AnneMarriott

2 hours ago, Mary said:

Yes - except I don't think any self-respecting medieval mummer would have been seen dead in a ditch in that costume!

Try telling that to the Longparish Mummers!

7 hours ago, Sim said:

What’s a Mummer?!

Mummery is a kind of mediaeval street performance of plays or ceremonies.  The performers (mummers) wear extravagant costumes which disguise their appearance and the performance is usually of an overwrought, exaggerated and even ridiculous or mocking kind.  So in the context of England on Fire the three performers in the rag-and-bell costumes make more sense as mummers than as Morris dancers.

On 09/11/2023 at 13:46, Sim said:

I have referred to them as characters from the Morris Dances, but I may be totally wrong!!  They were wearing the Morris bells so I made that association....

I notice that Louise Leven in her Financial Times review calls them Old English Mummers.  Even though I thought of them as Morris dancers, Mummers makes far more sense.

"England is a hothouse flower but all the glass is cracked".  This refrain sadly came across to me as "England is a sh*thouse now and her arse is smacked".  Sorry if that contravenes Forum rules about language.  If the show was supposed to reflect the current wave of creativity, then I missed the point - it just seemed to be an angry rant about what is wrong with the country and I felt thoroughly depressed at the end.  I also notice the lack of a standing ovation which surprised me not a little because of the average age of the audience.

On 25/07/2023 at 15:18, Sebastian said:

Apologies, I should have checked before. This book, despite being only ten years old, is also available to read online for free via the Internet Archive, truly an extraordinary resource. 

16 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

What on earth are those costumes in the second photograph???

 

Thanks for the review Sim.

16 hours ago, Sim said:

I have referred to them as characters from the Morris Dances, but I may be totally wrong!!  They were wearing the Morris bells so I made that association....

16 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

Oh I didn’t notice the bells!  That does make sense though.  In BRB’s R&J the mandolin dancers wear similar outfits (which I really don’t like).

 

Thanks Sim.

16 hours ago, Sim said:

It would be very hard to notice as they were hidden in the depths of the costume.  I caught a fleeting glimpse on one of the dancers but otherwise it was hearing only!

The three Morris dancers (which I also assumed they were) were the highlight of the whole thing for me.

5 hours ago, PeterS said:

Patrons looking for the Ladies toilets regularly descend the stairs to the Gentlemans toilets. Whilst most retrace their steps when realising where they are, a few do continue onwards and use one of the few cubicles in this area.
I haven’t knowingly seen a woman use the urinals but patrons wearing dresses certainly have done.
I have advocated for better signage since the reopening following the Open Up renovations but to no avail.

 

in this day and age I guess one just has to go with the flow 😉 

Well I would certainly hope that any woman who has mistakenly entered the men's loos and decided to risk staying to use the facilities has the decency to close the cublcle door.

3 hours ago, li tai po said:

 

 

At Rigoletto this week, my wife and her friend went to the ladies in the interval on the right hand side of the amphitheatre as the five minute bell was ringing.  They were very upset to find a "40-year old, stylish" man urinating in one of the toilets, with the cubicle door open.  We were wondering if they were one of the new 57 genders.  I raised it with the house manager, but she thought he was probably in a panic with the interval ending and used the ladies in an emergency.

... and the band played "Believe it if you like" ...

2 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

I think I have said this before.....I can't see any serious cause for offence with Fille, and the ROH must feel the same, otherwise they would not be streaming it.

No-one who has posted here on this point feels there is a problem.  Nor do I personally, and I speak as someone who had a physically and mentally handicapped younger brother (now sadly no longer with us) and witnessed at first hand the mockery he suffered from members of the public.  Alain was undoubtedly created as an affectionate depiction of an innocent, unworldly and awkward individual, totally unsuitable as a prospective husband but, as sometimes performed, he can come across as a laughing stock and in these times of political correctness it may be that there is pause for thought before staging a work that COULD cause offence.  Of course it's always possible that the problem lies with the participation of the pony - animal exploitation etc.

23 minutes ago, LinMM said:

...

I have seen Les Noces once since I read Fokine’s book back in 1982-3 so was very keen to see it at one point but I can’t remember now where I saw it!

Did Festival Ballet dance a version does anybody know?….or maybe it was the Royal but doesn’t seem very recently. 
 

...
 

Last performed by RB in 2012 and before that several times during the noughties.

1 hour ago, Lizbie1 said:

I don't know why we've got onto the subject of Onegin. I know people love it and the RB do it well but it can't be counted as an RB "heritage work".

My fault I think - apologies.  I was prompted by Don Q Fan's suggestion above that Cranko's Onegin, a Russian story, may be a victim of the situation in Ukraine.  I wanted to point out that there are other considerations than artistic choices or financial constraints, not to mention political sensitivities, to explain the inclusion or omission of pieces from a company's programmes.

8 hours ago, capybara said:

The RB mounted Onegin in early 2020 - so not unduly long ago.

And those “strict conditions of performance” relate to what? I very much doubt that there are any stipulations which the RB couldn’t meet.

Of course the RB could meet any stipulations but may not wish to do so.  It may no longer be the case but apparently in the past if a company wanted to put on Onegin they had to commit to doing so for more than one run within a given period.

13 minutes ago, Don Q Fan said:

Definitely agree we need to see more Ashton. I thought after the (albeit still ongoing) pandemic Fille would have been the perfect happy ballet to stage to cheer us all up. ( @Sim i don't understand what could possibly be offensive in Fille? Or am I being thick?!)

Likewise Onegin loved by dancers and audiences alike yet KOH is slow to restage it, yet again! Infuriating. I hope the fact it's a Russian story doesn't preclude it being revived because of what's going on in the real world viz a viz Ukraine. If so what a sad state of affairs. 

I'd like to see some more Balanchine as well. 

I wonder do the dancers get asked for input as to what a season's rep should include? 

 

The problem with Fille is that the character of Alain could be taken as showing disrespect for people with learning difficulties.  Recent performances do seem to have over-egged his clumsiness and lack of self-awareness, which I think reflects a modern tendency to coarsen characterisation viz. the stepsisters in Ashton's Cinderella.  As far as Onegin is concerned, the owner of the rights to this piece has apparently specified rather strict conditions of performance which may explain why the RB has not put it on recently.

41 minutes ago, capybara said:

Where critical opinion of David Dawson’s work is concerned there is ‘history’ arising from the negative reviews he received for his Human Seasons for the RB and his ‘kick back’ response to them.

One can only hope that the critics involved in that spat are approaching his new work for ENB uncluttered by the past and with clear eyes.

I was unaware of the detail of this history but knew that his work was less appreciated here than in Europe.  However I felt that the Evening Standard critic, though harsh, confirmed my impression of Four Last Songs. I wonder if the piece suffers from following on from Les Noces, Ascent to Days.  Reading earlier points about Theme and Variations making such heavy demands on the dancers that it would be inappropriate to place it last on the Our Voices programme makes me question the balance of the whole bill.

6 minutes ago, annamk said:

I see from the daily cast sheet that some words of explanation have been added re Les Noces. 

 

I trust it's ok to cut and paste here.

 

Looking forward to seeing whether this makes it clearer next time I go. 

 

I. A family grieves their daughter sacrificed by the rite. II. The people shoulder the debris from the sacrifice and at the same time rush to collect promised returns. A priest prays for the fulfillment of divine favour. III. The people return empty handed. They vote. The sacrifice will be repeated. IV. The father’s heart is a battlefield between his faith and his grief, he has only has his son to turn to. The priest, infatuated with the chosen one, needs a plan to keep her alive. The chosen one and the community prepare for another rite. V. A brother and sister reunite.

I hope it helps future audiences but from my impressions of Thursday evening I still don't think I'd have got it!

7 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

 

...

So overall it's a Missed, Strongly Disliked & Liked for me. Not exactly the best triple bill outcome I've ever had!

 

SPOILER for the Miller piece

 

Can anyone hazard any sort of explanation as to why the Mother suddenly vanished into the rock steps? Most of the rest of the choreography I could vaguely understand, even though I disliked it, but that moment had me completely baffled.

Nope - not a clue!

"Our Voices".  What a strange evening of dance.  It's unusual to start a mixed programme with Theme and Variations instead of putting it last as a way of sending everyone home with a feeling of exhilaration.  I felt last night's performance was a bit careful, the steps delivered dutifully rather than with sparkle and the smiles a trifle fixed.  Then came bewilderment in Les Noces, Ascent to Days.  Arriving late, thanks to heavy traffic, and unable to read the programme notes beforehand, I was expecting an update of Nijinska's masterpiece, seen at Covent Garden in, I think, the early nineties.  The music was challenging then and even more so last night, and as I'm not a great fan of song (especially of the heavy neoclassical and Lieder kind) as an accompaniment to dance, the programme involved a degree of suffering.  Anyhow, Les Noces, Ascent to Days turned out to be a sequel to Nijinsky's Rite of Spring.  How odd, as bridiem mentioned above, to use the title and score of a wedding to choreograph the aftermath of a human sacrifice.  (I don't pretend to understand what "Ascent to days" means in context but it led to irreverent musings that perhaps "Noces" had been mistaken for Spanish for Night.)  The dancers gave it their all but nothing else about it gave me any pleasure.  Then, another sung score for David Dawson's Four Last Songs.  Wonderful soprano, dancers again giving their all, choreography easy-watching but unvaried in mood and movement - the Songs all looked and sounded similar.  So off  home with a sense of gloom.

Hoverflies?

10 hours ago, Smiler said:

A new one for me at the cinema this afternoon, someone FaceTiming during the film and pointing the phone at the screen so the other person could see the film and chat about it !

Perhaps inspired by those two-for-one offers?

2 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

 

I still haven't forgiven Penhaligon's for discontinuing Lily & Spice several years ago. I spent ages trying to find a replacement & eventually ended up forking out a fortune on Duchess Rose, as I couldn't find anything cheaper that I liked. It was so expensive that I only use it when theatregoing so I'm still using the same bottle, bought at the end of 2019. I don't know what I'll do when I finish it as the price is even higher now so I won't be buying it again.

I genuinely do feel your pain!

3 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

 

isn't that what they are supposed to do? 😉

I think we need to define our terms!

I'm putting parfumiers into Room 101.  The blighters will keep discontinuing my favourite perfumes: Antilope (Weill), Ivoire (Balmain) and now, to my bitter disappointment after only 10 years, Iris Prima (Penhaligon), all gone.  It's such a difficult business trying to find a replacement.  There are no decent perfume retailers near me and my local Boots, despite being a huge store, has a dismal collection, mostly of new(ish) scents allegedly by various celebrities, all behind glass doors with no staff in sight - gone is the counter with bottles for customers to try.  I recently got some samples of scents which are supposed to be similar to Iris Prima.  They all stink.  

I don't use any social media at all but I have found in the past that even interviews in newspapers or word-of-mouth reports from people who have met dancers have coloured my feelings about individual performers, not always positively.  I try actively to avoid anything about dancers' personal lives and opinions so I can enjoy their performances neat, as it were.

15 hours ago, LinMM said:

Maybe it happens in every country but I do get fed up with all the press and social media over hype before they’ve even played the match which happens in U.K. This must make the loss seem that much greater rather than they’ve done really well to get to the final. 
 

 

Couldn't agree more!  However let's not be downhearted because, as one pundit put it, "the girls done incredible".

22 hours ago, Suffolkgal said:

I saw mukhamedov in it at the roh 

I witnessed his remarkable performance and was amused to read Ismene Brown's review including the memorable comment along the lines of, "when he (Mukahamedov) sniffed the nymph's scarf I nearly fell through my seat".

5 hours ago, LinMM said:

Was this the Robbins version at ROH? 

No it was the reconstructed original.