Year: 2012

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Mariinsky Ballet Swan Lake

I have to admit that I was quite hesitant to attend the Mariinsky Ballet’s Swan Lake at Zellerbach, having seen the ballet roughly ten times live now — so not only was I kind of sick of it, but also didn’t think that there would be much that any company could add, even if it was the Mariinsky (the company which the Petipa/Ivanov choreography was made) — and especially because we were laying down $175 a ticket for some nice seats. But boy I am glad that I was peer pressured into going to the show.

First, I will point out the negatives, just to get them over with. This version of Swan Lake was probably the least emotional and dramatic ones I’ve seen. Seriously, what’s with the happy ending? Isn’t this supposed to be a tragedy? The denouement doesn’t make sense at all without the sacrifice of Odette and Siegfried. In fact, most of the plot elements seem to have been stripped in this version. But oh well, who really cares about plot in a ballet? The ending still gives me goosebumps.

I think a bigger issue was the lack of drama, and a sense of lack of chemistry between the principals Evgeny Ivanchenko and Anastasia Kolegova in Act 2. Maybe it’s the choreography, maybe it’s just the Russian style, but I just didn’t feel the emotional connection there (their partnering was great, however). Kolegova’s Odette, while beautiful, felt too regal and not vulnerable enough. There wasn’t the chase or the heartbreaking sacrifice here (the choreography is probably partially to blame).

Kolegova’s Odile, however, was quite spectacular, maybe the best I’ve seen live. (Conferring with friends, I think Maria Kochetkova might be the best overall Odette/Odile I’ve had the privilege to see live. For just Odette, I think Sarah Van Patten still takes the cake for me.) Technically solid, incredible fouettes, with that slightly sadistic edge to her coquettishness: in other words, nearly flawless. For both the pdd and the variation, I was completely entranced. Although I still think that the Russian style fouettes just look a little weird…

The men and the soloists were okay, solid but not outstanding for a world-class company. Maybe it’s just that after seeing Cuban-trained and Bournonville danseurs, the Mariinsky men just seem to lack that explosive edge that makes things exciting. And the soloists in general were good, but nothing to write home about.

What was definitely worth writing about is the corps. You think that nothing in Swan Lake could surprise you, and then you see just how much the Mariinsky corps blows the rest of the field out of the water in Acts 2 and 4. It’s simply something that has to be seen to be believed: spectacular and magical how together they were. I can’t even imagine how much drilling is required to achieve that level of consistent timing. I don’t think they were off by more than a 16th note during some passages — you could hear 24 pairs of pointe shoes hitting the floor at the same time. Similarly, the four cygnets were impeccable feet-wise, although the head movements were slightly off at times (SFB has had as good cygnets in my opinion). The togetherness of the port de bras on the corps was absolutely unreal. Even the poses were immaculate and uniform, such as their B+ near the wings. It was well worth the ticket price just to see the corps at work. Totally made my week.

I don’t think the show was perfect, but overall it was probably the best Swan Lake I’ve ever seen, mostly because of the corps.

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Some Simple Strands

I was going to spend the weekend writing *the* post, but then I took a nap and oh look how time flies. I do feel a little bad about missing out on hardly strictly, but maybe spending the Sunday afternoon collecting my thoughts after the rather rough two weeks I’ve had at work was the right thing to do, even if the voices inside my head will drive me crazy at some point.

As unpleasant as it is trying to sustain 14-hour workdays for around 10 days straight, I still feel like complete shit when projects get completed. It’s like I have all this momentum and adrenaline piled up, and now there’s nowhere to divert this energy. Sometimes, it’s stressful to not be stressed out. The good news, I guess, is that work never ends and will pick up shortly.

Life has been so incredibly frustrating on so many fronts this year. This despite it being a year with many memorable moments as well.

Point one: I’ve been absolutely stymied by the books I’ve been trying to read the past half year or so. I’m beginning to doubt I will ever be able to get through Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, to say nothing of the Rabbit tetralogy (halfway through Rabbit is Rich, averaging under a page a day). And why did I use my airline miles on subscriptions to Time and Scientific American when I just don’t have the time or desire to read them? I’ve tossed the last few months’ issues away.

Point two: work. I don’t really know what I’m doing wrong, but I feel like I’m stagnating at work. It’s not so much that I’m not learning anymore because I still am, but there’s just this nagging philosophical doubt that I can’t quite shake loose. Also, knowing that there are all these cool and interesting projects that other people are working on and that I seem to never have the time to contribute to just makes me a little sad.

Point three: that will be in the aforementioned post, if it ever sees the light of day.

Point four: the maddening love-hate relationship I have with ballet. I’m not even sure I can explain the level of cognitive dissonance this surfaces. If a real relationship is this hard, maybe it’s better to be unattached. But at least I’ve stuck with it, right? Please don’t ever leave me.

So I went to the Florence and the Machine concert on Friday night because my friend had an extra ticket, and we all left after 3 songs. Not so much because it wasn’t a good performance (it was), but maybe more because the experience was so detached (at least in my mind; the others might have just wanted to skip traffic). It’s weird when you can appreciate a show for what it is, yet not feel attached to it at all — I think this is kind of the tragedy about going to a concert where you’re unfamiliar with the music. When everyone else in the crowd seems so really into it, and in the back of your mind you’re kind of wondering why. I think a lot of people were high, which might have enhanced the experience.

I saw some post that lead me to this Richard Dawkins piece about the stupefying odds of just being alive.
http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/91-to-live-at-all-is-miracle-enough

A small musical strand: there’s probably more music out there right now than anyone can listen to in a lifetime. And if humanity is lucky, there will be so much new music created, that at some point in the distant future, so many seminal artists will be forgotten due to the sheer weight of good music in the future. That there will be a day when people won’t remember hip hop anymore, or the Beatles, or maybe even Bach. And that maybe that future wouldn’t necessarily be some dystopia, but one where everything is so much more amazing than we can imagine today.

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Process

If there’s one thing I learned from poker, it’s that it will break your heart. The other thing is that you have to trust the process, not the outcome. There are very few times when you’re guaranteed to win, and there’s always someone there ready to catch some lucky draw. You have to trust that, using the correct system, you will win in the long run, even amidst very long bouts of losses. Going on tilt — that is, playing more loosely than normal — for even a session can undo days to weeks of expected value. So at least in limit hold’em, if you play correctly, despite the heartbreak being inevitable, if you can stomach the variance, then so is success. Patience is a virtue, or so they say.

The recent DNC speeches have also surfaced in my mind what the American Dream means — an equal opportunity for everyone to succeed, not an equal outcome of success. A level playing field does not mean that everyone will win, but just that everyone has a chance at winning if they try hard and catch few lucky breaks.

The funny thing about life, though, is that it isn’t fair. There has never been, and will never be, a level playing field. Even without a rigid caste system, there’s little denying that the socioeconomic status from where you were born has an outsized effect on the chances that you will succeed socioeconomically in life. And unlike in poker, where you can play through hundreds of thousands of hands per year, those seminal moments in one’s life that shape and elucidate who are you are much rarer.

These past few weeks, I’ve been slowly slogging through Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, which despite being a book of roughly 80 pages, has been incredibly difficult and slow for me to read. One thing that I find fascinating is the similarity between Stoics and Daoists in terms of containing an undercurrent of fatalism and how one deals with it. We all live in a world where we are buffeted by randomness, and we all die. All that we do, and all that we are, is impermanent. Yet, there is some (universal?) notion that there is a right way to live that is independent of how it affects our present conditions — that is, a manner of living that is not selfish and is good. The Golden Rule without any expectation of reciprocation.

It used to seem so _obvious_ that if I adhered to living a “good and just” life, that love and everything else in my life would just work out for me. That karma would enforce just deserts. I guess maybe it just feels like a failure and I feel so unhappy because I’m so close to getting everything I would desire. But I guess maybe I shouldn’t be unhappy: if I’ve lived my life the way I should have, if I’ve followed The Way and settled my debts and obligations — if I have followed the process, then why should I be dissatisfied with the outcome? If the cards I’ve been dealt mean that I will live alone, then what right have I to complain? What use is there in begrudging that which is out of my control?

My biggest fear in life is that maybe I’m wrong, and that I’m not doing the right thing. That maybe hedonism and Epicureanism is more correct. But if I still truly believe that I am living my life in a good manner (which I’m pretty sure, or at least I’m trying), then these everyday outcomes and setbacks shouldn’t concern me; my life just might be a “bad beat.” That shouldn’t prevent my tasking myself with making the world a better place despite any sadness I incur. I should just focus on the long run even if, as Keynes noted, we are all dead by then.