Royal Ballet Live Transmission of Sleeping Beauty 15 December

[patsomerset]

This happened while ballet.co was taken down. I should love to hear from others who saw it and what they thought

 

My local Odeon was almost full to capacity which cheered me not a little as it means they will go on showing ballet and of course added to the atmosphere. Beauty is not my favourite but I do appreciate its place in the classics and the RB repertoire. The advantages of watching from your local cinema are that you see a lot more of the mime in close up, you see the costumes in close up and you see the dancers facial expressions in close up. The disadvantages are that you do not always get a view of the whole stage when you would like it and even the smallest mistakes are highlighted

 

In this particular performance of SB there were quite a few things to love. The mime was excellent, the new costumes exquisite and the views of the orchestra a bonus. I was however underwhelmed by some of the dancing. The corps were rather ragged at the beginning, as were some of the soloists. Poor Lauren missed some of her balances and made at least one uncontrolled landing as did the Bluebird

 

I thought some of the camera angles did not help. Legs looked sturdy which I am sure they are not and we had more 'crotch' shots than were really necessary

 

This performance was screened round the world and will be shown again in recording. Was it as polished as it should be?

[lakeylakes]

Can you tell me who was cast as The Lilac Fairy and who as Princess Florine and the blubird. Thanks

[Laura]

Claire Calvert was the Lilac Fairy, Yuhui Choe was Florine and Alexander Campbell was The Bluebird.

[alison]

This happened while ballet.co was taken down. I should love to hear from others who saw it and what they thought

 

Glad someone bumped this - I'd forgotten about this over Christmas. I saw it at a not-so-local Odeon (my local wasn't showing it) and there was a high turnout. The production with the new costume designs looked stunning. Agree that not all of the dancing was as good as it could be, though. I still find that, even from the back of the cinema, I have difficulty taking in the whole length of a dancer's body when they're perhaps 10-15 feet high. I still enjoyed it rather more than the Bolshoi's production, though, with the possible exception of a certain American dancer.

[RhodaKuc]

I went to see this with my mother for company, at the local Showcase Cinema, which was almost to capacity, though on one of the smaller screens of a multiplex. I thought it was amazing!

 

Admittedly there were some less than ideal camera angles - sometimes I wanted to see a different part of the action but mostly it was ok.

The bonus of being up close to the action more than made up though. As has been said the detail of the costumes was lovely to see as was the expressions on the dancers' faces - the thrill of dancing was clearly seen, the little looks and smiles of encouragement between partners, as well as the flickers of disappointment (quickly covered up I must say) when a balance or landing was not quite as rehearsed!

Close ups of the orchestra were interesting too and the music really filled the cinema.

Shots from outside the Opera House and within the auditorium really added to the feeling of being part of the live performance.

 

It was lovely during the interval, to have the behind the scenes interviews and looks at rehearsal, particularly of the fish dives, Lauren Cuthbertson's thoughts that they would quite literally throw themselves into the move made seeing the finished performance more thrilling. An added bonus for the cinema audience.

 

Having "had a go" at an abridged version of the wedding pas de deux for a dancing school performance and knowing what it is like to attempt the moves, it was all the more awe inspiring to see the professionals perform with such grace up so close!

 

I saw Lauren Cuthbertson in Cinderella last Christmas at the Opera House, I was keen to see how she would bring Aurora to life. For me she had a lovely innocence and excitement as the young princess on her birthday and though she did have a few wobbles, I really enjoyed her performance which she seemed to grow into as the acts passed.

 

Although one can not surpass the experience of a visit to the Opera House, the cost and effort required to travel to London make it mostly inaccessible as more than a one off treat. Making the performances available at the cinema is a good compomise to a theatre visit and indeed in some areas an advantage. It also widens the type of audience which can be exposed to ballet as an art, from some comments overheard around us in the cinema there were several to whom ballet was quite a new experience.

 

I am looking forward to seeing the next offering - Romeo and Juliet, in March!

[Ian Macmillan]

The room was pretty full when we saw it in the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse, which is turning out to be the norm for these showings there - those for the New York Met sell out very quickly, indeed. And in terms of convenience and cost, I can put up with the occasional restrictions of view that come with a filmed performance. The performance went well, I thought, with lots of good moments. As a production, I thought it came over very well, indeed - the RB should be able to hang onto this one for some time to come - and Mrs M was pleased to see again some of the costumes that she once knew so well, and I can also now appreciate rather better her descriptions of 'her' rather fab Queen's hat! Despite the odd wobble, she has also become increasingly taken with Lauren Cuthbertson's recent performances, and it was interesting to note from some of the supporting film that the ROH PR dept is promoting the Cuthbertson-Polunin partnership as being in a direct line from Fonteyn-Helpmann, Fonteyn-Nureyev, Sibley-Dowell and Collier-Mukhamedov. Personally, whilst wishing them both well, I'd have thought it was a bit early for claims of that kind.

[patsomerset]

I am back on air again after two weeks without a computer and pleased to see some replies to my topic. Others seemed to have enjoyed the evening on the whole, as I did with reservations about some of the dancing, but it is after all a live performance and one has to take it as it comes. I agree that convenience and cost do overcome the restrictions of views. After all one can get different views of a performance depending on where one is sitting in the actual theatre and the close ups of costumes and faces are a bonus

 

I am looking forward to R&J on 23 March. I see it is billed as being the Cuthbertson-Polunin partnership again so they are certainly promoting them. I agree with Ian; too soon to claim them as a partnership in the same league as Fonteyn-Helpman et al and maybe putting too much pressure on them?