San Perregrino

Received a little over an hour ago:

Dear Mr S,

The performance for which you booked is happening soon: The Royal Ballet's Swan Lake

When: Friday 20 March 2020 at 7.30pm

Where: Main Stage, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, WC2E 9DD

Approximate performance timings:
The performance lasts about 3 hours, including two intervals.

Approximate end time: 10.30pm

Please Note:

Given the developing situation with the COVID-19 virus, customers are reminded to carry tissues with them and to wash their hands regularly as per government guidelines. Please do ask our staff if you need directions to the nearest bins or to toilets to wash your hands.

8 minutes ago, JohnS said:

Many thanks for posts and photos from last night - I hadn’t booked for the original Osipova cast but would love to see this cast. The website is still showing Hallberg for later performances but I take it that’s incorrect? 

I heard it at the ROH  last night that Hallberg has confirmed via his social media his next two performances and his Insight. That said however, world events are moving quickly and Hallberg is still in Australia. 

I guess it’s a sign of the times when, at the end of Act 1 of Swan Lake, you go into the toilet humming Tchaikovsky and come out singing Happy Birthday without consciously having switched tunes in your head 🦢

Still swimming in a lake of optimism. Can anyone help please? 🦢

41 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

It's Pacific Northwest Ballet (worked this out from a few mentions in the listings!).

thank you

Looks like a great programme but what is PNB please? Paris? Perth? 

24 minutes ago, bridiem said:

There was a nice item on the Today programme on Radio about NB's anniversary and Geisha - started c 8.45am and presumably available on iplayer. They interviewed David Nixon and Kenneth Tindall.

It was informative except the BBC forgot to end the feature by giving locations and dates of performances. 

Ticket now re-homed

Selling a side SCS ticket for Swan Lake Tuesday 10 March (Takane/Bonelli) . It’s an email ticket. £11

Send a PM and leave a note here please.

Still hoping someone can help so swan-bumping this up again 🦢

Ticket now sorted for 11/3. Thanks 😊 

1 hour ago, Fonty said:

 

While I agree with the saying, I am not sure how it applies to the examples you give!  Using a similar analogy, all the Old Masters in the various art galleries in the UK can be replaced with works by new, current artists, to show the evolution of painting.

‘Better’ has nothing to do with anything as far as I’m concerned. I purposely didn’t use the word ‘better’ in my posting. What is or isn’t ‘better’ is a matter of personal choice and subjective judgement. And,  in my case, very much fluid rather than set in stone as so many factors can influence how I perceive something at any given time.  

I doubt that a choreographer, given a chance to create a work, starts out to ‘better’ a previous version of a ballet. Rather the choreographer sets out to translate his, her or their own vision onto the stage for audiences to watch.  

It is, after all, a very small gallery that only has space for one masterpiece and the number of visitors limited. A gallery with two masterpieces will most likely attract more visitors. Of those visitors, some will decide for themselves that one is ‘better’ than the other, equally others may find enjoyment in both works without the need to judge one against the other. 

Works of art are rotated on a regular basis in galleries worldwide and increasingly hung next to their peers and more modern works for people to better enjoy and appreciate them.  This doesn’t detract from the ‘greatness’ of an Old Master. Some even go into storage but are not forgotten. They are often brought out at a later date to be seen by a new audience and reevaluated often to great acclaim. 

Would you have the Royal Ballet frozen at a moment in time some decades ago as a monument to it’s creators churning out the same ballets ad infinitum ? 
I certainly don’t want that and I doubt De Vallois & Ashton would have wanted that either.  I’d rather it be a living thriving organisation which acknowledges and continues to build on its rich heritage whilst at the same time widening and adding to its repertoire by supporting and encouraging the talent of today.  For example,  after seeing her ‘Flight Pattern’ my imagination soars at the idea of Crystal Pite bringing us a Swan Lake at a not too distant date in the future. If this happened it wouldn’t stop me welcoming and enjoying revivals of existing Swan Lakes be it Ashton, Scarlett or indeed if brought into the repertoire those of Nureyev or Wright. The more the merrier. 

45 minutes ago, Fonty said:

Thanks @zxDaveM  I wonder why the Royal Ballet (or Kevin O'Hare) thinks that Scarlett can provide better choreography than Ashton. 

I don’t believe that the Royal Ballet (or Kevin O’Hare is claiming that one choreographer is better than another. In fact, much of the Royal Ballet’s  time and attention is given to preserving and presenting the historical choreography in its repertoire. 
I do believe it healthy that choreography evolves over time, whether it’s Ashton’s evolution  of Petipa, Scarlett’s evolution of Ashton, Acosta’s evolution of Petipa etc etc 

As someone once said “To stop growing or learning is to start dying”

14 hours ago, annamk said:

 

A loud shout out for James Hay's Benno - such effortless and elegant dancing

Ive been shouting from the rooftops about James’s ’ performance yesterday matinée From where I was standing he was  flawless in both his technique and his acting remaining in character from start to finish. I rate him No 1 of the two Bennos so far and he has set a very high barre (😉) for Bennos to come.

10 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

Isn't this the cast for the live broadcast? Maybe they're planning a DVD so are looking for cover.

Cast for the live screening is Cuthbertson & Bracewell 😋 a 

I’d like a ticket for this if anyone has one once Northern Dancer has found his. Thanks

I’ve had an email inviting me to buy tickets for this 50th Anniversary Celebration Dinner on 5th or 6th November 2020.

However.  I don’t know much about Northern Ballet not have I visited Leeds.

At £100 per ticket, I’d welcome any input/feedback from those who are familiar with NB as to whether this event may be worth leaving my Home Counties comfort zone for?
Thanks 

PM sent 

As we’re now into March I thought it time for some “swan-upping” so bumping up my request.

Very grateful if anyone can help 🦢

Matthew Ball replaces Cesar Corrales in The Cellist on Wednesday 4th March 

Matthew Ball replaces Cesar Corrales in The Cellist on 4th March

Having seen three stagings with two casts and wondering what others could see that I couldn’t, I can now say that The Cellist only truly made sense and had a real impact on me when I saw an Encore Screening at the cinema yesterday. For me, on stage it was muddled and the raw emotions, so evident at the Insight I attended, were diluted and obscured by the busyness of the ‘extras’ or corps.  On screen however, the considered and thoughtful lighting exquisitely picks out the details that Marston wants us to see, the principals are in sharp focus throughout as one scene fades into the next and the ‘extras’ are just that, an almost blurred background to what is happening as the story unfolds. The ‘film’ version is for me perhaps what Marston had in mind as a priority when creating this as it will be seen by a much wider audience via this medium than will ever see it staged. 
 

48 minutes ago, FionaE said:

My daughter who is studying music says the pianist wasn’t necessarily playing the wrong notes.  One of the Etudes is known as the  ‘Wrong Note’ Etude, as it is composed of a series of quick, dissonant minor seconds.  
 

well I’ve learnt something!

Interesting about the ‘Wrong Note etude’ Also I’ve now seen DAAG 4 times and the last was earlier today at an Encore screening which had many close-ups. At all of these performances the dancers were perfectly in time with the music. Perhaps it is being played the way Robbins desired for his choreography? 

I’ve returned my row D amphi seat to the box office for resale. 

3 hours ago, alison said:

Excuse the rant, but I am sick and tired of this website.  That's 3 weeks running it's screwed up my attempts to book Friday Rush tickets.  I've been moved from the front of the queue to (presumably) the back, just when I've been told that I'm about to enter the website, suddenly find myself queuing again, and then this week, well!  I was assuming that the site had crashed and that everyone was equally affected (just when I was right at the front of the queue, too, it seems), so waited patiently for things to right themselves, but accidentally switched to my "The Cellist-monitoring" window and found that the tickets had been released and were disappearing.  I managed to grab a couple of higher-priced tickets for two performances, and then a few minutes later, somewhere about 1:20, so no way out of my 30 minutes, they vanished from my basket!

 

GRRRRRR!!!  

yes. the site crashed for me too and I kept getting error messages. it’s frustrating but it’s not personal.  it happens frequently on other sites that have massive surges in demand. I suppose that on the ROH site today, frantic opera lovers overloaded the site trying for Fidelio tickets