gezando said:
Nina Rota's R&J theme is one of the most repetitive and boring piece of film music ever. IMO a good piece of lullaby music. IMO Corigliano's The Red Violin - Chaccone is so much more edgy and dramatic. In general I like Ennio Morricone as a film music composer much better than Rota.
Don't fall off your chair, but we agree -- on one thing. I do agree that Corigliano's "The Red Violin Chaccone" is a great, edgy, and dramatic piece of music, but not for competitive skating in today's conservative climate and recent judging changes. Love listening to "The Red Violin," but great listening music and great music for skating are two different things, IMO. (Same goes for dance, but we're talking skating.)
I also agree that Ennio Morricone is a magnificent composer, film and otherwise, from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" to Adrian Lyne's "Lolita" to his collaborations with Yo Yo Ma. In fact, recently a skater asked that I send him music I thought would work well for skating. I immediately went to my Ennio Morricone collection (among those of many other composers), thrilled to have the opportunity to envision various cuts by Morricone edited together to make a great short or long program.
To my sad surprise, as much as I thought Morricone's music would work wonderfully for skating, edited of course, as a choreographer I found it lacking in strong thematic variation, overly repetitious, lacking in phrases for long edges, and, like most movie music, too obviously playing second fiddle (pun intended) to the drama on the screen. I sent Morricone's music to the skater anyway, but with a note saying that upon listening to it with a choreographic ear, it didn't seem as strong for skating as I'd originally thought.
I found Nino Rota's lesser known film scores, "Casanova" and "Orchestra Rehearsal," much more suited to skating, though I agree that his well-known circus-like Fellini scores bombed for every skater or skating team that used them except Rahkamo and Kokko.
As for Rota's R&J, and skating warhorses in general, I think the reason so many skaters and, lest we forget, skating choreographers, use them is that while they have qualities that make them weak listening music, at least for an expert like you, skaters can't have the music overwhelm their skating. The music has to complement a skater's style as well as the gliding, jumping, and spinning qualities of skating. Joe hit the nail on the head when he noted that even music that works for dance often does not work for skating because of the difference between blade on ice and foot on floor.
It's the rare skating choreographer who can find new music that works for his/her skater. Lori Nichol and Tarasova are the best I've seen whose choreography and choice of music, or edits in the case of TAT and Cohen's black-and-white "Swan Lake," has held up, more or less, over the last decade. But even these two have had their bombs with great skaters--they are human after all. IMO, it takes a unique ear and very special choreographic and kinesthetic sense to keep building with a skater the way Lori did with Michelle from '96 through '01 and Fumie since then. Not to mention having a sympatico with the skater and vice versa.
For example, I used to yearn for a skater to use Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" for a competitive LP. But after seeing dancer Molissa Fenley's solo to the entire symphony (Ya wanna talk endurance?! Oy!), I realized that as great as "Rite of Spring" is, it works for dance, but not for skating--at least IMO. (Hopefully a skater will prove me wrong someday.) My point is that I'm sure we can all think of music we could listen to all day that is complex, challenging, moving, and everything you could want in a serious piece of music that unfortunately would be incompatible with skating.
So I don't mind warhorse music; what I mind is warhorse choreography. The NJS hasn't been around long enough IMO to know if it will prompt the same old moves in order to get the maximum points or if skaters and their choreographers will alter familiar moves to create exciting, moving, and point-grabbing choreography -- with great skating technique as well, of course.
As for AP, I like(d?) her as a skater. I wasn't aware she had started competing again.
Rgirl -- First night without "6FU"; enough to make me break my vacation vows
and IMO AP skated better to this version of R and J 
. She had this for an EX how many times? - 6? and is continuing to use it. I don't know if this is her last year or not (if she happens to win you bet it will be) but if she does the 2007 season, think she would continue to hang on to it? 
about the biellman comments. But, as I recall, I think Cohen only does the so-called "beaver cleaver" move once in a program, typically at the end of the routine (?) . Whereas Irina does the Biellman at least 2-3 times. I think once she even hit 4
