Джозеф Филлипс, aka ABT's Joseph Phillips, has joined the brand new State Primorsky Opera and Ballet in Vladivostok, Russia which is on the S.E. seaside about 1½ hours flight from Tokyo and a few hundred miles from the North Korean border. ITAR-TASS in Moscow reported it yesterday with a big headline. Here's the Google translator's version:
08/22/2013 4:53 Culture
The famous American dancer Joseph Phillips will work in Seaside Theatre of Opera and Ballet
Photo ITAR-TASS/Ruslan ShamukovVLADIVOSTOK, August 22. / Correspondent. Itar-Tass Schatiloff /. The famous American dancer Joseph Phillips will work with the ballet company of Primorsky Opera and Ballet Theatre. Invitation to the new theater he received during the competition show, which took place yesterday in Moscow.
As told Itar-Tass administrator Theatre, Media Relations Oksana Gorbatenko, Joseph of awards - a gold medal at the American International Ballet Competition in Jackson. In 2006 he had the honor to light the Olympic torch at the International Ballet Competition in the United States. Now Joseph Phillips is an artist of the American Ballet Theatre. It is assumed that the dancer will be involved in the first production of the ballet theater, which will be the ballet "Les Sylphides" to the music of Chopin, choreographed by Michel Fokine.
In the ballet troupe will dance artists from seven countries: Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, the U.S., Brazil, Romania and Japan.
The first ballet premiere will take place before the end of the year. In terms of a new repertory theater, the grand opening is planned for September, and the ballets "Swan Lake" and "Carmen."
Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vladivostok - the second in the Far East. In the theater, there will be two rooms. Large - by 1.5 thousand people. The auditorium is designed in the shape of a horseshoe. The orchestra pit can accommodate up to 95 musicians. Small hall with a stage and seating transforming multi-purpose 300 seats. Currently, the construction has been completed, go to the last finishing works, landscaping and installation of equipment.
At the same time formed a creative team. Already fully recruited orchestra. Sixteen singers from Vladivostok, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Belgorod and Khabarovsk, as well as Ukraine joined the opera company and soon will begin rehearsals for the opera "Eugene Onegin", which will open on October 18 the first season of the theater.
Pretty cool, isn't it? Some have commented that The State Primorsky Opera and Ballet's brand new theater is nicer looking than the Mariinsky 2. Here's a construction pic:
Construction photo:
Another construction photo:
The inaugural general artistic director and chief conductor of the theater is the very young Anton Lubchenko who was appointed last January. He already has a little bit of ballet conducting experience including an appearance with the National Ballet of Canada. He's out of the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory and was invited by Gergiev to apprentice-conduct at the Mariinsky.
This is a fantastic move for Phillips, who is one of the many under-used talents at ABT where the hopelessly inadequate director continues to waste and demoralize the company's homegrown talent. We'll miss seeing Phillips on the stage, but we will be following his career for a long time to come. Here's hoping that he makes it easy for us by keeping his website up to date with lots of videos. The theater has registered an English language website but has not uploaded any content yet. That's understandable; they're very busy.
Congratulations to Joseph Phillips.
Wow! Good for him. More of those incredibly gifted dancers at ABT should go elsewhere to get to dance the roles they've worked so hard to dance. Matthew Golding's career is the chief case in point.
Posted by: J | August 23, 2013 at 09:48 PM
True, J. They all should leave. But just as importantly, ABT's board should be asking McKenzie to explain why he can't keep the talent in-house, keep it thriving, and keep it happy. You don't see many dancers at NYCB throwing away their New York careers to go to the other end of the earth just to get roles to dance that they should be dancing here. You don't see many at Paris Opera Ballet throwing away their POB careers to go to some obscure point on the map in order to dance Swan Lake or Les Sylphides. It's a damn shame that ABT's board doesn't take its work seriously.
Posted by: Haglund | August 23, 2013 at 10:50 PM
Great move. More opportunities for him to guest with Japanese companies and be invited to dance there too. Most importantly he will finally have chances to dance the classics, something he'd have no shot at doing as an American at ABT.
Posted by: Genna | August 24, 2013 at 11:01 AM
True, Genna. Ya gotta love how Russia just plows ahead and invests in the infrastructure for a huge performing arts complex with the confidence that great artists will find it. That city is mostly known for making cars and its navy fleet. Almost overnight, they've gotten a huge theater, and opera & ballet companies. BTW, Vladivostok is also the hometown of Ivan Vasiliev; so you can assume that he'll come back at some point in time to perform.
This is a great move for Phillips. I still hope, though, that someday he ends up working for Bocca.
Posted by: Haglund | August 24, 2013 at 02:03 PM
wasn't Joseph the one who did an amazing performance of Ali a day after being in the ER?
Posted by: k | August 24, 2013 at 04:49 PM
Yep, k, that was him.
Posted by: Haglund | August 24, 2013 at 05:16 PM
I have to agree that this new opera house checks all the boxes compared to the Mariinsky II. Something definitely got lost in the translation between the Canadian and Russian architectural firms re the M II project. BTW the latest skuttlebut is that the Czar of Music, (Valery Gergiev) wishes to become the Director of a new "National Center of Performing Arts," - combining all the performing venues and performing arts institutions of Petersburg under his Direction. This includes the Repin Institute, Vaganova Academy and the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservertoire and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. If this should come to pass, after Petersburg, what's next? Moscow & the rest of the Federation (i.e. Vladivostok)? He wants to be the 21st century equivalent of the 19th century's Director of the Imperial Theatres, bypassing the Ministry of Culture, requesting a decree from President Putin. I hope that this is a senseless rumor and that Forbes.ru's is inaccurate.
Posted by: Erica | August 27, 2013 at 02:15 PM
Hi Erica. I read the Forbes.ru article. Very interesting, but it didn't seem to clarify what Gergiev saw as significant benefits to such a National Center that would obviously devalue each organization's individual identity.
Do you think it would be a good idea if someone other than Gergiev suggested it and was in charge of it? In other words, does the premise hold promise?
http://www.forbes.ru/sobytiya/vlast/243576-teatr-odnogo-imperatora-kem-valerii-gergiev-khochet-stat-v-budushchem
Posted by: Haglund | August 27, 2013 at 02:22 PM
Quick update from Phillips' FB page. He will begin his new job in September, and yes, he will be a principal dancer. Fantastic.
Posted by: Haglund | August 28, 2013 at 07:35 PM
Today's NYT has an article on V-Rox, the rock music festival in Vladivostok. Pretty soon this will be a vacation destination point as well known as Moscow or St. Pete, and with its comparatively mild climate will seem more hospitable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/29/arts/music/east-by-far-east-vladivostok-rocks.html?hp
Phillips is getting in on the ground floor of something really, really exciting.
Joseph Phillips, Principal Dancer, State Primorsky Opera and Ballet. It sounds damn fine.
Posted by: Haglund | August 29, 2013 at 09:19 AM