Beryl H

I managed to get a ticket for Alice yesterday, Beatriz Stix-Brunell was captivating as Alice, she has a light willowy style with beautiful arm movements, endless possibilities for her, also liked Nehemiah Kish who was a marvellous partner for her. Only really went to see her but found myself liking Alice a little bit more this time round, didn't mind the extra 20 minute interval as it gave a break from the hectic pace for the audience as well as for Alice! As a result there's not much ballet dancing until act 2, Alice's solo, Caterpillar (Fernando Montano excellent), waltz, then an extended pdd for Alice and Jack, much needed, and beautifully danced. Act 3 passes quickly, the garden scene, Rose Adage (am I the only person not to really find this funny?) and trial scene, until one of the best moments, the collapse of the playing cards and whole court, the journey back throught the rabbit hole, and the epilogue which is charming and nostalgic, a moment of stillness at the end of a hectic and too manic ballet.

The audience adored it though, including lots of children on Easter holidays, and I'm so glad I saw Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Nehemiah Kish, on an off-chance!

I thought the matinee was one of the best performances I have been to for a while, Vadim Muntagirove has matured a lot in the last few months, he was superlative all afternoon, in Apollo (his debut) then Mazurka and pdd, and the solo's in the coda, and he was still dancing in the evening, the Train Bleu solo and partnering Daria again!

Lovely performances too from Begona Cao in Apollo, Dmitri Gruzydev in Apollo, Ksenia Ovsyenick looking very chic and French in Suite, from everyone really, the matinee was especially memorable for confirming what a huge, huge talent Vadim has, and a pleasant personality to go with it, ENB have done so well in nurturing him.

But are these performances the classics or his version (truncated/his choreography)? Even if Irek is guesting in character roles, I'm not sure if this is what I want to see.

Thanks for your views and anything else you can suggest.

Eileen

"Truncated" is a very good word to use for Nutcracker which I saw at Christmas, the running time was only about 1 hour 20 minutes I think, this is more like a Matthew Bourne production, only Clara danced on pointe and there was no grand pas de deux, the music was used as an epilogue for The Dreamer and a Woman in White, choreography was modern, do you get the picture? the audience at Christmas didn't

I'm sure the production will be boosted for the Coliseum, and Alban Lendorf is dancing in Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty , which I haven't seen, plus Irek Mukhamedov, I got the impression that the trilogy has pyschological understones about Tchaikovsky which also might be worth seeing.

One thing I think ENB should do is to follow the RB example and sell tickets at different prices according to the programme, I doubt CG would sell so many tickets for triple bills if they were at the top price, in fact the Polyphonia bill is even cheaper than the standard triple bill, top price anywhere only £42!

I would think Sweet Violets would be the middle ballet as it should be very dramatic, glad to hear that there are only 2 casts as I should get to see both considering how many I've booked, I really want to see Leanne Cope and Thiago Soares after watching the rehearsal.

Good to see these great photos of Jeux to remind me, I saw opening night and loved it, Dmitri Gruzdyev was outstanding as Nijinsky, wonder who else will dance it, I'd like to see Anton Lukovkin. Very evocative of the original and a brilliant surprise ending! A really good programme altogether, Vadim Muntagirov funny in the Train Bleu solo, and some outstanding dancing in Apollo and Suite en Blanc, especially Elena Glurdjidze as Cigarette, Ksenia Ovsyanick in the Romantic pas de trois after her long stint in Firebird, and Nancy Osbaldston showing some strong technique in the pas de cinq.

I would go again tonight and get a much better seat for £10 than my £40 pre-booked ones(sore subject) but have to save my energy for tomorrow's 2 performances!

I saw both casts on Saturday, not that they were many changes unfortunately, this was one of those programmes where the design, costumes and music really did outweigh the effect of the dancing, although it was in the spirit of the Ballets Russes. Firebird looked very slick and had the most "ballet" dancing but used the shorter concert hall suite of music, very exciting choreographically and I can understand why George Williamson is held in high esteem, but there was no real structure to the piece, all the dancers made impacts though. Nijinsky's Faun looked better at the matinee with Anton Lukovkin and Begona Cao, he had more animal magnetism than Dmitri Gruzdyev , but I thought it was a mistake to run the 2 Fauns together, especially as the second one was the piano score, Faun(e) passed me by rather. The costumes for Rite dominated, but from further back the dancers were just a mass of dark brown/black, I much prefer the CG version, at the matinee Tamarin Stott was very good as the Chosen One, as was Erina Takahashi in the evening.

The second programme looks much more promising, I was watching Train Bleu on DVD and can't make out a long enough solo for the Anton Dolin character, but it should be very funny and spectacular, wish they were dancing the whole ballet.

A fascinating day which got better, quality improved when I switched from the ROH to Guardian website.

A couple of things I remember:

Alice rehearsal included Liam Scarlett

Carbon Life had a pdd with Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae before Watson/Cowley

The highlights for me were Cope/Soares rehearsing Sweet Violets, and Watson/Cowley in Carbon Life, I bet those dancers have acquired some new fans!

I believe Sweet Violets was the name of the song that Mary Jane Kelly was singing just before she was killed by Jack the Ripper, I heard a recording of it once at an exhibition, it was a popular song of the era. This gets more intriguing, must watch the rehearsal and interview this afternoon!

I have it from the Friends Postal booking form:

Box Office

Royal Opera House

Covent Garden

London

WC2E 9DD

It used to be a BO number but I suppose they don't do enough postal bookings now.

Casting for programme 2 is on the ENB website now, at least it's more varied than the first.

Should be great if the picture quality is as good as the trailer, I have Friday free too!

I saw the exhibition last week and it was worth waiting for, the scale and colour of these huge paintings take the breath away and make everyone smile, I've bought the catalogue which unfortunately can't do justice to the big works but shows the smaller paintings very well.

The dance film was on when I arrived so I sat through it, saw the Yorkshire film, then the dance film again, this was on a huge state-of-the-art screen made up of 18 sections, the size of everything was amazing, worth seeing and you get a chance to sit down! It seemed normal actually to be watching ballet dancers at the Royal Academy.

The only real drawback was the crowds, I did keep bumping into people, but this was one of the best exhibitons for a long time, I would recommend anyone thinking about it to go, although I had booked a ticket I think I could have got in for 3pm, the queue wasn't too long.

It's funny Alison, I enjoyed this production of Coppelia for the reasons you didn't, it does have a Giselle feel and I loved the way it puts the ballet back to the late Romantic era, in fact the first thing I thought (from my position high up looking down from the side) was of watching a Degas picture, especially as the Swanilda was Ambra Vallo who has a very soft look and technique. Tyrone Singelton had a more Romantic approach too, which I also liked, there were a lovely couple. The evening pair, Elsha Willis and Matthew Lawrence , danced in the more usual way, fast and funny, it was a very good contrast and made me think of how very different ballets look with each cast!

There were some marvellous soloists too, Celine Gittens did a beautiful Dawn, and both Yijing Zhang and Samara Downs were very pure as Prayer, in fact the whole season was a huge pleasure! On a more prosaic note, good informative programme and thanks for keeping the intervals down!

The Ballet Russes programmes look unmissable, especially the second one, I like every ballet . I'm very doubtful about the Boris Eifman, if there are ticket offers I might go.

It's a strong end to the season at Covent Garden, once Alice and R& J are over, the Polyphonia triple bill, Fille, La Sylphide, Prince of the Pagoda's and Birthday Offering triple bill are all outstanding IMHO, then I'm keeping out of London until San Francisco Ballet in September.

I saw the 2 evening performances and admired the enthusiasm and spirit that BRB put into both ballets, I have always liked Daphnis and Chloe , it's very modern for Ashton I think, his choreography really matches the strange mix of quirky rythymns and sensual music, I particularly liked Jenna Roberts and Jamie Bond, it was the first time I was able to see Jamie dance and he was very expressive, Angela Paul as Lykanion made a strong impression too. By contrast Ashton made such soft, sweet choreography for the girl in The Two Pigeons, it suited Ambra Vallo and Nao Sakuma very well, I get so emotional at the end and Tuesday being Robert Parker's farewell made it worse!

Looking forward to both Coppelia's tomorrow.

I approached Romeo and Juliet last night really as a chance to see Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg, but found myself appreciating the ballet more than I have done for a long time, it felt so fresh and exciting. Alina and Johan gave marvellous peformances that I will remember alongside their Manon and Mayerling, they went beyond emotional to almost spiritual, I also really believed in Bennet Gartside, Johannes Stepanek and Alexander Campbell (didn't get a cast change list so was surprised to see him) and Valentino Zuchetti in the mandolin dance, a really special night!

I would prefer the What's Happening and News to remain separate, maybe rename What's Happening but keep it for ongoing performances only.

Sounds really exciting, I'm going twice next week and should see the casts you mention, could you please say what the running time is, I suppose about 3 hours?

Amazon have a 2 disc DVD set of early documentaries about Sylvie Guillem, one was shown on the South Bank Show many years ago, both are quite hard to find I think, price is £22.49, only 7 left at the moment.

This is a "voluntary donation", I've just been booking tickets at the Coliseum and the same thing happened, except I'm wise to it now, £3.75 I believe, you have to really look out for it and untick the "donation" box and wait for the price to change before continuing. I booked at SW a few days ago and noticed it in time!

This has inspired me to dig out a DVD I have of the Basler Ballet 's version which uses music by Hertel with just a little of the familiar Herold score, arranged by John Lanchbery, and choreographed by Heinz Spoerli. The history of this ballet and the music is very complicated, but going by the informative booklet I presume the Siberian Ballet uses the Hertel score and is based on the Petipa/Ivanov production, sounds interesting.

I hardly ever see 'Bayadere' listed as a 'classical' ballet but I see its choreography as purely classical, and furthermore the story -as sily as it is - is at least on an understandable human scale. I can't get enough of it.

I see the Shades act from La Bayadere as the purest "classical" ballet there is, in terms of technique and style, even the emotion has been translated into movement.

As for "classic", I think the word has changed now to mean outstanding in it's field, e.g.a new book, film or ballet instantly becomes a "classic".

Thanks for this very interesting selection of reviews today, how lucky Wolverhampton is to see La Fille Mal Gardee from the Siberian Ballet for a change,

also good to read of Vadim Muntagirov's success in La Baydere in new York, but I hope he doesn't get to like ABT too much, another loss would be too much right now, it did say we'll have to share him with New York though

Thank you Cathy and Buddy, I'm going to the David Hockney exhibition in March and will look out for these films, I usually ignore films in art exhibitions, but I'll make sure I see the dance film in particular.

I also intend going to the Kusama exhibition at Tate Modern soon, I recently went to the "Charles Dickens and London " show at the Museum of London and can recommend that too.