ChrisG

Not quite everyone - certainly not me! For me the mark of a good work is when you’re still thinking through it days after seeing it. It’s a work that will live with me for a long time, especially the beautiful 2nd movement. I think it’ll outlast any adverse criticism, no matter how distinguished its source.

I attended the pre-show talk on Friday where Tamarin Stott talked about the way the work came together. Apparently the choreography is very much collaborative effort between 'Jess' and 'Morgs' even though individually they have very different styles. Tamarin talked about the intense huddles they would have when trying to solve a particularly knotty choreographic problem.

I noticed that nobody seemed to have commented on Scottish Ballet’s new production of Coppélia, either in its first run at the Edinburgh Festival or on its subsequent Scottish tour, so I thought I’d better remedy that! I saw two of the last four performances of the run at the wonderful Eden Court Theatre on the banks of the River Ness in Inverness, surely the furthest north full-scale ballet is ever performed in the UK! This new Coppélia, choreographed by the duo of Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple, aka Jess and Morgs, is a completely new take 150 years on from the original ballet, but the spirit of that original lives on not just in the names of the main characters but in the essence of the story. In this version, Coppélia is not an automaton, but piece of artificial intelligence, an avatar if you will, created by the Silicon Valley entrepreneur Dr Coppelius, reminiscent of Elon Musk even down to the model rocket he keeps on his desk. Swanhilda and her fiancé Franz are investigative reporters sent to Coppelius’ ‘NuLife’ company HQ to interview him and to try and uncover the secret of what he is up to. He demonstrates an early version of the Coppélia avatar which ends in an embarrassing malfunction but not before Franz, as in the original, has taken a shine to her. Swanhilda interviews Coppelius and they clash over the ethics of creating artificial life that mimics human behaviour. The couple are invited to spend the night at the facility but Swanilda decides to leave Franz sleeping and goes off to investigate the facility and discovers the room where a number of the avatars are kept. She brings them to life with a remote and marvels at the range and subtlety of their movements. She discovers the interface and finds that she can enter into it and inhabit the Coppélia avatar. Meanwhile, Coppelius, frustrated at the failure of his demonstration, finds Franz wandering the facility in search of Coppélia and offers him a drugged drink, believing, again as in the original, that he can use his life force to make the avatar more lifelike. He hooks up the sleeping Franz to effect the transfer. Within the avatar, Swanilda sees this happening and fools Coppelius into thinking he has been successful in a long duet in which Coppelius is essentially seduced by her. All of the other avatars, dressed identically to Coppélia be they male or female dancers, appear out of the interface and dance with Swanilda/Coppélia. Finally, Coppelius, dazed and confused by what he has seen, is pulled into the interface by Swanilda who shows him she was driving Coppélia all along. She escapes the interface, leaving Coppelius stuck in virtual reality, and is reconciled with Franz for a final, slightly reluctant duet. I thought I’d better give that brief synopsis because it shows that in essence it still is the story of Coppélia that we know and love, and I have to say I really loved the production. Not least of its virtues is its dazzling use of technology, using computer graphics, as well as pre-recorded video and output from a hand-held camera carried round the stage by one of the dancers that is projected onto the screens and the back and sides of the stage. There are minimal props, but from time to time a pod is pushed onto the stage that doubles as Coppelius’ office and Franz and Swanilda’s bedroom. The pod is pushed round and round while the action is taking place within it, which along with the video from the camera gives the audience a fully-immersive 360 degree view of what is going on. The music pays homage to Delibes’ original in much the same way as the score for ENB’s Giselle pays homage to Adam’s score, mixing it with elements of electronic music and full-on dance music. One nice touch was when at one point Coppelius entered the stage engaging in a bout of ‘boxercise’ with the orchestra apparently playing the Act 1 mazurka, only for it to be revealed when he took one of them out that he was listening to a recording through his Airpods! The dancing gave me lots of echoes of other contemporary works I have seen: the scenes of the facility staff working reminded me of NB’s 1984, the two interviews between Swanilda and Coppelius, where the dancers move to the soundtrack of a real interview voiced by actors, is similar to Crystal Pite’s The Statement, and a party that Swanilda and Franz gatecrash is very like Forsyte’s Playlist. Overall the dance style is in the MacGregor ball park, contemporary but with hints of classicism, especially towards the end where Coppélia and the female avatars dance on pointe. Seeing two performaces I was hoping I would see two casts to contrast and compare, but interestingly, although there are three different casts, all the shows at each venue appear to be being danced by the same cast. Logistically this seems to make sense, as each cast needs to match up with the pre-recorded video that was shot of them, and only having one set of videos to worry about at each venue makes things easier. That meant that at both performances I got to see Jerome Barnes as Franz, Bruno Macchiardi as Coppelus, and artist Anna Williams as Swanilda. Despite a couple of asynchronous interactions with her pre-recorded self, Williams was simply wonderful, channelling her inner Lois Lane as the dogged investigative reporter. Her duet with the marvellous oily Coppelius of Macchiardi was the highlight of the show, though her duets with Barnes’ suitably dopey Franz were touching. The corps, as always with Scottish Ballet, were superb, whether they were playing keen young employees of Coppelius or robotic avatars. Both nights the audience absolutely loved it, with spontaneous standing ovations both times. It’s definitely a production that should make it south of the border, hopefully not just to Sadler’s Wells but also venues further north - I feel sure it would go down a storm at the Lowry! As it is Scotland has had a treat over the last few months. I’m so glad I included Inverness in the itinerary for my autumn mini-break, though there were times on Thursday when I was battling over Rannoch Moor in a biblical rainstorm that I feared I would be washed away. But I made it and I have to say that Inverness is a wonderful city and Eden Court is a lovely theatre worthy of any ballet lover’s attention. Maybe have a nice winter break there to coincide with SB’s Snow Queen in January!

I was in the circle for the matinée yesterday and having seen the crush of people waiting to get into the stalls assumed it would be busy upstairs too. There were a healthy enough number up there but I'd say it was probably only 40-50% full. Having said that though the Empire is a huge theatre and the circle is particularly massive, so it wasn't too bad for a matinée. I too enjoyed the production though I found the sets a little bit 'beige'! I was racking my brains to try and remember where I'd come across Lorenzo Trossello so thanks for reminding me. At times he felt a bit tentative in his solos but his partnering of the wonderful Shiori Kase was exemplary and all in all it was an auspicious debut. Apart from that I was very taken with Emily Suzuki, Francesca Velicu and Erik Woolhouse in the Act 1 pas de trois and also loved Francesca in the Ashton Neapolitan Dance in Act 3. Best thing about the Empire is of course the two minute walk to the entrance to the Wirral Line for the train home!

I remember being impressed by Semperoper Ballet's Forsythe programme at Sadler's Wells four years ago, and though one shouldn't base one's opinion on just one performance seen, I'm quietly encouraged by this appointment. If it means that at least one British company has links with the current European classical and neo-classical tradition then I for one would be happy.

I've listed my favourite Royal Ballet performances of 2021/22 on another thread, but of the other stuff I saw during the season here are the ones I liked the most: Carmen - Jose Agudo Dance Company at Storyhouse Chester Don Quixote - Birmingham Royal Ballet at Birmingham Hippodrome and Salford Lowry (both with Momoko Hirata and Mathias Dingman in the lead roles) Paysage, Soudain, la nuit - part of Acosta Danza programme at the Lowry Bradley 4:18 - part of Balletboyz programme at Storyhouse Chester Forsythe Evening - English National Ballet at Sadler's Wells The Scandal at Mayerling - Scottish Ballet at Festival Theatre Edinburgh Bonded - Alleyne Dance at Victoria Square Birmingham (an unexpected outdoor treat on my way to the BRB mixed bill at the Birmingham Hippodrome in June)

Living 180 miles away from London I only get to see one performance of every programme, and therefore I have to choose carefully. Sometimes I choose well and sometimes I don't, but my five favourite performances at the Royal Opera Hoouse for the season just ended would be: Dante Project, simply because it was Ed Watson's farewell performance Giselle, with the wonderful Akane Takada, partnered by Cesar Corrales Nutcracker, for finally seeing Isabella Gasparini as Clara Swan Lake, with the inestimable Natalia Osipova and Reece Clarke Yondering from the Royal Ballet School, which made me smile almost more than anything else this year

The programme actually said 'This afternoon's performance will be filmed for the School by BalletBoyz' and then named the couple who had sponsored the film. Whilst they might have engaged high profile film-makers like BalletBoyz simply to do a glossy internal promo, might it also be the case that they engaged them so that they might have something for some future public release. Just thinking aloud! I guess it all comes down to what 'for the School' means.

It was a total joy!

Yes, it does - I’d forgotten about that! I have to say that even as a singer myself I didn’t miss it despite whatever its significance may be. I’m guessing it was one of the first things on the cutting room floor

Avanti West Coast got me safely up to a cool, breezy and damp Edinburgh to see the second show of the Festival Theatre run of The Scandal at Mayerling. From what I'd read and heard of this production and that I've never been disappointed by Scottish Ballet yet I had high hopes, even though in the original RB version it's my least favourite of the Macmillan 'big three' with Manon and R&J. Those hopes were totally justified - it was like seeing something entirely new and yet totally familiar, and I loved it. What Christopher Hampson and Gary Harris have done is to strip back the production to its essentials by getting rid of much of the extraneous business of the original version (I wasn't entirely sure exactly what was missing - possibly a bit of Bratfisch and Hungarian Officer action and some of the brothel scene - I'd have to check the DVD to confirm this), and of the somewhat overwrought sets of the original. The new sets are minimalist, usually just a backdrop and few pieces of furniture relevant to the scene, but with clever lighting they never felt sparse. The Liszt score has also been reorchestrated by Martin Yates to fit the slightly smaller resources of the Scottish Ballet Orchestra, but it still sounded rich and full-bodied (though I have to say I was sitting directly behind the conductor's right shoulder!). What has resulted is a lean, mean version which comes in at just over two hours with a single interval (Act 1 is as the original, and Act 2 is the original Acts 2 and 3 run together). It means it concentrates more than ever on the meat of the story, the relationship between Rudolf and the women in his life, and his gradual mental deterioration, and the shorter running time really brought that deterioration into focus. Rudolf was danced tonight by Jerome Barnes, a dancer new to me, but one who'd obviously been well coached by Ed Watson (Watson and Leanne Benjamin were the two guest principal coaches from). His interpretation was very different to Watson's though. In the early scenes he had an air of laddish arrogance which as he declined was submerged by the characteristics and mannerisms of a substance abuser. A really interesting portrayal I thought. Playing Mary Vetsera, Constance Devernay, despite her many years now as an SB dancer, was convincing from the word go as a besotted teenager, but was able to darken that characterisation convincingly as she began to exert her hold over Rudolf. The other main female characters were uniformly excellent, Bethany Kingsley-Garner as a genuinely scared Princess Stephanie, Grace Horley as a slightly vain Empress Elizabeth embarrassed by her son's attentions, Marge Hendrick as a scheming Countess Larisch, and Claire Souet channelling her inner Laura Morera as Mitzi Caspar. Thomas Edwards as Bratfisch was excellent in his big Act 2 solo. The physical and emotional demands of the choreography held no fears for any of the principal dancers. A better more knowledgeable eye than mine might have spotted the odd fumble but to my eyes they were made to dance this choreography. Rudolf and Mary's final pas de deux in particular was danced full out with no prisoners taken on either side. Having seem Scottish Ballet now dance this as well as Elite Syncopations and The Fairy's Kiss I would have to say that their particular brand of theatricality is made for Macmillan's choreography. As an aside, I love how the programme proudly claims Macmillan in his biography as a Scottish choreographer - excellently done! To sum up, an extremely enjoyable evening. Maybe it'll even make me appreciate the original a bit more when I see it again next season. Hopefully it'll get to Sadler's Wells eventually like The Crucible is doing soon (another excellent production). If so, I would heartily recommend seeing it. Edit - just spotted one big cast difference comparing this version to the original - the 'Bay' Middleton character has disappeared

Really pleased Beatriz Stix-Brunell has finished her career with a nomination. I saw her last performance in After the Rain and it was astounding

So glad you like Storyhouse! Speaking as one of the volunteers it’s definitely our pride and joy and there’s a strong dance element to its offering to the public. As well as Balletboyz in the last year we’ve had Agudo Dance Company’s sultry Carmen, Rambert 2’s astonishing Home/Killer Pig (my eardrums are still recovering!), and Gecko’s remarkable physical theatre piece The Wedding. We’ve got Motionhouse coming in June, but sadly I can’t make it. If BRB ever reinstate their split tours, I would love them to use us!

Only one word to describe Osipova and Clarke tonight - WOW!

She was great in the evening show as well. Technically I suppose it's not her first cross-dressed role as if I recollect correctly the role of Peter in Ruth Brill's excellent Peter and the Wolf was made on her!

This isn't easy watching, but I thought some might find this interesting. It's produced by the Fallen Angels Dance Theatre, company-in-residence at Storyhouse here in Chester, and founded by former Birmingham Royal Ballet and Scottish Ballet dancer and recovering addict Paul Bayes Kitcher. Fallen Angels exist to provide 'exceptional dance theatre experiences for people in recovery from addiction' and are wholly admirable! It's the first of a trilogy of films to be released over the coming weeks that use professional dancers and actors plus Fallen Angels dancers recovering from addiction to trace the journey from addiction to recovery. This first film features Hannah Rudd, last seen by me back in June guesting with BRB.

I thought he did! I just checked my blu-ray collection and I've recordings of the following Neumeier ballets - Beethoven Project, La Dame aux Camélias, Ghost Light, A Midsummer NIght's Dream, Nijinsky, and Tatiana. At least two of those I think have been released in the last year!

I managed to brave Storm Eunice to drive the 80 miles south to see the Birmingham premiere of Don Quixote yesterday (got there and back without any incident and thankfully without a sign of any storm damage). Judging by the reaction of the audience at the end it's a palpable hit. Yes, just like Acosta's RB version it doesn't entirely work and especially in the outer Acts is at times just too busy, but despite that it is tremendous fun and behind my mask I was smiling for the whole show! Momoko Hirata and Mathias Dingman had real chemistry as Kitri and Basilio and seemed to be having the time of their lives. A shout out too for Brandon Lawrence who was a predictably impressive Espada. I thought the sets were especially impressive. Given the need to tour the production the RB sets would have been totally impractical so these sets are completely static! I would urge anyone to see it if they can. I'll be seeing it again at the Lowry in a couple of weeks!

Ditto! In passing, can I also say how impressed I am with BRB's programme from June through to next season - a perfect mixture of old and new, known and unknown, and classical and contemporary. Surely the most obvious, and simplest, method of rewarding members, however, is simply to give them a fixed percentage off the ticket price. Wouldn't this be the obvious way forward for the Royal Opera House?

You could be right but I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the audience when I went over to Bradford back into 2017 to see the Macmillan mixed bill

Excellent news for those of us oop north! I wonder if the seeds were sown when he danced the balcony pas de deux from Massimo Moricone's Romeo and Juliet with Abigail Prudames at their 50th birthday bash just before the first lockdown?

In their programmes the Halle have an indication of which orchestra members have achieved 20 years of service. Similarly, for us choir members, they show which us have been in the choir for 20, 30, 40 and even, in a couple of cases, 50 years. I wouldn't object if ballet companies did something similar!

I was supposed to be coming down to London today to see Nutcracker and had really been looking forward to seeing Ashley Dean as Clara. However, yesterday's announcement saved me from a difficult decision - I'm not sure I would have had the gumption to get on the train early this morning. Maybe next year. At least I can console myself with the fact that I saw one of the very few performances last year (and what a strange experience that was!). With closures like this and the many others like it affecting theatres and museums, it seems like we collectively are taking it upon ourselves to impose a de facto lockdown, in the absence of any clear lead from on high. This was bought home to me as I walked through the streets of Chester yesterday evening and noticed how empty the pubs and restaurants were. Given it was five days before Christmas it was eerily quiet. I sang in three Hallé Christmas concerts over the weekend and just before the Saturday rehearsal started one of our number had a panic attack and walked out. Tellingly, her day job is as a doctor on a Covid intensive care ward, so her action gave me huge pause for thought. I stayed, rightly or wrongly, but the concerts were a mixture of joy at being of part of what are always glorious events and a nagging fear of what the consequences might be. I think I might have felt the same sitting in the Opera House today. The hope now is that given the rate at which this variant is spreading it will peak sooner rather than later and in driving out the delta variant it may prove to be a blessing in disguise, especially if it's the first sign of the virus mutating to a milder form, as always happens to such viruses over time. My next booking is for Swan Lake in the spring. I just hope things will be better by then.