mauriceC

"His "Raymonda" actually had its first night at Birmingham Hippodrome with Fonteyn and Nureyev.........I remember it well as I had to skip the last Act because my trains did not run late enough!!!

Do not think he appeared there again but he did dance at Royal Shakespeare Theatre with both RB Touring Co(Lac) and later LFB(La Sylphide)

On 3/19/2018 at 21:48, MAB said:

t the New Victoria Theatre opposite Victoria Station.  That was a regular venue for ballet back then and Festival Ballet performed there often.  It's the Victoria Apollo now and ballet no longer features there at all.

Sad news indeed.I understand she was aged 54.

Sincere condolences to her family.

He had stage presence like no other.

In  an interview she gave for BRB when staging Ashton's Isadora Waltzes,his frequent partner,Lynn Seymour mentioned that no other dancer worked so hard.

The full length Raymonda for SW you mention was unfortunately only staged  at the Spoleto Festival and its Autumn Tour performances ,opening in Coventry were withdrawn and replaced by  Sleeping Beauty with Fonteyn.

I think the reason given was the unsuitability of the designs ;it was favourably reviewed by John Percival in Dance & Dancers,particularly for Doreen Wells in the leading role.

His production for The Australian Ballet was later given in this country by A.B.

I like a lot of Bernstein's music  but was put off booking for this triple as i did not want to sit through "Anxiety"again(I found this embarrassing to watch on its first run and kept thinking why is this not "Fancy Free"?(agree Janet,BRB were superb in this).It feels strange commenting on a programme I have not seen but from your comments and the couple of reviews I have read,it all sounds dreadfully serious.

.Many years ago The RB New Group did a very short piece by Joe Layton to the "Candide" overture.....(Marion Tait,Diana Vere,Wayne Sleep,,,,,?????) ;now I am not suggesting that be revived but at least it was joyous and fun......none of this programme seems to fit that category.

PS There are concert performances of "Candide" at the Barbican at the beginning of December.

My wife and I saw the matinee a week ago and were hugely disappointed.The humour was generally on cringe schoolboy humour level and interferred on many occasions with the singing.The pre act introductions from the totally unnecessary Captain Shaw were embarrassingly amateurish.....the designs were colourful.Diction was as you said,I got the feeling the cast were still struggling with all the business most of which was unnecessary.......the conducting lacked sparkle and not a single musical number really took off.We saw a far more enjoyable production at last year’s Harrogate Festival by an amateur group.How much did that blessed train in Act 1 Cost???sorry will stop now but have calmed down since last week !

Like Two Pigeons,I  will still be going and have no intention of not supporting a Company I have followed for more than 50 years..

I do not have favourite seats and am not particularly happy with my present subscription ones which mysteriously moved back three rows a couple of years back.;my concern for the Company is that I suspect I will have little trouble getting decent seats late on for all except Nutcracker.So I will book when I see the castings.

After seeing two splendid "Beauty" performances in Brum this week,the public should be queuing round the block to see BRB.

Sheila

many thanks for all the useful info.......hope to make at least that or the Paris Opera autumn

It does not appear to be a midscale "of old" as there is no overlapping on dates......good!....but I suspect there is no split of the company as the dates share the same rep.

Has the Arts Council stepped in here as yes they are Mids venues

I am also pleased to see the return of "Hobsons"  but  hope that the support for "Fille" is better than last time at the Hippodrome.

I wish them well with the triples,they will be very difficult to sell.

Continued financial restraint seems to be ever taking its toll.I am very disappointed in this season and for the first time since they(inc SWRB) came to Brum will not be taking a subscription.

i notice from the Bachtrack website that Paris Opera Ballet has a Robbins programme at Garnier in  Oct/November 2018

ie Afternoon of a Faun/Suite of Dances/Fancy Free/Glass Pieces.

Sheila

Many thanks for posting this;more interesting programme than anything here this year.

Have wished for a long time that BRB would do "Fancy Free" again....not sure RB have ever done it?

Do you know the venue?

5 minutes ago, Fiz said:

Can anyone tell me what the music is, please? I recognise the costume as similar to one in “Emeralds” from “Jewels” but I can’t remember this dance as being a solo from it and I’m sure I would. It’s such haunting music.

It is music by Faure from Emeralds...i think it is from Pelleas and Melisande

Sad news.....a distinguished sophisticated lady.

Ivy Lin,I was also very pleased  to read your blog regarding Mr Martins and NYCB.

A truly sad end to a great career.

I have loved this company since I first saw them at ROH in 1964....Raymonda Variations/Tschaikovsky pas de deux/Agon/Western Symphony....what a programme!!!

I have seen actual performances very little but when I came home from their last Paris season.I told my wife that if I never saw any more ballet then that would be a great note  to end on.

We can only hope that whoever takes on the role will maintain the Balanchine and Robbins heritage.

Surprised the article made no reference to his  highly successful career at BRB ...or did I miss it?

Sad news indeed........she was my first JULIET......with Christopher Gable as Romeo.

I  saw two performance of the Penguin triple and last Thursday's matinee of Aladdin.

The three shows were all made tremendously enjoyable ,because  the design was immaculate,the orchestral playing superb and also every single person onstage danced their socks off from start to finish.

There were several outstanding performances  (I have seen all of the four ballets since they were first put on) but I will not name names here because

 this was "Company" in the true sense of the word.

Bravo to everybody ,and especially the Ballet Staff!!

These were some of the best performances of these ballets i have ever seen,

Agree with everything above and would also like to mention Alys Shee  in the Calliope Rag .

Yeah,roll on Aladdin!

At the MacMillan Conference a few years ago,we were shown a very brief filmed extract  of Lynn Seymour in the original Baiser presumably the Bride's main solo;it was a most beautiful piece of dancing;it was a ballet  I had always wanted to see purely based on seeing  a photograph of Beriosova and MacLeary but I never did.

I very much like the score but most attempts eg Kudelka and Corder  performed by BRB have not been wholly successful..

Perhaps  Balanchine was right to use only the reduced Divertimento score(half the length of the full) with only a suggestion of "story" in what is mainly an extended pas de deux and even he had several attempts apparently.

I wish Scottish well and hope they can at some point bring it South again.

Will be interesting to see who the internationally acclaimed group of dancers turn out to be!

Loans have to be repaid so presumably there will be as many performances as possible so whilst I am keen for as many new faces as possible to see BRB,I am wondering how much it will affect the overall number of shows per year of other rep?

Northampton Derngate  has AN EVENING OF MUSIC AND DANCE 

the long awaited return by Birmingham Royal Ballet with the RB Sinfonia

advertised for January 20th 2018

As Two Pigeons beat me to the opening of Raymonda Act 3, I will go for the final cortège of "Theme & Variations"

I unfortunately do not manage to see much of Northern but am very pleased to see this programme announced and suspect GLORIA has not before been out of London;the other two were regularly on SWRB tours.Pity there are not more performances and I do hope audiences respond as this I imagine will be an expensive undertaking i.e. Choir/solo piano/harpsichord.I am not sure that the majority of even London audiences appreciate the importance of the "early" British choreographers  and hopefully ENB will also have great success touring "Song of the Earth".....again huge orchestra and two singers.So best of luck Northern and I hope to get to Leeds.

Delighted with Louise's performances  throughout.....i agree with many of the above comments and would certainly be interested to hear more from Ruth when she wakes up.

There  were several winners here and  MAB I do agree about the Turkish girl.

Meanwhile I look forward to hearing Louise sing Sophie in Birmingham in a couple of weeks time.

Thanks to everybody for responding to my original post !