Petunia

Is anyone familiar with the Mayflower? I'm thinking about going to Southampton to see Akram Khan's new Giselle for ENB in October. Is the theatre huge? Where to sit? If the ring or the balcony is too far away, is it worth to buy seats in the stalls? I know this is the Balletco Forum and not a travel agency, but is Southampton an interesting destination in itself? I'd spend a day or so there before going to London for some more ballet...!

Can anybody who remembers tell me how long a performance of Anastasia lasts? I'd like to see Morera at the Matinee on 29th October, and I'd have to be at Stansted Airport at about 17.00 for my flight back home (I'm planning another "extravaganza", as Janet McN. would call it ).

https://www.staatsoper.de/en/staatsopertv.html Corsaire Live stream from Munich, June 12th!

Thanks, DonQFan, I wouldn't have known how to link to the photos. They are quite dark, the Diamonds background was this bright blue and it looked very festive, actually. The Emeralds skirts looked a very light green (I much more prefer the Paris skirts, with dark blue netting), but the overall lighting was a sinister fir-green, the wings looked like mossy trees! The new costumes are by Lorenzo Caprile, a Spanish fashion designer - this was his first comission for a ballet. The stage and lighting are by Pepe Leal, also Spanish. Was it sold out? I don't know, but it looked full. The stalls surely were.

(May 21st) At last, after all a chance to shine! “Jewels” was eagerly awaited, and the house was packed at opening night. Although the performance began with somehow subdued Emeralds, the Rubies then sparkled and the Diamonds were truly radiant! The Emeralds lacked softness and charme… the mood seemed quite formal, I felt there was no real romance and everything looked a little stiff, even the exquisit solos for the women. The pas de trois brought some spirit into it but in the whole I felt a little sleepy afterwards. But I’m sure they will grow into it and let loose, and the orchestra will find a way to make Fauré sound not quite as mushy. (Soloists: Krasina Pavlova / Marian Walter, Aurora Dickie / Arshak Galumyan, Cecile Kaltenbach / Danielle Muir / Arman Grigoryan) Afterwards, the Rubies showed the required amount of bling. What a marathon this ballet is, a true test of stamina and precision! They seemed to have much fun doing it, I was so happy for them. Iana Salenko was flirty and sharp and playful, albeit a little too cute and girlish for my taste, but this is just my taste…;-). Her partner was Dinu Tamazlacaru, a dazzling virtuoso and quite a charming guy. They were lovely together. The “Tall Girl” was a young dancer still in the corps, what a talent! Julia Golitsina is her name and I’m sure we will see more of her soon. Very strong and fast and funny. She’s lovely. The only small drawback was the male quartet which seemed to have some difficulties with Stravinsky’s ever-changing rhythms, but that can easily be polished, I hope. When the curtain opened for Diamonds, everybody went “Aaaaw…!”, The costumes for the corps dancers were so beautiful – no pancake tutus but gorgeous bell-shaped skirts and a lot of glitter, they looked so elegant and serene with the blue background. The waltz was marvellous. As the squad of female principals is so thinned out at the moment, I was happy to see that they got Shoko Nakamura back to Berlin for Diamonds, as a guest. I loved her when she was here during Malakhov’s time and she was greeted with a big applause. She danced with Mikhail Kaniskin who is the nearest we have to a danseur noble, with solos grand and confident. He was so much into it, watching her with adoration and rapture as she floated on the music. Wondrous how she could look somehow otherworldly and at the same time warm and radiating. She’s a miracle, I got all teary-eyed…! Unfortunately the big defilée at the end was a bit messy but that couldn’t spoil the overall impression. They have only four performances until the end of season, and will resume “Jewels” in December.

I'm still waiting for the Vaughan - but I have received the Zoe Dominic/John Selwyn Gilbert, a battered ex-library book, but the lovely photographs! All in black and white, many of them are grainy, but very powerful. What a difference to modern high-gloss, high-tech images. Also, the angle of view and the choice of detail show an understanding of dance as an expressive, not an athletic art form. Lovely book. (I also got The Royal Ballet: 75 Years by Zoe Anderson, which arrived with a musty-basement stink and is now resting with baking soda in a paper bag.)

Don’t worry, Don Q Fan. I live here and I can assure you that everything is as safe as it always was – if you just use the normal 'big city smarts'. The areas to avoid in Berlin are not of interest for visitors anyway. If you have any questions, you can always pm me.

Quoting from the State Ballet’s website A classic in very aspect: Vasily Medvedev and Yuri Burlaka, two Russian choreographers and connoisseurs of the tradition, have developed a version of “Nutcracker” which is based on the historic stage designs and choreography from the original of 1892. This loving reconstruction premiered at Deutsche Oper Berlin in the fall of 2013. The choreography is largely based on Lev Ivanov's specifications as it was he who gave this ballet its unmistakable style of dancing already at its inaugural performance over a hundred years ago. The stage designs and costumes have also been modeled on the historic designs, part of the treasures of the Russian ballet archives. Quoting from an article on the rbb-Radio website: “The reason the Nutcracker was dropped is that the technical abilities of today’s dancers are so much more refined compared to the level of the 1892 version.” If this is a statement issued by the directors of the State Ballet, I’d say good night and good bye.

Vera, that's me !

This is deeply embarrassing. It shows the deplorable ignorance and lack of interest of Berlin’s Secretary for Cultural Affairs - not only this one but also his predecessor. I hope the “Freundeskreis” (Friends and Supporters) will either strongly protest or just disintegrate. The current leaders of the State Ballet are doing all they can to prove ballet as a second-rate art form.

Thanks Geoff, I'll have a look!

Sounds familiar... I try to keep the dance-themed books together but they have a tendency to move around and wander away.

Funny that so many people -including myself- go to see the Met at the cinema... we have three decent opera houses in Berlin, and the cinema tickets cost 29€ - you can buy quite a good seat for that. But I will surely do it again, if there's something interesting coming up. Who is the well-known music blogger, may I ask?

“Turandot”, Saturday 30th January After having to attend a funeral service for an acquaintance of Mr P we decided to distract ourselves with a visit to a cinema live broadcast of “Turandot”. As we had just seen the Rhapsody/2P relay with an audience of about 10, we were surprised to find a packed cinema. Turandot is a production by Franco Zeffirelli from 1987 and I’ve never seen a stage so overdecorated and cramped. I can’t imagine how, if sitting high up in the auditorium, one could manage to find the leading characters if they weren’t placed front and middle (as they were most of the time). Such an overwhelming amount of extras, dancers and props! But I must admit, the camera work was very good in concentrating on the important actions, much better than with the RB broadcast. The conductor was Paolo Carignani who too often preferred to push the sound level as far as possible but Nina Stemme as Turandot was of Wagnerian stance and strength and held up as the true dramatic heroine that she is even in a lavish but quite unflattering costume. Her Calaf was not as impressive (Marco Berti), he acted as if he was under-rehearsed and too often took refuge to the standard tenor moves like the single-handed throw, the double heart grasp, the two-arms-out… quite annoying. A revelation was Anita Hartig as Liu, who was able to send long, colourful, lyrical ribbons of music into the air, she really sang from her heart, I felt she was the only one who truly lived the role. She made the incredible beauty and complexity of Puccini’s music audible, and visible, too. Also very interesting was Alexander Tsymbalyuk as Timur, a beautiful voice and quite a good actor, as far as could be seen under the exaggerated make up. I find close-ups at the opera as difficult as at the ballet, particularly with an ugly pseudo chinese make-up (the three “ministers” were an especially bad example). The presenter was Renee Fleming, and she did her job with a professional friendliness (albeit with some gushing) and she obviously had much fun. Very interesting were the intervals – there were cameras onstage and we could see the changing of the scenery, what an enormous amount of work! If they were not so expensive, I’d rather like to see more of the Met broadcast events. Does anybody else go or do you stick to the ROH?

My basket is filling up again... I found this one, too (not Ashton-specific): The Royal Ballet: 75 Years by Zoe Anderson To buy or not to buy?

Floss, thanks a lot. The Vaughan book is this one (from the Amazon page): This revised edition of Vaughan's seminal work includes a new final chapter and an updated chronology of work. It should be useful for both historians of 20th-century ballet and for lovers of Ashton's work. 2nd Revised edition (28 April 1999) This could be the right one, couldn't it?

"Lots of photos" sounds tempting...!

I dig this old thread up because I don't know where to open a new one. After I read the biography by Julie Kavanagh I've trawled the internet for books about Ashton's works and I've made a list of what I've found. Could somebody please tell me which one(s) to buy? Of course, I'd like to have all of them but I'd have to buy them from different sellers via Amazon ore abebooks and the shipping costs to Germany are adding up enormously! So which is the one you couldn't live without? Following Sir Fred's Steps: Ashton's Legacy Ashton Conference et al. Frederick Ashton: A Choreographer and His Ballets Zoe Dominic, John Selwyn Gilbert Frederick Ashton and His Ballets David Vaughan Frederick Ashton's Ballets: Style, Performance, Choreography. Geraldine Morris

Yes the future for dance in England surely is going to be exciting. I hope I'll be able to witness some of it!

I also went to see the cinema broadcast and I agree with the forum member who wrote that you have to see Pigeons at least twice. I love how -like in Fille- the storyline develops entirely through the choreography and the transitions from solo / duo / group actions go smoothly and logical (except for the gypsy group dances which I still think are too long and not very interesting). I particularly found the girls in the first act wonderfully individual and their different actions and groupings were exciting to watch (whenever the camera work allowed it). Yasmine Naghdi’s extra mean poking with the paintbrush into poor Vadim had me laugh out loud. It was lovely to see a different cast in Pigeons, I couldn’t say which I’d prefer. I can understand everybody who goes several times! For me this doesn’t apply to Rhapsody – I clearly preferred Francesca Hayward to Osipova. I don’t know – maybe it’s because I saw Hayward from the distance of my seat, but I never realized the difficulty of the steps in the first place but how the beauty, the speed, the joy, the musicality all together created a harmony that was very special and radiated up and outwards to the amphitheatre. With Osipova I think I saw too much of the work that was done (although it was firework) but I felt it was not “rounded”. I feared for her after her little stumble, and also the ratty shoes were a distraction. As much as I like the pyrotechnics by McRae, and although I know this part was made for Baryshnikov, I felt more at ease with Hay’s noble and more restrained interpretation. He has room to develop into the role, and he will, if he gets the chance (which I hope). But I can’t find enough words to praise the ladies and gentlemen in the supporting roles. The men were so much better, really sharp, and the women! My god, every time I see Naghdi’s smile I know everything will be alright and the world is fine. Their dancing is so serene, so confident and musical, they move as If they listen to the same heartbeat and they create lines of pure, limpid beauty, it makes one cry with joy. If there ever will be a DVD, I will eternally switch forward and backward to relish this wonder.

Floss, thank you very much for taking the time to respond so thoroughly to my, I have to admit, somehow rethorical question. I am aware the appearance of the Gypsies is by no means intended to be realistic and they are just a symbol for the “other”, the “different ones”, but I was just somewhat disappointed that they were not a bit more messy and exciting! Their dances are very neat and orderly and I miss some of the originality Ashton invented for the young couple’s choreography. They were very operetta-like, that is true. (In my time I had several opportunities to be a “Gypsy” myself and the steps are somehow all alike…!)

And I did two guided tours, was at the Tate Britain, the National and the Portrait Gallery (twice) and walked what feels about 50 miles a day throughout London.

And "Elizabeth", too.

I was very lucky to get a ticket for the last performance (the first time I used the “Wanted” section of the forum and - ta-daa! It happened!), and it was indeed a very special experience – the first time I saw Acosta live on stage, and with Zenaida Yanowsky whom I love and admire since I saw this insanely funny rehearsal video on youtube – the Red Queen in Alice! A queen she truly is and although at times she seemingly was manipulated by her “court”, she always had the reigns in her hands. I saw the actresses and the singer as courtiers and ladies-in-waiting who never let Elizabeth be on her own and commented on everything she did. Her interactions with Acosta, who impersonated the different gentlemen very elegantly and with enormous power of endurance were sometimes sophisticated and courteous, sometimes loving and vulnerable, sometimes mocking and playful… a very thruthful representation. Normally I wouldn’t like the simultaneousness of text and dance but here everything came together very smoothly. An exciting evening, being in the presence of such great artists at such a small distance!

Everybody who hasn't seen it yet, go and buy a ticket at once (if there are still any to be had). This is by far the best contemporary piece I've seen for a long time. It's an exciting, compelling and powerful work, from the incredibly strong dancers to the musicians to the stage design and lighting. Khan's ability to go from complete stillness to a frenzy of movement baffles me everytime I see it. I had a seat in the second row, everything happening on and around the stage gripped me and held me tight until the last second. The Roundhouse Theatre is a magical place in itself. I loved to see that the audience was quite young with many black and asian people who were very attentive (no phones etc) and responsive. And when it was all over, I stumbled dizzily downstairs and nearly fell over Tamara Rojo who had a cute fur cap on her head and Isaac Hernandez at her side .