Two Pigeons

I have great memories of Patricia Ruanne, Natalia Makarova and Eva Evdokimova amongst others which I am sorry were never recorded. However, the one cast I did see a few times and dearly wish most I could have had a recording was Marcia Haydee and Richard Cragun with Peter Schaufuss as Lensky. I have little doubt that more recent casts may be more accomplished but I felt the real connection to Cranko's intentions when I saw them. P.s. yes Janet, I know you saw Wolfgang Stollwitzer but you don't have to rub it in!

As I understand it the Cranko estate is very anti permanent records of his works. It is a similar story with both The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet. Personally I think it is a huge shame.

People who criticise Fonteyn never saw her perform live. I expect give it time and both Makarova and Guillem will be similarly criticised as their style of dancing fades from fashion.

I agree completely Janet.

made my day already just hearing about it!

Well I feel very strongly about this but given the comments stated above I will keep my feelings to myself and not post any further.

You may feel that I am overreacting but the lacking of casting is a perennial problem with BRB. I would suggest that if follows of the Royal Ballet had to make significant investments for tickets when they do not know the casting they would be slightly more sympathetic.

This REALLY does annoy me as there is no casting up for the season at the Hippodrome which would indicate that the company views the loyal Birmingham audience as somehow less important than the London one. I am afraid it just illustrates how the home audience is taken for granted. I am getting to the stage that if the Birmingham casting is not up by the weekend I will cancel all my direct debits by which I support the company.

At least you can get an earlier train home Alison. In my opinion that's the best thing about Elite. If it's on at the end you can beat the crush.

And Marguerite Porter whom he slated each and every time she appeared. In her autobiography she refers to it all but also mentions that he sent her a fan letter after a performance of (I think) Juliet. He soon realised that he got more attention and coverage by ripping British dancers apart.

I was being ironic about Mr Macaulay. (Got the spelling right this time.) Indeed he is the same person, widely loathed by those people whose comments he lifted without attribution when writing his critiques. Most of the dancers I know who were performing in the 80s and 90s are none to keen on him either. Still, one has to admire him for showing what can be achieved by sheer persistence.

Alison you have touched on an ages old balletomane problem. How do you applaud half a pas de deux when one party is terrific and the other completely naff?

I remember during the 80s when I used to sit in the Amphitheatre and there was always one ostentatious, not to say pretentious, man who made a point of shouting out all the variations of Bravo depending on the number and gender of the artists he was applauding. A number of us used to call him 'The Bravo Man'. We found out not long afterwards that he was an aspiring critic who was doing everything he could to muscle in to that prestigious circle. His name was Alastair Macauley (I wonder whatever happened to him) and his actions have put me off yelling bravo in any of its variations ever since.

I saw this The Four Seasons when it was revived in the early 80s and very much enjoyed it. I would love to see either Royal Ballet do it and am not that fussy about which designs are used. Incidentally David Bintley created a ballet to the same music in the early part of this century which I would also like to see again. I am not saying it is necessarily as good as the Macmillan version but it was a piece of well crafted classical ballet and the simple designs were lovely. more of both please!

I have just come back from seeing this ballet tonight. It is not a great work but in Act 1 we had all 6 principal ladies, 4 out of 6 of the male principals, Marion Tait and Brandon Lawrence. Now that is what I call value for money. Longer review to follow in the next couple of days but well done Mathias.

That may still apply in parts Alison.

Janet has spurred me on to making my contribution to this thread. I saw this triple twice, on the opening Wednesday night and then again on the Friday, accompanied by hubby attending his first triple bill. I saw the same cast for the first movement which was Momoko Hirata and Tzu-Chao Chou who bounded through the piece very effectively. However, I found my eye was drawn more towards watching the brown couples, particularly Brandon Lawrence on the opening night with Maureya Lebowitz and Yasuo Atsuji on both nights. Without wishing to show any disrespect whatsoever to the third cast I felt I had won the raffle with the second movement. On Friday it was Brandon with Celine, two artist I especially admire, and gave a cracking performance. But, in my opinion, THE cast is Jenna Roberts who has a particular quality in this work and she was partnered magnificently by Tyrone Singleton to whom I am more than a little partial. With the exception of Joe Cipolla 30 odd years ago I cannot think of another male dancer who takes the stage in such a compelling fashion and dominates it by just standing there. It was so good I could hardly breathe. I am a huge admirer of Samara Downs but on this occasion I was less happy with her in the third movement as she seemed a bit tentative and didn't really get going (IMHO). I really enjoyed Penguin Cafe on both occasions, despite the fact that the company seem to have mucked around with the lighting again. The second part of the Utah Longhorn Ram (Samara again with the matchless Iain MacKay ) was so gloomy most of the audience missed that they tripped up. At the end the rain shower is so exaggerated it almost looked like a firework display. Other highlights were Tyrone as a matchless Southern Cape Zebra and Brandon and Celine again as the Amazonian rain forest couple. Incidentally, the cult of Brandon is spreading. There was a party in from Elmhurst and Brandon consistently got the most applause and cheering at the curtain call. More even than Tyrone. On the Friday night hubby really enjoyed this work with special mention for Mathias Dingman as the Brazilian monkey on both performances I saw. On the Friday I would also single out Maureya again with Lachlan Monaghan as the Utah Ram and Edivaldo Souza De Silva (imagine Brandon's slightly smaller and less experienced younger brother) as the Zebra. I didn't stay for Elite on the Wednesday. This was no reflection on the dancers but I am not a huge fan of the work having been seeing it for nearly 40 years and I knew I would be seeing it on the Friday. I was very happy with Celine and Brandon as the principal couple and hubby was greatly amused by the Alaskan Rag with Daria Stanciulescu and Gus Payne but not all the jokes worked as he is taller than her. The company have a slight problem with this piece as the do not have any exceptionally tall girls and no men who are really short enough these days. However, two happy evenings and I agree with Maurice who I met up with on the Wednesday that the company are dancing really well. I would also mention that the new style programme is very informative and better value for my £5 than previously. Aladdin tomorrow, mainly to see Mathias again.

Bang on! However, I do have a couple of reserves.

This thread started on the specific point about BRB and the Sleeping Beauty. I have been going to the ballet long enough to know that prior notification of casting is no guarantee and you have to accept this as a fact of theatrical life. I have a subscription ticket for the first performance and I do not doubt that the performance will have a great many delights. However, I do rather resent not having the option to book for an Aurora whose work I enjoy and find warm, involving and musical over the person who I suspect it will be and whom I feel has practically none of those qualities. Oh well, i'lll just have to keep watching the men!

That serves me right for only looking at the men in the cast list!

The casting has arrived. Does anyone know of Delia is injured? I will be very happy to see Celine and Brandon though.

Even by BRB's standards the casting is very late for the triple bill which opens in Birmingham a week tomorrow. I have to say that I think this becoming totally unacceptable. I hope next year's programme is a corker or I can see my subscription lapsing.

There was the story that Shearer was being coached privately by Kasarvina in Giselle. When de Valois learned of this she engaged Kasarvina to coach Fonteyn and no one else. I think de Valois was entirely single minded about Fonteyn and no one else got much of a look in. From what I have heard Shearer never took it out on Fonteyn, believing that the blame lay elsewhere.

hear. hear!

Just as long as bigging up Brandon doesn't mean another company poaches him ( not that I would blame him for advancing his own career).