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Douglas Allen

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  1. Douglas Allen
    There are several versions I enjoy - some for quite different reasons - so don't assume there's any underlying logic to my list! In the order of my first viewing them they are Nureyev - Royal Ballet (still to be seen at Paris Opera Ballet) Balanchine - New York City Ballet Mark Morris - The Hard Nut (Mark Morris Dance Company) Peter Wright - Birmingham Royal Ballet I don't dare mention ones I don't like as I don't want (egregiously) to annoy people, or bore them!
  2. Douglas Allen
    Sim, I have considerable respect for you and your views on ballet performances, but if you have been watching Nutcracker productions for 50 years, then you will have seen one or more of the Nureyev productions, for the Swedes, the Royal or Paris. This surely disproves the statement "the music dictates what is happening onstage and there isn't too much more you can do with it than watch a family Christmas Eve party". In all of the Nureyev productions you encounter Clara as a child on the threshold of adolescence becoming infatuated with the idea of falling in love with a fantasy figure and escaping the confines of familiar family life and the restrictions of its (luxurious) confines and restraints. This is contrasted with the dances presented in a social context which are the epitome of conservative norms of the time as represented by the minuets and gavottes so typical of the pre-romantic era. Remembering the Royal Ballet's production , Alexander Grant presented a master class in his performance as the grandfather in his dancing almost as a Vestris figure. Both he and Gerd Larsen, together with other senior members of the Royal Ballet at that time in Act I presented a series of images which called to mind several of the lithographs in the Rambert-Dukes collection (now in the V&A) and other dances as can be seen in the writings of Marian Hannah Winter and in the Beaumont/Sitwell book on the Romantic Ballet Lithographs. It was a brilliant example of how ballet can inform, educate and elevate the sensibilities of the audience whilst at the same time provide wonderful entertainment. It was not just "a magical story".
  3. Douglas Allen
    Scheherezade, I so agree with you. At present the Benno character in this production has more solo work than Siegfried, which seems a little strange. An additional piece for Siegfried in Act I is really rather necessary - not unlike the solo introduced into the Royal's version by Nureyev and performed by them until the Dowell production. If Scarlett didn't/couldn't use the Nureyev version then there are masses of unused Swan Lake music to use for his own version. Perhaps the revival will give him a chance to introduce this to his production.
  4. Douglas Allen
    Ivy Lin, I couldn't agree more. I "liked" your post, and, if the rules allowed it, I would have done so several times. I dislike this production intensely - such a waste of magnificent music and very talented dancers! It comes around , seemingly without fail,every year about now, and every year there are a few more tweaks to the production or choreography, and it remains a total waste of time and effort.
  5. Douglas Allen
    Thank you for the link. Looking and listening to the trailer and reading the text two words came to mind - pretentious and hideous. Of more interest was reading about Graham Lustig at Oakland Ballet. Many here will remember him from his time with the Royal.
  6. Douglas Allen
    Take care! Thursday is the 17th. I'd hate to see such determination spoiled by a mix-up with tickets for trains and theatres.
  7. Douglas Allen
    I don't buy the logic of your argument. It's like saying to someone on Universal Credit and a user of food banks that "hey it could be worse, you could be living in South Sudan and you would really know what hunger means". That someone, somewhere else, has a bad situation is neither a justification for nor should be an acceptance of a poor and inadequate information system here. The Royal Ballet used to provide, and was an exemplar for other companies, significantly more comprehensive casting information than it now does. I see no reason why we, the paying public, should willingly accept so much poorer a service than used to be provided.
  8. Douglas Allen
    As it is now the pantomime season, I feel like saying "Oh no they're not!"
  9. Douglas Allen
    Sad to hear this, but her last years were difficult because of illness which severely affected her. I , too, remember her with Scottish, as SheilaC and FLOSS have both noted. She was understated on stage but gave clear direction and leadership to the company both on and off stage. Like SheilaC I was aware that she seemed to have been "eased out" of the company but am unaware of any reason. After that she drifted away from my awareness until the sad situation when she bravely agreed to be the public example of a legal case brought against the local authority (which might have been Kensington and Chelsea) for the cuts they sought to make in her "care package" resulting in quite degrading results for Ms MacDonald. Fortunately she won that fight but I'm unaware of how much the situation improved. I hope her final years were peaceful. She deserved that. I hope Scottish Ballet remember her properly in their 50th anniversary celebrations. They owe much to her (and, of course, to Peter Darrell).
  10. Douglas Allen
    Even though some casting information has appeared it is still both confusing and insultingly limited, especially this close to the performance date. I don't know who is responsible for this mess the Royal Ballet or the web-team at the Opera House. Looking at the site for the triple bill, there is just a list of dancers without any indication of who is dancing in what. If someone is due to appear in more than one ballet I don't know how they would cope. Then, when you go to the web page for each individual ballet, the casting given is insulting; one person listed for The Concert signally fails to appreciate the (relative) importance of each role. For Patineurs, to give only (presumably) the casting for Blue Boy is pathetic. No-one can try to pretend that there isn't casting finalised this close to performance date. This farrago suggests that what is meant to be our country's leading artistic institutions is negligent of its responsibilities both to performers and to its audience. By the way, who is due to be the pianist in The Concert? The website usually manages to give the concert master's details, but no mention (so far) of the solo pianist.
  11. Douglas Allen
    Christmas Day BBC 2 3.10 pm Repeated New Year's Day BBC 2 8.00 am
  12. Douglas Allen
    Jan, I agree totally. I've disliked it from the beginning. Every year it comes around and every year sees tinkerings or modifications. They don't really improve it, just make it slightly less dreadful. I feel for the poor unfortunates dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy and "her cavalier" (not even a name!) having to come into the opera house, wait around interminably, then get on stage for about three minutes of dancing and then go home. What a waste. The BRB production isn't perfect, but it's a lot better. I still think the Nureyev version (still performed in Paris) is the best. Why or how the ROH allowed it to fall into disrepair is one of life's great mysteries!!
  13. Douglas Allen
    Impressively well remembered, Maurice!!
  14. Douglas Allen
    Alison, Indeed it was. I too recorded it on to DVD when it was broadcast in 2004 as the final part of the programme to commemorate the Ashton centenary. The cast featured Cojacaru, Bonelli, Nunes and Soares. I was watching it only last week. It is also on You Tube, in six parts but covering the whole ballet. I don't know how long it has been there. I stumbled on it by chance a few months ago.
  15. Douglas Allen
    Yes, I always tried to avoid those seats like the plague!
  16. Douglas Allen
    Even at the end of the run of performances I still can't work out whether The Unknown Soldier is primarily about the destructive horror of war and its inevitable consequences or about the nature of unexpected loss (which happens to be caused by war). The focus isn't clear and the ballet doesn't work. There are sidebars of distraction in its construction: the use of recorded voices renders a lot of the ballet meaningless to a non-English speaking viewer, the scrims obliterating much of the action/choreography to higher-positioned viewers and the inappropriateness of much of the telegram boy (he wouldn't be sent to anyone other than the official next of kin and at that time, the appearance of a telegram boy would be bad news - a light, jaunty approach would not be evident). Regarding Symphony in C, while the Royal Ballet are going through an exceptionally strong phase at the moment, there is a risk that they approach Balanchine as if it were a Petipa ballet which has always been my complaint about the Maryinsky. This tendency isn't yet totally set in stone, but seems to be creeping in to some of the performances - the flick of the wrist, the flinging back of the head or the extra-wide smile at the end of a sequence don't belong here and needs to be discouraged. There were comments earlier in this thread about whether the women should be smiling or serene, They quite definitely should have a neutral demeanour. Balanchine, I think, emphasised this ,to go by what people who were there when he was reworking it for NYCB clearly remembered.
  17. Douglas Allen
    Replying to Jane S and Alison, Yes - the amphi was reconstructed in 1964 and how it looked was shown in The Red Shoes. The amphi gallery was bench seats and was usually first come, first seated. The division between gallery and amphi stalls was marked by a wooden divider which raised the gallery part slightly above the level of the amphi stalls. The gallery had a separate entrance from the amphi stalls (a kind of further division of hoi polloi) and the amphi stalls had numbered seats (though narrower than the seats downstairs and without armrests except at the end of rows). The amphi stalls corresponded to rows A-G and the gallery corresponded to row H and beyond.
  18. Douglas Allen
    I wonder if it would be possible for the administrators of the Forum to collect the responses to this thread and the one relating to the "new" Covent Garden experience (18 pages and counting at present) and send them unaltered as a present to the chairman so that he is aware, at least, of the feelings of a significant group of Royal Ballet goers? The general reaction has been partially appreciative, but largely critical (verging on the scornful in many cases). I don't have confidence that anyone at the opera house follows fora such as this but at least by doing this we would be contributing to that eagerly sought after aim of "feedback". What do people think?
  19. Douglas Allen
    As the following replies suggest, I don't think many people would agree that the Yates' orchestration represents an improvement on the Lucas version. That's not to suggest that Leighton Lucas's work is particularly praiseworthy. When Manon was being created, the selection of the pieces of music was initially undertaken by Macmillan with suggestions by Hilda Gaunt who was the rehearsal pianist for almost the whole of the creative process. Lucas, I believe, made a few suggestions but was primarily brought in to create the orchestrations quite some time into the work. Almost all of the rehearsals were done to piano and the cast rehearsed with the orchestra only quite late in the whole procedure. I remember how pleased the company were with the music as rehearsals proceeded (played and elaborated by Hilda Gaunt) and how shocked they were when they first heard the orchestral version which many of them thought somewhat heavy handed and lacking in melodic subtlety.
  20. Douglas Allen
    Ah - so you still have that joy to come. I can't possibly spoil the surprise.
  21. Douglas Allen
    I thought the Tardis had been reserved for supporters of The Unknown Soldier. Has Ms Nunez gone on record about this work?
  22. Douglas Allen
    The downside of that is that you might be transported in an instant several million miles away - possibly in the company of Bradley Walsh.
  23. Douglas Allen
    Of course. Everyone is entitled to their point of view - no matter now eccentric. Just as in days of yore when most newspapers had regular ballet critics, it was always helpful to know whose judgements about ballets were totally unreliable. For many years the Daily Telegraph had a critic who, if he pronounced a new work to be a masterpiece, I knew I would hate. Never failed and it was very useful. Fonty - many thanks for the link to the NY Times review. It was great to be reminded just how perceptive and evocative a daily reviewer was Anna Kisselgoff. Also, what a triple bill - Scenes de Ballet, Gloria and Daphnis not to mention the glorious casting ... why don't we get triples like that anymore?
  24. Douglas Allen
    See what I mean?
  25. Douglas Allen
    At first sight, yes. It seems nice for dancers to applaud each other at curtain calls. On reflection, though, I disagree quite strongly with this practice. At curtain calls, the cast, collectively and individually are there on stage to acknowledge the applause (or otherwise) from the audience to them. It should not be for them to indulge in mutual congratulations. It is almost as if they are pre-empting and anticipating the audience's response. It would inevitably lead to someone in the audience noticing if dancer A did not applaud dancer B and begin some round of speculation. While they are in front of the curtain and in view of the audience, dancers should refrain from this kind of display unless the circumstances are exceptional (and I don't just mean a good performance). What Richard LH was referring to in his post above is different. Osipova was applauding Nunez out of sight of the audience (save for those in the extremities peering through the opening of the curtain. That is a genuine expression of pleasure and congratulations.
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