jm365

On the subject of running up stairs.  I will  never forget a performance in 'the old days' when the gallery had those stone stairs up from Floral Street.  I thought it began at 2.30 as usual, but found at the bottom of the stairs it was actually a 2 p.m. start.  I ran the whole way up, and just made it.  I watched the first five minutes or so through a red haze!

Oh how I agree with the above remarks about Nunez.  When I bought my tickets, I fully expected that Hayward and Campbell would be the ideal casting  and I was a little worried that Nunez and Muntagirov would not be as suitable.  How wrong I was!!  I'm so glad I saw Hayward/Campbell first, as although they were very good they were eclipsed by Nunez/Muntagirov..  (I am referring to the stage performances that I saw in the Opera House, not to the transmitted one).

Yes they do make a 5 minute announcement.

Iain Webb was at the last Ashton Masterclass and I was able to tell him how much I admired his determination to keep Ashon's works alive. 

The Masterclass was, as always, thoroughly entertaining as well as being most informative.

I had actually forgotten Polunin was in the film.  He made very little impression on me compared with almost everyone else.

I think you usually receive an e-mail which you then print out as your ticket - this is certainly what happened to me on all occasions I have attended.

As a regular in the Amphi -  though further back - I suggest you bring opera glasses.  They do help for close ups, though the general view is great.

Today's Early Music Show on Radio 3 at 2 p.m. features 'choreographer and dance historian Darren Royston' exploring the 16th century dancing manual Choreographie published in 1589.

It's probably better than it used to be, especially in Moscow, but unless you can speak a little Russian and can read cyrillic, I think it would be slightly difficult to be on your own.  I can do both and some years ago stayed, via an organisation called Room With The Russians, with a Russian family in St Petersburg.  It was fine.  Negotiating the metro would also be easier if you can  read cyrillic.  My visits were long before the era of uber and airbnb!  If you are at all worried, I would definitely go with a tour from which you could break away if you wanted to.

The Bright Stream offer was by the Hochhauser organisation and was nothing to do with the Royal Ballet or the Opera House.

I think it was a lovely gesture on Yoshida's part to invite Mukhamedov to partner her in her Gala.  It says a lot for what their partnership must have meant to her - and to him, as he has virtually given up dancing or even doing class now.  I would love to see more of the whole evening if the film ever becomes available outside Japan.

As a huge fan of Bejart, I regret that probably so many of his works are not revivable - Notre Faust is one of the most exciting things I have ever seen, but I don't know what sort of records exist of it.  Ditto Moliere.

I was working my way down this thread, having come to it a bit late, also wondering why Massine was not mentioned, so I'm very glad to see that he has now appeared and agree with the ballets suggested - he was after all one of the first to make a 'symphonic' ballet.  I would put in a word for Lifar's Suite en Blanc too.

In fact as I am on the Hochhauser mailing list I have received two e-mails offering 50% off seats for Bright Stream - maddeningly I already had mine at full price!  But it does suggest that sales have not been brilliant.

has a post recently been removed?  I had to leave before reading a follow up to  Jane's post - was it against forum policy?

I was just going to say it's identical to the one that was in yesterday's Sunday Times - which is readable without a subscription, clicking in from the Links section on the forum.  I tried to go into the link above to check but I found you couldn't read the whole article without subscribing.

Sorry - at the risk of sounding like that judge years ago who asked 'Who are the Beatles?', why should I know about Jennifer Hudson?  Is she a well-known pop star or something?  I never saw the stage show of Cats and the trailer doesn't really make me want to see the film version.  I do like some of the songs though.

I think most of the 'highs' for me have been set out in other posts.  I only have one totally abysmal and offensive 'low' -  Unknown Soldier, which I thought was an insult to the men and women on the film extracts.  There were other things I didn't particularly like, but not to call them actual lows.

To see every year:  The King Dances

Hope I have managed to pm you - only the second time I have tried to pm anyone and am not entirely sure which buttons to press!

Absolutely!  I saw Gable dance many times - including the 'real first night' of R & J.  I would love to join the queue for a sharing of the book, if this is possible.

I remember in the old days that Tybalt was also laid out on a tomb/bed in the vault, and the monks were a very visible procession, with Romeo concealing himself amongst them.  Juliet had an even more frightening waking up scene - seeing Tybalt as well as Paris.

To give him justice, he had a very long list of places where the big screen showings were being held - and if he needed big print on the his notes to see it (don't know how good his eyesight is) it could easily stretch to two pages.  And he did introduce himself at the beginning, just as Kevin O'Hare does.

Here we go again with this forum's variety of opinion!  I thought last night was a let down at times compared with the first night - Naghdi far better as the Firebird, for instance.  I simply could not bear to watch Hallberg - for me totally unbelievable as Beliaev - made watching the pdd very difficult as I was trying to eliminate him - thank goodness, for once, for my rather too powerful opera glasses which sometimes can restrict my view too much.  Loved both Nunez and Osipova as Natalia Petrovna, with Osipova slightly ahead.  I preferred Nunez to Lamb in the second movement of SinC, despite her slight slipup, and thought her partnership with Hirano was exquisite.

However, I thought both nights were a really great experience and showed the strengths of the company off so well.

I did - and it's yet another example of how ballet.commers can differ!  I might have been at a completely different performance.  I was in the amphi, though, and felt absolutely nothing.  Muntagirov is one of my favourite dancers, Lamb less so, but on this occasion I found my thoughts wandering, my opera glasses left in my lap, and was only slightly moved for the first time in the death scene at the end, when normally I am welling up.  No complaints about the dance quality, but .......  I am going again on Saturday evening and it will be interesting to make the comparison, both in the auditorium and then afterwards on this site.

Should have posted this earlier:  I look at the links page every day, but only click on things that interest me.  This also applies to the other pages, by the way.  I can't imagine that anyone reads absolutely everything on this wonderful site!!