Scheherezade

As someone considering taking my 10 year old grandson to the right ballet for someone who loves music and movement but has had no exposure to ballet - football is his thing - what does anyone think? RB or Northern Ballet R&J? 

56 minutes ago, Roberta said:

 

For anyone who wants a good wallow today there is plenty on YouTube, not all of it official. This is OK. Tissues ready?

 

 

That was just lovely, Roberta. I have indeed had a good wallow and as someone who couldn’t make last night I felt I needed it. Just gorgeous. 

3 minutes ago, RHowarth said:

Many years ago, when I was about 21, I was invited to watch the men's morning class at BRB's studios. I was the only observer, felt awkward, and most surely looked it too. I arrived in the studio before the start of class and skulked at the sidelines trying to be invisible. Alexander (about the same age then as I was) approached me and asked if I'd like a seat. I couldn't see any close at hand, and wanted to be inconspicuous, so I said no, I was fine to stand. Alexander smiled, said something like 'it's a long time to stand' and went away to get me a chair.

 

I always remember that little exchange; it was that combination of being simultaneously down-to-earth and gentlemanly that always stood out on stage for me.

What a lovely memory, RHowarth, and doesn’t that sum up the wonderful Me Campbell perfectly. 

Bridie and Sim, and James in the parallel thread, between you have said everything that I think all of us feel about Alex’s departure. It’s odd, isn’t it, how some people touch us in a way that others never can. Or perhaps not so odd. It’s the human side, isn’t it, that natural, genuine warmth and lack of artifice that always lit up Alex’s performances, and I think that’s why we all feel such a sense of loss. He will, I have absolutely no doubt, shine equally brightly in his new role and I, too, send my very best wishes for a wonderful future, but we will miss him here. 

Beautifully put, James. I hope he is aware of that warmth and the regard in which he is held.

Gorgeous photos, Rob S.

I am looking for 1 SCS or Balcony D standing for Wednesday 20 March.

If anyone has a spare, please DM.

Many thanks.

I couldn't be there tonight - although thankfully I was there on the 2nd - so thank you so much for uploading the curtain call and speeches, Lady Emily. It is all much too soon!

17 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Very disappointed to see nothing at all still about last nights performance with Magri and Corrales. 
Now I know Nunez and Muntagirov can be in a league of their own sometimes but was it that uninspiring 

last night 🫣🤔
 

Or was everybody at the Wells? 

I was just about to ask: Anybody?

1 hour ago, Sim said:

He seems to be becoming quite the character dancer.   

And many years ahead of him so lucky us. 

7 hours ago, alison said:

Also, according to the insight evening which I'm finally catching up with, black was the most expensive dye

Well, who knew? I certainly didn’t. 

4 hours ago, LinMM said:

I was wondering whether the Peacock Theatre could have been suitable for Sarasota if planned well enough in advance. 

It suits The Trocks very well. And the sightlines are good pretty much everywhere. 

2 hours ago, LinMM said:

will definitely be looking forward to a dark brooding Cesar in The Winters Tale!! 

Me too!

I came round to Calvin’s Des Grieux more slowly than others and, like JohnS, I liked Act 3 best, largely, I’d say, because I felt more of his personality came through, something that was missing for me in the earlier acts. 
 

I agree with Sim on his Act 3 partnering. Those double twists and the last minute catches as Melissa plunged head first to the ground were breathtaking and I felt that his hesitation and confusion on setting foot on Louisiana soil was perfectly judged, ditto the alarm and initial lack of comprehension as to what to do next on killing the gaoler. Here, as in the earlier acts, Melissa’s Manon was the primary moving force, which felt very much as it should be since her magnificent Manon was the author of her own destiny from her first steps down from the carriage in Act 1 to her defiant tussle with the gaoler in Act 3. More puppeteer than puppet, hers was a Manon who knew her worth, her power and what she wanted and who was prepared to do whatever it took to get it. A blazing independent spirit who wasn’t prepared to give up until her very last breath. 
 

This was James Hay’s first Lescaut for me and what a Lescaut! It was on another level and without doubt worth my ticket price - and the price of a far more expensive ticket - alone. 
 

And, yes, I was also impressed by Lukas BB’s gaoler. He is showing himself to be a fine actor, something that is always welcome. 

5 hours ago, Richard LH said:

I thought @Scheherezade said that her friend DID miss Vadim and Fumi, but saw, and was wowed by, Alex and Frankie ....but I am now completely confused!

Richard LH, don’t be confused - not completely, not even a little bit - because you are absolutely right. Mind you, by that point I was confused too so it wasn’t just you. 

Yes. Such as social media following. 

9 minutes ago, Sim said:

She didn’t miss Vadim and Fumi, and wasn’t wowed by Alex and Frankie because she wasn’t there!  😂

Nooooooo!!!! I post no more ... 😮

5 hours ago, Sim said:

I think you mean Alex and Frankie...!! 

 

Thanks for picking that up, and that

will teach me to check what I’ve written before posting. I actually meant to say she had to miss Vadim and Fumi but was totally wowed by Alex and Frankie. 😅

I haven’t posted re Saturday evening’s Manon but wanted to say a big thank you to the fairy godmother that magicked up tickets for me and a friend who had to miss Vadim and Frankie through illness. 

I was so glad to have the chance to see one of Alex‘s last two performances and that he was dancing with Frankie - many happy memories of their other performances together - and it lived up to and surpassed all my expectations.

Alex always brings something different to his performances and Saturday was no exception. His Act 1 DG wasn’t going to be pushed around by Lescaut and his earlier Act 1 solos also showed someone who knew his own mind, something that he carried into Act 2 where, despite his dejection, it was always clear that he wasn’t going to give up on Manon or be pushed aside by the competition.

As with the other casts - and they have all been so good it is really hard to choose a favourite - the heartbreak grew to a devastating Act 3 climax and one that was propelled both by DG’s determination to bring Manon to safety and the wonderful chemistry and mutual trust shared by him and Frankie, whose Manon was utterly breathtaking.

The standing ovation from where I was standing was pretty much instantaneous - I had to move to an aisle to see any of the curtain calls - and I’d agree with the posters who suggested that it didn’t seem to be the response of a partisan fan crowd there to say their farewells.

So glad and yet so sad. I can’t believe I will never see Alex dance again at the RB or see him and Frankie dance together again. Too soon! Too soon by far!

I thought he was really starting to come into his own just before his last injury. Having always enjoyed him in the virtuoso roles, and following on from his performances in LWFC where for me he totally stole the show, it came as something of a surprise to me just how good his Siegfried was in the last SL run.  

Hi Jacky. If the ticket is still free, I would like it. Will PM. 

3 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Inger's style (from what I saw at Australian Ballet's gala programme and online from CND's performances) is really not my cup of tea. If it was part of a mixed bill it would be ok but not if it's the entire show. I'll see what our members' reviews, dance publications and newspaper reviews say...

I’d say it sounds very much the cup of tea of the newspaper reviewers. Less so mine. 

I never get the offers. I have always assumed that it’s because I don’t buy expensive tickets and it doesn’t bother me particularly because even the discounted prices are more than I would generally be prepared to pay but there could be that time, and I do feel that it really isn’t good enough to offer discounts to selected individuals only. They should be offered to all Friends and to everyone else who regularly buys tickets. They have our details, what’s the difficulty here?

1 hour ago, PeterS said:

Is the “Success” message that pops up when something is successfully added to your basket a new addition? 

Personally, I'd rather have a website that worked  without hiccups from the outset than one that told me what I already knew.

20 hours ago, jmhopton said:

The last performances we were at together was a wonderful mixed bill in 2019; Firebird, Month in Country and Symphony in C; amazing!

Wasn't that wonderful! And why can't we have more of the same/similar?