Josette

Ginny, Carmela Mayo was promoted to soloist at the end of this season.  

I am on my way to London this week and will see the three Swan Lakes this coming Thursday and Saturday, and then A Winters Tale.  

So glad to hear your report, Ginny, about San Francisco Ballet.  Yes, Fogo is stunning in everything she does and her Odette-Odile extraordinary.  

Osipova is dancing in Zurich a bit later this month, apparently in a contemporary program.  

On 03/05/2024 at 17:56, Ginny said:

Had tickets for tonight’s show and was SO disappointed to learn of Osipova’s injury. This felt like such a treat for California - seems pretty rare to get any superstar ballet guest artists from Europe (I’m sure most go to NYC/DC/Boston if they go, since the travel is just so much easier). And the San Francisco audience seemed super excited and so appreciative of this event on the calendar. Here’s to hoping Tamara Rojo can work her magic and get Osipova back next season (or any other RB Principals - I would pay to any of them!!). 
 

My disappointment set aside, I was able to exchange my tickets for tomorrow’s matinee which is easier on my family’s schedule. And I’ll get to see Nikisha Fogo and Daniel Camargo, so I’m still super excited! 

I was at the matinee with Fogo and Camaro and loved them in it.  I hope you enjoyed it as well.  The Friday night performance, which I attended as well, was not on the sane

level.  
 

It has been announced that Osipova will not be dancing on May 3, for which I have a ticket. 

I love The Prodigal Son, finding it fascinating and meaningful, and  I am so interested to know who will be cast.  There is quite a quite a bit of Prokofiev next season! 

8 hours ago, hephaistion03 said:

Just  received info re the 2024 2025 RB season

 

Onegin 22nd Jan to the  25th Feb 2025   /  29th May to the 12th June  25 

 

R & J   4th March to the 26th May 25 

 Thank you so much for this information.  I am an American Friend of Covent Garden and was hoping that I would get notification.  I am thrilled about the Onegin dates because I was already planning to attend Onegin in Paris the last week of February, so this looks like I can set that trip in stone once I see the actual London dates.   

Are we really going to know the 2024/25 season on May 1 or is that a rumor? 

Love them both and wishing each a full and speedy recovery process.  

On 20/04/2024 at 09:47, Rachel H said:

To me, an 'appropriate moment' is before or after the show, or during the interval!

 

At the matinee of 'Swan Lake' this afternoon, the couple next to me started humming along during act 2! I shushed them, and the woman looked at me as if to say 'what's the problem? This is jolly isn't it,' and started humming a bit louder. They got another 'shush' from me, which did the trick. Mind you, she was also a finger tapper as well. They behaved a bit better during act 3 thank goodness! I know the conductor was good, but I would rather listen to his interpretation of the Tchaikovsky score, that their off tone humming, personally!

 A number of years ago, I was at a performance of Turandot.  When it came time for Nessun Dorma, which the entire audience was waiting to hear, the woman sitting directly behind me started humming along (and off key, though that is beside the point).  I turned around, looked at her, and, genuinely begging, said, "Pleeeease."  She was surprised and stopped,  but it was too late, the spell of the aria had been broken by her contribution. 

I was at the opening night of ABT's performance of Woolf Works. It did not begin to affect me the way The Royal Ballet did last season, when I saw each cast.  Daniel Camargo was beautifully expressive as Septimus and the passages with Septimus, Rezia (soloist Sun Mi Park), and Evans (soloist Jake Roxander) came across with some meaning, but otherwise there was no depth or impact or energy (Beginnings) that could approach the level of The Royal Ballet's dancers.  It was odd to be so unmoved by a work I LOVED when I saw The Royal Ballet dance it last season.   I am seeing three performances this weekend (all casts).  

I'm so happy to hear this news about Mlle Battistoni and not at all surprised!  I can't wait to see her Giselle in May! And no one can be surprised that they loved Marcelino Sambé, as we all do!

I saw the Paris Opera Ballet in Giselle in June of 2012 when the company danced in Chicago. It was an unforgettable week and I saw three performances of Giselle and was bowled over by it. We did Peter Wright’s production in Toronto, which is excellent, but the Paris Opera Ballet’s production was a revelation.  

I am attending Mlle Ould-Braham’s final performance and purchased my tickets for three Giselles as soon as they became available. I am surprised that there are still available sheets at the Palais Garnier.  I remember noticing her when she was in the corps de ballet and so this is full circle for me to be able to see her final

show.  

Sambe and the beautiful Bluenn Battistoni! That will be an utter delight. I saw her dance Mitzi Caspar in November of 2022 and Beatrice last spring and am looking forward to seeing her Giselle this May.  

On 21/02/2024 at 10:43, Jam Dancer said:

Having loved SOTE and watched the Royal Ballet perform it over the years and having followed Nikisha Fogo’s career for a long time, once I heard SFB were doing it, I thought she would be a great fit for the role. She was slated to do 2 performances but had a last minute injury. I can’t see her at all in M&A for the moment….

Nikisha Fogo also did not dance the two performances of Mere Mortals that she was slated to dance, which was smart, as she had her first Swan Lake last Friday, which I saw.    I love them separately, but Nikisha Fogo and Aaron Robison have a stunning partnership, as I had witnessed in their full-throttle, superb Romeo and Juliet last season.    I could not believe what was unfolding before me: deeply felt, passionate commitment that went beyond characterization, and glorious dancing.  I am returning to see their third Swan Lake next Saturday.  I have been attending  SFB since 2009, seeing 16-24 performance each season, and am so grateful to have seen their performance. 

9 hours ago, Emeralds said:

She's danced a lot of Balanchine and SFB has a lot of Wheeldon (Within the Golden Hour was created for SFB) - all of which she's danced

I wish I could think of all the Wheeldon ballets she supposedly danced.  YY Tan never danced Within the Golden Hour that I recall and I think I saw all casts, with the three original featured women who created the roles being Katita Waldo, Sarah Van Patten, and Maria Kochetkova.   She danced Wheeldon's Cinderella  only for a year or two, sharing the role with Sarah Van Patten, Maria Kochetkova (who danced the premiere), Vanessa Zahorian, and then, in the past five years, Cinderella has been danced by Dores Andre, Frances Chung, Sasha de Sola, Misa Kuranaga, and Isabella De Vivo.  When Onegin was set, she did not dance the premiere, and, again, I don't recall her dancing Tatiana for more than the first season. YY Tan has not been dancing nearly as much the past few years - including pre-Covid - and has had a  lighter workload in comparison with the workload of the other female principal dancers.  She did perform the very last performance of Romeo and Juliet at the end of last season, but she has not danced Juliet, Odette-Odile, or Aurora for years before that.  She alternated in Winter Dreams years ago with Lorena Feijoo when it was set on the company, performed for only six performances during one season when Vito Mazzeo was in the company, probably in 2013.  I was more surprised that Frances Chung was not cast in The Song of the Earth than that YY was not cast.  

13 hours ago, Mary said:

I wonder what new works Ms Rojo will commission? She certainly looks radiant and happy in the photo in the SF chronicle!

 

I can't say I much fancy the piece inspired by AI that seems to have inspired the donation, but it is indeed canny to tap into the huge wealth of the tech business.

 

 

 

There’s no evidence or facts stated in any announcement I’ve read that “Mere Mortals,” which premiered less than one month ago, was the catalyst for the anonymous donation or that the anonymous donor is in the “tech business.”  That is speculation about an anonymous donation. There’s a lot of wealth in California that is not affiliated with the tech business. The press release does state that the anonymous donation was in the works for two months (my paraphrase). Rojo has been very much in the public eye and even went to Los Angeles with six of her dancers for an invitational presentation, interview, and reception in early 2023, which I attended, and she gave a charming and lively interview about her background and her vision for the company.  

SFB successfully danced the Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadere, Makarova’s version, for two seasons about seven years ago.  

I hope Rojo does not focus on scheduling ballets that she has danced.  When the 2023-2024 programming was announced, there were photographs of her in several roles. On the SFB website and Facebook, her husband and her brother-in-law, both principals and deservedly so, are a bit too frequently featured in comparison with other male dancers. 

SFB has done three McGregor works, which the dancers enjoyed performing.  I like McGregors’ works and consider them the opposite of rubbish. SFB consistently commissions new works. Frankenstein was a coproduction with The Royal Ballet and performed two seasons and was liked by SF audiences, apparently more than London audiences.  

I assume that the $60 million anonymous donation (and its apparent earmarking for mostly new works) to San Francisco Ballet is reported elsewhere as well as the promotion of lovely Jasmine Jimison to principal.  I’m in London currently but it appears that both events were announced on February 15, 2024. 

I very much enjoyed three out of the four very different works and agree with PeterS above. I am attending Thursday and Friday and looking forward to seeing the program again.  

3 hours ago, TSR101 said:

 

To be fair though Darcey was MacMillan's last muse and the last he created a full length on. So if anyone could talk about MacMillan from that perspective, even if it wasn't for this ballet, then it is Darcey. 

Yes.