Two Pigeons

I saw her perform once, at the Dominion in the Tottenham Court Road.  She wasn't exactly good but I have never forgotten it.  She was both a diva and an utter legend.

A real link with ballet's past.

Just rewatched it on YouTube.  As unbelievably wonderful as I remember.

Then she was joined by a mezzo and chorus as they sang from Scott Jopling's Treemonisha.  Equally terrific in a totally different way.

I only ever saw her 'live' once when she sang 'I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls' in the most glorious grey frock at the gala for the Queen's 60th birthday.  She was just fabulous and I gave never forgotten it.

As I remember it she lived in London at the time and often attend ballet performances.

She will be much missed.

1 hour ago, Scheherezade said:

 

Looking good for Sadlers Wells. If only they would be proactive with the casting information!

58 minutes ago, maryrosesatonapin said:

We're going to see this tonight.  I bought tickets (before knowing the cast), and then today another friend wanted to join us so I checked the Hippodrome website and was shocked to see how many unsold tickets there are.  @Jan McNulty was yesterday's performance well-attended?

perish the thought that these two observations may be connected.

Indeed.  Only performances within the M25 ever count for anything these days.  Especially where the critics are concerned.

14 hours ago, FionaE said:

On a separate note I thought the video of Cuthbertson/Polunin was not meant to be in the public domain?  It regularly appears on YouTube and is removed each time fairly quickly.   A full time job for someone at ROH?   You may be asked to remove it here?

I have a copy of this taken off Sky Arts.  I haven't seen it for a while and would be hard pushed to find it but I do remember being not that impressed with Cuthbertson's performance.  She was clearly having on off night. 

I did chat to someone at the Hippodrome in 2012 who had seen it at the cinema relay a few weeks early.

He was giggling that before the performance there was some text on the screen comparing this partnership as one of the greats, right up there with Sibley and Dowell etc.  We will never know as Polunin had left the RB very shortly afterwards.

I was about to post that they are leaving the casting really late this time.

Any sign of the triple bearing in mind it's only a week away?

Were I able to go any cost would be worth it just to see Merle and Wayne coaching Voices of Spring.  I have never seen anyone match them in this.   Other couples may have danced as well or even better but for sheer èlan you needed the originals.

Great to see Cesar Morales getting some exposure.

Just now, alison said:

I was thinking about when she invited Le Riche for Le Jeune Homme et la Mort, but you did indeed miss a very special artist if you didn't see her.

Another loss!  

I have seen him in Le Jeune Homme via Sky Arts.

These are the mixed joys of being a balletomane.  For every great artist you do see there are so many you didn't.

Heigh ho!

4 minutes ago, alison said:

And, later, Tamara Rojo?  Or didn't you catch him then?

Rojo is someone else i booked for but kept missing.  I was especially sorry that she was injured when I was hoping to see her as Tatiana with Adam Cooper.  I did see her live when she appeared in Triad as part of the Nureyev but that was hardly that representative if her work.

I must concur that I missed a very special artist.

From what has been said above I feel I should thank the Late Mr Stretton for giving me the chance to see Nicolas le Riche live.  I have never forgotten it or him.  Utterly stunning!

1 hour ago, Jamesrhblack said:

 

Unforgettable as Nureyev’s Juliet, especially her breakdown mourning Tybalt at the end of Act 2. Also, very fond memories of her as Giselle and her last performance as La Sylphide - she had a beautifully rounded shape which was very beautiful in Romantic works. Wasn’t quite so keen on her Aurora or Odette / Odile, but she remains in memory very much favourite, and, if I may so write (and a moderator will remove if I may not), I also thought her extraordinarily beautiful to behold.

I was at her last Sylphide too.  I don't think I appreciated how very good she was in a role that really didn't play to any of her strengths.  I remember her most clearly as Tatiana.  For me she only had one peer in that role and that was Marcia Haydee.  It takes real gravitas, maturity and artistry to carry off the final scene as well as they did.

I have seen the first episode anc I thought it was stunning.  Have the rest plus the Verdon special to catch up with.  She was clearly something else and very highly admired and respected.  Fosse reminded me of Busby Berkeley.  Highly gifted and completely original but an utter b*****d to work for and with.  However, we are all so much richer for their work.

4 hours ago, along for the ride mum said:

Indeed he was, and in a rather sloppy irony, the picture the BBC chose to use as a background for the piece was that of a girl en pointe.

(rolls eyes)

 

It was all pretty sloppy in my opinion.  I suppose they chose Wayne Sleep because he seems to be available to the media at the drop of a hat and they could go on about him dacing with Diana in the 80s.

Personally I would have chosen dancers like Iain Mackay or Steven McRae who have stellar careers, ard still involved with ballet, married to fellow dancers and have families.  Wayne Sleep is too much like the cliche Ms Spencer was alluding to.

21 minutes ago, annamk said:

Surely Royal Ballet current principal Alexander Campbell does not belong in a thread of under appreciated dancers ?  I can see that for those people for whom he is a favourite  would like to see him cast in everything eg Romeo but maybe KoH is trying to pursue a policy of casting more to type e.g. neither McRae nor Campbell as Onegin. Campbell has plenty of opportunities. 

This is all very true but my original point was that if he hadn't transferred to the Royal Ballet his career would have passed by virtually unnoticed by critics and/or television audiences.

4 minutes ago, Sharon said:

During the early 80's one of the young principals of SWRB was Nicola Katrak. Such a wonderful ballerina, but she's never mentioned now. I remember her clearly in Fille  with Roland Price, both of them a delight. She was also fantastic in Coppelia and Two Pigeons. Although young and very sweet one would think that she was ideally suited for just the ballets I've mentioned - however Nicola also had a very secure technique - she just wasn't 'showy'. Her Aurora was wonderful - so musical and a believable young princess - rather like Durante was in this role. She was strong, practically injury free, and more importantly very very dependable. There was one particular season, (84/85?) when several other principals were injured and Nicola was hardly off the stage. I think Peter Wright must of thanked God for her every day. My most vivid memory of her was when she performed Titania in The Dream with Iain Webb. She was glorious and I have never seen a better interpretation since. That she went on to share her knowledge and teach the children at White Lodge is fantastic and I often wonder when I watch young dancer's now if they were lucky enough to of been taught by her.

I agree with so much of this.  I was lucky enough to see her farewell performance as Giselle, a role very suited to her dramatic intelligence.  She was also a fluent delight hosting various open rehearsals and other events.

I do so agree with you about Viviana.  There is a full recording of her Aurora but the original plan was for it to Darcey and who can ever forget Sky Arts trailing the broadcast of Mayerling as ' starring Darcey Bussell' who was playing Mitzi Caspar?  Even  Irek Mukhamedov was relegated to second billing.

I know I have caused controversy by saying this before but, for me, Viviana was the ballerina and Darcey was the star.  Maybe 'artiste' is a better word.  Her intelligence really showed in her performances.  Darcey undoubtedly glittered but I found her interpretations less deep.

I agree with Kevin's self assessment too but that doesn't mean that he didn't deserve some permanent recordings of his work.

P.s.  Janet, sorry I meant to include Chi but clearly got overexcited on my theme and I typed too fast.

I would suggest another criterion we could consider.  This is very likely to be somewhat BRB centric but I would like to list a few artists who may be considered to be underappreciated or not but definitely finished their careers with very few filmed performances left as permanent records.

Kevin O'Hare, by his own definition a Principal but not a star.  However you judge him here is someone who practically carried the company single handedly for a while.  There was a tour of somewhere in the Far East when he had to dance 5 performances of the Snow Queen and 2 of Coppelia in one week.

Robert Parker

Iain Mackay 

Joe Cipolla

Wolfgang Stollwitzer

Iain Webb

Michael O'Hare - although we do have Hobson's Choice

Desmond Kelly

and just to prove that I do sometimes pay attention to ballerinas

Marion Tait

Margaret Barbieri

Galina Samsova

Patricia Ruanne

Nao Sakuma

Ambra Vallo

Leticia Muller 

Sabrina Lenzi

I realise that for most of the older dancers filming was a much greater rarity than it is now but I would suggest that were they still dancing now it is very likely that little would have changed.  Had he not moved to the Royal Ballet I suspect Alexander Campbell would have been on the list too.

I have probably diverted from the original point or this may be subject for another thread.  But my basic point is that when you have an artist who has ballets created for them and gives their working lives to entertaining the public it is a real shame when there is nothing permanent as a record.

Slightly off the point, but not that far off, when Yasmine Naghdi was promoted to Principal her photograph was on the front page of the Times.  It was stressed that she was a British dancer.  I have no issue with this and, frankly, bully for her.

I would have thought that the promotion to Principal of the equally British Brandon Lawrence might have merited similar treatment.  Like so much to do with BRB there was barely a ripple in any of the national papers.

Or 'underappreciated'?

19 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

One would hope that arts organisations don’t adopt the cult of greed shown by the average football club. And don’t forget that the price of football tickets goes towards the exorbitant salaries paid to premier league players. 

And their vastly over remunerated agents.

Actually, I was lucky enough to interview her after she had retired and was the mother of 3 boys as I remember.  I remember two things she said very clearly.  The first was how much she enjoyed being involved in the creation of Hobson's Choice.  The second was that she doubted she would ever have got into the Royal Ballet School as tall dancers were so much more in demand in later years.

Along with Marion Tait I cannot think of a more splendid example of a typical SWRB dancer in the mode of Brenda Last.  She was a fast, secure, soubrette dancer who was both funny and moving through a wide range of roles.  I remember saying that if she had been turned down by the RBS what a lot we would have missed.

Excellent choice!  She deserved far more renown than she had, especially when dancing with Michael O'Hare in works such as Fille and Two Pigeons.  She was a very fine Aurora too.  There were works such as Gerda in The Snow Queen where it could be argued she exceeded the original.

55 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

The thing is, I really would like to support BRB more than I do, but there are several things preventing me allocating more of my limited budget to them.

 

Ticket pricing for the cheapest seats at Birmingham Hippodrome might be something they can’t do much about, but better notice of casting and more inspiring programming for mixed bills (as mentioned previously, perhaps with one dedicated to the “heritage” rep and one to newer works) *are* within the Director’s gift: these are top of my wish list for the new regime rather than any new initiative or the revival of a particular ballet.

I agree totally about more inspiring triple bills.  For about 3 decades my watchword was 'never miss a triple'.  For a few years now that is pretty much exactly what has happened.