Alice Shortcake

Wasn't the ballet supposed to be released on DVD next month?

The Nicholas Brothers in one of my all-time favourite dance numbers:

 

https://m.youtube.com/?hl=en-GB&gl=GB#/watch?v=fNKRm6H-qOU

Rule 34: if a thing exists there is a porn version of it.

I came away from the performance with the thought that Bintley's understanding of the play was extremely superficial and that he had assumed that the plot of the play was as well known to his audience as that of a Midsummer Night's Dream or Romeo and Juliet and that he had simply followed the structure of the play without asking himself how he could stage the action of the play in a way that would work in balletic terms.

Absolutely!

 

 

Again why did he think it necessary to add Pan to the goddesses selected by Shakespeare as appropriate to marriage celebrations?

It really irritated me that Bintley has upgraded this minor deity of shepherds and wild places to the god of drink and revelry. Bacchus must be feeling a bit miffed.

 

I can't help thinking that Bintley should have shown the audience the goddesses conferring blessings on Ferdinand and Miranda and at the end of the masque the royal couple joining in a dance of harmony with the goddesses and their attendants.It would have given the masque a theatrical purpose which it lacked in the ballet.

Yes, a thousand times yes!

And if you're already stealing, nick some of Rupert Goold's ideas from his RSC Tempest - like impressive but simple storm scenes without strobe lighting on steroids.

 

Ah, happy memories of one of the best Tempests I've ever seen. And Bintley's decision to leave a sobbing Ariel abandoned on the island made me long for the electrifying moment in Sam Mendes' RSC production when Ariel, reduced to serving Prospero as a uniformed houseboy, spat in his master's face when given his long-delayed freedom.

As long as the new SL doesn't involve a vomiting tutor with an unhealthy interest in young girls, or a maypole, I'll be happy. Oh, and please don't make Siegfied wear tights the same colour as the stage/backgound. We want to see his legs!

 

 I have to agree overall it didn't quite work;  the masque should not have taken over as it did, (oh no not those straw hats again !)  and for me the music just didn't create drama sufficiently. It is a very hard play to turn into a ballet. I wonder what might work better that hasn't been done to death.

 

Oh, those awful straw hats - straight out of a 1940s musical. I half expected Carmen Miranda to make an entrance!

 

As a hardcore Shakespeare fan I have to admit that there are very few ballet/opera adaptations of his plays that I really enjoy. There's a reason why 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'The Taming of the Shrew' are so attractive to choreographers - they're early plays with relatively simple plots and broadly drawn characters. The so-called "romances" are a different kettle of fish, which made Wheeldon's success with 'The Winter's Tale' all the more impressive (although the final Leontes/Hermione pas de deux, lovely as it was, didn't ring true to me as Hermione barely registers Leontes' presence in the play). I wonder what the right choreographer might make of 'Cymbeline'? Stolen children, parted lovers, battle scenes, evil stepmother...all human life is here!

I must confess to being rather underwhelmed by "The Tempest". The play has never struck me as being an obvious choice for adaptation as a ballet, although neither did "The Winter's Tale" and I love the RB version.

 

Things I liked: the Ferdinand/Miranda scenes, the puppet Miranda, Caliban's giant whelk disguise, parts of the masque (which went on for much too long, as did the rustic festival in "The Winter's Tale"), and the choreographed curtain call. The latter reminded me of the dances performed by the entire cast at the end of Shakespeare productions at the Globe.

 

Things I didn't like: the murky lighting, most of the costumes and the lacklustre score. The ending also grated on me - as has already been mentioned, Ariel isn't granted the freedom he yearned for throughout the play. And I've always suspected that Caliban was probably kidnapped by Trinculo and Stephano and sold to a freak show, so the scene in which Prospero crowns him king of the island didn't ring true to me.

 

At the end of the day I don't think "The Tempest" works very well without Shakespeare's words.

 

Totally OT, but...HOLY POINTE SHOES, BATMAN! I haven't been to Birmingham for over twenty years and didn't know that the railway station and part of the city centre had been razed to the ground and rebuilt. The only thing I recognised was the Rotunda. My mind went completely blank, I got lost and had I not asked for directions I wouldn't have reached the Hippodrome in time. Even the theatre had changed beyond recognition - not until I took my seat did I recognise the auditorium so familiar to me in the 80s and 90s!

I'll be at the matinee on the 8th. It looks gorgeous!

I've just noticed that new copies of the Dutch National Ballet's "Mata Hari" DVD are on sale for as little as £12.11 on Amazon UK.

I'm looking forward to "The Little Mermaid", but was also a bit disappointed that "Jane Eyre" won't be performed at Leeds next year.

Damnation! I already have a theatre ticket booked for the date of the York showing.

A reminder that this version of "Swan Lake" is available on an ABC Classics DVD.

For the love of Thespis, why do people eat CRISPS at the theatre? And why do theatre managements allow them in the auditorium?

I can't say that Neumeier's "Tatiana" appeals to me, and I find it very frustrating that this comparatively recent work will soon be available on DVD when so many of the choreographer's other ballets (particularly his wonderful version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream") haven't been filmed.

I wish the BRB could find ways to record more of their work. What there is is scanty but much treasured but there have been so many of their productions and dancers, both past and recent, that deserve a place on our shelves. Far more so that some!

I couldn't agree more. Much as I love my Royal Ballet DVDs it does seem unfair that there are three Filles, three Nutcrackers, two Giselles and two Swan Lakes, yet so little of BRB's work has been preserved.

Bring your rubber duck!

Something to look forward to, depending of course on which cinemas are taking part: three Australian Ballet productions will be broadcast to 500 cinemas worldwide in October. The ballets are Ratmansky's redesigned Cinderella, David McAllister's jaw-droppingly lavish Sleeping Beauty and Peggy van Praagh's much-loved Coppelia.

 

http://www.screendaily.com/news/cinemalive-partners-with-australian-ballet-on-trilogy-of-productions/5104519.article

 

I'd happily pay to see all of them! I was on the verge of booking to see Cinderella at the London Coliseum next month when fate decreed that I'll be moving house on the only day I could have gone...

"Specter of the Rose" (1946), written and directed by Ben Hecht, has to be one if the strangest ballet films ever made. It's very loosely based on Nijinsky's life story and features some less than stellar dancing:

 

https://m.youtube.com/?hl=en-GB&gl=GB#/watch?v=k8PoUnNvRPA

*adds Leeds dates to diary*

I've just had a reply from the ROH - a DVD of 'Frankenstein' is in the works but it won't be released for six months or so, probably in time for Christmas!

I wonder if 'Frankenstein' will be released on DVD?

I can't wait for this to be staged in Leeds!

I'm looking forward to seeing this at York's newly refurbished Theatre Royal on Saturday!

Something to look forward to later this year: David Bintley's new full-length adaptation of "The Tempest", which premieres at the Birmingham Hippodrome on 1st October. I can't wait!

 

ETA: Damnation, I should have posted this in Dance News...