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Jane S

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  1. Jane S
    ... though it's worth remembering that if Grant was "young and inexperienced", Shaw was even younger (by 3 years) and also, at the time of Cinderella's creation, much less experienced, having been called up shortly after the first run of Symphonic Variations and spending the whole of the next 2 seasons in the army, while Grant had been establishing his position in the company
  2. Jane S
    The start of Lynn Seymour's career coincided, verry luckily for me with the start of my own ballet-going - the first time she appears in the programmes I've kept, she was still listed as Lynn Springbett. She was just doing corps de ballet roles - a friend of Swnilda's etc - and the first solo i saw her do, a year of so later, was in the Swan Lake pas de trois (done as a divertissement - this was before the touring RB had the full length Swan Lake. Only 3 years later she was one of the company's stars, and I remember an amazing fortnight when I saw her 4 nights running in 4 different roles (Les Sylphides, Aurora, The invitation and Two Pigeons) and then the next week as Odette/Odile, the pas de deux in Les Patineurs, the Girl in Solitaire (twice) and another Aurora (much better than the first one - no one ever accused Seymour of being consistent!). And I have to say that if I could see one of those over again it would be Solitaire - she was so funny, way the best of anyone I saw in that role. (Also dancing with the company in those 2 weeks were Beriosova, Nerina, Sibley, Doreen Wells, David Blair, Donald Macleary, John Gilpin and Christopher Gable!) My best memory of Ann Jenner is from the coda of the Swan Lake pas de trois one night - one of those moments when the music and the dance become one and you remember it for ever.
  3. Jane S
    Injured, not ill - she tore a ligament during the first performance of Ashton's Don Juan, about a month before Cinderella opened.
  4. Jane S
    Just this once, I believe David Vaughan was wrong - Britton was not injured, he was ill (with flu) and had been out for some days. Britton actually danced the role for the first time at a matinee on March 18th, about a month after the premiere (by which time Gable himself was out, with a strained back). Clive Barnes said: "His dancing was very vigorous indeed, and had a pleasing virility and breadth of movement. ....However, although his conception of the role was more detailed and more varied it was at the same time less convincing than Gable's. He tended to over-stress the humour of the first scene and missed much of the lyric passion of the reconciliation pas de deux." (Incidentally, in the same article Clive Barnes scolds the RB for substituting another dancer for Svetlana Beriosova one evening - in a leading role - with no explanation or publicity apart from the substitute's name appearing in the cast list: "many of the audience must have especially booked [for Beriosova]" and " A poster of apology outside the theatre would not have come amiss in these circumstances" - sounds familiar...
  5. Jane S
    Dutch National Ballet has just announced that it will present an expanded (2 act) version of Broken Wings next season. https://www.operaballet.nl/en/ballet/2019-2020/show/frida
  6. Jane S
    Faruque
  7. Jane S
    I also enjoyed the Takada/Hay last night - much more to my taste. And I loved Asphodel Meadows - good to see Nunez and Morera, of course, but what really excited me was the way Scarlett handles the corps de ballet - choosing to use a corps of 7 couples means he can't 'rest' on symmetry and the inventiveness of what he does instead is just so clever! - I'd watch it again with great pleasure no matter who was dancing the leads. It also reminds me of how little stage-time non-narrative 'traditional' ballet gets at the RB these days - I guess KOH doesn't love it like I do.
  8. Jane S
    I realise I may get excommunicated for this, but I was disappointed by both Naghdi and Campbell last night. In the first scene I thought she was trying hard but not getting it yet, whilst he was trying much too hard and seriously overplaying. They were much better in the final scene but if they didn't make you care at the beginning it's much harder to care at the end. And I still thought he was overdoing it - his remorse would have done credit to Albrecht. Looking forward to tonight's cast , though.
  9. Jane S
    I think #5 could be R&J and #s 4, 6, 9 are Requiem (with Reid Anderson and Egon Madsen?) And #3 definitely Dances - other photos show the stitiching on Dowell's sleeves And the lowest one in #1 looks like Madsen/Cragun/Haydee in Song of the Earth (sigh).
  10. Jane S
    But Polunin also came to a strange country and had to learn a new language, didn't he? (And he was 20 when he was made a principal.)
  11. Jane S
    So Le Parc gets to the ROH at last! (for newer readers, Ross Stretton announced Le Parc for his second season at the RB but when he left suddenly, Monica Mason cancelled it - I've always wished she hadn't.)
  12. Jane S
    I remember going with Bruce to see John in his studio, maybe 20 years ago - he seemed such a friendly and helpful man and one of the photos he showed us, of the RB corps de ballet in Bayadere, still sticks in my mind as one of the most striking I've ever seen. It's a long time since I last saw him but I'm sad to hear of his death.
  13. Jane S
    Gartside in the last run - outstandingly good, I thought.
  14. Jane S
    So, as I read this, on the opening night Bracewell is dancing a role done at other performances by Osipova or Cuthbertson?
  15. Jane S
    It would be an excellent opportunity for the RB to have a rummage round in their Old Movies cupboard and find Fonteyn's appearances in the 1970 Ashton Gala - Nocturne, The Wise Virgins, Apparitions, M&A, and the finale of Daphnis and Chloe, I believe. Also there's an extraordinary rehearsal of her doing the flute dance from Daphnis and Chloe - it was in one of the obtiruary programmes about her on television - quite different from anything else I've seen of her, and reportedly described by Mark Morris as the most wonderful thing he'd ever seen. Actually I think they should incorporate some film into the actual gala.
  16. Jane S
    From today's Times: "Beige is now the epitome of chic. Forget its boring, bland and basic reputation... in 2019, beige is businesslike, even brave." So the ROH was ahead of the curve.* Actually, on my first proper sight of the new areas yesterday, I thought it was all far less dreary than I'd picked up from the comments here. I didn't think the new chairs and tables in the Floral Hall were right - they looked somehow temporary, as if they'd been fetched in from somewhere else for some event, but I liked the dark wood furniture in the cafe area and we had good coffee and pastries at what I'd have thought was a standard sort of price for central London these days. I realise we probably saw it at it's best, but really, anyone who thinks that's a 'rubbishy cafeteria' must have led a rather sheltered life. Though they're presumably nothing to do with the refit, what I liked - loved, indeed - most in the shop were the wonderful b&w photos of the Principal dancers! * - though admittedly this was talking about womens' fashion.
  17. Jane S
    No, you are right - Lanchbery based the clog dance on one of Hertel's numbers.
  18. Jane S
    I was getting all cross about that but just checked on the NPG site and it does actually say 'British male Principal'.
  19. Jane S
    I agree it's a pity they seem to have dropped the Gorey designs for The Concert (which, for anyone who doesn't remember them, were done specially for the RB's first performances in the 1980s) - they switched to the Steinberg (the original NYCB designs) several revivals ago: no reason given so far as I remember but one always suspects it's the Robbins Foundation's decision.
  20. Jane S
    Which frontcloths are they using this time? - Gorey or Steinberg?
  21. Jane S
    Well, Peter Schaufuss owns the rights and would presumably want to produce it himself.
  22. Jane S
    A poster on balletalert reports that in Hamburg on New Year's Eve john Neumeier decided that to celebrate the day and the 300th performance of his Nutcracker, everyone should get to see their favourite dancers - so all the main roles were cast with 3 or 4 dancers. And they appeared all at the same time - somewhat chaotic but a lot of fun, by the sound of it. How about that for the last night of the current RB run?
  23. Jane S
    Hmm a bit of care needed here, perhaps? It's all very well slagging off the new development here, but imagine you're a newcomer who's ventured in for a first look - and is beginning to feel that the ROH is actually quite relaxed and not that different from places you often use - and you overhear a remark like the one mentioned above - "this rubbishy cafeteria" - and by extension, you might easily think this implies "and the rubbishy people who are using it" and decide at the very least that some of the audience are indeed as snobbish as you've heard, and perhaps go further and think that despite all the publicity, people who use Westfield etc are not welcome here?
  24. Jane S
    I also saw a list of the casting on Dansomanie which included Polonin's name, but it now seems to have disappeared.
  25. Jane S
    Or possibly, Magri is replaced by Naghdi.
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