northstar

@art_enthusiast I very much agree with Janet's comments above. I rate Mizutani as highly as any ballerina I've seen (live or otherwise). I don't visit RB but I've seen Cojocaru dance live (several times with ENB, most recently an astonishing performance in Sleeping Beauty in 2018). Other 'names' outside BRB I've seen live include Sylvie Guillem, Tamara Rojo, Jurgita Dronina. Mizutani is up there with all of them in my opinion (and must say - so are many other dancers in BRB). Her mastery of the art form, particularly in the last couple of years, I have found so convincing and thrilling (particularly since 2022 leading DonQ, Coppelia, Swan Lake). I would travel to see Mizutani dance and am currently considering travelling to see her again in Sleeping Beauty in BRB's current tour. I saw her in Salford in as Aurora in March with Lachlan Monaghan (which I posted about earlier in this thread) and don't think I adequately expressed how much I admired her performance. Max Maslen is an exquisite dancer who has similarly risen to mastery in the same cohort as Mizutani. I first really noticed him in Bintley's King Dances years ago, and he fills me with confidence when appearing in any leading role - I saw him in Salford too as the Prince, but not with Mizutani. He is without doubt a principal dancer who would grace any stage or company worldwide. So it's a fabulous cast exactly as Janet says. I can understand and sympathise with those who booked specifically for Cojocaru, as I have done so myself in the past. But if you've got a ticket for Mizutani and Maslen in Sleeping Beauty, that's a sensational rare treat to look forward to.

Thanks for the discussion and information on the audiences and touring changes, this is most interesting. Just to add. For this Sleeping Beauty run at the Lowry on the Saturday matinee the house was getting near capacity, as full as I ever seen this theatre for ballet, I was in the upper circle and empty seats were hard to spot. For Sat eve the front circle was filled well, but a lot of the upper circle was sparse/empty apart from the front row - I think this a lot more 'usual' in my experience. I've found it very hard to gauge audience attendance over the years, I've often sat in very sparse theatres, but sometimes packed ones. I had already noticed changes in BRB touring which pre-dated the pandemic, and weren't positive for me up here in NW England. I imagine there are many factors involved, I wasn't aware that the council funding is being completely removed by 2026. Thanks ShielaC for the info about the Caroline Miller interview she did at least provide some reassuring words that the cuts could be managed.

Thanks all for the reviews of this run of BRB Sleeping Beauty. I attended Saturday matinee and evening performances at the Lowry, led by Miki Mizutani/Lachalan Monaghan and Yaoqian Shang/Max Maslen respectively. This sensational, spectacular production has been a huge part of my ballet appreciation for 20 years, and I was very glad to see it again in Salford, after the previous visit in 2018. Mizutani I find incandescent in everything she does, it was the first time I had seen her as Aurora. She seems to inhabit the character with such delicate nobility and meets the virtuoso demands with ease, she gave me everything I could ask for - everything anyone could ask for, surely. The prince in SB has such scant individual opportunity but in the showpiece solos in Act II and especially Act III I was stunned by Monaghan's mastery. I would also mention the Bluebird and Enchanted Princess pdd with Enrique Bejarano Vidal as Sofia Liñares as a highlight, it was notable for it's intention and poise. In the evening performance Shang had an ebullience and brilliance which felt very fresh and engaging to me. I've not seen her dance much, I think I've only seen her in a lead role in Bintley's Aladdin years ago. Max Maslen's presence as the Prince was stately and assured. Having racked up a few BRB SBs now I did think of differences over the years and I did notice this time there was no awakening pdd adagio, thanks very much for the confirmation on this thread and for the reasons why, very interesting. It's a lovely and unique feature of this production, but while I admire it in isolation, I have to say I always felt there is an element of it not quite fitting with the atmosphere of the whole work. And perhaps it's a symptom of having seen it so many times, or seeing multiple performances in a week/day, but I thought on this occasion the slightly shorter running time was an advantage. I also reflect on the BRB Lowry schedule. I have been used to in previous years seeing 6 performances in a run, I recall Wed-Sat with two matinees. Since 2023 I think the spring visit (no autumn visit since 2018, another story) is only Thu-Sat with one matinee. Can't help feeling a little sad about this. Nonetheless I'm grateful to have BRB come to the Lowry full stop, and conscious of such a privilege to see such a production, whose quality in all respects must equal or surpass any other production worldwide. I especially enjoy this late winter/early spring visit to Salford which for me is as much part of spring as seeing the daffodils come up.

Happy new year, and thanks so much, to all who contribute and manage this wonderful resource of BalletcoForum. In 2024 it seems not as easy as it used to be to find thoughtful open forum discussion/community on the internet. The open non-commercial spirit of the internet, that used to exist a few years ago, seems to have deteriorated. There is something here which is special and not provided by TikTok, Instagram, or even Facebook. The interaction I have here feels more meaningful than on many social media channels, and I've met several members of the forum in person which I don't think I can say of other social media. Thanks again and long may it continue!

Thanks ballet forum members for flagging up the superb series broadcast on the BBC again this xmas period. As soon as I started watching it I was captivated by Fonteyn's delivery, the narrative and scripting, and of course the superb dance clips of exceptional legendary dancers, as well as a fascinating variety of examples of dance. And wonderful interviews too. It seems to have some indefinable quality and seriousness that used to be the BBC hallmark, but which sadly I do not find to quite the same level, in modern BBC documentary work. Only seen a couple of episode but I'm already re-watching bits for sheer pleasure/fascination. I was really struck by Makarova's dancing Swan Lake Act II pdd adagio, yes I know it's slow - and to my understanding it set a trend which continues to today, which has probably gone too far. But watching that clip I could really see the vitality of Makarova's interpretation, it looked so new to me. A shame it's only on iplayer for 1 month but I understand you can get quite a bit of the series on YouTube, maybe not to the same video quality.

Thanks to Ballet Forum members for starting and contributing to this thread. Must admit I felt disappointed at the first info that was posted, indicating on BBC only repeats of ballet programmes of recent years, and for the prime slot a Matthew Bourne that's 'new' but the production been filmed and broadcast before. Seemed to indicate a loss on interest from the BBC in classical ballet, when I remember 10-20 years ago a relatively newly filmed classical ballet would be broadcast in a good slot on BBC at xmas nearly every year. But maybe I'm being a bit stuffy and overly-nostalgic, the broadcasting world has changed so much in the last 5-10 years, especially with the proliferation of streaming services, including for example Royal Ballet's own service (just in 2022?). And thanks so much for drawing my attention to the Fonteyn's Magic Of Dance which is a new discovery for me, and the BBC re-broadcasting this is a wonderful example of its extant interest in ballet. Even though it's obviously an archive programme, from what I've watched so far it looks a real high quality gem and a great ballet xmas present from the BBC.

Thanks all for your reviews of 2023 BRB Nutcracker. I went on Thursday eve (30th November) and saw cast lead by Beatrice Parma and Tzu-Chao Chou as Sugar Plum and Prince, Rosanna Ely as Clara, and Miki Mizutani as the Rose Fairy. I, like many, think this is overall the best Nutracker in the UK but I'm not a total addict and I don't attend every year. I usually need a specific reason to go to Nutcracker and this year it was to see the refurbished set (first presented 2022). I did think the colours very much brighter than I remember, especially Act 2 where I thought it was a totally new design, but looking at older photos from old programmes I see it's the same. Those photos also make the set look a lot darker but I'm not sure if that is due to the way they were shot originally. BRB delivered the quality to my expectations, namely excellent. I've not seen Parma dance much and she was really good as SPF, extremely good solo. And Tzu-Chao Chu was a good match/partner. Can't lie my highlight was Mizutani as the Rose Fairy her principal poise and movement seems to shine out with such clarity in the last couple of years. The national dances were good if ever-so-slightly mixed quality I thought. I was reading the 2022 thread and seems like last year there was a change in the Arabian dance (made into duet?) but it was the 'classic' choreography, with female dancer and three men, this time. One other thing I noted in the grand PDD coda, the SPF and Prince performed counter-travelling maneges which I think is usually the choreo for the Royal Ballet version (in the BRB I think usually the prince performs fouettes in the centre of the SPF manege). I really liked Rosanna Ely as Clara I thought her freedom and playfulness, as a counter-balance in Act2 to the national dances and solos, was excellent. Packed house as I expected, very few empty seats. Regrettably these days I worry about audience behaviour, but it was decent despite quite a lot of young children, so that was a relief. Thanks BRB for being there and delivering with such reliable excellence your classic Nutcracker. Look forward to reading any more reviews of the remaining performances.

Just noticed this, perhaps the difference this year compared to previous ones is that there was never a dedicated press release proclaiming a 'national tour' of its Nutcracker. Does ENB Nutcracker ever tour widely (recent years?) I did some digging and saw that for example in 2017/2018 its Nutcracker only went to Southampton apart from London. And in 2019/20 the only non-London location was Liverpool. I'm near Liverpool and seen ENB Nutcracker by Eagling a handful of times. While the artistic production for this version is not my favourite, if it was in Liverpool I would still consider going to see certain dancers perform, or maybe to hear the music played by the fab ENB Philharmonic. But I wouldn't go to London or Southampton to see it.

Thanks for the responses, and the sympathy Mary . I am trying to do the same selectiveness of places where people behave, which unfortunately may lead me to think twice about certain ballet performances I would normally have attended. As you imply, theatres for ballet performances (and other shows) may respond to this behaviour phenomenon by some new ideas, maybe such as starting to selling performances labelled 'quiet'. I rather hope it will just come from a rebalancing of society behaviour, since you can already feel the 'reaction' in the media and audience commentary. I have to admit I'm thinking of BRB Nutcracker at Xmas (not seen it since the production refurb), but wondering will that be well-behaved? Maybe I will just become a reclusive hermit. I may just have to go to the Wigmore Hall, I've never been but that sounds perfect for me🤣, thanks MAB and Scheherezade.

Just wanted to do a bit of vent/catharsis here on audience behaviour, and reflection on the matter since the pandemic. I went to BRB Coppelia in Autumn 2022 (Birm. Hipppodrome) and experienced what I felt was the worst behaviour I'd ever witnessed at live ballet. After hearing about several more incidents of bad behaviour on this forum, and from theatre in general in the mainstream media, I've been reflecting on it more and wanted to post about it. Just to briefly describe the behaviour in Autumn 2022, I was in Upper Circle (so 'cheaper' seats) a pair of women sat next to me, it was a packed house. First was the very loud crackling sweet papers, which they did seem to realise, and tried to dampen, but only by trying to painfully/carefully slow down their sweet-unwrapping which actually made it even more irritating and noticeable. But far worse came later in the grand PDD and finale, when the younger one got a fit of the giggles and continually snorted and guffawed (unsuccessfully trying to smother it). I do wonder if I was being over-sensitive but I noticed other people around me being disturbed/upset by this commotion too. I found it more than annoying, I would actually say it was upsetting - it felt like my experience of the ballet was being violated. I've never felt like that at live ballet before. Unfortunately I can remember this quite well, a year on. More bizarrely, on the other side of me another couple actually got up and left in the middle of the galop final ! But actually this was not particularly upsetting, and an advantage to me as I quickly scooted along into their vacated seats and at least got away from the badly-behaved women, to catch the fabulous final moments of the ballet with a bit of space to myself. Also in Autumn 2022 I was at ENB Swan Lakes which which were touring Liverpool/Manchester, I saw people filming the performance on mobiles and even getting out of their seats to get a better camera angle. In Manchester it was packed and again the audience behaviour felt rather like being in a school classroom. I've been wondering 'is it just me?' (I feel I had some particularly bad pandemic life events, and possibly over-sensitive/grumpy because of that). But I've been reading this forum thread which started late 2022 and noticing the comments on worsening behaviour, e.g. the link to Graham Watts Instagram post from RB Nutcracker Dec 2022 were he experienced his worst-ever behaviour at ROH. Several more posts I've seen about 'worst ever' experiences and links to newspaper articles describing the phenomenon of this awful new trend in anti-social behaviour since the pandemic. A correlation seems to be vastly more seat sales. I've never seen the ballet so busy these past couple of years, I used to sit in half-empty theatres pre-covid. I do see newspapers talking about the huge appetite for theatre experiences post-lockdown, and unfortunate simultaneous decline in behaviour. I even notice in cities at weekends, the 'hen/stag party' atmosphere is absolutely horrendous and starts at midday, not just late evening. Admittedly my Coppelia/Swan Lake 2022 experiences weren't 'beyond the pale' . And I should state that I attended another BRB Coppelia in the same week which was fine (but I made sure I bought front circle seats!). I must also state that BRB DonQ at the Lowry Salford March 2022 was well-behaved (but sombre tone set initially and Ukrainian anthem played, just post-Putin-invasion). And lastly, just to remember nicer experiences - at BRB Swan Lake in Sunderland Empire (March 2023), really well behaved crowd (fab perfromance too); but I do think north-east people are inherently so 'sound' . I'm hoping the anti-social behaviour people mention here and in the media is just a process of readjustment due to the extreme conditions society has been through recently (primarily the pandemic), and that more moderate, respectful behaviour will again develop soon. Thanks for listening.

Thanks SheilaC for noting this. At this time of year I was just thinking how I used to enjoy BRB's annual September visit to Salford. It last happened in 2018 I think (Fille Mal Gardee?), and since then they have only come to Salford once a year, in spring. I am trying to accept that things change with the times. Economic conditions, artistic approaches, and many other features of life, will of course change as the years go on. But hard for us BRB fans, especially in the north as you mention (and especially fans of traditional, classical ballet) to be completely philosophical about these changes. I wish BRB good luck with their Orlando performance, but can't help feeling a little sad/worried, as others have indicated above, about other implications. The company is just a superb artistic jewel in the crown of the country, and I'm so glad I've been able to see their work so near my home since I've been ballet fan for ~ 25 years.

Thanks for ballet forum members for posting their thoughts and feelings about this triple bill, been really enjoying reading them all. I also attended this run, Sat matinee. Apollo lead by Mathais Dingman. Just wanted to express a growing curiosity and entrancement with the memory of the effect Apollo made on me. Not normally the sort of thing I would go for, and I'll admit I wasn't utterly entranced during, but afterwards found myself on YouTube looking at other performances. Now I've got the music in my head as an ear worm (in a good way), and the memory of those scenes and images of the dancers are recurring as a strange sort of fascination. I've only seen one Balanchine ballet before, live (Jewels). Now I wish I could go and see Apollo again, but looks like opportunities will be few (Royal Ballet did it in 2021, but before that, 2013?). Dingman's presence and excellence was something that struck me in the moment, and afterwards. I thought Interlinked was very and surprisingly beautiful, and a great element/choice for a triple bill. And now, sacrilege, I felt I couldn't connect with Still Life at the Pengiun Cafe hardly at all, god knows why. Given I've never seen it before I'm more than willing to accept it might just be me and my mood in the moment, no reflection on the quality of the dancers and musicians I hasten to add. I'd go to see it again, surely. Also mention from where I was sitting the Hippodrome looked 80-90% full (maybe ever more than this). No offence to BRB but I sort of expected it to be half-empty. Just grateful once more to have the opportunity to see this sort of quality and level of art outside London.

Thanks all for the reviews and photos from this BRB Swan Lake tour so far from Southampton and Birmingham. And the great memories from the production in ROH years ago, Emeralds. I was at the Friday 10th March 2023 evening performance at the Empire theatre in Sunderland, with Miki Mizutani and Lachlan Monaghan leading. A bit of a trek for me, I usually see BRB when they are at the Lowry, Salford in early March but unaccountably completely missed their visit this time. It was well worth the trek, because I enjoyed an evening and performance of the most superb quality and magic, which I have invariably experienced when going to see BRB. I sometimes think I've seen enough Swan Lakes now (especially this season, when ENB also did it in autumn/winter), but when the lights went down and the music of the overture started in the Sunderland Empire on Friday I was tingling, and the following performance was utterly transporting and satisfying. I am rather enamoured with Mizutani these days, especially since I saw her in Don Quixote last year, she seems to have evolved into the most stunning principal dancer that you could find amongst the great ballet companies of the world, and my main reason for choosing this performance in Sunderland. I really liked Janet's description of her as a natural Odette with the sadness/constraint of that character embodied with utter conviction/commitment. There was so much clarity and meaning to her every gesture and step; her performance was alive and distinctive. The white pdd adagios she and Monaghan performed were simply spellbinding, I feel perhaps the best I've ever seen. But also as a bright and wicked Odile (you can even see it in the photo Janet posted), her virtuosity dazzles, her very very strong technique delivers the thrill, the spectacle that is my favourite part of the ballet, again completely convincing. I found the black pdd adagio of the highest possible quality, both bravura and exquisite, the long attitude balance she held en pointe just the icing on the cake. I remember the pleasure of seeing Monaghan and Mizutani leading La Fille Mal Gardee in 2018 as rising soloists. It's an extraordinary thing to put that memory of that light lyrical performance against the grandeur and nobility of their performance on Friday, where they demonstrated mastery of the ballet Mt Everest that is Swan Lake. It seems utterly right that Monaghan is now promoted to principal, thank you for the photo PeterS. There's too much else in this masterpiece of a production, and in how it was performed on Friday, to detail. I'll just mention the princess variations in Act III as a highlight (Rachele Pizzillo, Sofia Liñares, Yuki Sugiura) were just brilliant. Still kicking myself that I missed the BRB Swan Lake stop in Salford this year, did any other forum members see any of these performances?

Thanks so much ballet forum for alerting me to this I may have missed it otherwise. From my sofa I've been indulging in the sheer wonder of this production and performance, and the memory of seeing it performed live in Salford last year. A ballet and production with such intense series of spectacles and scenes, I'd forgotten how intense and packed with riches the ballet is. What dancers, what art, what quality. Good to know that BBC are still prepared to have this in their programming at the moment. Although with the imminent demise of BBC4 as a broadcast channel, one does wonder if we are in the dying days of being able to 'tune in' to a traditional ballet on TV. I have to completely agree with jmhopton, in that I preferred this recorded BRB Don Quixote infinitely to any of the dance broadcast on traditional terrestrial TV over Christmas 2022. We haven't often seen BRB on TV (compared to RB). Thanks Emeralds for the reminder of BRB's recording/broadcast of Cinderella in 2011. Am I right in saying Sir David Bintley's The King Dances was also broadcast, on BBC4, in 2015 ? (documentary which included a performance of the whole ballet) I feel so glad that these astounding dancers, who I have been privileged to see live in numerous theatres, have been recorded, and hopefully will remain maintained/archived at the BBC for at least my lifetime. When the events of very recent years, and even those occurring now, makes one sometimes wonder what is happening to the world and civilisation (maybe was ever thus?) a recording like this fabulous BRB Don Quixote on our mainstream media gives comfort.

Loving the views on RB guesting with BRB. It is a fascinating new feature of our ballet world (new to me, anyway). I remember Muntagirov from his ENB days, dancing Nutcracker with Alina Cojocaru in Liverpool ! At least this new development allows us in the 'regions' to see RB dancers actually in the regions. But I fully agree also that BRB has wonderful dancers that are (and have long been) quite the equal of RB. Loving this forum and I'd forgotten about world ballet day, off to browse now.