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The Royal Ballet: Mayerling, in anticipation, April 2017


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2 hours ago, David said:

They didn’t have the benefit of the forensic examination of Mary’s remains in 1992/3 or Mary’s farewell letters discovered only 2 years ago but as far as I can see all the subsequent evidence has supported the MacMillan/Freeman narrative. It was a remarkable piece of research!

 

Incidentally, when I get the RB programme tomorrow I will be interested to see if it has been up-dated to take account of the public release of Mary’s letters since the last time it was performed by the Company.

 

Do please let us know, David.  I can't remember whether I have my Mayerling programme here or not.

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When I came back from Vienna .....about 20 yrs ago now ....I kept seeking out places in London which served that rich hot chocolate with cream and naughty but very very nice cakes ....there's a couple of places still going in Knightsbridge I think ....one may be called Richelieux ....but not sure. I remember standing for ages on this bridge over the Danube .....rather brownish looking river though! I'd always wanted to see it. I was with a ballet friend at the time and we did take to a bit of waltzing around I seem to remember......as you do as a Brit abroad.....seriously though such a spacious city and got that right in the middle of a vast continent feel there.

i need to go back sometime as didn't see the ballet company on that trip as they were away touring!!

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And all those cobbles!  My feet didn't speak to the rest of me for at least a month after a week of pounding the cobbles in Vienna.  It's a wonderful city though.

 

I loved Demmel the best out of the cafes we tried.  We saved up to go there...

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My memories of being there in December are of staggering from gluhwein booth to gluhwein booth..as well as the fabulous food in Demmel, how I love those cafes; and  a magical Nutcracker, possibly the coldest night I ever experienced, - wearing my pyjamas under my clothes in the Opera House!

 

if you haven't read it I recommend reading Edmund de Waal's The Hare with Amber Eyes- family memoir of a Viennese family- but it is melancholy and tragic ( a whole culture-Jewish-intellectual- cultured-  was wiped out by the Nazis, which really explains the dark side of the place which  everyone notices )

 

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The line up for tomorrow's opening night has just had me shell out more than I've ever spent on a ticket (the clue is probably in my username)...I have every confidence it will be worth every penny and am so excited! 

Edited by standingticket
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1 hour ago, standingticket said:

The line up for tomorrow's opening night has just had me shell out more than I've ever spent on a ticket (the clue is probably in my username)...I have every confidence it will be worth every penny and am so excited! 

It is an incredible line-up, isn't it?  Seven Principals?

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7 hours ago, David said:

Talking about historical inaccuracies, I don’t think the amazing Freeman/MacMillan reconstruction has been properly recognized - sifting through all the varying, often conflicting accounts, memoires, biographies, police and medical records available to them at the time, rejecting speculation regarding political assassination, botched abortion and the like and settling on the narrative outlined in the Ballet. They didn’t have the benefit of the forensic examination of Mary’s remains in 1992/3 or Mary’s farewell letters discovered only 2 years ago but as far as I can see all the subsequent evidence has supported the MacMillan/Freeman narrative. It was a remarkable piece of research!

 

Incidentally, when I get the RB programme tomorrow I will be interested to see if it has been up-dated to take account of the public release of Mary’s letters since the last time it was performed by the Company.

 

 

But the films in 1936 and 1968 also followed the murder/suicide pact. I think that was always the theory about what happened at the hunting lodge, given things Mary had said to her family and confidantes around the time. Also, Rudolf had wanted the suicide pact with another mistress.

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On a slightly frivolous note,when I made my bookings in December to see all four casts I was unable to get any side stalls circle seats on the left side for any performance.  I like to try and sit on different sides for different performances so that I can see what happens on both sides of the stage. I have noticed before that left hand seats are more difficult to get - do you think this is connected to the easier access to the Paul Hamlyn bar?

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  • John Mallinson changed the title to The Royal Ballet: Mayerling in anticipation, April 2017
  • John Mallinson changed the title to The Royal Ballet: Mayerling, in anticipation, April 2017
7 hours ago, Mary said:

My memories of being there in December are of staggering from gluhwein booth to gluhwein booth..as well as the fabulous food in Demmel, how I love those cafes; and  a magical Nutcracker, possibly the coldest night I ever experienced, - wearing my pyjamas under my clothes in the Opera House!

 

if you haven't read it I recommend reading Edmund de Waal's The Hare with Amber Eyes- family memoir of a Viennese family- but it is melancholy and tragic ( a whole culture-Jewish-intellectual- cultured-  was wiped out by the Nazis, which really explains the dark side of the place which  everyone notices )

 

Thanks Mary.  I read that book a few years ago and loved it;  I will read it again after my trip!

 

Sounds like I had better start saving for Demmel!

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18 minutes ago, Sim said:

Thanks Mary.  I read that book a few years ago and loved it;  I will read it again after my trip!

 

Sounds like I had better start saving for Demmel!

 

Demmel's not that expensive. If you're only there for three days, my tactic is usually to dispense with real food altogether (ok maybe a schnitzel at t he Palmenhaus...) and just eat cake. Seriously, it won't kill one, will it, for three days? and otherwise how can you visit all those cafes? I feel one is insulting Viennese culture if one neglects to take advantage of these things. :P

Edited by toursenlair
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12 hours ago, ninamargaret said:

On a slightly frivolous note,when I made my bookings in December to see all four casts I was unable to get any side stalls circle seats on the left side for any performance.  I like to try and sit on different sides for different performances so that I can see what happens on both sides of the stage. I have noticed before that left hand seats are more difficult to get - do you think this is connected to the easier access to the Paul Hamlyn bar?

 

 

I was unable to get any seats for anywhere when booking opened!  I had to push and shove and scream and wail and then Alison told me at 10.00 there was another load of seats so I just bought up everything I could see!

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13 hours ago, ninamargaret said:

On a slightly frivolous note,when I made my bookings in December to see all four casts I was unable to get any side stalls circle seats on the left side for any performance.  I like to try and sit on different sides for different performances so that I can see what happens on both sides of the stage. I have noticed before that left hand seats are more difficult to get - do you think this is connected to the easier access to the Paul Hamlyn bar?

 

I think this is almost certainly so. I know I always try and get left hand side seats for this reason if I can as I often meet people in the interval. Obviously the quality of the seats are the main concern but if there are 2 similar seats on left and right I tend to go for the left ones. Side stalls circle especially you can be up the side stairs to the Floral hall and up the escalator to the terrace while people on the right might still be in the auditorium. Having said that it can depend on the ballet staging and if there are things on stage that would be difficult to see from the left then I would always choose the right.

 

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9 hours ago, toursenlair said:

 

Demmel's not that expensive. If you're only there for three days, my tactic is usually to dispense with real food altogether (ok maybe a schnitzel at t he Palmenhaus...) and just eat cake. Seriously, it won't kill one, will it, for three days? and otherwise how can you visit all those cafes? I feel one is insulting Viennese culture if one neglects to take advantage of these things. :P

That sounds like advice that I will be very happy to follow, Katherine!!  :)

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39 minutes ago, jmhopton said:

 

I think this is almost certainly so. I know I always try and get left hand side seats for this reason if I can as I often meet people in the interval. Obviously the quality of the seats are the main concern but if there are 2 similar seats on left and right I tend to go for the left ones. Side stalls circle especially you can be up the side stairs to the Floral hall and up the escalator to the terrace while people on the right might still be in the auditorium. Having said that it can depend on the ballet staging and if there are things on stage that would be difficult to see from the left then I would always choose the right.

 

Do you mean left as looking from the stage or from looking to the stage from the back?

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On 27/04/2017 at 19:30, David said:

Technically eight if you count Gary coz he's said he's playing Bay Middleton tomorrow night - and what's the betting that another Principal Character Artist will be cast as the Emperor?

 

Just home from first night.

 

Not even only *technically* eight: Ryoichi Hirano was one of the Hungarian Officers.

 

Plus *four* Principal Character Artists: Gary Avis (Bay Middleton), Christopher Saunders (the Emperor), Elizabeth McGorian (Helene Vetsera) and Alastair Marriott (Count Eduard Taafe).

Edited by RuthE
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On 27 April 2017 at 01:02, toursenlair said:

There are organized coach half-day trips that leave from in front of the opera house, go into the Vienna woods, stop at Heiligenkreuz Abbey (which is quite lovely) for a tour, then proceed on to Mayerling, where there is a visitor centre. Mayerling is a must-see for ballet lovers or people interested in the Hapsburgs

 

Although the Wikipedia articles about the tragedy are rather confusingly put together, they are informative and worth looking at.

 

Mary Vetsera is of course not buried at Mayerling but down the road at Heiligenkreuz (not at the monastery but in the public graveyard about fifteen minutes walk away). The monastery has been doing rather well, also musically, as this article from last year in the Catholic Herald explains:-

 

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issues/march-25th-2016/a-hot-spot-for-spirituality/

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  • 4 months later...
On ‎27‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 04:19, RMM1 said:

 

I enjoyed it, but I don't know enough on the subject to know whether it was accurate or not. I am sure you will not have to wait too long for it to be repeated on BBC4.

 

This posting refers to a 3 part BBC4 documentary about Mayerling, which was mentioned during the recent run, and I have just noticed that episode 1 is on BBC4 tonight at 8pm, which means that the episode that covers  Mayerling will be on in 2 week's time.

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1 hour ago, Beryl H said:

 

This posting refers to a 3 part BBC4 documentary about Mayerling, which was mentioned during the recent run, and I have just noticed that episode 1 is on BBC4 tonight at 8pm, which means that the episode that covers  Mayerling will be on in 2 week's time.

Thank you Beryl H - I hadn't noticed that!

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Alison: It may be that some costumes were lost or damaged when the Wortham Theater was flooded.  But if their Mayerling costumes were in their Warehouse, they would apparently have been unscathed.  I repeat a link from the time that's not entirely clear as regards Mayerling:

 

https://www.broadwayworld.com/houston/article/Houston-Ballet-Announces-Updates-and-Performance-Cancellations-Due-to-Hurricane-Harvey-20170830

 



 

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