annamicro

Lady Capulet wears pointe shoes also in Neumeier's Romeo and Juliet. One of my favourite moments of that version is the mirrored pdd between Lady and Lord Capulet and Juliet and Paris in the girl room. Lady Capulet detachment and Juliet distress during that pdd make evident that the daughter is not just fighting for her adolescent love but also refusing the role model proposed by the mother and imposed by social convenience. The young rebel seeking for freedom and independence is one of my favourite among the many Juliets of Alina Cojocaru and I am very curious to see what her cooperation with Johan Kobborg will generate: after many performances in already existing "Juliets" (I saw her in the six other version she danced - McMillan, Lavrovsky, Moricone, Neumeier, Deane, Nureyev) she has finally the opportunity not only to find and add new nuances to the role but to unleash her imagination from the very first moments of the creative process.

They are mainly in the Intagram "stories" (both Tamara and ENB) but also one on Cojocaru account that I think is public.

Ticket no longer available Thank you Anns

Hi, I am selling: Balcony Standing D33 £8 for Firebird matinee on 7 june. I'll be at the perfomance. Plase send a message if interested. Thank you Anna

Ticket no more available, thank you. Anna

Hi, I am selling: Lower Slips 4A, A-27 £13 for Firebird matinee on 7 june. Plase send a message if interested. Thank you Anna

Hi Bill, I am interested in Stalls Circle D50 - (Standing) - £8 Anna

Hi Sim, I am interested in D33. Thank you Anna

A charity auction has just been launched by Hospice of Hope: they offer 4 tickets for ENB Manonwith Alina Cojocaru on January 20th, with the possibility to meet Alina when collecting tickets. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alina-Cojocaru-Ballet-4-Tickets-Meet-Alina-when-collecting-tickets-/123588542451?pageci=8c953b95-2bec-4dbb-a35b-a2ca691d9ccd

the partnership worked well: Alina is Alina and Cirio was by far the most interesting Siegfried of Bristol run so far (I have not seen Caley that is dancing today matinee). He is a good dancer with personality and empathy and can act: he definitely confirmed the good impression I had from his Lescaut and also Des Grieux (he was my favourite in the first solo adagio)

To be accurate, Alina Cojocaru become principal on April 17th 2001, after her second Giselle. The first was on April 14th, as you can see in the Royal Opera House performance database http://www.rohcollections.org.uk/SearchResults.aspx?searchtype=workprodperf&title=Giselle&person=Alina cojocaru&keyword=Giselle

I've been thinking for a while that in my previous rant about Hamburg I spoke just of the men, better to not start now with the other side of the moon...😁😱😱😱

Salvatore Scalzo works at the Royal Opera House and is a long time friend of some dancers, I don't think he has any agent activity with them.

Well, I love your enthusiasm but to say that Bellussi is heavily featured seems quite an excess 🙂 : he is one of 4 men in the second part and one of the 4 porteurs in the rose adagio... He has a wonderful lyrical soul and is fantastic when he can show it out; in the Kameliendame he was cast as Gaston and Des Grieux, probably to push him to try other ways to express himself: in the first role he made the character more elegant and delicate than usual, in my opinion successfully, in the second he was good but I think he should push his dancing a little more...maybe it was just the comparison with Sascha Riabko, seen in other shows: Riabko brought the role of De Grieux to a level I could have never imagined...a small consolation for not having him cast as Armand...nor as The King in Illusions, nor in The Seagull, nor as DQ first cast as requested by Legris (he was not cast at all, and Legris loosed also his "second", the ebullient Azatyan, for an injury and had just Trusch...) and so on, with the exception of Nijisnky. Returning to Bellussi: I hope to see him being cast more often in leading roles and I'm looking forward seeing him grow on stage as he can do. In a recent past he was particularly fine as Luciano Nicastro in Duse (giving a sense to the role that looked quite odd in the first cast...) and wonderful in the second abstract part of Duse. I'm sorry to not see Aleix Martinez, one of the more interesting dancer of the company (and the leading dancer in Beethoven-Projekt, that premiered few days ago - I have not seen it), apparently not cast at all. The one heavily featured is Trusch: an unelegant and ordinary dancer in my opinion, with a good technique but not style, and a bad actor. Unfortunately he will be cast again with Alina Cojocaru: he proved not only to be too short for her (short arms and small dancing...) but was also able to annihilate her artistry in Die Kameliendame and not for the first time (they were ok in Romeo and Juliet - quite obvious considering that the other I've seen with her was Revazov - but definitely not adequate in the bad Neumeier version of Giselle... to see Cojocaru dancing the Skeaping one with Hernandez was as to see a resurrection and I was so relieved, even if many others thought she was not up to her usual standard...just imagine in the other context!). As Angela was pointing out in another thread, Hamburg is not the company it was 10 years ago and seems going down by the minute: major coaching problems are reported (Kevin Haigen is rarely present) and to have a decent Armand from the last run, I have to think to Artem Ovcharenko, guesting from the Bolshoi (he danced two excellent shows with Cojocaru, and 3 even better Seagull with her - of these 3 I saw just the first). The three "Armands" of the company (the dull Revazon, the truly awful Trusch, and the surprising better than expected Evans - the only one looking really in love for his Marguerite...a Smirnova good in the first act but completely absent in the other two) were so modest that the spreading theory that Riabko is not cast in almost anything because clearly head and shoulder (and waist..) above the other technically and artistically gains consent (age cannot be an issue: the stiff and modest Jung is older than him and has been cast much more then Riabko in the past few years). The real best of Kameliendame run were Silvia Azzoni and Sascha Riabko as Manon and Des Grieux; she is absolutely fantastic especially when dancing with Cojocaru: an incredible "partnership"! You can really feel the tension in some parts and the continuous exchange of emotions between the two...in the pdt these three wonderful dancers and actors made me cry (... in the shows with Ovcharenko, the two Trush ones were so compromised couldn't be saved) Regarding the Gala I see that Neumeier's imagination is really at a minimal point: Smirnova and Chudin have already danced Jewels in 2014 (I'm sure their repertory is quite wide). The same happened with Cojocaru: she danced Le Corsaire in 2014 with Yonah Acosta and 2016 with Hernan Cornejo...little imagination here too but at least a change of cast (Cornejo is a fantastic dancer, but I preferred Acosta as Alì). The gala costs the double than a season show and is usually gorgeous and looong (also for the introduction to the pieces by Neumeier, in German...I understand a little bit), but not always I felt I was changed enough: at least an effort to show only new things from the guests should be made, I think.

Joint awards are quite common: Tamara Rojo herself won it joint to Silvia Azzoni in one of the few occasions when the prize was given to two really outstanding artists. Unfortunately in too many editions I had the suspect that the prize has become an exchange of favours between directors (two of them especially) and I have lost most of my interest in it. An addtion: Hernandez was primarily nominated for his Don Q with Opera di Roma, whose director was in the jury too. This company has had very unexpected nominations in the last few years.