Missing Nutcracker? Have a Cher Dumollet singalong
I’ve been looking for this for ages, a rendition of the French children’s song Bon voyage cher Dumollet, the contredanse-like bit in Act 1 of The Nutcracker which is usually…
Moira Shearer on ‘The Red Shoes’
A wonderful 1994 interview with Moira Shearer who played Vicky Page in the Red Shoes. If you ever for a moment thought that the real-life dancer (or the dance) had…
Swimming, horses & Our Lady
An old one this, but still one of my favourite photographs – from Malta, November 2008.
Taruskin on ballet music
One of the excitements of this year is being able to afford a volume of The Oxford History of Western Music. I snapped it up in Blackwells the other day,…
When Tchaikovsky danced with Saint-Saëns
And I don’t mean figuratively, either. Apparently, in 1875, Tchaikovsky (aged 35) and Saint-Saëns (aged 40) who had a ‘natural talent’ for ballet as well as liking it, got up…
Carmen, the habañera and El Arreglito
It wasn’t until a friend mentioned it recently (thanks Eddie) that I discovered that the most famous bit of music by Bizet, the Habañera from Carmen, isn’t actually by Bizet…