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Geoff

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  1. Geoff
    Anyone got an online link for the Hero Of Our Time cast (no cast list at the Phoenix again)?
  2. Geoff
    Just out of my first time seeing the Naghdi/Ball/Takada/Campbell/Heap/Lauren/Vadim cast (having by chance seen the first cast three times): wow, maybe even better! And Mr B nailed it too!
  3. Geoff
    And, another reminder, the link is STILL live.:- http://www.theoperaplatform.eu/en/opera/donizetti-lucrezia-borgia#xtor=EPR-38-[General] Another taster would be to jump to La Devia's final entrance - at 2 hours 29 minutes. Enjoy!
  4. Geoff
    I LOVE this page: primarily a page for buying tickets, it has a synopsis, which (on my machine anyway) has a paragraph hidden from view as it "Contains spoilers". Spoilers for the plot of Swan Lake, that has made my day! On a serious note, I see this season is "celebrating" Kenneth MacMillan. That makes this coming year different from the last ones exactly how, Lady M?
  5. Geoff
    Come on, the link still works: give this a try! At minute 22 Lucrezia Borgia enters in a gondola - and a little over ten minutes later, the crowd goes crazy. Devia (a year short of seventy) delivers a humdinger of an entrance area, the like of which we haven't heard at ROH for a pretty long time. No wonder, when Netrebko pulled out of ROH Norma, some people, who had just heard Devia sing Norma in Paris, suggested her. See what you think!
  6. Geoff
    Bit more (and some pictures) here:- http://www.urban75.org/london/goodwins-court.html
  7. Geoff
    Pretty traditional - and actually delightful - production. The show tends to be a banker so I am sure tickets will shift nearer the time (as has been discussed here in the past, London audiences are making up their minds later and later these days). Also it has been on a fair bit in the last years - and of course Donizetti does not arose the interest of the truly obsessed audience members in the way that, say, Wagner does. Hope you go as you should have a great time!
  8. Geoff
    Many thanks everyone, particularly John: this works well!
  9. Geoff
    I have pointed to the online site The Opera Platform in the past as sometimes amazing things turn up there. One such is currently live (don't know how long it will stay up): Lucrezia Borgia, starring the amazing Mariella Devia. No idea how good the show is, am looking forward to settling down later to enjoy it (or at least her). The link is here:- http://www.theoperaplatform.eu/en/opera/donizetti-lucrezia-borgia#xtor=EPR-38-[General]
  10. Geoff
    Only just seen this: is your ticket for the 8th still available or did you give it back already?
  11. Geoff
    Last night it seemed to me that the cast of In The Middle - strong and focussed dancing taken for granted of course - do not quite have the attack or the attitude I remember being such an integral part of the work. Caesar Corrales came closest, with a bigger, stronger performance that had those sexy witty hints of just not seeming to care, which to me are what makes this piece more than just exercises. Another way of making the same point: like with Balanchine, there is a lot of walking in this work, yet somehow the mood of the walking last night was not stroppy / insouciant / 'cool' enough. Great dancing though. I liked the Hammerklavier, if only as this is one of my favourite movements from all of Beethoven. Maybe there should be a separate thread about using music which is perhaps too complex, subtle, involving to be danced to. Certainly I kept finding my attention being drawn away from the dancing as I was concentrating too hard on the music. The Rite is sensational, what a work! This has to be great news for ENB. I hadn't seen it before so have no point of comparison: perhaps someone who knows it could comment on whether the more traditional ballet moves were perhaps more 'pure' (careful? accurate? 'better'?) than is idiomatic for the work. In other words where is the balance between classical training / technique and the theatrical demands of the piece?
  12. Geoff
    New software question: has the useful function to enter a discussion thread and then jump to the latest unread postings within it (the ones one has not yet read) disappeared? I can find a button at the top of the page which leads to a rather scary overview page of ALL unread content across the whole site, but the little button, specific to each thread, seems not to be there.
  13. Geoff
    This is an important point, of current significance well beyond the world of ballet. A recent court case showed that just because Katie Hopkins deleted a tweet within two hours of posting it, this was not enough to save her from an expensive libel action, which she lost ten days ago. I have the link to the (rather interesting) judgement if anyone would like it. It may be reversed on appeal but for the time being, a deleted tweet is still a tweet.
  14. Geoff
    Well well. Maybe we should post our own comments on that site to let Couchman know what we think about this.
  15. Geoff
    Human Seasons. So the choreographer has just shown he takes his work seriously (and perhaps that he is thin-skinned). Good. Ok. But what of the work itself? Having recently read a large number of posts about Sleepng Beauty, I admit to being astonished at the number of people who cheerfully posted that they find Sleeping Beauty "boring". Not how it has been danced by someone/s, not any particular production nor any particular performance nor under any particular conductor, but the actual work itself. So if The Sleepng Beauty is "boring", what on earth is Human Seasons? Sorry.
  16. Geoff
    Has it turned up on YouTube (they often appear for a few days)? I don't read Russian so don't know what to search for.
  17. Geoff
    Here is a (positive) review from the Guardian of the Handel show currently at the ENO. I add it to this thread for the single and rather thought-provoking comment by a reader, which compares it with the ROH Meistersinger:- https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/mar/16/partenope-review-handel-on-a-night-out-with-beardy-bohemians
  18. Geoff
    What about those shows - with posters announcing "Nureyev will dance at every performance" - which I remember carrying on into his fifties?
  19. Geoff
    Fine last night last night (within limits: apart from the impeccable principals I have some reservations) but I have a tiny question. I spent a bit of time looking through binoculars in the prologue at the gifts the pages bring in on cushions Most were clear enough, but the first fairy turns up with what to me looked like an oyster. What is it - and why? It is possible that there are descriptions in the programme or else it is something obvious I am just too stupid to get, so help would be appreciated.
  20. Geoff
    Gone now
  21. Geoff
    Unexpectedly I have the seat next to me available for Tuesday night 14th. Amphitheatre Row E, £17. Please PM if interested as well as posting here.
  22. Geoff
    The first night was last night. Wasn't there myself but I have just read the Twitter comments. Mostly ecstatic, particularly for Sir Bryn and for the production. In fact one of the most active tweeters says he has criticised Kasper Holten for years but crashed the first night party to tell him personally how much he liked this.
  23. Geoff
    I just checked and you are right. But a hundred or so of the unsold seats that night are priced at more than £200 each, which may have something to do with the speed of take up. And speaking purely personally - and definitely not commenting on any dress rehearsal performance - I have been going steadily off Bryn's voice these last years: his voice has, imho, been getting overstretched (too much Wotan, perhaps?) and is no longer quite such a draw. Imho.
  24. Geoff
    ...another reason being Marie Petipa doubling Lilac Fairy with an appearance as Cinderella in Act III, which inevitably restricted any Act III appearance by the Lilac Fairy to no more than a walk on (played by somebody else).
  25. Geoff
    By chance I happen to have a little insight into what goes on. A few years ago this Russian gala announced that a dear friend of mine would be dancing. For various reasons, I am being discrete, this would have been something of a sensation so there was a fair bit of interest. But when I spoke to her (no names, no names) she told me no one had even contacted her. They had just stuck her name on the list. I ended up getting involved professionally in this, as she asked me to find a lawyer (she didn't want her name taken in vain, as it were) but in the end thought better of making a fuss. Nonetheless I will be there on Sunday. There are bound to be things worth seeing, there always are.
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