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FionaM

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  1. FionaM
    I love The Winter’s Tale as a story and I think the ballet is Wheeldon’s masterpiece. The story is a good contrast to R&J where the love of the children of the warring families leads to the children’s deaths, whereas in TWT the love of the children reunites eventually the parental relationships. (Though tragedy remains with the death of one child.). The genius of Shakespeare.
  2. FionaM
    In Requiem there was a close up on the soloists in one of the scenes which cut the corps elsewhere on the stage. That’s ok and actually welcomed. It’s one of the much appreciated benefits of recordings. Although I did find Sarah Lamb’s highlight makeup to be odd. However after this close-up when the camera panned out the corps had vanished. He missed their movement and exits. I found that a really strange choice. And not complementary to the choreographer’s vision. Given the comments in n this thread about the filming of Different Drummer being sub-optimal vs the live experience, would others agree it’s time to replace Ross MacGibbon? I’m reminded that he missed the shooting of Lescaut in Manon. I am increasingly disappointed considering how he is an insider on all these ballets. Not only is he a former RB dancer (who I always looked out for … he was lovely), but as he explained he was part of the creation of many of these MacMillan ballets. I appreciate that he pioneered these relays, for which I am very grateful not being London based! I feel he’s behind the times in filming skills now, and, is making mistakes that matter.
  3. FionaM
    And it was fabulous! Vadim is going to make a fine Leontes (debut). Ed Watson seemed genuinely impressed with him and Fumi together. (Not her debut). High praise indeed considering Ed was the creator of this role. To me this seems another level of Vadim … first Mayerling, now Leontes. We await Onegin 🤞 Luca Acri and Sae Maeda were lovely in the Florizel/Perdita roles. It seemed odd to me that this will be Luca’s debut. I guess mostly principals have been cast before. Good to see former dancer Nathalie Harrison hosting.
  4. FionaM
    @Ginny Rojo’s Raymonda is definitely a family friendly ballet. All ages. The storyline is easy to follow and there is more to it than the traditional classical tutu version. Lots and lots of lovely dancing, beautiful sets and colourful costumes, and of course the wonderful music re-arranged to fit the new story. My only gripe with the production is that the ballerinas costumes are so long that their choreo is harder to see. Most of it is the historic choreography and those solos are tough! I think anyone who is not expecting the traditional version or doesn’t know it, will enjoy this ballet. It’s akin to Coppélia or other light hearted ballets.
  5. FionaM
    Gosh. Good for her. Most others at her age are retiring … not taking on new challenges!
  6. FionaM
    I wish Ratmansky would not choreograph to existing ballet music … he’s using Paquita for his new NYCB ballet. That’s the sort of thing choreographers for ballet schools do. I find it disrespectful to Petipa’s wonderful choreography. it’s also lazy as he’s created a version before. Paquita (Ratmansky reconstruction) | The Marius Petipa Society There is so much other fabulous music to be explored.
  7. FionaM
    Interested to hear of the vote for less intervals. I’d vote for this. Definitely for mixed bills. It might not be possible for some full length. But, for instance, many companies run Acts 3 & 4 of Swan Lake without an interval. Additional advantage to dancers (and audience) as it would mean spreading the roles to more of the company. Regarding catering / bars … these could stay open afterwards. I’m often looking for somewhere to chat and come down off the artistic high with friends. so it’s a 👍 from me.
  8. FionaM
    @Peanut68 Regarding your YouTube or Google suggestions … you can improve this to show what you are interested in by watching more! Then the algorithm will suggest similar. At the moment it is guessing a wide range because it doesn’t know you. (My children were highly amused by my Instagram suggestions … entirely ballet!) You can switch off the auto play feature in YouTube: Open YouTube . Tap your profile photo Select Settings Tap General. Select Playback in feeds. Tap Off to turn off autoplaying videos in your YouTube feed
  9. FionaM
    all I could find was a subscribe button. No listing of the new season? 🤔
  10. FionaM
    I was at an encore screening in Bristol. About 10 people. All older than me. Aka retired.
  11. FionaM
    It’s been interesting to read the varied reactions to the ending of the RB’s current version versus the previous one. I’ve been reflecting on the version I first saw and grew up with in Cape Town (I don’t know whose choreography it was). In that one Siegfried and Odette fight Von Rothbart together breaking one of his wings. He then dies which breaks the spell and they are united as humans. I was subsequently shocked by the ‘both die’ version of RB when I first saw it. And then I read up about different endings. I’m therefore not disappointed now by any ending. Indeed when I go to a new version it is an intriguing anticipation for me. How will this version end? I particularly like the emotional pdd that Liam added to this act. The rehearsal of Liam with Marianela and Vadim was the most inspiring insight, revealing Liam’s intelligence in conveying his intentions to the dancers, and in showing his own dancing abilities. Sigh. i also like the swans corps overcoming Rothbart, with their backs to the audience. Very effective. And yes Siegfried is a flawed man duped by Odile and Rothbart. That’s real life right there!
  12. FionaM
    haha yes it was!
  13. FionaM
    The destinations of the 2023 prize winners was announced in April 2023, so we may hear about the 2024 winners soon.
  14. FionaM
    Viola Pantuso was very good at the Erik Bruhn competition in 2023, partnering Daichi Ikarashi who won the male prize. The female competition at the Erik Bruhn competition was very strong. The winner was Mackenzie Brown who also won the Prix de Lausanne in 2019 and was already a soloist in Stuttgart (equivalent to RB first soloist) at the time of the EB competition. She was promoted to principal only 6 months later. She had a fast rise! Joined 2020, promoted Demi-soloist in 2021, soloist in 2022, principal in 2023. Age 21/22 now. The other strong female candidate was Chloe Misseldine. Another fast riser. Joined the ABT studio company aged 16, the main company as an apprentice 18 months later. She was alteady a soloist at ABT at the time of the EB competition in 2023 (that’s their highest rank below principal). She debuted as O/O in February this year. Age 22 now. These two ballerinas have way more experience than Viola. I think she is similar age 21/22. She might be a year younger than the other two.
  15. FionaM
    thank you for the correction. I only remembered the Juan Fernandez role and his ROH bio (which I checked) didn’t mention the title role 🙈
  16. FionaM
    @Irmgard I agree with a lot of your observations and impressions, especially that Ivana Bueno has star quality. I have no doubt that Riho Sakamoto also has star quality. I’ve seen her Raymonda (technique and style to emulate Olesya Novikova) and an impressively assured portrayal in her debut as Odette/Odile. Perhaps if she’d performed DQ or one of the other virtuoso classical pdd then the London audience would have seen what she can really do. In my opinion she’d have outperformed all others in the show that night, and in a classically pure way too! She also has strong dramatic abilities, recently being one of only three cast as Frida in the full length version in Amsterdam. The other two were the much more experienced and senior principals Maia Makhateli and Anna Tsygankova. I highly recommend going to Amsterdam to see her. I'm less familiar with Constantine Allen (he’s not been in the casts that I’ve seen in Amsterdam) however I note he is guesting with Hong Kong Ballet in their new version of Swan Lake by Yuri Possokhov. Matthew Ball is the only other guest. When it comes to the DQ/Corsaire pdd, the best female performances for me at recent Icons gala have been Marianela Nunez, Iana Salenko, Maia Makhateli and Nicoletta Manni. All classically pure (maybe even flawless) with characterful portrayal. Undoubted ‘etoiles’ of world ballet. Sadly none of these were available this year. I was personally interested to see different names at the Icons this year and Herman Cornejo was not a let down for me. It was good to see him in two contrasting pieces and I thought he was a good fit with Francesca Hayward (Cesar didn’t perform this role.)
  17. FionaM
    The online cast list was available before the cinema relay. I didn’t bother with the printouts that the cinema get sent. They are often too brief only listing the two leads only for full length!
  18. FionaM
    During the broadcast the fact that Requiem was a tribute to Cranko was mentioned at least 5 times but with very little background on who he was, how he died, or even his full name, not to mention his legacy and how MacMillan learnt from him in Stuttgart. Woefully short on historical details Francesca Hayward impressed me with her portrayal particularly last night.
  19. FionaM
    @Emeralds nothing for free these days! £20 tickets, for an hour long show. Small stage with audience on 3 sides. There were probably 300 or even more at the show I attended. I wonder if that raises enough to pay venue, transport costs, etc. Maybe it doesn’t have to if it sells more tickets 👍 Host Tom Rogers said it was the first time in such a venue.
  20. FionaM
    From a director’s point of view a mix of principals and first soloists and other younger dancers is a good idea in casting lead roles. Younger dancers need exposure to full length roles to be able to build on that experience for future performances. The large number of available RB principals were all cast in Swan Lake, but now we have many sidelined due to injury or returning carefully from injury and maternity leave (McRae, Hirano, O’Sullivan, Cuthbertson) and others picking up multiple extra performances! The current casting of Swan Lake at ROH includes younger dancers of Joe Sissens (27?) first soloist, and Mariko Sasaki (29?) soloist, as well as first soloists over 30, Claire Calvert and Nicol Edmonds. It’’s interesting to compare to ages of the Bolshoi’s recent casting for their new R&J, where there were 5 casts in the first block with one performance each (and no doubt some passed over principals and first soloists this time). I assume there will be follow-on blocks announced shortly. Opening night: Kokoreva 23, Potaptsev 20 Obratsova 40, Ovcharenko 37 Sevenard 25, Rodkin 33 Zakharova 44 (soon 45), Belyakov 32 Krysanova 39, Lantratov 35 Interesting range of ages! And Zakharova was one of the better Juliets from clips I saw. Though they were all very good. All are principals except Potaptsev, who is only 18 months out of school. Returning to RB I’d say that KoH doesn’t take risks early enough. For instance it’s incomprehensible to me that William Bracewell (32) has not performed Albrecht yet. A role perfectly suited to him IMO. I’d choose him over many other principals for this.
  21. FionaM
    Another RB school graduate who is doing well elsewhere is Louis Scrivener. Graduated in only 2020. He is already a soloist with Hungarian National Ballet where he has performed the leads role in Cranko’s Onegin, MacMillan’s Mayerling, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Nutcracker, Taming of the Shrew, and Spartacus. that’s hugely impressive. On my list to see soon! https://www.opera.hu/en/tarsulati-tagok/adatlap/scrivener-louis/43946/
  22. FionaM
    @Tango Dancer dancers in Danses Concertantes: chap in yellow - Taisuke Nakao chap in green - Valentino Zucchetti. So good to see him back on stage.
  23. FionaM
    BRB held two one hour shows at Bristol Cathedral today, as a teaser advertising their Sleeping Beauty shows here next week. I went to the first of the two shows as the second clashed with the RB cinema relay. The show included: - a 20 minute condensed class by Jonathan Payn for Ava May Llewelyn and Gus Payne. Always good to see Ava May back in her native Bristol. - Then there were 3 fairy solos by Eilish Small, Alisa Garkavenko and Lucy Waine. Lucy did well with all bar the last pirouette of the difficult solo which RB audiences would recognise as the Lilac Fairy solo. - After this the compère Tom Rogers explained some of the mime with Gabriel Anderson as Carabosse and Tori Forsyth-Hecken as Lilac Fairy demonstrating. - Gus Payne returned to partner Reina Fuchigami in the Bluebird pdd (adagio) - Miki Mizutani and the young Cuban Yasiel Hodelin Bello (such a young face) gave a really good rendition of the Act 3 pdd adagio. All the dancers were fully made up in costumes, tiaras, makeup and performed on a smallish stage with lighting, all brought along by BRB. There were other costumes on display around the cathedral. A lovely event! The booklet included a 20% discount code for attendees. Not much use to me as I’ve already booked to see them! However … Miki and Yasiel impressed me so I may well book for their show in Bristol too. I’m not entirely sure why BRB are offering a discount as the shows are close to sold out in stalls and first circle. Though there is good availability in the cheapest seats in the upper tier.
  24. FionaM
    🤣 and me!
  25. FionaM
    The internet is wonderful … a quick google finds the quote: EXTRACT: Margarita had originally gone to Munich to accompany António Casalinho in his audition for the company. Prix de Lausanne 2021 winner Casalinho, then an exceptionally accomplished 18-year-old dancer, was practically a dead cert for a job and was offered one on the spot; but for Margarita the audition brought a breathtaking surprise. “When they offered me a contract as a demi-soloist I was sure they were making a mistake and hadn’t realised I was just 16-years-old”, Margarita told us. “They told me that in Germany it was possible to offer a professional contract to a 16-year-old, but I still didn’t believe them; it was not until the contract arrived after we were back in Portugal that I realised it was true.” https://balletposition.com/antonio-casalinho-margarita-fernandes-a-season-in-munich/
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