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Riva

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  1. Riva
    Looking for a ticket for Monday morning’s rehearsal if anyone is looking to sell one. Thank you.
  2. Riva
    Is it not Steven McRae doing the cinema broadcast?
  3. Riva
    Sorry posted on the casting thread before I saw the messages here. Gutted for Ed, and the audience. I thought he was incredible in the role when I saw it last time and had been really looking forward to seeing him perform again, particularly as I really felt his loss in Winters Tale. I’ve now booked tickets to see Matthew Ball on the 20th - I’m excited to see his interpretation but what a huge amount he is doing over the next few months; La Bayadere, Unknown Soldier, Swan Lake and now Mayerling too. Yikes!
  4. Riva
    Ed Watson has just announced that he won’t be able to perform his scheduled Mayerling dates, making reference to ‘not being superhuman after all’. Very sad news, assume this is in relation to the injury he picked up during last season. I do hope he recovers back to full fitness, I’d been so looking forward to seeing him dance again. However upset we are, it must be horrendous for him.
  5. Riva
    A post on the New Adventures website says that they will be taking part with promise of a video of Matthew Ball, Will Bozier and Max Westwell rehearsing Swan Lake in August. https://new-adventures.net/news/celebrate-world-ballet-day-2018
  6. Riva
    I’ve very much enjoyed seeing Melissa Hamilton in the MacMillan pieces, and also in Rubies which I think was possibly the first performance she gave after returning from Dresden (although I may be mistaken in this).
  7. Riva
    Article today on BBC about audience behaviour which raises the possibility of relaxed performances. I think ENB do specific child friendly ‘my first ballet’ style performances, but don’t recall ROH offering ‘relaxed’ performances for those who may not be able to sit still or quietly for the duration. But an interesting thought! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45498464
  8. Riva
    I’m not the only one refreshing the page in hope then?! I thought it was today too, but now can’t find the email which prompted me to believe that.
  9. Riva
    Really pleased for all the dancers who have been promoted. Big fan of Matthew Ball, and surely also big things ahead for William Bracewell. I’m quite surprised not to see more of the promoting of a dancer to principal in the news links considering the coverage that Yasmine Naghdi had last year, and Hayward/Takada/Campbell/Hirano the previous year. Is it only The Times who’ve written about this?
  10. Riva
    I believe David Hallberg is currently in Saint Petersburg with Mariinsky so seems likely that the above interview happened a little while ago.
  11. Riva
    I’ve now finished a Swan Lake-tastic week and the 2017/8 season 😪 having seen three performances - Osipova/Ball, Nunez/ Muntagirov (big screen) and Takada/Bracewell. I came away from my first experience of the new production quite disappointed - whilst it LOOKED beautiful it didn’t move me emotionally, which I think I really look for in ballet. Enjoyed the second performance at the big screen more, and by curtain down yesterday evening I was properly engaged and rooting for Siegfried and Odette. I’m not quite sure what made the difference, why my appreciation grew with each performance, perhaps being glued to the binoculars last night so that I could see more of the dancer’s expressions. Overall, I’ve been really impressed with the whole company and orchestra. Thought the corps during acts II and IV were in sync, delicate but also powerful. My biggest gripe is that I felt the musicality was a little off in each of the Neapolitan dances I saw. The set of act III really is stunning - every time I saw the reveal I gasped at it’s beauty!
  12. Riva
    Excited is an understatement. No confirmation on which dates Matthew Ball will be performing - Sadlers Wells said they aren’t given principal casting until the day of the performance (or sometimes the day before), New Adventures said they would expect to release confirmation of dates in Autumn.
  13. Riva
    I agree with you that it seems highly unlikely that Yuhui Choe would now be promoted to principal based on so many years as First Soloist, but with regards to these two points - I try to book specifically for her casting dates (I’m gutted she isn’t cast as Nikiya or Gamzatti this Autumn), and in my humble, technically useless but nonetheless ballet-mad and passionate opinion, in the performances I’ve seen she’s always had complete authority over the stage. I note that Ms Choe generally performs in a particular type of role (the happy/girly/princessy ones!) so perhaps doesn’t have the variety that an AD is looking for in a Principal. Having said that, another of my favourite dancers is Ed Watson and I can’t imagine we’ll ever see him as Sugar Plum Fairy’s Prince in The Nutcracker but to me at least he excels in the roles he does perform. We are blessed with a very fine ‘pipeline’ of First Soloists, Soloists, First Artists and Artists at RB, not least Matthew Ball, Beatriz Stix-Brunell, James Hay, William Bracewell, Reece Clarke and Fumi Kaneko all of whom I’ve loved watching this year (and prior) in many fine performances.
  14. Riva
    Now spoken for.
  15. Riva
    I have two tickets for sale for Elizabeth at the Barbican on Friday 7.45pm Stalls Right D7 & D8 £75 for the pair Can meet you there to hand them over Please get in touch if interested
  16. Riva
    Just getting in the car on the way home from work and heard the last few minutes of Front Row on Radio 4 which included Marianela Nunez, Liam Scarlett and John MacFarlane. It will shortly be available on the iPlayer radio website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b2gsdb
  17. Riva
    Great thread! Agreed Marguerite’s red dress is gorgeous. I also love The Young Girl’s dress in RB’s The Two Pigeons - simple but very pretty.
  18. Riva
    I was deeply moved by today’s Manon and agree with Sim above that this is surely to be Francesca Hayward’s signature role - she was absolutely captivating and really embodied the young woman discovering her allure and sexuality, and using it to her advantage. She is a very fine actress - I really felt I understood Manon’s predicament choosing between her lover and the opportunity for a comfortable life. Plenty of earnest ardour from Federico Bonelli. As others have noted previously we (the audience) don’t get to know much of Des Grieux’s character, but he was clearly enraptured the moment he laid eyes on Manon in Act I, and I felt the heartache in Act II as he watched her, still and silent, patiently waiting for a chance to be near her again. The pas de deux by Hayward and Bonelli were stunning - emotionally charged, full of drama, but at the same time made them look effortless. All fingers crossed that Onegin is revived again soon and we get to see Hayward as Tatiana, I think she’d be phenomenal. Alexander Campbell an absolute star as Lescaut, for me he gave just the right balance of brotherly affection, opportunist rogue and awful boyfriend. I really enjoyed seeing Yuhui Choe’s Mistress a few weeks ago (I felt she portrayed a well-rounded character with a personality) and would love to see them dance these roles together in a future run - they have always been dynamite together. Bennet Gartside an utterly repulsive (and therefore brilliant) Gaoler. Notable mentions for Thomas Whitehead, Choe and Beatriz Stix-Brunell and also Fumi Kaneko who my eye kept being drawn to in the corps. A performance I won’t be forgetting any time soon!
  19. Riva
    Very keen to purchase a stalls circle standing ticket for the Royal Ballet’s evening performance of Swan Lake on Friday 15th June (Takada/Bracewell). Please do get in touch if you have a spare. Thank you!
  20. Riva
    Sorry that Steven McRae has been out injured for so long but what an opportunity for William Bracewell!
  21. Riva
    Thank you Alison!
  22. Riva
    I fear I may be losing my memory (or marbles!) but I could have sworn that when I booked for the Obsidian Tear/ Marguerite & Armand/ Elite Syncopations triple bill for 2nd May, William Bracewell was listed as a principal performer in Obsidian Tear alongside Lukas Bjorneboe Braendsrod. Looking at the production page now it seems as though Benjamin Ella is cast instead. I don’t recall seeing any notice about a change to the casting - is anyone aware if it was always Benjamin Ella cast and I was mistaken thinking otherwise?
  23. Riva
    Hi Anna I’ve sent you a message re 28th!
  24. Riva
    Thank you so much Geoff!
  25. Riva
    There is now a short video ‘trailer’ on the production page showing some lovely detail of what look to be stunning costumes http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/swan-lake-by-liam-scarlett
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