Wulff

It's all very well to suggest a trendy and "contemporary" version of Swan Lake, but just remember that this new production is a) going to cost a lot of money and b} will have to be around in the repertoire for quite some time in order to justify the expenditure. Nothing dates so quickly as today's "trendy" which is why I agree with Janet that a conventional production is more suitable for the RB at the ROH.

Rewrite and adapt Shakespeare all the time? I am well aware that most of the bard's plays are cut in performance, an uncut Hamlet would no doubt last longer than most modern audiences could tolerate, but rewrite? Did the production of Cymbeline which you cite have large tracts of the text rewritten, or was it only the production's "concept" which drew your admiration? And here we enter the realm of "regietheater" which is so fashionable these days, especially in the world of opera, and which has resulted in the ROH serving up several monstrous turkeys recently. I don't have any issues with Matthew Bourne's productions which are virtually new ballets although using existing music, and although I haven't see Akram Khan's Giselle I gather from reviews that most of the music is new with a few references to the original score and entirely new choreography, which places it in much the same category as Matthew Bourne's productions. However, I don't believe that such productions have a place in the RB's repertoire which, as I understand de Valois's original remit, is to preserve the classics while looking elsewhere for new and original work.

I think that it is high time that choreographers left the classics alone. After all we don't rewrite Dickens, Shakespeare or Pushkin, so why all these "new" versions of Swan Lake . etc etc. If choreographers really want to prove themselves they should be looking for new subjects and new music. I think that Scarlett would do well to look at Ratmansky's reconstruction. OK for new costumes and sets and for filling in those bits that are missing from the notation, but otherwise can we please have as much of the Petipa/Ivanov choreography that survives. If the 19th century classics really are the masterpieces that they are claimed to be, why does the ballet world handle their choreographic texts in such a cavalier fashion?

In Karsavina's account of her debut in Corsaire she makes it quite clear that the Petit Corsaire solo was very much a part of Medora's role and was danced by her to cheer up a sombre Conrad. Karsavina's partner on that occasion was Pavel Gerdt who was - believe it or not! - her godfather and must have been around 50 at the time. I don't think that in 1899 the well known Corsaire Pas de Deux {or Trois) existed, and I have read somewhere that it was interpolated in 1915 and danced by Kschensinskaya , but perhaps Floss can offer some enlightenment on this. Also apropos of Corsaire, how many of you noticed that the music for the entrance of the pirates into their den in Act1 scene 2 was a fugue? Adam was not just a composer of nice melodies but was perfectly capable of handing academic musical forms. There is also a fugue in the music for the second act of Giselle, but this is seldom used in modern productions although Mary Skeaping did use it in hers. Finally, on the subject of reconstructions, for those with the time and patience to spare there is a wealth of material to be found on Youtube with comparisons between the current and notated versions, mostly of Sleeping Beauty, but with one clip of the pd3 of the Odalisque's in Corsaire. There is also an hour-long lecture - not for those with limited attention span ! - by Tim Scholl, professor at Oberlin College Ohio, in which he compares the reconstructions of Sleeping Beauty Act 2 by Ratmansky and Vikharev. Other noteworthy subjects are comparisons of performing styles over the last 60 years or so. It's only when you see a clip of Kitri's entrance in Don Q in the 1940s that you realise how much has changed.

Well, I enjoyed this production more than either of the others I have seen this season (Don Q and flames of Paris). Yes , it is long, but don't forget that this is a reconstruction of a 19th century ballet based on the notation in the Harvard collection and on various other archives. Most of it is genuine Petipa, although much of the last act is pastiche by Ratmansky since I understand that the notation for this section is either deficient or missing. This is the sort of Grand Ballet that audiences of that time would expect to see complete with crowd scenes, mime sequences, processions and character dances as well as classical "high spots". In these days when attention spans have been reduced by 1 hour TV chunks and our versions of the classic ballets have been rehashed, edited, reordered and strippped of most of their mime and character scenes, it is,I suppose, not surprising that many modern audiences find something that at least approaches the genuine article unpalatable because they expect unremitting "wall to wall" dancing. This is the fault that I find with ENB's version of Corsaire, which I find over-condensed and with several transpositions; why, for example, have the Odalisques been moved from the garden scene to Act 1? Also the Jardin Anime scene in ENB's version is not a patch on the real thing, But then one does need a very large company to bring it off satisfactorily. I think that for too long ballet audiences have been served up with "Readers Digest" version of the 19th century classics, and that reconstructions bt Ratmansky, and Vikharev have done a valuable service in showing what these ballets were really like. not only in content but in style as well. We like to think that the RB version of Sleeping Beauty is "authentic". but in reality it is as corrupt as most with many insertions and cuts, the most lamentable one being the removal of most of the court dances in the vision scene to make room for the variation for the Prince by Ashton - very nice no doubt, but not Petipa.

It seems to me that Russian audiences tend to regard ballet more as a spectator sport than an art form. Hence all the clapping in time to fouettes and the applause that often greets various tours de force that would not be applauded outside Russia (e.g.. the hops on point in Giselle's Act 1 variation). Dramatic atmosphere and continuity is often ruined by these audience interruptions and the subsequent "milking" of applause by the performers. This addiction to "tricks" does, however, go back a very long way. A Russian ballet reviewer in the 19th century wrote that anyone can do tricks, but it takes a real artist to move an audience. Those were the days when ballets contained a great deal more mime than they do now.

On the first night of the Bolshoi's Don Q at the ROH a group of people behind me in the amphi started clapping in time to the fouettes in the grand pas. Might as well have been at the circus.

I have had information from a reliable source of another leaver, so far not officially mentioned.

Ashton's ballets require from the dancer clean and precise footwork, especially in the execution of small and beaten steps and terre-a-terre enchainments. This has to be combined with amplitude of upper body movement and luxuriant epaulement. Ashton was always encouraging his dancers to bend more, and it is this combination of precision in the lower body coupled with a breadth of upper body movement that many dancers unaccustomed to Ashton's style find difficult and often exhausting and frequently try to fudge. This is one reason why I never really liked Sylvie Guillem in "A Month in the Country" Yes, she performed the steps but without the pliancy of torso which would have given them the value that the choreographer intended. You only have to look at a video of Seymour in the role to see the genuine article.

Don't forget that there are 6 performances of Sleeping Beauty scheduled between 21 Dec and 3 Jan concurrently with Nutcracker, and casting for these has yet to be announced. Then there are a further 19 performances of "Beauty" between 15 Feb and 14 Mar, so a lot of casting slots remain to be filled.

So did I, but not according to some "experts".

The correct name of the ballet is "Le Roi Candaule" - not Candule. And the divert in that ballet was known as the "Pas de Diane" and was originally a pas de trois for For Diana, Endymion and a Satyr. Vaganova's substitution of Actaeon for Endymion is mythologically incorrect since he was never Diana's lover but was turned by her into a stag as a punishment for spying on her bathing, and was killed by his own hounds. Endymion is usually considered to be Diana's lover and is so depicted in the denouement of Ashton's "Sylvia" and in some paintings, but even this, the purists tell us, is mythologically inaccurate, since he was the lover of Luna (Selene) the moon goddess, not Diana (Artemis). Another fragment from "Le Roi Candaule" has found its way into "La Bayadere" in the form of Gamzatti's variation in the Pas d'Action. This was composed for the ballerina Julia Sedova who performed the role of Queen Nisia in Petipa's last revival of "Le Roi Candaule" in 1903. This version of the ballet survives in the notation held in the Harvard collection. It is remarkable how various items have migrated from one Petipa ballet to another, very often at the choreographer's own initiative. "Paquita", for example, is another ballet which contains a variation originally from "Le Roi Candaule." What with Petipa's own substitutions and those of Soviet ballet masters the whole matter of what originally belonged where is highly confusing.

Indeed, a star must have danced on this date.

Today, May 18th, is Margot Fonteyn's birthday and also, by happy coincidence, Natalia Osipova's.

I have a couple of memories of the RB's former production of Giselle, way back in the 50s when Giselle really did rise from her tomb via a trapdoor. In addition , a wire was attached to her veil so that when Myrthe waved her hand the veil was whisked away into the flies. The sinking back into the ground at the end was also better managed. Another detail that I recall when Fonteyn and Somes danced Giselle and Albrecht was that in act2 when Giselle throws a flower to Albrecht while performing a diagonal of jetes downstage Fonteyn threw the flower at the top of her jump and Somes managed to catch it at the top of his. I can't remember whether other dancers managed to pull off this feat.

In this month's Dance Europe Magazine there is an advert for auditions for a possible, and as yet to be confirmed, London production of American In Paris in 2017. Let's hope it materialises.

I have always thought that the gypsy dances in this ballet tend to be very underrated. Especially when viewed from above, Ashton's ingenuity in devising contrasting groups of movement and floor patterns can, or should be, more fully appreciated by a public which seems to rate them solely on surface impressions without acknowledging their craftsmanship.

I was going to mention the end of Fille as a possible exception, but didn't, since clapping in time to the music at that point is not, in my experience, an invariable practice. Now when you admit to clapping in time to the fouettes in Swan Lake Act 3, then you might be asked to hang your head in shame.

In some youtube clips of Russsian ballet performances the audience can be heard clapping in time to the music, especially when fouettes are being performed. Fortunately this is not a part of British culture except in "Strictly come dancing".

If you lived in Paris, Munich, Vienna or New York do you think you would have better luck in seeing/hearing the casts of your choice? Or is the management of the ROH to be held particularly responsible for these cancellations? In the days when I used to be able to visit New York to see the NYCB I cannot recall one occasion when there was not a slip in the programme announcing one or more cast changes, and that was when casts were only posted at the beginning of the week of performance. I think that opera and ballet are art forms that make particularly heavy demands on performers, and injury, illness, and indeed temperament can all take their toll. I fear that these are hazards which we the paying public just have to accept, even though I can think of one brave artist who managed to perform in a wheelchair.

It is unfortunate that the decor for this production of Nutcracker does not show up well on TV, although looking good in the theatre, and this is true for the scenery of other ballets that have been broadcast. It's simply a matter of the sensitivity of TV cameras which cannot handle the same range of lighting intensity as the human eye. To show the decor to its best advantage would have meant a total overhaul of the lighting which would not have looked good to the audience in the theatre as well as involving much extra work for the lighting crew.

On the subject of Piegons the ROH made the same mistake on some of its tickets, so you are in good company, Anne. Regarding disliking "Pigeons"; of course this is and must be a matter of personal taste. Some of us like rice pudding and spinach, others don't and never will do. However, I don't go along with those who say they dislike the choreography. Ashton may not hit everyone's emotional button in this work, but a critique of his choreography should surely be supported by some concrete evidence. As I have said before, I think that the choreography of the gypsy dances has often been underrated, and Isay this with regard to their structure rather than their content. Of course I like the latter too, although others may not. As for the casts, I agree with Floss that the Takada, Magri, Hay cast was overall the most satisfying even though Morera gave us the most sultry gypsy. I was particularly impressed by Hay's performance. Not only was every emotion well thought out and conveyed, but the standard of his dancing was every bit as good as that of his more senior colleagues.

Having read Ismene Brown's somewhat bad-tempered review of Two Pigeons in the Spectator in which she dismisses the artistic value of the piece as "negligible", I thought that I would check to see what David Vaughan's view was in his book on Frederick Ashton and his Ballets. Here is a brief extract which I think sums up very well what the ballet is about. "The Two Pigeons is an almost perfect ballet: it tells its story with complete clarity and entirely in terms of dancing. Like Fille, it is only superficially a light comedy ballet: beneath that surface is another of Ashton's profound and poetic statements on the nature of love." Many of the ballet's critics dismiss it as "saccharine" and "twee", especially the first act, but is that really the case? From the very moment the curtain goes up it is evident that the relationship between the young man and his girl is in serious trouble. He is infuriated by her childish and inconsiderate behaviour and ends up by throwing his paintbrush at her and collapsing in a fit of sulks. Her efforts to ingratiate herself back into his good books are quite ineffectual, nor do her friends, when they arrive, help by messing about with his paints and brushes. Her comparison of herself and the young man with the two pigeons (turtledoves?) that fly by is not successful; the young man only joins in her fantasy with bad grace. As Christopher Carr said when rehearsing Yuhui Choe and Alex Campbell in the Pigeon pas de deux *He thinks she's crazy", and when the pas de deux is over the young man's mood is no better than before Finally when the gypsies pass by it is ironically the girl who has the idea of inviting them up, presumably to create a diversion which might clear the air, but when the Gypsy enters accompanied by her all-male troupe the cat is really among the pigeons. Small wonder that the young man is immediately attracted on the rebound to the Gypsy's more mature and sensual charms, and the girl is quite out of her depth in trying to keep her man and the Gypsy apart. Now what is "saccharine" and "twee" in this scenario, unless you feel that the break-up of a relationship is fun?. True, some of the humour may sugar the pill somewhat, but, underneath, the pill is a bitter one and the young girl is left heartbroken. Next we come to the gypsy camp. It may look colourful and picturesque, but it is still a dangerous place. Visitors get pestered for money and have their pockets picked (one lady loses her handbag), and when the young man arrives he has his sketchbook snatched and has to pay to get it back. During the subsequent action we can never be sure whether the Gypsy has any real feelings for the young man but is simply amusing herself by leading him on and by so doing teasing her lover who is always lurking close at hand. Ultimately enough is enough and the young man is tied up, beaten up, taunted by the Gypsy, spat upon by her lover and thrown out of the camp. The young man's adventure into more exciting territory has proved a failure and he has to return to his true love at home which he never should have left. This is, of course, the moral of the La Fontaine fable on which the ballet is based and which is similar to the moral of La Sylphide except that the latter ends in tragedy whereas Two Pigeons ends in forgiveness and reconciliation. The treatment of the gypsies in this ballet has often been the subject of criticism. True they may be no more than colourful "stage" gypsies, but they fulfil their role in the plot by representing a wilder and less conventional side of life. Whatever our views may be in this PC age, it has to be accepted that in past centuries the gypsies were considered as being very much on the fringes of society and given to various malfeasances including theft of property and livestock, abduction of children and seduction of "respectable" men's wives. These ideas are rooted in folklore and appear in such songs as"My mother said that I never should/ play with the gypsies in the wood" and of course the "Raggle Taggle Gypsies" which is said to have been inspired by the elopement of the wife of a scottish earl with her gypsy lover. Whatever we may think of Ashton's gypsies, I believe that the quality of the choreography that he provided for them has been seriously underrated. Maybe this is because most critics only see the dances at stalls level. But if you view them from above the complexity of the floor and movement patterns becomes more apparent. Ashton was nothing if not a master craftsman and much of the choreography for the gypsy corps is IMHO on a par with his work in his other best ballets. There is also a direct quote from the vision scene in Sleeping Beauty when the young man pursues the Gypsy through a diagonal of gypsy men. To conclude, Ismene Brown thinks that the present generation of RB dancers are "brisk modern creatures with very little fantasy in their sensible heads" and therefore incapable of dealing with the twee and fake which she finds in such abundance in the ballet. Well, I happen to have spoken to two of the people involved in the ballet's revival, and both have said that the company has enjoyed dancing it. What's more, James Hay has tweeted that he is on Cloud 9 after his debut in the role of the Young Man. Could Ms Brown be wrong?

I was at that performance. She danced one of the best Juliets I have seen for a long time and at the end received some huge bouquets, applause from her fellow dancers and a flower-throw. So I think it's fair to say that she received a good send-off even though there may be a more formal one later on.

Bennet Gartside danced the Young Man in the same performance.