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Sophoife

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  1. Sophoife
    What a lovely rabbit hole you sent me down @Dawnstar! Anthony Dowell, who remains the only man to play both Des Grieux and Monsieur GM, made his first appearance in the latter rôle on 31 January 2003, with Sylvie Guillem and Laurent Hilaire, Brian Maloney as Lescaut, and a young dancer called Marianela Nuñez as his Mistress. Whatever happened to her? I discovered that between 1974 and 1991, there were only three Des Grieux at the ROH: Dowell, Rudolf Nureyev and Wayne Eagling. Bruce Sansom debuted in 1991. Irek Mukhamedov was the first to dance both Des Grieux and Lescaut, and on 30 October 1995 he was Lescaut to Guillem and Hilaire. Carlos Acosta has also danced both rôles, as have Alex Campbell and Marcelino Sambé. Ryoichi Hirano will be only the fifth dancer to have done this when he makes his DG début. On 1 November 1995 David Drew, who had previously performed both Lescaut and the Gaoler, made his first appearance as Monsieur GM. Gary Avis has performed both Monsieur GM and the Gaoler on many occasions. Bennet Gartside has done three of the four, only lacking Des Grieux. The Gaoler's Mistress disappeared as a named role between the July and November 1974 performances. I would love in the future to see Ryoichi Hirano or Edward Watson have a go at Monsieur GM; I think they'd both be utterly creepy.
  2. Sophoife
    Oh I only listen to one commentary at a time, too! Listen to the cycling, watch the tennis.
  3. Sophoife
    You bet @Dawnstar! TDU is on 7 terrestrial, tennis on 9 terrestrial. TDU also on 7's streaming platform 7+, tennis every court on Stan (owned by 9) and 9Now. TV, phone, tablet, computer... Also, my predictions have been shot apart somewhat...I will now go Sabalenka in the women, and...Sinner or Rublev for the men. 👍🤣
  4. Sophoife
    @Kanangra he was a fabulous Puck, I wish I'd been able to see.his Oberon but scheduling didn't work out! He and Jill Ogai debuted Swan Lake in Adelaide: Jill's home town. She told me Mr Hallberg had specifically cast them for Adelaide first, not Melbourne.
  5. Sophoife
    Oh well, the screenshots/quotes I posted can be moved there, if you think it better - I don't mind, I was just sharing some info to which I had access. Still wishing I had my Different Drummer !
  6. Sophoife
    The character is a female sex worker who offers rear entry (I can't think of a more polite way to put it!). Historically speaking, this type of sex worker was expensive but popular, as it was believed that this method removed any possibility of sexually transmitted infections, and of course from the worker's POV there was far less likelihood of pregnancy. There were also clients who believed that using a virgin would cure syphilis 😳. For this and more historical info, do feel free to PM. I found the TLS piece. 'Still dying after all these years', Alastair Macaulay, p.18, issue 5231, 4 July 2003. It's a discussion of MacMillan and his ballets in general, as that season included five of his ballets: Manon, Mayerling, Winter Dreams, Prince of the Pagodas, and Song of the Earth. The very last paragraph reads as follows:
  7. Sophoife
    Zoē Anderson's The Royal Ballet: 75 Years has this to say (HTH)... I will see if I can snapshot the relevant bit from the TLS
  8. Sophoife
    A badge I wear with pride, Jan 🤣 I would probably have done the same as regards semi-colons. #NitPickersNotSoAnonymous 😉
  9. Sophoife
    I just meant that if you posted the plea in the original thread, you might get the right person popping up 😉
  10. Sophoife
    Annette, here's your thread. Best to post the mea culpa in there 🤭 (it wasn't deleted, just pushed down off the front page of Doing Dance as other threads had more recent posts). https://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/28726-can-i-buy-used-pointe-ballet-shoes-to-decorate/
  11. Sophoife
    I will refer you to this thread. I'm not going to engage with you otherwise on this Fiona. https://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/27125-a-new-production-of-the-pharaohs-daughter/
  12. Sophoife
    Er, @FionaM, we've been through a similar discussion before. Copyright doesn't appear to be respected in Russia at this time, so I doubt if they'd care.
  13. Sophoife
    On the forum @LinMM if you type @ then Sop it should come up. It's a mashup of my first two online identities: Internet Relay Chat (IRC) nick which was Sophie, and my first online role-playing game (RPG) persona which was Aoife. I can't pronounce it, don't you even bother to try - it comes out sort of "Sofeefuh" 🤣🤣🤣 It's a pretty safe guess on the socials that if you see Sophoife and Ballerina Gozira it's me (yes, I just remembered to update my avatar on the forum!).
  14. Sophoife
    I remember David Ashmole fondly from his ten years with AusBallet, @Sharon He's another person astonished I'd seen that Manon.
  15. Sophoife
    I always stop when I read a post by or reference to @Anna C. It's my name and the first initial of my surname.
  16. Sophoife
    You're not the only one. Also on my Instagram is a photo a kind fellow fan took of self and Johan Kobborg after he and Alina Cojocaru danced what turned out to be his last Des Grieux, with AusBallet in 2014. He was genuinely surprised to hear I'd seen Nureyev in the role: he hadn't known he'd danced it, either. And if anyone would know history, it's him. That Nureyev danced Des Grieux is mentioned in passing in Zoe Anderson's The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and in Julie Kavanagh's Nureyev: The Life it is said that 'The Manon duet had never been so excitingly performed, Rudolf and Merle Park making the two lovers insatiably sexy by continuing kissing long after the music had stopped. In the biggest climax he spun her two full revolutions while lifting her diagonally upward, and then let go only to catch her a second before she hit the stage. "We hammed it up! - which it needs," Park says with a laugh. "We're both peasants and we both know how to ham."' In the Kavanagh, Maude Lloyd Gosling (with her husband Nigel the critic identity Alexander Bland) is quoted as saying that "Rudolf had to beg to be given Manon." This was after a Roland Petit piece to Schoenberg's Pelléas et Mélisande was programmed for a celebration of Fonteyn's 35 years with the RB instead of Macmillan's Cain and Abel and MacMillan and Nureyev fell out, as M assumed, wrongly, according to Gosling, that N had sabotaged Cain and Abel in order to get a new Fonteyn-Nureyev vehicle (the Petit). Unfortunately my copy of Different Drummer: The Life of Kenneth MacMillan by Jann Parry is inaccessible, so I can't see what it says on the matter.
  17. Sophoife
    I know, right?!
  18. Sophoife
    Incidentally... https://www.instagram.com/sophoife/p/syLG4uG6OB/
  19. Sophoife
    He who debuted Des Grieux on that occasion. Mr Nureyev. 😘 My apologies to the late Mr Rencher. I think I'm right in saying a rancher was about the last career he might have considered...
  20. Sophoife
    They dropped the Mistress, and tweaked several other bits I am told. His Nibs only did five Des Grieux at the ROH. It was our last London theatre before departing for Australia. Twenty years later, on return to the ROH, Mr Rancher (with fur and tiny dog) signed my 1974 programme with some astonishment after playing the Don in the Baryshnikov Don Quixote, with Sylvie Guillem and Oliver Matz.
  21. Sophoife
    I shall have a cupcake on July 16, the fiftieth anniversary of my first Manon. Townsperson: Derek Deane Harlot: Wendy Ellis Gentleman: Wayne Eagling, David Ashmole Beggar Chief: Wayne Sleep Madame: Gerd Larsen Gaoler's Mistress: Georgina Parkinson Gaoler: David Drew Lescaut's Mistress: Lesley Collier* Monsieur GM: Derek Rencher Lescaut: Desmond Kelly Des Grieux: Rudolf Nureyev* Manon: Merle Park* * denotes rôle début At the ROH, Collier danced the Mistress just twice: on this evening and in 1977. She danced Manon once, in 1988.
  22. Sophoife
    Haven't had the live Avis privilege but Steven Heathcote did Monsieur GM in AusBallet's last run of Manon and the slime absolutely oozing from his every pore...! He told me afterwards he had had discussion with Mr Avis on the role (way back, 2014). So, so envious of those who saw this cast.
  23. Sophoife
    Oh, I'm all in on Ben Shelton. I very much like his style and attitude. On my second line is... practically every other player in the draw, except Tsitsipas, the rude child from Scandinavia (not Casper Ruud, Holger Rune), and Voldemort. I would love to see Félix Auger-Aliassime, Andrey Rublev, or Jannik Sinner - if not Shelton - win the whole shebang. On the women's side, if Storm Hunter gets past Barbora Krejčiková, the sky's pretty much the limit, but I find it hard to see anyone getting past both Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Świątek, which they would probably have to do to win the title.
  24. Sophoife
    The key point about it is that this letter refers only to North American copyright (the rights administered by Schirmer's). Boosey and Hawkes' listing names four creators, including Lavrovsky, and the territories affected are listed. There is no suggestion at this time that they are to put out a new edition, although given that Schirmer's state the new scores are at the request of the Prokofiev estate, that is a future possibility.
  25. Sophoife
    No, I was talking about the first round, @Emeralds. How is your friend avoiding men's matches given the courts mostly alternate? Is she running round various outside courts?
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