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li tai po

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  1. If I remember correctly from the premiere and the scene with the gaoler's wife, which was cut after the first season, the gaoler took the bracelet from his wife and gave it to Manon, which caused a jealous outburst - David Drew and Georgina Parkinson.
  2. You've all said it for me. I am feeling a bit of an emotional wreck too, Balletfanp. I particularly relished the pas de trois, like Mild Concern, where Fumi seemed to be vacillating between revulsion, curiosity and succumbing to flattery and luxury. What an actress! I did not see the 10 on the balloon. How lovely of someone to mark Vadim's 10th anniversary with the Royal Ballet last Monday. With regard to Act One, Bridiem, I did not find that Vadim was not fully engaged. I felt he played it downbeat deliberately, a shy adolescent student hiding in the crowd until he was knocked off his feet by a beautiful vision - and then almost stalking her from a safe distance, until he had time alone with her to try to present a case for himself. But what an amazing performance of the opening solo - no-one can deliver that challenging solo with such legato fluidity and stunning line. It is so difficult, but he makes it appear simple and beautiful.
  3. I went to an Insight Evening at least 15 years ago, in which Sibley and Dowell jointly taught Thais to Sarah Lamb and (I think) Thiago Soares. Sarah had only just joined the company and was still a soloist. I think she was very pleased to be working with two luminaries of the past. Sibley and Dowell kept up a banter throughout the session. As Sibley tried to position the arms of Sarah Lamb correctly, she asked Dowell if he could remember the precise shape. "Don't ask me," said Dowell, "I was in the middle of my variation and I certainly did not have time to see where you put your arms".
  4. Thank you Blossom for your beautiful review. Dancing apart, the evening was a love letter to Ukraine and to the homeland. We began with the National Anthem, Ivan Putrov gave a brief, but impassioned address about home and what it meant to Ukrainians and the evening ended with the pas de trois from Gloria. A bold and highly unlikely ending to a Gala, but so appropriate and very moving. This was Putrov's customary artistic vision trumping just an evening of fireworks, although there was much passion, lyricism and fireworks during the evening. I counted 26 dancers on stage, including Putrov himself, who chose to dance this time, as well as putting on the show. He assembled 8 Ukrainian dancers from 7 companies across Europe. It was a thoughtful touch to present pas de deux from both Ashton's and Gorsky's version of Fille. I too left the theatre on a high.
  5. Buddy, you could combine a trip to London on 17 March, with a quick hop over to Amsterdam, where Olga is creating the lead in Wayne Macgregor's new ballet, Antigone. There are 9 performances between 9 and 24 March, although the opening night is already sold out. There are performances on 15 and 20 March. https://www.operaballet.nl/en/dutch-national-opera-ballet/2023-2024/jocastas-line
  6. It is ten years since the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company was set up, only the third after ABT and Hamburg. The model clearly succeeds in supporting the recruitment, development and high standards of young dancers - and is proliferating across the globe. The first conference of Junior Companies will be held in London in June. Yesterday was the first night of a programme focussed on the future. After opening with Balanchine's Valse Fantaisie, the Junior Company presented three world premieres by Kirsten Wicklund, Joseph Toonga and Wubkje Kuindersma and Toccata, which Krzystof Pastor created last year for principals of the Polish National Ballet. The Junior Company alumni from the last ten years have been invited to this afternoon's performance. The main company is now comprised 60% from the Junior Company, including several principals. In his speech from the stage, Ernst Meisner told us that students entering the Prix de Lausanne are required to state in advance their preference for a ballet school. It sounds a bit like UCAS. When he went recruiting in Lausanne before the Junior Company had been set up, he had received just 2 enquiries. This year the Junior Company received hundreds of expressions of interest from Prix de Lausanne applicants. Here is an interview with Ernst Meisner, in which he talks about the challenges of leading a Junior Company and some of the achievements of the dancers. https://www.operaballet.nl/en/online-programme/ten
  7. I am at a loss to understand the negative comments appearing on this thread. Should we not be applauding efforts to support the National Ballet of Ukraine as it goes through challenging circumstances? Other initiatives, particularly in the Netherlands, have sought to give a boost to Ukrainian dancers and raise their morale. No-one has the monopoly on raising funds for Ukrainian causes. This is not a competition to raise the biggest amount. Earlier fundraising triumphs do not preclude subsequent attempts. I welcome the opportunity to attend this Gala and in my very small way to support the cause of spreading the glories of Ashton further afield. I am sad that ballet professionals, whatever side of the fence they sit, are seeking to sully the noble art of ballet with petty squabbles and rivalries. This may be the atmosphere backstage, but I am pleased to sit out front, to admire the artistry and generosity of the dancers and to enjoy the show itself. If you are unhappy, please desist - do not dampen the spirits of dancers across Ukraine and do not spoil it for the rest of us,.
  8. Rob S - I enjoy your curtain call photos every night. It gives a tiny hint of casts which I did not see. Why do you not post photos of curtain calls at ENB?
  9. The Junior Company, set up with Ernst Meisner as Artistic Co-ordinator, is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary. He is a graduate of the Royal Ballet School and spent more than 10 years in the Royal Ballet. https://www.operaballet.nl/en/dutch-national-ballet/2023-2024/ten
  10. I have just seen my first Nutcracker of the season. Dear, oh dear - little girls playing with their dollies, only boys allowed drums and trumpets, not a child with a pronoun in sight. Time to ban this production alongside Bayadere and Fille.
  11. On Monday, I was fortunate enough to catch the Raymonda performance with Anna Tsygankova and Giorgi Potskhishvili, who blew me away. What a powerful dancer and an overpowering personality he is - an untidy finisher, but my goodness he dominates the stage with his enormous leap. Apparently his parents run a folk dance group in Georgia and he has been dancing with them since childhood, which is where he developed his wow factor stage presence. His younger brother, Nikoloz, is a student at the Dutch National Ballet Academy. He was due to watch from the wings, but with several dancers down with covid, he was thrust into a costume and put on stage as a page. Giorgi's immediate promotion to principal is richly deserved; this amazing dancer must be seen soon in London.
  12. Just back from an exhilarating visit to Stuttgart, to see two further performances of Stuttgart Ballet's tribute to Cranko on the 50th anniversary of his death - Initials RBME and MacMillan's Requiem. The audience sat respectfully throughout Requiem without a hint of applause until they erupted at the end. I hope our audiences will be equally self-controlled in March. The Stuttgart company are on sparkling form and the soloists came close to the original 1970s casts. Elisa Badenes and Friedemann Vogel were electrifying in the third movement pas de deux. I also went to the first two performances of this programme in July and it was thrilling to see Birgit Keil, Marcia Haydee and Egon Madsen come on stage at the end of the performance, although sadly Richard Cragun is no longer with us. So imagine my pleasure, on arriving back from the airport, having switched on Stuttgart Ballet's contribution to World Ballet Day, to find a complete stage rehearsal of Initials RBME filmed a few days ago. Tamas Detrich, the director, calls it a masterpiece of neo-classical choreography - and my companion said at the end of the first performance, "Now that is what I call choreography". Don't miss the company, either. They are in such good form. https://www.google.com/search?q=world+ballet+day+stuttgart+ballet&oq=world+ballet+day+stuttgart+ballet&aqs=chrome..69i57.5317j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:2b3d3c07,vid:gDSo0lP9Bxo,st:0
  13. A friend of mine went to see Alvin Ailey at Sadler's Wells. She entered the auditorium behind two girls, who were carrying a pizza box. The usher told them they could not bring it in. "We are not going to eat it", they said. "Too right", she replied. "You can leave it here and collect it after the performance". At Rigoletto this week, my wife and her friend went to the ladies in the interval on the right hand side of the amphitheatre as the five minute bell was ringing. They were very upset to find a "40-year old, stylish" man urinating in one of the toilets, with the cubicle door open. We were wondering if they were one of the new 57 genders. I raised it with the house manager, but she thought he was probably in a panic with the interval ending and used the ladies in an emergency.
  14. Another exhilarating and inspiring evening from Marianela and Vadim, who bring attack, sharpness, elevation, poise, balance and elegance to the choreography by Petipa and others, qualities which are required to bring a Russian ballet to life. The explosive atmosphere in the auditorium was invigorating - it reminded me of the Fonteyn days. The beggars should be sent back to Amiens and Manon - they are derivative and distracting. Their final line-up is close to plagiarism and the collapse of the boy underneath is over the top. Petipa's humour is much more subtle. I love the moment in the Act I minuet, when Basilio and Kitri's friends struggle to follow Gamache and Don Q, because the steps of this dance of the nobility are unfamiliar to them. Oh sorry - this part of the minuet is cut out, so we can watch Don Q stomping around in another daydream. I was very struck by Caspar Lench at the RBS summer performance and was delighted to spot him in the seguidillas.
  15. Lindsay says that Theme and Variations was not the most 'full-out' performance. You are telling me! I am sure Rosalyn Whitten or Maina Gielgud would have drilled out a much more secure performance from the entire cast. I remember a stunning performance by BRB at the Royal Opera House with Miyako Yoshida and Kevin O'Hare. He was sitting tonight in the middle of the front row of the First Circle. I wonder what he thought of the performance? Maybe the second (?) cast of Katja Khaniukova and Gabriele Frola will make a better fist of it. but - I found Four Last Songs breathtaking and exhilarating. Sweeping choreography with echoes of MacMillan's Song of the Earth - sculptural groups, sequences of exhausting lifts and a lot of running round the stage - trademarks, I believe, of David Dawson. Gavin Sutherland, another hero of the evening, generated a most exciting orchestral sound, rich and romantic. Madeline Pierard's voice swept over the orchestra. But why oh why was she miked? Her voice would have penetrated to the back row of the Metropolitan Opera House. She certainly did not need a mike in the small confines of Sadler's Wells. I will be going back to see Four Last Songs again.
  16. Dawnstar, I completely agree with your comments about the lack of an informative programme. The Australian Ballet administration appears to be exhibiting considerable disdain for their dancers and audience. I understand that it is Australian Ballet policy to promote the company, rather than individual dancers, but that is not the ethos of the London ballet audience. For the first night they failed to name the pas de trois in Emeralds in the cast sheet and it was only after a spate of direct complaints and a negative set of comments here that the company relented and named the Emeralds pas de trois and the four demi soloist couples in Diamonds. Fortunately Sophoife came to the rescue and named some of the anonymous dancers above in this thread, before the company provided additional information. Today, the high quality programming and performances were slightly marred by the lack of information about the repertoire. I wanted to know about the full-length Harlequinade, how Ratmansky's version differs from Petipa, how the Australian Ballet acquired it. I wanted to know about the Inger and Peck ballets, both of which listed a series of dancers with individual character names. Once again Sophoife came to rescue with some information above about how these works entered the Australian Ballet repertoire. The Jewels programme devotes three pages to the Australian Ballet company and directors, with hordes of personnel listed under marketing, audience engagement, data and analytics, digital, recording and broadcast, public relations, custiomer experience and ticketing, external relations. I don't know what they do all day, but they seem incapable of producing a cast sheet or an informative programme book. Before the performance, the Australian Ballet stage manager was announcing throughout the front of house that cast sheets are digital and that programmes are on sale throughout the theatre. How ironic, given that there were no programmes on sale! I hope the Australian Ballet administration will be better prepared, before the company comes back to London.
  17. I went yesterday to the National Gallery exhibition "After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art". In the second room, they are displaying Gauguin's sculpture, carved from a length of wood, Afternoon of a Faun, which was his response to Mallarmé's poem, a few years before Debussy or Nijinsky. The circular sculpture is well-displayed and you can see every angle of it quite easily. The style is influenced by Gauguin's experiences of "primitive" Polynesia. It has been loaned by the Stephane Mallarmé Museum in Seine-et-Marne département and this is a rare opportunity to see it in London.
  18. I understand that the website has crashed again this morning with the opening of public booking. A friend of mine rang me in total meltdown, having put tickets into the basket, only to see them disappear. The phone queue for the box office is apparently never-ending. Some members of the public will simply give up and visit other West End venues instead.
  19. Talking of poor digital cast sheets, throughout the run of Anastasia Act III the cast sheets only listed Anastasia, Rasputin, Her Husband and Matron. The cast sheets failed to identify who were dancing the three princesses, the Tsar, the Tsarina, the Tsarevich Alexei, Anna Vyrubova or Anastasia's husband's brother.
  20. On the subject of programmes, a friend of mine recently attending a lunchtime recital by the young tenor, Egor Zhuravskii, a Jette Young Artist 2020-22. The recital included rare repertoire, Russian songs, one of which was by Cesar Cui - hardly mainstream. When my friend asked to buy a programme, he received a lofty riposte from the usher "We are now paper-free, part of our commitment to the environment; you can find the programme on your phone", to which he replied, "Funny that, because I purchased a very glossy programme yesterday for Cinderella, including adverts for expensive watches". He was able to download the "programme" on his phone, merely consisting of a list of the items in the recital. No texts were provided digitally or in surtitles, so he had very little idea what Zhuravskii was singing about in the Russian songs. During a pause, the elderly lady next to him asked him if the singer was singing in Polish. Sad, that after paying for admission to a recital, such little respect is shown either to the performer or the audience. My friend opined, "It is not my responsibility to inform that audience what they are hearing; it is the responsibility of the ROH".
  21. Capybara, you have awoken happy memories for me of Anton Lukovkin's portrayal for ENB of Nijinsky's Faun. The closing moments were intense, oozing sensuality and, as you say, unforgettable. I have seen many interpretations of Nijinsky's Faun, my first was Christopher Bruce with Ballet Rambert, but I will never forget Anton Lukovkin's performance.
  22. I have just read through this thread and I am disappointed by the misrepresentation of Kenneth MacMillan's ballet, The Four Seasons, by the Royal Ballet School, by contributors above and by the critic, David Mead. The official Kenneth MacMillan website gives an accurate thumbnail sketch of the ballet, which MacMillan conceived as a showcase for the Royal Ballet's strength in depth from corps to soloists and principals. The ROH performance database records that the opening night in 1975 took 55 minutes, whilst the second production in 1980, designed by Deborah Williams aka Deborah MacMillan, lasted 44 minutes. https://www.kennethmacmillan.com/the-four-seasons The ballet was set in front of an Alpine Hotel, populated by some rather dubious ladies (this was barely a year after the premiere of Manon!), who tilted their heads very suggestively at the watching men (a movement changed to a brief nod at the Linbury). The body of the ballet comprises a series of classical ensembles and solos, a pas de trois for Spring, a langorous pas de deux for Summer (Monica Mason and David Wall), a pas de quatre for Autumn and three gypsies (I suppose they could not be pirates in the middle of the Alps) for Winter. There was one new lift which wowed the audience every night. You can get a flavour of the choreography from a clip of the summer pas de deux on you tube with Viviana Durante and Irek Mukhamedov. Excited by the publicity that the RBS was performing "The Four Seasons" and reiterated as such in the programme, I made a special effort to get to the Linbury that evening, as I did not want to miss a revival of a significant ballet, remembered fondly, maybe through rose-tinted spectacles. Imagine my acute disappointment, when I saw the young ladies of the RBS glide through the opening prologue and present a couple more corps numbers with not a soloist in sight. Talk about Trades Description Act! It was as if we saw the fairy dances from The Dream without a soloist in sight, and it was presented as a performance of Ashton's The Dream. The misrepresentation is compounded by your correspondent above, who described it as MacMillan's Macgregor moment (???!!!), presumably because it was "busy" with lots of dancers crowded on to a stage too small for the choreography. The original ballet was closer to a MacmIllan Petipa or Balanchine moment. David Mead describes it as "a somewhat unexciting series of small group dances". This describes what he saw, but it does not describe MacMillan's ballet. If the RBS repeats this performance at the ROH, maybe the choreography will be able to breathe on a larger stage, but I hope the RBS respects MacMillan by describing it more accurately as "Corps de ballet dances from The Four Seasons". Maybe one day the Royal Ballet will restore MacMillan's reputation with a new production of the complete ballet, which was significant in MacMillan's output.
  23. and they will win the accolade of having the second cheapest theatre ticket in the West End again this year. You can buy an upper slip music stand (restricted view listening seat only) for Anemoi/The Cellist for only £4. What a bargain!
  24. This issue raises serious questions about the role of the Friends, which appears no longer to serve as an advocate for their members. Susan Fisher operated a "focus group" and was active in listening to what the membership were saying and representing their views to senior management. She set up the occasional direct meeting between Friends representatives and Tony Hall. The annual introduction in the Linbury Theatre to next year's season afforded Friends the opportunity of a Q&A session and a dialogue with the artistic leaders of the ROH. The current arrangement has placed the Friends as an administrative department under a middle manager, which actively promotes the propaganda of the Royal Opera House, but is apparently not interested in meeting or listening to members. The annual introduction has been cancelled in recent years. The Friends department are lying very low in the current situation. No wonder contributors above are talking about cancelling their Friends membership. The organisation appears to add little value or show little interest, except in high worth members.
  25. I will not be booking for Don Q this week. This production has never emulated the glories of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi versions. Others above have pointed out the weaknesses of the Royal Ballet production more eloquently than I could. I cannot stand the sugary orchestration by Martin Yates, replacing the sharpness of brass with the blandness of strings - this is Minkus (and Petipa, demanding strong technique) - and not Massenet.
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