Sophoife

Paris Opéra Ballet 23 years old in the recent past: Germain Louvet Hugo Marchand Paul Marque Guillaume Diop

I rather liked that Roberto Bolle posted a curtain call video tagging Miss Kaneko and Mr Bracewell https://instagram.com/stories/robertobolle/3081328464010297854?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

No, on reflection I think they might be trying to get the dancers in to at least premium economy. Leg room and stretch room, y'know. It's a hellish long flight, whether Melbourne-Perth-London or the more traditional routes. One positive about Jewels from the logistics point of view might be that AusBallet will hire the production from the Royal Ballet, thus negating the need for costume/set transport altogether! But that's just a guess.

Oh @Emeralds if only! The only family interested lives in Hobart where they have their own screenings, and of my interested friends, they already live in Melbourne 😂

AUD20 for Palace members, AUD24 for non-members, @Emeralds. Sadly no Palace Cinemas within 3½ hours' drive of me (each way) but I do make the effort on occasion.

No, as I said, their mid-season break is usually late July-August. This year I believe the break will be after the company returns home from London at the end of the first week in August. The last Australian performance of Jewels will be in Melbourne on Saturday 8 July. The London season opens on 2 August.

...which of course is not a consideration with AusBallet. Calendar year equates to season, sometimes February, sometimes March start, with a grand finish in Sydney just before Christmas. Summer holidays are Christmas and January. Mid-season break late July or August - this year August. Wrenching this back on topic, Jewels (a company premiere - they have never danced any of it before) will have been performed 24 times in Sydney and then Melbourne before being brought to the ROH.

@Peanut68 In my experience of AusBallet, I would recommend choosing whichever night suits you best. The current company dancers will do their best at all performances. Anyone wanting to know what said experience is: subscriber for eight years, but haven't actually missed a season [except the night the dancers went on strike in October 1981 - I was in the theatre waiting for curtain up - and the COVID-cancelled seasons] since 1975, after returning from England.

I don't know why the long delay, @Benjamin, and I don't know where you live, but in my 10+ year experience of these cinema relays, Australia is always at least two weeks after the UK, and often a month. I think they send the films on a slow boat via China.

Australian screenings of Cinderella (Palace Cinemas) are the weekend of 13-14 May. The encore is Wednesday 17 May...the day after I arrive back in Australia 🤣 so I'll get to see it after all!

I highlighted the mis-spelling of "glamorous" and the fact that the company marketing department doesn't know its own name ("The Australia Ballet"?!). I'm also somewhat stunned by the begging for FF points: if Qantas are a major sponsor, why aren't they providing flights at a steep discount? Because 320K points is actually almost triple the number of points a normal FF member needs to fly to London and back from Melbourne (110,500).

Email received with oddities highlighted. Last time they travelled O/S they arranged a tour package for supporters. Now they want our frequent flyer points.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 This is what AusBallet does. Subscriptions open in September of the year before (they run on a calendar year). Casting since Mr Hallberg arrived is now posted approx 2 weeks before the start of each run, previously if we were lucky it was 2 days before. So for December 2023 Swan Lake in Sydney, for which I know @Bluebird has tickets 😉, casting won't be available before late November 2023. On the bad side, all we get now is online cast sheets, and that's - shall we say - rather less than complete. I had to bail up dancers leaving the theatre to confirm who, in the performance of Don Quixote I'd just seen, had danced Lead Gypsy Boy, Two Girlfriends, Lead Bridesmaid, and male and female Lead Fandango 😡

More brass than class.

I'll send a jeroboam @Sim as long as you do it during a cinema cast so I can see it...

Parts of it are simply lovely, and the music is, also in parts, simply wonderful. Did you see Sylvia in Houston or in Australia, @stucha? Because definitely in Sydney it suffered from the too-small stage, as do so many productions.

Stanton Welch's Sylvia was a co-production between Houston Ballet and AusBallet. It premiered in Houston in early 2019 and in Australia later the same year. Houston put it on again in 2022. A number of Welch's works have travelled beyond Houston and Australia: Madame Butterfly (1995) is in the repertoires of AusBallet, Houston Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Atlanta Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, Boston Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Ballet West, and Alberta Ballet that I know of, and probably more. There is no reason to think that Sylvia will suffer the same fate as Raymonda, @Benjamin.

All of this. I have a niece who refused to learn basic skills before going to non-vocational boarding school. She was asked to leave her dormitory and therefore the school after two months as she continued to wear stinky dirty clothes instead of washing them. Oh, she bought new undies weekly.

I'm sorry @Benjamin I really don't understand what you're saying here. David McAllister did not programme Fille until two and a half years after Ross Stretton's departure from Australia for the Royal Ballet - and over a year after Stretton departed, in turn, from the Royal Ballet. From personal conversation I know he programmed it because he had enjoyed dancing it and felt it was time such a classic came back to Australian Ballet dancers. Swan Lake (the Murphy version) premiered in 2002, and it's very clear in the book that McAllister commissioned it after Stretton had departed, and that it cost a bomb. Given AusBallet's funding model, such a cost had to be recouped, the production was popular with Australian audiences, and elements of it were spectacular or pleasing enough that it sold elsewhere as well. It was performed in 2002/3/4 all over Australia except in Tasmania, and then in 2006 in England, 2008 in Paris, and 2012 in New York. It was then shown in Australia in 2013 and 2015. Some of those years it was only on in Brisbane, or Perth, or Adelaide, so hardly saturating the core markets of Melbourne and Sydney. I don't understand your comment about Nutcracker at all. The Baynes Raymonda was, in parts, gorgeous. But men dancing ballet in full-on suits always looks odd, and some of the roles were so specific to the dancers who created them, and the production was similar enough to Cinderella that it just...went away to a quiet corner where it's still waiting to be picked up and dusted off. I think it'll be packing a walking frame before that happens. The less said about the mish mash world tour that was the Murphy Romeo and Juliet the better 🤣 Plenty of new works are shown with great fanfare and sink without trace, worldwide. I don't envy artistic directors at all.

The full length Jewels is in fact a company première for AusBallet in 2023. The company will have performed it in Sydney and Melbourne before taking it to the ROH. My guesses on Kunstkamer include that either one or more of the several choreographers whose work it is objected to it being performed in Europe by AusBallet or objected to the retention of the Goecke bits, or indeed that ROH management requested a change in programme for whatever reason, including the retention of the Goecke bits, or the musical requirements, or even music rights - said rights may only have been granted to AusBallet for performances in Australia.

...and three of AusBallet's five were from the same woman. Whose work I love and I will forever call Aurum one of the best pieces I have ever seen. It affects me as deeply as do After the Rain and Symphonic Variations.

Final PS re AusBallet rep: Hallberg also kept Harlequinade as it was a co-production with ABT and see Anna Karenina for why. Most sad for me was that the McGregor/Topp mixed bill only got three performances before The Great Lockdown began and my subscription night was the scheduled fourth performance. Also no Ashton. Most disgraceful over the 20 McAllister years: 2001 Natalie Weir Carmina Burana, 2002 Meryl Tankard Wild Swans, 2016 Alice Topp Little Atlas, 2018 Alice Topp Aurum and 2020 Alice Topp Logos. Five main-stage commissions for female choreographers in 20 years, with a 14-year gap. In the same period no less than 33 main-stage commissions for male choreographers. Of all the other productions, Miss Gielgud's Giselle was seen multiple times, and the only other female choreographers whose work appeared on the AusBallet stage were Twyla Tharp (Upper Room) and Ninette de Valois (Checkmate).

2013: Nureyev Don Quixote, mixed bill Vanguard (George Balanchine The Four Temperaments, Kylián Bella Figura, Wayne McGregor’s Dyad 1929), double bill La Sylphide and Paquita, Ratmansky Cinderella, Murphy Swan Lake, Baynes Swan Lake, mixed bill Garry Stewart Monuments and Lander Etudes. 2014: Manon, mixed bill Chroma (McGregor) Art to Sky (Baynes) Sechs Tänze and Petite Mort (Kylián), mixed bill Ballet Imperial and Suite en Blanc, Wright Nutcracker, La Bayadère (Welch). 2015: McAllister Sleeping Beauty, Murphy Swan Lake, Giselle, Ashton triple (The Dream, Symphonic Variations, Monotones II), Ratmansky Cinderella, mixed bill (Balanchine’s Symphony in Three Movements, Twyla Tharp's In The Upper Room, Tim Harbour's Filigree and Shadow). 2016: Ratmansky Cinderella, mixed bill Vitesse (Wheeldon DGV, Kylián Forgotten Land, Forsythe In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated), Baynes Swan Lake, mixed bill Balanchine Symphony in C, Alice Topp Little Atlas and Richard House From Silence, Neumeier Nijinsky, Coppélia, plus Houston Ballet in Welch's Romeo and Juliet. 2017: mixed bill Faster (Faster David Bintley, Squander and Glory Tim Harbour, Infra Wayne McGregor), Murphy Nutcracker: The Story of Clara, McAllister Sleeping Beauty, mixed bill Balanchine Symphony in C, Alice Topp Little Atlas and Richard House From Silence, Wheeldon Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 2018: Murphy homage called Murphy (bits of lots of his work for both Sydney Dance and AusBallet), The Merry Widow, Giselle, Lucas Jervies' Spartacus [aka the Haka and the Fake Blood Buckets], mixed bill Harbour Filigree and Shadow with Baynes Constant Variants and Alice Topp's fabulous Aurum, Ratmansky Cinderella, McAllister Sleeping Beauty. 2019: the Harbour/Baynes/Topp mixed bill (confession time: I went up to Sydney, watched the Baynes and the Topp, then left as wanted to hold Aurum in my mind), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Wheeldon), Cinderella (Ratmansky), Giselle (Gielgud after everybody else), Les Ballets de Monte Carlo with Lac (Maillot) while Australian Ballet in Paris, Sylvia (Welch), The Nutcracker (Wright). 2020: as planned: Murphy Happy Prince, mixed bill McGregor Chroma and Dyad 1929 with Alice Topp Logos, Possokhov Anna Karenina, mixed bill Molto (Baynes Molto Vivace, Ashton A Month in the Country, and Harbour Squander and Glory), Ratmansky Harlequinade. The 2021 and 2022 seasons were largely planned by David Hallberg, who chose to honour some of the McAllister commitments (okay, well, Anna Karenina was a co-production with the Joffrey and the dosh had already gone so it had to be done), but not others (Australian premiere of A Month in the Country). Please, fellow forum members, feel most free to have your own opinions on whether the pre-2016 McAllister programming was wonderful, terrible, simply meh or somewhere in between 😉 PS now that I've compiled all this, I'll be using it probably again in about five years...

2004 cont: triple bill by Stephen Baynes: Imaginary Masque, Unspoken Dialogues and El Tango, mixed bill Continuum Adrian Burnett, Almost Tango Nicolo Fonte, Aesthetic Arrest Christopher Wheeldon. 2003: Murphy Swan Lake, Cranko Romeo and Juliet, Meryl Tankard Wild Swans, mixed bill American Masters (Voluntaries Glen Tetley, In the Night Jerome Robbins, The Four Temperaments Balanchine), mixed bill Bella Trilogy (Jiří Kylián Bella Figura, Baynes Molto Vivace, Welch Velocity), The Three Musketeers by André Prokovsky. 2002: Seregi Spartacus, mixed bill United! (Black Cake by Hans van Manen (West Australian Ballet), Mercurial Manoeuvres by Christopher Wheeldon (The Australian Ballet) and Adrian Burnett – Subtle Sequence of Revelation), mixed bill Ballet Blokes: Totem (Stephen Page), Catalyst (Baynes), The Sentimental Bloke (Robert Ray), premiere of Murphy Swan Lake. 2001: Giselle, Carmina Burana (co-prod with State Opera of South Australia, choreographer Natalie Weir), Baynes Requiem, Tivoli (Murphy), Derek Deane arena Romeo and Juliet, Coppélia, triple bill Baynes Personal Best, Lander Etudes, Welch Divergence. Post-2012 next post 😈

@Benjamin, without wishing to trample on your comment, I feel a little further information on The Australian Ballet under David McAllister's artistic direction is warranted. McAllister scheduled everything from mid-2001 onwards, and 2004 was most definitely a McAllister schedule. See his memoir Soar for details: "...because he [Ross Stretton] wanted to keep his tenure until the end of 2001, while starting with The Royal Ballet in September of the same year and effectively running two companies at once. The board eventually kyboshed this, and set the changeover date at midyear. "...Shortly afterwards, Ross came to me about the schedule he had prepared for the 2001 season; he wanted to include La Fille mal gardée. I pushed back: it felt as though he was trying to pigeonhole my first months in charge by scheduling a ballet that I had been closely aligned with, and I knew he would never have programmed that ballet during his tenure. We reached agreement by replacing it with a mixed program that I felt more comfortable with." McAllister seasons for information purposes: 2012: triple bill of 3 world premieres, Cranko's Onegin (first time since 1996), triple bill of 3 old ballets (The Display Helpmann 1964, Beyond Twelve Graeme Murphy 1980, Gemini Tetley 1973), new Swan Lake. Fifth season replaced by "showcase of Australian dance" while company in New York. 2011: Madame Butterfly Stanton Welch, triple bill (de Valois' Checkmate, Macmillan's Concerto, Wheeldon's After the Rain), double bill of Stephen Baynes (Requiem, Beyond Bach), Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow, Graeme Murphy’s Romeo & Juliet. 2010: The Silver Rose (Graeme Murphy), Coppélia, gala bill to celebrate founding AD Dame Peggy van Praagh (Giselle peasant pdd, Garland Dance from Sleeping Beauty, pdd Act III Ashton Cinderella, Gala Performance, other stuff I can't remember), triple bill (At the Edge of Night (Baynes), Halcyon (Tim Harbour), and Baynes' Molto Vivace), and Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker. 2009: Welch Sleeping Beauty (2005, 2009), Murphy Nutcracker: Story of Clara, triple bill (Petrouchka, Les Sylphides (2006, 2009), Graeme Murphy's Firebird), triple bill (Ratmansky Scuola di Ballo, Por vos muero (Duato), and the McGregor Dyad 1929), double bill (Suite en Blanc (2006, 2009), Welch's Divergence - last seen 2001). 2008: Visit to Paris with Murphy Swan Lake and another Bangarra collaboration, Rites. Plus Manon, Murphy Swan Lake, triple bill (new pieces inspired by the Ballets Russes: Mrozewski Semele, Fonte, Baynes), Robbins tribute (Australian premieres of The Cage and A Suite of Dances, plus Afternoon of a Faun and The Concert), mixed bill (Ballet Imperial, pdd from La Bayadère, pdd from Act 3 of Sleeping Beauty, Grand Pas Classique, Esmerelda pdd and Paquita pdt), plus visit to Brisbane with Giselle and Adelaide with a mixed bill (Afternoon of a Faun, Symphonie Fantastique, Ballet Imperial). 2007: Nureyev Don Quixote, Peter Wright Nutcracker, mixed bill featuring Paquita pdt etc etc, mixed bill (After the Rain, Constant Variants (Baynes), Apollo), mixed bill (Les Présages (Massine), Symphonie Fantastique (Pastor), and something else I can't remember), Japan tour. 2006: Baynes Raymonda, Fokine tribute (Les Sylphides, Spectre de la rose, Schéhérazade), Bangarra collaboration (Rites, Amalgamate), Giselle, RNZB triple bill (while TAB buggered off to the UK with, guess what, Murphy's Swan Lake). 2005: Bournonville 200th birthday tribute (La Sylphide, Le Conservatoire, Flower Festival in Genzano PdD, and Walter Bourke's Grand Tarantelle), Welch Sleeping Beauty (premiere), WA Ballet La Bohème, mixed bill (Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadère, Suite en Blanc, new Adrian Burnett), mixed Kylian bill (Forgotten Land, Stepping Stones, Petite Mort and Sechs Tanze). 2004: La Fille mal gardée (first time since 1993 plus we got Angel Corella as Colas!), Murphy Swan Lake, Balanchine tribute (Serenade, Symphony in C, Agon)...you get the idea.