David

If th BBC show a performance of Nutcracker at Christmas, I would love to see a screening of the BRB version for a change -easily superior to Wright's Covent Garden production. There was a recording made of a performance many years ago and it made it to DVD so it must be possible to screen it again.

It's currently available on Amazon - used - only £267.79!!

Xmas without the BRB Nutcracker would be unthinkable. I'm just off to B'ham for the first night of this season's run and I've just booked my ticket for next season's first night on 24th Nov 2017 (!!!!) as general booking opened yest. It's amazing how far you have to book ahead to get the tickets you want!

So now it's looking like three documentaries but no performance! Oh well - we'll know soon. Thank you Geoff.

 

 

Which was the 2009 one? 

Cast

Miyako Yoshida (The Sugar Plum Fairy)

Steven McRae (The Prince)

Gary Avis (Herr Drosselmeyer)

Iohna Loots (Clara)

Ricardo Cervera (Nephew / Nutcracker)

The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House; Koen Kessels

I think that it is just a behind the scenes documentary - not an actual performance.

Initial releases on the BBC Xmas schedule are now suggesting that the Documentary Tribute to Sir Peter Wright's birthday will be on BBC4 as previously noted but that BBC2 will also be screening The Nutcracker tho I haven't been able to discover which recording as yet - tho I'm guessing it will be the 2009 version again?

I went to the opening night in Plymouth.

This show ticked all of the boxes for me. The music is amazing, full of emotion and drama.

I can't put into words how good it is. I saw it last night as well and it is just so moving. The interpretation of the story has taken well to stage.

It is humorous, full of passion, love , drive , highs, lows, tragedy. The dancing is fantastic. For me it is a 10/10.

This show is going to get better and better.

Congratulations to all involved with New Adventures. I wish you luck with your tour. Well done x

My daughter and I are booked in for the opening night at Sadler's Wells so we've been waiting eagerly for the first reviews. This is the first feedback I've seen so thank you Friends. Really looking forward to it.

I’m sure the thread will continue comfortably until the thread on Woolf Works can replace it!

I feel the balance in the RB programming is slowly but inexorably shifting. Mr O’Hare’s strategy to concentrate on home-grown dancers takes on a different hue in the light of his statement that ‘the future is McGregor’! Many of the fine dancers at the Royal Ballet, both past and present, have joined its ranks because they were attracted to its wide repertoire, including of course its choreographers, but I can’t see future world class dancers queuing up to join the company coz they want to dance McGregor! And I wonder how long it will be before the new generation of dancers at the RB realize that, if they want to perform the kind of ballets for which they have trained so long and hard and prolong their dancing lives, they will need to move to other companies!  

It's a leap for four dancers who will be debuting as the Sugar Plum Fairy this Season: Francesca Hayward, Yasmine Naghdi, Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Claire Calvert. It's a *very* big one for Francesca Hayward in a pure classical tutu role. Besides Bluebird pd2 I have not yet seen her dance a prominent tutu role. I have seen Yasmine Naghdi as Rose Fairy in "Nutcracker" last year and recently as Mathilde Kschessinska in "Anastasia", Claire Calvert as the Lilac Fairy and Beatriz Stix Brunell in one of the Fairy Variations a few years ago. 

Bless you Nina G, and you Bluebird - actually posts that aren't between those who actually "like" bits of Mr WM and those who can't stand him! Is there nothing else out there to talk about? If people want to see some exciting modern dance (as opposed to something maybe to just like bits of) try "In the Heights" at the Kings Cross Theatre. Has anyone caught The Red Shoes which opened in Plymouth yesterday? The BBC is announcing its Xmas schedules today - is  there to be anything we don't already know about? If not let's have a moan about it. I feel as if I've descended into a new  level of Dante's Hell and its name is this thread! It's all been said so many time ago. The guy's verbiage has contaminated us. Show some mercy and shut it down for God's sake.

I find myself wondering what Monica Mason was thinking when she appointed Wayne McGregor in the first place.  Was it bums on seats?  I know nothing about his history prior to his RB appointment. Did he have a huge following already?  Was the thinking that a new audience, who had never visited the Opera House before, would walk through the doors and find out that ballet was really not as highbrow as they thought?  I do hope that it wasn't some sort of pressure from somewhere, that said that ballet wasn't relevant to young people today, and the RB needed to "modernise" in order to appeal to the next generation.

With what appears to be first call on some of the finest dancers in the world, seat prices discounted to 50% or 60% and relatively few performances it is hardly surprising that his works find an audience. What is extraordinary is the way that resources are thrown at them.

I don’t resent for a moment the normal high prices for what it is some of the finest art performance in the world. I pay them gladly and consider myself very fortunate. But I do feel strongly about the misuse of my hard earned shekels to subsidize works that belong properly with a contemporary Dance Company.

  I also feel strongly that our fine artists who have devoted their entire lives to the mastering of their highly specialist art are wasted on works that fall outside that very specialist field and that the sacrifice in terms of time, cost, expertise and alternative works cannot be justified.

Others have spoke about the damage which young ballet dancers may be doing to their bodies – I am not qualified to comment but I worry about the pressures they must feel to double up with contemporary dance styles. I also worry about what seems an unusually high level of injury over the past few years - despite the Company's high investment in physiotherapy, etc. And while I do not have the expert knowledge of many who write in these forums my impression is that the Company's technical standards in its own repertoire are falling.

There are many Contemporary Dance Companies, dancers and choreographers out there and we should support them: when it comes to contemporary Dance they are much, much, much more exciting! Why is the RB wasting its time and resources in a futile effort to compete when so much of its own unique repertoire remains unperformed and it can call on a number of fine choreographers who are steeped in its own tradition and able to evolve that tradition in exciting ways? It is that tradition and style that makes the Company unique - not its cross-over aspirations.

According to the PBS America UK website "You can find us on Sky channel 534, Virgin Media 276 and Freesat 156". 

Thanks for this - found on Freesat and set to record. Great!

This is a one hour dance film called Young Men on the theme of WW1. It was shot on location in northern France.

Thank you Aileen.

I totally agree, Jacqueline. And I thought the three actors Laura Caldow, Sonya Cullingford and Julia Righton to say nothing of cellist Raphael Wallfisch were excellent as well. A real tour de force!

Has anyone bought/seen the recently released dvd of Elizabeth with Acosta & Yanowski and if so, is it worth the money? I missed it live but am dithering over whether to buy the dvd as an early Christmas present. For myself! It looks rather good and something a bit different.

I've bought it but haven't got round to watching it yet.

This was the best deal I could find - £18.50 plus £1 postage

http://www.mdt.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=Elizabeth+Ballet+Zenaida+Yanowsky&t=general&order=most_viewed

This morning I emailed the Royal Opera House shop on unrelated business and thought I would drop in a reminder about the demand for a DVD release of the Nunez/Muntagirov Giselle. To my surprise, they replied saying that a DVD of this performance is scheduled for release March 2017.

 

Brilliant. That really is welcome news. Thank you Saodan.

A number of new BBC ballet programmes have been announced. 

Thank you Bluebird. I wonder which RB Nutcracker will be aired? I suppose it's too much to hope that it might be the current version going out on live cinema relay on 8th December?

Here is the section from STORMY WEATHER that Geoff is referring to ... 

 

They should make synchronised tap the next Olympics sport!

The royal ballet production of Frankenstein will be broadcast on  BBC4 next sunday 30th October at 8 pm.

Delighted - great news. Thank you greypuss. This question now becomes - with Frankenstein committed to air next Sunday, what will be the traditional  BBC Xmas Ballet? Dare one hope for Khan's Giselle?

Fiz - I think my favourite Eleanor Powell film is the one – sadly the only one -  in which she starred with Fred Astaire – Broadway Melody of 1940 – in the brilliant sequence in which they match off against each other. As Sinatra said in “That’s Entertainment” – something like “you can wait and you can hope but you’ll never see the likes of these again!”

 I spent some considerable time watching the wonderful Eleanor Parker dancing early this morning when I couldn't sleep. She's awesome! Can you believe that there is no biography of her?

There is “Eleanor Powell: first Lady of Dance,” self published by Alice Levin in 1997 and other by Margie Schultz – both available second hand in good condition but at prohibitive prices – you could try a libraries search?

Thank you Mary. I hadn't seen this. I am an enormous fan of the Nicholas Brothers and over the years have accumulated every piece of film of their performances I can find. Not only Fred Astaire but also Gene Kelly revered them - in fact he went to great lengths in 1948 to get them to join him in the "Be a Clown" routine - I think their last performance but it's their film work in the 30s that really shows their amazing grace and athleticism. No showings near me but I shall keep trying.

 

I was asked to make some recommendations of MacMillan works.

 

Thank you FLOSS for providing so thoughtful a response. I have not seen/do not know many of the earlier works you refer to but I am pleased to have my respect for Song of the Earth, Gloria and Requiem confirmed; also my distaste for The Judas Tree. I have affection for Britten’s only ballet and still occasionally enjoy the recording of the original despite its flaws – I guess as much for Cope and Bussell - but I thought the tweakings (with Lady MacMillan’s approval!) in the revival in June 2012 were a disaster, not helped I have to say by various cast replacements. I booked for three performances but left halfway through the third and I certainly would not want to see that production again.

I always enjoy the main three narratives if only to see different dancers’ approaches and am seldom disappointed  – eg. Lamb’s Manon. Naghi’s Juliet and am eagerly looking forward to next year’s run of Mayerling. But I am so, so torn regarding the casting choices I must make if I am not to end up sleeping on the streets!

I shall salt away this additional advice and look forward to the announcement of next season’s programme with even greater interest! Thank you again.  

 

On my general revival wish list with no specific dancers in mind are ballets like Cinderella, Sylvia,  Wedding Bouquet, Facade, Les Patineurs, Enigma Variations,Daphnis and Chloe in the Craxton designs,Les Rendezvous in the Chapell designs and another crack at Birthday Offering. and La Fete Etrange which was so badly served at its last revival, Les Biches, Les Noces and Pierrot Lunaire all of which are masterpieces.

I don’t disagree for a moment with your selections of works you would like to see but they are mainly Ashton with a couple of Nijinska works thrown in. I’ve salted it away to look out for but, since next year is the 25^th anniversary of MacMillan’s death, it seems likely that his works will pre-dominate in 2017/18. With a legacy of 90 plus ballets, could you please offer a similar personal look-out-for MacMillan list, focusing perhaps on those that are not irretrievably lost and could (and should) still be saved?     

Topless swans?

Matthew Bourne?

So glad I managed to see the previous Nutcracker - it was gorgeous!

Yes - luckily we have it on disk with Salenko and Walter. Why on earth would they want to replace it?

Thank you capybara. You make a strong case!