daisydance

2 tickets for this Sunday (10th) live screening at Curzon Victoria 

On 20 May 2018 at 20:56, Jan McNulty said:

 

Interview with Leanne Cope:  https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/features/an-american-in-paris-leanne-copes-extraordinary-journey-from-corps-to-broadway/

Thanks Jan. I gather from Instagram she's also teaching ballet at the moment. I thought she was perfect as Lise.

4 hours ago, alison said:

It's tomorrow, Ian!  Tonight's An American in Paris

And a very fine screening it was too! Does anyone know what either Robert Fairchild or Leanne Cope is doing now? They were both magnificent in this, and it was a joy to have a chance to see it again.

11 hours ago, capybara said:

Well, I swapped my ROH ticket in order to be able to catch the screening of Khan's Giselle as its programming appeared concentrated on last night (25th).

 

I have seen this ballet many times from various parts of several theatres and with different casts. I have been totally wrapped up in it in the live context to the point of not being able to get enough of it; but not so last night.

 

I agree with JohnS that the detail of the story was brought out very clearly but, at least in the cinema where I saw it, it felt as if someone had turned up the brightness too much on the group scenes and some of the drama was lost as a result. Also, I have a feeling that the camera didn't let us follow Hilarion's story sufficiently to experience his emotions and duplicity.

 

Interestingly, when I have been to RB relays or replays, it has always been noticeable how much members of the audience move away chatting about what they have just seen. That didn't happen last night. The talk was of other things entirely. Why was that, I wonder?

At the screening we went to (in Devon) I feared beforehand that many of the audience would hate it – I overheard things like "I don't think this will be my cup of tea" – but they were all completely gripped and applauded at the end, and that's all they were talking about on the way out. In our tiny venue it went down really well. 

Alas,  can't use sc ticket for today - eticket so can forward to anyone who can get there (12.30 start) 

5 hours ago, capybara said:

2 tickets (seniors £19 each) for the Curzon Cinema Victoria (which was sold out when I bought them). Grigorovich production filmed in October 2015 starring Zakharova, Polunin and Shipulina.

Are these still available please? It's been showing as sold-out for ages now!

9 hours ago, JohnS said:

Apologies - I meant also to ask if a number of these posts about the ROH new website might be better as a separare thread?  I got quite confused by penelopesimpson's Ed Watson comment above and then realised the website posts have rather got in the way.

I think that is probably a very good idea – I'm having lots of problems with ROH website in the last few days, and have been in touch with various people there trying to explain how pages appear (or don't) on various devices I've tried. In my experience of my own website, you can think you've tested a new version every which way, but when you start to launch it, you need feedback from end users to sort out glitches. I'd not thought of trying by date – good plan.

I couldn't make firm plans as I was waiting for hospital appointment date to come through; now it has I can't make the page load! It's the triple bill rehearsal rather than the class on stage.

Does anyone know if there are tickets left for rehearsal on April 14th? I can't get the website to load properly and it's not showing the remaining spring season dates, alas.

3 hours ago, RuthE said:

My mother was sitting next to me at a performance early in the current run, and as the curtain fell on Act 1, she said, “There is NO WAY you’d remain in full sail if you were that close to rocks in that weather”. 

We thought that, too. I tried to explain it away by the suddenness of the storm not leaving time to get sails down.

11 hours ago, ninamargaret said:

not bad at all. Pleased to see Firebird, Mayerling,  the various triple bills, and am I the only one on the forum who would like to give Frankenstein another chance? Maybe there will be some changes to it following its run in America. 

Definitely not alone, no. Looking forward to seeing it again. 

Alas, we're snowed in and can't get out to buy any papers today (again!). Roll on spring!

On 21 January 2018 at 22:49, alison said:

There's never an encore screening (although I wouldn't like to bet it wouldn't be repeated in a year or two, since they seem to like doing that now).  You could try the Bolshoi website, but if it is up there it won't be for long, to judge by experience.

There seem to fewer cinemas screening these this winter, and those who do it's often in tiny, so sold out, screens, sadly. I'll try to find it online or wait for it to be re-screened before too long.

I couldn't get to Romeo and Juliet today, alas. Does anyone know if there's a second screening or if there'll be a chance to see it on the Bolshoi site? 

Ticket now spoken for.

HI Sim Selling balcony left A 16 £22  – pm me if you'd be interested and we could sort it out

Balcony ticket for this Friday 

Loved it! Tickets are like gold dust but thoroughly recommend trying to get to see the live screening.

Does anyone know of any more discounts on Mariinsky performances next week? 

I wasn't able to go to the cinema screening but I hope they'll do a DVD of this as I saw at the opera house and would love to see the dancers' faces close up.

apparently there will be a DVD in a few months, yes

I may need binocs and specs as well as lenses next time then. I didn't realise that Vincenzo was also so slight in build and stature.

Does anyone know for sure whether on Wednesday it was David or Vincenzo? Whichever it was, he should have been credited in cast list.

Does anyone know who the designer was? Or anything about whether the current designs are pretty much what the originals were?

The cast sheet tonight still had Philip Mosley in it, but I'm not familiar with him so wouldn't know whether it was right.  He was very good, I thought.  Alain was James Hay, and whether it's the direction or his characterisation, both I and my companion found Alain really irritating. I didn't find any pathos there as he was played so broad as to be firmly in pantomime territory.  I must admit this is not a favourite ballet as it has far too much 'business' in it for my personal taste (but there again I would also axe the first few scenes of Nutcracker  ), so I'll refrain from commenting further lest I appear unjustly grouchy. 

There was a cast change slip and it was Thomas Whitehead instead

I chanced upon a cast sheet from April 2004 a couple of days ago (it'd got tucked inside a book I must have been reading back then!) and running time then was 2hrs, 45 mins. As a matter of interest Yanowsky was the Tsarina, Tuckett was the Tsar, and Galeazzi was Anastasia/Anna Anderson. Really looking forward to seeing it again.

Two very fine casts indeed and as The Girl both Yasmine Naghdi and Francesca Hayward have given us outstanding performances.

It is very rare that two different casts bring equal weight to a ballet. There wasn't a weak link in any of them.

 

I bought a last minute ticket to attend the Matinee yesterday. Olivia Cowley was very impressive as the wronged wife, one of her best roles. I really loved her portrayal. David Donnelly and Thomas Whitehead were excellent male partners. Whitehead was great as the cold and distant husband but I would have preferred him to soften his attitude towards The Girl: he looked so threatening from the start and any young girl would have been frightened by such a man. Naghdi however was not deterred by his cold and threatening look, instead she persisted in her attempt to dance with him... and as such unknowingly seduces him. 

 

I saw something new in Naghdi's interpretation as she no longer portrayed a totally innocent Girl. She became obviously aware of the husband's special attraction to her. Her acting was finely balanced between a totally innocent Girl and the Girl who was going to "seduce" him yet unaware of what the result could be. The transition Naghdi made of being a child and her cousin's object of affection, to finding herself attracted to an older man was very well portrayed. When she finds herself completely alone with the man she "flirts", at which point the stereotypical question is raised: "Wasn't she asking for it?"

 

The brutality of the rape and Naghdi finding herself laying alone on the floor brought tears to my eyes. Later on - staring at the naked statues - she finds herself alone again. Naghdi's loneliness, emptiness was very palpable. The harsh and cold look she gets from the woman who protects her husband after the rape also enforced the Girl's total loneliness; her body and face now frozen as she realises she will never be the same again.  

 

During her curtain call, a woman sitting in front of me, shouted out "amazing". That one word summed it all up. "The Invitation" is certainly one of my Season 2015-16 highlights. 

I thought Naghdi was absolutely wonderful yesterday afternoon. A stunning performance.