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Lizbie1

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Everything posted by Lizbie1

  1. Lizbie1
    ...and I wish they’d stop having paper tickets as the default. It’s all too easy when in a hurry not to remember to take the extra step necessary to receive an e-ticket instead. I guess that this might be in the works for the new website, though.
  2. Lizbie1
    Here's a more general hope: that more ADs and dancers discover that breathing new life into neglected works can be just as rewarding as commissioning new ones which are too often discarded as soon as is decent. I wasn't around for the big revival in early music and the associated reconsideration of how to perform it, but people talk about how it rejuvenated the whole classical music scene. I'm not suggesting something on that scale is possible with dance, but I wish we could learn from it that reconstructions and revivals aren't just a dry academic exercise. Oh, and more works from women choreographers please Mr O'Hare, both past and present. p.s. I can guess that re-staging an almost lost work is probably more expensive than creating a new one, but the former's success would I imagine be a better bet.
  3. Lizbie1
    I think it's been mentioned elsewhere (perhaps by KO'H himself?) that the Linbury would suit the early RB repertoire: fingers crossed from me for some of that.
  4. Lizbie1
    I'm seeing Kameliendame on 26th - drop me a line if she's in it and I'll look out for her!
  5. Lizbie1
    I wouldn't mind Sarasota Ballet showing up!
  6. Lizbie1
    Sorry if this is common ballet knowledge, but I'm fascinated to learn from Julie Kavanagh's Ashton biography that de Valois was intended to choreograph Les Patineurs and Ashton The Rake's Progress - they agreed it would suit both very well to swap, and the rest is history!
  7. Lizbie1
    I haven't made it very far yet but my main thought is that there's a good case to be made against arts organisations having generous subsidies.
  8. Lizbie1
    Off topic, but judging by the sour tone of Jennings' recent reviews, it's a good time for him to stop (and I think he knows it).
  9. Lizbie1
    Saw Osipova dance this at the ROH gala back in May: I liked it then - especially his respectful Petipa references - and like that video better again, so thanks! I understand that the production as a whole is a bit of a stinker though - has anyone here seen it?
  10. Lizbie1
    I’m strongly hoping that Marguerite & Armand doesn’t feature, for more than one reason.
  11. Lizbie1
    You’re probably right!
  12. Lizbie1
    The BBC News website’s Entertainment and Arts section (am I misremembering or did it used to be “Arts and Entertainment “?) is particularly depressing on that front.
  13. Lizbie1
    There are a few casting intentions in the ROH Friends magazine just out: Spartacus: Denis Rodkin Swan Lake: Svetlana Zakharova, Alexander Volchkov Don Q: Olga Smirnova Bright Stream: Irina Yatsenko, Denis Savin
  14. Lizbie1
    Capybara, does the Friends magazine shed any light in answer to RHowarth's question? Is there still a matinee? And if not, are any extra performances scheduled on other dates? Sorry for all the questions, but I'm in a similar boat myself!
  15. Lizbie1
    Interesting - my notes and the website say that this date is earmarked for the Firebird mixed bill, both matinee and evening. Sounds like the penny dropped after the season announcement!
  16. Lizbie1
    Another interesting piece from Rupert Christiansen, touching on Open Up (beware, it's Premium): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/three-trends-will-shape-cultural-landscape-2019/ For those who can't read it, he suggests a pause on new building projects, which he says carry a "whiff of institutional macho". As he explains (Mods, please edit if I've overstepped the line on quotations): "The theory is often that such projects can provide income-generating space for new shops and cafés, plus improved access for the disabled and so forth. All too often, however, this involves distraction from the main business of presenting or producing art and causes increases in the staffing and maintenance costs that cancel out any rise in revenue."
  17. Lizbie1
    One can see why
  18. Lizbie1
    Without wanting to be facetious, from this description I wonder whether how much there was in this version for ordinary children to respond to and enjoy. I don't think a Nutcracker can be counted as successful if it only really appeals to adults. I should clarify that I've only ever seen the Grand pdd (which to be honest I find incoherent and at times very ugly), so am open to correction.
  19. Lizbie1
    I think that all of Ivy Lin's criticisms are valid and legitimate; though as Sim says there's no such thing as a perfect Nutcracker, and I don't think think it's fruitful to be overly critical about any one version of a ballet which is on several layers an exercise in nostalgia, it's important to be reminded sometimes of different views. As an illustration: though many North Americans naturally see the Balanchine version as the ne plus ultra of Nutcrackers, not having been brought up on it I don't find his SPF pdd an improvement on the "mostly Petipa" RB version, and though it's been a while since I saw it as a whole, I mostly remember wondering what all the fuss was about - but then I've never seen it live in the theatre. Now, I don't expect a New Yorker to care a fig for my opinion on the matter; however I think it's useful for a group to hear a different perspective, particularly when it's so well articulated as Ivy Lin's, or they start accepting it as settled fact that the Balanchine/RB/BRB version is the best one going. Having said that, I do agree that the Bolshoi one is rubbish (and I like Grigorovich better than most here!).
  20. Lizbie1
    If there's one company I'd make a special trip for, it's Sarasota Ballet - I wish I could be there too!
  21. Lizbie1
    It's often said that most people's favourite - even ideal - Nutcracker is generally the one they grew up with, even if the "growing up" was as an adult discovering ballet, and I've read very little from Nutcracker watchers to disprove that argument! For seasoned RB watchers, SPW's changes have indeed been a steady evolution, so are accepted and even forgotten; you could even say that the production has grown up with them. I used to agree about Clara imposing herself on the 2nd act dances, but I think I've come round to it. As for the SPF costumes: I know what you mean, but IMO you can almost taste the sugar when you watch them dance in the theatre, which must have been the effect Julia Trevelyan Oman was aiming for. They work for me, anyway!
  22. Lizbie1
    Leaving aside the ACE-driven agenda, I think the image they'd in their hearts like to project and the crowd they'd like to attract (and by "they" I mean the high-ups and PR and marketing people, not the staff, who I find unfailingly courteous and helpful) isn't to do with money or class or accent; it's about being metropolitan and sophisticated and fashionable - people like themselves, really.
  23. Lizbie1
    You mean the petit battement serré I think - not sure if it has a meaning!
  24. Lizbie1
    While I'm not keen on the trend, I'm also a little tired of the focus on opera directors casting on looks/figure. These have *always* been a primary consideration in straight theatre, film and television, entirely without controversy. The only reason it gets remarked on in opera is because it has historically been - and in many cases still is - blind to these considerations, so it's a little unfair to single out opera for such criticism.
  25. Lizbie1
    Thanks for posting. It's an interesting, though somewhat confused article - my view is that I'm comfortable with most canonic operas and plots as written: while some are more misogynistic than is ideal, I can view them with equanimity as products of their time. What I'm personally unhappy with is recent stagings - such as the William Tell mentioned in the article - where violence against women is offered IMO gratuitously. Gang rape as the device of a (male) director short of inspiration or looking for controversy is not OK. I wonder if the RO are planning to discuss modern fashions in direction - an area over which they do actually have some control - or whether that will hit too close to home and they'll opt instead to pin it all on Dead White Men.
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