Sophoife
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Posts posted by Sophoife
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The Australian Ballet's 2019 season has undergone a revision.
It was announced today (on Facebook and Instagram) that due to "unexpected health concerns of choreographer Graeme Murphy" the anticipated The Happy Prince would be postponed into 2020.
Céline Gittens, Birmingham Royal Ballet Principal, is guesting with the company in the Wheeldon Alice as the Queen of Hearts; she is currently in Melbourne but no announcement has been made as to whether she is performing in Brisbane or Melbourne.
2019 now looks like this:
- Brisbane 25 Feb - 2 Mar: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Wheeldon)
- Melbourne 9-28 Mar: Cinderella (Ratmansky) - replaces The Happy Prince
- Sydney 5-25 Apr: Verve mixed bill - Constant Variants (Baynes), Aurum (Topp), Filigree and Shadow (Harbour)
- Sydney 1-18 May: Giselle (Gielgud after everybody else) - replaces The Happy Prince
- Melbourne 8-22 Jun: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Wheeldon)
- Melbourne 27 Jun - 6 Jul: Les Ballets de Monte Carlo with Lac (Maillot) while Australian Ballet is in Paris
- Melbourne 31 Aug - 10 Sep: Sylvia (Welch)
- Melbourne 17-28 Sep: The Nutcracker (Wright) minus Hans-Peter
- Adelaide 8-12 Oct: The Nutcracker (Wright) minus Hans-Peter
- Sydney 8-23 Nov: Sylvia (Welch)
- Sydney 30 Nov - 18 Dec: The Nutcracker (Wright) minus Hans-Peter
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On 18/01/2019 at 21:24, BeauxArts said:
The Munich Staatsballet have released this press statement on the current Polunin fiasco:
The reason this Google translate link came up with garbage is simple: it thinks it's being asked to translate from Russian. If you change the link to read "de" instead of "ru" In this part
translate.google.com&sl=ru
It will translate properly. The hack someone suggested of changing Russian to German in the drop-down didn't work for me on mobile so I examined the url 😀
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3 hours ago, capybara said:
There is major article about this in the Telegraph today entitled Is This the End of the Road for Sergei Polunin? Although it's by Mark Monahan, who should know better, there are some unnecessary errors:
@capybara if you message Mark Monahan on twitter he will ensure the article is corrected.
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After having thoroughly enjoyed Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear, I've retained an interest in PNB and enjoyed what I've seen of their work on the internets...
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I think the link you're looking for is this one. 😉
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6 hours ago, Anna C said:
(ignoring the Daily Mail’s error about the RAD’s “most advanced exam”)
Well, Grade 8 is the highest Graded level. And would we really expect the Mail to know about and/or understand the Vocational Grades? 😉
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Let's not forget either that he is scheduled to dance Jean de Brienne in Munich with the Bayerisches Staatsballett next weekend, and Spartacus with the same company in March. Zelensky was, if I remember correctly, one of Polunin's mentors/supporters after he first left the Royal Ballet. Does he share Polunin's publicly-expressed views or will he cancel these contracts?
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On 10/01/2019 at 10:00, Buddy said:
Happy New Year !
On 10/01/2019 at 11:08, Sim said:Thanks Buddy... I can’t get enough Fille! What company is this?
On 10/01/2019 at 13:34, Buddy said:I think that it's the Royal Ballet ?
On 10/01/2019 at 19:35, Sim said:Really? It must be very old as I don’t recognise any of the dancers. The set looks a bit different and the music sounds different too.
Actually that's The Australian Ballet. 1994 recording, David McAllister and Fiona Tonkin (current AD and ballet mistress) as Colas and Lise. Lanchbery arrangement, Ashton choreography, Lancaster sets and costumes. Not done by company since 2004.
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11 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:
I’ve been a prince in the Rose Adagio in the Royal Opera House...
...at 51, I made my first appearance on the stage of the Palais Garnier...
... incidentally Matthew Morrison is best known outside New York for having starred in Glee, but he has worked extensively on Broadway, and has a Tony nomination under his belt. So he has "industry credibility".
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On 27/12/2018 at 22:09, Fonty said:
That is such a poignant bit of music. Sometimes I think it is inappropriate for a pdd being danced by a sugar plum fairy and her prince in a cheery Christmas ballet, and instead should be incorporated into a piece featuring a pair of doomed lovers.
Graeme Murphy's reimagining Nutcracker: the Story of Clara is the one you need to see, then, Fonty...
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On 01/01/2019 at 00:51, Dawnstar said:
If the Nutcracker were an opera we'd probably be discussing the latest production set in a 20th century dictatorship with the grey trenchcoat-clad mice toting Kalashnikovs & the Kingdom of Sweets turned into a polemic on capitalism causing an obesity crisis!
Graeme Murphy's reimagining of it as the dying dreams and memories of an elderly Ballets Russes dancer, living in exile in Australia, does have grey-overcoated Bolshevik mice/rats etc...
The second act is her memories of touring life with the Ballets Russes...the Chinese dance becomes a stage full of t'ai chi practitioners entrancing the glamorous visitor in her rickshaw.
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Second and third all the above comments. Thoroughly enjoy keeping up with the UK and European ballet worlds through this forum and Dansomanie - and on BcF I don't have to rearrange my brain in order to read!
Huge thanks to the mods as I know from my own experience how hard it can be at times.
Also thanks to all lovely members with whom I have and hope to continue to interact and share enjoyment and memories.
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2 hours ago, jmb said:
And last but certainly not least, Alex Campbell in Ratmansky's Cinderella. And Leanne Stogmenov as Cinderella. Unforgettable.
And finally (counting the two Firebirds as one - cheating, I know) I can't leave out Hallberg's masterly Albrecht, with Leanne Stogmenov as Giselle (she retired, her last performance being Cinderella to Alex Campbell's Prince. A real loss, but good luck with whatever comes next, Leanne).
I was so blown away by Aurum (which Sydney sees in 2019) that I couldn't squeeze these two in, but I will heartily second your nomination of both.
For me, Miss Stojmenov was the most true of this generation of TAB principals - her acting was never forced, her emotions always genuine and communicated beyond the footlights. Mr Hallberg was a wonderfully generous partner in that one-off Giselle. And Mr Campbell as Cinderella's Prince reminded us of what we have been missing since Daniel Gaudiello retired so precipitately and prematurely.
Miss Stojmenov and her husband, former soloist Marc Cassidy, are moving to her home town of Perth where they will teach future generations. Side note: at one stage in his teens, Mr Campbell was taught by Mr Cassidy.
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Merry Christmas to all...
In no particular order:
Alice Topp's Aurum, commissioned and performed by The Australian Ballet, with stunning performances by the entire cast (to be seen at the Joyce Theatre in New York in March 2019). I saw two casts and each was brilliant in its own way so I'm giving each cast a gong.
The joint débuts of Callum Linnane and Dimity Azoury as Albrecht and Giselle, chosen and coached by Maina Gielgud. Incredibly emotional.
The Royal Ballet in the cinemacast of La Bayadère - the entire company.
Kirsty Martin's artistry in her return to the stage after seven years as Hanna in The Merry Widow for The Australian Ballet.
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10 hours ago, Don Q Fan said:
I was frankly shocked at the total lack of security or any ticket checks at yesterday's matinee. No bag checks were made upon entry and the tickets were only checked at the entrance to the amphitheatre. Anyone can wander in. Not very safe at all
I keep seeing this.
In Melbourne this year, as usual, at the State Theatre in the Victorian Arts Centre there were ticket checks at the points of entry into the auditorium but not otherwise and no bag checks.
By contrast I was in Sydney last week and access to the Joan Sutherland Theatre at the Sydney Opera House has changed radically in 12 months: now there are lines of people being shuffled through physical bag checks and being "wanded". The zip on the bag I was using is dodgy so I said to the man "I'll open that please, if I break it that's fine, if you do I'll be annoyed," and he heaved an enormous sigh and told me he was required to open the bag, not me, but he let me do it. I had to ask permission to go through the barrier to drop some flowers at stage door. Yet there were squads of non-theatregoers wandering around the same area from the stairs on the waterside and no security on that side! Stupid. We then had to show our tickets before even going up the stairs to the actual foyer, and again at the next barrier, and again at the actual theatre door. Surely there has to be some happy medium?!
Oh, and those patrons trekking down to the one rather useless lift which only takes one to box office level not even to foyer level - no security checks.
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Having just returned from the first Australian cinemacast of this production, I can find very little to say that hasn't already been said.
Miss Fumi Kaneko's Rose Fairy was a delight, Miss Anna Rose O'Sullivan was a pleasure to watch and remarkably similar in feature to Miss Elizabeth McGorian as her mother, Mr Marcelino Sambé seemed full of joy and love and bounce, and the utter perfection of Miss Marianela Nuñez and Mr Vadim Muntagirov in the grand pas de deux was only "wrong" in one respect: I've always seen the Sugar Plum Fairy as being serene, and Miss Nuñez simply radiated joy.
The transformation scene is not as impressive as the Birmingham Royal/Australian Ballets' version partly because it's at the back of the stage I think. And also because "our" tree is truly enormous by the end.
Those creepy angels are still creepy, and White Lodge pupils' delight notwithstanding, there are far too many children on stage in the battle scene. I think they're largely there to make the tree look bigger in comparison.
The blonde and/or frosted wigs in act II are an abomination and should be done away with forthwith. I also find the Flowers' tutus too similar to the Mirlitons' and would welcome some deeper colour perhaps in one or the other.
I've saved the best for last: no-one swirls a cloak like Mr Gary Avis, and even though I dislike/find irritating the Hans-Peter storyline, the moment where he clasped his restored nephew to his manly bosom at the very end did in fact bring a tear to my eye.
If I go again tomorrow, will I get to see another cast with which to contrast? 😉
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Mr Gartside also said no Winter Dreams either.
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Hmm...but how much interacting does SPF Cavalier actually do? Pretty much just with SPF? Or has he not danced that yet with one of the available ladies?
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Is Mr Campbell not being considered at all? He is only in Sydney until Boxing Day...
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Everything @jmb wrote so eloquently and more.
Alexander Campbell's petit allegro entrance then the rest of his beautifully romantic and impeccably danced performance. The original Prince in this production, Daniel Gaudiello (met at interval) commented that he was the only other Prince he'd seen dance all the original choreography exactly as it had been made.
Leanne Stojmenov's performance.
Ingrid Gow's fabulous facial expressions.
Dana Stephenson's wonderfully spiky Stepmother.
Steven Heathcote as poor sad drunk Papa (I love him so much I will mention his appearance even though it was just a couple of hugs).
Franco Leo's terribly terribly old and terribly terribly doddery ?butler.
The delightfully unexpected meeting with the equally delightful aforementioned @jmb at stage door...
And Alexander Campbell held the carpark lift open for us (revealed with his explicit permission and with the encouragement of the kind lady wot give me a lift back to my 'otel).
And thank you to @Bluebird for a delicious lunch in delicious company.
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Our 1630 flight took off at 2230. Thanks to all kind enquirers, I'm in my Sydney hotel room now.
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Meanwhile there's a thunderstorm in Albury, the plane supposed to have taken us to Sydney half an hour ago hasn't even landed yet.
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...or as Joyce Grenfell might have said, "Now, children, we're all going to sit very very quietly and make sure our ears and eyes are working very very hard ... no, George, don't do that ... and now that we are all sitting very very quietly ... no, George ... and now I'm clicking on the casting link so we can all see which of the marvellous Royal Ballet dancers is going to be on the stage and dancing when we go to the theatre. Yes, Camilla, there will be ladies on their tippy-toes. Yes, just like that. Now, we're all sitting very very ... Camilla, I said sitting ... and I'm clicking on the link and ... oh. Very well, children, everyone's been very very quiet for quite long enough now, I think we'd better do some dancing of our own. Who can dance like a snowflake today? Camilla? Sophie? No, George, don't do that ..."
With apologies to the late Mrs Grenfell, but I do hope Richard Addinsell was at the piano for this performance! 😉
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Oops sorry I meant that Luke Jennings "probably...has too many plates spinning and has had to carefully place one down."
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Australian Ballet 2019 season altered
in Ballet / Dance news & information
Posted
Per the Sydney Morning Herald, in the persons of Valerie Lawson and Nick Galvin: https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/dance/graeme-murphy-illness-forces-happy-prince-to-be-postponed-20190122-h1abzn.html