serenade

Happy Christmas all! Hope you all have a lovely Christmas! 
 

Thank you so much mods for keeping this small corner of the internet alive and well, and for everyone who contributes to it 😀

23 hours ago, Borzoi said:

Have not seen "White Swan Black Swan" by Adrienne Sharp mentioned yet. Still available on Amazon. Very interesting read. Fiction but well researched.

Thanks for the recommendation- I’ve just ordered myself a copy😊

25 minutes ago, Sophoife said:

I meant the endless and ubiquitous moppets in the Balanchine version! 🤣 There is never not a child on stage in that version. NYCB can keep it.

Haha- my favourite version of Nutcracker is Royal Ballet but I still absolutely love the Balanchine version!  The kids are brilliant in it. there is a great documentary series on how they put the NYCB nutcracker together on Disney Plus called On Pointe, I’m not sure if it has already been mentioned but if anyone already has Disney it’s definitely worth checking out (whether you’re a fan of the version or not 😂) 

2 hours ago, Blossom said:

Thrilled to have booked for  Hawes/Arrieta already!

Me too! 😀

shame it had to be a lucky dip but can’t wait to see them! 

I saw it at the cinema too and really enjoyed it.  Unfortunately my cinema was plagued with technical difficulties, the screen froze a lot in the first act, missing audio and just general disruption.  They came in to apologise and said a lot of cinemas were having the same problem.  Luckily it had mostly resolved for the second act.

So the first act was a bit spoilt but still loved it, it's still my favourite Nutcracker 😄 Sae Maeda was lovely.  I saw Joseph Sissens last year in the role, I really enjoyed him then but I thought this time he danced so beautifully it was wonderful.  Enjoyed seeing Bennet Gartside for a change, I enjoy his interpretation.  Although I agree with someone who said Gary Avis made the smaller role he was playing stand out (sorry can't remember the name of his character).

I agree with all the praise on the Arabian dance, thought Melissa Hamilton was perfect and Lucas BB really well matched and a strong partner.  I am a bit hit and miss with the Arabian especially with the new version but this performance really worked for me.  Loved all the other dances, loved Mayara Magri as Rose fairy.  Fumi and William were lovely.  A great night all round.

This is sadly the only Nutcracker I can attend for this run so a shame about the technical issues but so glad I managed to see it.

2 hours ago, MJW said:

Booking for Spring was very smooth this morning - I was more picky than usual about seating given the price increases but hopefully they will be fine!

 

 

Mostly all fine for me too- I did get put in a queue for 5 mins so I was a bit worried there as haven’t been put in a queue since they got the new booking system in. I was using Chrome and the site was a bit slow with loading the seat map up but I think I’ve found that every time recently. But I can’t complain, got everything I wanted as availability was really good. 

11 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

He has been very clever about keeping a lot of the public onside (e.g. cancelling strikes for HMQ's funeral and when they clashed with Remembrance Day), but this feels like a mis-step.

I agree.  Literally all people want is not to have their Christmas ruined especially after the last 2 years of complete misery we have all been through.

I'm travelling home on Christmas Eve, luckily on the morning.  Usually I travel back to London on the 27th as I need to get back for work so anyone who does that trip- at least the Scotland-London LNER route knows it's often jam packed on the 27th so although their strike is finishing early in the morning there's still the knock on effect.   I think they should have picked other dates if they want public support but I guess they're the experts 😂

Next year I am going to do driving lessons so at least I could rent a car, I have had too many things ruined this year because of the strikes and I can only see it continuing or getting worse next year to be honest.

4 minutes ago, ellyb said:

Very excited for feedback, going next week... Instagram pics look good and both Sambe and Hayward can certainly act! Very best of luck to them both, and of course to the whole cast. 

Yes it will be really interesting to read some reports- wish I could have also seen this cast but I chose the Ball cast last night.  Unfortunately had extremely tall people in front so my view was very obstructed.  What I did manage to see was good 😂

1 hour ago, Sophoife said:

What sort of questions, @LinMM? When I click on the link on my phone (not logged in to Flickr) I just get taken straight to the album. Are you logged in to Flickr?

Thanks for the photos, v interesting    When I clicked on the link I got quite a few questions about what things to allow but I think it was all in relation to cookies- it was just more than normal.  If that was the same for you @LinMM just scroll to the bottom and there's a reject all button which I clicked on....or there's an accept all, and it saves you setting each preference.

21 minutes ago, alison said:

 

Then all I can say is that you've been going to the wrong ENB triple bills - many of them have been sell-outs   ENB has obviously cultivated an audience for their more modern triple bills in London that BRB hasn't yet managed to.  And anyway, Ek and Forsythe would be pretty tempting to a lot of dance lovers.

But I’ve never missed any ENB SW matinees for a few years now 😂 never mind I probably am misremembering past shows. Pleased you enjoyed the Ek 😊

1 hour ago, Henry said:

Yes, I was surprised that it was so well attended compared to the BRB matinee the Saturday before.  Modern triple bills (before the Nutcracker season starts) so why so poorly attended for BRB and so well attended for ENB?  A fairly young and noisy audience too.  If anything, I preferred the BRB programme.  

I thought the same thing and I also don't think it's the norm for other ENB triple bills at Sadlers I've attended- I've never seen it so full for a triple bill matinee.  

As for the show, I enjoyed Blake Works better than last time I saw it.  I am a William Forsythe fan- my main issue is with really disliking James Blake's voice so obviously quite hard to enjoy this work if that's the case.  If they could have danced to the same beat/used the music instrumentally I might really like it, it's his voice I have the problem with.  The Stina Quagebeur I thought was fine, it didn't really do anything for me but it was enjoyable enough although not sure about the music choices.  The dancers were obviously fantastic in both pieces I should add, I was just quite luke warm to the choreography. 

My main reason for going was to see the Rite of Spring.  I absolutely love the Pina Bausch version, I was blown away when ENB did it a few years ago and I love the music.  I was excited to see this new version but I'm afraid for me I just couldn't see anything good about it at all.  Purely the choreography again, nothing at all to do with the quality of the dancing, but I felt nothing whereas the suspense when watching the Pina version was so strong, I remember feeling the emotion just from watching something so powerful.  I suspect Mats Ek is not my cup of tea so I would have to think carefully before spending money to see any of his works again.  It was very warmly received by everyone around me and I'm pleased other forum attendees enjoyed it but definitely not for me 😄

I am so excited about Still Life 😀, it's one of my favourites will definitely travel up to see it!  Also I've never seen Apollo live so makes it even better.

I saw it last night also and loved 2 out of the 3 ballets so about typical for me and triple bills!  It was so nice to see BRB again, I haven't actually seen them since pre pandemic as couldn't face Curated by Carlos, couldn't make it to Don Q and haven't been able to travel to see them outside London so was excited for this evening.

I thought Forgotten Land was great, very unusual and atmospheric.  I think the Red Couple section choreography was my favourite danced by Miki Mizutani and Mathias Dingman but I enjoyed it all and also loved the music.

Unfortunately I didn't like Hotel at all, I don't really have anything positive to say about it except of course the dancers were great.  I felt really claustrophobic watching it, I really hate secret filming and that kind of thing so the concept just made me uncomfortable which maybe was the point?  Really not sure!  I didn't buy the programme so maybe there would have been more details in there as to why the film projections were there as some of it I got the point of but I didn't understand why everything happening on the stage was simply being projected.  I read about it online but it didn't really help (me).  There was a lot of laughter at the more surreal elements and it got the biggest cheer of the night, people seemed to love it but it was spectacularly not for me😅, but looking forward to hearing others thoughts on it.

The Seventh Symphony was just amazing- I am so happy to have seen this piece!  It was like a breath of fresh air, it evoked a bit of Symphony in C type feelings for me!  I loved all the movements but probably the Second was my favourite, Yaoqian Shang and Mathias Dingman were the leads in it, they were great.  Also I thought Celine Gittens was just amazing throughout though of course everyone was but she really stood out to me.  Also, the lighting was amazing, so well lit, and costumes were fun.  Music of course was of course out of this world.

So pleased I was able to attend  

1 hour ago, Peanut68 said:

Serenade - I’m liking your notebook idea! Never thought to actually put effort in - ha ha!I’ve often written things in my diary…. But then see it a couple of days before too late for tickets or travel plans 🙄

Gonna get with it for ‘23!

Haha I don’t think you can beat the trusty notebook. I’m on excel all day at work so I really couldn’t be bothered with looking at another spreadsheet 😂

4 minutes ago, Peanut68 said:

One of these days I’m going tk have to succumb to the lure of social media…..sigh 

Don’t do it 😂😂 I have zero social media and it’s really fine. They post everything on their websites anyway 

8 hours ago, Peanut68 said:

Not a direct link but a thought..

does anyone of the more tech savvy Balletcoers keep a spreadsheet or similar of what’s on/where/when…. I find it almost impossible to keep track of things & find I leave it too late to head of things & to try work my life around all the things I’d so dearly like to see….I feel like I need some electronic ballet diary with alerts to when bookings open etc etc!!! Anyone that organised or with ideas to share??? Or anyone who could be my ballet PA/Mum?? 🤣

I just write in a notebook 5 sections, Royal Ballet, BRB, ENB, northern ballet and Scottish ballet. I go on each companies website and then write down what they are bringing to London (as that’s where I live) and when. Then I go on the Coliseum, Sadlers wells and Barbican website in case I’ve missed any smaller companies or galas. Technical I know 😂 but you could do it in Excel or just a regular document. The only company I’m completely organised for is the Royal ballet as they are the only ones who announce their casting (far) in advance and I struggle with sight lines at ROH so I’m ready on booking day them. Then this forum is the other best way of not missing anything 😂

but anyway, I’m so looking forward to this triple bill! 

8 minutes ago, Sim said:

 My personal opinion is that it was a very strange choice to do a worldwide broadcast on the first night of the season. I would have done it on the 30th anniversary of Sir Kenneth's death, 29th October, with Mattew Ball and Laura Morera in the leads.  We have almost nothing of Laura on film despite all her years at the RB.  She is one of the finest MacMillan interpreters around, and there is very little of that for our posterity.  I have no idea if there are any technical reasons that this couldn't have been done, but I think it would have been wonderful and a really fitting tribute to both choreographer and company.

Although I loved the performance I definitely agree with this and thought exactly the same. But I presumed there was a particular reason why they had to do it last night as I didn’t think anyone would really choose to film on opening night especially the start of new season. Well I know I wouldn’t anyway😂

32 minutes ago, Jake said:

Was disappointed to find that the quality of the filming hadn’t improved with the lighting from the ROH as poor as ever. Had we not been familiar with Mayerling we would have had no idea what was happening in the first burial scene and the second wasn’t much better. Many other details were also hard to make out, a pity when the admission isn’t cheap. Still, Petroc Trelawny’s fluent, informed and professional hosting was a pleasant change.  

Yes the lighting was really bad, even worse than usual I thought- I did think I’m pleased I’m so familiar with it. My local charges £22 so it would nice to be able to see all the scenes 😂

100% agree re the presenter, he was very good. 

27 minutes ago, JNC said:

I saw Hirano’s Mayerling at the last run in 2018 and I really didn’t enjoy or “get” it and I think a large part is probably down to the fact that I didn’t really appreciate Hirano as Rudolf. I am not glad but somewhat reassured that others feel the same! I remain disappointed I didn’t see Watson in the role. (Who I originally booked for!)
 

I would be interested to read if others think his performance has developed since then…

 

all the excitement on this thread makes me wonder if I should give it another go, I feel casting is so important for McMillan ballets in particular! I would have been tempted by Ball but decided to save money for Beauty and Cinderella. Perhaps next time…

I also saw Hirano after booking for Watson in the last run. I didn’t connect with the performance last time at all but this time I did. It could be seeing it in the cinema helped as I thought his Rudolf was more restrained than other interpretations so having the close ups helped. But I thought he was really great this time, very strong performance and I could feel the pain of Rudolf from the performance and I couldn’t before. 
 

Overall I really loved tonight’s performance. Everyone was amazing. Hungarian officers- wow. All the women were fantastic. Loved Natalia. Loved Marianela as Mitzi. Laura Morera was perfect as Marie Larisch. I have booked to see the Ball cast so I can’t wait for that. 

1 hour ago, JNC said:

Is there a minimum term you have to sign up for? What to stop someone paying £9.99 one month and watching everything and cancelling? You’d need to be adding a reasonable amount of new content every month to keep people subscribing. 

No minimum term if you select the monthly option, you can just cancel it any time the same as Netflix etc.

I agree, maybe they are planning on adding a lot but I have a feeling a lot of the older stuff a lot fans want to see is never going to be uploaded. Hopefully I’m wrong. 
 

I think a monthly service is a bit of an odd choice with the amount of content they’ve initially put up but I guess we’ll see. I think if there wasn’t already services like Marquee I would have been more excited. It seems a shame you can’t just click to rent it to buy a digital copy of individual performances instead. 
 

IMO the price is ok if they add more content, especially if you are into both opera and ballet, but right now it’s a little steep for what they are offering. But I do think the Friends deal is very generous so I have signed up and got the first 3 months free which is nice and I’ll see how much I watch it. I already have a lot of it on DVD already as others have mentioned so it will be interesting to see what else they add in the first 3 months. 

I got some technical error messages and the seat map was slow to load but I did get the seats I wanted and it wasn’t too bad (I was using safari on my phone). So it was a much improved experience from last time (for me). 

Great thread  

My highlights were

Natalia Osipova in Giselle, my favourite Giselle I was so happy to see her in the role again

Mayara Magri as Myrtha...amazing

Francesca Hayward's Sugar Plum Fairy...very special

The Ashton triple esp Corrales and Hayward in Rhapsody

Like Water for chocolate- Nagdhi/Corrales loved their chemistry and the passionate ending- wow.  And Meaghan Grace Hinkis' Gertrudis, she danced the part with so much joy I loved it.

Pleased it went smoothly for others and I agree it's nice and easy to apply the credit vouchers at checkout.  Unfortunately it was the worst time I've had trying to book yet.  I couldn't load the seating plan on Chrome or Edge and kept getting error messages.  Tried my own laptop, the work laptop etc, eventually managed to book on Safari on my phone.  So it was quite stressful 😒

19 hours ago, art_enthusiast said:

I had the misfortune to be sitting next to exactly the same man (what are the odds of that!) who felt the need to wave his hands around/'conduct' the performances from his seat (which is fiendishly annoying and very distracting when it's in your sightline), bob his head around to the music (how on earth does one do that during Stravinsky, of all things?) and even worse, actually hum at some points.

I understand and respect enthusiasm for beautiful live music, but is there a need to hum, move around and wave your hands in 'conductor' mode, when there is a highly skilled professional in the orchestra pit already employed to do this properly? I find it quite baffling that people believe this sort of behaviour is acceptable, as if they are sitting at home watching TV instead of in a public place.

I sat next to this person or someone very similar at the Ashton triple too. He absolutely ruined it for me. He air conducted through Scenes. He  played the air piano through A month in the country and he was back to air conducting through Rhapsody. He had a wonderful time I think.
I also had talkers behind me so it wasn’t even just him who ruined it but he certainly was incredibly distracting. I had another ticket for the same bill but had to return it as I was ill so I was really upset about it. 

35 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

 

The TFL website gives no indication that Angel station is closed.  

Sorry I must have misread it.