Sebastian

Perhaps this is the right place to report a new (new at least to me) excitement with regard to online relations with the ROH. Today I received the standard email, telling me I was going to the performance on November 7 and here is my ticket. However I sadly had to return that ticket some weeks ago as I am working overseas. The credit is in my account. But what would happen if I was forgetful and let the ticket the ROH just sent me get used? Presumably two people for one seat? Incidentally this seat - in the amphitheatre slips - is now, according to the ROH email, costed at £150, which is quite a large mark up on what it originally cost. Perhaps that tells us something about ROH dynamic pricing (or the mystery of November 7)? Or this is just another example of clumsiness on the part of those who manage the website?

Ticket sold

I am currently reading a wonderful book by Iain Mackintosh, a doyen of British theatre design (not set design but rather the design of theatres), a subject I find I have opinions about without knowing anything about what turns out to be a highly skilled though little understood specialism. Part memoir, part tour and part history of British theatre from 1920 to the present day (he even has a section on the post Covid theatre scene). There is plenty here to interest readers of the Forum and which will surprise just about anyone who goes to the theatre: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Theatre-Spaces-1920-2020-Finding-Functionalism/dp/1350056243/ Highly recommended.

Over recent years I have been building up a library for my ballet research. Sometimes people on the Forum have had clear outs and very kindly given me their unwanted ballet magazines from the 20th century. As a result I am now looking for specific issues / years to fill some gaps. So perhaps, before you throw out your old ballet magazines, have a look at the "Wants" list below, just in case. If you also have other magazines you don't need any more, I can take those as well (there is a local ballet school I can give them to). Thank you very much to the Forum members who have helped so far. DANCING TIMES Anything from before 1951 1951: missing September 1952: September 1953: July, August 1954: December 1955: January, February, August 1956: August 1957: April, May, June, August-December 1958: February-April, June-December 1959: The whole year 1960: January, June, September, October, December 1961: April, September 1962: August 1963: June, July, October 1964: January, March-June, August-December 1965-1968: All years 1969: January-June, September 1975: the whole year 1976: January-April 1978: MAY, JULY 1983: AUGUST 1988: APRIL 1989: SEPTEMBER, DECEMBER 1990: MAY-DECEMBER 1991: JANUARY-APRIL, JUNE, JULY, SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER 1992: FEBRUARY, APRIL-AUGUST, NOVEMBER, DECEMBER DANCE AND DANCERS 1956: FEBRUARY 1957: JULY, SEPTEMBER, NOVEMBER 1958: JANUARY-JUNE, SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER 1959: JULY, SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER 1960: JANUARY, MARCH, APRIL, JULY 1961: JANUARY, FEBRUARY, APRIL 1964: MAY, JULY

Amphitheatre Upper Slips, AA-2 (ie the good end): £14 If interested, please post here and send DM as well.

And here is a picture by A E Chalon illustrating the scene, reproduced in Ballet and Opera magazine from October 1948:

Just found an excellent poem from 1840, Lady Blessington’s The Belle of a Season (free on the internet). Here is a short extract which tells us something about how ballet was seen in England at the time (as well as a little more about women in white, a discussion we had here on the Forum a while ago): Brisk music gayer scenes announces, And in a half-dress'd danseuse bounces, With arms that wreathe and eyes that swim, And drapery that scarce shades each limb, And lip that wears a studied smile, Applauding coxcombs to beguile, As entre-chat or pirouette Doth « brava!" thunder'd loud, beget. When Mary saw her vault in air, Her snow-white tunic leaving bare Her limbs--and heard that deafening shout Grow louder as she twirl'd about, With one leg pointing towards the sky, As if the gallery to defy, Surprised and shock'd she turn'd away, Wondering how women ere could stay, And thinking men must sure be frantic, Who patronised such postures antic; She felt abash'd to meet the eye Of every fop that loiter'd by; And, oh! how rudely did it vex Her fresh pure heart, to mark her sex Thus outraged, while the noblest came To gaze and revel in their shame.

For those who didn’t see dance historian Doug Fullington’s immense Petipa thesis from 2022, this is currently available for free online: https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/bitstream/handle/1773/49092/Fullington_washington_0250E_24377.pdf This work has so much of value I am loath to single out any particular elements. But the literature review is as comprehensive as I know, and his careful study of the still seemingly contested career of Sergeyev is much appreciated. If that wasn’t enough, his giant new volume on five Petipa ballets - co-authored with Marian Smith - comes out next month: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Five-Ballets-Paris-St-Petersburg/dp/0190944501/

Tickets returned to the Box Office

ROH Don Quixote - Wednesday 4th October 7.30pm - Magri/Sambe - two Upper Slips seats at £14 each - AA2 and AA3 - will sell separately. If interested please post here. Many thanks.

In any case, the ticket is now spoken for.

One good cheap ticket for this amazing pianist: https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202309241930 There are only six tickets available in the front (row AA) at the lowest price, £26, and they sell out quickly. I bought mine ages ago but am now unable to go. If you are interested please post a message here.

Sold

Sold

Waiting on your email (as per the PM I sent you this morning)

Would anyone like Amphitheatre C35 for the dress rehearsal of the opera La Forza Del Destino? Saturday 16th September, 6.30pm, £9. If interested please send a PM as well as posting here. Thank you.

Would anyone like Amphitheatre C35 for the Forza General Rehearsal? Saturday 16th September, 6.30pm, £9. If interested please send a PM as well as posting here. Thank you.

In case of interest (in person in New York or online): https://www.92ny.org/event/alexei-ratmansky-and-marina-harss

I have had the privilege of receiving an early copy and am impressed. Not finished reading yet but I am sure the book will be well reviewed. Based on substantial research and many interviews, the biography (running into the autumn of 2022) comes in at over 400 pages. Recommended.

Thank you very much. I have just sent you a private message (if you don’t know this system, have a look at the little envelope at the top right of this page). Best wishes, Sebastian

Hello again Linda, how very thoughtful of you. I have just dropped you a private note by email. Best wishes and thank you, Sebastian

My company once had the privilege of working with her. Here is what we tweeted last night.

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.

One more source. For those who would be interested in a recent academic discussion of the music and the choreography (including what cymbals might signify at the climax of the work) Davinia Caddy has a detailed chapter in her book “The ballets russes and beyond”, published in 2012 by Cambridge University Press: “Nijinsky’s Faune revisited“.

This online discussion, although it contains several of the famous de Meyer 1912 photographs of Nijinsky dancing the role, is missing a key image from the series. De Meyer also photographed the controversial final gesture of the ballet, an Image which is held by the New York Public Library. This photograph is reproduced in “The Art of Enchantment”, a collection of essays on the Ballets Russes edited by Nancy van Norman Baer and published in 1988. A scan of the book (the catalogue to an exhibition in San Francisco) can be found online via the Internet Archive. We do not know if the gesture is exactly what was seen on stage but one gets the general idea.