Vanartus

If only they were showing outside of the UK…

7 hours ago, alison said:

Ah yes, the loincloths.  I have a feeling they're less close to individual skin-colour than in previous runs.  Anyone else think so?

 

And the other thing I've been meaning to ask: I keep looking for a bit in Different Drummer where Woyzeck is hearing the Freemasons hammering underground, but haven't spotted it as yet.  Was I imagining it was there?

I think it’s the point where he does a sort of handstand and lowers his head/ear to the ground …I’m sure there are pics of this 

3 hours ago, bridiem said:

 

🤣 Now that could be a new thread: the ballet you would least want to be stuck with for eternity! But no, that would be far too negative. (And there would be too many options in my case!!). A better idea would be: the ballet you would most want to experience for eternity. (But, happily, there would be even more too many options for me in this category!). So I will now stop rambling.

Eternity Heaven: Symphonic Variations

Eternity Hell: Two Pigeons 

40 minutes ago, Roberta said:

 

Perhaps MacMillan, in his way,  helped change perceptions re what ballet is and acceptable subject matter. It's no longer the shock of the new. Perhaps new audiences are more accepting and comprehending. 

 

 

I think you’re right. I’ve always been a huge MacMillan supporter, but I remember feeling somehow disappointed at the first night. Second and third showings better (90’s and 00’s)…but seeing both casts in this run I found it a stunning work. The elements I wasn’t sure about 40 years ago (?!) such as the Jesus figure, the brothel scene, the gas masks etc,  just added this time round to this amazing mystical symbolic religious mash-up which went from hyper-real to surreal in a moment. That’s what you get when you see something at 30…and now at 70…now that’s something else!🤣

I saw Tierney Heap dance Carmen - she was amazing! She transformed the ballet and the role - totally threw herself into everything. She had this grittiness and toughness: I thought she channelled Joan Crawford meets 60’s kitchen sink northern drama, in a way that gave the uncertain messiness of the whole concept a real strength, a hook you could hang on the the best of the drama simply through the force of her characterisation. I think the RB lost a real star due her injury.

I agree with Sabine. Christiane Theobald did an amazing job. She was more than a caretaker, she was proactive in developing the repertoire, and  the company wasn’t held in a holding pattern until Spuck’s arrival. I too enjoyed the Malakhov directorship, he introduced Ashton’s Sylvia, and Manon was part of the programming too. There was also a version of the Wizard of Oz which was a scream, he played the wizard. The nadir for me was Nacho Duarte. He tried to hijack the repertoire for his own works - awful. Then came the mistake of the dual regime, which got some of the classics back on track, and brought in Sharon Eyal’s Half Life, but it was a mess. Thank heavens Christiane knew the company well, knew the Berlin audience, and had great taste in both choreographers and the range of work in both the classical and modern repertoire. My only personal plea would be for Berlin to look back at the MacMillan ballets which were created in Berlin - Concerto, Anastasia one-act. I was lucky enough to talk to Christian Spuck two weeks ago, and he was clear that he didn’t want to overstock the company with his own work. He really does want to get the full range, and further develop its own identity which I find really good. 

19 minutes ago, alison said:

 Did Osipova do Titania in a previous season?  

Yep - early days at RB with Matthew Golding

20 minutes ago, alison said:

 

I think you must be confusing dates, Vanartus: Watson (and Putrov) definitely did the "tightrope walk" along the railway line at the end, so it must be a previous run you're thinking of.  I don't remember Cooper being in the ballet, but I could simply have missed it.  I think there may have been something in my 2008 programme about the ending having been changed, unless it was in the current one which I had a glimpse of last night.

Ah! The mystery deepens - or rather my mind ‘n memory are addled…I know when I saw Watson I was half way along the lower slips so that’s my pathetic excuse for not seeing the railway walk! But I am def right about the apotheosis and removal of it …hope someone else has a better memory than me! 

Quick question re Different Drummer. The ending last night was different from the first run back in 1984 - I was there first night - and different from the last performance I saw with Edward Watson. I must have seen in once again before the Watson run…I think with Adam Cooper but not sure, but deffo saw it three times before. The first performance ending had a type of Swan Lake apotheosis where the two covered bodies were on autopsy slabs, while in the background Wozzeck and Marie were together in a micro pdd moment of embrace. This in particular got criticised by Mary Clarke - avid MacMillan supporter - who felt it was completely at odds with spirit of play. In the next two runs I saw, MacMillan cut the apotheosis, and it ended with two bodies on separate trolleys being pushed to the rear of stage…so together in dissected death, with no spiritual redemption. So I was surprised last night to see a new ending with a ghostly Wozzeck walking along the tracks, and I wondered how that came about…was it a third ending that had come to light through research…I’m intrigued.

It goes without saying I was stunned by both Sambé and Hayward, and all the cast. Gripping throughout. DC was a great opener, and as for Requiem- just sigh…

I agree the tone was arrogant, impatient and threatening. That “I know other people who…” not nice and not necessary. But sadly them wot should know better often don’t..

13 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

So the offer is 40% off the £110 and £104 tickets? In which case I wish the ROH had sent it to me as that would bring the prices down to around £63-66 and I would consider paying that for an unrestricted view stalls seat given I'm already paying £39 for a restricted view stalls circle bench one.

I quite agree - I’m an ordinary friend and I didn’t get the discount offer.

Not sure what happened to my Staatsballett Berlin Forum post from this morning  …any issues!

…I’ll be going March 4 - really regret not trying to book for premiere…my loss, your report was wonderful- what a fab evening! 

LOL - I’m a hopeless reviewer but I’ll put something together.

Will be seeing it on Thursday March 7

3 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

I find the appellation “a thought leader” very worrying. 

Honestly, please don’t get caught up on/in this admittedly clunky appellation. He’s really doing some interesting stuff and what he writes does make sense about changing sensitivities and sensibilities. He did a fascinating live production in the Brighton Pavilion a few years ago, where he restored/recreated a “chinoiserie” dance piece: https://nyuarthistory.wordpress.com/2021/12/01/contemporary-reinterpretation-of-the-ballet-des-porcelaines-also-known-as-the-teapot-prince/

10 hours ago, Scheherezade said:

I’d say it was just disappointing, West End stage rather than Royal Ballet. Anticipation was high but what came out in the wash was a lukewarm approximation of something that felt as though it should have been so much more. 

I saw it twice with both Osipova and Cuthbertson. It certainly wasn’t bad, it just didn’t really hit the mark, because I’m not sure if they knew what mark they were aiming for. The idea was good, the story line tempting, but perhaps there were no depths - hidden or otherwise - to the actual subject matter. Perhaps MacMillan or Scarlett could have dug deeper, perhaps the dancing prancing French waiters killed the serious drama, but I’d like to have seen a darker rework. Or perhaps it needed an Ashton touch to make better sense of the period. Glad I saw it though.

https://www.rdo-berlin.de/
 

…the restaurant of the Deutsche Oper Berlin where some of the ballets are staged is right next to the building. The front part is the restaurant, and behind a partly closed velvet curtain is the canteen for the dancers, singers and stage crew. It’s all like a magic mirror, two worlds semi co-existing!

Wow! I really enjoyed reading this - very helpful too. I had a humdinger of a row (in public to my shame) with a ballet critic who was way over the top critical, and particularly nasty about Osipova. I’d like to see it again live, and I agree with you its “home” is probably outside of the RB. A pity though…

19 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Yamine Naghdi as Lescaut's Mistress totally  stealing the show (you couldn't take your eyes off her) portraying a completely different type of character after her sweet and girly Juliet, Olga and Aurora! I think Yasmine should be given more feisty characters like that. 👍 

 

Reece Clarke blowing us away as a completely haughty, aloof, alpha male Onegin after portraying many good guy, modest Cavaliers, Florimunds etc. If anyone was worried that he might be overshadowed by a big star like Osipova as his Tatiana, there was absolutely none of that. Also, an incredible performance (one of the best ever) of that demanding Act 1 solo with the tricky turns (rock solid!) and timing of the jumps (so high!)....wowzer! I still think he should have been promoted to principal immediately after his Onegins (I think many directors would have done it like that) but never mind, it was done eventually.  😊

I was knocked out by his amazing debut in Symphonic Variations 

2 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

 

Please could we have one more revival first because I'd really like to see it!

Stick with the film - nice scenery too!

5 hours ago, alison said:

 

And Prodigal Son  

 

(Yes, you may well be in a minority of one, Dave!)

Two! I’d like to see LFE again …

On 24/10/2023 at 14:50, Angela said:

There will be a new ballet/dance company at Cologne, which, although it is the fourth most-populous city in Germany and home to the German Dance Archive, has a sad history of dance companies. Once Todd Bolender was ballet director there, but somewhere in the 1970s, the ballet turned into the first contemporary dance company of a German opera house, then it was kicked out into the off-scene in 1995, the dance section was closed and the Tanzforum Köln died some years later. The dance section at the opera reopened for a few years from 2005 till 2009 for Amanda Miller's company "pretty ugly", then there were plans for a dance collaboration with near-by Bonn, then there was the Ballet of Difference with Richard Siegal, which was kicked out last year. Now they reopen their renovated opera house and start another attempt at dance. Apply here: http://buehnen.koeln/open-call

 

"Cologne, once renowned as a city of dance with numerous national and international successes, plans to establish dance, alongside opera and drama, as an independent artistic division at Bühnen Köln from the 2024/25 season on. For this purpose, Stadt Köln is advertising the position of a directorship in a transparent competition process, combined with a call for submission of a meaningful concept for the artistic and organizational profile of the new dance division yet to be founded. The aim of the call is to permanently establish Cologne as a creative hub for dance with international appeal."

I really can’t understand why they didn’t just beef up the Ballett am Rhein…there would be some more juggling with Cologne added to the the rotation of Düsseldorf and Duisburg, but surely Nordrhein-Westfalen needs one bigger company not just another add-on. I’m not so sure…seems like city on city rivalries!

10 minutes ago, annamk said:

 

I'm sure the reason for the slow sales is entirely to do with the programme; I wouldn't go if I was given a ticket. Neither myself nor a single one of my regular ballet going friends has booked any performances for this mixed bill, we can't be unusual. If it had been a mixed bill with made up of some of the following: Ashton, Balanchine, Bournonville, Forsythe, Ratmansky just to pick a few, I'd have gone to every performance. 

 

IMO The Cellist/Anemoi is a bill for The Linbury theatre. 

 

Completely agree! I’d have made it a triple bill with Enigma Variations 

Saw it with the same cast the other week - stunning indeed. As far as I know/could see - choreography is the same. Just costumes and sets different.