Dawnstar

4 hours ago, Tattin said:

I had seen Ketevan Papava before in streams from Vienna and found her to be a dancer with a very strong technique and stage presence, let's say, to match

I look up all the lead dancers' biographies afterwards & was interested to see that while she has been at the top rank for a number of years she's listed as doing some roles such as Carabosse rather than Aurora & Myrthe rather than Giselle.

23 minutes ago, Henry said:

I note that starting with an auction clearance sale in the ballet (1978) came before the musical Phantom of the Opera (1986).  

I'm glad I wasn't the only person to think of Phantom! 

Whereas I'm afraid I'm not very keen on her as Mary Vetsera, having seen her twice in the role. I thought her performances were very good, I just didn't like her characterisation that much, meaning I didn't much like the character & so wasn't very moved by the end. But then my favourite Mary Vetsera is Lamb, who I guess is about as opposite to Osipova as you can get.

Sorry, double post. I'm on a train with the signal coming & going.

The Times article referred to by Lynette above said that Acosta was planning to dance the role of the Bull. Not having seen the piece, and there not being any bulls in the opera, I have no idea if that's a substantial role or a cameo.

Little girl & mother left hurridly within about a minute of Different Drummer starting! They did come back for Requiem. I hope the girl won't have nightmares. I found the Doctor & Captain pretty repulsive & scary and I'm 38!

I sometimes wonder if parents bother to read age warnings? There's a little girl across the aisle from me who looks about 5 & a boy a couple of rows behind who looks about 7. Goodness knows what they'll make of Different Drummer!

I noticed it in the article but as I was not keen on the extract from Carmen performed at Acosta's gala last summer even the promised presence of BRB dancers, including Monaghan who I like, doesn't make me want to rush to book for the full work.

3 hours ago, Emeralds said:

I think from what you've mentioned before you wouldn't be bothered by the details we've zoomed in on and you'll enjoy her acting and artistry. 

 

I am one of those who would be perfectly happy for a ballerina to substitute fouettes with other turns if she wanted to and wouldn't miss the fouettes. 

The only problem with that is I don't always enjoy her acting! It depends on the role.

I'm not hellbent on seeing exactly 32 fouettes (I can never manage to count them anyway) but I would want to see a good substitute for them if they're not done correctly rather than the dancer visibly struggling & giving up early.

35 minutes ago, Tango Dancer said:

So I think if you really want to see her in this role then it's probably worth doing so now, as you don't know whether RB will do the ballet again in the next year or so.  

I wouldn't say I really want to see her, it's more a case of using this run to try to catch up on dancers who I haven't seen do the role in full live & who I know I'm running out of time to see, which is Nunez, Lamb & Osipova. In the last run I ended up seeing a lot of debutants, and in 2020 I didn't see any performances as those I had booked never happened, & I don't really want to be saying in the future that I only saw such-and-such dancer in a quarter of Swan Lake!

I see the ROH website now has an alert up that they'll be doing maintenence from 6-10.30am tomorrow (Thursday).

I can understand why they want to include The Dream & Rhapsody in both Ashton bills but it does make the lack of casting even more of an issue because even booking only 1 performance for each bill means that you have the risk of ending up with the same casts booked twice.

1 hour ago, alison said:

Yes, but these are side amphi tickets, which used to be relatively cheap.  I'm not going to look at how much they were last time around, because it'll only depress me, but I'd guess they were £20 or below.

Ah, right. In which case I agree, I wouldn't pay that much for the side of the amphi. In fact I gave up ever sitting in the amphi about a decade ago, when the front few rows became too expensive for me.

I'm contemplating trying to see Osipova in SL in June but the comments on her technique are a rather offputting. I've previously only seen her do Act IV, at the Ukraine Gala performance, where I found I liked her more in the role than I was expecting to, but then Act IV isn't as technical as Acts II & III. It doesn't help that SL is so expensive so do I want to fork out if she's currently not at her best technically? But then if her technique is deteriorating due to age then maybe I should see her this season because it might be worse come the next SL run....?

1 hour ago, alison said:

No standing left by then for either Swan Lake or Winter's Tale on dates that I could manage, so I haven't booked anything for WT.  Will have to wait and hope I can get standing nearer the time, and/or that there's a decent offer for WT, because I certainly can't pay £49 just to have a seat, thank you very much.

And here's me being grateful that Winter's Tale is only £49 for my usual seats. I mean, compared to £75 for the same seats for Swan Lake....

ETA I'm surprised to find there's still a queue at 11.15am.

I suppose that went okay. Oddly I had to queue to sign in before 9am but not once booking opened at 9am. I got tickets for 2 of the 4 Winter's Tale dates I wanted (1 each side) but not the other 2. Couldn't get the single SL I wanted but that didn't surprise me given it was the same for most of the SLs in the previous booking period. I booked for 1 performance each of the 2 Ashton triples but given there's still no casting I may well end up having to swap those.

Really my problem this season is that given I can only afford the side stalls circle bench seats for the majority of the productions I have a perpetual dilemma as to whether to book when booking opens & have the advanced planning peace of mind or wait for the Friday rush tickets which, being the next bench along, give a better view but are more stressful to get because it's last minute.

7 minutes ago, LinMM said:

A friend has pointed out that the downstairs cabinets in the cafe have the designs for Alice and Onegin. 
I don’t know how long they’ve been there as haven’t been to RoH for a while but could this be a clue as to next season? 

The displays must have been changed shortly after the run of Manon ended because it was still the Manon costumes on 8th March then I noticed the new displays on 15th March, so they must have been changed some time in the week between. No idea if it's a hint for next season or not. I think the Alice display said it was the anniversary of something but I can't remember what.

I just succumbed to temptation & upgraded myself for tomorrow from my usual side stalls circle bench (£39) to row C stalls (£66 reduced from £110) when an aisle seat appeared.  Not only do I need to be on or near an aisle for making a quickish exit afterwards, as if I miss the 23.09 then it's rail replacement buses, but I'm hoping that should there be someone tall in front then I can look round them down the aisle. It'll be nice to have one sojurn in the comfort of the stalls this season, as with the price rises I didn't think I would get to.

Thank you. It sounds like I should probably try viewing it from both sides (ticket availability permitting).

1 minute ago, Emeralds said:

I find that if I've watched a lot of MacMillan or Ashton choreography, I need to get "acclimatised" to Neumeier's story telling style first because he approaches it in a different way, and after getting used to it (I think his The Little Mermaid and Romeo and Juliet are around on YouTube) it gels better.  

 

Did anyone else get flashbacks of A Month in the Country from time to time though, as Neumeier and Ashton picked the same Chopin concertos and several other pieces for both A Month in the Country and The Lady of the Camellias?  😉 (I'm sure Hamburg Ballet fans get the same problem in reverse...flashbacks of Marguerite while watching AMITC!) 

I was fine with Neumeier's choreography & story telling - admittedly I did read the synopsis on the Wiener Staatsoper's website first & I know the overall plot well anyway from Traviata. It was just the music that didn't work for me. There was some wonderful choreography in the pdds where I was longing for some music to match it (the reverse of the problem I have in some of the classics).

I didn't recognise any of the music from Month in the Country so I didn't have that issue.

I caught up with this last night. I thought the production was excellent, especially the costumes, the cast very good, and most of the choreography also (though I could have done with a little less of Armand repeatedly collapsing to/rolling on the floor). Unfortunately what didn't really work for me was the music. While consistently pleasant, it didn't rise to the emotional heights that I felt the plot & choreography required on several occasions. I found this particularly apparent toward the end of Act III when there was the last scene from the ballet-within-a-ballet of Manon where some of the choreography was somewhat reminiscent of MacMillan's Manon but the music was no-where near the stunning heights of that & therefore it was no-where near as moving.

Prior to public booking opening tomorrow, may I ask if anyone has any opinions as to whether Winter's Tale is better viewed from the far left or far right of the auditorium? I've never seen it live, only at the cinema a decade ago, so I am struggling to recall if there is anything that would particularly affect one side or the other. As far as I recall the scenery in Act II was just a large tree at the back of the stage, so that should be similar from both sides, but I cannot recall the scenery for Acts I or III in detail.

5 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

NB: the next Friday Rush is on THURSDAY 28 March 1pm, not on Friday 29th, because Friday is Good Friday and hence a bank holiday, for the Easter Monday Swan Lake performances. 

I'm hoping not too many people realise that so there will be less competition!

21 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

I'm still currently preoccupied with June -  wondering which dates to book on Wednesday without knowing casting (in case they sell out while awaiting casting) for the Ashton bills on Main Stage and Linbury, trying to avoid RB and Sarasota Ballet dates clashing, and trying not to be double booked with ENB Swan Lake at the Albert Hall as well!

Yes, it would be far more helpful for me right now if the RB would announce the Ashton casting for June than anything about next season. Until the Ashton casting is known then not only will I not be able to book for either of the Ashton triple bills but I don't want to book for ENB's Swan Lake, the ROH Andrea Chenier, Opera Holland Park's Tosca or Opera North's My Fair Lady in case I end up with clashes. Whereas even if next season was announced now (it always used to be in March) then given there wouldn't be any ballet casting it would be of limited use in reserving dates anyway.

I wish BRB did matinee performances of these events. Each year they sound appealing but as the last train from Birmingham to Cambridge leaves at about 9pm I can't go to evening performances in Birmingham.

After I saw her as the Rose Fairy at the beginning of January I wondered if she might be expecting again, as in some of my curtain call photos she looked like she might be. So I'm not surprised to hear that she is!

The ROH has tweeted a new production picture from each of the 3 pieces. The Danses Concertantes costumes are certainly not the sort of thing I was expecting. Why do they have arrows all over them? The dancers aren't supposed to be convicts are they?! https://twitter.com/RoyalOperaHouse/status/1770533352862281854

1 hour ago, LinMM said:

I can imagine Magri needing to protect herself before tomorrow for SL but seems a shame she has been taken out of the whole run of triples…well all six performances!!

Magri wasn't due to be dancing the first 3 performances of the triple though; her first performance wasn't until 4th April. I suppose there could have been an issue with her doing the rehearsal today & SL tomorrow but then surely that could have been worked round by her just not doing the rehearsal.