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bridiem

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Everything posted by bridiem

  1. bridiem
    I can't actually think of any other organisations from whom I don't receive emails/surveys etc when I should.
  2. bridiem
    Yes - I did find with the second rehearsal that stopping the dancers literally every few seconds with purely technical rather than 'artistic' feedback didn't make for very illuminating viewing. But all the dancers were excellent.
  3. bridiem
    Well yes, it is worth researching - but I wouldn't say any of the research would be rewarded by watching this ballet. The nursing/war element is absolutely minimal and imho entirely unconvincing.
  4. bridiem
    Apparently I should have received the survey since I'm not opted out, so they can't at the moment explain why I didn't receive it. They have now sent it to me. Not very encouraging, especially since the same sort of thing happened last year when I realised I was no longer receiving their e-newsletters and they couldn't explain why not.
  5. bridiem
    Yes, I've just done that. Very frustrating!
  6. bridiem
    All the available options on my membership are ticked; what more can I do?!
  7. bridiem
    I made sure quite recently that I am opted in to everything, and haven't received it...
  8. bridiem
    Yes, this is not clear at all; the experimenting does not look voluntary, and at the end he runs some water into the bath, appears to wash his hands and face, and then turns the tap off and gets into the bath, closing the lid. For all we can tell he's just having a nice relaxing sauna-type experience after the trauma of committing murder... Thank you for quoting the Richard Dehmel poem above, @JohnS - it's so beautiful!
  9. bridiem
    I agree, except that all the emphasis at the end is on Siegfried bringing out Odette's dead body - the image of her hovering above cannot even be seen by some of the audience and seems very much like an afterthought (whether or not it was intended like that). So for me, the euphoria of the final music isn't really reflected in what happens on stage. And if the ballet was called 'Odette', it would be OK for the redemption to come solely through her; but I prefer my SL where it's a joint effort and their love for each other comes together to defeat evil, rather than it just being Odette's love for Siegfried. Siegfried has been the victim of VR's evil just as much as Odette was originally, so they should join forces to defeat him.
  10. bridiem
    I'm so sorry, @Lynette H! So disappointing for you.
  11. bridiem
    Yes, but very briefly.
  12. bridiem
    Our cinema was pretty full, so that was a nice surprise. I thought that this excellent bill was brilliantly danced and a real showcase for the company. In terms of the presentation/interviews: when KOH was saying how great these works are and how important it is for the company to know and experience MacMillan's one-act works, I was inwardly yelling 'Yes! You're right! So why are they programmed so infrequently?!'. It was really good to hear Ross MacGibbon talk and I would have liked to hear more from him - I don't recall him being interviewed before at these screenings, though maybe I've just forgotten. But in general, given that cinema audiences will at best have only received a cast list for the programme, I thought that there was too much in the way of admiration (even though deserved) and too little in the way of actual information. There should have been more about the music used for each work (there was nothing even about when composed, or any background at all); in particular, I don't think that nowadays there can be an assumption that everyone will even understand what a Requiem Mass is and what the Latin words mean, so some outline of this should have been offered. (I noticed that the fact that it is in fact a Requiem Mass was scrupulously avoided; MacMillan may not have been religious, but the music certainly is.) The info about notation was very interesting, but I'm not sure why that should take precedence over more obvious information about music, designs, Cranko, etc, that could have been forthcoming. And once more, although Darcey Bussell looked wonderful and was so likeable, there were agonising moments where she stumbled over her words. The difference between Bussell the presenter and Bussell the (wonderful) coach was so glaring. And, as before, I do wish that they would not bring the presenters back to talk over and take the camera away from the curtain calls. (It's lovely to see the calls from behind the curtains, but we don't need to see the presenters at that point! A voice-over would do fine.)
  13. bridiem
    I was referring to the implausible but not 100% impossible alleged title of one of the ballets involved. I wondered if Balanchine had some penchant for Bournemouth previously unknown to me!
  14. bridiem
    I think it's already been notified that the new season is being announced on 30th April.
  15. bridiem
    Really?!
  16. bridiem
    I'm afraid I experienced this to an intolerable degree last autumn, in respect of the person sitting next to me, to the extent that I couldn't stay in my seat. I spoke to one of the ushers (at the ROH) at the first interval and they were very helpful and the eventual upshot was that another seat was found for me. I was very grateful because I would otherwise have had to leave.
  17. bridiem
    🤣 Now that could be a new thread: the ballet you would least want to be stuck with for eternity! But no, that would be far too negative. (And there would be too many options in my case!!). A better idea would be: the ballet you would most want to experience for eternity. (But, happily, there would be even more too many options for me in this category!). So I will now stop rambling.
  18. bridiem
    The tube strikes in April and May have been called off. (Train strikes still on at the moment.)
  19. bridiem
    Good luck @Dawnstar! I hope you get there in time.
  20. bridiem
    This is very rude and also a false equivalence. A special offer intended for Friends obviously cannot legitimately be shared; all that has now been shared is casting information that brings no benefit except knowledge. Who knows why the ROH hasn't got round to publicising the casting more widely, but it's clearly not privileged information.
  21. bridiem
    I agree that the dates/crowded (and repetitive) programming in those few weeks won't help.
  22. bridiem
    Yes, I hope sales will pick up too. But I think that (as discussed elsewhere) marketing does matter in selling programmes. And if the whole thrust of the RB's 'sell' is geared towards the big MacMillans, Swan Lake/Nutcracker, and McGregor, it must make it more difficult selling other types of works/programmes. Labelling older works as 'heritage' is a big no-no as far as I'm concerned. And only programming such works in separate bills is unlikely to help. Audiences need to be educated (and I'm not saying that from a lofty standpoint - I'm still learning; but in my early years of ballet-going I was able to see all sorts of works of different styles/eras/choreographers, often at the RB). Ballet isn't just entertainment and/or tragedy and/or cool gymnastics. It's an incredibly expressive, interesting and flexible art form, and there are many wonderful works from earlier eras that should be shown regularly, and that's what audiences should expect. (Not everything can be sold in the breathless way that so many of the livestreams are sold.)
  23. bridiem
    I like the blonde wig! (Ducks for cover...).
  24. bridiem
    Ball is guesting elsewhere - mentioned on another thread.
  25. bridiem
    Well I'd all in favour of MacMillan 'overload' if that's what it takes. (And no-one seems to worry about the current threat of McGregor overload.) I understand Lady MacMillan's sentiment, but in fact MacMillan was known to be a genius by very many people during his lifetime. And his death was announced as a leading news item on national radio, even though he was no longer director of the RB. So although sometimes deemed to be controversial, he was certainly not unappreciated.
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