Vanartus

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.

40 minutes ago, AnticaFiamma said:

 

Isn't that Dante? Because I'm definitely seeing Dante in Copenhagen in November!

Yep - I edited my monster mix up in my message! I’ll be seeing the Sunday matinee 

I’ll be seeing it in Copenhagen with the RDB in November!

….RUBBISH I‘m going mad - it’s the Dante Project I’m seeing!!! 😂

On 03/07/2023 at 11:06, David said:

The preoccupation rightly has focussed on the absurdity of the pricing structures but my family remain equally concerned re the dearth of casting information. With our booking slot due in a couple of days there is no way that we will be booking for The Dante Project  and The Nutcracker unless we know who will be dancing and when. It looks like we are going to save a lot of money!

In the end I caved in and booked two tickets for final eve Dante…

No, you made the right choice in 2018 with Mayerling! Regret nothing!

12 hours ago, JNC said:

on the basis of this link, the exact same seat for DQ I sat in for the 2018 revival has doubled (£26 to £52). I don’t know what the stalls seats would have cost but surely more than £75 (current equivalent price is £150, so going by half of that..)

 

Nothing clearer to me than ROH actively trying to price out those with less financial means. I’d known this for a while but even I am astonished at how obvious it is with this evidence.

 

Hardly any seats at £36 or less - many restricted view - (and the £52 category is also quite proportionally small by number) so at a visual guess easily 2/3 seats at £67 or more. Horrendous. I will be cancelling my membership and noting this is a very disadvantaging strategy that I don’t support, and haven’t ever, but can no longer support via being a “friend”. Maybe they won’t care, perhaps they think all friends are rich!

 

I used to invite many friends (not roh friends, just friends!) to the ballet, wanting to share my love for it and at £30 tickets for mid amphitheatre I often got people giving it a go and having a good night (and planning return visits, not always but sometimes) and remaking they thought the tickets were good value for money (not to be confused with cheap / underpriced). Now I’d be embarrassed to ask friends to pay £36 for a restricted view very far from the stage, and for first timers £52+ is a risk (I myself baulk a little at £52 but if I want to see a particular production or cast, I know what I’m getting in for). If I’m embarrassed to ask my friends to pay this, in a cost of living crisis, why is Roh asking me a “friend” to do so, on top of supporting them monthly! 
 

I dread to think of what swan lake pricing will be, and manon…I may not be able to go at all and save my money for Ashton and MacMillan, once only each. 

It’s very sad. This will be my last year as a (basic) Friend. I’ve been one since 1976, but it just doesn’t seem to be worthwhile anymore. And I’m shocked at the latest price rises, particularly for Don Q. I’ll still try and get a couple of tickets for the Osipova dates, but I’m going to see Dante In Copenhagen in November so I’ll skip London unless I can get a cheap deal. Otherwise it’ll be just the Ashton and MacMillan bills, with Manon if the casting calls…Amphi sides only for all!

Oh sorry you didn’t see this, but the ticket did find a good home - he was totally floored by Sacré. It was my third attempt to see it - missed Bausch company, missed ENB and now Berlin. I’m cursed never to see it!

Would anyone like my ticket for Staatsballett Berlin Petruschka and Bausch Rite of Spring tonight? I can’t get back to Berlin today and I don’t want the ticket (Erster Rang, Reihe 3, Platz 14 so good seat) to go unused - it’s free! DM me.

6 hours ago, Vanartus said:

I moved down to London in 1976 to do my PGCE at Goldsmiths. I was really lucky to catch her last years with the Royal. I saw her in Sleeping Beauty, Manon, Mayerling, Dances at a Gathering, Gloriana, Voluntaries and a John Neumeier work - Third Symphony which didn’t stay in the rep. Oh and The Concert! I was incredibly privileged to see her in so many roles.

…oh and Month in a Country! How could I forget?

2 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

IIRC, when LFB/ENB performed Anastasia Act 3, Anna was danced by both Lynn Seymour and Trinidad Sevillano.  

 

I was not a ballet watcher during Lynn Seymour's stellar career but I did see her as Tatiana in Onegin (I can still well up thinking about her), in Peter Schauffus production of Nutcracker for LFB/ENB (sadly looking very out of shape in the grand pdd (the Sugar Plum solo was not performed when I saw it) and as Lowry's Mother in A Simple Man.

I moved down to London in 1976 to do my PGCE at Goldsmiths. I was really lucky to catch her last years with the Royal. I saw her in Sleeping Beauty, Manon, Mayerling, Dances at a Gathering, Gloriana, Voluntaries and a John Neumeier work - Third Symphony which didn’t stay in the rep. Oh and The Concert! I was incredibly privileged to see her in so many roles.

I enjoyed all parts of the triple bill and felt privileged to have seen it. I thought the new McGregor amazing. Loved the music especially, and the set and costumes were wonderful. If that’s a case of the Emperor’s new clothes, then all hail, and I’ll order the whole collection. Wish I could have seen it again, so much to see and take in. I liked Corybantic Games the first time round, but really liked it this time - particularly the revised Erdem costumes. Some great stand-out moments. The original one-act version of Anastasia is the one I actually prefer. Happy to see the later three-act extended piece, but less is more in my opinion. I thought it was a great piece to end a thrilling evening! 

…will see the final show on June 24 - thank heavens I booked early!

2 hours ago, Ondine said:

 

Except it is aimed at me!  It is! And it's bizarre to keep having considered posts 'vanished' or thread locked with a metaphorical wrist slap.

 

As for your photo, I prefer the Sleeping Beauty tiara.  More glitzy.

 

Yes apparently you can mute people. Maybe the readily offended can search for that facility!

 

And I also feel many works are not helped by the size of the ROH, I agree, and I'd be grumpy about certain ballets / danceworks standing all evening peering through binoculars a very VERY a long way from the stage, after enduring problems buying tickets, travel difficulties, eaters munching away, phone flashers next to me... all the stuff endlessly posted about here (ducks)...

 

Ballet though. It's supposed to be entertaining.

 

 

 

 

 

Agree…

and while “I’m/we’re at it” @Fonty if the pointe shoe fits - or glass slipper - then my comment referring to Wayne McGregor getting routinely slammed,  does apply to you because you had previously agreed with another post where some sort of mutual severance from the RB should be on the cards! But it applies to all the others who routinely join in the criticism, not just you.

1 hour ago, Ondine said:

 

 

No. You're... disappeared. 😐

 

At times it's simply baffling.  And rather offputting.

 

 

It’s happened to me and I quite agree!

2 hours ago, Fonty said:

I can only assume that McGregor puts bums on seats, and that is why he remains in post.  For some, he seems to be able to do no wrong.   Having said that, I have always wondered if there is a case of the Emperor's new clothes when it comes to audience members raving about his many works. Print a 4 page synopsis with lots of long words explaining the concept and the creative process, get the wonderful dancers to perform a multitude of contortions with everyone on stage doing something different, clad them in weird costumes and bingo!  This is seen as "cutting edge."  Whatever that means.  

 

Apologies to those who actually like his stuff.  No personal offence intended, as I am sure you will realise.  

 

 

…for some he seems not able to do anything right! 

51 minutes ago, Silke H said:

Cast in the rehearsal was the same as evening. It suggests that in true McG style rehearsals started late and with choreo being tailored to creating cast that there’s no time to properly rehearse a second cast 

Could you explain your comment “in true McG style…”, is he known for late starts? Any proof/concrete examples?

Well if this is the reaction to the ballet before its premiere, I can’t wait for the reaction after! 🤣

1 hour ago, Sophoife said:

 

 

This type of question, and answer, always makes me laugh, almost hysterically.

 

AusBallet opens its next Melbourne season on June 16, and has not yet made available any casting. God forbid they should announce Swan Lake casting (season opens 19 September) before, oh, about 6 September.

 

Next year's subscriptions will open in September this year, and we will as always be expected to book in complete ignorance of casting. On the one hand, yay we can discover dancers we may not have seen before, on the other hand, it can get extremely expensive booking multiple shows in order to hopefully get as many different casts as possible, or a favourite cast.

 

In my case I have also to factor in travel and overnight accommodation as a) it's a seven hour round trip by road and b) there is no possibility unless it's a matinée of making the round trip by train in one day - the last train leaves Melbourne at 8pm.

Heavens - that really is ballet planning on the edge of your seat! I live in Berlin, so the earlier I know about RB casting, the more relaxed I am. The funny thing is, the RB is now the only company I bother about casting. I tend to prioritise Osipova, and then I’ll try for Hayward. Otherwise I’ll go for dates rather than faces. With my adopted city of Berlin, I’ve deliberately remained unattached from casts. There’s a certain feeling of liberation and consequent relaxation! 

Hopefully the long trousers!