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bridiem

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  1. bridiem
    Excellent news!
  2. bridiem
    ENB has tweeted: Cast change for Thursday's perfs of Balanchine’s Theme and Variations as part of Our Voices at @Sadlers_Wells: Julia Conway replaces Shiori Kase as Principal Woman in the matinee. Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw replace Emma Hawes and Aitor Arrieta as Principal Couple in the evening.
  3. bridiem
    Interesting comment, MAB. But I think that there's a difference between being 'perfect', in which a more objective assessment can be involved, and 'definitive', which will be different for each person depending on what they see in and want from a role/performance. i.e. if an interpretation knocks your socks off, it could be definitive for you even if not objectively perfect.
  4. bridiem
    She was undoubtedly gifted, but I was never convinced by her apparent expressiveness which to me was always only on the surface.
  5. bridiem
    Interesting that they put a more sensationalist headline in the printed version! (I do remember many moons ago looking surreptitiously and with excitement at reviews in papers in newsagents! Though I did also occasionally buy a paper too...).
  6. bridiem
    That isn't the headline on the review of his that I can see - it just says 'English National Ballet enters a new era – with mixed results'. So not sure where the Rojo headline comes in? I did however notice Jonathan Gray's review last week in which he implied that her departure has liberated the company! Ho hum.
  7. bridiem
    The problem with directors who change the whole rep when or soon after they arrive is that it effectively becomes their company, not the company they inherited. All companies have a history and heritage without which there would be no company, and I don't think it's right for a new director to pay lip service to this whilst then re-making the company in their own image. There has to be a balance between the director's vision and the company's history/heritage. I don't think that Kevin O'Hare gets this balance quite right; not in that he has a big vision (or a big ego) but in that he focusses too much on only the new and the classics (including the MacMillan 'classics' but not, for some reason, the Ashton 'classics'). He pays lip service to the history/heritage, but doesn't on the whole programme accordingly. I can't really understand why this is.
  8. bridiem
    Yes. The programme note says: 'The chosen one is sacrificed. A ghost, she watches the debris of her death. She is carved into their lives. she stands at the fringes of their world: sometimes brushes against thoughts, sometimes against routines. A mother's love, a brother's rage, a father's duty. The sacrifice, their collective hope machine - promises returns - abundance and satisfaction. The exchange of life for more? For what? They return empty handed. How many times should they repeat the sacrifice? A vote is cast. A family reunion awaits on both sides of mortal shores.'
  9. bridiem
    And because it makes it look as if the new works being commissioned are worth revival (even if they're not).
  10. bridiem
    Excellent news! I wish now that I hadn't gone to the first night.
  11. bridiem
    I'm so sorry Dawnstar!
  12. bridiem
    Oh dear! It did start about 7 or 8 minutes late last night so maybe you will still be in time . Good luck!
  13. bridiem
    Interesting to hear an acknowledgement that dancing completely different styles in quick succession makes impossible demands on dancers' bodies (and in this case actually affected the programming order). But I don't think that having two works to very soulful and powerful vocal music straight after each other (or maybe even on the same programme) worked either.
  14. bridiem
    So that's what was going on. I find it unbelievable that anyone with any musical sense would think that this was acceptable. As you say, it sounded like a recording and not a good one at that. Which was so disappointing given how wonderful the music is (and how good the orchestra and singers actually were, except that their work was sabotaged from the word go).
  15. bridiem
    What I wouldn't give for NYCB to be bringing Jewels to Sadler's Wells next spring instead of the paltry programme they are actually bringing. Sigh.
  16. bridiem
    It didn't get a standing ovation in the second circle (except from one person, who sat down pretty quickly when no-one else stood up!). I thought the whole work was largely made up of tedious clichés, to be honest. The music and singing were beautiful but when you have music that's so rich and emotional you really need quite austere choreography - you can't try and out-emote it. And I did think the performances in Les Noces were terrific (in fact the dancers were excellent all evening), but I also thought that the work wasn't worth their great efforts. The music is so extraordinary, but the choreography was all over the place (and there was far too much of bashing the stage with the black cloths and swinging of the black cloak - again, clichés that went on and on...). I also wondered why, when presented with a score that is very specifically concerned with a wedding, you would proceed with the commission if you don't wish to concern yourself with a wedding (as the choreographer admitted she did not). So there was a big disconnect between the music/words and the choreography. I wasn't keen on the orchestration of the score - it made it too operatic and too tame (though still a thrill to hear it again in any form) and I really missed the pianos (though I do understand the difficulties they present); the words were also in translation and so it sounded disconcertingly English when the music is so Russian. So for me the only success of the evening was Theme and Variations, which is so beautiful and was very well if perhaps a little carefully danced. In spite of all the wonderful music, I was confused because it sounded to me as if it was all being amplified. Would that be the case? It made it sound as if it was recorded, which surely defeats the object of having live music. I'd been looking forward to this bill with some excitement so for me it was a very disappointing evening, except for the talent and commitment of the dancers which were beyond reproach.
  17. bridiem
    By the time I was leaving the theatre is was about 10.10pm - so yes, a long overrun.
  18. bridiem
    I emailed the ROH yesterday, and have today received the standard justification for prices rises etc from Graham Bolland, to which I have replied. I can't really see past the fact that the tickets I normally buy have largely more than doubled in the last few years. The ROH obviously thinks that its patrons have bottomless pockets. Well they're wrong.
  19. bridiem
    Wonderful news! Congratulations to all of them.
  20. bridiem
    I simply don't understand how this article and the experiences described in this thread, some of which are quite recent, are in any way reconcilable.
  21. bridiem
    A room for tonight is only £2,125... must bear it in mind if I'm ever a bit weary after a performance. 🥴
  22. bridiem
    Sorry - so it is.
  23. bridiem
    There is a separate listing on the website for 5 Feb in the Clore Studio. 1 hour 15 mins without an interval. (The length/content of the main stage performances isn't yet listed.)
  24. bridiem
    Actually, I have thought of another interpretation that is 'definitive' for me: Vadim Muntagirov in Ashton's Dance of the Blessed Spirits. I have only seen him dance it online, but he was, fundamentally, perfect. (And because this was during the pandemic, his performance had a unique and very poignant significance which only added to its power.)
  25. bridiem
    I would love to have seen her!
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