LinMM

I was just looking and Simon has conducted the three Stravinsky ballets The Firebird Petrouchka and Rite of Spring and the Nutcracker!! I have a sort of coincidental points of our paths crossing in his life! As used to work with his father in Liverpool so was introduced to Simon over tea with another teaching colleague when he was 17 and about to become a prodigy and world famous according to proud dad. We didn’t believe it of course but what did we know ha!! Then I bumped into his father again some years later at Festival Hall for Simons first time conducting there. So of course went along to say hello afterwards ….though he probably hadn’t a clue who I was!! And then bumped into his father again some years after that in a little park in Islington …where I then lived ….with his little grandson and it turned out Simon lived in the next road to me! He did wonders for the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra when he could have taken more lucrative posts at the time so always admired him for that . And dad was right he has turned out to be famous …in the musical world at least.

I think people know Odile is not a black swan but Von Rothbarts daughter of course who can morph into looking like somebody else!! It’s just that at one point she tries to mimic the movements of Odette to trick Siegfried so goes all swan like in movement so it’s just called the black swan pas de deux for that reason. I don’t really think it’s that big a deal! Though I think it works for the drama of the ballet that she’s now dressed in black. I wonder if Simon Rattle has ever conducted any ballet music…I’m sure he has…It would be lovely for him to make a sort of guest appearance at this event ( a sort of support for the Arts type guesting) owing to his long association with the Hall. He might even do it for free!

Yes I have Emeralds very kindly sent it to me. Matthew seems to have enjoyed it!!

I’ve tried three times and everything is veiled so screen hidden the two boxes definitely didn’t want to take my name but could see dimly that there were a lot of things to accept but couldn’t fill in anyway…very peculiar. Anyway thanks for sending his review …..which I’m mostly at odds with on this occasion but he seems to like this type of dance more though we agree on some of the dramatic points! I seem to agree more with Charlotte Krasner on the whole from Seeing Dance?

When I go to site ( just had another go) a page comes up with two blank boxes but nothing is written! I assume these two boxes could be for name and then email but haven’t a clue! Will try again and fill in the boxes but there’s no indication of what they are for!! I am doing this on my phone so don’t know whether that makes a difference

Am a bit annoyed that Matthew Palluch has written a review for a different publication which I cannot access. I usually like to know what he thinks!

Thanks for that Ian Macmillan! The Times review is really quite favourable as a whole. I don’t think either character Carmen or Don Jose’ are particularly likeable or rather sympathetic in this version. I’ve not seen the opera! 🙄 But am assuming the Carmen in that is more alluring seductress than pure sexual vamp that Ingers Carmen seems to be! Although the ending is well known I felt I should have felt more shocked when Carmen is stabbed but didn’t. And you almost feel sorry for the slumped figure of Don Jose’ at the end not so good if Inger is supposedly trying to highlight domestic violence!! But then is Carmen really the vehicle for this anyway? She is too feisty and in control of her own destiny to be truly such a figure…but as the object of man’s plain jealousy yes.

Well it’s not too long and you would enjoy the music even the added bits are good!!

I’m really sad I couldn’t get to the Frankenstein as I could have only gone on the Thursday but had to be back in Brighton by early this morning so didn’t work out! I usually love Mark Bruce’s work and like his contemporary style ( more than Ingers anyway!) I really enjoyed all the music for Carmen definitely one of its pluses.

I’ve accessed all the reviews I can …but not the usual Telegraph and Times ones etc ….and the others don’t seem to be that bad to me probably more favourable than my own anyway! Not exactly 5 star reviews but not a write off!! I always like to judge something for myself anyway not rely on critics views ….some of whom do not have that much experience of ballet and dance either as observers or doers.

Yes that’s what he seemed to be! But really also wanting to keep things innocent between Carmen and Don Jose I thought …so at times trying to persuade to “keep on the straight and narrow” as it were. There’s a little dance sequence between the three with the boy seeming to act out being their child …a sort of possible alternative reality… but whether this really worked dramatically I’m not sure. Delightfully danced by Velicu of course but the character seemed a little out of place to me.

I think it’s good that Ballet Companies have a wide Rep including contemporary work as this appeals to a wider audience so can only be a plus for any Company. In this respect ENB can be commended for some of their projects in recent years. I was looking forward to this Carmen and my first outing to the ballet since November. Though I knew it would be very contemporary this was as contemporary as it gets as this had hardly any balletic quality to it at all. It was almost like a very elaborate street dance in parts. I was so wanting to have a new production I could really relish booking next time around but don’t think this Carmen will be it. There were some very nice moments in it …..I loved the way the death of Zuniga ( Streeter) was done in the dramatic ending to first Act and the way at one point the girls all followed Don Jose’ around the stage whispering Carmen to get across his paranoia but what I found was that after about 40 mins into first act inspite of the little spat between Carmen and one of the girls(Sangeun Lee) I began to feel irritated with the choreography as in the end there wasn’t enough dramatic hook in it to draw me into the characters and the drama between them ….or the choreography was somehow not strong enough for the music. It became like anybody could be anybody really and a bit of an improvised feel. I was just starting to switch off when the gun went off!! The rest of that Act was really well done. So the jury was out a bit at the interval and had been really wowed by Woolhouse too and was hoping to see more of him. When the second act started there was this weird bit to electronic music and had a moment of panic when couldn’t see the orchestra ( blacked out) and thought they’d gone home and here was Carmen suddenly morphing into Creature for a moment with Don Jose’s struggle with the two masked all in black “shadows” Then the lights came on and to my relief there was the orchestra all sitting there. I didn’t buy a programme last night probably a mistake as there was a lot of use of the “shadow dancers” dressed in black looking like menacing bank robbers but who I assumed were harbingers of death and evil doings. In the second Act there was a lot of them rolling across the stage far too much and then ferociously dancing to build up some drama ( I thought) to Carmens stabbing while Carmen and Don Jose just walked about the stage in and out of the moveable props. It was as if the two main characters couldn’t be choreographed to hold the drama so needed the assistance of the shadow dancers. It was a real anti climax at the end though as inspite of all this going on I didn’t even realise Don Jose had stabbed Carmen until her reaction. The ending scene could have been more memorably dramatic if it had been just a slumped Don Jose’ and carmens spirit receding as lights went down but the boy character breaking up some doll almost in a fit of pique at the way things had turned out spoilt that for me. Minju was a very good Carmen I thought but didn’t think Nakaaki really held the dramatic tension as Don Jose’ but not sure if this was because of the choreography or not. Id love to know what others think. I would see it again but not desperate to see it again and I so wanted to be! So a little disappointed really.

As said on other thread I’m very happy with my casts but would like to see Naghdi and Richardson in the Dream! But if I did book that I’d have to spend more or less the whole of that week in London from 18th…..so not sure how popular I’d be especially as away part of the following week on a reunion and then have to stay on an extra night in London on 29th for RBS at Holland Park!!

Thanks lady Emily….this was posted a bit earlier on another thread however this is the more appropriate place for it!!

Thanks for that Jamesrhblack! Am very happy with casting and nothing is repeated on the two days I’m going and as luck would have it I’ve got Cesar albeit in a ballet I don’t know! Very happy to have at least one performance of Hayward and Sambe’ in the Dream ….I can’t imagine Osipova in this role but she’s with Bracewell so I’m sure will be fine! I think Magri will be great in the Brahms and it’s Fumi and Vadim for Les Rendezvous so very pleased altogether.

I’m going on the 9th too ….. first visit to ROH since November 21st in the Clore! Am looking forward to it as would go for Requiem alone. I just love Faure’s Requiem so the dancing is an added joy.

Am on train at mo but as often it seems in more contemporary works these days the dancers out shone the choreography….nothing wrong with them and Minju Kang and Eric Woolhouse were outstanding….I wished he had been on stage more he sort of lit the stage up last night I’m still thinking about exactly what to say as this was not dreadful or anything like that but by the end the choreography was boring to me and took away from the drama rather than added to it. I think this review is going to be in dribs and drabs as I know a lot of people are impressed with this sort of dance just not me nor my friend and nor the two women sitting next to me last night…so a few of us out in the cold. Also it’s difficult when you can see a lot has been put into a work including obviously the choreographer himself who was certainly of good intent to be too disparaging. Im going to try and get to the core of why it didn’t really work for me but I wouldn’t tell people not to go. If you are in doubt and can get a cheap ish seat I definitely would unless you already know you hate this type of contemporary dance.

I’m sure the payment page was slightly different this time. As for my first booking I could only see a card details section and the gift certificate and credit didn’t come up. So I paid by card for that one. But when I went back in again (always do the bookings separately) as I knew I had a lot of credit and again could only see card details I went into a little arrow in side the payment by card box and then it brought up a separate list including paying by account credit!! So was easy from then onwards. However I’m sure in the past all methods of payment automatically showed on the payment page ….underneath the card details bit. It is certainly not obvious what the little arrow in the card details box is for so trial and error paid of on this occasion!!

I have to admit that these days I tend to get to ROH at least 2 hours before the performance if I can but always try to be there by 6pm latest! After 6.30 it does start to get very busy. It’s especially busy on days where there has been a matinee or when there are concurrent events in the Linbury or Clore. It must be especially annoying if audience members who are standing for the performance can find nowhere to sit beforehand.

I will later on but am about to set off to get back to Brighton ….but looking at your above comment Emeralds you can save your money as one of the things I said at the end yesterday is for me I don’t think this choreography really suits a full length work!! When I saw ENB’s Creature I felt the music/sound track destroyed it but last night I thought the music saved it!

It’s not so much people sitting at tables eating something from Pret but people who are using the area to work with their computers with wires spread out across to the plugs just rife for someone to trip over ( I’m very aware of falling over at the moment) but have seen this in the downstairs cafe area. I think it’s okay to work in the cafe till about 6pm but after that the tables should be left free for those wishing to eat or drink. I certainly wouldn’t have the nerve to bring in food from another vendor like Pret to eat there!

Quite a night for Sambe’ as well then!

I managed to get everything I wanted this morning between 10 and 11 with a one minute queue. I had quite a bit of credit to use up from Decembe January and February so felt like most tickets were for free lol. I’ve opted for the two slightly different Ashton programmes and two Winters Tales and already had the Sarasota ticket for Linbury. I didn’t get RBS annual show only slips left by the time I booked but seeing the seniors in the Linbury ( and Holland Park) and still haven’t decided about Takada/Sissens Swan Lake on 25th June. I keep hearing she may not end up doing it so will risk waiting a bit longer. Have no used up all my credit anyway!!

Yes I’m seeing RBS at Next Generation and Holland Park this year but always love the House atmosphere for main stage show …will look out for returns anyway …I did get lucky last year!!

By the time I booked (finished about 10 mins ago) only slips left for RBS show so no good for me unfortunately.