Mimi

The New York Public Library (www.nypl.org) holds the magazine; you may be able to get them to photocopy or scan the article for you.

For additional, day-of-performance theater, go to the TKTS booth in Times Square (lines can be long, but they will move incredibly fast, so don't be put off; be sure that you know what you want to see by the time you reach the window).  Do not, however, eat at restaurants in Times Square, as they will be $$$$$. The last time I was at the Koch I wound up eating dinner at P. J. Clarke's nearby.  

Spend some time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and/or MOMA.  Or, for a very different view of things, the Tenement Museum, which covers immigration history.  If you don't mind trekking out to Washington Heights, there's also the Cloisters.  

In May, the weather should have improved enough to take a stroll through Central Park.

If you like buying books, go to the Strand, near Union Square.  I often nip over to Max Brenner (all things chocolate) afterwards.  

3 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

Because?

The RB may have considered Mercutio appropriate for a principal at some point, but not in the several years I've been following them--unlike, say, American Ballet Theater, which almost always has a principal or two dancing Mercutio whenever it does the Macmillan R&J.  

Campbell confirmed on his instagram feed that he isn't dancing at all during this run.

Quote

I have been led to understand from more frequent UK visitors to the US that it is a known cultural difference.

We Americans are indeed notorious for standing Os.  There has been a standing O at nearly every live theater performance I have attended since the mid-1980s, and when there wasn't one, things were dire.  I recall a fine UK character actor on tour over here many years ago who responded to the standing O with very visible bafflement!

Quote

The trouble with Blu-Rays is precisely that you can't watch them on a computer!

But you can! Even on a Mac.  It requires some more financial outlay, like an external Blu-Ray drive and a program capable of reading the disc, but it's completely doable.

I've only seen it on video, so I can't judge its effect in the theater.  On the positive side, the choreography for the Creature, including his PDD with Victor and William, is strong throughout, and the production design is high quality.  The Creature spends a lot of time invading characters' personal space in all sorts of unsettling ways, which compensates for Steven McRae's inability to loom over anyone. On the neutral side, the ballet is much more engaged with the novel's cinematic adaptations than with the novel itself, sometimes to the extent of undercutting the novel's assessment of Victor's character.  And on the negative side, there's a fair amount of choreography that is either derivative, like the pseudo-Macmillan barroom scene, or unintentionally funny, like the "let's kill off the entirety of the remaining cast" moment at the end.  I also felt that the only motivation for Clerval's dancing at the ball was Scarlett suddenly remembering that he had cast Alexander Campbell in the role.

They are a combination of backups, director's/camera operators' rehearsal, and, in the case of future DVD releases, alternative footage to cover for things going haywire.  The livestream-to-DVD releases are actually livestream-intercut-with-the-other-filming-to-DVD releases.  

Quote

However it's probably far too radical a change to be generally accepted  - and the SPF is far too beloved and iconic a character to be so dismissed.

The very Freudian version that Mikhail Baryshnikov staged for American Ballet Theater in the late 1970s also eliminates the SPF and her Cavalier, with Clara and the Nutcracker taking over.  This was the first  Nutcracker I saw, so for some time having a SPF looked odd, not vice-versa!

Quote

I’d like a choreographer to create a strong narrative piece both for Campbell and Muntagirov.

Well, given the amount of time they spend shooting dressing-room hoops on Instagram, perhaps there's a basketball pas de deux to be made.  A sequel to the "Jockey Dance"?

I appreciate McNally (and Campbell, I believe? I just tuned in) not talking over the class.  

I've found that searching by either ballet company or DVD production company will bring up good results, although it's much more of a chore.  

I've found that US showings aren't necessarily indicated until sometime closer to the actual airdate.  Live showings of the ballets in the USA, as opposed to the operas, appear to be pretty much defunct.  My region has been getting delayed showings two to three months after the original relay.  

This struck me as pragmatism more than anything else, much like Steven McRae making a point of getting a degree in Business Management (which Campbell said in his Dance Europe interview that he's also doing), Elizabeth Harrod earning nutritionist qualifications, Eric Underwood and various other dancers developing modeling and clothing design sidelines, and so forth. 

McRae described the process as Wheeldon coming up with the sounds, while he provided the steps to match them.

Sissens, I thought, already had a much better-defined sense of characterization than Richardson, although the latter's tap technique was cleaner.  It's hard to tell what will travel over from a rehearsal, though. 

Incidentally, Campbell mentioned on his Instagram feed that he's no longer dancing this role. 

They're shown in a mix of chains and independents.  Our major local indie, for example, picked up the opera broadcasts after the chain dropped them.  The indie actually promotes the operas, whereas the chain did zip. 

6 hours ago, Melody said:

 He was obviously pretty upset that there hadn't been any local advertising by the ROH or RB, so I'm not sure how much of the 2017/2018 season will be shown there.

Our city lost all the RB transmissions for just this reason.  There were no promotions of any sort for the RB, so you had to already know that they existed.   The tickets were inexpensive, but without ads, nobody came to the theatre.  I have vague hopes that the local art-house cinema may have picked up the ballet season to go along with the operas, but I suspect not. 

42 minutes ago, Fonty said:

Agreed.  It seems very strange that dancers have been told in private.  Surely it would be better to have an official announcement day, which is when everyone finds out, including those that are being promoted.

 

Dancers like Akane Takada have explained that they were informed about promotions during their individual season-end conferences with the AD. 

Wait, Hayward and Campbell are still dancing Clara and the Nutcracker?  

The Knave casting for Alice is interesting--I had thought it would be Ball and/or Clarke appearing, not Ball, Campbell, and Sambe.  

He presented the Giselle Insight last year, although that one wasn't streamed. 

I see I got some predictions correct: Alice, Elite Syncopations, Giselle, Manon. Admittedly, I expected either Giselle or Manon, not both, and not quite so much in the way of Elite Syncopations.  Or of Swan Lake, for that matter.  More surprised by the lack of Forsythe, if only because they were staging him this year--hasn't  it been forever since RB did In the Middle?--and by no Les Patineurs.  

 

I was surprised by this a little as I'm sure there must be more collaboration than that when working with a choreographer. I'm sure the "artist" aspect in a dancer would have more to say when creating works ......but then maybe it does depend on who they are working with.

Wheeldon did go on to say that eventually there was a bit of swap over in the rehearsals in that the dancers started to question more and the actors were starting to turn up and get on with it!!

This point comes across frequently in biographies of choreographers-turned-directors.  Agnes de Mille, Gower Champion, and Jerome Robbins, for example, not only expected actors to obey orders like the dancers, but also to move precisely as directed.  The actors, meanwhile, expected far more control over their physicality.  Something had to give--usually the chastened director-choreographer!

And now to attempt at least one of Woolf's works again.....Anyone any idea which is the best to start with .....in other words the easiest to read?

Ironically enough, probably Orlando.  One of the reasons I found the "Becomings" act so frustrating when I saw it during the first run was that it missed just about all of the novel's lightness and humor. 

Wasn't Cory Stearns part of a RB/ABT swap with (McRae?) or am I mixing this up with something else?

Yes, in a short-lived exchange program that had seemed to puzzle people more than anything else, thanks to the casting. 

If you go to the end of the comments, the ROH has plans to release this year's Nutcracker livestream on DVD.