Nina99

Thank you for posting this insight @Balletfanp. I must admit that I had hoped that Vadim would reprise his performance as Florizel in the WT. However, having seen this rehearsal, I think he should be a great Leontes and I now wish I had bought a ticket for both performances. Vadim is certainly busy, he’s now off to La Scala where he’s dancing Sleeping Beauty PDD with Marianela on Friday and next week I believe he’s dancing with Fumi at a gala in Belgrade.

When I did a backstage tour at the ROH, we went past one of the rehearsal studios where Fumi and Vadim were rehearsing for their PDD in Mayerling. Our tour Guide made a point of saying that Miss Kaneko, as she called her, was considered to be one of the nicest people in the company.

Well I think you’ve just about summed up my feelings about this evening. It certainly was a magical night – I especially loved the Act 2 PDD, which really had the audience enthralled, and was met with a big roar of applause, at the end. As Kerfuffle says the energy seemed to spread to the whole cast, who were all superb. I think there should also be a special shout out to the orchestra who were on fine form tonight. I’m going to see Vadim and Fumi in May (on my birthday!), So it will be very interesting to compare the two partnerships.

There was also trouble on the tube last night with the circle and district line being suspended in both directions. Fortunately , I had left plenty of time and after a longer journey than normal was still able to reach the Coliseum in plenty of time. When I finally sat down, I found myself next to actress Susan Hampshire was very enthusiastic and cheered loudly after her favourite pieces. I was very surprised to find out that she is 86. She certainly looks good for her age. As for the gala, I mostly enjoyed it very much. I appreciated the opportunity to see new works, and some of them performed by dancers I’ve never seen before. Vadim was predictably wonderful in his two pieces - of the two, I think I preferred the first piece with Fumi, mainly because he had more to do. I also liked The Thinker with Sergio Bernal although I agree with somebody further up this thread that beige pants and shoes were not a good look for a dancer’s costume. I also enjoyed Esmeralda, and thought that Caravaggio with Melissa Hamilton and Roberto Bolle was very beautiful. However, I couldn’t enjoy the Forsyth piece because of the awful music which assaulted our ears! One thing I noticed, and which I think has been mentioned before on this forum and which happened a couple of times last night is the habit of dancers stopping after a series of pirouettes, or fouettes in the middle of a variation or coda to acknowledge audience applause. To my mind, this breaks up the flow of the piece and I much prefer the RB habit of keeping going.

I absolutely agree with you @FionaM.

Well, for me, last night was wonderfully emotional. Like @Silver Capricorn I’m very happy to see Vadim And Fumi finally performing together on the ROH stage after guesting together all over the world. IMO they are a beautiful partnership and I hope they dance together many more times. I’m really looking forward to seeing them in Swan Lake in May. It was a great treat to see Antoinette Sibley appear on stage at the end. I’m old enough to have seen her dance with Anthony Dowell, many years ago. I was surprised by how tiny she is, Vadim seemed to tower over her. It must’ve brought back many fantastic memories for her, getting a standing ovation on the ROH stage. The house lights were put on so that she could see everybody enthusiastically applauding her.

Dame Antoinette Sibley is here tonight! KOH introduced her from the stage and mentioned that it’s her 85th birthday today. As for the performance - so far, so fabulous!

An absolutely wonderful evening yesterday with a fantastic debut by Fumi Kaneko, and Vadim Muntagirov taking his performance as DG, which I’ve only seen on DVD, to another level. My only complaint was that it was over all too quickly. Thank goodness I’m going to the performance on Tuesday. The audience was hugely enthusiastic, and although I’ve only been going to ballet for a few years, I haven’t heard such loud cheering at the end of a performance. I thought it was a nice touch that while Fumi and Vadim were taking their curtain call bows, the house lights were put on so that they could see that there was a standing ovation for them - In the stalls at least. Roll on next Tuesday when I can, hopefully take in all the details that I missed last night.

Since KOH has recently marked the 10 year and 25 year anniversaries of Osipova and Bolle joining the RB, I wonder if he will now do the same for Muntagirov. His first performance of Manon on the 23rd of February will be exactly 10 years and four days since he joined the RB. IMO this was definitely a significant date for the company and worthy of one of Kevin‘s nice speeches to commemorate it.

Well, I know Fumi Kaneko is for a start. There are some lovely pictures on her Instagram of her and Vadim’s stage rehearsal. It certainly looks like a very promising partnership and I’m really looking forward to seeing them both in February. I think that Marci Sambe it’s also making his debut as well as William Bracewell.

Well it’s appeared now on the ROH TV app at least. I found it under New this Month. I agree that the streaming service is rather poorly designed And it is difficult to find anything. However, at least the quality has improved. Previously I found the Coppelia was fairly unwatchable because of the poor picture but it is now much improved. Hopefully it is like that for other performances.

Well that’s all very well, but I couldn’t find it either on my tablet or on my TV using my Amazon fire stick. It’s not even in the ‘coming soon’ section.

Actually Nunez did return for the last performance of SL with Muntagirov in that run. I was lucky enough to see this performance and you would never have known that Nunez had been ill. Needless to say they were both superb and I have a particular memory of how moving their Act 2 PDD was.

Thank you for pointing out that Prima has appeared on the ROH stream. I enjoyed it very much when I saw it at the ROH Diamond Celebration although I did have some reservations about the costumes. This time, watching it on TV through my Amazon fire stick, I enjoyed it again but was a bit disappointed in the quality of the picture, even when I changed the video settings. I hope that Wheeldon’s For Four, which was also part of the Diamond celebration, might now be included on the stream.

As a big Muntagirov fan I am delighted to see him top and tailing the spring, run of SLs with three performances with Marinela in March and April and two with Fumi in May, including one on my birthday - is this a record for him in one season? Fumi and Vadim have done both the black swan and white swan PDDs in several galas in Italy and I believe they will perform the whole thing in Rome next June. However I don’t think my bank balance will run to seeing all of his performances! it doesn’t look as if Stephen McRae will be back before the end of the season. It must be incredibly frustrating for him although he seems to be staying positive. Like others, I am delighted that Joseph Sissens has been given this wonderful opportunity.