Jump to content

penelopesimpson

Members
  • Posts

    1,958
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by penelopesimpson

  1. No, you’re right. Predictably there’s always the usual suspects.... You really would have to be ?....?......I know not what to take offence at such an innocuous statement. Puzzled
  2. Err, a joke? Humour? Honest irony? Self-deprecation? What on earth else could it possibly be? Disappointing Dave.
  3. Would just like to point out that the Deputy Chief Medical Officer is, thankfully, not running the country and her remarks were unfortunate, Necessarily and understandably, scientists are purists and concerned only with a particular project. She may well have been correct in her comments that it would take six months to get rid of the virus but those charged with taking a wider view know that locking down the country for six months is simply unsustainable. We have to get the U.K. moving again and likely deaths have to be balanced against the harm that the so-called cure is doing. It is not just CoronaVirus that results in death and deprivation - so does poverty, isolation and psychological damage.
  4. Personally, I can’t think of anything more daft in these straitened times than abandoning Scarlett’s Swan Lake. Yes, many of us have reservations about certain aspects of the production, but it has been widely acclaimed. Most importantly, it sells fast and well and RB’s dancers have prepared for it. Ditching it when the economy has just been trashed would seem like artistic judgement gone mad. The official line is that Scarlett has no case to answer so why would our first rank ballet company wrinkle its hyper-sensitive nose? This is a time for clear thinking in order to rebuild finances so my suggestion would be that they kick off the new season with Swan Lake, followed by as many Nutcrackers as they can squeeze in. Personally, I was very much hoping for Woolf Works but Alice may be a better choice and Bayadere would surely sell well. Winters Tale not so much as on its third outing it did not sell particularly quickly.
  5. Take your point Darlex. As people will know, I am pretty much at the top of the list of Ed Watson's fan club. I didn't include him because I mentioned him so many times and sound like a broken record. And nobody else seems to ask which I find strange because if Muntagirov or Ball or Campbell vanished, these boards would be awash with complaint! Okay, I know he was due to appear in Dante (I have booked for 3 performances without even knowing if it is great or the other thing...), but he has been off stage now for two and a half years and nobody ever says anything. Why? I have absolutely no idea, but it does seem that he is not a favourite at ROH which surprises me. Bonelli is winding down but still dances major roles, ditto Soares, but Watson, well, he had to withdraw from Mayerling and then he might as well have been on the moon for all we heard of him. Its particularly hard because he is evidently a very private person so we learn little from Instagram or Twitter. I wouldn't change that but I do think management need to understand and respond to the very real relationships that artistes build with their fans. As another poster has said, Cojocaru was a wonderchild - then she was simply no more. I really don't care much about what went on wtih management, but I do care that management seem not to recognise that they have some sort of duty to their fans. The same is true of Watson. We don't need daily updates on his injury or to be privy to what he does with his days, but it would have been nice to have had some indication that he hadn't retired but was.....??????????what exactly?
  6. Of course we don’t know but we DO know what Kobborg and Cojocaru have said since, clearly documented. As I have said before - and doubtless will again - it shouldn’t matter to us, the audience. We see only the performances on which we base our liking for artistes. This is theatre, not politics. A formal marking of the departure of the leading ballet couple from the top UK ballet company should have been appropriately recognised for the audience. There wasn’t anyone there that night who didn’t share that view. For the same reason, I have no interest in what may or may not have gone on with Liam Scarlett. I see only the work of the artiste and I applaud or deride it accordingly. It is difficult to see how this can be denied. Equally, I find it baffling that anybody could consider that an artist at their peak should simply move aside for younger talent. Notice you don’t mention that?????? Anyone going to tell Marianella her time is up? No, thought not.
  7. Cojocaru and Kobborg have made it clear in interviews that they thought their departure was badly handled. In any case, this is about more than Management favourites - there is surely a duty to fans? We are not sheep taking our cue from a Management as to which artiste is in or out. If you had been there that night you would have seen for yourself the strength of feeling. A rare misstep from KOH who appeared petty. i must take issue with your view of the succession. Losing an internationally acclaimed star, for many of us the greatest ballerina of her generation, surely merits more than a ‘thank goodness she’s gone?’ I love our new cadre of Principals whose journey to the top it has been a privilege to watch, but their accession did not mean we had to use an established star. Using your method, Bonelli should have gone years ago, and Acosta certainly overstayed his welcome, ditto Galeazzi and Yanowsky and Rojo all older than Cojocaru. And what is Nunez thinking of cluttering up the Principals dressing room when there is fresh meat available. As for Morera, well, taxi for her. Grrh
  8. SO share your view, Love Classics. Alina is in a class of her own and should be dancing with the premier company on the premier stage in London. I have no idea what went on but it was clear from the shameful way their last performance went unmarked by management that relations had soured. I am not sure Alina could have stayed and not just because of her relationship with Kobborg. They had been casting this couple less and less over the preceding two years, so much so that I had written to RB about it, and I think her face no longer fitted. I cannot remember if they left before or after Polunin but perhaps it could all have been different for both of them if RB had paired them up. She was certainly needed because after so many retirements, RB was short on star power ballerinas.
  9. Oooh, err!! There is an irony to all this: as Mr. Scarlett will find it difficult to find work in the immediate future, he could perhaps have teamed up with Mr. Polunin, if only....
  10. Because at this time, most people don't have Mr. Scarlett top of their worries list. All they needed to do was let it go and then when somebody decided they must probe the matter, simply say that they have no plans to work with this gentleman in the forseeable future. I've spent my life in press relations and almost always recommend being open about events, but in this case sleeping dogs would have quietly faded away. I hold no brief for Mr. Scarlett, but I do think the statement is pretty awful. But then ROH have form since the late but not lamented Lucy Sinclair took charge. Would also add that the outcome was always pretty much a foregone conclusion. To have admitted that inappropriate behaviour had gone on at the Royal Ballet SCHOOL, would have been tantamount to admitting that the school was badly run. You only have to look at the pasting the BBC took over Saville to see what could have happened.
  11. I can’t really understand why they needed to say anything at all. All they needed to do was just not commission him again. A nasty case of virtue signalling.He has certainly got up someone’s nose.
  12. Why? Is Art now to be judged on the perceived probity of its creator/curator? Think the USSR tried something similar.
  13. Great post, JNC. Like yourself, I have no interest in what this man may or may not have done. This is between him and his employers and nothing to do with me. It certainly wont stop me enjoying Swan Lake again or continuing to find Frankenstein dire.
  14. Probably not intentionally funny, but the Sunday Times magazine has an interview with Polunin. Badly researched, it is mainly psycho babble and the same old bad boy theme regurgitated. He is now a father with a Russian figure skater (who sounds similarly weird) and, guess what, he is on a mission to build an alternative system that exists outside of the establishment. The interviewer presses him for detail, but ‘he just has all these ideas.’ Hmm. Hard to believe he’s only thirty. I have seen him dance just three times, yet his noise seems to have been around forever.
  15. Thank you. I will have a look on Friday - yes, I’m going out!
  16. That's amazing. May I ask where - go to Bath every Friday
  17. Witless Silence. Terrible. Why DOES Emilia Fox always have her mouth open? Possibly in awe of the endless scope of a pathologist’s job in BBC land?
  18. The one I love is Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root perfectly cast as Wentworth and Ann. Oh, and Corin Redgrave absolutely marvellous.
×
×
  • Create New...