series of behind-the-scenes videos. Here the company’s Bal­let Mas­ter in Chief, , talks proudly of his dan­cers and all the col­lab­or­at­ors who make a per­form­ance hap­pen, with back­stage glimpses filmed by Nick Bentgen.

We are the largest bal­let com­pany in Amer­ica; we dance more per­form­ances in the course of a year than any other bal­let com­pany earth; we have close to 200 bal­lets in our entire rep­er­toire! That requires a tre­mend­ous amount of con­cen­tra­tion from every­body… Some­how it is a fant­ast­ic­ally smooth run­ning machine.

A num­ber of things sep­ar­ates the New York City Bal­let, one of the most import­ant things is that the music is always the pre­dom­in­ant factor. So with everything we do, music is our guide.… [con­tinue reading]

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Cleo Laine is 85 today: here’s ‘On a Clear Day” showing off her G above top C!

 music, video  2 Responses »
Oct 282012
 

Happy birth­day Dame Cleo!

She was born in Southall, Middle­sex on 28 Octo­ber 1927, and she is still giv­ing con­certs. Her soul­ful singing is as mov­ing as her scat singing is thrill­ing, with a cel­eb­rated four-octave range which is demon­strated in this video from 30 years ago: On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

… [con­tinue reading]

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Carla Fracci with Schaufuss, Vasiliev, Cragun, Jude and others on YouTube

 ballet, video  No Responses »
Mar 232012
 

 

In 1987 a two-part tele­vi­sion pro­gramme called The Baller­inas fea­tured Carla Fracci, with some of the top male dan­cers of the period, in a series of recon­struc­tions put­ting vari­ous bal­lets and their inter­pretors in an his­tor­ical con­text. Fracci was an amaz­ingly youth­ful 51 when she danced these extracts.

Dance Magazine critic John Gruen wrote:

The nine­teenth cen­tury clings to Carla Fracci like an invis­ible mantle — her aura, her look, her demeanor sug­gest everyone’s con­cep­tion of the romantic baller­ina. How fit­ting that this great poetic artist should por­tray some of her most fabled pre­de­cessors — the very baller­inas that, like Fracci, were the embod­i­ment of romantic fra­gil­ity and lyric classicism.

In The Baller­inas, a sump­tu­ously pro­duced two-part bal­let drama, Fracci places her rare artistry in the ser­vice of dance his­tory as she recre­ates roles first premiered by such lumin­ous baller­inas as , Emma Livry, Car­lotta Grisi, Fanny Elssler, Giusep­pina Bozza­c­chi, Car­lotta Bri­anza, Mat­ilde Kschess­in­ska, Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsav­ina and Olga Spess­itzeva.… [con­tinue reading]

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Cecilia Bartoli takes a ship to join Valery Gergiev in St Petersburg

 conference, music, opera, video  1 Response »
Mar 212012
 

Cecilia Bartoli in Mariinsky Theatre Press conference Cecilia Bartoli takes a ship to join Valery Gergiev in St Petersburg

Yes­ter­day, before ’s highly anti­cip­ated con­cert at the Theater Con­cert Hall in St Peter­burg tomor­row even­ing, she gave a press con­fer­ence along­side who will con­duct the pro­gramme of Moz­art and arias.

Bartoli’s famed avoid­ance of fly­ing (air-conditioning bad for the voice and jet-lag bad for the body) sur­prised many:

Well, I’ve just arrived — and in a very pecu­liar way because I decided to take a ship. And I wanted to see the sea with all the ice… This is some­thing for a Roman. I mean, we never have snow in Rome (well, last winter yes — for the first time in fifty years prob­ably). And then, to come here: the ship cross­ing and cut­ting the ice.… [con­tinue reading]

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Barbra Streisand’s 50 years with Columbia Records continues with 12 DVD set

 music, recordings, video  2 Responses »
Feb 232012
 

Streisand Barbra Streisands 50 years with Columbia Records continues with 12 DVD set and Columbia Records have announced that Streisand’s record­ing con­tract with the label has been extended.

Begin­ning with “The Bar­bra Streis­and Album” in 1963 through the most recent, her 2012 Grammy nom­in­ated “What Mat­ters Most”, Bar­bra Streis­and sings the lyr­ics of Alan and Mar­ilyn Berg­man.” Columbia and Streis­and have enjoyed argu­ably the most suc­cess­ful con­sec­ut­ive col­lab­or­a­tion in the his­tory of recor­ded music, which includes num­ber one albums in five con­sec­ut­ive dec­ades; a feat unequaled by any other record­ing artist.

From the day God­dard Lieber­son signed me almost 50 years ago, Columbia Records has been my record­ing home, and I am thrilled to con­tinue that part­ner­ship for many years to come,”

Streis­and said in a statement.

She has released 62 albums with the music label, includ­ing num­ber one albums: “People,” “The Way We Were,” “A Star Is Born,” “Bar­bra Streisand’s Greatest Hits, Volume 2,” “Guilty,” “The Broad­way Album,” “Back To Broad­way,” “Higher Ground,” and “Love Is The Answer.” Streisand’s music in film has also garnered mul­tiple and Golden Globes.… [con­tinue reading]

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