MAB

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

I would have given my back teeth to see her paired with Tsiskaridze.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Oddly enough I had a Moorfields appointment change too, from May to June in my case.

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.

There have been no fewer than twelve ministers of culture in the past thirteen years. Without resorting to Google, how many of you can name half of them? A failing of the present government no doubt. But wait a minute, these ministers aren't just ministers of culture, they are also ministers of media and sport. Culture and media I just about get, but sport? The sole culture portfolio was abolished by Blair in 1997, thereby diminishing the importance of the role. Personally I feel that hoping for improvement under the other lot will lead to disappointment.

The most menacing Black Queen I saw was Maina Gielgud, but having earlier seen Robert Helpmann as the Red King and Nureyev as the Red Knight, perhaps I have more keenly etched memories of the ballet than most. Svetlana Beriosova and Monica Mason were also stunning Black Queens. I think today Osipova could get to own that role given a chance.

I liked Hirano a lot. I saw a couple of performances in Paris in May, interesting to compare the two companies.

As an admirer of the music of Arthur Bliss it distresses me that Checkmate, a British classic in every sense of the word, should be considered outdated. I accept I'll probably never see a ballet by Massine again but from comments here it sounds as if Fokine will soon be thrown on the scrap heap too.

One of my friends saw Ms Badenes for the first time earlier this year. So impressed was he that he insisted I accompany him to see her in the Remember Me programme last month. She is very lovely and her performances were of the highest order, and yes, I did have the addded pleasure of seeing her with Messrs Vogel and Reilly. She totally deserves her win.

I can remember Triad too.

Forced out? Not how most people would describe it.

Seems i enjoyed it more tthan others here. My companion wasn't impressed when he first saw it from the stalls but claims the staging works better at a distance. The sound is better in the amphi anyway. Not a great production, but how often do we see one of those at Covent Garden? I thought it wasn't bad at all considering it isn't actually an opera. The choruses are in my opinion among the best Handel wrote. A terrific role foe Allan Clayton.

I vividly remeber Giselle as part of of double bill. Not just more value for money but extra opportunities for dancers to perform for their audience. Agree that intervals were far shorter back in the day.

All recordings and concert performances I've heard have been sinificantly faster.

Opera Massimo, Palermo. Muti was to have conducted. Refunded the ticket, but not the booking fee. Didn't get a refund on the hotel.

Earlier this week the opera I was seeing in Italy was cancelled due to a musicians strike, when we arrived the taxi divers were on strike too. The cost of living crisis is hitting Italy hard, so bear this in mind when you book

And good for him!

And we have a thread about audience numbers falling at ROH. Could a reason so far unmentioned be the vulgarity rhat is creeping into the art of dance?

Now that is absurd.

I detest the entrechat six in Giselle with a passiion, it is a nothing but an invention of Rudolf Nureyev's to show off his technique and seems to have become standard. It is many years since I last saw the Bolshoi dance Giselle, but they used to adhere to the oeiginal choreography, It is nothing but an ugly interpolation and if a repetiteur had any basic taste at all they would veto it altogether.

MdGegor's L'Anatomie de la sensation played at the Bastille to scores of empty seats. They learned their lesson, Dante Project was shown at the Garnier to full houses.