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JohnS

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  1. JohnS

    Room 101

    JohnS replied to taxi4ballet's topic in Not Dance

    And I guess you’re a minute or two behind London time - irritating when booking opens at 9:00am London time. But so many benefits from living in the sticks.
  2. JohnS
    I’d strongly recommend watching MJW’s ‘Dances at a Gathering’ link - best remedy for the coronavirus speculation.
  3. JohnS
    Many thanks MJW - fabulous to see this Dances at a Gathering taster. I’d seen a 30 second clip but not the 4 plus minutes.
  4. JohnS
    Good to see the ROH has some clips of last night’s relay. Hoping to see Sunday’s encore as too icy/snowy last night.
  5. JohnS
    Thank you CCL. I also had in mind the end of the PDD where Tatiana rests her head in Gremin’s hands - deeply moving and I can’t believe that gesture is out of a sense of duty. I think the ‘head on shoulder’ is just before the PDD and then repeated in the middle.
  6. JohnS
    I just saw on Instagram that Bennet Gartside has danced his last Gremin. Makes Monday’s performance even more special - one of those truly memorable evenings. I agree with all the plaudits posted above. I don’t accept the suggestions above that Yasmine Naghdi’s Tatiana is not in love with Gremin - the way she rested her head on Gremin spoke volumes to me and I always find the Tatiana/Gremin PDD deeply affecting. Onegin works because Tatiana is conflicted - she loves Gremin but also recognises what might have been. She is tempted but refuses, not in my mind for reasons of social convention but because she has found and shares a deep love with Gremin. We’ve been treated to a fabulous run of Onegins and still more to come - I’m sure Saturday’s final Thiago Soares performance will be another high and a fitting end to this run.
  7. JohnS
    On first reading I was rather hoping you were referring to Pep Guardiola ...
  8. JohnS
    Many thanks Alison. Just listened to the Beethoven - wonderful. But a big health warning needed at the very start where the presenter manages a monumental faux pas although she quickly recovers. Bernard Haitink’s final concert before his retirement!
  9. JohnS
    I certainly found the second performance much more compelling but I think that was because I knew more of what was coming. The first night I was a bit worried by the more literal depictions of playing the cello but seeing the second performance these seemed to take less time and readily gave way to the more abstract presentation of the spirit of music. The stance both Jacquelines use when sitting to play the cello is very ‘unballetic’, particularly when there is no cello, but on second viewing it didn’t seem overdone. And some of the more literal depictions I thought worked well - Lauren Cuthbertson holding Marcelino Sambe’s neck when taking to the concert platform to be mirrored when Hetty Snell came on stage for her so well deserved bow at curtain call. Similarly the score worked better for me on second hearing although I’m still not sure about the recurring four note motif that Philip Feeney introduces. I have since wondered why we see a young Jacqueline and her sister but only a full sized cello. I recall struggling with my half size cello back as an 8 year old in primary school, which seemed as big as me then, but I guess Marcelino Sambe as well as dancing the cello is also the narrator.
  10. JohnS
    The ROH uses Facebook/Twitter for news and a day or two before a broadcast, there are usually a number of posts. The Swan Lake Insight is at:
  11. JohnS
    Thanks Sim and Annamk. It was Gerald Dowler who I had in mind as he’s pretty scathing and concludes The Cellist irredeemably dull and I think one or two early reviews were a bit lukewarm. Yes, Gerald Dowler puts forward reasons for his view but many points could be countered, for example and very simply we have three musical friends to perform The Trout quintet and the Corps are significantly more than items of furniture, and on second hearing I found the score much more coherent. I had some questions after the first performance but was very taken with the whole ballet on second viewing. I’m very pleased that I don't have any need to reach a conclusion on one performance.
  12. JohnS
    Whilst I’m sure you’re right to focus on the three main characters, there’s also a wealth of interest in the Corps, not simply as the record player or light etc, but fully engaging in what is presented. These photos give an indication of that real involvement. I think the ballet will reveal significantly more on repeat viewing - it certainly has for me and I’m sure the cinema relay will be fascinating. I can’t help thinking how cavalier one or two critics are to dismiss a work on one viewing.
  13. JohnS
    A comment on the synopsis and programme as there’s been further discussion . I’m pretty sure Cathy Marston has referred to 21 scenes in the ballet but the cast sheet synopsis doesn’t gives that detail and the programme simply repeats what’s in the cast sheet. The ballet portrays the du Pre family and of course du Pre/Barenboim’s relationship - the two sisters, the mother’s rather ‘obsessive’ behaviour, and Barenboim’s seeming ‘abandonment’ of du Pre are played out on stage and I’d have welcomed some discussion of evidence sources in the programme although I recognise the potential difficulties. I saw the ROH Shop was displaying the Carol Easton biography so I don’t think a programme note was an impossibility. And I’m not sure I agree with Cathy Marston’s comment in the programme that most of the audience know all about du Pre - I didn’t know she visited the ROH when she was ill. I’d also have really welcomed a note on the reasons for the selection of du Pre repertoire and how Philip Feeney approached composing his score to bring all these together. The cast sheet and programme refer to music extracts by composer but without the detail and all we read in the programme is: ‘Marston worked with Feeney to identify which sections of her repertory would serve her narrative best.’ That doesn’t really do justice to what must have been a fascinating discussion over no doubt many months and may well have only reached a conclusion during final rehearsals. I have to say that my ideal synopsis would be a brief description of the 21 scenes with references to the accompanying music which would be rather different to the synopsis provided. And given the fabulous du Pre videos people have posted, here’s The Trout - which may also explain why we have three musical friends in the Ballet:
  14. JohnS
    So pleased to have seen this again. I’d be very happy for Dances at a Gathering to carry on for a few more dances, particularly given the 10 soloists. It’s just so inventive and joyous - I’m sure I must have a huge smile whilst watching. I was much more impressed with The Cellist on second viewing. The early scenes and family relations seemed much neater to me (although I’m not sure about all the cardigans), the extreme ‘busyness’ served a real point in highlighting the exhausting, manic concert schedule, and the score worked much better on second hearing. I still think it’s a bit dark at the start - two ‘f hole’ lights rather than one might help. With the uncertainty of the new and unexpected largely gone, I was drawn much more to the three pivotal dancers and found their performances compelling and very moving, particularly Lauren Cuthbertson and Marcelino Sambe. At one stage Sambe nuzzles Cuthbertson with his head, cat like, to get a response, and the debilitating impact of MS and the ending are extraordinarily poignant. Lauren Cuthbertson must have bashed her knee just before the end as the blood was starting to flow. A huge ovation at curtain call and many congratulations to all. I’ll now look forward to the cinema and catching the second cast.
  15. JohnS
    Hi Katherine There are plenty of seats for 13 June in the Stalls, not so good in the Grand Tier with most of Rows A and B gone. I’m afraid I don’t know about Queensland Ballet.
  16. JohnS
    Looks as if all the central stalls tickets have now gone for all Heritage performances.
  17. JohnS
    Loved Dances at a Gathering with such a fabulous cast. Very much looking forward to seeing The Cellist again tonight as there are a few too many questions for me on first viewing. Some sections were incredibly moving, particularly where the focus was on Cuthbertson, Sambe and Ball, and the joy of music making in the Trout section contrasted so well with the more elegiac sections. I think the ballet worked best where dancers moved away from depicting the playing of an instrument and we could see music as a free spirit. But I hadn’t expected so much narrative, and given such a focus, I found it very odd that there was so little material in the programme about Jaqueline du Pre’s early life, family relations, particularly with her sister. Yet again with a new ballet, I think a better synopsis would have helped. I’m also wanting to hear the music again as last night I found some sections good (the early references to the Elgar and the Trout pastiche) but I was not convinced by the new material and thought greater use of du Pre repertoire played un worked might have worked better. And congratulations to Hetty Snell for all her cello solo work. I rather liked the set, inside a cello, and how the stage could so easily be transformed, although the early scenes seemed rather dark.
  18. JohnS
    Very much looking forward to tonight, particularly after the various streamed rehearsals and all the publicity. Cathy Marston and the ROH media team have clearly been working very effectively.
  19. JohnS
    I think Onegin does have a hard time in the ballet and some of it is not of his own making. In the mirror scene he is clearly Tatiana’s creation of her ideal, not Onegin, so we cannot really glean anything of Onegin’s character (unless we’re persuaded that Tatiana’s image of Onegin is good evidence as to his true character). But up to the dual when we see Onegin broken by what he has done in killing Lensky and its impact on both Tatiana and Olga, he doesn’t have much opportunity to establish his character. In the first scene he is aloof, self contained, irritated. In Act 2 he is bored, eager to flirt with Olga, and provoke Lensky. He’s careful to make sure he returns Tatiana’s letter in relative privacy but it’s not Pushkin’s gentler, more considered letting down of Tatiana with Onegin not being good enough for Tatiana. Onegin would much prefer not to accept Lensky’s challenge but Lensky is insistent so Onegin has little choice. With the dual backstage we don’t know the detail and whether Onegin has tried to miss and of course Cranko is much more interested in the reactions of Tatiana and Olga which I think works very well. But from that shattering conclusion to Act 2, I think Onegin appears sympathetically in Act 3. When Onegin sees Tatiana with Gremin, he realises what he has missed and how mistaken he has been. And there is real passion in that final scene when he pleads with Tatiana. I think he senses how torn Tatiana is but he accepts her decision that she has chosen Gremin: Onegin had his chance years ago but turned her down; she has found she loves Gremin and has a deep sense of duty which out trump Onegin’s desperate pleas. That Onegin accepts the inevitable and leaves Tatiana means that he earns my sympathy. And during the ballet he has learned a great deal more about himself. If you want to see Onegin in a more sympathetic light, that 1999 film is well worth a look.
  20. JohnS
    You could always try the 1999 Onegin film with Ralph Fiennes as Onegin and Liv Tyler as Tatiana. Yes, there are a number of short cuts and inaccuracies/liberties taken but I find it a remarkably sympathetic adaptation, some fabulous settings and photography, and I thought holding back the contents of Tatiana’s letter until just before the final Onegin/Tatiana denouement very effective. Not so sure about the choice of music at times: we’re thoroughly spoilt by Tchaikovsky. https://youtu.be/jd8XgyMOQaQ
  21. JohnS
    Which I remember the ROH having prior to the redesign - fully functional, including a very helpful calendar; timely, informative, erudite news pages; and a lively audience with many features attracting 100 plus comments.
  22. JohnS
    Very sad to read this, particularly as I’m not going to tonight’s performance: Well.... here it is, my third and final Gremin tonight and probably my last ever 🎖🤴🏼 #rohonegin @royaloperahouse - I realise the body clock is slowly ticking and there are plenty of young, fresh Prince Gremins in… instagram.com/p/B8ekAKMJIYh/… Many thanks Gary Avis!
  23. JohnS
    Nunez and Clarke danced memorably together on 7 February. The explanation refers to illness as an explanation for the cast changes (plural) and I don’t think there’s any need for conspiracy theories.
  24. JohnS
    Many thanks Alison and Ruth. But didn’t Cranko revise his ballet, omitting a prologue where Onegin was at his uncle’s deathbed and Tatiana kissing her children goodnight? There may be very good reasons for such revisions but it suggests to me that he wasn’t simply following the Opera.
  25. JohnS
    I was interested in Alison’s comment and found this on the ROH’ website by Gavin Plumley: “Tchaikovsky’s opera had a even wider impact in 1965, when its structure - rather than Pushkin’s verse novel - became the inspiration for John Cranko’s ballet.” https://www.roh.org.uk/news/exploring-the-origins-of-eugene-onegin-and-onegin I know John Cranko first had the idea for a ballet when he choreographed dances for Tchaikovky’s Eugene Onegin but what is the evidence to suggest that the Opera was his basis for the ballet rather than Pushkin?
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