Scheherezade

Oh, I so agree with this! Cultural vandalism at its very worst under the auspices of moral superiority and enlightenment.

I find Sarah surprising in many ways. In my case, it was her superb comedic qualities in The Concert. I had not expected this. Can I put my hand up to join this particular club. Never liked the music, not particularly keen on the ballet but, wow, I loved it on every level this time round.

I’d say it’s worth a great deal, Selene.

Sorry if my post was misleading. By previously referencing narrative ballets generally, I had assumed that people would make the leap to Macmillan and others. I am less excited by the Bracewell/Hayward Swan Lake partnership since I find Hayward less suited to the classical Tchaikovsky ballets. I would love to see them reprise their Hamlet and Ophelia. I do hope you didn't think that I was suggesting this; far from it. Nor was I, in any way, seeking to minimise the special connection that Will and Fumi so clearly share. Merely pointing out that they each seem to elevate whatever partnership they are part of.

I don’t think it diminishes the point being made by Slipped Disc. I read it more as a thank you for the help provided by donors to The Big Give campaign.

I will say, first off, that like so many others I absolutely love the Fumi/Will partnership. That said, I am very much looking forward to seeing Fumi and Vadim. I suspect that Fumi’s glow will continue to enchant us all whomever she dances with (Federico Bonelli, anyone?) and I am sure that she and Vadim will deliver something very special indeed. Where Will is concerned, I feel that he is at his best in the narrative ballets, where his unforced and naturalistic acting skills draw us in and captivate. These are qualities that, for me, translate across the entire Ashton rep, abstract as well as narrative, and they sit very comfortably in his partnership with Frankie Hayward, who shares the same instinctive, naturalistic style. Ps, I have just seen a similar reference to Bonelli in Silke’s post. More evidence, if any is needed, that both Will and Fumi bring something very special to their performances whether they are partnered together or not.

Sorry Ondine, I don’t keep a log. And while the idea of students being traumatised by ghoulies and ghosties might raise an amused eyebrow, the objections were, of course, much more predictably based on that now familiar trope of ‘unacceptable attitudes’ that some of them might find too upsetting to cope with. On which note, this has surely run its course, and I, for one, am signing off.

I would agree with you but for the fact that the insights into the human condition provided by the works of Shakespeare surely have a universal relevance, and I recall reading a written justification from one university citing student sensibilities and trauma as the reason his works had been removed.

Sadly, I think this is a very optimistic appraisal, DanJL. I only wish it were otherwise. I find it particularly interesting that those individuals who talk longest and loudest about tolerance and diversity are invariably the selfsame individuals who believe that those concepts should unequivocally be denied to anyone whose views and opinions diverge in any way from their own. This is not progress, it is the worst sort of smug, pompous and ultimately dangerous regression, as the hard won freedoms that until recently we took for granted - freedom of thought and of speech, the freedom to read what we choose and to expand our minds by examining views and opinions that are sometimes markedly different from our own - are being eroded and destroyed by a self-serving, autocratic minority who see no incongruity in the brutal eradication of anyone who questions their mantra; and this under the banner of so-called ‘tolerance’.

And, indeed, what attitudes, language and conventions a play based in 1979 is supposed to adopt if not those that reflect and represent what was accepted at that time. Some universities have already removed Shakespeare from their literature syllabus on the basis that the fragile sensibilities of the students would be too traumatised to cope.

Ooh, that’s good to know. There was a time when it was impossible to get hold of them and that was so long ago that I’d entirely forgotten about them until Silke’s post.

Sela cough sweets were one of the few that worked. I’m pretty sure that if you go far enough back, they used to provide them at the Wigmore Hall too, then suddenly they were replaced and appeared to have been withdrawn from production, for whatever reason, round about that time.

Well I am certainly looking forward to Saturday evening with this cast.

I have been full of admiration for gondoliers ever since, years ago, I dropped my passport into the Grand Canal and quick as a flash, as I helplessly watched it float away and sink, a gondolier coming up behind fished it out with his pole and handed it back.

Those photos are just gorgeous, Rob.

Lovely! Can’t wait for the 9th.

Apropos of which, lead me down there to the thieves every time.

As this run has come to a close, these are my thoughts following a first and only viewing at the Saturday matinee: The performances, without a doubt, were uniformly brilliant, with Bracewell terrific but the role criminally under developed from a dance perspective. Hayward was just gorgeous as the younger Beatrice, with that naif quality that sits so well on her. I would love to see her Nikiya. I can only echo the plaudits for Richardson, who presented a tortured, compelling Ulysses, and Sissens, who sizzled throughout. Matthew Ball did indeed, and as we have come to expect, add that extra layer of characterisation as a penitent, and Leo Dixon gave a scene-stealing cameo of entitled arrogance in the Pope’s Adage. Thomas Ades has provided an extraordinary score which shapes and defines the mood from first to last, and without which, much of the impact of the last two acts would have been lost. What a gift this has proved! As to the first act, I am in total agreement with earlier posters who point out how difficult it is for anyone coming to this work for the first time to know who is who and what is going on. This is most significant, perhaps, in the final section of this act, for whilst Melissa Hamilton gave a gloriously slinky performance as Satan, there was really nothing, apart from a noticeable shift in the level of lighting, to suggest that this character was anything other than yet another sinner. Overall, however, I found most that was of interest in this act, with the second act given much of its meaning and intent by way of the wonderfully mystic Sephardic chant, and whilst I can see that the third act was meant to - and did - suggest a sense of blissful accord, I did find it overly repetitive. In the manner of that old chestnut that tells us the devil has the best tunes, I have to say that to me the thieves down in the inferno seemed to me to be having far more fun.

My iPhone routinely adds and subtracts apostrophes, completely at will. Most perplexing though is its recent habit of changing Mr to MRI.

I am hoping that the Saturday matinee will prove more meaningful to me than the last run, @annamk

Lovely!

I’m not sure what was previously shown on TV but, if it helps, the Bourne SB is the vampire version.

I absolutely agree that dance has to be able to present the ugly and unpalatable aspects of humanity as well as it’s pretty side, and I feel that the darker side of human nature is portrayed truthfully if disturbingly by The Invitation, but I have to say that I have never felt quite as queasy and disturbed as those thankfully limited occasions when I have seen The Judas Tree on stage. Not sure that I could stomach it again.

And me - to both quotes!

Agreed. In that way, the integrity of the original work is not then lost.