Don Q Fan

A week since I saw Yasmine Naghdi and Federico Bonelli's super performances as Tatiana and Onegin.  The music is still going around in my head.  The show was lovely and I enjoyed Anna Rose O'Sullivan and Joseph Sissens very much as O&L.  Onegin is clearly a ballet that gives the dancers so much and we as the mere viewers are very lucky indeed to be able to watch them.  Every single dancer at stage door said how much they love this ballet.  I'm pleased to see Onegin will be on again in Amsterdam next season too.

A few pics from last Friday.

Ensemble

Naghdi/Bonelli

O'Sullivan/Sissens

O'Sullivan/Sissens/Naghdi/Bonelli

I have some curtain call pics from the Saturday matinee - I enjoyed most of the programme and especially loved Les Lutins and M&A.  Frola was great and Alina was...Alina! Great to see Johann and Alina dancing together as well. 

Sorry not great quality - the first half bows.

Alina and Francesco 

Alina

Conductor/Johann Kobbaorg/Alina/Frola/Marriot after M&A

Thanks to the ticket offers posted on the Special Offers forum I got a 40% ticket for the matinee I used the Lastminute offer as I could pick my own seat with them, I could not with the other slightly cheaper offer, however for £5 more I picked my own front row seat!  Hoping M&A is good and that Frola is dancing as I really like him as well as Alina!  Thank you to all who posted the offer links much appreciated as I was in London anyway for Onegin on Friday, not often that happens for me.

Thank you for posting these offers, I just booked but I used the Lastminute offer as I could pick my own seat it was only £5 more but worth it as I got a front row 2nd circle seat!  Looking forward to see M&A.

I went a few years ago it was very good but the day I went on was not particularly ballet themed but was costumed themed, it was ok.  I would have liked to have seen much more in the way of ballet costumes but the place was fairly new so hadn't got that organised yet.  We toured the buildings and saw some of the scenery for Frankenstein being painted and then there was a workshop making costumes for some of the characters in the ballet.  We got to try on some out of copyright opera costumes as well.

I stayed in a Premier Inn nearby because I'm not local, but I made the mistake of walking (as bus had gone) from the station to the hotel only I took a wrong turn and ended up walking miles out of the way along a pavement-less dual carriageway - very scary indeed and very lucky nothing untoward happened to me - never again though - it is a funny station as it's not really a town just comes out on a main road so to be safe book a taxi in advance to meet you off the train.  I was lucky a kind lady (who is now  a ballet friend) on the tour gave me a lift back to the station after the tour at Thurrock.

Loads of tickets remaining for this for the matinee - wonder if there are any offers? 

That Balanchine programme looks great.

Would have liked to see this but wow its EXPENSIVE...so that is ruled out for me.

Why don't they appoint one of the senior dancers like Kaniskin he has his fingers in many pies and might be good as assistant to Waltz? 

9 hours ago, MJW said:

 

Terrific pictures - so much better than mine - it looked as though the London fog had suddenly descended into the auditorium! Did you use a camera or a phone? 

Thank you so much, Canon Bridge on zoom!

On 19/01/2020 at 15:13, Balletfanp said:

I’ve seen Susan Hampshire there on several occasions so she is obviously a balletomane. I almost bumped smack into Derek Jacobi once whilst dashing to my seat - he was there for the Winter’s Tale 🙂. I would have loved to know what he thought of it!

 

Sorry, derailing the Onegin thread...  

I've met Susan Hampshire there too - I plucked up the courage to speak to her one she was lovely!

Friday Nights gala was nothing short of fabulous.  Really enjoyed the show - ENB are very adept at doing these films intertwined with the show (Agnes Oaks retirement gala)  my only gripe is that I would have liked a bit more light in places as some pieces were quite dark to see.  Talking of Agnes Oaks she was guest as I saw her in the cloakroom and someone I spoke to had a seen Vadim as well.  I did see Alina Cojacaru in the curtain call such a pity she was not able to dance. I really hope ENB do more birthday galas in future I will just about still be here for the 100th!  Francesco G Frola was amazing in everything but especially those leaps in Etudes and I really enjoyed Jo Caley as well in La Sylphide and Brooklyn Mack in Coppelia.  Shiori Kase is a delight  and I loved Precious Adams' solo in Who Cares.  What a rich variety of rep we were treated to.  

Some photos from the curtain call.

Etudes finale

I have seen the phone in other theatres too most notably La Fenice in Venice as one!  It is a microphone I believe.

Yesterday afternoon's matinee was a lovely show and I thoroughly enjoyed it, special mention to the corps for those 2 great run/leaps across the stage in Act1 that is one of my all time favourite "ballet moments"!   Soares and Mendizabal were great and I agree with the comment above about those fantastic lifts and whipped spins/turns in the bedroom PDD they were so fast!  Hinkis and Donnelly both made their debuts and very accomplished they were too.  At the stage door every dancer said how they really love this ballet - it really does "have it all".  Oh and when asked why Vadim isn't dancing, KOH said it was "his choice" at stage door.  Interesting.

Some photos from the matinee yesterday afternoon:-

Ensemble

Mendizabal and Soares solo curtain call (still in character)

Mendizabal and Soares

Hinkis and Donnelly

How come "opening night" is tonight? Surely the opening show and #1 cast was the matinee I saw this afternoon? If not I feel that rather devalues the cast this afternoon. 

Thank you very much Northstar! I agree considering the length of the run they do well, although we saw them at the start of the tour, so whether it will be the same at the end who knows! Interesting what you say about the Russian Princess, you are right she rarely dances over here. I like that dance and I have to confess I missed the oboe/harp solo.  

Alison - I remembered when I went to bed that actually in Act1 there were some character artistes as courtiers to The Queen only about 4 though. 2 ladies and 2 cavaliers I think.  

26 minutes ago, maryrosesatonapin said:

I've booked to see this and their Sleeping Beauty too - how pretty Belonogova is!  I hope I get to see her.  Thank you for the write-up, @Don Q Fan

I really liked her so I hope you see her too.  They opened with SB last night but I didn't see that.

56 minutes ago, alison said:

Thank you for that, DQF.  Do they still have some rather unfit-looking men parading around in the first act? (My abiding memory of last time I saw them).

No I don't think there were any character type artists at all, in fact the company looked very slimmed down compared to previous years and certainly several soloists did 3 different roles each there were about 16 corps in Act 1 plus the 2 PD3 girls who danced with Siegfried.  18 swans tops.

I saw a very pleasant performance of Swan Lake this afternoon at the Liverpool Empire. I got tickets for my favourite seats at half price in the sale so for £17 inc fees I had a lovely afternoon!  The company now uses a projected back- screen instead of scenery and I thought this worked well, although the flying swans were a bit amateurish and distracting.  Anyone who knows the Liverpool Empire will know it has a pretty large stage, but somehow RSBS managed to make the stage look too small for them?!  I felt the dancers were a bit tight for space at times when all they needed to do was pull the red curtain type side drapes (see pic below) they had at the sides back into the wings a bit and they would have had another 2 meters to play with.  Or maybe they keep it tight so they dance to the same spec at every theatre seeing as they are touring to a large number of venues? 

Odette/Odile was very competently danced by Anastasiia Belonogova - she had very expressive arms and a rock solid technique when it came to the full set of fouettes and more in Act 3.  Her Prince Siegfried was danced by Francisco Gimenez and he was very nice, even if he did land rather heavily from his jumps.  Rothbart wasn't quite menacing enough for me but well enough danced by Egor Oskoin.  They have a Benno in this production and this was nicely danced by Marcello Pelizzoni.  I must single out the Act4 black swans for praise, my goodness they were SO precise in their moves and timing, dancing as one and when the "block" of dancers moved across the stage they kept their lines perfectly, not one put a foot wrong.  Dare I say they were as good as the Mariinsky for precision this afternoon, amazing to watch them.  In general all the swans kept very straight lines and moved pretty much together and the 4 cygnets did their dance really well.  I particularly enjoyed the Spanish Dance in Act 3 and Odile's fouettes were just fabulous she hardly moved off the spot and knocked them out at speed as the orchestra really played fast!  The ending to this Swan Lake is a bit sad as Siegfried jumps into the lake with Rothbart, leaving Odette all alone at the lakeside. Ahhh.  It was a pity that the house was not full but it is fuller this evening, however they got plenty of applause and, in true Russian style, really milked every last clap out of the audience throughout the show LOL!  The costumes were very pleasant and colourful and Odile's sparkling black tutu and red tiara were beautiful.

The orchestra was only small but played really nicely, and at times (Act 3) really fast, under the baton of Anatoliy  Chepurnoy who also had a sense of humour - he conducted the audience's applause when he came on at the start 🙂   His long frock coat had some black diamante on it which I thought was a nice touch!  I like that this production combines Acts 1 and 2 into one half and Acts 3 and 4 into the second half with only one interval so total run time was 2.20.  There are loads more performances in the Tour around the UK throughout this winter/spring so catch them if you can I would say.  A few curtain call pics.

Ensemble

Egor Osokin, Anastasiia Belonogova, Anatoliy Chepurnoy and Francisco Gimenez

Anastasiia Belonogova

Anastasiia Belonogova and Francisco Gimenez

I saw the matinee yesterday and absolutely loved it after wishing I had not got a ticket and dreading sitting through this lengthy show!  I was so pleasantly surprised and thought it was so good yesterday.  I really liked Gina Storm Jensen as Lilac and I thought the story telling yesterday was very good.  In several of the solos you could hear a pin drop - unheard of at ROH in my experience, very rare!  It transpires Marianela's parents were in the audience too so it must have been a special show for her.  Muntagirov and Nunez were just great together nothing to not like.  I was delighted to see Mayara Magri and Cesar Corrales dance together again  as the Bluebirds (fortuitous for me again that Hamilton as replaced by...Magri). The one and only dancer/artiste for Carabosse for me was the wonderful Elizabeth McGorian I was chuffed that she was cast.  We were treated to Gary Avis as the English Prince as well so that is always good!   A few pics from the curtain call:-

Ensemble

Gina Storm Jensen - Lilac, Cesar Corrales - Blue Bird, and Mayara Magri - Princess Florine

Ashley Dean & Tomas Mock Red Riding Hood/Wolf and Mica Bradbury & Kevin Emerton as White Cat/Puss In Boots

Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov

Elizabeth McGorian - Carabosse

Isabella Gasparini, David Donnelly and Mariko Sasaki  - Florestan and his sisters

I've seen people wearing HATS as well???? Yes I've often seen high buns or bouffant hair dos and thought no consideration for people behind. 

7 hours ago, Bruce Wall said:

 

I saw that the prices were £8 to £120 which (if memory serves) was only a little less than the Bolshoi.  (Certainly the cheapest standing room for that was £10.) 

 

I would imagine this programming is largely targeted to the tourist market at that time of year.  Myself, I will be glad to see the Nureyev SB again.  I did see Obratsova and Sarafanov in it with La Scala when they were here ... but before that it was back in the days of Nureyev, Veronica Tennant and Karen Kain with NBoC and that WAS a long time ago ... Heady times they were (or so my memory would like to serve).  

 

In terms of catching up with the Canadian company at least SB does also offer a lot of soloist and demi-soloist possibilities and gives you a chance to really evaluate the state of the corps work.  That may have been the Company's factor when in discussion with the Hochhauser Organisation. 

 

It would have been nice if, perhaps, they brought Neumeier's Nijinsky (especially with Frola) as they did in Paris.  That too has so many different dancing possibilities - but I'm sure such would have been seen (with I fear some justification) as being too commercially risky.  

 

We were indeed treated with that Nijinsky we saw in Paris with Frola and Lunkina. Pity they didn't bring it here but SB probably sells better to the masses as you say. 

Email from ROH today advised Lauren Cuthberson is replaced in all three shows (the 3 Soares shows) by Itziar Mendizabal. To be honest I felt I couldn't really see Lauren as Tatiana, but I'll be very interested to see Itziar's interpretation. 

I can't see a post about NBC on the spring casting thread 🤔

Could a link to the post be put in here to save hassle going to another thread? 

On 05/01/2020 at 18:57, LinMM said:

Those pics are terrific Don Q ....where do you stand to take them? And lovely  to see you yesterday but as usual not enough time for a proper chat. 

Lovely to catch you too albeit briefly!

Thank you re the pics, just from my balcony seat.