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Paul Arrowsmith

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Everything posted by Paul Arrowsmith

  1. Actually managed to get a Clore ticket for Playground! In and out in under five minutes. Amazing!!!
  2. And for those of you with access to the Arte TV iplayer a recording from 2017 (with Haydee as the nurse and Madesn as the friar) is currently avialable.
  3. Circles? You just have to look at Ashton's choreography - Sleeping Beauty waltz, Cinderella, Daphnis among more - to appreciate how magical circles can be.
  4. A big question - and probably it has already been answered by a doctoral thesis. But initial response would be to say that - good - design tells the viewer where to look but more fundamentally is a visual embodiment of the ballet's meaning. Stage designs are as much victim to the vagaries of fashion as any other visual art so what once may have appeared 'right' can later appear 'wrong.' By which token, it is perfectly possible to redesign ballets successfully - and discover things in/about them that their choreographers may not have originally imagined. That's a part of keeping ballet alive.
  5. I imagine there was a second cast too - but I don't recall who. Think Opus 19 was in something of an unwieldy mixed bill (again, don't recall with what. La Valse?) which may have had an impact.
  6. When the BBC archive was searched for material for the 2016 documentary about Peter Wright, The Ballet Master, only the second and third acts were found.
  7. I agree much with much of what you say Angela, particularly in relation to use of a classical language interestingly put. I would differ only from you when say 'light years ahead.' I think just different.
  8. If you delve into contemporary news reports, the audience was kept waiting outside the ROH as the workers inside had not finished preparing the foyers. There will still carpenters walking around with their tools when the audience was admitted, making adjustments to the front of house decor. And Gloriana was a live relay on the radio too. A modicum of pressure!
  9. As Scarpia says in the previous act, 'Tosca, finalmente mia!' Lucky this Cavaradossi did not get knifed too for keeping his lady waiting!!
  10. It was the Royal. June 1984 at the Palace theatre.
  11. Yes - in Zurich, nearly 20 years ago in a double-bill with Pagliacci. No memory of the cast or conductor - just lost of wilis interrupting proceedings in an aggressively contemporary way.
  12. Perhaps I can comment. Peter Wright is well advanced with his memoires (I am working with him to prepare them for publication). The book is scheduled to be published in 2016 by Oberon Books to celebrate Peter's 90th birthday.
  13. I remember when I interviewed Christopher Wheeldon for The Dancing Times in 2012 I asked him how long a shadow Ashton's version of the ballet cast. Then Wheeldon's production was yet to be seen in Amsterdam, where it replaced Ashton's. Although Wheeldon appreciated and understood Ashton as a choreographer he told me that he did not consider Cinderella to be top drawer Ashton, so there was no particular pressure in creating a new version. He said (see Dancing Times January 2013) he was more interested in understanding how the prince and Cinderella find themselves in the situtations in which they both find themselves
  14. The company is on magnificent form. Carmina was a big hit with Friday's audience. A tremendous roar of approval at the end. Wonderful theatre thought my guest. William Bracewell, Joe Caley and Tyrone Singleton were an excellent trio of seminarians, neatly characterised and danced with enormous physicality. Ex Cathedra was the impressive choir. Bintley's always inventive choreography here was seen to great advantage on the wide Coliseum stage.
  15. Elizabeth Street in Pimlico/ Belgravia. Small but tasteful.
  16. There is a pub at the north end of the block in which the artsdepot finds itself on the south west corner (the bus station is on the south side). On the unfancy side, didn't sample the food. I don't recall anything else in the vicinity. The venue had lots of foyers - and some bars.
  17. Relevant to the differing views of Manon's character, I have again just come across a comment by Kenneth MacMillan quoted in Jann Parry's biography of him. When he offered the role to the 19-year old Alessandra Ferri she demurred claiming she did not understand Manon's character. He told her that was exactly why he had chosen her - Manon, he said, does not understand the impact she has on men.
  18. That is what Gillian Lynne is claiming (and there certainly are some errors of fact in her claims in the FT interview last Saturday) - but her work builds on the creative archaeology that has taken place over the past four years, sifting the memories of others who danced in the original, many photographs and designs - as well as the musical prompts that the score suggests. Lynne has made conscious changes to Helpmann's original - but the spirit of his ballet is probably more in evidence than the claims being made for it. Its subject matter sounds timeless. What will be interesting to see is how well a different generation of dancers encompass something inherently theatrical.
  19. A small correction, the designer for Isadora was Barry Kay. I have a memory - possibly erroneous - of Galina Samsova dancing the title role when the RB toured Isadora to Manchester.
  20. And what is one to say about poor Alain? For the main part that role is not performed much better but then the company has real problems in casting Ashton's demicharacter roles and those created for Alexander Grant pose particular problems as they require a virtuoso technique combined with theatrical flair and the ability to create a character physically and to create a mood. Floss, I would take issue with you only one of your finely tuned observations: A contemporary of Alexander Grant in the company told me that Grant was not a virtuoso, he scarcely had any technique. He barely did any warm up before a performance. His Alain was funny because he was technically unable to perform the steps fluently. The - well, a - reason why we don't laugh with Alain's predicament today is that current dancers find the role unchallenging technically. And of course, that elusive sense of character is missing.
  21. The Alexei Ratmansky Sleeping Beauty detailed in the listing provided by Katherine here is a new co-production with American Ballet Theatre.
  22. Valeri Hristov is now partnering Nunez on the 28th in place of Soares. Apparently this performance will be a cinema broadcast there.
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