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daisydance

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Posts posted by daisydance

    New ROH website - 2019 and 2022 versions

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    On 11 February 2019 at 10:04, Richard LH said:

    My Android tablet has not changed yet. 

     

    On my desktop I use Windows 10...I  now get  the new Tickets and Events page (which seems to be the new  and less user-friendly What's On page) on Microsoft Edge, but not on Chrome  unless I type in the relevant  address as in

    https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events

     

     

    Hopefully you can use these links to directly access other  relevant existing pages, from either browser, and save them as bookmarks; for example

     

    http://www.roh.org.uk/productions

    http://www.roh.org.uk/seasons/2018-19

    http://www.roh.org.uk/news

    http://www.roh.org.uk/learning/insights

     

    Sadly, those links now take me (on Safari on MacBook Air) to the new, virtually unusable, version of the site. 

    “The White Crow" - a film about Nureyev

    in Ballet / Dance news & information

    Posted

    14 hours ago, Bruce Wall said:

     

    I was there and I am not a member!!!!   No one seemed to bother ... When picking up the ticket the lady at the box office desk (inside the venue as it happens) was kind enough to smile.  Much appreciated.  

     

     

    You don't have to be a member to go there or buy a ticket  (but I think the advantage of being a member is that you get a discount on ticket prices).  It's very "opened up" in terms of its bars and restaurants, and there are very comfy sofas.

    • Like 2

    The Royal Ballet: Frankenstein, March 2019

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    5 hours ago, Nogoat said:

    From looking through the threads, it seems that Frankenstein is a ‘Marmite’ ballet; well, I’m not particularly keen on Marmite, but I loved Frankenstein the first time around. Although the ‘recipe’ has been tweaked slightly for this run, thankfully it still retains most of its original ingredients and flavour. This implies, of course, that the majority of those who dislike the ballet will find little in this production to change their minds. 


    Here are some of the changes I noticed last night…


    Act 1
    As with the last run, the ballet starts behind a scrim, with a young Elizabeth being rescued from a storm by members of the Frankenstein household emerging from their front door. In the original production there is then a fairly long interlude (with the subsiding storm being projected onto the scrim) while the stage is reconfigured. In this production we are kept ‘amused’ by the sight of the family moving from one side of the stage to the other, in front of the scrim, as if making the journey back to the house against the elements. This made little sense to me, as I thought they’d already gone the few yards back into the house (except for young Victor, who was intrigued by the lightning playing on the scrim); had they come back out looking for him?


    Victor’s mother, heavily pregnant and going into labour, sat down on the window seat in the original production, which is towards the rear of the stage. In the new production, she is seated on a chair towards the front left – much more visible to the audience. The cast sheet listed Mendizabal as Victor’s mother, but last night it was definitely not her. In the interval we tracked down one of the fabled and seldom-spotted cast-change sheets (I should have taken a photo as proof!) which listed Olivia Cowley instead.


    In the 'dissection lab' scene, Professor Thomas Whitehead was, as before, his wonderful, imperious self - though the ‘interaction’ between him and his female lab assistants has been toned right down: last night he tried, but failed, to kiss one of the assistants’ hand (she 'took control' and stopped him); in the original production he danced with all of them, and behaved in an overtly sexual way by kissing the inside of Beatriz’s hand (much to her disgust!). The #MeToo era has brought increasing awareness of how the asymmetric power relationships between students and staff can lead to sexual exploitation in academia, so removing that aspect from the production is to be welcomed. 

     

    Also, Henry seemed to have more dancing in the lab scene (though that might just be down to James Hay’s amazing stage presence, projection and technical skill – he certainly seemed to raise the character to a new level).


    Act 2
    The back of the stage (a rocky outcrop with trees) seemed more brightly lit than before, so it was much easier to see the creature observing (and reacting to) the other characters. Whether it was the better lighting, the dancer’s interpretation (Wei Wang was very good), or a change in the choreography, but the creature seemed much more prominent when in the background compared to the last run.


    The biggest change was the sequence of events leading up to Justine and Victor leaving the stage. 


    In the original production (on DVD – my memory isn’t that good!), William receives a book as a birthday present from his father (unbeknownst to Victor); Victor presents William with his mother’s pendant; Elizabeth invites Justine to join in dancing with Victor and her friends; Justine’s mother is brought from the house by a jealous maid, confronts Justine, and Justine runs off stage; Victor notices William is reading a book, snatches it from him thinking it is his notebook, and apologises when he discovers his mistake and goes into the house, upset that he has upset William. 


    If memory serves me right from last night, William is presented with a book from his father; Victor notices the book, snatches it from the boy, and makes amends for upsetting him by giving him the pendant; when they all clap William’s birthday, Elizabeth tries to get the brooding Victor to take part, but he storms off in a huff into the house; in response, to try to distract Elizabeth, Justine starts dancing (with her?); Justine’s mother notices this, tells her off, and Justine storms off in a huff.


    The only explanation I can come up with for these plot changes (apart from shortening the act slightly by removing much of the ensemble dancing) is to shift ‘blame’. In the original production Elizabeth is ‘to blame’ for Justine running off into the woods through inviting her to join in the dancing with her, Victor and her friends. In this production, Victor is ‘to blame’ because he is the one who upsets Elizabeth by storming off, which then triggers Justine’s fateful attempts to distract her.


    Act 3
    The only thing in Act 3 that I don't recall from the original run was when, at one point during his fight with the creature, Victor appeared to try to take out the ‘stitches’ holding the creature together – death by disassembly!?

     

    So, not the major changes I had feared, but are they enough to explain why they are filming the production again in the next few weeks? They are not broadcasting it live in the cinema, so are they planning on releasing this 'new' version?
     

    Great summary, thank you  – in the birthday scene Justine is also scolded by her mother for having a flower in her hair; she makes her remove it and as far as I recall that's what is the last straw for poor Justine. I kept thinking that Frankenstein and the creature were really one and the same, particularly in Act 3 where no one apart from Frankenstein sees the creature when they're all dancing and the creature is dancing in amongst them (a bit like the ghost of Banquo at the Macbeth's dinner). I thought Wei Wang was terrific, a very different interpretation from any I've seen before. 

    • Like 1

    The "new" Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    6 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

     

    Well, I'm no spring chick, and use Facebook a lot - but the announcement on Facebook about their winners (no mention of their other nominees) came and went without me seeing it. Doesn't make you feel they were particularly enthused about it... (perhaps because they didn't win best company?)

    From everything I can gather young people as well as old are using Facebook less and less, feeling increasingly annoyed by all the sponsored posts and ads, combined with constant interventions reminding them how much Facebook cares about them and their memories, and suggesting posts. I don't see why it'd be so hard for the Royal Opera House to post updates on the website, including casting changes, award nominations, company news etc.

    • Like 6

    Royal Ballet - Don Quixote - Spring 2019

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    5 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

    I'd love to know what the ROH consider to be important cast changes. I've just had the following approximate conversation with a programme seller.

    Me: That's a lot of changes.

    Her: Yes but not important ones.

    Me: I thought Laura Morera was dancing the second most important female role?

    Her: But Nunez & Muntagirov are on.

     

    So do the ROH only consider the lead couple to be important? If so then I disagree with them.

     

    If anyone wants the details of the cast changes:

    Mendizabal replacing Morera (Mercedes)

    Moseley replacing Yudes (Sancho Panza)

    O'Sullivan replacing Stix-Brunnell (Friend)

    Magri replacing Kaneko (Q of Dryads)

    Edmonds replacing Zuchetti (Fandango)

    Padjak & Braendsrood replacing Mendizabal & Zuchetti (Gypsy couple)

    I had a similar experience on Friday evening – it's so disrespectful of the cast (and of the audience). Terrible attitude. On Friday I was told there weren't any important cast changes and no cast change sheets. 

    • Like 5

    The "new" Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted · Edited by daisydance
    correcting typing error!

    This evening I met a very nice visitor to the new cafe who was meeting her partner there for a drink before going out elsewhere for the evening. She'd been looking forward to going to the Opera House, thinking it'd be somewhere "really special", but , she said sadly,  "it looks like a school dining room, dull rows of tables with red paper decorations, and the hanging decorations look like a creation of the school art classes"; and she said "if I wanted to get tickets, where's there a box office or any information about performances?"  The only information she could find was about live cinema screenings. She'd not realised there was any more to the building she could go to, such as upstairs to the Paul Hamlyn Hall.

    If the idea of open-up was to encourage Opera House casual visitors to spend money in the cafe and book tickets, then the execution of the idea seems to be failing massively. Such a wasted opportunity, alas.

    For those who do attend a performance, the cloakroom arrangements seem to be just as slow and difficult to negotiate as previously. The disabled toilet by the Paul Hamlyn Hall has a door lock which is really hard for someone to open if they have problems with grip, and this evening someone got stuck in there for several minutes and had also been unable to press hard enough to make the flush work.  Signage on the staircases is poor, too.  All simple things to have fixed, surely? 

    • Like 8
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