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Lizbie1

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Everything posted by Lizbie1

  1. Lizbie1
    The live relay will want publicising at least.
  2. Lizbie1
    I agree, but I imagine part of the jigsaw will continue to be for staff (like Christopher Saunders, Gary Avis and Philip Mosley) to double up as character artists. I note that Bennet Gartside is listed on the RB Staff page, so maybe there's a future for him too! Perhaps some use will also be made of retired principals like Zenaida Yanowsky to fill the more demanding female character roles without having them on the payroll.
  3. Lizbie1
    Wow, terrific programme!
  4. Lizbie1
    Personally speaking, I'm struggling to understand what there is for Luke Jennings to dislike about the SV designs - in my view the men's costumes in particular have dated very well and remain far more masculine, elegant and flattering than the average. I think a case could be made for revising the hairstyles: this is where the charge of campness holds most water for me. I think that there are far stronger candidates for a redesign than any of the recent triple bill ballets: Month just looks drably 70s to my eye, as does Mayerling (whose plot is hard enough to get to grips with before you add in the difficulty of recognising the dancers under those wigs). Further afield (sorry for going off topic) I've always found one or two of the costumes in the Bolshoi's Spartacus, a ballet I unashamedly love, pretty toe-curling.
  5. Lizbie1
    Is it Alex Beard?
  6. Lizbie1
    Yes, that makes much more sense to me, thank you!
  7. Lizbie1
    At the risk of going very off-topic, I don't think it's correct that so loose a term as "middle aged" was linked to something so scientific as average life expectancy, which, as that link makes clear, was much influenced by high infant mortality. If anything it would have been considered in the context of a woman's child-bearing years and/or the biblical expectation of "three score years and ten".
  8. Lizbie1
    I'd have said that "middle-aged" is overstating it - 35 perhaps might have been considered so.
  9. Lizbie1
    That's exactly what confuses me - I can't think of another role where the originator's age has set expectations for others following in her footsteps, at least to this degree. Another thought: seeing as Ashton meant the ballet to die with Fonteyn, it would be stretching it to attribute the preference to him, I think.
  10. Lizbie1
    I'm probably betraying my ignorance, but is there any reason, other than Fonteyn's own age as well as custom since the ballet's revival, why we should see Marguerite as past her twenties? I'll confess to not having read La dame aux Camelias - what is her age in the novel? I only ask because this genuinely confuses me: Marie Duplessis herself was only 23 when she died and I don't recall anyone ever remarking on a soprano being too young to portray Violetta in La Traviata. Yet several posters consider Osipova's youth (at 31) to be a handicap which she either has or hasn't managed to overcome.
  11. Lizbie1
    I'm finally getting round to replying to this! Seeing Hayward's Titania, I was reminded of Ashton explaining that he had cast Sibley because he was looking for "freshness". I can't compare her to anyone else in this run, but that is exactly the quality I thought she conveyed above all others. I wonder how the other Titanias compare on this point.
  12. Lizbie1

    Lynn RIP

    Lizbie1 replied to JohnS's topic in Not Dance

    Such a moving post. I think if I had to choose one choreographer to provide consolation at such a time, it would be Ashton. I hope that he worked some of his magic on you this weekend.
  13. Lizbie1
    I'm just out of today's matinée, and though there are many wonderful words that could be said, right now I can only think of two: Joseph Sissens.
  14. Lizbie1
    One thing I've been mulling over since seeing this mixed bill is the relative talent of Wheeldon and Scarlett. Even adjusting (a lot!) for Strapless being far from Wheeldon's strongest work and Symphonic Dances far from Scarlett's weakest, I was left thinking that Scarlett rather than Wheeldon is "the real deal". I just feel that there's more to his choreography. Or is it just me?
  15. Lizbie1
    Yes, that was most odd - I wondered whether one or two of the chorus should have been asked to fill in the gaps, or is that not done? It was crying out for that top line!
  16. Lizbie1
    My suggestion is rather that either the RO needs to become less reliant on the YAP for cover or the programme's line-up should be better planned if, as you point out, it only contains lyric sopranos. I am aware that the heavier voices take time and investment and seldom arrive fully formed, but surely given that there is no upper age limit (I've just checked!) this is exactly what such programmes are for: to nurture the more unusual and, yes, valuable voice types. I'm a great lover of the lyric soprano voice, and am very impressed with at least two of the current YA cohort, but it is a very abundant voice type!
  17. Lizbie1
    I was there and had travelled. In one sense it wasn't a debacle, in another it certainly was. While I enjoyed what was provided and think that those present on the day couldn't have done more, it doesn't excuse the RO's recklessness in not having cover for the role. This is a major international opera house and Don Carlos is a major opera. I believe this isn't the first time they've taken such a risk; I hope this very expensive episode might cause a re-think: like BA, maybe they are now discovering that resilient systems are only a luxury until they are needed. One also wonders what the YAP singers are there for, if not to jump in on such occasions. I felt very sorry for the young lady who had to make the announcement (I think she might have been the Acting Company Manager). Maybe I have been spoiled by KO'H's presence on RB nights, but I was surprised that no-one more senior was present to explain the situation. She explained that it was very difficult to find another singer for such a difficult role at that kind of notice, to which the obvious reply would be "well, that's why it's customary to have cover." One other unexplained mystery is the choice of excerpts, all of were from Acts 1 to 3. It was a shame that we thus missed out on two of the most famous arias. This is not to criticise Bertrand de Billy or the singers, but I'd be surprised to learn that, for example, Semenchuk was reluctant to sing O don fatale.
  18. Lizbie1
    Completely agree! A few people have mentioned that in Russian theatres people leave their coats in the cloakrooms as a matter of course. I've said it before elsewhere, but in my experience this is, at least in its orirgins, a purely practical reaction to the sheer bulk of Russian winter outerwear, as well as to a degree the amount of street dirt which accumulates in winter. When the weather improves in spring the cloakrooms are far more patchily used.
  19. Lizbie1
    I too have a long day when I go to the ROH, and typically don't get home before 1.30 in the morning, having left for work 18 hours previously. I'd normally have a small backpack with me, but under the circumstances forgoing that doesn't even feel like a compromise. I think we need to count our blessings sometimes and just be grateful that people are looking out for us and keeping shows open.
  20. Lizbie1
    Got one for the Saturday matinee - thanks for posting, both!
  21. Lizbie1
    We're allowed to use more unusual words as long as we think they are the best ones for the job - otherwise what would be the point of having so many of them? I'm not sure quite what you're trying to say about translated content of worldwide companies. Surely the Russian companies linked to above are comfortable with the term "Principal" in their English language websites? We're going back a little now, but my old English language Bolshoi programmes consistently used the term. I don't think there was any cultural imperialism going on there as they were most assuredly not translated by a native English speaker! Or have I misunderstood?
  22. Lizbie1
    Not for so excusable a reason I'm afraid! It's difficult not to sound snobbish when I say this, but when I see, say, a news article which uses the term, it makes me think that the writer isn't a regular ballet goer - it's not an expression I'm used to hearing from a specialist reviewer (other than perhaps as so-called "elegant variation") or an aficionado. I don't for a second claim English as any kind of lingua franca for ballet - it's self-evidently not - but then nor is Italian any more, at least not really! There's one other possible consideration which you are probably already aware of: it is often impressed on us that good English is plain English, which, as well as avoiding long words when a short one fits equally well, means eschewing overtly foreign terms where practical. Following these principles is seen by many as the mark of a good education, unlike in some other languages I've encountered. Of course others may disagree with all of this! Apologies for going off topic!
  23. Lizbie1
    But I note that the English versions of the websites you have linked to use the term "Principal" Just a personal opinion, but I always think that seeing "prima ballerina" in an English language setting jars.
  24. Lizbie1
    Crikey, they're really piling up aren't they?
  25. Lizbie1
    I think SBF is referring to ours being in March rather than May.
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