bridiem

Wonderful photos! Thank you, Rob S and ChrisG.

Yes - all Makarova except the last lady (don't know who she is); Dowell in the wool hat, MacLeary in the dark suit, Baryshnikov at the end. Great photos!

10 minutes ago, oncnp said:

 

Not by the ROH at least. They keep saying "stay tuned" and "soon"

I have just this moment received an email confirming it! 7pm on Dec 22nd

The Times article in today's Links confirms that the Dec 22nd performance will be livestreamed. I'm not aware this has actually been conveyed to potential audiences yet though maybe I've missed it.

16 minutes ago, oncnp said:

If you are looking for 1 or 2 tickets to virtually any performance many seem to have appeared on the website just now

Well yes - but it seems that the stated availability doesn't necessarily match the actual availability once you try and book (at least for a single ticket - maybe 2s are better). Or at least the info is rather misleading - you may be able to get a single ticket but only at £95/£100!

1 hour ago, alison said:

Is there a URL for this?  I could do with something uplifting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-LOxxTLxNU

It was wonderful! Brilliant coaches and beautiful dancers.

From Twitter:

'It is with great disappointment that we have had to cancel Birmingham Royal Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker at the Royal Albert Hall this year. 

The government restrictions from 2 December will limit public attendance at indoor events to 1,000 people which makes it financially impossible to stage a production of this scale. We had been determined to share The Nutcracker this year and had been investigating various options including a streamed performance, but the costs were just too great to make this a viable option.

The Royal Albert Hall have been in contact with bookers this afternoon with further information about their tickets.'

1 hour ago, capybara said:

I hope I’m mistaken in this case but it’s usually the ‘people at the top’ who get the top honours.

Yes; but she has been acting director, and Ballet Hoo was such a unique and socially valuable project, so maybe those factors in addition to all the others will lead someone to have the imagination to see that she is indeed deserving of this recognition.

1 hour ago, Richard LH said:

Great review LACAD; sorry you don't like the Rhapsody costumes though, having just changed my profile picture! 

Funnily enough I hated the costumes when the ballet premièred, but now I love them! They're a fine fizzy filigree delight, like the choreography. (I hated the temporary re-design.) So you may keep your excellent new profile picture Richard LH!!

4 minutes ago, alison said:

 

Here's a radical suggestion: what if - shock horror - given the small audiences (if any) they'll be able to have at the ROH, and how quickly even normal-sized performances sell out, a decision is taken not to formally announce casting at all, and to make everyone take pot luck, rather than to bother announcing casting when there's every chance that, due to the bubble system, if one dancer has to come out for whatever reason the rest of the casting could be turned upside down as well (if that is indeed a potential scenario)?  This forum would be in an uproar, of course, but it's probably one of the few ballets where it might conceivably be an option

 

But yes, hopefully it comes off at all, and the Government doesn't put the kibosh on Christmas performances

I have to say that in these circumstances I don't care a jot what the casting is - I'll just be thrilled if it goes ahead. All the dancers are wonderful. (Besides which I imagine it will be a bit of a lottery trying to get a single ticket at an OK price in an OK seat for any performance. I draw the line at sitting in the Upper Slips again!).

1 hour ago, oncnp said:

I don' t think these have shown up in the links yet (and yes I did look)....apologies if they have

 

https://bachtrack.com/review-video-royal-ballet-live-within-golden-hour-november-2020

 

https://theartsdesk.com/dance/royal-ballet-live-within-golden-hour-review-stunning-joyous-dance

It's not often a critic talks about shouting for joy over a performance!! (artsdesk)

7 hours ago, SantosA said:

I finally caught up with the stream. A different feel to the evening than the first gala. I think this second one pipped the first for me, programming-wise. (I didn't mind the interventions of the host so much in the first -- it was nice to hear from the company members. But chiefly, I thought Elite Syncopations, which I hadn't seen before, would be, I don't know... more? While the dancing was as committed as one could hope, the piece seemed oddly paced to me. I kept expecting it to build up somehow and have a bigger payoff at the end. Is it considered a major MacMillan?)

I know exactly what you mean about Elite Syncopations. I really enjoyed it when I first saw it MANY years ago, and I've very much enjoyed the recent performances as a colourful company come-back work; but for me it never really does take off. It's too slow, and too long, and the choreography is not sufficiently interesting or varied. (And the costumes are way OTT!). I'm not sure who decides these things, but I wouldn't have thought that it's considered a major MacMillan - it's just unusual for him in that it's entirely lightweight/happy/frothy or however you want to describe it, and I suppose the music is popular and it's very easy on the eye (if you have a strong eye!). But just to repeat - I've really enjoyed these recent performances! And they've been very well danced.

22 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

More sad news today that Ray Clemence, Goalkeeper extraordinaire, has passed away at the age of 72.  #YNWA

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/nov/15/ray-clemence-former-liverpool-spurs-and-england-goalkeeper-dies-aged-72

Very sad. One of the heroes of my youth!

39 minutes ago, balletnut55 said:

I agree with everyone else and loved every minute.
For me the highlights were Monotones and Concerto. I love the sense peace they both have, and how the dancers made them seem effortless and simple when they are really anything but. It was really interesting to see in some close ups that it looked like Nicol Edmonds and Reece Clarke were sweating by the end of Monotones, but it didn’t show in their dancing. I was also pleasantly surprised by Melissa Hamilton, since she hasn’t been one of my favourite dancers until now, but I thought she was wonderful last night. 
One slight grumble: I was trying to work out who all the dancers were in the “corps” for In the Golden Hour and was really disappointed that they weren’t listed on the ROH website. I know the corps de ballet aren’t normally listed individually, for practical reasons I suppose, but in this case there were only 8 dancers and I thought they more than deserved it. 

I loved Monotones too (and Concerto) - really spellbinding. As someone else has said, Monotones II now strikes me as a sort of companion piece to Symphonic Variations.

The other 8 dancers in WTGH were listed on the News thread about this performance, so they must have been listed somewhere on the ROH website.

11 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

Has anyone ever played the Nurse then gone on to do Juliet? I know plenty have done it the other way around. When I saw her do the Nurse in the RB's last R&J run I kind of assumed that was it for any chance of her ever getting to do Juliet.

I doubt it! But then she is quite a young Nurse...

Absolutely loved every single item! How to pick highlights from highlights?! But just to mention O'Sullivan and (especially) Sambé soaring in Tchaikovsky pas de deux, Morera and Bonelli thrilling in Manon, Osipova's searingly dramatic Dying Swan, Nunez and Muntagirov magnificent in Corsaire, and all the cast of Within the Golden Hour - sophisticated, glossy and altogether brilliant. But the most unexpected treat was seeing Romany Pajdak in In Our Wishes - she was heartbreakingly expressive. How I would love to see her do Juliet. What a superb evening!

Patronising and badly expressed. I understand, though, the fundamental point he's making that for many people football is what they really care about, and that should be given equal respect as e.g. ballet which we snooty southerners (allegedly) respect and care about... There are clearly, though, a few hybrids around (including me) who care very much about both football and ballet (though I suppose it's also true that my football comes from my northern heritage and ballet from my southern upbringing/residence.) Having said that, this Forum is so important to me at least partly because even here in the south, most people I know couldn't give a .... about ballet. 🙂

6 minutes ago, David said:

Oh dear, I feel I should apologise. I seem to have raised hackles. It was a simple query, a wish to know more about the woman who has moved us all so profoundly. Surely it is not inapproriate, particularly on  this day of all days that we should think about the forgotten person behind the story.   

No apology at all needed as far as I'm concerned, David! It would indeed be interesting to know more about her. I just felt that in his tweets Mr Macaulay sounded rather nit-picking, instead of simply appreciating the beauty of what we've seen.

31 minutes ago, Sim said:

If Macaulay is that concerned about it perhaps he should contact the charity.  He was also making a big deal about the ballet clip interspersed with the piece was The Dying Swan and not Swan Lake.

 

Re. all of the above, I don't really care in this instance.  Maybe she was a ballerina in NY, maybe she wasn't.  Does it matter that much?  I really don't care.  I posted this up because of the beauty the story tells...and this lady represents many other people who react and respond to music when nothing else can reach them.  

Exactly. She clearly has some sort of ballet background that is coming to the fore again here, and it's beautiful and moving. That's all that matters.

8 hours ago, alison said:

Sky Arts:

 

Thursday 12th November, 3 pm: South Bank Show Originals - Akram Khan (2002).  Not sure why these are 30-minute broadcasts - surely the SBS used to be an hour?

Repeated at 5.10 am the next morning.

Thanks Alison - I'd missed this. It seems these programmes are Melvyn Bragg looking back at the originals rather than a straight repeat of them.

13 minutes ago, James R said:

Outside the auditorium, the experience was a bit weird but the ROH had obviously taken great precautions - everyone wearing facemasks of course, and we were channelled in from the entrance directly to our seats in the amphitheatre.

Yes, it was a bit weird, but so wonderful just to be in the building again. I forgot to say that as I went in the (new) entrance on Bow Street I saw Kevin O'Hare not far off talking to someone, and I instinctively gave him a cheerful wave, and I was so touched when he gave me an enthusiastic wave back. I did talk to him briefly at an event earlier this year, but something tells me that that conversation might have been rather more memorable for me than for him... so basically he would have had no idea who I was, but it didn't stop him from reacting in a really friendly way! He looked as excited as I felt. So that was a lovely start to the evening.

10 minutes ago, oncnp said:

Was the Times critic sitting next to you?

 

" Akane Takada and Federico Bonelli brought out the diaphanous romance of Frederick Ashton’s Rhapsody pas de deux."

 

Could have sworn it was Campbell. 

😄 Tut tut. Clearly Campbell even from my lofty eyrie!

28 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

And, BridieM, what a gorgeous review from what seems to have been a place with a very restricted view. So glad you were able to see some of the dancing and hoping the parts you missed will be streamed. 

Thanks very much, Scheherezade! And thanks to you, and others, for their lovely and rather more rounded reviews. (I can probably claim my seat as the worst in the house last night! I hadn't realised how little of the 'action' is front centre stage... But Who Cares? as they say.) And yes, I really hope that at least some of last night's pieces will be streamed.

I can't really say much about the dancing tonight, because from my seat in the further reaches of the Upper Slips I only got glimpses of it here and there (though lovely view of the orchestra and of the wings!). On the other hand, what I did see was so beautiful, and so thrilling, that it hardly mattered that I could see so little. On the one hand I felt that I'd come back home; on the other, it was as if I was at my first ever performance. The music sounded so loud, and the stage lights were so dazzling, and the dancing was so brilliant, that it was like a distilled revelation of the power of theatre, music and ballet. This is what it's about, and this is what we've been missing. I could see a beautiful arm here, a delicate hand there, a leg extended in arabesque, a face contorted by pain, or love, or grief; imagine the excitement when I saw a whole person, or even a couple dancing together!! I was practically horizontal at times in my efforts to see as much as possible. 😄 Treat followed treat, and I wallowed in happiness.

I can't really say what the highlights were for me, but I remember Muntagirov in Tchaikovsky pas de deux apparently flying into my field of vision (couldn't see him take off) and only landing when he reached the far side of the stage; Mayara Magri's fouettés wowing the audience in Le Corsaire whilst I could only see her foot flicking like fire as it came round each time; Edward Watson's incredible expressiveness whilst simply standing still on stage in Woolf Works; and the whole company having very stylish fun in Elite Syncopations. A truly great evening. After curtain down we could hear the company cheering and applauding on the stage, so I hope they knew how much they had delighted their audience. May it not be too long before they can do so again.