penelopesimpson

Frankenstein tanked.  They papered like mad

11 hours ago, Anna C said:

 

It obviously wasn’t very clear to everyone that it was a joke.  

No, you’re right.  Predictably there’s always the usual suspects....

You really would have to be ?....?......I know not what to take offence at such an innocuous statement.  Puzzled

5 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

why did you put 'astonishingly' at the start of that? Poor form!

Err, a joke?  Humour?  Honest irony?  Self-deprecation?  What on earth else could it possibly be?
 

Disappointing Dave.

6 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

To clarify this, the investigation into allegations made relating to students at the Royal Ballet School found no wrongdoing; the results of the investigation into other allegations have not been made public.  That being said, I personally have no issue with the RB maintaining its current production of Swan Lake (though I still don't really like the ending).

Astonishingly, I agree with you wholeheartedly

On 30/03/2020 at 22:31, FLOSS said:

I think that anyone anticipating that the season will resume any time soon is being wildly optimistic. In fact I think it quite likely that we shall be told in the not too distant future that the season is being abandoned. The shut down started last week and we shall not begin to see its beneficial effects for at least three or four weeks because of the time lag between controlling the sort of social interaction which makes high infection rates possible and reducing them by the closure of places of public entertainment and placing other restrictions on our behaviour . We also need to bear in mind that the rate of infection and the incidence of new cases of corona virus is only going fall if everyone, whatever their age, understands that we are all vulnerable to corona virus and complies with social distancing and limits the amount of interaction they have with others. However concerned politicians and others may be about the economic impact that the shut down is having on the economy as a whole and on individual businesses no one is going to authorise the reopening of theatres and other places of entertainment and social interaction until it is deemed safe to do so. I think that the Government will exercise considerable caution in authorising places of public entertainment to reopen because of the public health implications of doing so prematurely. The Government is likely to be very sensitive to how effectively it is perceived to have handled the easing of restrictions if only because it is vulnerable to the accusation that it failed to use the month or more it had between the Chinese announcement of the presence of a new virus in Wuhan and the first cases identified in this country. Time , it might profitably have used to buy essential equipment and plan its response to the arrival of the virus. As far as the ROH is concerned while it may be concerned about the age profile of its audience and anxious to find a new one I doubt that it is that keen on being identified as a hot spot of viral infection. Somehow I think that the powers that be at the ROH will be anxious to avoid the accusation that in their anxiety to recoup their losses they have exposed the more vulnerable members of their audience to the unnecessary risk of infection and managed to kill off a goodly proportion of them.

 

 Yesterday the Deputy Chief Medical Officer made it clear that the restrictions currently in place were unlikely to be lifted for at least thirteen weeks and that it might be necessary to keep them in place far longer. By my calculation the initial thirteen weeks takes us to early June and given the fact that dancers and orchestral musicians are unlikely to be able to able to resume their collective activities until non essential workers are able to return to work I don't see how the season can resume. I understand that Glyndebourne has abandoned the first part of its season and anticipates at best only being able to perform one or two of the operas which were scheduled towards the end of its 2020 season. Now if I am right about how the Royal Ballet's season is likely to end that means that Kevin is going to need to think very hard about the 2020- 2021 season not simply because of the loss of revenue which cancelling the rest of the 2019-20 season will entail but the number of dancers who had anticipated making their debut in a leading role in Swan Lake who will end the season without having achieved that significant milestone in their careers. I suspect that whatever he intended to stage next season  Kevin will be "advised" that in order to plug the hole in the company's finances caused by the disruption of the current season he should stage works which are guaranteed to attract an audience rather than works which require cheap tickets to get an audience into the theatre.

 

I shall be really surprised if we get much of the retrospective season celebrating the company's new found creativity that was on the cards for the 2020-2021 season at one time. The loss of revenue caused by this season's closure will be one factor influencing any revisions that are made but the decision to sever ties with Scarlett will be another. Alice and The Winter's Tale may well have been planned for the forthcoming season and no doubt they will retain their place on the season's bill of fare but I can't see much else created since 2012 being programmed. I think that the need to rewrite next year's schedule may well be one of the reasons for the terse statement about cutting ties with Scarlett. I think it more than likely that Kevin will programme  a rather more popular season for 2020-2021 than he originally intended and that it will probably include a production of Swan  Lake which will enable all those dancers who were due to make their debuts this season to do so without undue delay. Given the cost involved in staging a new production it will almost certainly use Macfarlane's designs and a far more authentic text than we have seen this season. I for one will not mourn the loss of Scarlett's ill-conceived version of the ballet with a dumb show which reduces the impact of Odettes first entrance and renders her mime sequence redundant ; contains MacMillan style filler choreography; superfluous princesses providing a floor show in acts 1 and 3; a Spanish dance that would not be out of place in a third rate night club on the Costa del Sol and a dire fourth act which sees only Odette die.

 

I think that the ballet season when announced will prove to be far more "popular" than originally intended. However that does not mean that it can't be artistically satisfying. Perhaps Kevin will come to see that if he is to restore the hole in the company's finances then he needs to programme works which people will be prepared to pay to see rather than works which require reduced prices or the occasional papered house to get anywhere near securing a decent average attendance, Perhaps a retrospective of the company's twentieth century classics rather than works created since 2012 is what is really required ? It is unlikely to be controversial given the number of major works in the company's back catalogue which have not been seen in years.  

Would just like to point out that the Deputy Chief Medical Officer is, thankfully, not running the country and her remarks were unfortunate,  Necessarily and understandably, scientists are purists and concerned only with a particular project.  She may well have been correct in her comments that it would take six months to get rid of the virus but those charged with taking a wider view know that locking down the country for six months is simply unsustainable.  We have to get the U.K. moving again and likely deaths have to be balanced against the harm that the so-called cure is doing.  It is not just CoronaVirus that results in death and deprivation - so does poverty, isolation and psychological damage.

Personally, I can’t think of anything more daft in these straitened times than abandoning Scarlett’s Swan Lake.  Yes, many of us have reservations about certain aspects of the production, but it has been widely acclaimed.  Most importantly, it sells fast and well and RB’s dancers have prepared for it.  Ditching it when the economy has just been trashed would seem like artistic judgement gone mad.  The official line is that Scarlett has no case to answer so why would our first rank ballet company wrinkle its hyper-sensitive nose?  This is a time for clear thinking in order to rebuild finances so my suggestion would be that they kick off the new season with Swan Lake, followed by as many Nutcrackers as they can squeeze in.

Personally, I was very much hoping for Woolf Works but Alice may be a better choice and Bayadere would surely sell well.  Winters Tale not so much as on its third outing it did not sell particularly quickly.

Darlex - most of us understood the point you were making

On 27/03/2020 at 02:21, Darlex said:

Penelope,  I have no insider knowledge and I can't remember very well what happened to them in the past, even from an onlookers point of view. Today, however, Cojocaru appears to be happy  at Hamburg with Neumeier and also at ENB where she can dance choreographies from Forsythe, Khan and Ochoa among others (although Tamara obviously needs to try a bit harder if it is to be considered a premier company.) Perhaps we should just be happy for Cojocaru that she is  now in a place where she feels content. I wasn't suggesting that she and Kobborg should have left the Royal Ballet when they did. I was merely thinking that when one dancer leaves, it gives the space and opportunity for another. Interesting that in your list of dancers who may have outstayed their welcome there is no mention of Watson - he is, after all, the same generation as many of those you have mentioned.

Take your point Darlex.

As people will know, I am pretty much at the top of the list of Ed Watson's fan club.  I didn't include him because I mentioned him so many times and sound like a broken record.  And nobody else seems to ask which I find strange because if Muntagirov or Ball or Campbell vanished, these boards would be awash with complaint!

Okay, I know he was due to appear in Dante (I have booked for 3 performances without even knowing if it is great or the other thing...), but he has been off stage now for two and a half years and nobody ever says anything.  Why?  I have absolutely no idea, but it does seem that he is not a favourite at ROH which surprises me.  Bonelli is winding down but still dances major roles, ditto Soares, but Watson, well, he had to withdraw from Mayerling and then he might as well have been on the moon for all we heard of him.

Its particularly hard because he is evidently a very private person so we learn little from Instagram or Twitter.  I wouldn't change that but I do think management need to understand and respond to the very real relationships that artistes build with their fans.  As another poster has said, Cojocaru was a wonderchild - then she was simply no more.  I really don't care much about what went on wtih management, but I do care that management seem not to recognise that they have some sort of duty to their fans.    The same is true of Watson.  We don't need daily updates on his injury or to be privy to what he does with his days, but it would have been nice to have had some indication that he hadn't retired but was.....??????????what exactly?

Of course we don’t know but we DO know what Kobborg and Cojocaru have said since, clearly documented.  As I have said before - and doubtless  will again - it shouldn’t matter to us, the audience.  We see only the performances on which we base our liking for artistes.  This is theatre, not politics.  A formal marking of the departure of the leading ballet couple from the top UK ballet company should have been appropriately recognised for the audience.  There wasn’t anyone there that night who didn’t share that view.

For the same reason, I have no interest in what may or may not have gone on with Liam Scarlett.  I see only the work of the artiste and I applaud or deride it accordingly.  It is difficult to see how this can be denied.  
 

Equally, I find it baffling that anybody could consider that an artist at their peak should simply move aside for younger talent.  Notice you don’t mention that?????? 
 

Anyone going to tell Marianella her time is up?    No, thought not.

20 hours ago, Darlex said:

 

If I remember correctly, Polunin walked out on the RB while rehearsing The Dream with Cojocaru during the last year of Mason's directorship, 2012. I think Cojocaru and Kobborg left at the end of the first year of O'Hare's directorship (don't forget Kobborg fancied himself as Mason's replacement). We never know what goes on behind the scenes. If their last show went unmarked, it could have been because it was their wish. Perhaps they wanted to prove a point against the management - we will never know. With all the talent at the RB now and then, you could say thank goodness that they made space at the top. Btw - have you ever seen that footage of Sibley rehearsing Cojocaru? 

Cojocaru and Kobborg have made it clear in interviews that they thought their departure was badly handled.  In any case, this is about more than Management favourites - there is surely a duty to fans?  We are not sheep taking our cue from a Management as to which artiste is in or out.  If you had been there that night you would have seen for yourself the strength of feeling.  A rare misstep from KOH who appeared petty.

i must take issue with your view of the succession.  Losing an internationally acclaimed star, for many of us the greatest ballerina of her generation, surely merits more than a ‘thank goodness she’s gone?’  I love our new cadre of Principals whose journey to the top it has been a privilege to watch, but their accession did not mean we had to use an established star.  Using your method, Bonelli should have gone years ago, and Acosta certainly overstayed his welcome, ditto Galeazzi and Yanowsky and Rojo all older than Cojocaru.  And what is Nunez thinking of cluttering up the Principals dressing room when there is fresh meat available.  As for Morera, well, taxi for her.

Grrh

21 hours ago, JohnS said:

Fabulous - not so much a laugh but certainly joyful with a little help from the choir:

 

https://slippedisc.com/2020/03/believe-it-orchestra-plays-beethoven-9th-from-their-homes/

On this most depressing of mornings, this made me cry with joy Totally wonderful

Briediem - that is so lovely.  Lifted my heart.

On 22/03/2020 at 02:23, loveclassics said:

Yes that's the one. I'm glad she (Alina) has found a new home in ENB but I still think it's a great shame that she chose to follow him and leave the RB.  Nothing wrong with ENB particularly under Rojo's re-vitalising leadership but it doesn't quite have the international reputation of the country's flagship company.  But that's a bit academic at the moment.

SO  share your view, Love Classics.  Alina is in a class of her own and should be dancing with the premier company on the premier stage in London. 

I have no idea what went on but it was clear from the shameful way their last performance went unmarked by management that relations had soured.  I am not sure Alina could have stayed and not just because of her relationship with Kobborg.  They had been casting this couple less and less over the preceding two years, so much so that I had written to RB about it, and I think her face no longer fitted.  I cannot remember if they left before or after Polunin but perhaps it could all have been different for both of them if RB had paired them up.  She was certainly needed because after so many retirements, RB was short on star power ballerinas.

13 hours ago, ENBlover said:

 

...

Oooh, err!!

There is an irony to all this:  as Mr. Scarlett will find it difficult to find work in the immediate future, he could perhaps have teamed up with Mr. Polunin, if only....

7 hours ago, alison said:

 

How can they possibly not say anything, given that the media has got hold of the story?  If it hadn't been made public, I suppose they might just have been able to terminate the working relationship quietly, but not now.  Not in this day and age.

Because at this time, most people don't have Mr. Scarlett top of their worries list. 

All they needed to do was let it go and then when somebody decided they must probe the matter, simply say that they have no plans to work with this gentleman in the forseeable future.  I've spent my life in press relations and almost always recommend being open about events, but in this case sleeping dogs would have quietly faded away.  I hold no brief for Mr. Scarlett, but I do think the statement is pretty awful.  But then ROH have form since the late but not lamented Lucy Sinclair took charge.

Would also add that the outcome was always pretty much a foregone conclusion.  To have admitted that inappropriate behaviour had gone on at the Royal Ballet SCHOOL, would have been tantamount to admitting that the school was badly run.  You only have to look at the pasting the BBC took over Saville to see what could have happened.

I can’t really understand why they needed to say anything at all.  All they needed to do was just not commission him again.  A nasty case of virtue signalling.He has certainly got up someone’s nose.

Why?  Is Art now to be judged on the perceived probity of its creator/curator?   Think the USSR tried something similar.

2 hours ago, JNC said:

 

Perhaps not the answer you're looking for but to me the fact he's out leads to an assumption /understanding that he did something 'wrong'. Whatever that may be. Hopefully not as wrong to be illegal otherwise the investigation surely should have been conducted by the police. But wrong enough to be unprofessional/immoral/not befitting ROH's standards and public image. (If he hasn't done anything 'wrong' I'd like to think the ROH would support him against rumours etc.) 

 

People can either continue to appreciate his work as separate from some sort of wrong he's committed (e.g. the way you may still watch a Harvey Weinstein produced movie and enjoy it) or decide you don't want him to be making any financial gain from any work he's been involved in (i.e. don't watch any more Weinstein movies/go to Swan Lake). 

 

For me, I'm not that interested in what 'wrong' he commited. I don't really need to know, other than the fact that it's now been dealt with as appropriate (I hope). My only concern is this had been going on for a sustained period of time (as some articles alleged, of course I don't know one way or the other), why ROH/RBS etc took so long to do something about it (if they in fact did). I am more interested in whether or not there was a 'cover up' (I am not suggesting in any way that there was, but it would be nice to be reassured there wasn't and action was taken immediately once there was any whiff of impropriety).

 

Crucially I would also like clarification from ROH/RBS about what they have learnt from this (i.e. what safeguarding measures or other measures they are putting in place e.g. someone available to anonymously report concerns to etc) and how they will ensure whatever happened doesn't happen again in future. 

 

 

Great post, JNC.  Like yourself, I have no interest in what this man may or may not have done.  This is between him and his employers and nothing to do with me.  It certainly wont stop me enjoying Swan Lake again or continuing to find Frankenstein dire.

Probably not intentionally funny, but the Sunday Times magazine has an interview with Polunin.  Badly researched, it is mainly psycho babble and the same old bad boy theme regurgitated.  He is now a father with a Russian figure skater (who sounds similarly weird) and, guess what, he is on a mission to build an alternative system that exists outside of the establishment.  The interviewer presses him for detail, but ‘he just has all these ideas.’  Hmm.

Hard to believe he’s  only thirty. I have seen him dance just three times, yet his noise seems to have been around forever.

1 hour ago, Rob S said:

The Eurovision Song Contest has been cancelled!!

It’s an ill wind...

Warriors sounds good, thanks

Thank you.  I will have a look on Friday - yes, I’m going out!

7 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

All the Bath interiors were filmed in the house I lived in when I worked in Bath in the early noughties.  As if I didn't love this production enough anyway.

 

In recent years I realised how lucky I was to have lived in this house.  I realise from Homes under the Hammer that it was a house of multiple occupation but my landlord only used the bedroom floors for bedrooms.  We had use of the dining room, kitchen, sitting room, ballroom(!!!) and garden.  The hall and dining room still had the decor done by the BBC for Persuasion.

That's amazing.  May I ask where - go to Bath every Friday

41 minutes ago, Fonty said:

 

Oh, I love the Drama channel.  Currently lapping up reruns of Waking the Dead.  Goes out a bit late, but I record it.  So much better than Silent Witness, which apparently it was axed in favour of.

 

Line of Duty is one of my favourite series of all time.  So tense and dramatic.  And I like to watch it the old fashioned way - on a weekly basis.  It adds to the drama.  

 

It used to annoy me was when the British tv channels would get the first few episodes of a series, and then it would vanish without trace to a fee paying one.  So another one I would like to see in its entirety is Mad Men. 

Witless Silence. Terrible. Why DOES Emilia Fox always have her mouth open? Possibly in awe of the endless scope of a pathologist’s job in BBC land?

Just now, Jan McNulty said:

 

I know ... I watch it often but it is never enough!  Perhaps others are not as aware of all the goodies on the drama channel...

The one I love is Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root perfectly cast as Wentworth and Ann.  Oh, and Corin Redgrave absolutely marvellous.