Scheherezade

Something as reasoned, perhaps, as the judgement predictably expressed by Nikolai Tsiskaridze that only the Russians and French were capable of dancing classical ballet?

Me too. I find that she draws and holds the eye and brings far more characterisation to her roles than Akane Takada who, for all her technical competence, does not move me at all. I saw Ms Takada's Kitri following upon Osipova's onstage fall and whilst she did a sterling job it lacked, for me, that additional and very necessary spark. I was, by way of contrast, far more engaged by Ms Choe's Aurora, I find her partnership with Alexander Campbell both delightful and convincing, I loved her characterful and uncharacteristic turn as Piaf at Acosta's Coliseum farewell and, as Ruth E's clips show, she is more than capable of turning in a stunning and memorable performance as Odette/Odile.

For anyone who is interested, the Wigmore Hall Anniversary Concerts are to be live streamed today from 6.30 - 10.00 and Wednesday and Thursday from 7.30 - 9.30 via Medici TV or the direct link below: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/live/stream

And Ben Goldscheider, the French horn player, has been hand-picked to study at the Barenboim-Said Academie.

I think it's more a definition of when you were born. Am I the only one who can't hear the adagietto from Mahler's 5th without recalling the hair dye running down Dirk Bogarde's face in Visconti's Death in Venice?

I did my 'one more with Rucinski...' last night and a fabulous night it was, too: loved the cast! Aleksandra Kurzak was wonderfully good, combining acting chops with a beautifully sung performance and, by adding a vulnerability that Damrau failed to provide, fully engaged the audience, who held a collective breath during the 'mad scene' in particular. Stephen Costello has a beautifully sweet tone and the chemistry between him and Kurzak felt natural and unforced, giving a greater poignancy to the overall tragedy than I felt with the first cast. Rucinski sang with suitable menace, sparking well off both Kurzak and Costello and, as with Kwangchul Youn in the first cast, Matthew Rose provided the necessary gravitas as the chaplain. I did feel that Taylor Stayton made more of an impression as Arturo last time round both vocally and in terms of his interpretation of the role. David Yunghoon Kim gave Arturo more of an air of entitlement which was ultimately less engaging than Stayton's more tragic, bemused decency. I'd be interested to read what you make of the second cast, Coated.

I'm hoping that the Daily Mail will be doing their usual £10 deal ahead of the touring season and that Beatrice and Benedict will be in the mix as its the only way I can afford a good seat at Glyndebourne.

And me. I'd advise anyone who wants to hear how Casta Diva can be sung to snap up a ticket.

I saw this last Sunday, sadly not Neal Cooper as stand-in, which I would have liked to have caught, and, yes, I did enjoy it, unlike the Opera Britannia reviewer quoted in Geoff's review above, who thought virtually everybody was miscast (one of the few things I agreed with was his assessment of Lise Davidsen's performance at the Domingo Operalia a couple of years back). And I totally agree with Geoff about the wonderful Bychkov FROSCH a few years back. Coming back to Tannhauser, I thought Peter Seiffert was fine but unmemorable, Emma Bell was superb, Christian Gerhaher gave the nuanced, dignified performance that we have come to expect, Sophie Koch looked very glamorous but was out-sung by Emma Bell and the dancing was risible. Oh, and we finished a good twenty minutes before the scheduled time so Haenchen kept up the pace.

I thought, by the way, that Gerald Dowler's criticism in Classical Source was an extremely thoughtful and well-reasoned piece.

This isn't really on topic - more Baryshnikov than pirouette - but I remember walking up to the Opera House for his first performance there to find people in the street outside holding out wads of notes for the chance of a ticket.

Apologies for the misquote, Jane, but my comments still stand. A slightly different emphasis perhaps but equally sweeping, I'd have said.

From where I was sitting the applause was thunderous.

I was on the front right of the amphitheatre and caught, I think, everything that went on or, certainly, everything that has been mentioned by previous posters. No doubt this informed my impressions of the work overall and the Creature in particular. And, Fonty, I felt extremely sorry for the Creature at almost every point, even allowing for his murdering sprees. I share Floss' incomprehension that Mark Monahan has not seen a single new work worse than this one. I have lost count of the number that I have seen. They have, variously, been self-regarding, inane, aesthetically displeasing, mind-numbingly tedious and deeply unsatisfying. I would not apply any of these epithets to Frankenstein. Its faults can easily be rectified by judicious pruning here and fleshing out there. I am not sure at what age or what stage in their choreographic careers Macmillan and Ashton delivered their best work. Scarlett has been criticised and, by some, written off as a narrative choreographer on the basis that since he has already choreographed a number of works for a variety of companies he has enough experience to deliver works of unfailing narrative genius and if Frankenstein falls short of this definition this must point to a lack of narrative flair on Scarlett's part. Whatever. Despite his back catalogue, he is still very young and although he is not quite there yet, he has, for me, shown that he is more than capable of reaching that holy grail. Although still flawed, his work uses a dramatic arc to engage the emotions. As a result, I find it more empathetic and less distancing than the more academic approach of most of his contemporaries and I hope that Scarlett is given all the help and encouragement necessary to fully realise his very real potential.

Or push to have them invited over here!

On the subject of chemistry, which I thought Choe and Campbell had in spades during the last Two Pigeons run, what a pity that they aren't cast together in Fille. I know that he and Marquez are dancing together but if Muntagirov can dance with Morera and Nunez, why can't Campbell have Choe as well as Marquez?

Happily, she seems to be on a roll at the moment vis a vis castings. And not before time!

I enjoyed Frankenstein far more than I had anticipated and how wonderful and, frankly, unexpected, to emerge from a new work without that sense of overwhelming disappointment. Like zxDaveM I thought that the time whizzed by and I agree that the tavern scene illustrated the difference between the committed and studious Victor and his rather more louche fellow students. This isn't to say that I don't think that the piece could be improved. It could. Pruning and tightening in the laboratory scene wouldn't go amiss, likewise more elucidation of other threads of the storyline. On that second point, I totally endorse Sim's proposal of a pas de deux between Victor and the Creature following the Creature's genesis. We differ, however, on Steven McRae's interpretation. I thought that he fleshed out to very real effect the hurt, rejection and pathos in the Creature's trajectory and I felt genuinely and emotionally moved by his portrayal of his/it's arc of destruction, isolation and death. I can't say whether a different portrayal would be more moving but Steven fully engaged my sympathy and, for me, poignantly brought out the tragedy in the Creature's desolation and the terrible consequences of the way that he responded to his needs. Laura Morera, Federico Bonelli, Alexander Campbell, Meaghan Grace Hinkis and the rest of the cast were uniformly terrific, the sets and costumes were superb and the music did its job. Like most film music, it illustrated a mood. Unlike the truly great film music (Assault on the Beautiful Gorky, for example) it didn't do anything more. Serviceable but unmemorable. In my view, then, and despite the improvements that can obviously be made, Frankenstein was a resounding success. The narrative had shape and pace and the dance content advanced and augmented the storyline. Congratulations to everyone involved and especially to Liam Scarlett, who has really come of age.

Yes, Ruth, I, too, was surprised. I did think that the ROH would go with one of the pool of younger sopranos that they seem so keen to promote, but I must admit that I hadn't thought of Sonja Yoncheva. Well, we will see what we will see. And, yes, I am aware of Devia's Wigmore recital and I will be there. All I can say re the Norma casting is what a missed opportunity and what a pity for the ROH audiences.

No idea but why, oh why, can't the powers that be sign up Mariella Devia, surely the best living Norma by a mile, with the power to lift the hairs down the back of your spine, still at the top of her game and, I would have thought, likely to be free.

http://classical-iconoclast.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2016-01-01T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2017-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=50 And an interesting piece from Classical Iconoclast. Hope the above link works!

I saw the first cast last week. Last run I saw the second cast. The first and third acts felt different this time round although I'm not entirely sure what the changes were. During the latest run, however, the narrative in these acts felt more focused and driven which, for me, moved the pace along and enhanced the emotional involvement. These acts were wonderfully danced and emotionally gripping. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the same about the second act, which didn't really seem to go anywhere. Lots of jolly dancing but no sense of tension, danger or emotional pull, not even when Polixenes appeared. We knew that he disapproved of Florizel's love for Perdita because he looked cross but this did not register in any other way. All successful narrative needs conflict for the protagonists to overcome. It didn't feel as though there was any here, or not through the dance medium. I think that Act 2 needs a narrative re-think rather than pruning. And Florizel needs more flattering trousers. Having said that, I did enjoy the evening overall and with a re-worked Act 2, Winter's Tale could satisfy from start to finish.

Oh Trog, how could you! He may be a mumbler but no-one - just no-one - mumbles quite so divinely!

Finally made it to Lucia! Not sure whether it was because my expectations had been lowered by all the iffy reviews but it was much better than I expected. Totally agree about Diana Damrau and the glass harmonica and, my goodness, she certainly gave it her all from start to finish - including a little jump of delight during the curtain call. I was also far more impressed than expected by Charles Castronovo, whose voice I'd always thought was very much on the light side, but which seems to have darkened attractively over the last year or so, and he was certainly easy on the eye during the shirtless scene. A bit of much needed competition for J.K. perhaps? They seem to have turned off the running tap, at last, and thank goodness I was sitting to the side of the amphitheatre, which meant that for half the time, at least, I could ignore the melodrama being acted out unnecessarily on one half of the split stage. But is the production team blind? If not, couldn't someone have seen that the chorus resembled particularly unfortunate sardines crushed up against one another in the part set aside for the actual singing. And why the need for someone to patter around noisily, picking things up, moving them, and generally causing an unwelcome distraction at times when the libretto called out for stillness and reflection? The singing, however, was terrific all round. Tezier conveyed Enrico's brutality convincingly, Youn brought presence and heft to the role of the chaplain and I'd have liked to have heard more of Taylor Stanton, who impressed in his brief turn as Arturo. I liked the sets, too. Just a pity they weren't allowed to extend across the entire stage. And an even greater pity that Katie Mitchell judged the audience to be so lacking in imagination and discernment that she felt the need to hammer her heavy-handed message relentlessly home from the opening bars to the curtain call at the end.

Could be asthma. I am a sufferer and the under-floor air-con, which sets off coughing in fellow asthmatics around the auditorium, seems to be turned on at the most inappropriate moments. I have to suck frantically on airway-widening pastilles whenever the air-con comes through.