Bruce Wall

T'was just a hope, Alison. I had heard a rumour that the RB was intending to mount summer seasons again ... but that obviously is not true ... and at least does give leeway to the possibility of visiting international dance companies as we have sometimes known in the past at the ROH.

Not at all.

Slightly off-topic .... I wonder if that means we'll see a season by the Bolshoi at the ROH during the summer of 2016?

Well, I can't speak for them .... but - vis a vis Ashton - I certainly know that the choreographer himself did not share that opinion ... given that I heard him say otherwise via his own mouth. For myself, you will forgive me if I prefer to lean - when given the option - on that source..

Funny, I suspect Wheeldon, himself, would take a certain umbrage against that statement. Indeed I think he would genuinely be hurt. From the little I spoke to him (albeit in NY) - I think he would feel he was, in fact, British - proudly so - as that is where his roots were formed .... much as, I think, David Nixon (who I know you champion) will always be Canadian given that country - his homeland - so clearly is where - through the influence of Betty Oliphant and so many others - his own skills in so many varied directions were initially championed/sparked.

Janet, I'd love to know where you got this notion. I, myself, remember capacity audiences cheering the Ashton when his rep was largely kept by the Joffrey when at City Center. I well remember how hard it was to get tickets for those performances. I remember having to climb along those long rows of seats because I could only get - and was lucky to do so - one in the middle. The audiences exploded in joy at La Fille ... and positively thrilled with joyous laughter at Wedding Bouquet ... with Dowell doing the honours as the Narrator .... and I remember joining them when standing in rapture on receipt of Monotones I and II. Those tickets were I recall almost harder to come by than for the Cranko rep that the Joffrey had long in advance of, say, our local, the Royal Ballet. (Bless them for letting me see Marcia Haydee and Richard Cragun celebrate those.) I also remember them reviving Tudor ballets originally mounted by the Sadlers Wells Ballet as was which even now I've never had a chance to see here. I also DISTINCTLY remember Ashton himself several times saying that he, HIMSELF, felt his work received 'more respect in America' than elsewhere in more than one FREE in-sight-like presentation at the Lincoln Center Library. (These would be on record - again for free - in the facility itself - and, indeed, open to anyone on request, e.g., filling out an easily attainable form in the Jerome Robbins Center for Dance on the third floor. Bless them.) One also now thinks last season of the Ashton Festival in Sarasota where several BRITISH commentators said they wished the same range of his work was available in one place at one time in the UK. Where exactly did you get your 'impression' I wonder, Janet? I, myself, would be fascinated to know. As to an American lack of keeness on European choreographers ... let's just think of recent British ones .... There is little question I think but that Wheedon has done more Ballets in the US than he has anywhere else .... (the same now being recorded for Ratmansky) ... and even young Scarlett has created more works over the past several seasons in the States than he has here. He just had a third work done by NYCB .... and will shortly have one premiered for ABT's Fall season. Again, would love to know why you felt your above sentiment held true.

Oh, how I wish I could go. Have a grand time.

Thanks so 'BRISTOLBILLYBOB' for including this item. Oh, how enticing ..... I so admire David Nixon for bringing in other choreographers .... The progamme he engineered for Northern Ballet in the Lindbury last season was so very exciting ... and showed the Northern Ballet company off to good measure. One felt the exposure to other choreographic tongues really is helping them grow as a team ... and will, I'm sure, be persuasive with their National audiences. Theirs is a vital public service. I so hope they bring this 1984 production to London. (I also know Alex's musical work ... and it is very imaginative and fine indeed. He has done excellent scores for the National Theatre, the RSC and the Globe.

So wish the Mikhailovsky return to London/the Coliseum - when not, of course, taken up with albeit exciting musicals - in the not too distant future (especially now that they are under the secure reign of the miraculous Messerer.) Here are the casts as listed for their New York season in November (immediately surrounding the ABT Fall season in the same theatre) .... GISELLE, OU LES WILIS November 11, 7:30 pm Natalia Osipova, Leonid Sarafanov, Ekaterina Borchenko November 12, 2:00 pm Anastasia Soboleva, Victor Lebedev November 12, 7:30 pm Angelina Vorontsova, Ivan Vasiliev, Ekaterina Borchenko November 13, 7:30 pm Natalia Osipova, Leonid Sarafanov, Ekaterina Borchenko THE FLAMES OF PARIS November 14, 7:30 pm Oksana Bondareva, Ivan Vasiliev, Irina Perren, Leonid Sarafanov November 15, 2:00 pm Angelina Vorontsova, Ivan Zaytsev, Irina Perren, Mario Labrador November 15, 8:00 pm Oksana Bondareva, Ivan Vasiliev, Ekaterina Borchenko, Victor Lebedev November 16, 2:00 pm Angelina Vorontsova, Ivan Vasiliev, Irina Perren, Leonid Sarafanov THREE CENTURIES OF RUSSIAN BALLET November 18 and 19, 7:30 pm Natalia Osipova, Ivan Vasiliev, Leonid Sarafanov, Ekaterina Borchenko, Angelina Vorontsova, Irina Perren, Anastasiya Soboleva, Victor Lebedev, Ivan Zaytsev, Marat Shemiunov DON QUIXOTE November 20, 7:30 pm Natalia Osipova, Ivan Vasiliev, Ekaterina Borchenko November 21, 7:30 pm Angelina Vorontsova, Victor Lebedev November 22, 2:00 pm Oksana Bondareva, Leonid Sarafanov November 22, 8:00 pm Angelina Vorontsova, Ivan Vasiliev November 23, 2:00 pm Natalia Osipova, Ivan Vasiliev, Ekaterina Borchenko

Juliet & Romeo, Mats Ek, Royal Swedish Ballet, Friday 26th September 2014 ‘A romantic story in a brutal environment’ The star of the Royal Swedish Ballet’s JULIET & ROMEO (part of Sadler’s Wells’ varied Northern Light Season through 14th November) is indisputably Maks Ek. (That said his wife, the incandescent Ana Laguna, gives him a literal run for his proverbial money as the most enthralling of all soulful nurses. Hers is the mirror to nature we all cherish; the most independent voice in a celebratory evening to hold aloft.) Still, - even here - it remains Ek’s choreographic voice that reigns supreme albeit intermittently mixed with that occasional glimpse of the germ of his own root, Birgit Culberg, his dance-maker mother. Ek’s sun (and the delight of his own humane humour throughout) does her and all proud. This particular tale created for the Royal Swedish Ballet in 2013 is dramatically balanced with an eye towards the habiliments of our own time. That said it succeeds in telling a story much as any Victorian lantern show did: It evolves within its own communal slide. ‘What goes round,’ it seems to be saying, ‘comes round’. Certainly it did for me. The walls of Magdalena Aberg’s scintillating scenic and costume design shits in tandem with the turn of Linus Fellbom’s invigorating lighting. Via Ek we breathe together. The bellows that have long fed Ek’s dance (as they do here for these fine dancers from the Royal Swedish Ballet) blow indisputably distinct. Having spent much of his youth as part of that stunning facility where I, myself, have twice been privileged to give master classes, the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, this choreographer is well aware – as Peter Brook proclaims e’en now – ‘that the stillness in silence is the loudest noise we ever hear’. When encased in those glorious walls you quickly realise that the art of listening takes on a profundity (certainly intensity) of focus not so easily addressed in other seemingly equivalent realms. Ek employs such with deafening effect on more than one occasion. He does not fear – indeed insists at certain moments – that our eyes should linger. He eschews fussy mime. ‘Don’t muddy it,’ he seems to be suggesting as the full spirit of his detailed strength welcomes us in. Ek borrows – indeed cadges - images from Shakespeare’s tragic treatise on the dangers of communal insularity. He is, however, not bothered with leaving well enough linearly alone. He effectively pieces these bits together much as he does the various shards of Tchaikovsky he employs to create his theatrical score. In each instance the images are vividly rendered. The curtain rises as Romeo (an innocent Anthony Lomuljo) scurries up from a Bardish trap and over the communal wall. Even then we sense he is not at home. As the sole unit set of mobile black barricades seems to find an initial (albeit temporary) hold the conjointedly communistic throng continues to roll apace (i) against the tide of time and (ii) in and amongst our unwitting hero betrothed unto the same. (In the end all will be similarly destined to churn about the glowing calves of both our heroes (the better half being Mariko Kida's inquisitive quest of a Juliet). A valley of legs will remain – not unlike a bleached poppy field - as the final diminishing reminder of the talk that has been walked, run and danced in ever-so-engagingly-glorious Ek-speak.) From without the initial roll of our inter-mutual whole one figure rises. He is clearly marked as our ‘prince’ because he – alone outside of the nurse – is privileged to exercise a conscious. (Shakespeare dined out on his 'outsiders'.) Jan-Erik Wikstom (that fine artist who previously graced the ENB roster in the earliest part of this century) is, like the aforementioned Laguna, left to physically confront his own knowing indecision. Physically both gape and grasp with a Martha Graham Fervour. Their chimera haunts. In between there are more than a few passing feasts laced amongst just so many inspirational dishes. I was particularly taken by: (i) the introduction of Paris (an movingly iconoclastic Oscar Salomonsson) the wealth of whose Nordic blonde mane is physically haloed by those of a more conventionally practical need above the virgin he prays to but will never find; (ii) the opening duet between a Teddy-boy innocent of a black sheep Mercutio (here the precise incendiary that frames the looming precision of Jerome Marchand) seeking to instruct (as best he can) an ever so willing Benvolio (the vividly endearing Hokuto Kodama who, himself, ever fights to inflate the juvenile pride of his own puffa jacket). They – through Ek – make emphatic Shakespeare’s mock: “If love be rough with you, be rough with love; / Prick love for pricking and you beat love down.” Beat they oh, so gloriously do. (iii) The gathering (and dance) of the army of the breathed as inspired by Lady Capulet who here moves beyond being a simple isolationist in face of her tyrannical son’s death and (iv) the fact that all the deaths are so seemingly trivial – much as they so often are in our own life’s history. This only adds in helping Ek draw us into the vital fibre of his whole. There is no question but that we are the first and last character of Ek’s dance. As I well remember Brook once musing: ‘And suddenly there is silence. KABOOM!’ Bless Mats Ek and the Royal Swedish Ballet for bringing this enticing tool of engagement to our shores; ones not always renown for their generosity in terms of welcoming such innovative same - even when hailed elsewhere for the vitality of their artistic vicissitude. (Reference past UK critical responses to Ratmansky; to Kilyan, to Petit, to Bejart, to Neumeier, etc.) As far as I’m concerned this is nothing less than a public service.

Source

Let's pray Cutherbertson is back to dazzle in Cassandra. It looked so promising in the in-sight.

This includes the new production of Paquita by Ratmansky and a work by British contemporary choreographer R. Maliphant.... The Company email reads: In 2014/15, the Bayerische Staatsoper is presenting its third season of selected performances as live streams free of charge online withSTAATSOPER.TV. These will also include all the new productions by the General Music Director Kirill Petrenko. Classical music fans from all over the world can thus follow seven evenings of opera and two of ballet at the full length, live from Munich. The first broadcast, on 5 October 2014, will be the audio-visual transmission of Richard Strauss’ Die schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman) in Barrie Kosky’s production, with Brenda Rae and Franz Hawlata in the main roles (conductor: Pedro Halffter). The program for the 2014/15 season: Oct. 5, 2014, 6.00 p.m. (C.E.T.) Richard Strauss Die schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman) Musical direction: Pedro Halffter Stage direction: Barrie Kosky With Brenda Rae, Franz Hawlata, Daniel Behle a.o. Nov. 1, 2014, 6.00 p.m. (C.E.T.) Leoš Janáček The Makropulos Affair New production Musical direction: Tomáš Hanus Stage direction: Árpád Schilling With Nadja Michael, Pavel Černoch, Tara Erraught, John Lundgren a.o. Jan. 11, 2015, 6.00 p.m. (C.E.T.) Paquita Choreografie: Alexei Ratmansky / Marius Petipa Musical direction: Myron Romanul Soloists and ensemble of the Bayerisches Staatsballett Feb. 1, 2015, 7.00 p.m. (C.E.T.) Gaetano Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor New production Musical direction: Kirill Petrenko Stage direction: Barbara Wysocka With Diana Damrau, Pavol Breslik a.o. April 12, 2015, 7.00 p.m. (C.E.T.) Gaetano Donizetti L’elisir d’amore Musical direction: Asher Fisch Stage direction: David Bösch With Ekaterina Siurina, Charles Castronovo, Ambrogio Maestri a.o. May 19, 2015, 7.30 p.m. (C.E.T.) Der gelbe Klang / Spiral Pass / Konzert für Violine und Orchester Choreographien: Michael Simon / Aszure Barton / Russell Maliphant Musical direction: Myron Romanul Soloists and ensemble of the Bayerisches Staatsballett June 6, 2015, 6.00 p.m. (C.E.T.) Alban Berg Lulu New production Musical direction: Kirill Petrenko Stage direction: Dmitri Tcherniakov With Marlis Petersen, Daniela Sindram, Bo Skovhus a.o. July 4, 2015, 7.00 p.m. (C.E.T.) Claude Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande New production Musical direction: Constantinos Carydis Stage direction: Christiane Pohle With Alastair Miles, Elliot Madore, Markus Eiche, Elena Tsallagova a.o. July 2015 A live stream from the Munich Opera Festival (TBA) http://streaming.staatsoper.de/

Very interesting comment on 'gamilano's website today I will quote but three (obviously somewhat lengthy) sentences: And just to put the record straight, a little bird tells me that the La Scala man­age­ment have known since Easter that Nat­alia Osipova could not dance on the 22nd as her arrival in Milan couldn’t be until the 21st given her com­mit­ment to the Royal Bal­let. Was her name kept up just to sell more tick­ets? If so — and I hope it is just a stu­pid assump­tion on my part — it is a very short-sighted ges­ture, destined to ali­en­ate the pub­lic of bal­let fans, and turn the theatre into even more of a tour­ist attrac­tion where what hap­pens on stage is less import­ant than the selfie in front of the Royal Box. This kind of behaviour - if true - is most distressing.

Yet another alteration. Tamara Rojo has had to pull out of tonight's performance due to an emergency in London (fully understandable given her day job). She will be replaced by Natalia Osipova ... (who previously danced with Covellio in Swan Lake). Ms. Osipova (who cancelled last night) will now dance two performances of Don Chisciotte in a row!!

Wonder about the title of this item as I do not read it as being specific. Surely members of the Royal Ballet have guested (and still do) with companies all over the world and have done so for decades now. Would this item not be better placed on BcoF as 'Lamb and McRae guest in Kremlin Ballet Swan Lake' in the News section? (Perhaps I misunderstand. Perhaps you saw this performance, Amelia, and are intending to write a review. If that is case then I too believe this item is fully in the appropriate location.)

Includes a new cooperative ballet choreographed by both Wheeldon (RB Choreographic Associate) and Ratmansky (whose Concerto DSCH proved to be the defining highlight for British audiences in it's very long awaited UK debut during the recent Mariinsky visit. The work was, of course, created for/on Ms. Whelan at NYCB). Source NYT quote from the wondrous Ms. Whelan: Ms. Whelan said it was important for her to end her career at City Ballet with something new. “I like the idea of making a debut on my farewell,” she said.

A further replacement for the La Scala Don Chisciotte. Ref. This time involving Osipova.

I had the same difficulty as Alison when I went in just after 11.00 am ... with over 1700 people ahead of me. (I book time off for the ROH multi bookings - but refuse to do that for a musical at the Coliseum.) I finally gave up. Didn't have the time to waste waiting and wasn't that bothered about not seeing the Sweeney Todd if it came down to it. I'm sure there would be standing - They are not in a position, after all, to turn away dosh. (As it was I'd already seen Terfel sing it with Maria Friedman at the RFH - and actually didn't think it was all that fantastic .... but was interested to see Emma Thompson ... not having seen her on stage since Look Back in Anger - and that was after Me and My Girl but still a LONG time ago.) Went in just now ... no waiting room .... and i STILL got a £10 seat. (Wasn't going to pay any more .... ) Guess I just got lucky the second time around.

The Vienna State Opera/Ballet will feature a mouth watering 43 live streams starting with Massenet's opera Manon on 24th September and including a complete Ring cycle. There will be three ballet streams only. Sunday, December 7 - MacMillan/Liszt: Mayerling (that professed favourite of so many BcoF members) Friday, December 26 - Nureyev/Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Saturday, February 14 - Neumeier/R. Strauss: Verklungene Feste and The Legend of Joseph The pricing options are €14 per stream, €88 for any eight streams, or €320 for the entire series. The streams can be watched live or at one of three time-delayed start times. Perhaps it is a good thing that the pound is currently strengthening again ... and that Scotland did, in fact, stay in the union. http://www.staatsoperlive.com/en/live/

A celebration of the insightful genius that is George Williamson. His joy; his musicality; his generosity. The muscularity of this young man's mind elevates us all.. The first piece here presented is called A BALLET FOR NANCY. It is set to Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring and stunningly wraps a De Mille-like breadth within a 21st Century glow. It is a chalice for Nancy Osbaldeston's pure sun. The heat of her joy is always as refreshing as it is humane. This is followed after an interval by ADAGIO to a movement from Barber's ever stunning Adagio for Strings. The exotic combination of Jia Zhang and Max Westwall here delight in the zeal of their very private human intercourse. Our hearts sear in tandem with their shared sacrifice. Theirs is, without question, an ardently fitting preamble to the life enriching bliss that is the final work, FOUR ON THE FLOOR. This is set to Judd Greenstein's spirited itch of a score of the same title and is etched - as is all - by the assiduous Constella Orchestra under Leo Geyer's transporting articulation. The dexterous animation of this fireball of choreographic counterpoint is vividly enlivened via the imperious vigor of that ever ardent factor Ksenia Ovsyanick and the sassy enterprise of the vivaciously vaulting Laurretta Summerscales. Both are forcefully supported by the fervent zing of Nathan Young and Vitor Menezes. In whole - as in all its delectable parts - this work thrills. It simply MUST be seen again. Let there be NO MISTAKE this entire evening is a feast of vivacious ebullience. It is also surely the best ten pound spend available to anyone this weekend. Do yourself a favour: GO if you can. You will come out smiling. Promise.

I notice, although it says he is leaving at the end of September, that he is still down (e.g., listed) to dance in October/November in Swan Lake (e.g, assignments in Manchester, Milton Keynes, Liverpool) and one as Franz in Coppelia in Oxford again in November. I assume those positions will now be filled by another company member (perhaps Bufala) or a guest artist. One certainly wishes him well - especially being newly married - and very much hopes his health has not had to play too significant a role in his determination to depart.

Over the past week I have had the pleasure to catch a couple of ballet programmes merely because of geographical co-location. Paris: GALA-DES-ETOILES-DU-21è-SIECLE-2014 - Ref What I felt made this gala particularly distinguished was the eloquence of its production. Dancers and the audience were treated with the ultimate respect, barring, of course, the fact that each element was danced to a recorded score. I assume this was due to the fact that the overall programme was constructed of a wide range of both established (e.g., Act II pas de deux from Giselle, Black Swan pas, pas d'enclave from Le Corsaire, La Dames Aux Camellias, etc.) and more modern (and on occasion original) fare. The musical range would have proved a challenge for any musical ensemble on short call I assume. I, myself, was delighted when the lights went down EXACTLY on time within the art nouveau spendour that is the Theatre des Champs-Elysees and the interval was itself as precisely measured. (The ROH could profit from such a tradition I think.) Here there was in fact no need to buy one of those expensive programmes (unless, of course,you wished a hard copy souvenir). Each element was oh-so-tastefully introduced via the operatic supertitle panel above. In clear yellow lettering the name of each piece about to be danced was noted, the name of each dancer and their professional company association, the composer and the choreographer. It stayed in place for approximately ten seconds and then dissolved as the lights came up on the work to be displayed. It is, I think, a tactic that Ensemble Productions might well be advised to undertake for their seasonal 'Russian Icons Galas' or the admirable Ivan Putrov for his 'Men in Motion' incentives. You didn't have lights flashing on and people scrawling through pages or people querying: 'what was that?' or 'what's next?'. The programme was made up with wisely diversified couples (five balletic and one male modern duo) and ended with a defile for all to the strains of Piaf proclaiming ' je ne regrette rien'. It was done with style and humour and after that had finished and each dancer had been presented with a bouquet (Joaquin de Luz graciously passed his to Maria Kotchekova who accepted whilst Lucia Lecarra simply smiled and shook her head when Marlon Dino attempted to do the same) all stepped forward with the producer in tow unto the generous lip of the Theatre's stage and tossed those same bouquets into the laps of their delighted audience. It was a wonderfully impactful way to end what had been a well composed affair (as these things go) and I overheard several attendees still talking about that final throw as I made my way up along the Siene. Smirnova and Chudin had been advertised as appearing but obviously didn't make it at the last minute. I, myself, was not disappointed in the slightest given their replacements,were the aforementioned Kotchekova from SFB and Joaquin de Luz from NYCB. They danced an original piece by the upcoming POB director, Benjamin Milleapied and especially shone in a stunning rendition of the saucy Rubies pas. Du Luz was particularly dazzling; easily bringing to mind those films of Villella in his enticing origination of the work with Patricia McBride such as are to be freely found in the NY Public Library's Jerome Robbins' Dance Collection. Why I wonder has this dancer who has been a principal with both ABT and NYCB not been seen more often in London, that city which the much admired Alistair Spalding hails as 'a world mecca of dance'. He is certainly deserving. Nonetheless the real highlight of this event for me was the pairing of the now senior but ever glorious Lucia Lecarra and her partner the young God-like Marlon Dino, both principals with the Bavarian National Ballet. (His extended one handed strolling lift at the end of the third of Ben Stevenson's masterly 'Trois Preludes' was chilling. Indeed it fully rivaled my memories of Valdimir Vasiliev with Maximova and was executed with the masterful grace that Jose Manuel Carreno used to deploy whilst holding Ananashvilli aloft. After just the first prelude the audience was ecstatic and the balletic tension and joy only built from there. How one longs to see this stunning Apollo wrapped in the full Balanchinian glory. There is no question but that he and Lecarra have the dramatic chops for that and more. Certainly they proved as much in the Neumeier Lecarra was a vivid theatrical show unto itself in her entrance alone. (How lucky I feel to have been to be able to see this creature so full of musical grace in a wide range of work both with SFB and in Munich.) Together these dancers were finesse personified. A Marguerite and Armand to the life; a breathing realisation of the kind of inter-generational thrill Fonteyn and Nureyev exhibited. A true delight. Speaking of inter-generational thrills and Nureyev ... On Wednesday I found myself in Milan - again for work ... La Scala - Don Chisciotte Let there be no doubt. This was Tamara Rojo's show. She fashioned the piece in her own considerable lights ... chiding and bullying it into a new semblance of sense - and, you know, it worked. She herself was a replacement for Zakarova and her partner (himself a replacement for the originally advertised Denis Mativenko) was to be none other than Ivan Vasiliev who sadly it seems is still suffering from a bout with pneumonia (one wonders if the ice drop had anything to do with it) and accordingly pulled out at the last minute. His replacement was the same young dancer who had replaced him in Petit's 'Notre Dame': one Claudio Coviello, Rojo had Coviello - (a appealing dancer with nice feet which are not always precise in placement but whose pas de basque is generous and leap healthy) - for proverbial lunch. This made Nureyev's equally handsome take on the piece come alive. Let me explain. In this presentation Rojo's Kitri WAS Mrs Robinson. Her seniority suddenly made sense of so much of the scenario and certainly let her be in control throughout. There was no doubt about that whatsoever. This was a woman made to wear trousers. She was simply before her time. Rojo's maturity as Kitri made clear both her own and her father's (a fine take by the never over-played/parted Matthew Endicott) desperation. Coviello's Basilio was HER Benjamin. Never had he to act the innocent. Oh, no. His vastly dark doe eyes did that for him as did his naive take on a smile of rapier-spliced jocular bonhomie. We watched as he fell into her trap. Rojo was clearly delighted. Gamache on this particular evening was but a compromised roue and not one of society's first order either. His times had moved on. There had, you were certain, been many others before him presented to Kitri. You felt sorry for him as much as for her. He was tarnished. Act II was particularly vivid. It opens with a pas de deux during which Lanchberry vividly steals even more from La Bayadere than Yates did in his oft muted orchestration for the current RB production. Having stolen her prey away, Rojo manfully instructs. (How one would have loved to have met her mother.) Coviello's delight was touchingly chaste. His smile burgeoned even as he took delight in Nureyev's thrilling solo, here allowing the stunning combination of entrechats and brises to be but an act of appreciation for his Kitri's dominance. She had saved him the risk. 'Thank you, Ma'am' he seemed to be saying. No wonder she looked so proud. In the coda Rojo further taught her charge - 'you place your hand here like this' - and when she fell to the ground she provided for a moment where Coviello was forced to make the decision to actually corrupt his own probity. That was heart wrenching. Immediately thereafter Rojo grabs him for dear life and rolls in sensuous ecstasy in face of the brigands. Her deal is now well and truly struck. Her job is but to protect the same. God help the woman who might come between her and her toy boy. She waved him like a flag. In my mind's eye I seemed to see Annie Bancroft smirk - as she was so enticingly wont to do - in pride. Here Rojo's Kitri even provides the money to purchase their disguise as they dash off and Nureyev - much as he did in the POB's Bayadere - imaginatively delights with his own strikingly theatrical take on his own native character dances. Rojo's veiled Kitri returns with her Benjamin in devoted tow. She has plastered a fake beard on his face that surely could fool no one apart from herself. Under her own dark veil she uses him as but a pawn to entice the Don in an act of perverted courtly instruction for her charge. Quxiote's inspiration bites and he too responds as intended. Rojo's Kitri then manipulates the dumb show of challenged valour with her Basilio/Benjamin emulating her every move on the other side of the platform. She even gives notice that the windmill (here refreshingly only one) should turn. The Don - much as the penny had before - drops. In his delirium he imagines a vision of beauty which is of course Kitri and it is she who takes her now virgin-ally white veil off her own head to make a sling for his wounded arm. More than that, this Don's vision sees Kitri as she might well see herself in a tale of her own imagined storybook youth. Here she is dressed somewhat garishly like a Disney princess replete with a paste tiara and is surrounded by both Amour and a fairy queen (well danced by Nicoletta Manni replete with stunningly precise Italian fouettes). How wonderful it would be if ENB could borrow this production for a term - say in exchange for their own glorious Corsaire. How this production might delight provincial tours throughout the UK ... and how I would love to see her tackle this role in London aside say Lendorf. True the La Scala team gave overall shape to the proceedings but the current stealh of ENB under Rojo's charge would I know bring it into the full focus it not only needs but wholeheartedly deserves. There are also just so many British connections to celebrate: (i) Nureyev's relationship with LFB/ENB for one; (ii) Lanchberry; (iii) the fact that Mania Gielgud who oversaw this revival was late in ENB's employ and (iv) let us not forget that the production was, of course, done for Robert Helpmann, adulated not only in the world of British ballet but theatre itself. Indeed, I was touched by the fact that the final curtain call was given to Giuseppe Conte's solid Don in that same memory. When it was later repeated it appeared, I think, a trifle absurd. The audience (even the woman a few boxes down from mine who filmed the entire performance on her ipad; her cinematography being quite good from what I could see) had obviously no understanding as to why this should be and the applause unfairly dipped. Even I at that point thought that placement a mite unfair. Rojo through Nureyev had after all triumphed - and not just because of her determined balances in the amazed face of her Benjamin/Basilio during the Act III pas nor her even more tumescent Spanish-spitfire quadruple fouettes finished in a perfect second. Rojo had made this work (and just her Kitri) her own That takes some doing. 'Brava', I imagined Rudolf mumbling. 'Bravissima' I cried.

In a word, and given a long-standing tradition, no. You came to see the company as a whole. End of story. Until now that is. :-) Perhaps this is one of the first changes with the upcoming Milipied regime. A good one methinks.

Surprise ... Surprise ... (To view casting click on 'Distribution' ... and then click specific date for principal cast) ... http://www.operadeparis.fr/saison-2014-2015/ballet/casse-noisette-rudolf-noureev http://www.operadepa...-guillaume-bart