Jump to content

Geoff

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,374

  • Joined

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Geoff

    Ballets that have aged badly

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    On 01/12/2023 at 18:44, Fonty said:

    As has been mentioned earlier, once a ballet gets a reputation for being "twee", then I think the dancers themselves start to lose faith in it and begin to dance without real conviction.  A lot of Ashton was created for specific dancers.  I know that Two Pigeons was created for Lynn Seymour, and from what I have read about her, twee was the last word to describe her. 


    As has been discussed on the Forum in the past Two Pigeons is known to be autobiographical, or at least inspired by important events in Ashton’s personal life. A little more attention to the history of the work and what it is really all about - and “twee” disappears.


    But I would not be the first to observe that Royal Ballet “traditions” do not always serve works well. Performing tradition is passed on from person to person, but that risks a mechanical process leading to institutional forgetting, when some in the chain have not the faintest understanding of what is going on or may have once known but have long forgotten everything except the steps. 

    • Like 3

    DON QUIXOTE - ROYAL BALLET AUTUMN 2023

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    On 13/10/2023 at 23:19, Paco said:

    Strange: Last week Magri, now McRae. These are not muscular injuries, these are slides. Could there be something wrong at one point of the stage floor?


    Someone at an Insight a while ago mentioned the horrible injury Osipova suffered towards the end of Act 1 of DQ, and asked KOH if it had anything to do with the set. KOH said yes but claimed the floor had been fixed since then (or words to that effect).
     

    Are we sure it‘s all ok, is anyone technically minded able to comment? 

    Royal Ballet Casting for Autumn 2023-24

    in Ballet / Dance news & information

    Posted · Edited by Geoff

    5 hours ago, Emeralds said:

    They need some better algorithms or strategies, whichever way they’re doing it. I don’t know why they don’t just send it to everyone who has booked a ticket for the season. A sale is a sale- who cares if it’s someone who doesn’t usually go? (There’s evidently a reason why they chose not to book again!) The best kind of sale is the customer who pays, full stop.


    I agree. However since the reign of the former ROH Marketing Queen, whose name must not be mentioned on this forum, we now know that not all sales are equal. The most desired sale is a sale to someone who has never been to the ROH before. Those of us who go a lot are the least desired sales. This was confirmed by the then ROH Chairman.

     

    One might hope that Covid would provide the ROH with an excuse to dump the Maoist demands of the Arts Council (with the paymasters full approval of course) but, oh dear, what if ROH bosses still think like this? 
     

    • Like 3

    The ROH booking website - what can we do?

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    Just to say I notice a number of website issues coming up over the last day or two (including one or two new to me, they still keep showing skill at great innovation on the messing up front, well done the eager clever website elves!) These problems and idiotic marketing behaviour are discussed on anther thread, try scrolling down from around here:

     

    https://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/27634-royal-ballet-casting-for-autumn-2023-24/?do=findComment&comment=418212

     

    • Like 1

    ‘Definitive’ interpretations

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    This thread has been going for weeks now yet so far no one has chosen Viviana Durante for any role. Really? She was by far the most gifted and expressive ballerina of her era at the Royal Ballet and thankfully some, at least, of her greatest performances are captured in good quality recordings. If I had to go for just one, I’d pick her pairing with Irek in Mayerling but her Giselle and Aurora are also still burned into my memory.

    • Like 3

    Royal Ballet Casting for Autumn 2023-24

    in Ballet / Dance news & information

    Posted · Edited by Geoff

    11 hours ago, art_enthusiast said:

    I totally missed that unfortunately, I was completely unaware that they were doing it for some reason!
    Was their version in English?


    Yes it was. Fwiw I don’t agree the ENO show was better.  ROH has the better cast, more coherent staging and, above all, a wonderful balance between the orchestra and clear diction from the singers resulting in an authentic Wagner sound London audiences have not heard in many years. More on that point in this review: 

     

    https://theartsdesk.com/opera/das-rheingold-royal-opera-knotty-riveting-route-destruction

     

    • Thanks 2

    Kyiv City Ballet, Peacock Theatre, London (26-30 Sept evenings, Wed & Sat matinees)

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    5 hours ago, Emeralds said:

    Les Sylphides was mentioned on the Sadler’s Wells booking publicity


    For the record, here is what the Sadler’s Wells website says at the moment:

     

    We are privileged to be welcoming this incredible group of artists to the Peacock Theatre for their first ever London performances. The company presents a varied programme of excerpts from some of their favourite pieces including Les Sylphides, a fragment from the ballet Tribute to Peace (choreographed by Ivan Kozlov), Carmen, Sirtaki, and Men of Kyiv (a Ukrainian folk dance). 

×
×
  • Create New...