Beryl H

I liked Marcelo Gomes last night, he was not as brilliant or fast as Steven McRae but has a softer style, very likeable but not really the Oberon type though, loved the pas de deux which I saw from a different viewpoint (amphi extreme left) appreciate it more every time I see it. I stayed for Song of the Earth (must say I would never leave mid-way through a performance) and although I found the first sections hard (the music puts me off) the final pas de deux through to the ending was deeply moving, Marienela Nunez, Nehemiah Kish and Carlos Acosta entered a different realm of beauty and intensity.

Hikaru Kobayashi as Giselle and the Sylph Valeri Hristov as James and Albrecht Akane Takada as Giselle and the Sylph Yuhui Choe as Alice And since I have a ticket for the Choe/Polunin Fille, I agree I would like to see Alexander Campbell or Brian Maloney as Colas.

Not sure how to incorporate quotes, so in response to the above posting I'm afraid half of Song of the Earth is still too long for me On the other hand The Dream is too short, Wednesday evening was memorable for the chance to see Alina Cojocaru again at last, dancing as beautifully as ever, plus Steven McRae's debut as Oberon, on paper I thought he would be the best anyway but didn't realise he would be the only one! Also I'm really glad I had the chance to see Valentino Zuchetti as Puck, not just dancing brilliantly but looking really happy to be there and not overawed by Cojocaru and McRae.

I think audiences want to see photographs of the cast they see, so if previous photos are not available then rehearsal ones should be taken to cover all casts, I also like colour, not that difficult surely. This is a good place to congratulate CG on the contents of their programmes, compared to other Companies they do provide a lot of solid information and history on the ballets, I agree they could be updated more frequently.

I prefer UK company reviews and in particular the mainstream ones, CG, BRB, ENB, NB, Rambert etc, next would be visiting big companies like the Bolshoi and Mariinsky, usually ones that I have recently attended or intend to. Of course I am interested in following those companies at home, also the POB, ABT and RDB in particular, but if we have to cut down then the UK companies would be the most important for me.

I keep checking to see the revised cast for The Dream, I suppose Wednesday will be McRae, but I hope someone else will be given a chance to dance Oberon on the other Polunin nights, I noticed from another posting that Zuchetti was dancing Puck on Wednesday, I suppose that is a replacement for Jose Martin?

I am very grateful for everyone's time and effort in continuing to provide these reviews, thank you.

The English version is back on the Bolshoi website today.

I read that it was after his solo in Le Pavilion d'Armide, when he did a huge jete offstage, that Nijinsky first became a sensation, but of course he did the same in Spectre de la Rose , I agree that he brought male dancing to the world's notice whereas before it had been for a smaller elitist audience, so it was the start of superstardom for male dancers. I must say these days I often book to see a favourite male dancer, even in something like Giselle, Sergei Polunin is a good example! Men in Motion looks a great programme anyway, I wonder who will actually follow in Nijinsky's footsteps in Spectre?

Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev in Romeo and Juliet at the Coliseum, and Ivan Vasiliev a week later in Petit's "Le juenne homme et la mort" spring to mind immediately. Then the entire Mariinsky season at Covent Garden, especially the final outstanding 4 performances of La Bayadere, they were perhaps my most perfect 3 days of ballet ever. Another highlight has been seeing ENB's amazingly talented young soloists, every performance I note another one or two, in particular I liked Anais Chalendard as Clara in Nutcracker. As for wishes for this year, I agree with Janet, I would love to see the Royal Danish Ballet for a change. These are just my quick first thoughts!

Glad someone else likes this, although I entirely agree that it's an old, tired production that doesn't begin to compare with the excellent versions by Covent Garden and BRB Royal Ballets and ENB, there are some wonderful things to enjoy, my favourites are Nina Kaptsova, Denis Savin and Artem Ovcharenko's dancing, and the corps in the 2 big waltzes, plus the brilliant picture and sound quality, I have the Blu-Ray and it's one of the best, I'm just hoping for similar recordings of Don Quixote, Coppelia, Le Corsaire and Bright Stream in the future!

Thanks for this, I will record it tonight, good thing it doesn't clash with Sherlock

I think the Juliet role in this ballet is one of Frederick Ashton's finest creations, last night Megumi Oki's dancing was fast, light and rapturous, with a gossamer quality, I would love to see her as Ondine. Stefan Wise was Romeo, Johan Christensen repeated the Tybalt role seen at the Coliseum, not totally sure of the other dancers and didn't buy the programme to find out. As in Nutcracker, the orchestra of about 25 do wonders with the music, and of course the staging suited the smallish Dome, shame so much space is taken with permanent steps though! I didn't really miss the crowd scenes ,but it does take a while to get used the pared down feeling, very glad I saw it, Megumi Oki made it all worthwhile, audience much happier than at Nutcracker too!

The review of Peter Schaufuss' Nutcracker at Brighton is a very good description, only Clara (Megumi Oki) wore pointe shoes, which was odd, there was no real pas de deux, only solo's and the coda from act 2, the music was cut down to a total of 1 hour 15 minutes for both acts, and started and finished with the adagio from the grand pas de deux accompanying a scene where The Dream Master (Stefan Wise, by far the best role of the ballet) either by himself in Clara's bedroom in the prologue, or with a mysterious Woman in White (Yoko Takahashi) for the finale, which came off rather well. A disappointing evening really, but Romeo and Juliet later this week should be much better.