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Fabulous insight event (“Ballet Talk”) this morning about the forthcoming premiere of Mayerling with Stuttgart Ballet. Tamas Detrich spoke about why he chose to add Mayerling to the repertoire in Stuttgart – he’d seen the work performed by the Stanislavsky Ballet and was “blown away” by it, thought that the dramatic narrative would work well in Stuttgart with its history of three-act story ballets by John Cranko, and had been looking to get Juergen Rose involved. Gerald Dowler talked about the creation of the work for the Royal Ballet in 1978 and its reception – in London and elsewhere - over time as well as about recurring focus areas in Kenneth MacMillan’s works. This was really useful to refresh my memory since I last saw Mayerling at the ROH but more importantly his description of MacMillan’s choreographic style made me think that I should really really really really go for a ticket for Mayerling as vivid images came to mind from a number of scenes throughout the ballet. I was probably sitting there with a permanent grin on my face throughout the event. Mikhail Agrest, guest conductor with Stuttgart Ballet, described Lanchbery’s choice of music by Franz Liszt for Mayerling - theatrical, romantic, sweeping, music with a Hungarian touch, and he referred to a piece that Franz Liszt had written for Empress Elisabeth. Juergen Rose gave a humorous account of how he needed convincing that he should take on the costume & set design for Mayerling and highlighted how instrumental Marcia Haydee was in ultimately achieving this. Equally entertaining was his description of the challenges that he encountered and the solutions that he identified with regards to the sourcing of the set as well as of the fabric for the costumes. So the carriage that they located in Styria is from the 1880s, and the furniture that they unearthed in an antiquity shop near Munich is from that time period, too. As for the costumes, he went with different colours for different roles so as to facilitate the identification of who is who within the ballet. The costume designs for the hunt scene in Act 3 have been inspired by pictures of Emperor Franz Joseph in lederhosen, and so some dancers wear lederhosen during that scene. Tamas Detrich confirmed that there’ll be further performances of Mayerling next season. There is also an insight event planned for the end of the current season which will deal specifically with Rose’s costumes. Rehearsal pictures on the company’s web site https://www.stuttgart-ballet.de/schedule/a-z/mayerling/

Well, it will soon be time for my Mayerling fix (!) and I have tickets for all three Watsons. But I would like to see somebody else and seem to remember forum members raving about Bonelli and Morera. Am I right? Oh, and does anyone know if Ed Watson is fit again??????????

Back from thrilling performance of Mayerling. Hirano’s Rudolf was exceptionally moving; I find him a naturally reserved dancer but with depth, dignity and intelligence to his acting, and his portrayal was all the more interesting for this. He started quietly, but we gradually saw the huge internal pressure that would in the end blow this person apart. He was more princely than most Rudolfs: a tall, handsome and authoritative figure, but marred by the pain and confusion that would bring about his downfall. His good looks turning into vanity, his authority twisting into cruelty, and his anguish taking his own breath away so that he constantly struggled to loosen his collar, to find air, to escape. With Stephanie, he exercised control in the only area in which this was possible for him, at the expense of his new young wife; with Larisch, he allowed himself to be manipulated; with his mother: the pain of absence; and finally, with Mary Vetsera, abandon. And this fine young man stared out at us, slumped in physical and psychological pain, a wreck of the self he could have been. Mary and he both found a kind of joy in their final union and its fatal consummation – grim and terrible for us to witness, but for them, a form of release. As so often with Mayerling, you could have heard a pin drop during the final act. A wonderful performance by Hirano, aided and abetted by Osipova’s superbly abandoned Mary and performances of huge commitment from the rest of the cast. Brilliant.

For sale: Mayerling Sat 13 Oct 7pm, Upper Amphitheater P-55, 20£ This is an e-ticket. Payment of £20 by PayPal please - I will email details to you following contact via PM here.

Looking for a ticket for Monday morning’s rehearsal if anyone is looking to sell one. Thank you.

Anyone else can't wait till Friday? I am so excited.

Foteini Christofilopoulou was at the dress rehearsal of the opening night cast (opens on 28th April). Here are a few photos: Francesca Hayward, Edward Watson © Foteini Christofilopoulou. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Sarah Lamb, Zenaida Yanowsky © Foteini Christofilopoulou. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Edward Watson, Natalia Osipova © Foteini Christofilopoulou. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr See more... Set from DanceTabs - RB: Mayerling Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr By kind permission of the Royal Opera House

3 tickets for sale on the front row of Balcony right. MAYERLING Satyrday 29th April Soares/ Cuthbertson 7pm Main Stage Balcony Right A74, A75, A76 face value £36 but will accept £25 per ticket if all 3 are taken. If just 2 are taken £60 for the pair. if interested please PM me by Wednesday. Many thanks

I have a pair of amphitheatre tickets available for this date - happy to sell as a pair or individual tickets and can send out by post. Mayerling, 7.15pm Thursday 4th May Cuthbertson/Soares Amphitheatre Left E47 and E48 £61 each face value Please PM me if interested

Later on today sees the start of an extended run (over 2 booking periods) of the Royal Ballet's Mayerling. Thoughts and comments here, please.

I only recently read that Mayerling was originally to have been created on Anthony Dowell, but I think he was injured or something, so it fell to David Wall instead. Tonight I found myself wondering how different the ballet would have been if it had been created on Dowell - I can't quite imagine it, somehow. Did any of our longer-standing readers actually see him dance the role?

Here is the link to the list of big screens across the country which will be showing the live transmission of Mayerling on 13th June (already sold out): http://www.roh.org.uk/about/bp-big-screens The link also contains details of the Royal Opera performances of Tosca and La Rondine.