bridiem

I can only assume that this bill was not in fact aimed at families/children, but as an alternative bill to The Nutcracker for those NOT looking for a family/child-friendly show.

It begins to sound as if we could form a company. What about The Royal National BalletForum Company? We've all been there after all. 😆🧚‍♂️🧚‍♀️

What a beautiful photo! Thanks bangorballetboy.

I was a ballerina too. (When I was 5...).

You'd think the RB wouldn't be thrilled with someone claiming to have been in the company (or the school) when they haven't.

Well since I didn't pass the box office, I didn't see any cast change notice if there was one on Friday evening (at the Coliseum). There was no indication of any changes where I picked up my cast sheet. And I don't know all the dancers by sight so I don't even know for sure who I saw now! Really bad. I suppose I've disliked the Coliseum for so many years that I don't expect to gain any enjoyment from going there, other than (hopefully) in the performance. I just keep my head down and head for my seat/s. Whereas the ROH used to feel welcoming.

I was out last night, and if I hadn't been I suppose I might have watched this programme just in case. I'm now very glad I was out!! It sounds positively dire.

… or even, The Journey of the Magi?! (Which is what I meant)

Jeepers!! Swan Lake as the triumph of evil over good. Hmm. But certainly dramatic, though so bleak that I also found it a bit inadvertently comic at times, I'm afraid. (Though I don't suppose I would have in real life.)

Yes - I've just re-read the programme note for Act IV, which ends: 'With her fate sealed, Odette rushes to the rock and plunges into the lake. Through her sacrifice, the sorcerer's power is destroyed and Siegfried is left to cradle the lifeless body of the Princess.' But why then does the swan appear above him? Is she effectively just saying goodbye, as you suggest? Or is her spirit still living even if her body is dead? (Or can we choose either option?!).

Yes, the last RB production had them united in death. (As did the one before it.)

That makes me feel so nostalgic! Enigma Variations was the first ballet I ever saw (in October 1977), and Dowell was Troyte, and (exceptionally!) I was sitting in the stalls circle very near the stage. So I saw Dowell close-up in this solo. Not bad for a balletic initiation!

Yes, that's probably been their quandary - they want to give a non-elitist impression, but in so doing they're stripping the area/s of what actually would make them desirable to visit. i.e. I'm not sure they really have the courage of their conviction about the kind of institution they are running.

Thanks for your really interesting post, JohnS. I do agree with most of what you say, and I agree that Scarlett's Swan Lake is a theatrical tour de force and very moving. But (as you know!) I don't find the ending 'fully in tune with the music' or even 'life affirming' because although Von Rothbart is defeated the triumph is only partial, not complete. As far as I remember we just see Siegfried walking towards us, holding the dead body of Princess Odette. (I recorded this on Christmas Day but haven't watched it yet - I hope to do so soon!). There's no indication (as you say) that he sees her spirit, or that he will ever find consolation. So for me it's a bleak ending on which we have to impose a more positive spin (if we wish to do so). But I don't deny that it is very moving. (I don't think I've seen a production where they end up united in love and living; that would obviously be rather more cheerful, but temperamentally I prefer the sacrificial death bringing the ultimate union. But that's just me!!).

I do think his music is multi-dimensional, but I don't think that's quite the same as being 'open to interpretation'. (Though of course in practice it IS open to interpretation, and will continue to be so!).

I saw the Cojocaru/Cirio/Streeter cast tonight at the Coliseum. This is a spectacularly beautiful production - pure and clear and classy, enhanced by Peter Farmer's magnificent designs; and it was spectacularly danced. For me, this is the real Swan Lake. I'm afraid it brought home to me all the more the problem/s with Liam Scarlett's production for the RB, much as I enjoyed it at the time. This production brings the ballet to its proper climax; Ashton's Act IV is stunning, and builds to its great, urgent, cathartic, triumphant apotheosis. Swan Lake is not the story of a prince who is tricked into declaring his love for the wrong person and so loses his real love for ever; that would be a tragedy (or at least a sorry tale), and it's clear from the music that Swan Lake is not a tragedy. At the risk of repeating myself, it's about the triumph of good over evil, love over hatred, sacrifice over the lust for power, the (apparently) weak over the (temporarily) strong. And every note of the music expresses that. ENB's production matches it, and rises with it. I could hardly breathe during the last act, and had to fight back the tears to ensure that I didn't miss anything. And I've seen Swan Lake dozens of times; this was like seeing it anew. Such power and profundity, that for me can only be expressed by the perfect union of music and dance since there are no words to tie them down, to make them particular to one culture, to make them specific. Swan Lake at its best expresses the eternal truths, and this production is Swan Lake at its best. It's quite a few years since I've seen Cojocaru as Odette/Odile, and she was a revelation (all over again). Her Odette was, as could be expected, soft and gentle and loving; but she was also strong and pliant and passionate. The tempi were quite strange, I thought - sometimes very slow and sometimes very fast; presumably this is what Cojocaru wanted. She used the slow elements to bend ever more deeply, to wait, to dance as if in a dream; and the fast elements to spin and jump and turn like a shooting star. Her Odile was sensational; so erotic and absolutely lusting after power over Siegfried, and positively leering in triumph when she finally achieved it. Appalling, and brilliant. (I did wonder why on earth Siegfried's mother wanted this far from demure maiden as her daughter-in-law...). In the last act, her Odette was like a dying swan; but in her grief she still knew what she had to do, and found the strength to do it. I have never seen Jeffrey Cirio before, and I thought he was wonderful. High, incredibly light jumps, lovely clean technique, and a really believable character. I don't think I've ever seen a more despairing Siegfried when he is meeting his potential brides; or a Siegfried who knows as surely as Odette what he must do at the end of the ballet. They both know, and they both act, and they triumph together. James Streeter was an energetic, dramatic von Rothbart who really seized the moment (but I didn't like his make up at all - more like a panto villain or war paint, which was a bit bizarre). I very much enjoyed Jane Haworth's imperious Queen and Michael Coleman's hearty Tutor/Master of Ceremonies. I thought that there were a few slightly ragged moments in Act 1, but also some beautiful dancing by Emma Hawes, Precious Adams and Aitor Arrieta in the pas de trois. I loved the national dances, and Anjuli Hudson and Noam Durand danced an excellent Neapolitan. And the swans/corps were absolutely terrific throughout - precise and synchronised but also so full of life and breath, and at the end stretching their backs and arms in an ecstasy of gratitude, submission and joy. No matter how brilliant the principals are, the ballet is made or lost by its swans; and these swans triumphed.

Probably best not JUST IN CASE it caused further widespread titillation. Honestly, how did we sink from the sublime heights of Les Patineurs to these tittering depths.

Or maybe not... . Even I am tittering now, in spite of still being oblivious to the original joke. Where is Joyce Grenfell when you need her.

I haven't found anything, hfbrew; I'm wondering it it's possible that this was actually 'Balthazaar, adapted FROM TS Eliot'? i.e. an adaptation of The Return of the Magi?

Thank goodness you really didn't know, capybara! Not just me. So funny about your election as Form Captain!

Blimey O'Reilly!!! I eat my words.

Can I also be a Margot?!! Please?!! (And the rest of you can be smutty Gerrys).

English is my first language and I've no idea what the joke is either. And (as I suspected) by the sound of it I probably don't want to know! May those who understand enjoy it, and I will remain in blissful ignorance.

I don't know, Josephine - I haven't been yet. I was just following up on someone else's suggestion because it strikes me that Winter Dreams is a sort of 'chamber ballet' if such a thing exists, and gets a bit lost on the big stage. But the Linbury may well not be big enough.

That's an interesting distinction, Josephine. I used to know the play well (many years ago!) but have now forgotten most of it. In the end I only saw the Muntagirov cast, and he did indeed make the choreography (and my soul!) soar; I would have liked to have seen Hirano (in spite of some of the comments above!). And I'd like to see the work again, though I do wonder if it would indeed work better in the Linbury as has been suggested.