Sophoife

The article was not edited by any editor from Arts Professional. It is "An ArtsProfessional feature in partnership with Baker Richards" using their corporate logo, and at the end it states that Below the comments, which are below that, is a banner of ArtsProfessional's "editorial partners": Baker Richards being the first in the line. Then if you go to the website's "About Us" page, you find: (my emphasis) and So basically, it's Baker Richards puffing itself off, and promoting someone who has a job inside the ROH in its field, who probably used to work for them. There is a comment from "RoyalOperaHouse" below the article, no name attached, but it says: (my emphasis) - and that sounds a little more positive. I will also point out that as an occasional (😂) visitor only to ROH - the commute is a bit far from country NSW - I think the whole thing is a disgrace, but that clearly The Australian Ballet (and how ridiculous, they insist on the capitalised The) has been going down the same road, although without (to my knowledge) puffing itself off in quite this manner. The thing is, they don't have the varied price bands available at the ROH, and they now have the gall to be charging Premium prices for seats that five years ago were B reserve at the best. Anything centre, even the back row of the balcony, is considered too good to be in the lower price bands. Also, the subscriber packages for the whole of 2019 went on sale last week, and the subscriber priority booking period closes on 26 October. After that it's a free for all, and there is zero priority given to subscribers. I'm what they call a low-value patron, as I do not make any donations, I would rather spend my money on actually watching performances. What's that you say? I really enjoyed my Friday night show and I just found out X is making their role debut at the Saturday matinée? Quick, ring the ... oh yes, the company box office is closed from Friday evening till Monday morning, I have to book a seat through the Arts Centre direct, so I don't get my subscriber discount on an individual extra ticket? Oh. And oh good, work brings me unexpectedly to Melbourne during a performance period, I'll ring the company box office ... oh right, tickets for today's/tomorrow's performances have all been released to the Arts Centre, so I don't get my subscriber discount on an individual extra ticket. A Premium reserve package for five productions in 2019 is AUD$920, with individual tickets at AUD$265. An E reserve package for the same nights is AUD$225. As I don't live in Melbourne and haven't since 1992, yet have been to at least two shows (often more) of every season since then, I obviously spend money on travel and accommodation - but of course TAB doesn't care, it hasn't gone into their pocket!

LOL that reminds me of the young couple I saw last year at second interval of Mayerling (Watson/Osipova) who were madly trying to sell their tickets (for the last act!) as they had a dinner reservation. The man they were trying to sell to was Ralph Fiennes. He has a beautiful smile.

Oh, and as Alison says, the final act is reduced. By which we mean not much in the way of divertissements. It's a costume ball, the members of the prince's court we have already seen at the hunt are dressed up. The story of this version is given in full here, with the list of characters. And it cost private donors several million dollars. It does actually look the millions of dollars TBH.

Turns out she's a successful comedian, as in that's her real job. Presenting is apparently something she is relatively new to, as is ballet. Can't remember last year's "host", but 2016's was a [male] TV weather presenter. She stuffed up, too. The "cold open" as I believe they call it on Saturday Night Live was her in a tutu waiting at a tram stop, getting on the tram and (surprise!) being met by senior artist Jarryd Madden, who was "on his way to work". Strange, no sign of either his wife, new principal artist Amy Harris, or their daughter Willow, on the tram. Later, talking with McAllister, she said "...when I drove in this morning..."!

Good news, Springbourne3! If you can be in Paris in July 2019, TAB are presenting the McAllister Sleeping Beauty and Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow at La Seine Musicale!

LOL Alison, he's got to do the Ratmansky Cinderella here as well! I must say, the other three Spartacuses (Spartaci?) were nowhere near as bulked up! Also I think because RB doesn't have that Cinderella, Campbell has the whole ballet to learn so will be away for longer. As his partner Leanne Stojmenov is retiring at the end of the Cinderella season (she was the creator of this version of the role), at least, knowing his dates, I know when to book for!

Kevin has also guested with ABT, dancing des Grieux with Xiomara Reyes, back in 2014. He's a princely prince, or he will be once he's fined down a bit of his Spartacus bulk! Nijinsky 18 months ago versus Spartacus a couple of weeks ago

I should add, of course, that Soares' injury was not, in fact, a burn! 🔥

I was in Brisbane, having booked to see Watson Friday, Soares Saturday afternoon and Gartside Saturday night. Soares and Calvert were scheduled to début in their roles on the Thursday. I went to the Insight Friday afternoon at which Campbell and Takada were taken through the first part of the act II pdd, and Calvert the trial scene. At this Insight it was explained that Soares had been injured on Wednesday so Calvert had not danced Thursday, but that the "cover" Hirano was working (being worked?) extremely hard in order to be ready for the Saturday matinée. I understand there was, in fact, a possibility that he wouldn't be and that Gartside and Nuñez would have to double up on the Saturday as well. Speaks volumes for the work ethics of all three, doesn't it, that Gartside and Nuñez were willing if necessary, and that Hirano was in fact able to do it (he'd had one rehearsal as Leontes prior to Soares' injury). Bonelli danced Polixenes in both the Saturday shows; in the afternoon it should have been Hirano with Soares, so an interesting side-effect in that he'd had to re-learn all the Leontes/Polixenes moves from the other side! Wednesday was as scheduled, Watson. Thursday both shows were Gartside/Nuñez. Friday was as scheduled Watson. Saturday matinée was Hirano replacing Soares. Saturday night was as scheduled Gartside. Sunday matinée was as scheduled Watson. Given that Soares' most recent Instagram post at the time was a short video of himself, topless, ironing a shirt and boogying to some Latin music, I did wonder if his injury was a burn rather than anything else 😉

David says (because he does it every year and I complain every year) that the audience is not just people like me, he's explaining things for the less knowledgeable. Also, all those people wearing T-shirts promoting various upcoming events? Not normal.

Actually, no. Gartside was promoted PCA in July 2017. Just after pulling the company's nuts out of the fire in Brisbane after Soares was injured, by dancing (with Nuñez) two shows of Leontes (and Hermione) in one day. PCAs are fine for Empress Elisabeth and Bay Middleton, but not for Rudolf it would seem.

This was mentioned during The Australian Ballet's class (which took place at 11am, later than usual). The co-host and AD David McAllister were annoyingly sitting in chairs between the camera and the dancers, and she asked him if this was the whole company and he said no, they had three classes and for this one day everyone had been given a choice as to whether they wanted to be filmed in class or not. As I understand it, usually principals and senior artists have their own class, while the other two are for everyone else. The class we were shown included dancers of all ranks including principals Robyn Hendricks, Brett Chynoweth and Amy Harris, plus senior artist Jarryd Madden. And Chengwu Guo and Ako Kondo were in Canberra for a gala.

Given the long-term nature of Watson's absence, I would speculate that in fact Hirano has already had some "just in case" runs with the "Watson" cast, and that Ball may have had some basic learning too. As regards Gartside, I remember wondering why he wasn't dancing Leontes in last season's Winter's Tale and being reminded that he is a Principal Character Artist, by which I think he meant that the PTB don't like to cast PCAs in actual principal dancer roles. By extrapolation I'm suggesting that's why not him as Rudolf.

No, sorry. The only reason I know the TAB programme is that my subscription brochure arrived today (only ten days late, yay!) and there's a fold-out-and-pull-out calendar for 2019 which shows the dates etc for the whole year, and it included the Paris trip. Although I do hear from a (far more well-heeled) friend that there will be Special Patron and Subscriber Escorted Tours, in other words TAB lending its name to Renaissance Tours or someone (probably Renaissance though as a former long-serving company philanthropy staff member now works escorting Renaissance ballet tours), so at least there will be some people in the audience! Luckily I am deep into planning #ballettourofEurope2019 and included two periods in Paris, one for the end of POB season and tennis and one for this. Can't wait for A Month in the Country. TBH I understand the commercial perspective, however as we haven't had any Robbins for 10 years, I would have loved to see the Robbins festival. TAB are doing nothing for the centenary, however are apparently planning a tribute to Dame Margot Fonteyn, as she and Nureyev were so helpful to the company in its first 15 years, particularly by guesting on overseas tours in order to encourage venues/audiences.

If anyone would like to see this ballet live, it's been included in The Australian Ballet's July 2019 programme in Paris. At La Seine Musicale for Les Étés de la Danse, July 10-13, 2019. Dates are definite. Book your travel and accommodation now 😉

If anyone is interested in seeing live the Australian Ballet's production of Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow, it is part of their July 2019 appearance in Les Étés de la Danse at La Seine Musicale. Performance dates 10-13 July. From 3-6 July they will be performing David McAllister's production of The Sleeping Beauty.

Thanks BBB. Due to my Chrome issues I guess I'll just have to wait until it's all uploaded to YouTube.

May I please ask, BBB, what your setup is? Browser, OS etc. Because I can't get fullscreen in either Firefox or MS Edge on Windows 10, and I can't use Chrome because for some reason (probably that my computer is 5+ years old) it slows the system down so far as to be unusable.

My guess is, given the WBD site mysteriously stopped working this morning Aussie time (I could use it at 0930 AEST but not at 1055 AEST), that the companies involved chose to force us to use Facebook with its tracking and ads. And if no FB account, can't fullscreen stream as the Join Now Or Log In banner prevents it. Oh, and can't view video on mobile phone at all as Facebook doesn't allow live streams on mobile. Cynical, moi?

He is huge! And with one of the other Spartacuses (Spartaci?), Marcus Morelli, on stage with him, and having seen Jarryd Madden two weeks ago in Giselle, I can say it's only Kevin who's that big. Cristiano Martino debuts this afternoon and from what I've seen of him I think he'll be a very sexy Spartacus 😊 Further opinion: the sheer beauty of the dancing of both Ty King-Wall (Crassus) and Brett Chynoweth (Caius). What a treat.

That's actually normal for trains from The Country to The City here, Sim. They're not allowed to go faster and if it's hot (like, 30+ C) they are slowed to 80km/h on some parts because the tracks suffer from the heat. I am going to need to see this Spartacus at least another couple of times to properly assess it, and my idea of Crassus comes from Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, where he was basically likeable! He was co-consul with Pompey the Great and then with Pompey and Caesar. Brief impressions for right now: the haka, the knife-like Tertulla, and the suddenly-touching effect Robyn Hendricks' Flavia had on me in the final scene. Most unexpected, but of course welcome.

Thank you @Ian Macmillan and @BMC for the casting info. I absolutely ❤️ Leanne Stojmenov and Andrew Killian as Valencienne and Camille. Yes, Njegus is former Camille, AD David McAllister, and Zeta the fabulous former Danilo, Steven Heathcote. Luke Marchant has been a great maître d' for some years now, and Brett Simon retired at the end of June, his last (only) principal role was Danilo (he learned it at 21 with Hong Kong Ballet from John Meehan). Amber Scott didn't dance in Melbourne as she is Otherwise Engaged. We of course have to wait until November to see it.

That could be exciting. I had the felicity of seeing Bonelli/Morera last year as my first live Mayerling, was so blown away I went to the box office in the interval and bought a ticket for that night (Soares/Cuthbertson). Then, thanks to @Bluebird I got one for Watson/Osipova as well. I would happily have watched any of those casts again, and ... well, the whole trip was timed around those shows, as Mayerling wasn't one of the cinema relays!

My point about The Merry Widow, exactly, Bruce! Love the Trocks. Once saw them at a matinée, then AusBallet in the evening. Not a great idea 🤣

I always thought she was considered a suicide because, knowing her weak heart, she yet continued to dance... Pretty uncompromising local priest, but. Hallberg was such a generous partner. It was Stojmenov's debut, too. Originally we were supposed to have Super Surprise Guest Osipova with Hallberg, but she withdrew claiming injury...yet was still able to rehearse and then perform Pure Dance. Just tell us the truth, woman, that you bit off more than you could chew, and that the whole Pure Dance was you so Giselle had to go. We're understanding people. But the young cast of Callum Linnane and Dimity Azoury was something way special. Wow.