Robin Usher's Diary

The Age

Tuesday April 15, 2008

Robin Usher

Paris Ballet in 2009?

THE world's oldest ballet company, the Paris Opera Ballet, made its first Australian appearance in Sydney last year in two sold-out programs - could it be Melbourne's turn next?

There is an opportunity. The company has only one chance to tour each year and its 2009 booking in New York has been cancelled because of unexpected renovations to the Lincoln Centre's stage machinery.

Sources say the company is keen to return to Australia to perform their grandest production, Rudolf Nureyev's version of the Russian classic La Bayadere, at the Arts Centre's State Theatre, the country's biggest stage, in June 2009.

But the tour, which could be included in the Australian Ballet's Melbourne program, needs the support of the Major Events Company to proceed.

It can only be hoped that funds can be found in next year's budget to allow the tour to go ahead. The company already supports the National Gallery of Victoria's Winter Masterpieces exhibition, an attraction for interstate tourists.

Visitor numbers to Melbourne could only leap and the duration of their stay be extended if next year's show coincided with the glamour of one of the world's most acclaimed dance companies. The size of the production means it is unlikely the company would come to Australia at all if support is not found for performances in the State Theatre.

The New Yorker's Arlene Croce has described La Bayadere as a "nirvana of pure dance", while Nureyev's biographer, Julie Kavanagh, describes it as "brilliantly paced, with all the ensemble excitement of a Broadway musical".

The Sydney Morning Herald's dance critic, Jill Sykes, acclaimed last year's performance of Swan Lake by the Paris company. "Virtuosic displays by the soloists, almost incredible unity among the corps de ballet and the grand size of the presentation add up to a glorious balletic experience," she wrote.

If support is found, there would also be a one-off gala performance in Melbourne and the Australian Ballet's support for the tour means students from the company's ballet school would have an intimate exposure to the visit.

Molly Bloom silenced in Dublin

THE citizens of James Joyce's home town, Dublin, are being denied an opportunity to hear a performance of one of the great monologues in Western literature, Molly Bloom's stream-of-consciousness musings at the end of Joyce's masterpiece, Ulysses.

The monologue has been performed in Melbourne on Bloomsday - June 16 - every year since 1991 by actor Maggie Millar. But after two sold-out performances at fortyfivedownstairs last year, Millar announced her retirement.

Word of her ability has reached Laura Barnes, the director of Dublin's James Joyce Centre, which organises annual Bloomsday celebrations. Millar and her husband, Ian Robinson, booked flights and agreed to read the monologue three times over the weekend before the day, when she would perform at a huge outdoor public reading in the Irish capital.

But it is not to be. Copyright in Australia expires 50 years after an artist's death but in Ireland it is 70 years, as with the rest of the European Union.

Joyce's grandson Stephen, who lives on a small island off the French coast, refused to grant permission for the performance, although he gave no reason.

In the circumstances, perhaps Millar might be persuaded to give one last performance in Melbourne this year, although she swore in 2007 that she had no intention of imitating Dame Nellie Melba.

There could be no better response to the intransigence of Joyce's nearest living relative.

© 2008 The Age

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