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alison

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Posts posted by alison

  1. 18 hours ago, capybara said:

    Hayward has the lead in either The Dream or Rhapsody in 7 out of the 10 shows.

     

    I make it 5 - at least, based on Dawnstar's spreadsheet?  I know it's complicated trying to switch between the two, but is it really 7?

     

    I must admit, some of the casting has been somewhat unexpected from my point of view.  I had been hoping we'd finally get Muntagirov's Oberon (he was supposed to do it in the School's graduation performance, but had been injured, I believe), but had never thought of Cuthbertson for Titania.  Or Richardson for Oberon, for that matter.  Did Osipova do Titania in a previous season?  

  2. 2 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

    Perhaps the quiet highlight of the week for me was at The Place (near Euston) for Mark Bruce’s Frankenstein. After an appetiser of 6 short dances to Mark’s own music (grouped as 'Liberation Day') as a sort of intro to the six dancers (how lovely to some good contemporary dancing to actual music), came a short (50mins) retelling of the Frankenstein tale. Jonathan Goddard was at his most mesmeric as the Monster, though perhaps the star of the show was Guy Hoare’s lighting (despite a technical hiccup - am I a Jonah or something?) allowing maximum use of the space. Came away wishing I had at least one more ticket.

     

    Oh blast.  I'd forgotten that it was on :( 

  3. Something I only realised last night was the number of unusual steps which appear in both Different Drummer and Requiem - at some points I felt as though I was playing "step bingo" spotting them again in Requiem.  Examples included various "legs in a twist" moves where dancers often seemed almost to be trying to tie their ankles in knots.

     

    Another common theme - not surprisingly - was the Christian imagery in both ballets: upside-down crucifixions, pietàs and so on, plus of course the "Christ" figure in Different Drummer and his interactions with Marie (Magdalene?).  Very appropriate for Easter, of course, even if it wasn't chosen intentionally.

    • Like 6
  4. That's good.  I reckon we probably lost 90% of the subtitles (my Italian is VERY limited!), and for those we did get, sometimes we only got the top few pixels of them, or we'd get multiple titles being flipped through very quickly, like someone desperately trying to find the right slide in a Powerpoint presentation, or occasionally we did get the proper subtitle, and as far as I could tell synchronised with what the singers were singing (which is more than I can say for their mouth movements!).  It did rather detract from my appreciation of the performance.

  5. 34 minutes ago, Sim said:

    Can someone please explain to me what an 'influencer' actually is?  I keep hearing about them but where do they come from and what do they do?  Are they paid by companies to wear their clothes/perfume/shoes etc. and then tell their followers how fabulous such products are?  Is it just advertising dressed up as another word?  

     

    Basically, yes, I think.  Or they're given freebies on the understanding that they will review them (favourably?).  Same as your newspaper beauty editor being given free beauty products to review (but possibly with a larger circulation - some of these influences appear to have millions of followers).  (I say "appear" because one can also buy followers, apparently). They then tell all their followers how marvellous the product is and the sheep followers then probably go and buy the product as a result.

    • Like 1
  6. Welcome to the forum, Miles.

     

    Before this goes any further, with my Moderator's hat on, can I remind people of what the AUP says about links to YouTube:

     

    "Videos, photos and copyright issues The very widespread availability of videos and photographs on media websites such as YouTube, photo sharing and so-called ‘torrent’ sites which allow media downloads raises problems of acknowledgement and copyright. When links to videos and photos are made on this site it is the member's responsibility to satisfy themselves that rights are respected. We reserve the right to remove links where we believe this not to be the case."

     

    Basically, you need to make sure that any links you post are from sites showing the owner's videos rather than pirated versions (e.g. the ROH website for videos of the Royal Ballet, not xxxxxxxxx.ru), otherwise the links will be removed. This also applies to other people's legitimate sites: if they in turn have linked to videos for which we don't think they own the copyright, those may be removed too.

    • Thanks 2
  7. 2 hours ago, Geoff said:

    Tonight he writes that nearly everywhere was “reserved” and that there are now signs saying “We request that only food and drink purchased from one of our bars or cafe may be consumed at this table”. Leaving aside the sadly rather typically ROH clumsy choice of the word “consumed”, how long has this been the way the Amphi bar is run?

     

    I can't speak for the amphi, but the tables in the Floral Hall have had that sign on them for some time.  The trouble is, people have been forced out from most of the amphi terrace seats which used to be free, so it's very difficult to find anywhere to consume anything these days.  One reason why regulars are starting to feel more and more unwelcome, I think.

     

    I should perhaps mention that I myself have on a number of occasions bought something to eat from the cafe and not been able to find anywhere free to eat it (and ended up going upstairs to the terrace, where these days there is also little chance of finding anywhere you can eat) - but that has often been down to the lack of provision of chairs and tables in the cafe.

    • Like 2
  8. I recall the late Clement Crisp saying in print that the Watson/Benjamin cast of Different Drummer was so good that it "demands to be filmed".  Unfortunately, it never was - I guess 2008 was just that bit too early - but at least we will get some sort of record of the ballet.  But talking of missing the boat, I've said it before, but Requiem with Benjamin and Acosta really ought to have been filmed, and it was done more recently than 2008.

    • Like 5
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