Yaffa

8 minutes ago, Beryl H said:

Oh dear, just read The Times 2 star review!

The Telegraph reviewer also doesn't seem too impressed, and says that "a swishy roundhouse kick or two aside, Polunin’s Count Andrenyi doesn’t count for much."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/murder-orient-express-review-star-studded-frustratingly-pedestrian/ 

Nice to see that Oscar Frame's details are now on the Bolshoi website. The bio is only in the Russian version

https://www.bolshoi.ru/persons/ballet/111111/

Google Translate does a reasonable job, though it gives him some interesting roles in the "Pa de de" in Sleeping Beauty and the "Grand Pa" in Nutcracker. Wishing him all the best...

15 minutes ago, taxi4ballet said:

Clearing out the freezer in readiness for the pre-Christmas stock-up is resulting in some rather peculiar meals chez Taxi. There are too many random frozen individual leftover portions to make an actual family meal, and it's now getting silly.

 

Tonight we have had to endure a combination of Chinese curry and egg fried rice, meatballs in onion gravy, potato and leek gratin, naan bread and lasagne. And cabbage.

 

Tomorrow will be another adventure...

Sounds very tasty. Random leftovers?... or Taxi's Transcultural Tapas?

What is the norm in Russia? From watching Russian ballet performances online, I don't recall hearing anything other than 'Bravo.' The fascinating/spooky 2013 NY Times article on claquers  (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/arts/dance/designated-cheering-spectators-thrive-at-the-bolshoi-theater.html) mentions them shouting 'Bravo' after a pas de deux. 

10 minutes ago, Don Q Fan said:

Oh you do hear Bravi, I was watching ballet last week with a fellow bco-er who used Bravi but it is less common to hear it than Bravo. 

Interesting -  Do you think she would have used 'Brava' for a female solo... and 'Brave' for Beatriz Stix-Brunell's and Yasmine Naghdi's duet?

I only recall using the term myself when I was babysitting for a (female) toddler who was making her first steps.  I'm afraid she got a 'Bravo' from me. 

I just saw at  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/the-big-question/9922375/An-etiquette-guide-to-ballet-and-opera-for-beginners.html :

3. If you are tempted to join in the chorus of praise remember that opera and ballet lovers like getting their Italian gender endings correct. So: “brava!” for a woman, “bravo!” for man and “bravi!” for everyone....

and I read elsewhere that the feminine plural form is "brave."

A balletcoforum.com search gave several result for Bravi...   I very rarely get to see live performances but I don't recall hearing anything except 'Bravo' in the UK... or was I not listening properly?

10 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

The girls were doing gymnastic exercises; the boys were doing ballet exercises.  IIRC

Not sure about this distinction... The girls' teacher indeed mentioned 'gymnastics,' but both the girls and the boys seem to be doing stretching exercises etc. on the floor. I've seen a lot of Vaganova Academy videos of girls starting their day with this type of work on mats. Do the boys not use them?

The first year Bolshoi girls are using mats for their floor exercises but there are no mats for the boys. Is this usual? 

15 hours ago, Amelia said:

The Bolshoi's official website is showing:  http://media.bolshoi.ru/play/

World Ballet Day 2017

«Le Corsaire» ballet live (trailer)

Bolshoi Ballet in cinema 2017-18 (trailer)

VK Live: Interview with Artem Ovcharenko

Green Room - Lyudmila Semenyaka

If you log in at the above link http://media.bolshoi.ru/play/ you can watch the whole 5 hours of footage from the Bolshoi, starting with the very interesting children's classes.

I'm curious about how World Ballet Day is coordinated.  It was a great idea to have a single site with the basic information of what's where and how to access it in real time and afterwards. But apart from displaying the live broadcast, the official site of the World Ballet Day at http://worldballetday.com/ doesn't seem to have been updated since before the day started, when the information given was quite inadequate. I do hope they will address this next year.

A few rough notes from some material I'm preparing on this topic:

- A useful initial resource (along with local newspapear ads) is moneysavingexpert.com. Start with their Restaurant special deals: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/cheap-restaurant-deals. Also look at the rest of their site e.g. for discounts at supermarkets and for other ways to save on cafe spending (e.g. cashback, loyalty and student cards).  
 

- You can also Google "[name/type of place] [location] [month, year] coupon" for special deals including Groupon etc. deals and apps.  Just be careful when going to unknown sites for coupons: Many coupons are in fact out of date or fake, and some 'coupon' sites contain malware.  If in doubt, call the cafe to check which deals they accept. I'd suggest checking that a coupon is valid BEFORE you place you order - It's not much fun to be half way through eating a delicious 'free' fancy cake only to glance at your smartphone and find that the cafe only takes printed coupons, or that the coupon is valid only on weekdays or at a different branch of the chain...

- There are some interesting substitutes for traditional cafes - e.g. the Virgin Money Lounge (Sarah, they have one in Glasgow - see https://uk.virginmoney.com/virgin/store-finder/99.jsp ). It's free to use if you set up a simple account with them (Last I checked, you could set up just a £1 savings account).
  

-  There are also services that let you buy surplus restaurant food at huge discounts  e.g. Too Good To Go http://toogoodtogo.co.uk/ Sarah, I believe they also operate in Glasgow.

6 minutes ago, alison said:

Just been on the phone to my building society this morning: went through the security checks, gave my address: "Perfect!"  Gave my date of birth: "Perfect!"  Of course it's perfect - I've had it for the past xx years!  Does anyone else get annoyed by the increasing use of "perfect" as a response to just about anything by certain people in call centres and so on?

Funny you should mention this. Just a few days ago a lady reported calling her travel insurance company about a theft. She was asked to describe what had happened and said that the thief had whizzed past her on a motorbike, slashed the handle on her handbag, grabbed it and sped off into the distance, splashing her with water from a puddle.' 'Perfect!' was the reply... 

I really enjoyed the lengthy video of the Bolshoi Academy's first year classes - Most YouTube videos of younger Russian students (particularly at Vaganova) are of annual exams, so you don't usually get to see so much of the teachers' corrections... Of course almost all the students have great extensions, but it was very refreshing (though not surprising) to see such strong focus on placement and port de bras, rather than tricks. And no pointe shoes in sight - Actually I'm not sure if the first year girls at Bolshoi do any pointe work in their first month at the Academy.

Interesting that many of the students plan to be principals and millionaires by the time they are 20...
 

2 minutes ago, Fiz said:

My husband is gutted because he doesn’t do Facebook and there’s no way to share it. I am loving the Bolshoi class teacher. He’s amazing. 

Not sure if I understood the problem but you can access the live stream without Facebook e.g. at  http://worldballetday.com/

Mods, should we continue the discussions here or in a new thread in Performance Seen?

Some good news: There's a comment response on the ROH site saying: 

Regarding the schedule, we are a working theatre and as a result, sometimes rehearsal schedules have to be changed. If you miss any of the broadcast, it will be available for 30 days following the stream.

Not sure if this applies to the whole day's activities or just the RB part.

I do appreciate that these are live broadcasts and subject to change... But it's a pity that we always have a last minute struggle to find out about scheduling and rebroadcasting. It would be really helpful if the organisers could undertake to put online at least a tentative schedule (and maybe a link to a time zone converter) at least a week in advance, and to give a clearer picture (and updates) about what will NOT be available in full after the live broadcast. Saying that 'highlights' will be available afterwards is not much use for folks like myself who would like to know, for example, whether we'll be able to see the entire broadcast RB class afterwards or not.... End of annual rant 

7 hours ago, alison said:

Thanks for reminding us, Jan.  I'd totally forgotten that it was arriving that fast.  And drat, I have a lot of work to do that day

Really looking forward to this - though frustrating that it's again hard to find clear about info about what will be available afterwards. 

Just watched an interview with Vogue Russia (with subtitles), in which he talks about his attraction to the cinema, and his other plans:

The Vaganova Academy just uploaded a video showing the preparations for the 2017 graduating boys' class.  Looks very interesting even though I don't understand what Tsiskaridze is saying... Here's the link:

I was just asked which types of pointe shoe padding might protect toes in high heeled shoes which apparently fit well but tend to rub/pinch. My first thought would to get rid of the high heeled shoes, but apparently that is not an option....

The Academy put online a short video of Tsiskaridze with his new class. (Not sure why a girl is also there...). See https://vk.com/video-83893407_456239137

This sounds more like an accidental deletion of the BallecoForum icon in your own list of frequently viewed sites, rather than something more general. (The BalletcoForum icon appears as normal in my own list of most frequently visited sites.)

Below the icons of the most frequently visited sites, do you see an option to undo the deletion? If not, then try clicking the X at the top right of a different icon to delete it, then you should see an option to 'restore all'  Does the Ballecoforum icon now appear?

The Melmoth blog has a very interesting interview with Oscar Frame.

https://melmoth.co/2017/09/10/qa-with-oscar-frame/

Congrats again...

6 hours ago, alison said:

Part of the Imagine series, no less ...

 

There was also an article about her in Saturday's Daily Telegraph magazine.

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/meet-prodigy-alma-deutscher-12-year-old-opera/  Interesting piece, but a pity about the title - comparing Alma to Mozart, while explaining why she and her family don't like the comparison.

On Monday (4th September) at 10:45 p.m.,  BBC1 will be airing a documentary about the preparations and performance of CInderella. See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b094m4f4

Alma Deutscher continues to compose other beautiful pieces. Here's a clip of her practising her new piano concerto, which had its premiere in Austria last month. Really looking forward  to hearing the complete version...

When an airline's luggage policy isn't clear, I usually try to email them and get something in writing, rather than just calling their helpline and speaking to whoever happens to be on duty. When you're at the check-in desk, you're really at the mercy of the staff there, regardless of what Sarah from their helpline told you over the phone the week before.