Below are past entries from the PNB Blog. Visit the blog for for insider information on what's happening, commentary by artistic staff, and news & events! You can also follow PNB's recent blog entries on PNB's Facebook Fan Page.
Don Q Dress Rehearsal Notes from Artistic Director Peter Boal
By noreply@blogger.com (Pacific Northwest Ballet)
Thursday, Feb 02 at 10:54 AM
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| Artistic Director Peter Boal. Photo © Angela Sterling |
Join us in sunny Barcelona this weekend without the airfare or the time change! Alexei Ratmansky’s Don Quixote is here, and what a spectacular, over-the-top, inspiring moment for PNB. Here are a few facts you may not know:
We have only broken 30 fans so far! This is impressive given that almost every female in this large cast whacks her man with a fan. Kitri hits not only Basilio, but also Gamache and the floor. She even displays her fan throughout her 32 fouette turns. Our Spanish Dance Consultant Sara de Luis has taught our women to use these beautiful fans as weapons of femininity.
Our Fan Club members, who include more than 70 patrons who have collectively donated $700,000, deserve special thanks for ensuring that the US premiere of this production is happening right here in Seattle. (There’s still need if you want to help…)
14 pairs of castanets are used in each performance: none broken yet…
The mighty Tom Skerritt has broken his wooden sword three times!
It takes 36 stage crew members to work each performance. Our crew, with many additional hires, worked until 2am Tuesday morning loading in, with carpenters arriving at 4am to start the next day’s shift.
There are also 9 wig and makeup artists working each show, along with 13 dressers helping the cast of 70. There are 20 fast changes, with Ryan Cardea having 4 in each performance.
It’s been a pleasure to see this coming together from the dedicated work of our home team and an extensive list of guests including some of the finest designers and stagers and one brilliant choreographer. If you can attend Doug’s interview with Alexei prior to Dress rehearsal, it is a rare opportunity to hear from one of the greats.
A proud moment for PNB! See you at the ballet. - Peter
Don Q Behind the Scenes: An Interview with Principal Dancer Maria Chapman
By noreply@blogger.com (Pacific Northwest Ballet)
Tuesday, Jan 24 at 10:15 AM
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| PNB principal dancer Maria Chapman as Mercedes in Alexei Ratmansky's Don Quixote. Photo © Angela Sterling. |
What role(s) are you learning for Don Quixote? Have you danced in other Don Quixote productions before?
This will be my first production of Don Quixote, and I am learning two roles; Mercedes and the Queen of the Dryads. Mercedes is a sassy street dancer, and she enjoys showing off by dancing around the bullfighters’ knives. The Queen of the Dryads is a beautiful nymph who appears in Don Quixote’s dream, in Act 2.
What are you excited about for this premiere of Don Quixote?
I am excited to work with Alexei Ratmansky again. I enjoyed working with him briefly on Concerto DSCH last season, and I look forward to spending more time with him working on Don Quixote.
How long have you been rehearsing for this production?
I rehearsed Don Q for a couple of weeks in August, and we rehearsed for a few weeks in December, in addition to performing the Nutcracker. Now that it is January, we'll concentrate fully on Don Q as we ramp up for the February performances.
What has the process been like, learning this ballet?
Learning the new production of Don Q has been fun because many wonderful guest stagers have visited Seattle to teach us the choreography.
What preparations do you do, outside of rehearsals, to prepare for new roles and/or performances?
When I am learning a new role, I study videos of dancers performing the roles I am learning. I can look up a lot of these clips on YouTube to see how dancers all over the world dance my roles. As always, I spend a lot of time prepping my pointe shoes!
Pacific Norhtwest Ballet Presents
Don Quixote at McCaw Hall
February 3-12, 2012
TICKETS: 206.441.2424 or www.pnb.org
The Story of Don Quixote-Act 3
By noreply@blogger.com (Pacific Northwest Ballet)
Friday, Jan 20 at 11:49 AM
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| Photo courtesy Dutch National Ballet © Angela Sterling. |
Kitri and Basilio are enjoying themselves with Espada, Mercedes, and a group of friends in a tavern filled with gypsies, bullfighters, and other high-spirited folk. Kitri thinks she has escaped her forced marriage to Gamache. Unfortunately, it is not so easy, as her father and his followers manage to find them this time. The lovers hide, but Kitri is found and taken home.
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| PNB principal dancers Rachel Foster and Seth Orza © Angela Sterling. |
But then Basilio appears and stabs himself because his heart is broken. Kitri realizes straightaway that he has only pretended to kill himself. Supposedly broken-hearted, she begs Don Quixote to persuade Lorenzo to give his blessing to her and the dead Basilio. After all, she can still marry Gamache afterwards, as a widow. But as soon as the blessing has been given, Basilio jumps up. He has fooled everyone. Gamache is furious and challenges the Don to a duel. But neither of them can fight, and Lorenzo becomes reconciled to his fate. And while the wedding of Kitri and Basilio is being celebrated, the Don and his squire go off in search of new adventures. (Story courtesy Dutch National Ballet).
Don Quixote at PNB
Feb. 3-12, 2012 at McCaw Hall
TICKETS: 206.441.2424 or http://www.pnb.org/
Don Q Behind the Scenes: An Interview with Music Director Emil de Cou
By noreply@blogger.com (Pacific Northwest Ballet)
Wednesday, Jan 18 at 3:06 PM
How many orchestra members are in the PNB Orchestra?It varies from program to program. For Don Quixote, we’ll have 62-64 musicians. It’s a pretty big symphony orchestra. When you come to the show, it’s always fun to come and look in {the pit} because there are a lot of people down there that you don’t really see during the performance. The fun thing with Don Quixote is that it’s like doing a live Hollywood film. You have all the elements of a movie—a storyline, soundtrack, costumes, lights, set, actors—but it’s done live every night.
What preparations will the PNB music department undertake for the premiere of Don Q?
For me, I get the score in advance and I go to the studio during piano rehearsals. We have 3 company pianists on staff. They have to practice the music at home, and it’s a new ballet so they’ll also get a DVD of the ballet to study and make annotations about the dance steps on their score. Then they go to the first rehearsal, and I sit by the piano and conduct the piano.
The orchestra musicians will get the score a month in advance and practice their parts at home. We only have 6 hours of orchestra rehearsal, and it’s a whole evening of music so that’s not that much time. Then we have 3 hours of time with a stage rehearsal and then we have opening night. So, it’s a pretty quick process with the orchestra. For me, I get the score in advance and I go to the studio during piano rehearsals. We have 3 company pianists on staff. They have to practice the music at home, and it’s a new ballet so they’ll also get a DVD of the ballet to study and make annotations about the dance steps on their score. Then they go to the first rehearsal, and I sit by the piano and conduct the piano.
So the orchestra has 6 hours alone?
Yes, then three hours with the dancers for dress rehearsal. So, we’ll probably run it straight through and then do notes either after each act or at the very end. We might have 45 minutes left over to rehearse things, and whatever Peter [Boal] wants to rehearse.
That’s not much time at all.Yes, then three hours with the dancers for dress rehearsal. So, we’ll probably run it straight through and then do notes either after each act or at the very end. We might have 45 minutes left over to rehearse things, and whatever Peter [Boal] wants to rehearse.
It’s not! That’s why you have to be really prepared in advance. People think rehearsals are where you learn the music. But rehearsals are where you know the music and you rehearse the musical part of it, not the note part.
How much time will orchestra members spend at home rehearsing?
It depends on the instrument. The first violins play most of the music and most of the melody, also the woodwinds, flutes, and oboes have more melodic music so it’s harder for them. They could spend anywhere between 2-4 hours practicing their parts in advance. Not all of it is hard, so you focus on the parts that are the most demanding.
Is it different because it’s a premiere?It depends on the instrument. The first violins play most of the music and most of the melody, also the woodwinds, flutes, and oboes have more melodic music so it’s harder for them. They could spend anywhere between 2-4 hours practicing their parts in advance. Not all of it is hard, so you focus on the parts that are the most demanding.
I go to more rehearsals than I would otherwise because it’s not just new to me; it’s new to the dancers too. Alexei Ratmansky was here for rehearsals in December, and I went to all them because it’s his ballet. It’s very interestingwatching him work with our dancers. He’s very, very detailed. He stops a lot but it’s always really encouraging and very kind, positive, and upbeat. It’s his ballet and you also want to get his point of view—why he’s doing this, how he develops the characters and what the characters are supposed to feel. It has a subtle influence, but an important influence, on how you look at music.
Did he have specific tempo requests?
He does; he likes it fast. I’m used to following the dancers incredibly closely, and was trained to watch the dancers and follow every step. In this version {Alexi} wants the music to lead and to go quickly. I have to divorce myself from just following toe shoes and waiting for someone to balance and then catch up. It’s about showmanship too, but it’s more about storytelling.
Have you conducted this score before?He does; he likes it fast. I’m used to following the dancers incredibly closely, and was trained to watch the dancers and follow every step. In this version {Alexi} wants the music to lead and to go quickly. I have to divorce myself from just following toe shoes and waiting for someone to balance and then catch up. It’s about showmanship too, but it’s more about storytelling.
I have conducted two other productions of Don Quixote. It’s always different. The famous dance parts are pretty much the same, but every version of this ballet puts it in different order or adds some other pieces, take other pieces out. It’s not like Swan Lake or The Sleeping Beauty where it’s pretty much standard and the music is left alone. Don Q is really more like a film score than it is a symphony. Tchaikovsky ballets are more like a symphony. Stravinsky’s Petruschka or Firebird are more like a tone poem. This is more like a film underscoring or like a musical. Like with a production of Carousel or Sound of Music, people take things out and move things around a little bit to make it your own. This will be new for me because I’ve never done this particular production.
What is the hallmark of the Don Q score? What comes to mind when you think of the score?
It’s very Spanish. It sounds like one of the great Spanish composers. Which is funny, because Minkus was an Austrian living in Russsia. He was writing music to sound purposefully exotic. Because in the mid 1800’s in Russia, to have a ballet about Don Q set in Spain, it was very exotic because people couldn’t travel that far.
What is like having the dancers play instruments on stage?It’s very Spanish. It sounds like one of the great Spanish composers. Which is funny, because Minkus was an Austrian living in Russsia. He was writing music to sound purposefully exotic. Because in the mid 1800’s in Russia, to have a ballet about Don Q set in Spain, it was very exotic because people couldn’t travel that far.
Well, it’s tricky because we have some of the same instruments in the pit. It’s really hard to dance and play the castanets; it’s hard to play the castanets period. For the dancers, the castanets are two pieces of wood cupped in your hand and you hit them in your hand. Castanets in orchestras are taken apart. They’re dissected and the two parts are there suspended above about an inch {side by side} and they’re hit on metal. When Kitri comes on stage she has to run, think of her steps, and jump and do all of this crazy stuff, AND play the castanets. So, what we will do is play the castanets with her in the pit, just in case she misses a beat.
One of my favorite parts of Don Quixote is in the 3rd act, when Basilio lifts Kitri with one hand and holds her in the air sideways while she’s holding a tambourine. And, she’s supposed to shake it really, really loud because the music has a pause. It’s really hard to shake a tambourine when you’re being held 20 feet in the air by a guy with one hand, and you don’t want to fall. So, we’ll double the tambourine there so she doesn’t have to do all the work. She’ll play too; the dancers have very good rythm--they have to.
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