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MAB

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Everything posted by MAB

  1. Also the peasant pas de deux instead of a pas de six.
  2. It may be called the Bolshoi Lift. nut mot all Bolshoi dancers perform it. I love that the Skeaping version doesn't have Albrecht carrying Giselle back to her grave,
  3. That was the ratio it was broadcast in. It filled the screen whereas the first episode did not.
  4. If you mean JW3 in Finchley Road, I have attended a ballet related event there in the past.
  5. We do live in uncertain times, and there is a lot to be said for distraction right now. During Covid my mind went back to a decades old ballet by Flemming Flindt called The Triumph of Death that accurately predicted a pandemic. At that time it was a clever innovative theme but right now when the dystopian future may well become a reality that genre is ill timed. I must confess to being an outlier here when it comes to Mcgregor as I am something of a fan, though not all his work fills me with delight. Please assure me we won't be enduring another Pite work next season, I might just walk out on the RB for good if we do. How about asking Arthur Pita, a man who really knows how to put a smile on someone's face, to create something cheerful? Please.
  6. There is a dearth of choreographers prepared to use the purely classical vocabulary. Ratmansky stays true to the faith. All views are subjective.
  7. I remember seeing Ratmansky's beautiful Psyche at POB with that ravishing score by Cesar Franck, it would be a fine acquisition for the RB. Tiler Peck should be offered a commission sooner rather than later.
  8. Going completely off topic, I'm fervently hoping the upcoming change at the top will see Christian Thielemann on the podium at ROH. Can we start an opera wish list?
  9. The most extraordinary Giselle I ever saw. All the lifts were cut forcing Guillem to improvise. Nureyev never know when to give up, he sacrificed the performance for his ego that night.
  10. In total fantasy land I would like the RB to stage Clavigo, it must be over fifty years since there was any Petit danced by the RB. And surely it's rime to revive Prince of the Pagodas and Sylvia.
  11. Blossom, you've absolutely nailed it.
  12. With regard to operas, the opera buffa is hardly a rare genre and many baroque operas, regardless of historical facts, inevitably end with a jolly ensemble. I can think of a number of ballets with happy endings. we just don't see them danced. As for modern dance, I think Martha Graham excelled in angst and that rather created a trend, but Paul Taylor created much that was upbeat and has there ever been a more uplifting work than Alvin Ailey's revelations? It's all down to programming.
  13. It continued to be wonderful during the years Ashton was around to coach subsequent casts.
  14. Thank you Silke H for including a couple of pas de deux. I suppose strictly speaking that makes fantasy triples quadruples. I wish we could include a pas de deux in the RB's ever shrinking repertoire as the dancers deserve more opportunities to take centre stage than they currently get. Walk to the Paradise Garden, Thais and Side Show are all too good to loose.
  15. I'm surprised it got a second run, the other ballet created for Osipova, Medusa, was far superior in my opinion.
  16. I saw Dante Project in Paris in May and it was obvious from the comments of others in my box that they were there for the composer.
  17. Petrushka was of course choreographed by Fokine and not Ashton.. That's what happens when the wretched phone rings. Sorry!
  18. As I mentioned on another thread, music is very important to me. Some years ago there was an all Stavinsky triple bill including Rite that was conducted by Bernard Haitink that sold like hot cakes. So all the RB needs to do is lure a internationally famous maestro onto the rostrum. Failing that here are some fantasy triples I'd love to see including an all Stravinsky. Birthday Offering Ashton/Glazunov Triad MacMillan/Prokofiev Ballet Concerto No.2 (nee Ballet Imperial) Balanchine/Tchaikovsky Symphonic Dances Scarlet/Rachmaninoff Symphony MacMillan/Shostakovich Firebird Fokine/Stravinsky Scene de Ballet Ashton/Stravinsky Petrushka Ashton/Stravinsky Rite of Spring MacMillan/Stravinsky With non Russian Composers Les Biches Nijinska/Poulenc Voluntaries Tetley/Poulenc Gloria MacMillan/Poulenc Dances of Albion Tetley/Britten The Four Seasons MacMillan/Verdi Theme and Variations Balanchine/Tchaikovsky I believe the RB currently has the dancers to do all of the above justice
  19. I would have given my back teeth to see her paired with Tsiskaridze.
  20. Worth remembering that the act of 1967 came about because of the strength of public opinion. The law as it stood was simply a charter for blackmailers and it disgusted people. It was the compassion (something else lacking in current society) of the general public that was the driver for the decriminalization.
  21. Any form of censorship is anathema to me. I'm old enough to remember when every theatrical production had to be approved by the Lord Chancellor's offce and there was even the DH Lawrence book that finished up in court for a judge to decide if the general public could read it. It seems we've gone full circle and the bad old days are back with a vengeance. I see a society where any kind of tolerance is thin on the ground, have the wrong view on subjects and you are 'cancelled' (what an odious expression) People now are selective of their prejudices with agism, misogyny, antisemitism and open contempt of the disabled being rife and the official figures sadly confirm this. I look in vain for the kind gentle people I knew in my youth, but find coarseness, anger and ignorance in abundance. I often wish the 'virtue signallers' would take a long hard look at thenselves and the society they are creating because there is little that is good about it.
  22. I'm told there are websites that specialise in pirated performances. A friend once gave me a pirated opera CD, It was a rare early opera and at that time there was no commercial recording available. I myself bought what turned out to be a pirated ballet DVD once off of ebay which I bought in good faith. I imagined someone was selling a Russian DVD and was surprised when it turned out to be an amateur effort. However that ballet is no longer performed and no legitimate DVD of it exists. I have no doubt it was made by someone recording it for a cast member who spotted its money making potential. I have quite a number of opera and ballet DVDs all authentic and have no time whatsoever for the poor quality clips that spring up on You Tube, unless they are of historical interest. Perhaps someone should start a thread on ballets and casts we wish had been recorded for posterity and weren't.
  23. Where were the ushers? Two young women arrived late at the Wigmore Hall and sat in front of me, one immediately pulled out her phone. The usherette was there in a trice, asking her to put it away. She did but five minute later out came the phone again, once more the usherette insisted she turn it off. It stayed off and she didn't returm after the interval.
  24. MAB

    Room 101

    Oddly enough I had a Moorfields appointment change too, from May to June in my case.
  25. I think the score for Job is superb, but I'm resigned to the fact I'll never see it again. The music is massvely important to me, I'll sit through 19th century rubbish music for the choreography and the dancers, but if I never saw Corsair, bayaderka or Don Q again I could live with that but not ballets to scores of genius, e.g. Stravinsky, Ravel.
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