Cayetana

Dm you for Sunday ticket.

They didn't wear tutu at performance but before it. She explains here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4-vO6ZoDGQ/?igsh=bm5tbWRlcnY3b21m We should keep promoting!! I am always surprised so many people find opera ho. Elitist and I keep reminding them of booking early, Friday rush, Yong ROH and the wonderfulness of it all

Ticket spoken for. Thank you.

Alas, I cannot use this ticket (Amphitheatre Lower Slips, B5, £9) now. Luckily, I found one for when I'll be able to attend. Please leave a message here and DM me if interested.

Totally agree!

I am dm yon.

Naughty Fonty 😂

I think you are right. Inoticed that too Sad as it is, the injury added yet another larger to the poignancy of the piece. Of course I'm dejected hat door piano is injured What a hard Art this is.

Went on Monday. Loved the actual direction and interpretation but found staging itself lacking and at points caricaturesque (the children holding boards?!). All the women shone brightly (even if Michaela’s looks were a joke - first student then church “beata” with a rosary as a medal?!). Carmen herself (Aigul) I found fascinating in all areas - beautiful singing and nonchalant acting. So much so I want to see her in Glyndebourne on same role.

Is this still available?

Yes!! Exactly. The painterly element in all three ballets. For Requiem I thought of William Blake repeatedly.

I’m sending a DM to you

I found Dances C exhilarating and, for my taste, aesthetically memorable - I thoroughly enjoyed the 50s vintage, Piper-esque landscape, the quirky costumes (the hairdos with their finials, the decorative symbols, the colour scheme and of course, last but not least, the music which almost seemed to follow the dancing) a fairy tale of a chess party where each dancer became a piece in an imaginary, living game board. The game fast, unexpected, always transforming. The "teams" regrouping and scamping according to a secret logic. Arrows and colours, directions. Individual yet anonymous. And a queenly master of ceremonies. I found myself totally in the moment, in empathetic delight. I loved the whole company's dancing, and Gasparini, rather magnetic. I found the whole intelligent, fun, inventive - totally life-enhancing. As for Different Dreamer and Requiem, both extraordinary. One, Kafkaesque drama of vivid despair; the other, sublime human aspiration. I totally relished this programme which I found both beautiful and thought-provoking in loads of directions. Music 10/10 in all three pieces, and all the dancers and dancing equally top notch. Engrossing! (I have enjoyed so much reading all the thoughtful comments; This Forum must be one of my luckiest finds last year: a terrific balletic community!)

I’m sending DM re April tickets, C

It is!! THANK YOU, Roberta, for the top links and references re Duo C - I had never seen this ballet and found it wonderful as danced by Indiana Woodward and Taylor Stanley on Friday. Seemed to me like a "history of dancing" with the last, unexpected, movement a sort of narrative dance in the spotlight, as lyric as the lyricism of the music, and as "cinematic" as I have now learned listening to your sources. I found it exhilarating - music and dancers alike. The film of Key Mazzo and Peter Martins dancing the piece is tremendous too. I thought that on paper the programme was interesting in its parallels, convergences and contrasts . As most people, Rotunda did not grip me, bar the solo of Megan Fairchild. The role of the musical instruments in both middle pieces made me happily think, as they were used so differently after opening the ballets exactly in the same manner, with the dancers listening intently. I loved in the GustaveleG how percussion and balance seemed (to me) to be at the centre of the dancing, and the apparently pointless piano displacement made me, again, small and think. I didn't see it gratuitous in the end, but a coda to the narrative (the listening bit around the piano) beginning. The red costumes were both abstract columns of colour and reminiscent of some monastic order - it really worked for me, as the last piece, the Love Letter, did. I was up in the second circle and the volume was not distracting and I did not mind much that it was recorded. I found the piece rich in every aspect, and the unusual (for me) music made sense in context. I totally suspended disbelief and was intrigued from beginning to end (that was also the case with Duo C and GlG). The pdd of the two male dancers towards the end was beautiful. The breaks between movements could have been done more interestingly. As someone pointed out, the costumes had 17c touches and were whimsical in a sort of sarcastic way - a bit burlesque of the classical tradition. Two male dancers looked great in and made good use of their outsized feathered headdresses a la Bayadere etc. The lighting was mesmerising even if I concur with someone who said that it made it difficult to distinguish the faces of the dancers, but they are so individual that soon I knew who was who even if anonymous. I know is sad, but what a team!!!! A great night overall. Thank you again Roberta for the links!!!

NYCB Cast List - I found it quite easily on the SW webpage (https://sadlers-wells-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2024/03/NYCB-Casting-Sadlers-Wells-March-7-10-2024-NEW.pdf). I attach the PDF. NYCB-Casting-Sadlers-Wells-March-7-10-2024-NEW.pdf

If you have a spare seating ticket… let me know! Tx

Lucky you! I wanted to have been there, but wasn't...

Well, you are not alone: I also found it an entrancing, memorable production. Still do!

Did you take a pic? Would love to see the three of them together in the street! I saw Campbell leaving and it was rather bathetic - he went on as if it were just another day at the office. Fun!

Rob S, those are SUPER pics!! Like everybody who has commented above, this matinee was truly wonderful. I was spellbound. Manon/Osipova was memorable in her strong vulnerability (!), her expressiveness, her utter abandon in dancing. Great partnership with the elegantly romantic des Grieux/Clarke, and I definitely thought that the casting of Lascaut/Campbell next to the tall Clarke was inspired. L's lover/Magri got my attention fully. I also loved the gaoler, although he wasn't as disgusting as other interpretations (eg Thomas Whitehead's). Brilliant day at the House.

Yes, do! I went to the dress rehearsal and was totally caught up in the music and drama. Excellent production - you did not need to read any programme to understand the reasons behind scene etc decisions. Totally illuminating the work, I thought. The acting superb and also the singing was tremendous although I thought that Nina S was not giving her all vocally (totally understandable in a rehearsal, I think) but then she has been taken ill... on the strength of that I bought a ticket for Thursday and I again found it tremendous although as I was sitting up in the amphitheatre I was less involved. Sara Jakubiat was wonderful as the sister in both performances I saw. Love her voice. I didn't know her at all. Auryne Stundite was most convincing but I really loved Nina Stemme. The orchestra was wonderful. I think that Pappano is perfectly good in Strauss's operas. I totally recommend you get a ticket!!

Yes please! Both DM’ing you

It must be SO tiring... and to keep so still from the torso up... with the particularly paced movements... would love to see moves with short skirts... thank you so much, Sim, for posting.

this is very true, I think. In posts of this responsibility and overarching complexity, I think that some continuity is important to make a real impact eg commissioning of new works, nurturing of dancers etc - but the post also needs to be scrutinised regularly in-house and from the outside, as Emeralds does above. I think some of the runs of the classics are too long, even if I enjoyed them! would like to see even more variety of old works and new arrivals.