Geoff

I agree in principle JNC - however any such training may also have to be guided by Maoist principles enforced by the Arts Council, which the ROH is therefore understandably currently in thrall to (“People who go to theatre/opera/ballet/concerts are OUT, whereas people who have never been before are IN and must be made super welcome so they tell other people that going to Covent Garden is not elitist”). In other words I see a possible tension between “encouraging new audiences” (who almost by definition have not been brought in the past by people who know what’s expected) and the sort of “enforcement” you suggest. It’s a sad situation, often discussed here as having a lot to do with the collapse of music teaching in schools.

Perhaps this is an appropriate moment for a personal story I have told here before? Some five or so years ago I had cause to discuss the current era of the Royal Ballet with Clement Crisp (he was not overly positive). When I asked him for his particular favourites among those in the company he thought for a while and then picked just one name, Laura Morera: “she has everything”, he said.

They certainly were by the 1950s, which is the date of the Soviet feature film Ratmansky found. If people want to start comparing tempi across recordings of the Sleeping Beauty score, a good and authentic place to start - as often recommended on this forum - is Andre Previn's recording with the LSO from 1974, currently on YouTube complete. Aurora's entrance on that recording is pretty fast, as are Tchaikovsky's metronome markings, which have been discussed here in the past.

Try this (I apologise for getting the date wrong, which probably misled you):- https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0FR9zP6bFinW6VNQuB87MTWe2LXG2EQNDSxEV9ci9EoSxRexpMsvt6oiiPrdNPr1hl&id=1377723438

Maybe that depends on what one considers perfection. Might I illustrate with the story of something that happened after that performance? I had taken a friend who likes the arts - books, theatre, architecture, opera and so on - and who is always pleased to be at the ballet, not that she goes all that often. Like some people on here my friend says Sleeping Beauty feels too long (a comment I by the way never heard when the ENB last brought their production to the West End, which might be a clue as to what is going on, see many previous discussions). But she likes Nunez so was happy to join me. And she loved the show, cheering along with the crowd at the end. Afterwards I tried an experiment. Over a drink I got out my Ipad and showed my friend two short clips of Auroras from the past. The first was just a minute of film of a Ukranian dancer from 1940, posted on Facebook by Ratmansky. The other was Margot Fonteyn on YouTube, also in black and white, her entrance and adagio. No more than five minutes of footage in total. My friend's reaction was immediate, unprompted by me and (I felt) interesting. "Oh" she said "that's completely different. It's so fast, so exuberant, so like a 16-year old girl at a party, bursting with life and enjoying discovering her impact on people. So that's what the scene is really all about, not a star coming on and doing something difficult."

That sounds like a possible explanation for the "relaxed" comment by the usher.

Great idea! Of course they don‘t really want to understand us…

Last night, in the slips, we had the youngest child I have ever seen at Covent Garden in some fifty years of attending (but maybe others can beat this). It was only just walking, so sat on Mummy's lap, but could chatter, which it cheerfully did, throughout. The child was certainly distracting, though sweet. In the first interval I spotted a couple having words with an usher and heard that "our rules are relaxed for these ballets". Someone from the staff popped in to check on the situation when the lights went down again. After the second interval it seems mother and child were either reseated elsewhere or had left.

I too got the survey and also got the impression they are looking for support to dramatically increase their prices. Incidentally they ask some weasily questions at the outset about price thresholds but these have been constructed by someone who is not very numerate. I just put 0 in all those boxes so as not to engage with this part. Here is the comment I added, in case of use to others: >>A free ticket to an event can be a ticket to a great event so this question (and its later derivatives) is mathematically duff. One often worries about the quality of the people who design these so-called surveys.

No conferring needed: there is currently a new dvd copy of the film available on Ebay. As to the rights question, no Soviet era production magically acquired “rights” on the fall of the regime, that is not how international copyright works. The nature of this particular work would however need examination, precisely because it was a western/Soviet co-production. A complete print of the film (presumably what was used to produce the dvd) should make the position clear.

Beryl Grey in this impossibly rare 3D Black Swan film is now on disc, available here: https://www.flickeralley.com/classic-movies-2/#!/3-D-Rarities-Volume-II/p/170617337/category=12445053 Congratulations and thanks to the company for issuing this. Anyone here seen the result?

That's a fair summary. AM makes a number of other serious points as well (and justifies what he says). Anybody having trouble finding his comments, feel free to send me a private message (I think the Forum will not let me copy and paste them here, but if anyone knows better than happy to do so)

There is a lot wrong. However as the tenor of this thread is universal delight it seems churlish to mention anything negative. But one place to start might be the comments just made on Instagram by Alastair Macaulay (scroll down the comments here, his appear near the top, also in discussion with others):- https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmGp8Kysc7A/

Yes and we are also so lucky that several recordings of her incredible Lilac Fairy are available, at least sometimes (for example in the dvd of the 1950s Sleeping Beauty) As an addendum re her Lilac Fairy, I never saw her dance this live but I was privileged to see her discuss it in the Clore during an anniversary event, referred to here: https://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/21011-has-ballet-got-slower/?do=findComment&comment=295639 An unforgettable evening. RIP Dame Beryl.

I find that band - brass included - is still, um, variable. Depends on what night you go...

That sounds most interesting. Lizbie1, any tips for what to search for to find this online?

Many thanks. As I have a Mastercard I thought I would see what was available this morning. As someone who has done his fair bit of complaining about the ROH website/ticketing in recent years, it is only fair to say that this wasn’t great either. Logging on dead on 10am for the start of booking I - with a bit of fiddling about (one is taken through a succession of sites and pages to reach a booking page) - managed to use this to get a cut price ticket. But then at 10.15 I thought I would splash out and get another for another performance: chaos now ruled. It seemed the whole of the UK was trying to access the pages. Sites crashed, pages froze, eventually a screen came up which said they had too much traffic but would let me in due course. It was 10.45 before I got back in, but found plenty of sale seats still available. So, in summary, slow but good cheap(er) seats still to be had for certain performances (not weekends or end of weeks). Lizbie1, I appreciate the tip, never having known about this before.

The Times just reviewed this, and, with some reservations, liked it:- a glossy, fast-paced, moreish family drama set in the rarefied world of New York ballet. Think family quarrels, sex and betrayal, against the backdrop of the Aids crisis.

Depending on who is dancing the role, this can feel a fair bit longer than a "moment" Sim. Although overall I was not convinced by much of his performance Hirano got a lot from this earlier in the month.

One RB principal (a great star but no names, no names) told me she had to stop doing Cinderella as the stepsisters "mucking about" - unmusically and against Ashton's intentions - made it impossible to bring out the beauties of the ballet.

And what's happening to the "linked-yet-separate" tube strikes?

Alison, I sympathize. At the risk of repeating myself, here is what I posted elsewhere more than a month ago. This might be a similar issue:-

Not very accurate at all.

Great! Let us know here what you think.