capybara

41 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

What do people think of conductors who hum along to the music?

A loaded question 🥴

Quin  General; not happy.

32 minutes ago, Candleque said:

Technically this should be under "how NOT to promote ballet" or "how to promote opera" but I thought it was interesting that the Royal Opera House has sent me three marketing emails with a whopping 40% off Lucia di Lammermoor offer.

I am a lapsed Friend+ who has never bought a ticket for an opera at the ROH. So they are clearly barking up the wrong tree. As you might guess, the ROH has never ever sent me an offer for ballet. 

Do you think the opera fans are getting similar offers for the Winter's Tale, which also has lots of unsold seats??  
 

Added to which (as a purchaser of only ballet tickets) all my automatic ROH social media feed is opera.

I write in with suggestions for ballet content on socials to no avail .

6 minutes ago, Bruce Wall said:

 

The name is 'Tiler' ... There is a Tyler in the current NYCB company - but that is Tyler Angle - who has sometimes partnered Tiler.  

 Sorry - was writing from memory.

…… because they need to ‘top up’ the classical list? I think this has happened before.

Of the ?66 nominations this year, I have heard of only 42 and, in recent years, have seen less than half of those in action.

There are a few multiple entries, among them the impressive Tyler Peck. However, I do hope that the Best Dancer top slots will be awarded to artists who have contributed  substantially in the UK throughout the year rather than on a ‘flying visit’.

51 minutes ago, alison said:

 I don't envy them having to decide on best male dancer!

But, as has been said here in previous years, “all sorts of factors” come into play in the decision-making.

When I copied and pasted from FB nothing could have been further from my mind than suggesting that BCF was at fault in some way. I was just rather surprised that the NDAs had apparently made their announcement via social media.

Thank you for the full text,  @Jan McNulty

Very surprised to see the list on Facebook before any press release or the usual notification to sponsors.

Here are just the first few categories to whet appetites for 'debate':

15 minutes ago, Sim said:

Well that was one sensational performance from Yasmine Naghdi.  I need to bring myself back down to Earth…so more tomorrow.  

Yes please.🦢

21 minutes ago, FionaM said:

And it was fabulous!   Vadim is going to make a fine Leontes (debut).  Ed Watson seemed genuinely impressed with him and Fumi together.  (Not her debut).  High praise indeed considering Ed was the creator of this role.  
 

To  me this seems another level of Vadim … first Mayerling, now Leontes.  We await Onegin 🤞

 

Luca Acri and Sae Maeda were lovely in the Florizel/Perdita roles.  It seemed odd to me that this will be Luca’s debut.  I guess mostly principals have been cast before.  
 

Good to see former dancer Nathalie Harrison hosting.  

V A D I M 😁🤩 
 

What we saw last night was a glimpse of a very special Leontes. If anyone missed his revelatory Rudolf, a ticket for his WT would seem to be a ‘must buy’.

The coaching session (Act 3 pdd) with Edward Watson was a real ‘insight’ but, maybe, the Florizel/Perdita pdd with Chris Saunders which came later was at too early a learning stage for the occasion even though Sae Maeda and Luca Acri are lovely to watch.

14 minutes ago, Silke H said:

And mine 🥳

A lovely birthday treat for me 🤩

 
Maybe we should serenade him (and you) 😉

2 hours ago, Sim said:

There’s a lovely interview with Yasmine Naghdi in today’s Times, wherein she discusses (amongst other things) what it’s like to dance Swan Lake on a live broadcast, and the technical challenges of the role of Odette/Odile.  See today’s links…the article is there with a share token so is accessible to all.  She has also posted it on Instagram.

Great that Yasmine is featured in this way. Along with other RB stars in their thirties she does not get enough coverage to cement her in the public mind as a really great dancer.

The ends of SW Stalls  Row C have a really good view as far as I’m concerned.

And Yu Kurihara (as well, of course, as Momoko Hirata) seems to be accumulating a lot of admirers.

Choices, choices - always difficult but BRB really does seem to have a rich reservoir of Auroras. 

This thread is headed RB but I guess the survey relates to everything about the ROH?

Isabella Gasparini substituting in Requiem shows what an absolute trooper she is too. 👏👏👏

Thank you to those who have given eye witness reports.

20 minutes ago, JNC said:

Yes a slightly eventful evening…

I hope Clarke recovers well because currently RB seems to be carrying a large number of injuries/illnesses…

 

I think off the top of my head we have Hirano, O’Sullivan, McRae, Corrales, Cuthbertson out with injuries? That leaves only Bracewell, Ball, Muntagirov and Sambe (and Clarke, assuming/hoping whatever was wrong today is a short term sickness bug or something like that) as male principals which feels rather light (4-5). At least on the female side it’s looking a bit better assuming Takada is back now and O’Sullivan is recovered by the Ashton bill.

Both Corrales and Cuthbertson have recently posted themselves rehearsing TW’sT on social media so, hopefully, whatever ailed them is now in the past.

6 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Osipova is scheduled to dance Swan Lake on 30 April and 3 May at San Francisco Ballet but that's 2 weeks and 3 days away...surely there would have been sufficient time to dance tonight then fly over to SFB for rehearsals. I haven't looked up the rest of Osipova's freelance schedule.

 

(…………)

 

It would be a pity if any patrons had booked tonight just to see the second cast for DD, having already seen the first cast, although they would know substitutions can occur. (Excellent first cast though!) 

But, surely, dancers’ commitments to their home company should take precedence over guesting?

(……….)

I had done exactly that (i.e. booked specifically for the second cast tonight) but, completely coincidentally, had needed to return my ticket.

12 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

The only other past Alice I can find listed is Stix-Brunnell.

……. who was Alice when still  ‘only’ a soloist but, IIRC, made such an impression in the role that many would have promoted her to Principal with immediate effect.

1 minute ago, San Perregrino said:

 Siegfried does have a lot to do once he’s out of the starting gate. 
 

Not the way I look at it.

The soliloquy between Acts 1&2 is gorgeous, his Act 3 variation can be spectacular. The rest is partnering an Odette or an Odile who completely obscures Siegfried from view for much of the time.

@Mary’s version (see above) would sort the dancing issue for me nicely. But not the ending 🤔

I think it was established upthread that the announcement would precede the Patrons' Season Preview on the 1st May. That points to a Press Release on the 30th April.

At least, this run, the Siegfrieds don’t seem to be falling away from VR into a terrifying roll forwards which made the audience fear they would end up in the orchestra pit.

37 minutes ago, FionaM said:

thank you for the correction.  

I only remembered the Juan Fernandez role and his ROH bio (which I checked) didn’t mention the title role 🙈

That’s not surprising. Cesar’s dancing as Juan Fernandez was something of a scene-stealer (to put it mildly)!

2 minutes ago, FionaM said:

 I was personally interested to see different names at the Icons this year and Herman Cornejo was not a let down for me.  It was good to see him in two contrasting pieces and I thought he was a good fit with Francesca Hayward (Cesar didn’t perform this role.)

Cesar led the second cast of LWFC alongside Yasmine Naghdi and, together, they blew me away, transforming the ballet into something very special.

On 10/04/2024 at 00:11, art_enthusiast said:

Not sure if Viola Pantuso is another wunderkind or not - she most likely is close to being one - and she'll be dancing a principal role in The Winter's Tale soon.

No doubt along with others, I first noticed Viola largely because, being small, she was often at the front in the corps from the moment she joined the RB.

I have obviously enjoyed watching her when she has danced a role, sometimes  well-matched against a shortish man. But  I don’t yet ‘get’ why she is coming to be regarded as ‘extra special’. Maybe BCF members could help me?

1 hour ago, Emeralds said:

I came here thinking there were some more reviews about the last performance on 6 April or suggestions about future debuts/performances to look for and got slightly confused by the Matthew Bourne discussion.  😉  Don't mind me.....   😁 

Added to which we now have the initials MB on posts which can translate to both Matthew Ball and Matthew Bourne 🤯🤔

16 minutes ago, FionaM said:

Returning to RB I’d say that KoH doesn’t take risks early enough.  For instance it’s incomprehensible to me that William Bracewell (32) has not performed Albrecht yet.  A role perfectly suited to him IMO.  I’d choose him over many other principals for this.

Agree of course but, at the time of the last run of Giselle, I don’t think that William was a Principal and I have a feeling (IIRC) that he was nursing a back injury.