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A frog

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Everything posted by A frog

  1. Beatrix Stix-Brunell. I can't remember if Francesca Hayward was performing in the last run, if she did I didn't see her.
  2. I'm assuming that ballet class is where corps dancers have their best opportunity to be noticed for named roles and then promotion. I remember during the first ballet day when they streamed an entire class on youtube, you definitely for the impression Valentino Zucchetti was using it as an opportunity to show off his skills (possibly for the audience more than the staff but still). In the Paris Opera Ballet, promotions are made based on an open competition so dancers aren't limited by the roles they've already been given.
  3. The Guardian at some point was trying to move discussions away from comments under articles and towards more general forums, articles otherwise still provide ground for discussion, if rarely fruitful ones, but someone genuinely trying to engage in discussion can usually find other people who will.
  4. I'll have to see if I still have the cast sheets, but when the POB did it a little over a year ago, I'm pretty sure I saw the same dancer as CM in the two performances I went to. It of course could mean that she was randomly picked twice but I assume it means it was her part.
  5. I recently bought I Was An Adventuress with Vera Zorina, I haven't seen it yet but the back cover pictures show some ballet poses so it might fit. It was £3 at Fopp in Seven Dials, the promotion might still be on.
  6. Regardless of why they did it, it still shows a somewhat popular Macmillan ballet wouldn't be popular enough to sell well two seasons in a row. The amphitheatre was very sparsely attended on at least one of the nights I attended, I remember being able to move five years further to the front at the interval as there was a huge block of empty seats in the central area.
  7. It seems he has been serious about wanting to work as an actor, once you go past the self-aggrandising pull-quotes in interviews, he does have parts in a couple of Hollywood films. He's apparently been cast to play Nureyev around the time of his defection in a film directed by Ralph Fiennes. He's currently filming Murder On The Orient Express where he plays Count Andrenyi (played by Michael York in the 70s film). He also has a part (which will likely be quite small, but a part still) in an espionage film starring Jennifer Lawrence by the director of The Hunger Games films. It could be the start of a nice little career.
  8. The RB did Manon two seasons in a row four of five years ago now (Spring and Autumn or Winter), I remember the second run being very poorly attended, I doubt Mayerling would fare any better.
  9. I haven't seen it yet, but I keep being told to check out Altman's The Company.
  10. If I'm not mistaken, the opera house (or any venue using a ticket agency) is paid the face value (and the agency makes money on the booking fees), they're not making any less money than if they sold the tickets themselves (and their accountants might even consider they are making more as someone else is selling them, they'll have to assign smaller costs against the revenue). I'm trying to find out if the tickets are bought by the agent first and what happens if they remain unsold, in which case here again the opera would see all the tickets bought quicker than if they were sold individually, beneficial for their cash flow. It seems after all that the tickets offered to the agencies are the slowest selling ones. It is also likely part of the ROH's strategy to reach a larger audience, Seeticket is one of the biggest ticket agencies and will reach people going to the theatre or concerts regularly who might then be tempted to give opera or ballet a try, especially if the tickets offered there are roughly the same price range as other theatres.
  11. Cuthberson definitely danced Aurora during the last run, she was partnered with Matthew Golding and they danced the very first performance of the run.
  12. I don't know what it used to be, but top price here will apparently be £55, even cheaper than the modern bill at SW
  13. ABT are dancing it in Paris at the beginning of September, still plenty of tickets left.
  14. It seems the film uses specially created choreography, the only relevant credit I can see is to someone called Francesca Jaynes. It's likely she created something loosely inspired by existing ballets, but without giving it more thought than what was needed for the movie. I haven't actually seen it so can't help re the theatre, and the list of filming locations I can find doesn't go in more details than Paris, London, etc.
  15. Back around all the hubbub around his departure, one of his criticisms that was most ill-received by the dancers was that he was highly critical of their standards in classical ballet. I haven't seen POB in enough classical repertoire to comment, but this was generally echoed by the posters on Dansomanie at the time (who then added that the dancers leading the rebellion were generally the ones most lacking in their technique). Millepied very specifically said at one point that he didn't think he had enough dancers able to dance Giselle or La Sylphide, and that he was hoping to fix it.
  16. The RBS is pretty open in its aim to recruit the best students from all around the world, from a very remote perspective based on articles and comments here or there, it seems both a way to have a claim of having trained as many great dancers as possible, and because non-EU students pay much higher fees. The Paris school is heavily subsidised, and while I can't find the info, I'm guessing it is free (as all state schools in France are) for students, giving them no incentive to widen the net for recruits. If it's anything like the rest of the French system, it's not exclusionary per se, you just have to have been in from the beginning, whereas RBS has a clean break between the Lower School and the Upper School (also I remember Beatriz Stix-Brunell studied there, so clearly they don't have a French only policy). If I may develop on Alison's point about Switzerland, they have recently had a referendum about ending free movement of people; they found out that implementing it would lead to a breach of the conditions of their access to the Single Market and they therefore can't go through with it. One example I remember was that European funding for universities' research projects would be withdrawn and/or that Swiss universities would no longer be allowed to apply. No-one knows what consequences Brexit should it happen would have, but it is reasonable that if we want to keep access to the single market we would still have to accept free movement of people. Of course none of the Brexit proponents have so far been able to state what the relationship with the EU would be, so trying to figure out what the various conditions would be is currently a waste of time.
  17. You can stay if you've been here for more than ten years regardless of your income I believe. That might mitigate the exodus a bit.
  18. Maybe not for the most popular ones or long-running musicals, I think I paid something close to 40 for Book Of Mormons (in previews even) which is still the only West End musical I've ever been interested in seeing. But the production of No Man's Land later this year with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen for instance had tickets starting from 10 and some stalls seats for 45 (last couple of rows but still). More and more theatres also seem to be doing day or week tickets for 20 and under (and they tend to be first row of the stalls, not last of the amphitheatre), I had for instance paid 15 to go see Skylight (then with Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan). ETA: and checking now a show which I guess would interest some here, An American In Paris tickets start at 17.50, 19.50 once previews are over.
  19. From: http://www.britishinfluence.org/it_s_the_british_media_that_needs_auditing In his statement about the audit to the European Parliament this week, the Court of Auditors President, Vítor Manuel da Silva Caldeira, pointed out that the only area of EU expenditure not affected by material error was the EU’s spending on its own administration. This actually shows that the European Commission has tight control on its internal finances. The problems occur when the money leaves Brussels for spending by member states – and that’s actually how 94% of all EU money is used, in EU countries on policies and programmes for the benefit of EU citizens. National governments have primary responsibility for managing and controlling 80% of all EU funds. That’s why Mr da Silva Caldeira called on all EU member states – which includes the UK government of course – to play their part in helping to prevent errors. He also called for the EU budget to be more focused on performance than expenditure. As for fraud, this affects an estimated 0.2% of the EU budget – modest by international standards, and much better than many British government department budgets. The EU's audit processes are more robust than those of the UK Government. It was Audit General Sir John Bourn who stated that if the European Court of Auditors standards had applied to the British government’s accounts, he could not have signed off those accounts in total, because he had to give an adverse opinion on 13 of the UK government’s budgets.
  20. I really wish this thread was deleted now if we're going to start going into a political debate that has nothing to do at all with ballet or the arts. Especially if it's to post tendentious claims: https://fullfact.org/europe/did-auditors-sign-eu-budget/
  21. I'm not saying there was a will to keep these two artists out, but any requirement for paperwork does make things more complicated. They are two high profile artists who decided coming to the UK wasn't worth the hassle, there are likely more who we don't hear about. And again, no one knows what would happen if we left anyway. If the mods start deleting things, I'd rather they deleted the whole thread.
  22. I'm expecting this thread will be locked quickly, but just in case. The short answer is that no one knows for sure what would happen if we left, it's however unlikely to improve things. Jessica Duchen did a post about some of the direct consequences to the arts: https://jessicamusic.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/im-in-and-heres-why-you-should-be-too.html For ballet specifically, I vaguely remember Tamara Rojo complaining about the visa requirements for non-EU dancers, it is possible we would then have the same issues for EU dancers. If, as all forecasts indicate, an exit would lead to a decreased GDP if not outright recession, any arts budget would likely be where the government cuts first. I don't know exactly what subsidies come directly from the EU when it comes to performing arts, I know there are some for the cinemas, and far more important in my view than those for production are subsidies for cinemas showing less mainstream fare (even the BFI apparently receives some funds from them). Another example of what might happen, in the past few years, Abbas Kiarostami was unable to come and direct his production of The Magic Flute for ENO as he couldn't get a visa, and Grigory Sokolov is no longer performing here as he thinks getting a visa is too much of a hassle. This could be an indication of things to come. I actually haven't looked into it all that much (I can't vote so not much point); and also it can't be pointed out enough, no one, least of all the proponents, has any idea what would happen if we left.
  23. Most Wend End shows have cheapest tickets in the 15-20 range, similar to RB (there are cheaper but standing or restricted view is unlikely to appeal to newcomers); for 40 (the price of the vastly unsold Manon tickets I mentioned above) you start to get very good seats if not the best if you buy them through the tkts booth, not somewhere halfway in the amphitheatre. Don't get me wrong, I think most West End shows are huge rip-offs, but for someone who's just looking for a night out now and then, they'll still be cheaper (not to mention easier to get your hands on without planning months in advance).
  24. I think I remember that Manon run to be have top price tickets in the 80-90 range (and it wasn't that long ago, sigh...), and the amphi seats that were most badly sold were the mid-range ones (rows j-k I believe) which would support what you're saying. I'm definitely more picky these days about what I buy, half of it is that I've already seen almost everything they put on so a couple of performances a run if that tends to be enough, and prices have increased far beyond inflation. I can only imagine how much of a deterrent it is for people who aren't already fans.
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