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The Royal Ballet "Unknown Soldier" Triple Bill November 2018

Richard LH
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LinMM

LinMM

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Omg think I need to take a memory pill!!

Yes of course it's Leanne Benjamin in Requiem.....and it's that I saw her in last!! With the glorious Faure music of course (had the "In Paradisum" at my mums funeral) 

It is the organ concerto I love .....forgot that was for Voluntaries .......haven't seen that one for years now.

And now I'm trying to remember who I saw in Gloria last ....have to go hunting in the old programmes ....again!! 

Thanks for the corrections all.......just wait till you get to my age ha ha 

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Lindsay

Lindsay

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Taking a sideways segue back to Infra casting, I was reflecting a bit further on the new cast as against the original and why, despite some really good performances, I left feeling very slightly unsatisfied.  And I think I have concluded that it is the absence of Edward Watson.  Nothing against Calvin Richardson who I thought was excellent on Tuesday in the role created by Watson, but McGregor's idiom is so closely related to Watson's appearance and style of movement (and much of it, including this role, created with him in mind) that it was strange for me watching the work without Watson opening and closing as the exemplar of the style.   

 

I suppose we all simply have to adjust over time but it has left me with some sympathy for those who can't "tolerate" Marguerite & Armand without the original cast or who saw Seymour create Macmillan roles in which no-one else can ever be the same for them.  

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Richard LH

Richard LH

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1 hour ago, graemew said:

 

Thought CIC was a bit NY Ballet (a) and too much "let's all duck under this arch made by your arms" (b)

 

Am I still allowed to post here? (c)

 

a) I would expect SIC to  be a lot "NY Ballet" as Balanchine created the NYBC, and created this  version of  SIC for them!

b) I don't see what is it objectionable about the couple of  brief instances in the ballet  where that happens!

c) Well we forgave  your  "hoarse" joke, but with your reference now to  a "duck" I think you are skating on very thin ice (with all due respect to Les  Patineurs) ! 😃

 

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Timmie

Timmie

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Definitely a mixed bag mixed bill (last night), Unknown Soldier was OK to watch once but wouldn’t want to see again (though I will be… might take my sunglasses 😎). Infra, OK and quite exciting to watch, I would be happy to see it again but wouldn’t go just for it (Beatriz Stix-Brunell made me 😢 as the ‘lone girl’). As I sat down after the second interval I was contemplating returning my Monday ticket. As soon as the curtain went up all thoughts of that were gone. There were lots of  laughs when the curtain went up and I interpreted these as sheer relief after the gloom of before and approval of what was on the stage. Symphony in C, totally amazing (only the second time I’ve seen it) and reminded me of why I go to the ballet. Yuhui Choe and Anna Rose O’Sullivan were definitely the stand outs, though everyone was fab as far as I was concerned.

Re all the youngsters, and there were a lot, two or three different groups maybe, I heard one of them mention “a choreography lesson tomorrow” and most if not all did stay until the end. They were being ‘rounded up’ in the Amphi bar when I was putting my coat on. Very well behaved and well-mannered as others have said.

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Timmie

Timmie

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3 hours ago, Nogoat said:

...Keeping the scrim down for the stage calls was also too literal; OK, we get it - all the people in the ballet, men and women, are now dead and ‘on the other side’...

 

I didn't get that :(. I need people to explain stuff for me. Thank goodness for ballet forum!

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graemew

graemew

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20 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

 

a) I would expect SIC to  be a lot "NY Ballet" as Balanchine created the NYBC, and created this  version of  SIC for them!

b) I don't see what is it objectionable about the couple of  brief instances in the ballet  where that happens!

c) Well we forgave  your  "hoarse" joke, but with your reference now to  a "duck" I think you are skating on very thin ice (with all due respect to Les  Patineurs) ! 😃

 

 

Actually, the duck comment wasn't posted in humour (although I try to keep things light). It all has a bit too much of a country dance theme. But pretty obviously we all like different styles of ballet and all have different opinions.  I may meet someone else who didn't object to  Unknown one day - that's three so far (me, my wife.....and Marriott!) Oh, Alistaire isn't sure now?

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alison

alison

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39 minutes ago, Lindsay said:

Taking a sideways segue back to Infra casting, I was reflecting a bit further on the new cast as against the original and why, despite some really good performances, I left feeling very slightly unsatisfied.  And I think I have concluded that it is the absence of Edward Watson.  Nothing against Calvin Richardson who I thought was excellent on Tuesday in the role created by Watson, but McGregor's idiom is so closely related to Watson's appearance and style of movement (and much of it, including this role, created with him in mind) that it was strange for me watching the work without Watson opening and closing as the exemplar of the style.   

 

Not so much the absence of Watson per se for me (or Cuthbertson, or Underwood, or ...), rather I was conscious - particularly on opening night but also last night - that at times it felt to me like the RB corps dancing Infra.  I'm not picking on any particular dancer - indeed I couldn't, since I couldn't work out who a lot of them were from halfway up the amphi without binoculars! - I just felt that some of the dancers (unsurprisingly) hadn't as yet made the parts their own, and got their own individuality into them.  For all I know, it may not even have been the lower-ranked dancers I felt this with, but some of the higher-ranked ones.

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bridiem

bridiem

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13 minutes ago, graemew said:

 

Actually, the duck comment wasn't posted in humour (although I try to keep things light). It all has a bit too much of a country dance theme. But pretty obviously we all like different styles of ballet and all have different opinions.  I may meet someone else who didn't object to  Unknown one day - that's three so far (me, my wife.....and Marriott!) Oh, Alistaire isn't sure now?

 

Could I just point out that the reviews of The US so far have been definitely mixed but certainly not entirely negative. There have actually been some quite positive comments from a range of reviewers.

Edited by bridiem
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Douglas Allen

Douglas Allen

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2 hours ago, graemew said:

I quite liked Unknown 

I enjoyed Infra

Thought CIC was a bit NY Ballet and too much "let's all duck under this arch made by your arms"

 

Am I still allowed to post here?

Of course. Everyone is entitled to their point of view - no matter now eccentric.  Just as in days of yore when most newspapers had regular ballet critics, it was always helpful to know whose judgements about ballets were totally unreliable. For many years the Daily Telegraph had a critic who, if he pronounced a new work to be a masterpiece, I knew I would hate. Never failed and it was very useful.

 

Fonty - many thanks for the link to the NY Times review. It was great to be reminded just how perceptive and evocative a daily reviewer was Anna Kisselgoff. Also, what a triple bill - Scenes de Ballet, Gloria and Daphnis not to mention the glorious casting ... why don't we get triples like that anymore?

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Lindsay

Lindsay

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8 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

Could I just point out that the reviews of The US so far have been definitely mixed but certainly not entirely negative. There have actually been some quite positive comments from a range of reviewers.

 

Hmm, I would say that those reviews with anything positive to say (notably the Guardian and the Times) are what I would call damning with faint praise.  And neither likes the undressed men in the final scene.

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Sim

Sim

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6 minutes ago, Douglas Allen said:

 

I thought the Tardis had been reserved for supporters of The Unknown Soldier. Has Ms Nunez gone on record about this work?

I think that Marianela could read the London phone book during her time in the Tardis and that would be just fine for Graeme: in her case, her opinion of US wouldn't matter a hoot.  The rest of us mere mortals would, I assume, have to own up to even vaguely liking it to be allowed aboard the Tardis....

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graemew

graemew

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7 minutes ago, Douglas Allen said:

 

I thought the Tardis had been reserved for supporters of The Unknown Soldier. Has Ms Nunez gone on record about this work?

 

A fair point. I may have to widen the qualifications for being on the passenger list. "Sadly"  Bradley Walsh  has gone on reord that he was not a fan of  Unknown and sois not permitted to board.

 

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Jan McNulty

Jan McNulty

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2 hours ago, LinMM said:

Is Gloria to that wonderful Poulenc organ concerto which I seem to associate Leanne Benjamin with .....probably the last time I saw it .....it's a while since this has been shown isn't it? 

 

 

2 hours ago, Sim said:

Yes it is Poulenc.  I always associate Leanne with Requiem by MacMillan.  Gloria was done about three years ago IIRC. 

 

Although of course NB performed Gloria last year in Bradford and at ROH and in Leeds in March!

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Coated

Coated

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3 hours ago, bridiem said:

I do agree with Nogoat that The Unknown Soldier is unsophisticated, and also that the timing is wrong. It should have been premièred any time between late 2014 and (realistically) late 2017

I felt that the focus of the piece was on 'the ones left behind', which made the timing fitting for me - the rememberance feast of the last 4 years is over, but mellow sorrow lingers. Neither love nor hate the piece myself, to me it's more about the people who remember than the ones who died, and an underlying note of tempered sorrow. Not very sophisticated, effective in its own way, but sadly the choreography isn't the most memorable part of the performance

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graemew

graemew

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2 minutes ago, Sim said:

OK I have just looked up Bradley Walsh and I am none the wiser, although he looks vaguely familiar.  However, in deference to my fellow Time Travellers, I will be very happy to bar him from ever entering the Tardis!!  :)

 

Passengers will include all casts and a music recording so we can be entertained day in and day out by the work. Now where do we hang that scrim?  Oh, you have changed your mind Sim? (I'm sure there will be many saying at this point that out in deep space is the best place for it, but the resulting depletion of RB personnel would be on a par with Cats. And no, we are not taking the tiger!)

 

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