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Jamesrhblack

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Everything posted by Jamesrhblack

  1. Yes, delighted to see Romany Pajdak returning, although a single performance looks ominous. Essentially pleased with my castings (Kaneo, Muntagirov for Les Rendezvous and Hayward, Sambé for Dream in Programme 1; In Programme 2, I think Osipova may bring out some of the feral wildness that Sibley used to bring to Titania, Bracewell is always a pleasure, and delighted to see Pajdak. Would have preferred Hayward, Bracewell for Hamlet and Ophelia and am getting Magri, Acri twice in Rhapsody but with a programme like this the choreography is the thing above all else). Great opportunities for Sae Maeda, Taisuke Naka and Daichi Ikarashi.
  2. I've scanned and uploaded as a PDF. I hope it works... AshtonCasting.pdf
  3. The original scenario has Odette dying in Siegfried’s arms and Siegfried drowning with the last image being of the swans on the lake which is what Nureyev sought to emulate. Ultimately, Siegfried fails as, however inadvertently, he breaks his vow. As with Orpheus. The confrontation of our own mortal inadequacy in the face of temptation and challenge is humbling. I’m not fond of Scarlett’s Prologue as I think it diminishes the impact of Odette’s entrance and I think there are incongruities within his revised scenario that might well have been ironed out if he lived to supervise a revival. I’m writing from recollections of 2020 and 2022 as not seeing a performance until June, and agree that a prone Siegfried for much of Act 4 doesn’t work, but I think his effort to match the originally intended tragic failure an imaginative solution as the music returns to the hammering B’s of the Swans’ B Minor theme (although I could do without a spirit Odette rising up). All opinions my own.
  4. Which is where Alexander Campbell, and before that Laura Morera, always seemed to be so particularly special.
  5. Although Lescaut is a principal role created by David Wall. He and Anthony Dowell used to alternate the roles of Lescaut and des Grieux …
  6. “…the anguished facial expression was there but the movement itself felt more contained and so didn’t ‘speak’ the turmoil as effectively.” That’s such a good observation. It is when the dance is expressive not just the face that the art form “sings.”
  7. His Romeo with Naghdi was astonishing: the curtain came down in shocked silence. His Des Grieux, not just this last week, exemplary. Albrecht, Florimund, Colas, Young Man (Two Pigeons), Lescaut all superb. Brown Boy in Dances, one for the ages. Basilio was pretty good too. As with Morera, I will never understand why such a complete dance actor, with a virtuoso technique, was not allowed to explore the whole repertoire.
  8. And turning to the left. I actually cannot think of a role that he didn’t illuminate…
  9. Beautiful photos indeed. Wonderful souvenirs of a very emotional, but also heart-warming evening. The feeling was palpable in the auditorium: here was an artist not only admired and respected by his colleagues and audience but loved too.
  10. An exceptionally moving performance last night, emotion heightened by the fact that it was my penultimate opportunity to see one of my five favourite dancers of the last ten years in what I think one of his best roles (although, favouritism apart, I can’t think I have ever thought him other than outstanding in everything I have seen him do) in one of my two favourite full length works in The Royal Ballet repertoire. I have a ticket for Friday, so will write more after that, but realise how lucky I am to be seeing his last two performances, just as I was lucky to see Laura Morera (another of those five) in her last two Giselles. On both occasions, quite by chance, each was dancing with the partner with whom they seemed to have the closest onstage connection: Morera with Federico Bonelli (another of those five), Campbell with Francesca Hayward. And a shout out for Valentino Zucchetti: it was great to see him back on stage and in such viciously scintillating form.
  11. For me, a deeply affecting dance-actor (which is not to mitigate his virtuoso technique), a superb partner, a wonderfully musical performer, amongst my four or five favourite Royal Ballet dancers of the last ten years.
  12. Really enjoyed chewing the cud with you in the intervals. Thanks for saying hello
  13. hi, I’ll lurk with intent in that corner of the Hamlyn Hall. Blue jacket, white jumper, glasses and quite possibly a red wine too 🍷
  14. Will any Forum members be present this evening and, if so, is there an accustomed place to say hello?
  15. As in, I have a Grand Tier ticket for tomorrow evening for sale, as managed to secure two returns for 8 March…
  16. Managed to get two tickets for 8 March and now have 1 Grand Tier for 2 March if anybody wants to pm me.
  17. Re “purity defiled,” I’m not sure there is much “pure” about Manon as a character. There’s a good reason she is being sent off to a convent and it doesn’t take her long to elope with a young man she has just met, stealing the money entrusted to her care by an admittedly foolish older man. I’d agree re the strength of the Osipova / Campbell depiction of the siblings, but I thought Fumi Kaneko excellent last night, almost hard-boiled in her detachment for much of the brothel scene and actively spiteful to des Grieux in the Bracelet Duet before being reduced to catatonic stupefaction in the last act. Inevitably, for a debut it was less complex than Osipova’s very remarkable performance with Campbell which I am delighted was broadcast (and must surely appear on DVD) and, as Missfrankiecat observes above, explores Manon’s own agency in her downfall. I rather enjoyed Joseph Sissens’ sharp, opportunistic take on Lescaut and find him compulsively watchable as a dancer and stage presence. And I thrilled to Vadim Muntagirov’s long lines in Act 1 and didn’t see him as reticent, rather bashfully shy in trying to articulate his sudden intensity of feeling, whilst the humiliation of Act 2 and the despair of Act 3 really gripped.
  18. Absolutely: he is so very evidently held in great affection and esteem by very many of us, rather as was Laura Morera. Very sad that a second of my favourite dancers of recent years is now leaving.
  19. I do. That’s an internet auto correct. Might a moderator rescue me from forum shame?
  20. I heartily concur with all of these. Heartbreaking as Albrecht with Francesca Hayward as Giselle, irresistible as Colas with Roberta Marquez as Lise, dazzling (too much so?) as Benno, and brilliant as Troyte, turning to the left too.
  21. Yes, but even with that in mind you’ll see what I mean. It’s rather wonderful in that he looks very frail at the beginning but as he becomes more and more involved in the process his movement becomes freer.
  22. I’d think around 5ft 10. Happy to be corrected. Reece Clarke is consideranly over 6ft and very broad too. There’s a video of Dowell coaching Clarke and Melissa Hamilton in Ashton’s Awakening Pas de deux on the Ashton Foundation YouTube site so you can see them together there.
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