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Jane S

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  1. Jane S
    I enjoyed Lauren Cuthbertson's interpretation last night - she reminded me often of a gamine from the 1950s or 60s, and sometimes specifically of Audrey Hepburn - I liked her slightly sharp approach much better than the over-sweetness we sometimes see. But even as a long-time Ashton admirer I do find the first act a bit trying. Also very happy to see Monotones again, with two exceptions: 1. the music for the white trio is surely too slow? 2. I don't care if I'm the only person in the world who thinks this, but I really really wish the green trio could get their rightful hats back. Reasons, in ascending order of importance are - I like them - replacing them with ordinary caps reduces the singularity of the piece and also loses some of the contrast with the white trio - they are what Ashton wanted. (Who thought they knew better?)
  2. Jane S
    Well she said, I believe, that it was to stop people constantly asking her why she'd never done it!
  3. Jane S
    Interesting that Barbieri did both roles, with equal success! A couple of footnotes: 1. Gail (Thomas) Monahan has just posted on Twitter that originally all the Gypsies (men and women) wore black wigs. 2. I keep reading that Christopher Gable danced the Young Man at the premiere because the planned first cast, Donald Britton, was injured at the dress rehearsal - but, assuming they mean THE dress rehearsal, i.e. the public rehearsal the day before the first night - I was there and not only did Gable do the whole thing, from curtain up, but according to the notes I made at the time this wasn't a surprise - we already knew that Britton wouldn't appear as he had dropped out several days earlier, ill rather than injured. Anyone else remember it differently?
  4. Jane S
    5* reviews from both the Times and the FT
  5. Jane S
    They already have changed the costumes for Monotones - the green trio used to wear more elaborate headdresses, like Phrygian caps. Can't think why they changed them - they looked fine and made a clear distinction between the twp groups.
  6. Jane S
    I think it only happens quite rarely now, at least for the big main-stage productions - certainly it's never happened to anything I was there for! (But they do seem to cancel the drama productions much more often.)
  7. Jane S
    Today's Times has Debra Craine's 4* review of BRB's Swan Lake, with two photos and in the main section rather than on the arts page.
  8. Jane S
    Gudrun Bojesen's farewell performance has been postponed, for the happy reason that she's expecting her first child in December. It's hoped there will be a chance for her audience to say goodbye to her at the beginning of next season. There's a long interview with her, worth running through Google translate, in the Danish paper Berlingske
  9. Jane S
    Wouldn't 8 pm in BA be midnight in London?
  10. Jane S
    ROH website says McRae on the 22nd too.
  11. Jane S
    Although Cassidy did dance Romeo with Fouras at her London debut (she had already danced the role a couple of times on tour, I believe) he was a soloist by then and had made his own debut 18 months earler, dancing with Vivian Durante, in his second year in the company.
  12. Jane S
    Interesting also that Deirdre Chapman is in the cast!
  13. Jane S
    Anna Is Effie's aunt, I believe - Effie's mother and she were sisters. And in the Danish version - and I thought in Kobborg's too - Effie definitely looks to Anna for help in making up her mind. And doesn't get any - Anna just turns away. (so maybe she knows what's happened? maybe it happened before, with James's father?)
  14. Jane S
    Alison, maybe what you are thinking of in the Kobborg version is the end of the dancing section in Act 2, where James supports the Sylphide in an arabesque - you can't actually see they're touching but you know they must be. Schaufuss has her pose with one of the other sylphs, whilst James looks at her adoringly from a distance - I liked that. I love this ballet and used to like this production when ENB did it but these days I greatly prefer the Danish version.
  15. Jane S
    I thought the first act was a bit flat - felt more like a preview than a big first night - but the second act was much better and the audience warmed up too so that there was plenty of enthusiastic applause for the curtain calls. I'd guess it will come over more strongly in the rest of the week.
  16. Jane S
    I hope by tomorrow they'll have changed their minds about not allowing you a cast sheet unless you buy the £10 programme book - not a welcoming start to the evening.
  17. Jane S
    Dredged from the old ballet.co.uk archives, a review by Lynette which explains why the Talisman pd2 didn't make it when the RB first announced it.
  18. Jane S
    An unexpected insight from this morning's Times, in the section where people add their own memories to the paper's formal obituaries: "...he [Harvey McGregor] and the distinguished ballet critic, Clement Crisp, were the Ugly Sisters in my production of Cinderella, the Oxford University Drama Society pantomime of that year." Helpmann style or Ashton, I wonder?
  19. Jane S
    Lots of pictures here And more about it here
  20. Jane S
    There's also a podcast , Alison, if that's any help. 26 days left to listen.
  21. Jane S
    Jonathan Agnew's lunchtime guest on TMS today is to be the RB's Alexander Campbell. Apparently the commentators have already been speaking admiringly about the strength and toughness of ballet dancers!
  22. Jane S
    FLOSS, I'd have thought that a revival of Persephone would cost so much that it would be ruled out even before consideration of whether the choreography could be retrieved - it lasted nearly an hour, had a huge corps de ballet, elaborate sets, and needs a chorus and a tenor and I should think a lot of rehearsal on the musical side - and then of course a ballerina who has a beautiful speaking voice and can declaim in French. For myself I'd much sooner they revived Illuminations.
  23. Jane S
    Today's Sunday Times has a long interview with Osipova (by Sarah Crompton) in the Culture section.
  24. Jane S
    I've always rather regretted Monica Mason's decision to cancel Le Parc (Preljocaj) when she took over from Ross Stretton, and I'd still like to see it in the RB's repertoire some day - but probably not right now, when I'd find it hard to choose a suitable cast. (Rojo would have been wonderful.)
  25. Jane S
    FLOSS, I think the interview you are remembering is the very long piece Ismene Brown wrote about Clement Crisp. For anyone who hasn't seen it before, it's at http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_01/dec01/ismene_b_int_clement_c.htm
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