alison

I'm sure Kurihara would be fine if you wanted to continue with that.  I haven't seen Hirata for quite some time, and am not sure how she is currently - I think she's been off with injury for quite a while, unless I'm thinking of last season.

Bumping, as it's tonight.

The link I was trying to put up last night was oddly shortened.  Try this one for greater accuracy:

https://cinemas.roh.org.uk/?title=macmillan-celebrated

https://cinemas.roh.org.uk/

2 hours ago, Fonty said:

I don't want to sound like Scrooge, but I hope Mr O'Hare paid for them out of his own pocket.  

I was assuming he had.

I meant to say, too, that I think we may have been one soldier short in Different Drummer, too: I thought there were two groups of five plus the four named ones, but I thought last night there was only one five. It did leave me wondering whether there was some bug or something doing the rounds.

Well, I'd like to see both Tombeaux and Prodigal Son reinstated from the lockdown-hit mixed bills - but probably not the other components.

And yes, a bintley bill would be very nice - was it Consort Lessons the RB did, or the one I always confuse it with? But we're getting into the realms of wishlists again.

I think triggered by the presence of an Onegin costume in one of the display cabinets along with one from Alice?

And can I just say, despite the regrettable absence of the two originally scheduled principals, just how good it's been to see Isabella Gasparini grow into the lead female role in Danses Concertantes?

I imagine it was an exception. After all, both dancers might have had other plans for a Saturday night.

Just for clarification, it was bad enough as it was, but I don't think anyone actually mentioned a *fight*.

Probably less than a week to go to apply, but check with your local council.

4 minutes ago, FionaM said:

i also like the swans corps overcoming Rothbart, with their backs to the audience.  Very effective. 

That's not so uncommon, actually, to some extent or other.

So, since people have asked what happened tonight:

- announcement that Ashley Dean was being replaced by Meaghan Grace Hinkis in Danses Concertantes and by Isabella Gasparini in Requiem (this is showing in the cast sheet currently on the ROH website anyway, but I guess it must have been a late enough replacement that an earlier sheet had already been posted);

- Kevin O'Hare appears front of curtain to explain that Reece Clarke has been taken ill and advised not to dance, and that because of the complexity of the choreography this has entailed knock-on casting changes for the dancers' safety (in particular since it presumably involved Serrano changing from dancing Andres to being the Drum Major, and therefore Benjamin Ella needing to step in as Andres).  I was disappointed not to see Osipova and Donnelly, but in fact I think this may have been the best performance that Sambé and Hayward gave (although I must admit to getting distracted by extraneous events).

- Ah, yes, those extraneous events.  During Different Drummer, it sounded like some glass smashing somewhere amphitheatre right, then several bouts of loud shouting - unclear, but including a few f-bombs - during the later part of the ballet.  I suspect it was loud enough to be heard on stage.  I gather someone else fainted down in the Stalls Circle as well.

- and then Hirano's injury during Requiem   Not a good evening  

2 hours ago, art_enthusiast said:

Just a query, I’m a bit confused as to why he was performing today if he had already pulled out of future shows due to his existing injury? I would have thought he’d be off fully.

I believe he'd pulled out in order to have surgery on whatever it is that has been causing him problems, so presumably thought he was still able to do Requiem?

2 hours ago, JNC said:

As already mentioned sadly Hirano seemed to suffer some sort of injury on stage. It was after a sublime duet with Sarah Lamb in the group piece where they were running and jumping and he seemed to get some pain somewhere and given the circumstances exited the stage rather gracefully and subtly (although he was very clearly injured as there was a limp). Initially I wondered if it was just an unlucky cramp but he didn’t reappear for the rest of the performance nor the curtain calls which indicated it was something more serious so I really do hope he is ok and recovers well. Having never seen Requiem before I’m not sure how much of a gap was left by him leaving at that point, there were a few points where I sensed a bit of an empty space but it really wasn’t that obvious and the dancers handled it incredibly well and it was so smooth, I was genuinely so impressed with how they naturally worked around it. If I hadn’t seen Hirano leave the stage when he did (which would have been rather hard, although not impossible to miss), you probably wouldn’t have necessarily known any different I imagine.

He actually had a problem just before those jumps, I think - I noticed he took longer to get into position in the previous pose than the other dancers with him.  Such a shame, especially after the duet was so good.  But yes, kudos to the company for managing to adjust well to his absence - it's not as if they had much time offstage in which they could discuss how to compensate.  Matthew Ball managed to do the final lift with Lamb so well that you'd never have known that it wasn't choreographed that way - I'd expected they might just do something with her bourrée-ing backwards and him doing what his role normally requires, but no.  I hope Kevin O'Hare had some spare bottles of champagne, because they would have been deserved.

(And, RobS, I love the expression on Francesca's face in particular when she's handed the bottle!)

5 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Funnily enough, the Royal Ballet's Swan Lakes have had Siegfried in black tights for Act 3 from as far back as the late 1970s (at least!) till now - in the Ashton/Morrice, Dowell and Scarlett productions. But Siegfried has been visible in the two older versions.

 

The difference has been the lighting and the set- this has been the darkest set and lighting we've had. I've been able to see Siegfried easily in the others

Really?  I haven't in the Dowell production (haven't seen any earlier ones).  Obviously it will depend on where you sit what background the legs are merging with, but I certainly had trouble with Siegfried in his Act I/II dark blue costume (and there was one live relay, I think to Big Screens, so notoriously dark anyway, with Carlos Acosta in the lead and you could barely see him at all).  A similar problem with Onegin (Kobborg, I think?) in the mirror scene.  But Act III in the Dowell production often gave me problems.

Will report when I'm on a functioning computer. If nobody else does in the meantime.

Kudos to the whole company tonight for having to perform under some extremely difficult conditions. What professionals!

And best wishes to Ryo Hirano for a full recovery.

On 11/04/2024 at 18:32, batmanballetshoes said:

& while we're on it paying to go to an audition when you don't even know the terms of the contract.... unheard of in any other profession - cant imagine paying to go to an interview and not knowing the salary! 

I think that's not infrequently the case, from what I see elsewhere. "Salary commensurate with age and experience" is something I not infrequently see.

Glad to hear it, for Sophoife's sake.

Me too, pretty much.  And that reminds me - with all the complaints about the absence of New York City Ballet from these shores, it must be even longer now since the Paul Taylor company has been here.  They used to come here what felt like every couple of years or so - I wonder what changed?

I suppose it depends on what you mean by "contemporary ballet" - some of those places suggested sound more like contemporary dance to me.  Welcome to the forum, BTW, davy jones.

My reaction on the first night was: have they replaced Vadim without announcing it? Who was second cast?!

25 minutes ago, LinMM said:

 

Talking of vertigo I just don’t know how anybody stands up in the slips area of the Amphi as you are exposed to the whole auditorium space up there 😳.
Definitely should be free to stand …or even paid danger money!! 
 

I tried it once, for Don Quixote back in the Stretton era. Never again! I had to leave after 5 to 10 minutes ☹️

52 minutes ago, Paco said:

That's the issue with today's POB productions of Nureyev ballets: During the last 15 years Bastille lights have been converted into LED (first generation of LED), providing that kind of icy feeling which has nothing to do with the original production of those ballets in the 90s (moreover it was at Garnier, not at Bastille where most of the time the sets are somehow lost in this very wide stage).

Interesting you should say that: at the Royal Opera broadcast of Madama Butterfly last month, there was a whole piece on how the stage lighting at the ROH is being changed - I can't off-hand remember whether the change to LEDs was mentioned there or elsewhere, though.  It may well be online on YouTube somewhere now, I suppose.

6 hours ago, Fonty said:

 

You can certainly say that again, @alison  I couldn't see Picturehouses mentioned at all when I did a search for London.  The only choices I got were the Curzon Mayfair on Sunday, or the Everyman Hampstead or Barnet on Monday.  Were none of the Odeon cinemas screening it at all?

Oh, they certainly were, although my local-est Odeon seems to have given up doing Encore showings.  Possibly it will deign to do one for something as popular as Swan Lake, though.