bridiem

Thanks very much, TTP! Believe it or not, I actually recorded the Kenneth MacMillan Desert Island Discs when it was aired in 1983 - on my treasured old cassette recorder with the separate microphone pointing at the radio, and hoping that no-one would come into the room during the programme... those were the days. During the first lockdown last year, I found the tape and wondered if it would still work; it did, for a while, and I was really enjoying listening to it; then, KM's voice gradually started getting higher and higher and faster and faster until towards the end he sounded as if he was f

I've just finished watching it (for the first time). Yes, it must have been a very daunting role to play! I thought Anne-Marie Duff did as well as possible considering that she's not a dancer. I found it very odd though because I'm so familiar with Fonteyn and Nureyev et al that it felt a bit as if I was watching people acting members of my family! So I didn't for a minute believe that I was actually watching them. (Though Derek Jacobi was surprisingly convincing as Ashton.) But although I took it all with a very large pinch of salt, in the end I thought it did give at least some sort of idea

To be honest I just found this incredibly melancholic and depressing. The moment where the audience is back passes quickly and - all that is left is an empty stage, as he keeps saying...

But apparently Mayerling also had its première on Valentine's Day! (1978). Maybe says something about the differing approaches of Ashton and MacMillan to the same subject...

Excellent news! (Though I really hope that social distancing isn't in fact going to become a permanent feature in theatres.)

I feel as if the nation's grandfather has died. May he now become our guardian angel. RIP

I was clapping along at home!

Yes - what has been until now a great joy and luxury has become a vital essential.

Happy Christmas to everyone, and thanks for ensuring that even with hardly any live performances ballet was still a huge part of my life in 2020.

The Lilac Fairy intervening at Mayerling so Mary and Rudolf just have a nice long sleep? Drosselmeyer making the trees grow at the Sleeping Beauty palace? Puck sprinkling Juliet's eyes so she falls in love with Paris?

Millions of us will be alone on the 25th. Knowing that brings a sense of solidarity and even comfort, to me and I hope to others.

Oh no!!!! 😭

Interesting comment from David Mead in his review in today's Links, that maybe this version could form the basis of a Nutcracker production that could be toured (whereas the standard production is too big).

I really hope that new paths will open up for your daughter in the coming year, cotes du rhone! It was a beautiful performance last night of which she can be justly proud.

Not to me! I loved Ballet Shoes, but for some reason it's Curtain Up that I return to time and time again. Something about the wartime setting, I think. I've read it so often there are bits I almost know by heart!!