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Dawnstar

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Everything posted by Dawnstar

  1. Dawnstar
    I wonder whether they could be starting the season with Don Q? That would make sense of something I heard Hayward say at the stage door last Monday. She said that after her last Cinderella performance she wouldn't be dancing on the ROH stage again until November. She doesn't dance Kitri, does she? So if Don Q opened the season it'd fit with her not dancing at the start of the season. Though of course it could just be that they're dancing Manon for the first 2 months & she's in one of the last casts to dance.
  2. Dawnstar
    She doesn't seem to dance with Bolle at the ROH though. Or at least not the last 2 times he's guested there as they were both with Nunez. On further thought, I wouldn't mind seeing Hamilton paired with Richardson in Manon. Last time she danced with Clarke but I'm sure Osipova will bag him this time round so that'd leave her free for a new Des Grieux. I very much hope Richardson's going to get to do Des Grieux in the next run (although his being cast a a Stepsister does give me slight qualms!) & pairing someone new to the role with an experienced Manon would probably be helpful. I can imagine them matching well in terms of height & build too. I wonder if there will be a big reshuffle of Manon partnerships, as they've lost 3 Des Grieux but only 1 Manon (potentially 2 if Cutherbertson's not back from maternity leave) compared to the last run.
  3. Dawnstar
    I'm not even bothered who Hamilton dances Manon opposite as long as I get to see her in the role (okay, maybe not, say, Sambe or McRae as the heights wouldn't work out). I've been waiting since 2019!
  4. Dawnstar
    I would definitely like to see Margi & Ball paired together more. I'd love to see them do R&J or Manon together. Not getting up my hopes though. No idea on Lamb/Campbell but I would hazard a guess that Muntagirov is too much in demand with the female Principals for Hamilton as a First Soloist to get a look in. By the way, if Hamilton isn't given a public performance of Manon next season then I swear I will complain to Kevin O'Hare in person!
  5. Dawnstar
    Having sorted through my curtain call photos from the last 2 nights, I do love Bennet Gartside in this one. The way he's brandishing his flowers at Fumi Kaneko looks like he's saying in-character "See Cinderella, I may only be a Stepsister but I get flowers too!" (His facial expression when he was given the flowers was also very funny but I didn't get a photo of that.)
  6. Dawnstar
    I totally agree with both of these. Actually Naghdi's Juliet didn't really do it for me either with Ball (2019 cinecast) or Muntagirov but when she stood in for Takada with Campbell I was finally moved. Whereas Muntagirov & Naghdi in Mayerling I thought worked really well together, with her strength supposrting his weakness (I'm talking in terms of character traits: there was nothing weak about Muntagirov's dancing!). I seem to recall they were supposed to do Coppelia together in 2019/20, but then McRae was injured again so Hayward did it with Campbell. In terms of the original question, I'd go with Magri/Corrales, O'Sullivan/Sambe & by default Takada/Hirano. Like others have said though, I'd rather partnerships weren't always the same. I particularly wish Clarke would dance more with someone other than Osipova as I like Clarke but Osipova is near the bottom of my list of female Principals so I rarely book for her & therefore am not getting to see as much of Clarke as I would like to.
  7. Dawnstar
    A couple of photos of the presentation (not the best photos so if anyone - @Rob S? - has better ones then I can delete mine).
  8. Dawnstar
    No surprises on the opera front either but I hope they have a cast I'm happy to see for L'elisir d'amore as I quite fancy seeing it again, not having seen it for a while.
  9. Dawnstar
    I wonder if the Act II entrance of Cinderella has been slightly amended. I'm sitting in the same seat I was in 8 days ago. Then my view of Cinderella descending the steps was significantly obstructred by the ensemble standing at the side. Tonight I had a clear view of Cinderella & the ensemble were barely visible, so I wonder if they've been moved wingwards.
  10. Dawnstar
    Does anyone know why Christopher Saunders called Yuhui Choe "Miss" most of the times he spoke to her?
  11. Dawnstar
    I'm very pleased to find Richardson will be dancing with the last cast I'll be seeing. I'm fascinated to see the same dancer doing the Nutcracker Prince & a Stepsister only a few months apart! Gina Storm-Jensen is a dancer I like in general but even I am not too keen on her Lilac Fairy solo. I think she's fine in the mostly-mime rest of the role but the solo always (and when I say always I ended up seeing her twice plus cinecast in the 2019/20 run & in all 3 performances I've seen so far this year) looks very slightly uncomfortable to my admittedly inexpert eyes.
  12. Dawnstar
    When Bracewell was promoted last year, I was surprised to discover he was already 31. I know more dancers are dancing for longer, into their 40s, but not all dancers are so if someone doesn't make it to Principal until they're in their 30s then they could only have a few years at that rank. Given some ballets are only revived every few seasons, that could mean dancers miss out on dancing certain lead roles or only get one go at them. Even for the more frequently revived ballets dancers might not get that many goes. For instance, Bracewell didn't get to perform Rudolf in the latest Mayerling run so by the time Mayerling comes round again he'll be about 34 then about 37 and after that 40. So even assuming he gets to do Rudolf next time round he might only get to dance the role 4 or 6 times in his entire career, which doesn't seem much.
  13. Dawnstar
    Nice to see Liam Boswell getting flowers. Have there been many flowers for the Princes so far in the run? I was expecting there would be, now flowers for men are allowed, but at the 3 performances I've been to there's been none.
  14. Dawnstar
    It's getting up the nerve to speak to people in the first place that's my problem. Particularly if there are lots of people there & everyone other than me wants selfies & autographs when all I want to is to speak to people to thank them for their performances.
  15. Dawnstar
    Does your use of "initially" indicate that one is supposed to get better at stage dooring with practice? Because I've been doing it for something like 18 years & I'm still fairly hopeless at it!
  16. Dawnstar
    I'm afraid I only tend to notice what an orchestra is doing if there's nothing happening on stage or if orchestra members are doing something other than playing, like the way brass players often traipse in & out of the pit. I'm sitting front row for BRB2 so yes, I'm expecting it to be pretty up close. I've only been to the Peterborough theatre once before so I don't think it has an orchestra pit but can't recall for certain.
  17. Dawnstar
    Gosh, I didn't see that casting coming. I'd like to see it though! However as I'm only booked to see 1 of the 3 casts with unannounced secondary roles I haven't got great odds.
  18. Dawnstar
    I wouldn't say I'm sophisticated but yes, I am very used to live music after yearly 20 years of operagoing. I suppose my ballet assumption is because, apart from galas, I've only see the biggest 3 UK ballet companies & theregore all my ballet-watching has been with orchestras. Whereas when I saw that show I just took the live music as a matter of course! Given your live vs recorded comments I am now decidebly apprehensive about the BRB2 performance I'm booked to see next month as that's recorded music.
  19. Dawnstar
    I'm surprised to read that. I always assume ballet performances will have a live orchestra, unless it says it won't. Is it more modern dance rather than ballet that is often done to pre-recorded music? I agree with you about the casting notice.
  20. Dawnstar
    There must be some general scope for using music for different characters though because in Wheeldon's Cinderella the Prince appeared in disguise Act I. I can't recall what music he appeared to but (unless Wheeldon inserted music from elsewhere) it must have been music that in Ashton's version is used for other characters. There was also a scene set at the palace with the King, Queen, Prince & his friend Benjamin which I think also happened during Act I (though I could be misremembering) so again that must have used music intended for other characters. Not that I'm expecting anyone to re-choreograph Ashton to add more Prince.
  21. Dawnstar
    If that's the case then I should enjoy the Nureyev quarter of the programme, I'm unlikely to like the Tanowitz, and I've never seen anything by Possokhov or Topp. Hmm, maybe I should have held off booking after all! Has anyone seen the RBS at Holland Park since the auditorium was reconfigured? If so do they use the new stage extension round the orchestra pit or only the main stage? I'm thinking about booking & my ticket choice would be different depending on whether or not the stage extension will be used.
  22. Dawnstar
    Mercifully not for the cheapest stalls circle seats, which are £3 cheaper than for Cinderella. Still awfully expensive mind! I managed to get everything I wanted except Laura Morera's last performance, which probably unsurprisingly didn't have any of the cheapest stalls circle seats left. I'll have to hope I can get a Friday rush ticket for it. I see for the Australian Ballet performances the stalls circle seats that would usually be Friday rush tickets are already on sale so presumably they're not doing Friday rush for those performances. I had debated about leaving booking for their Gala until the programme was announced but decided I'd therefore better book immediately.
  23. Dawnstar
    Thanks. I don't know the choreography well enough to be certain what was different, I just got the vague impression that some of it was. I suppose in McRae's case he might change some things to try to protect his past injuries.
  24. Dawnstar
    I find my heart rate goes up whenever I'm booking tickets, even if it's somewhere which I know isn't going to sell quickly. I think it's a Pavlovian reaction after wards of booking for places like the ROH where it is stressful. I was very relieved that this morning's Opera Holland Park booking went very smoothly for me, as their Inspire tickets always sell out very quickly. I'm sure that would drive me mad if I was booking at any of those venues on a regular basis but the one time I went to the opera in Munich it worked beautifully for me. When the tickets arrived we weren't actually certain where we would be sitting, as I'd never been to a German theatre & my mother hadn't been to one for about 40 years. So it was an extremely pleasant surprise to get there & find we were in the second row of the stalls, and for about half the price it would have been at the ROH at the time.
  25. Dawnstar
    Ah, I didn't think of that, though I had read the review. I saw Wicked many times when it was first in the West End 2007-8 so I do like both, but I can't say I thought of Wicked at all when seeing Cinderella.
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