MAB

3 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

 

I'd be happy to see Lantratov in pretty much anything. Has he ever guested with the RB or, for that matter, any other companies?

He's dancing Giselle with Nunez  this weekend  at Teatro di San Carlo, Naples..

4 minutes ago, Blossom said:

Could be a good one for Corrales?

No Acosta this time around, so a Basilio vacancy.  Anyone here see Corrales dance the Don Q pdd at Emerging Dancer?  Sensational is an understatement,   An Osipova/Corrales Don Q quickens my pulse just thinking about it.

I went to their Midsummer Night's Dream last week and generally enjoyed myself, a slightly under-powered Oberon, but rest of the cast okay and a very good Bottom.  I can't imagine I world without ENO, too terrible to contemplate.

9 minutes ago, alison said:

Not sure I'd like any sort of external guest artist taking on Crown Prince Rudolf: it does seem to me the sort of role you ideally need to have grown up through the company to take on, rather than being parachuted in from outside, given all the interactions and so on that you have to do.

I tend to agree with that, however I could make an exception in the case of one non RB dancer: Vlad Lantratov.

2 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

 

no Glastonbury either  :-(

You could always give Glyndebourne a try.

51 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

 

Not completely, surely, Sim?Yes, i was derivative but I still found it watchable. Some reworking, trimming, more emphasis on the psychological basis for the monster's development would definitely help but I've seen far worse at the ROH.

Not sure if I've seen a worse full length, though it's a close call between it and Isadora.

1 hour ago, ninamargaret said:

I wonder if the difficulty in getting tickets, and the general aura surrounding Fonteyn and Nureyev added to our enjoyment? These days we can get our tickets without leaving our homes or offices, we can visit different web sites for information, look at Facebook etc - even use this forum! We have been able to see more foreign companies and dancers and can travel pretty easily so can see even more. So we are probably better informed, more knowledgeable, but maybe the downside is that a little bit of the excitement in going to performances at that time has been lost. And companies have become more open in providing things like open rehearsals, insights - things I used to wish I could see when they were not available. I don't think I'd want to go back to those times.

I would imagine if we could have bought tickets on line back then the world-wide demand would have crashed the system.  We most certainly travelled to see Nureyev abroad just as his fans flocked to London from across the US and Europe.  Rehearsals were no less common at ROH than now and anyway I've often simply asked to watch a rehearsal and been allowed in.  Personally I find people less informed than now, something that can be verified by comparing the number of serious books on ballet published in the past to the miserly numbers of today.

As for the number of companies seen, it is true that for political reasons we never saw any Russian companies between 1974 and 1986, (though they came frequently before) but from when I started regular ballet going in the 1960's we had visits from the Royal Danish Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, ABT. NYCB. Joffrey Ballet, Canadian Ballet, Australian Ballet, Zurich Ballet all at ROH or the Coli, some multiple times, also many less well known troupes at Sadlers Wells.

What I don't see today are the overwhelming numbers of people flocking to ballet performances nor do I see audiences full of young people, in fact I worry about where the audiences of the future will come from as all art forms struggle against the onslaught of tawdry popular culture.

1 hour ago, mauriceC said:

His production for The Australian Ballet was later given in this country by A.B.

At the New Victoria Theatre opposite Victoria Station.  That was a regular venue for ballet back then and Festival Ballet performed there often.  It's the Victoria Apollo now and ballet no longer features there at all.

I was lucky enough to have seen him in roughly forty of his roles and a fair number of his productions and creations too.  Sad he merits no official Royal Ballet recognition in this year that marks eighty years since his birth and twenty five since his death.  He gave the company the third acts of La Bayadere and Raymonda (the Sadlers Wells company got a full length version) and I can only imagine the excitement that must have been felt in seeing those great works for the first time. 

In her excellent biography Diane Solway credits Nureyev with creating the famous ballet boom of the 1970's and points out that between his appearance on the scene in1961 and 1974 the US ballet audience grew from one million to ten million and the number of ballet companies from twenty four to three hundred and sixteen.

For myself I miss the excitement and the glamour of those days, when tickets were so rare that even A-list celebrities stood, often in full evening dress, at the back of the stalls circle and curtain calls went on for half an hour or more.  Night after night I'd sleep out on the pavement in Floral Street to get a standing or a rare return.  I think we all knew how special what we were seeing was and how unlikely it would be to ever see anyone like that again.  Those as they say really were the days.

Ballet isn't a sport, it is an art form, or at least it is supposed to be.

I think there was a certain amount of pique in parts of the revue, I got the impression he had come to see Hallberg and felt short-changed.  This is the second time I've read Matthew Ball being described as 'pretty'.  I'm uncomfortable with that term as I find it demeaning, not as overt as the suggestion he gets roles because he is handsome but the implication is there.  With regard to changes in choreography, a jump or a spin can be integral, but steps can look very different on different dancers with different speed and elevation.

The word digressed was used in the Guardian article:

"At the ENB’s annual press conference on Tuesday, Rojo, 43, digressed from speaking about the forthcoming season to address the concerns.At the ENB’s annual press conference on Tuesday, Rojo, 43, digressed from speaking about the forthcoming season to address the concerns."

I'm afraid I don't believe there is a more important issue in the ballet world at the moment, at least not in this country.  I consider the treatment of dancers and their continued welfare to be of the upmost importance.

For me life's heroes are those that battle adversity.  Two of my mother's siblings died from motor neuron disease and I am amazed and delighted that Professor Hawking achieved his three score years and ten and a bit more.  Apart from his scientific achievements he was a champion of the NHS and in that capacity rattled a few political cages in his time.

A great man with a great legacy.

5 hours ago, capybara said:

And taking Khan's Giselle to the Bolshoi. That's rather special too.

Brave as well, Russian audiences are notoriously conservative.  Happy the production is going abroad though, it deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible.

Quote

 

It looks as if we are moving forward with an actual name now, that of Jose Martin, note that he was named by three different  sources. Presumably he agreed to being named which gives me hope that others will be emboldened to give testimony.  Although most of us never doubted any of the accusations made, the whistle blowers'  understandable anonymity did provide ammunition to those people seeking to deny the problem, though whether others come forward depends on whether gagging orders were imposed.

I was surprised by the allegation that Ms Rojo was 'poached' by ENB.  Her appointment was indeed unorthodox but much was written about that at the time and I am surprised that the Times journalists did not do their homework a bit better.

With reference to the Guardian article it seems that Ms Rojo deflected possibly uncomfortable questions at the press conference by making a statement before she could be interrogated, but news hounds generally grab a story such as this by the teeth and don't let go.  Clearly the ballet variety are a poor bunch. 

6 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

  I saw one of my most memorable performances of Manon there with Caroline Cavallo and Andrew Bowman.  

I'm green with envy.

I thought ENB's Cinderella was that lovely version by Michael Corder.  I'm confused.

Next year has to be one long celebration of the centenary of Margot Fonteyn'e birth, hasn't it?

Seeing as Bernstein's links to the world of ballet were minimal, I'd personally prefer to be celebrating Petipa.

6 hours ago, assoluta said:

A disquieting amount of disinformation and fallacies is being spread by well meaning if ignorant people all over the internet about the subject of reconstructions and the "authentic Petipa." Most of this has little or no bearing to facts.

Once again you choose to insult people that don't share your views as "ignorant".  When you were so rude about the dancer Emmanuel Thibault, you were challenged to give details of exactly what you do in the dance world that makes you such an authority, but you never replied.  Once again would you care to give that information so that we understand why your opinions should be considered so superior to the views of so many others.

The Danish girls dance silently, never figured out whether it's their shoes or technique.  Shoes seem to get louder and louder year on year, I imagine in a few years time when they drown out the music completely someone will finally redesign them.

Up until his untimely death I always considered Sergei Vikharev a living treasure of the dance world.  I was mightily disappointed that a western company never saw fit to utilize his unique talent in staging Petipa's work from notations as it would have been possible to bring long forgotten Petipa masterpieces back to glorious life.  Of course he flourished under Vaziev but never found favour with his successor: a great pity.  For the gala they should have given his wonderful Awakening of Flora, admittedly not by Petipa but far more fitting than Balanchine.

21 hours ago, BeauxArts said:

Update on casting for the Gala on 11 March:

 

https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/playbill/playbill/2018/3/11/1_2000

 

(not such an educated guess after all!)

Am I right in assuming the third act of Sleeping Beauty is the Vikharev reconstruction again?  If so the casting of Aurora is beyond belief seeing as those dancers that actually worked with Vikharev are mainly still dancing.  Petipa would turn in his grave at the thought of Somova's six o' clock extensions destroying his choreography.

Two Russians with very strong links to Britain should also be considered, both have experience as directors and most importantly both are artistically conservative and unlikely to turn the company into a Brummie version of POB.  For your consideration I give you Misha Messerer and Irek Mukhamedov.  The former is still at the Mikhailovsky in St Petersburg but soon to leave and the latter is teaching here in the UK at present.  I wonder if either or both would throw their hat in the ring.

 I wouldn't call it a re-hash at all, for the very first time someone has finally put some meat on the bones as to why the  Rojo/Hernandez affair has upset so many within the company:

"Meanwhile the female dancer claimed it had been frowned upon for other members of staff to become romantically involved with one another. ‘Ironically, about a year before Tamara and Isaac got together, a woman dancer and ballet master were in a relationship,’ she said.

‘She was led to believe it was a conflict of interest and that either she had to leave or they had to marry. They both resigned and ended up marrying — and are still together to this day."

The comparisons with the RSC and Glyndebourne are laughable, Antony Sher is one of the most famous actors of our time and has been connected with the company long before his husband become the director.  At Glyndebourne De Niese, a singer in demand internationally, isn't featured enough there in my opinion and I'm mightily disappointed she won't be reprising her role in  Giulio Cesare this season.