Jane S

First reviews: darkness triumphs and (spoiler alert) Siegfried marries Odile. But it looks magnificent. Eva Kistrup Vibeke Wern (in Danish but Google translate gives you the gist - for 'to fracture' read 'as his bride')

... opens tonight. As well as many photographs and videos on the company's website there's a new set of backstage pictures on a Danish newspaper site featuring the Susanne Grinde/Sebastian Haynes cast. I think the set looks fabulous in the photos and I'm really looking forward to hearing about (and eventually seeing for myself) how it works in the theatre.

Slightly off-topic, but I just came across an agency page with 100 photographs of different Napoli productions in London and Paris, from the RDB at Covent Garden in the 1950s to the RBS School in 2008 (nice photo of Muntagirov!), via various LFB productions and lots of the RB divertissement from 2007. http://www.topfoto.co.uk/imageflows2/?s=Napoli+AND+ballet

Jane, I think the Ofelia is actually in the playhouse, on the other side of the harbour. I've never eaten in the Bojesen but I agree it looks good - the only thing is that there is no hot food so far as I know. But the Opera is an amazing place to be! Hope you will enjoy Swan Lake - I had guessed from your name what might be bringing you to Copenhagen!

If you missed this, or if - like me - you saw it and only partly understood it, you can go to the video page now (first link in posting #1) and see the commentary in English (by Gregory Dean I guess) which gives an outline of what was said and reveals some of the ideas behind the new staging. Also the casting for the first part of the run has just appeared: http://kglteater.dk/det-sker/forestillinger/sason-2014-2015/ballet/svanesoen#Casting No surprise that J'aime Crandall and Alban Lendorf get the first night and also the live cinema broadcast, but some of the other pairings look intriguing - Susanne Grinder and Sebastian Haynes, who'd have imagined that?

Just a reminder that this is today!

The low spot for me in the current RB Swan Lake was the Tutor in Act 1 throwing up into the fountain at the back of the stage. But many who saw Peter Schaufuss's 'Swan Lake - the Nightmare' may feel this whole thread is redundant...

If they stick to the announced casting you will see Gregory Dean as James - I thought he was very good indeed. Kizzy Matiakis might be one of the leading Sylphs or in the corps de ballet in Etudes - she did train in England, with Leo Kersley and then at the Central school, I think, but she never danced with a British company. Just a couple of pieces of advice about your theatre visit: they don't like you taking your outdoor coat into the auditorium - but don't bother checking it in, there are free cloakrooms on every level and the only problem with them is remembering which peg you used. Also the rows are numbered in a different way: odd numbers on the left, even numbers on the right, with 1 and 2 being in the middle of the row - and the only time I've had a real ticking off in Denmark was on an early visit when we had seats 1 and 3 and went in from the 'wrong' end so that the couple in 2 and 4 had to stand up to let us through! - a serious breach of etiquette, apparently. If I were you I wouldn't read too much about the new Sylphide - just be aware that it's an experiment driven by Nikolaj Hubbe's wish to play Madge as a man. The set is very minimalist but the choreography is exactly the same as in the traditional version. Watch out for Jon Axel Fransson in Etudes - I haven't seen him yet but have read excellent reviews of him and will be interested to hear what you think! Be warned that Copenhagen is very expensive! - although the exchange rate at present is much better than it has been. Hope you have a great time and look forward to your report when you get back.

I've never tried for last minute tickets so I don't know - and I've never noticed people queuing for returns or offering tickets for sale, but then I've never actually been looking for them. But although the theatre's website says that tickets can't be returned, I have definitely noticed tickets appearing online for performances that were at one time sold out - for instance there was one for this Sylphide/Etudes on the site a few days ago. So keep checking. It might be worth just asking the box office for advice - it you look at the website between 15.00 and 20.00 on weekdays (an hour earlier on Saturdays) you'll see a red tab on the right hand side of the page saying 'chat to operator' or something, which I assume will put you in direct online contact with someone who will undoubtedly reply in perfect English. (Sorry if you've already tried this.) If you do find out, please let the rest of us know!

I think it's interesting that the printed synopsis originally described Gremin as 'elderly and kind' and now he's just 'kind'. I remember him being played much older and much more 'correct' and I've always assumed that Tatiana was grateful to him and fond of him but was at best reasonably contented in her marriage.

The Royal Danish Ballet is preparing a new version of Swan Lake to replace the one made for them by Peter Martins. First night is March 13th, and they will livestream an insight evening on Tuesday 24th February, 18.50 UK time. Watch it here: http://video.kglteater.dk/ballettens-vaerksted-svanesoen They did this with Manon last year and I thought it worked very well. So far it's anyone guess who the cast will be - they've announced six names each for Odette/Odile and Siegfried but in alphabetical order so there's no way of working out the partnerships. (Though hints on various sites and some photographs are providing a few clues.) The company has also put a mini-site about the preparations on Tumblr: http://svanesoen.tumblr.com/ One interesting thing that's emerging is that although the main production is credited to Nikolaj Hübbe and Silja Schandorff, the choreography for the 4 princesses and their attendants in Act 3 is being done by members of the company - Gregory Dean is doing the Neapolitan section and Oliver Starpov (only in his first year in the company) the Russian bit.

Didn't Cranko originally have Tatiana visit her children in their nursery in the last scene? I only vaguely remember reading about it, but I think he took it out - maybe before the first night - as it seemed too sentimental, or something.

During the NY season, the Danish critic Erik Aschengreen gave a talk about 'The Joy of Danish Dance' and the Joyce Theatre has now put it on YouTube: He's an entertaining speaker and used lots of video clips of the RDB as well.

Well according to her, she's 5'8". Interesting to re-read this 2004 interview with Judith Mackrell: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2004/dec/15/dance The Yanowsky/Greve Swan Lake I saw was wonderful and I've always wished they could have danced together more often.

Rave review from Leigh Witchel in NY, especially for a Bojesen/Dean/Englund Sylphide: http://www.danceviewtimes.com/2015/01/bournonville-unplugged.html

Just as a footnote to all that's been said about Glurdjidze, I looked back to the old ballet.co's annual poll and found these results for 'best female dancer': 2006: 1. Nunez 2. Cojocaru 3. Glurdjidze 2007: 1. Glurdjidze 2. Cojocaru 3. Nunez/Yanowsky 2008: 1. Glurdjidze 2 .Nunez 3. Rojo 2009: 1. Rojo 2. Glurdjidze 3. Nunez/Benjamin So over those 4 years at least she was the most highly-regarded ballerina in the country, in the eyes of some of the most enthusiastic ballet-goers.

I thought the mock-suicide scene lost a lot of its usual impact by being played too far upstage - I'm not sure why that should matter but it did.

The State Ballet of Georgia did a production of From Siberia to Moscow, staged by Frank Andersen, a few years ago - there are some bits on YouTube, lurking under the title of 'Napoli':

A poster on another board reports that in a pre-season talk the Danish critic Erik Aschengreen revealed that preparations have begun for a Bournonville Festival in 2018. Nikolaj Hubbe has evidently changed his mind, as 3 or 4 years ago he was dead set against having another festival!

The RDB group opened at the Joyce Theater in NY last night: Ida Praetorius joins the tour, dancing - among other things - Flower Festival with Kaas (Birkkjaer partners Diana Cuni). Marcin Kupinski dances James a couple of times, otherwise casting is much the same as in London. Amy Watson's injury on the opening night in London (she danced in the Folktale pas de sept but somewhere between then and her solo in Napoli she was injured - Femke Slot danced that solo as well as her own, unless my eyes deceived me) meant she had to miss the NY engagement - Caroline Baldwin replaces her. Looking forward to the reviews!

Off-topic, but interesting (to me, anyway) - the casting for the RDB's new Swan Lake, which opens in March, has just appeared on their website - there are 6 casts, and the 6 Siegfrieds are the 6 men we would have seen at the Peacock if Lendorf had made it.

I so agree about Diana Cuni - and also was very happy to see so much of Bojesen. The two of them together in Conservatoire were indeed wonderful. I'd guess there are quite a lot of people in Copenhagen who'd be very happy to see this programme, too!

Kevin O'Hare was indeed there on Friday night - along with loads of other people from the dance world. But I thought it was Ulrik Birkkjaer who was the prime organiser of the trip?

Interesting afternoon! - we got the new version of La Sylphide, with Madge as a man - Sebastian Haynes, very powerful. Amy Watson, who disappeared after the opening number last night, was replaced throughout by Gudrun Bojesen.

I've always assumed that Odette's entrance, like some other bits of the lakeside scenes, is left over from the in-the-round version, where she can't just run in from the wings - but I think it's a poor substitute and I wish Derek Deane would change it. The other thing I'd complain about is the painfully slow tempo in both the Act 2 pas de deux (which I suppose we're going to have to live with for ever now) and in Odette's solo, which must be near-impossibly difficult to do at that speed.