Lynette H

The Anne Maguire Gala on March 22nd has now disappeared from the list of shows. Perhaps it was included in error earlier and the details are still to e confirmed.

More on this in a piece rom Alex Beard in the Standard, complete with some illustrations http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/open-up-alex-beard-on-new-plans-to-make-the-royal-opera-house-more-accessible-9828249.html Note that this says "An Open Up display in the Foyer of the Royal Opera House, WC2 (roh.org.uk), is open 10am-7pm daily, until Friday November 7. Royal Opera House staff will be present to answer any questions, 3pm-7pm, Mon-Fri, and 10am-1pm on Sat." So you can put your views on this to them directly .

Rather oddly, the plans are available to view if you go there in person, but there is nothing on the web site that shows them. There is an advert for a job vacancy to manage the process http://recruitment.roh.org.uk/vacancyView.php?requirementId=1501 it "aims to significantly improve access, permeability and facilities for daytime programming, while bringing the Linbury Studio Theatre to the fore as a world class mid-scale theatre and the artistic laboratory of both The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera. It will also be a catalyst for further development of the Royal Opera House`s Learning and Participation programme"

I was told by the Box Office that the 20% members discount does not apply to this particular production.

Just spotted this on the Sadler's web site "Ten years since The Royal Danish Ballet’s last visit to Sadler’s Wells, principals and soloists from this internationally renowned company perform a program featuring excerpts from works by August Bournonville, the acclaimed 19th century Royal Danish Ballet choreographer and ballet master who created more than fifty works for the company." http://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/2015/the-royal-danish-ballet/ good news....

I was sent details of casting for Royal Ballet of Flanders Onegin. Press release as follows: Royal Ballet Flanders is happy to announce the cast of Onegin which opens Saturday October 11th at Opera Ghent. The performances on 11th and 17th October (Opera Ghent) and the performances on 15th, 20th and 22nd November (Opera Antwerp) will feature: Tatjana Aki Saito Onegin Wim Vanlessen Olga Nancy Osbaldeston Lenski Gabor Kapin Gremin Ricardo Amarante Larina Ana Carolina Quaresma Nurse Karin Heyninck Mirror image Aiko Tanaka The performances on 12th and 19th October (Opera Ghent) and 21st November (Opera Antwerp) will feature: Tatjana Laura Hidalgo Onegin Yevgeniy Kolesnik Olga Cristina Casa Lenski Laurie McSherry-Gray Gremin Alexander Kleef Larina Joëlle Auspert Nurse Karin Heyninck Mirror image Fiona McGee The performance on 16th November (Opera Antwerp) will be danced by: Tatjana Laura Hidalgo Onegin Sergio Torrado Olga Anastasia Paschali Lenski David Jonathan Gremin Alexander Kleef Larina Joëlle Auspert Nurse Karin Heyninck Mirror image Fiona McGee The performances on 19th and 23rd November (Opera Antwerp) will be danced by: Tatjana Sofia Menteguiaga Onegin Sebastien Tassin Olga Anastasia Paschali Lenski David Jonathan Gremin Teun van Roosmalen Larina Joëlle Auspert Nurse Karin Heyninck Spiegelbeeld Klaudia Görözdös John Cranko’s 1965 work Onegin is one of the most important and successful ballets of the second half of the twentieth century. Following its success two years ago, Ballet Flanders will stage this ballet once again. John Cranko’s interpretation of Alexander Pushkin’s story in verse comprises some of the most sensitive passages in ballet history. Cranko was a master at transforming the pas de deux into an intimate, danced dialogue. Its typical flowing movements, which never stop and merge symbiotically into one another, reveal the emotional wiring between the lovers. Cranko makes the viewer participate in a meticulous, psychological unravelling of this fateful love story. His dance idiom is crystal clear, but physically very demanding for the dancers. Royal Ballet Flanders presents the much loved classic Onegin from October 11th till November 19th. The Opera Vlaanderen Symphony Orchestra is under the direction of the young British maestro Dominic Grier who will be making his Belgian debut.

Alison From the Wilton's email The stage is set and the performers are ready for Wilton's Strike! starting tomorrow night. Those of you unable to make in it person will be able to watch the performances online through ArtstreamingTV.com. Tune in from 7:30pm - 9pm Thursday, Friday & Saturday and join in the conversation using #Strike2014. Each evening will feature the work of two different choreographers followed by a short Q&A. An overwhelming number of incredible proposals were submitted and the creative team whittled them down to six exceptional finalists. Over the three days of the festival we will be presenting six very different pieces of work, all based on the theme of metamorphosis. We look forward to welcoming you (in person and online) to our first ever Wilton's Strike! Dance Festival. Thursday 25th September: 7:30PM - 9PM, FREE Ieva Kuniskis “He Lived Next Door” Before leaving he said, ‘I want to give away all the spices, pearls and candles, starched shirts and embroidered white sheets, patent shoes and strokes of the clock; rip them out, pull them out, gift and give them away, so I can begin waiting for the next miracle.’ Jack Webb “Inside Opulence” Welcome to the show. Welcome to the inside of a particular opulence. Observe what becomes of three performers who mysteriously descend in to madness. Witness the unravelling of the performer and the descent from glory in to a hopeless and primal existence in which bodies and minds transform in a space where mystery is created and where no one can be trusted. Especially you. Friday 26th September: 7:30PM - 9PM, FREE Elise Nuding “Shift, Spin, Warp, Twine” Taking ropework practices as a starting point, this work follows one person’s quest to untangle the twisted fibres of her self, once and for all. But simplifying things can be complex; often, the more you try to untangle something, the more tangled it becomes. It’s a ropey business. Jo Meredith in collaboration with Sean Bruno “Please Wait Whilst We Try to Connect You…” Text, dance and music interweave to explore how the rituals of human relationships are evolving and (d)evolving through our relationship with the virtual world. Saturday 27th September: 7:30PM - 9PM, FREE Pell Ensemble with Lorenza Lo “K” A journey from intimacy to isolation driven by mobile technologies and our need to communicate. “We expect more from technology and less from each other. We create technology to provide the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship.” -Sherry Turkle Dane Hurst “Finding Freedom" Inspired by the writings of Jarvis Jay Masters, in his book of the same name about a prisoner on death row, this piece looks at the complex ability we have to transform hopelessness, rage, isolation, frustration, fear and anger into something more positive and productive.

....and there was me thinking that this might have been a comment on the dismal Bank Holiday weather.....

This venue really isn't like anywhere else. worth a visit just for the atmosphere. There are some free dance shows in September from new and emerging artists http://wiltons.org.uk/event.php?p=812&dm_i=1EXC,2QH86,BVU2B6,9YQYP,1 Dane Hurst has a new piece on there on 27th Sept.

There's a new biography out for Constant Lambert, reviewed here in the Guardian "Ninette de Valois described him long afterwards as the English Diaghilev, and indeed when the Russian died in 1929, some already saw his replacement in Lambert at 24. After a stint as rehearsal pianist for Marie Rambert, he moved on to become one of the founding triumvirate of the Sadler's Wells Ballet with De Valois and Frederick Ashton." http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/04/constant-lambert-beyond-rio-grande-review-stephen-lloyd Also in the Spectator http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/books-feature/9210601/constant-lambert-by-stephen-lloyd-review/

A very packed auditorium for this and a standing ovation in the stalls for the performers at the end. These are billed as the last ever London performances of this programme. Running order / timings: Solo (Guillem), Shift (Maliphant), Two (Guillem). The first section finished about ten past eight. Push was after the interval, Ended about five past nine.

This production has been here in London before. I had forgotten just how eye-poppingly awful Tylbalt's costumes are. I do understand that the company remains powerfully loyal to its productions, but surely they can get better quality wigs these days ? It's a distraction.

Thanks for that information.

The Deloitte Ignite events also opened for booking today. (There wasn't much publicity about this). The daytime events however were all shown as sold out by about three minutes past ten.....

The detailed opera and ballet review (link supplied above by John) is very much worth a read, giving more detail on suggested tweaks to the schedules of ENB (an extra week in London ?) and BRB. If you want a detailed look at the spreadsheet listing all portfolio organisations, it is here http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/our-investment-2015-18/national-portfolio/new-portfolio/

That link didn't work for me but this one did http://uk-offers.timeout.com/deals/entertainment-tryst-devotion-and-betrayal%20

Currently when trying to book anything at all the "select your own seat" functionality seems to be disabled - there is only the "best available" option. Is this the same for everyone or is it a quirk of my browser ?

There's an interview with Es Devlin the designer of Connectome in the FT at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/a14baa18-e580-11e3-a7f5-00144feabdc0.html#axzz33aL0LsF5

I'm sure these have been online before - I've definitely got copies of 2009/10 and 2010/11. But I think these reports from previous years may have vanished when the ROH web site was overhauled.

There is a long and detailed essay on Sickert and the Camden Town murders available at the Tate web site including some of Sickert's pictures http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/camden-town-group/lisa-tickner-walter-sickert-the-camden-town-murder-and-tabloid-crime-r1104355 "Sickert had spent the summer of 1907 working on a series of interiors in his rooms at 6 Mornington Crescent. Every alternate day he worked from the model, as yet untroubled and alone on her iron bedstead, the dusty sunlight filtering past the dressing-table mirror in contre-jour effect behind. Probably he was in France by the time of the murder in September, but he was an avid reader of newspapers and sought out the English papers abroad. It must have struck him that he had been painting a nude model in a Camden Town bedsitter little more than a mile from Emily Dimmock’s lodgings; that her public house haunts and trips to music halls were all in his neighbourhood; that the man arrested for her murder was a commercial artist; and that this man’s girlfriend Ruby Young, a prostitute, described herself euphemistically as ‘an artist’s model’. Sickert himself seems to have been responsible for the oral tradition according to which Wood, acquitted of her murder, had posed for his paintings, producing as it were an indexical link between murder and canvases"

There was a warm-hearted speech at the beginning from David Nixon about Gailene Stock. A lovely gesture, but it would have been better if they had organised a microphone for him so more people could hear.

It isn't in the NBOC 2014/4 season - expected in 2015/6.

Perhaps Wheeldon is fully occupied with other new work next season.

A few interesting news items John Berry, the ENO’s artistic director, assured opera-goers that the musicals will be staged during periods when the Coliseum would usually be rented to outside companies – meaning no operas are being sacrificed to make way for the more mainstream productions. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/10795780/ENO-moves-into-the-West-End-musical-business.html "At the moment,” he adds, again pointing out a faint absurdity that the arts world has taken for granted, “we rent out the theatre for 17 weeks a year. I will take back some of those weeks to put on some great musicals. They will contribute financially and then they can have another life in a West End theatre for a longer run. But in the Coliseum they will make use of our orchestra and expertise." http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/the-london-coliseum-a-revolution-at-the-opera-9298766.html I wonder what this might mean for future dance productions at the Coliseum.

The Royal Ballet were at the Barbican for a week with a triple bill during the period the ROH was closed for rebuilding. It's quite a long time ago now - 1998. I think there were some issues with the orchestra then, but different ones. As far as I remember, the pit was set up to be by no means as deep as it was for ENB and the players were quite visible from the stalls. I think the layout was rather awkward though from the conductor's point of view. They seemed to be in two large groups almost on either side of her. I wonder if the orchestra pit has been modified since then. But there wasn't any need for amplification, as there was for ENB. At a second viewing of Lest We Forget, the sound was somewhat improved but that could have been because I had a very central seat, compared to a position more at the side on the first night.