Shakespeare Live!

[bridiem]

I wasn't comparing only the two performances you suggest, I was talking generally. I have seen Nagdhi in a number of full length performances inc. R&J and she is a beautiful dancer but I was just expressing my bemusement that she attracts so much hyperbole (even for a 5 min turn on stage) on here when there are other soloists who are just as good, perhaps better, who barely attract a whisper.

 

Clearly a lot of people think that Nagdhi is not just beautiful but also exceptional (a view to which they are entitled). Many other dancers also get praised, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

[Scheherezade]

I liked most of it, apart from Rufus Wainwright (poor diction) ...

Oh Trog, how could you! He may be a mumbler but no-one - just no-one - mumbles quite so divinely!

[Nina G.]

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Edited April 25, 2016 by Nina G.

[Nina G.]

Clearly a lot of people think that Nagdhi is not just beautiful but also exceptional (a view to which they are entitled). Many other dancers also get praised, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

 

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/a-new-dance-in-which-race-definitely-matters-ballet-blacks-triple-bill-reviewed/

 

 

That's what the Ballet critic Ismene Brown said so too about Miss Naghdi (in her second last paragraph), it's not only us the audience! As DaveM said, many of us who have seen her debut as Juliet just relived her amazing performance, that's all. We only got to see her in 1 Matinee and many appreciated the opportunity, including myself, to seeing her again, albeit 5 minutes on a very cramped stage, having to adjust her steps and ensuring she didn't fall into the audience 

[Jan McNulty]

Does anyone know the approximate timings for the RB and BRB segments so I can have a quick peep before I watch the whole thing?

[Jan McNulty]

Just found and enjoyed the two ballet segments, around 18 minutes in for RB and 1hr20 minutes in for BRB.

 

I thought both pairs did remarkably well on such a tiny stage.  I thought the Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra did very well but didn't pack nearly as hefty a punch as the bands used by BRB in the past.

[Coated]

When the company premiered this work they were accompanied by a fantastic jazz band called Echoes of Ellington. That first night when the band played through both intervals is one of my favourite BRB memories ever. More recently the Colin Towns Orchestra has played this score. To my knowledge it has never been played by the Royal Ballet Sinfornia.

I was trying to delicately imply that the orchestra playing for the Otello piece was perhaps not on best form that night

Edited April 25, 2016 by Coated

[Two Pigeons]

Just found and enjoyed the two ballet segments, around 18 minutes in for RB and 1hr20 minutes in for BRB.

 

I thought both pairs did remarkably well on such a tiny stage.  I thought the Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra did very well but didn't pack nearly as hefty a punch as the bands used by BRB in the past.

I agree, and I think they took the Such Sweet Thunder piece more slowly than we are used to.

[Anna C]

I liked most of it, apart from Rufus Wainwright (poor diction), The Shires (why does Crissie Rhodes think she needs to sing with an American accent?) and the hip-hop Shakespeare (I hate bastardisation). Loved the Hamlets, and ending and of course, the ballet (even though I don't especially like R&J).

I'm watching it in dribs and drabs - I like the Shires! So far I've had mixed feelings; really liked the girl playing Maria in the opening number, but thought the rest of the students were so-so. Adored Yasmine and Matthew's dancing and acting and thought they did beautifully on such a small stage. Very good camera work, too. Just hope to goodness that Kevin O'Hare casts them as Romeo and Juliet again soon as I will be first in the (virtual) queue to see them. Beautiful.

 

Hated the hip-hop and I thought the spoken performance of R&J was bizarre. The chap playing Romeo was ok but Juliet was shouty, sounded occasionally a bit squiffy, and I kept expecting her to break into full Sybil Fawlty and say "Oh, I know....". Really odd performance.

 

I've just reached Dame Judi's bit - fabulous, as expected.

[loveclassics]

Odd one out, it seems.  I turned off after half an hour - hated it, other than the R&J extract.  But it sounds as if I missed the best bits as a result!

 You're not alone - I did the same!   I saw my first Shakespeare play more than 50 years ago and have loved so many different versions over the years but I thought it a pretty poor show: dumbing down at its worst.  But I have recorded the whole programme so will skim through it later for the highlights.  BBC4's Arena 'All the World's a Screen' about the films based on the plays, is IMHO so much better and vastly more professional.

 

Thank heavens for the ballet excerpt - strange that a text-based art form should translate so well to movement.

 

Linda