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Geoff

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  1. Geoff
    The various versions have a long history, in fact, so far as we know, this goes right back to Petipa. It seems there were two Petipa versions of the Lilac Fairy variation, an easier one (marked as being for his daughter Marie, a favourite with the public) and a harder one. Now over to those who really know all this!
  2. Geoff
    John, that reminds me of the famous story of perhaps the Zefirelli Don Carlos, where Phillip II entered with two borzois. The critic for "Horse and Hound" (not Hugh Grant in Love Actually) is reputed to have titled his review "No horse, two hounds". I hope someone with a better memory can give a reference for this tale.
  3. Geoff
    This hasn't opened yet so no comments but on the strength of yesterday's dress rehearsal, I think it safe to post for those who might be worried about a new production. This is an intelligent and subtle blend of old and new. Nothing to frighten the horses and plenty to enjoy. Nuff said.
  4. Geoff
    Well, that's a list with at least two surprising items. Cost was awful, and as for Renée Fleming, I can imagine some kind of lifetime achievement award in the role but surely not for this last run.
  5. Geoff
    Sometimes they do it but (my impression is) this seems to be another of rather too many subtleties - see other posts - which are getting forgotten.
  6. Geoff
    Oh and the presenter took great care to act and present herself as sloppily as possible, so as to provide a courteous contrast to some of the most elegant people in Britain. How thoughtful of her to help make the guests look as good as possible....
  7. Geoff
    ...in which case you will have missed an interesting introductory talk, which would have been even more interesting if it had been longer, by Stephanie Jordan, which somebody at ROH had deemed too - what, boring? highbrow? dunno - for the online audience. There used to be a time when Insight events were truly intelligent and one would always learn a lot. Now the focus seems to be on entertainment, with a bit of learning if one is lucky. I enjoyed last night enormously but feel sad that the historical/critical/analytic bit, provided by a professor of dance, was deliberately dropped from the online presentation. No point in making this point to RB I suppose...
  8. Geoff
    Don't blame the ballet! I go to the opera a fair bit as well and the ROH brass are getting worse and worse (I would introduce regular re-auditions but presumably the unions forbid this). Maybe a long run is good as it makes them practice, if only by performing over and over...
  9. Geoff
    Just to say (for those who believe there are never tickets for ROH Insight evenings) looking on the website a few tickets have just come back for this one:- http://www.roh.org.uk/insights/insights-national-opera-studio-masterclass
  10. Geoff
    There is also the problem that it has been a v long time since the Ugly Sisters were danced as Ashton intended, rather than as unmusical panto clowns. But - to make the obvious point - that is not the fault of the production, rather it is (perhaps) another example of a failure of RB institutional memory, as discussed in another thread in relation to SB coaching.
  11. Geoff
    Might I just clarify, as my post on Audience Behaviour started this diversion to mid-number applause? My query was specifically as to why the whole of the rear amphitheatre - but no one else in the auditorium - applauds at a certain point during the SB garland dance. Is it because they are seeing something the rest of us are not, or maybe, based on subsequent comments, perhaps this is because tickets in this area of the house are sold to particular groups? I would not ask if it just happened once, but I have been to a fair few SBs this run, and it keeps happening.
  12. Geoff
    One ticket gone (as above) but I now have another one spare. I will give this to the Box Office tomorrow, Monday, evening, unless someone wants it.
  13. Geoff
    Apropos back of the amphi, I have a question, also relating to last night SB but not only last night. At the start of the garland dance (not my favourite part of the ballet but that is another subject) there is introductory moving around, which finishes with the corps lined up in two diagonal rows. Last night - but not only last night - the back of the amphi, and no other part of the house, applauded this, even though it was not the end of anything, rather a brief break before "the start of the dance". And when I say it was the back of the amphi, I don't mean eight people, I mean most of those rows, a whole section of the auditorium. What is it that they are seeing - or think they are seeing - from back there that the rest of us are not seeing? (Please move this to the SB thread if people feel that is the better place)
  14. Geoff
    Many thanks - just sent you another PM
  15. Geoff
    I have a ticket for this opera masterclass which I now can't use (school meeting): http://www.roh.org.uk/insights/insights-national-opera-studio-masterclass. It cost £17. If interested please PM as well as posting here. Thank you.
  16. Geoff
    I am extremely partial to the 1955 NBC recording of the Sadler's Wells production, reduced though it is, if only for a Fonteyn performance and Beryl Grey's miraculous Lilac Fairy variation. It is currently on YouTube, in sections, starting from here:-
  17. Geoff
    Thanks Bluebird. I am trying hard, by squinting, to picture the copy of the review section of the Observer from last Sunday turning into the previous week's Sunday Times culture section, but no, it won't work, sorry. The Telegraph said it was quoting from the Observer, and so it was: see page 6 of the Observer review section, 26th February, interview with Polunin by Rachel Cooke, spread across two pages with what they call "portraits" by Suki Dhanda. No idea when this article might appear online. There are sometimes reasons why a piece does not appear (eg copyright) or indeed it may have been briefly online but then removed, for whatever reason (stranger things have happened). Short of posting it to you, not sure what else to do to help.
  18. Geoff
    Next week sees New Chamber Opera's performances of a double bill of William Walton's extravaganza The Bear, and Igor Stravinsky's burlesque Renard. For more information on the programme, please visit: https://www.newchamberopera.co.uk/ Venue: New College Ante-chapel Date: 9 & 10 March 2017 Time: 8.30pm Tickets: £12/£7 from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/newchamberopera Or on the door
  19. Geoff
    That's as maybe. I have now read yesterday's long Observer interview - which is the basis for the (accurate) Telegraph summary - and what Polunin says there squares exactly with what he privately told a mutual friend at the time of his RB departure. So I suspect the Observer has just printed what he said to the journalist. That is not gossip, that is the reporter doing their job.
  20. Geoff
    Have I discovered a new problem? Last night I was sitting in the ROH near several people with Apple smart watches (no idea what they are called, but they are big squarish watches which appear to be able to operate like smartphones as well as watches, ie deliver email etc) At least one of them found his "watch" far more interesting than Osipova, and so lit up the amphitheatre with the technology on his wrist while the performance was going on. The most exciting thing for him seemed to be reading emails, which he did until his neighbour finally told him to stop it.
  21. Geoff
    Hope to see you again soon Sim! When we meet I'll tell you more about my dear friend, a recently retired prima ballerina, with whom I went to see that shitty Swan film. By the end she was sobbing because, as she told me, it is a terrible film which contains more truths about being a dancer than other films. A minority view, perhaps (I hated the film) but maybe worth noting,
  22. Geoff
    Certainly the NAMES of the fairies change from production to production, see for example this useful table:- http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/uploads/monthly_10_2007/post-848-1191874847.jpg But, as I started to allude to in my no doubt underinformed original post, the GIFTS themselves were set by Vsevolozhsky and Petipa, and are written into the choreography (eg the purity mime - incidentally "honesty" might do as well as a translation as "purity", remember we are dealing with English versions of Russian descriptions derived from French!) As such the gifts by definition cannot change without the choreography being changed. The audiences of the time would have understood what gifts were being offered, simply by watching the show rather than needing to read a programme or be told the names of the fairies. Nonetheless here goes (approximate names only, of course, as above):- 1 - Purity / honesty 2 - Grace / dancing 3 - Generosity / fertility 4 - Laughter / singing 5 - Passion / power 6 - Wisdom
  23. Geoff
    An example might be the first fairy variation, the fairy known at the original premiere in St Petersburg as "Candite" - "Candide" - a name which is understandable enough (though currently for some reason she is rather confusingly labelled "Fairy of the Crystal Fountain"). She brings the gift of purity and her variation requires the dancer to perform the conventional mime movement which stands, in the traditional vocabulary, for purity. When I looked at the BBC recording of the RB doing this in 1978, the dancer performed this mime throughout the variation; the company certainly still understood what to do in 2003, as the mime is described in detail in the programme for that year's new production; but I have seen only faint echoes of the correct mime during the current run. Are things getting forgotten? I should add, however, that the fifth fairy (the so called "finger variation") seemed back in 1978 to have no idea she was meant to indicate positive and negative (opposing) electrical charges, while our current fairies do this very nicely. So maybe things just depend on who is coaching what at any particular time.
  24. Geoff
    Turandot is one of the operas in which I would still want to see Alagna. But yes, there is a risk he will cancel. His tickets are likely to go quick. Lindstrom is probably the bigger name of the two Turandots so their performances will probably go first (the ROH website gives details of prices, if you have trouble PM me and I'll send you a scan of the page in the Friends brochure) One thing I might add: the old ROH Turandot production is a "banker", a reliable night out for those who don't often go as well as the regulars.
  25. Geoff
    During last May's RB Insight evening ("The Royal Ballet 1946-1956") Kevin O'Hare introduced us to a young dancer who was learning the Lilac Fairy variation, and said we would watch her being rehearsed by a member of staff. After not many minutes, one of the invited speakers - the then 88 year old Dame Beryl Grey - asked if she could intervene, Beryl Grey being of course one of the greatest dancers in the history of the RB (see YouTube). What happened in the next few minutes was most revealing. First, we - and the dancer - learned a great deal about the Lilac Fairy and this variation in particular. But more worryingly it became obvious that not only was all this new to the girl, it was also new to the person who was meant to be coaching her and who should have known it. My thought at the time was whether the RB collective repository of choreographic understanding and performance tradition is getting lost.
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