Jump to content

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 160
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

10 hours ago, MrsBBB said:

I’m rather hoping we’ll be spared a full length McGregor in 2020/21. 

 

I'm  looking forward to the Dante Project - McGregor's collaboration the Thomas Adès excites me - but, though I 'm OK with Margaret Atwood's novels I don't warm to the prospect of a McGregor work based on three of those novels. My problem is that, though Christopher Wheeldon is still listed as an Artistic Associate of the Royal Ballet, he is so involved with his other work around the globe that, apart for the occasional token short work, sadly I don't see him making any major commitment to the RB in the foreseeable future and, with the uncertainty surrounding Liam Scarlett's future, the choreographic base there is starting to look thin.

 

Like Mrs BBB above I would not want the future of the large scale narrative ballet at the RB to rest with McGregor alone. I don't know whether Cathy Marston's The Cellist heralds a continuing commitment to the RB but I hope so. After 24 years with the BRB I had been hoping that David Bintley might be persuaded to bring a new work  to the RB but I have heard nothing.

 

I am not aware of anything else in the pipeline and I'm looking forward to hearing what Kevin O'Hare has to say when next season's programme is announced: a full-length narrative ballet by Wheeldon, Marston or Bintley would really make my day!     

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 21/02/2020 at 17:02, RuthE said:

I heard somewhere - definitely not from any classified source - that the announcement is expected on 31st March.  No idea of the accuracy of this.

 

Have we heard any more about the announcement date? Even if tomorrow was true at one time, I'm thinking it might have been pushed back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

Have we heard any more about the announcement date? Even if tomorrow was true at one time, I'm thinking it might have been pushed back.

 

Surely there will be some changes of mind afoot at the moment? The announcement was supposed to be mid April, but..............!!!!!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that anyone anticipating that the season will resume any time soon is being wildly optimistic. In fact I think it quite likely that we shall be told in the not too distant future that the season is being abandoned. The shut down started last week and we shall not begin to see its beneficial effects for at least three or four weeks because of the time lag between controlling the sort of social interaction which makes high infection rates possible and reducing them by the closure of places of public entertainment and placing other restrictions on our behaviour . We also need to bear in mind that the rate of infection and the incidence of new cases of corona virus is only going fall if everyone, whatever their age, understands that we are all vulnerable to corona virus and complies with social distancing and limits the amount of interaction they have with others. However concerned politicians and others may be about the economic impact that the shut down is having on the economy as a whole and on individual businesses no one is going to authorise the reopening of theatres and other places of entertainment and social interaction until it is deemed safe to do so. I think that the Government will exercise considerable caution in authorising places of public entertainment to reopen because of the public health implications of doing so prematurely. The Government is likely to be very sensitive to how effectively it is perceived to have handled the easing of restrictions if only because it is vulnerable to the accusation that it failed to use the month or more it had between the Chinese announcement of the presence of a new virus in Wuhan and the first cases identified in this country. Time , it might profitably have used to buy essential equipment and plan its response to the arrival of the virus. As far as the ROH is concerned while it may be concerned about the age profile of its audience and anxious to find a new one I doubt that it is that keen on being identified as a hot spot of viral infection. Somehow I think that the powers that be at the ROH will be anxious to avoid the accusation that in their anxiety to recoup their losses they have exposed the more vulnerable members of their audience to the unnecessary risk of infection and managed to kill off a goodly proportion of them.

 

 Yesterday the Deputy Chief Medical Officer made it clear that the restrictions currently in place were unlikely to be lifted for at least thirteen weeks and that it might be necessary to keep them in place far longer. By my calculation the initial thirteen weeks takes us to early June and given the fact that dancers and orchestral musicians are unlikely to be able to able to resume their collective activities until non essential workers are able to return to work I don't see how the season can resume. I understand that Glyndebourne has abandoned the first part of its season and anticipates at best only being able to perform one or two of the operas which were scheduled towards the end of its 2020 season. Now if I am right about how the Royal Ballet's season is likely to end that means that Kevin is going to need to think very hard about the 2020- 2021 season not simply because of the loss of revenue which cancelling the rest of the 2019-20 season will entail but the number of dancers who had anticipated making their debut in a leading role in Swan Lake who will end the season without having achieved that significant milestone in their careers. I suspect that whatever he intended to stage next season  Kevin will be "advised" that in order to plug the hole in the company's finances caused by the disruption of the current season he should stage works which are guaranteed to attract an audience rather than works which require cheap tickets to get an audience into the theatre.

 

I shall be really surprised if we get much of the retrospective season celebrating the company's new found creativity that was on the cards for the 2020-2021 season at one time. The loss of revenue caused by this season's closure will be one factor influencing any revisions that are made but the decision to sever ties with Scarlett will be another. Alice and The Winter's Tale may well have been planned for the forthcoming season and no doubt they will retain their place on the season's bill of fare but I can't see much else created since 2012 being programmed. I think that the need to rewrite next year's schedule may well be one of the reasons for the terse statement about cutting ties with Scarlett. I think it more than likely that Kevin will programme  a rather more popular season for 2020-2021 than he originally intended and that it will probably include a production of Swan  Lake which will enable all those dancers who were due to make their debuts this season to do so without undue delay. Given the cost involved in staging a new production it will almost certainly use Macfarlane's designs and a far more authentic text than we have seen this season. I for one will not mourn the loss of Scarlett's ill-conceived version of the ballet with a dumb show which reduces the impact of Odettes first entrance and renders her mime sequence redundant ; contains MacMillan style filler choreography; superfluous princesses providing a floor show in acts 1 and 3; a Spanish dance that would not be out of place in a third rate night club on the Costa del Sol and a dire fourth act which sees only Odette die.

 

I think that the ballet season when announced will prove to be far more "popular" than originally intended. However that does not mean that it can't be artistically satisfying. Perhaps Kevin will come to see that if he is to restore the hole in the company's finances then he needs to programme works which people will be prepared to pay to see rather than works which require reduced prices or the occasional papered house to get anywhere near securing a decent average attendance, Perhaps a retrospective of the company's twentieth century classics rather than works created since 2012 is what is really required ? It is unlikely to be controversial given the number of major works in the company's back catalogue which have not been seen in years.  

  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, FLOSS said:

 I suspect that whatever he intended to stage next season  Kevin will be "advised" that in order to plug the hole in the company's finances caused by the disruption of the current season

 

Not only that, but the unexpectedly poor ticket sales for 2019, too ... :( 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I suspect that all adventurous plans will be scaled back, and the big workhorses (at premium ticket prices) will be brought into service to bolster the coffers. So probably plenty of Tchaikovsky and R&J, your Bayaderes and the like. Can't say I'd blame them

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fully agree with Floss both about the likelihood of this season resuming and the likely impact on next season. (My comment above, and I imagine that of Rob S, was of course a tongue in cheek reflection on the truncation of another highly significant season rather than a real comment on that of the RB. And I still hope that that other season will be finished when possible. Liverpool champions and a revised/restored SL at the ROH - now that would be a thing.)

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 30/03/2020 at 22:31, FLOSS said:

a production of Swan  Lake which will enable all those dancers who were due to make their debuts this season to do so without undue delay. Given the cost involved in staging a new production it will almost certainly use Macfarlane's designs and a far more authentic text than we have seen this season. I for one will not mourn the loss of Scarlett's ill-conceived version of the ballet with a dumb show which reduces the impact of Odettes first entrance and renders her mime sequence redundant ; contains MacMillan style filler choreography; superfluous princesses providing a floor show in acts 1 and 3; a Spanish dance that would not be out of place in a third rate night club on the Costa del Sol and a dire fourth act which sees only Odette die.

 

Agree 100%!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 31/03/2020 at 03:01, bridiem said:

Fully agree with Floss both about the likelihood of this season resuming and the likely impact on next season. (My comment above, and I imagine that of Rob S, was of course a tongue in cheek reflection on the truncation of another highly significant season rather than a real comment on that of the RB. And I still hope that that other season will be finished when possible. Liverpool champions and a revised/restored SL at the ROH - now that would be a thing.)

 

Bring on the warhorses!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 30/03/2020 at 19:41, zxDaveM said:

I suspect that all adventurous plans will be scaled back, and the big workhorses (at premium ticket prices) will be brought into service to bolster the coffers. So probably plenty of Tchaikovsky and R&J, your Bayaderes and the like. Can't say I'd blame them

Instead of La Bayadere, I reckon we might see Don Quixote (which I'm admittedly hoping for if the live cinema is with Osipova and Clarke). 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest oncnp
2 hours ago, HappyTurk said:

Instead of La Bayadere, I reckon we might see Don Quixote (which I'm admittedly hoping for if the live cinema is with Osipova and Clarke). 

 

I was on the Thurrock tour last month and they mentioned they were working on the sets for DonQ so you might get part of your wish. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, oncnp said:

 

I was on the Thurrock tour last month and they mentioned they were working on the sets for DonQ so you might get part of your wish. 

 

But are BRB borrowing the RB sets and costumes for their planned performances? (If the performances go ahead, of course...).

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, HappyTurk said:

Instead of La Bayadere, I reckon we might see Don Quixote (which I'm admittedly hoping for if the live cinema is with Osipova and Clarke). 

 

that's the sort of thing I meant by 'and the like'. Might get both - plus the likes of Alice's Adventures, which always sold out

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, bridiem said:

 

But are BRB borrowing the RB sets and costumes for their planned performances? (If the performances go ahead, of course...).

 

As I understand the situation, BRB still uses the RB facilities for producing most sets and costumes (unless the situation has changed in the last year or so).

 

In respect of Don Q, BRB may be using the RB costumes (as RB used BRB's when mounting Two Pigeons) but the RB set would never fit onto the Hippodrome stage.  I don't know if parts of it could be used but I would guess a lot of it would have to be redesigned/remade.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, I can’t think of anything more daft in these straitened times than abandoning Scarlett’s Swan Lake.  Yes, many of us have reservations about certain aspects of the production, but it has been widely acclaimed.  Most importantly, it sells fast and well and RB’s dancers have prepared for it.  Ditching it when the economy has just been trashed would seem like artistic judgement gone mad.  The official line is that Scarlett has no case to answer so why would our first rank ballet company wrinkle its hyper-sensitive nose?  This is a time for clear thinking in order to rebuild finances so my suggestion would be that they kick off the new season with Swan Lake, followed by as many Nutcrackers as they can squeeze in.

 

Personally, I was very much hoping for Woolf Works but Alice may be a better choice and Bayadere would surely sell well.  Winters Tale not so much as on its third outing it did not sell particularly quickly.

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 30/03/2020 at 22:31, FLOSS said:

I think that anyone anticipating that the season will resume any time soon is being wildly optimistic. In fact I think it quite likely that we shall be told in the not too distant future that the season is being abandoned. The shut down started last week and we shall not begin to see its beneficial effects for at least three or four weeks because of the time lag between controlling the sort of social interaction which makes high infection rates possible and reducing them by the closure of places of public entertainment and placing other restrictions on our behaviour . We also need to bear in mind that the rate of infection and the incidence of new cases of corona virus is only going fall if everyone, whatever their age, understands that we are all vulnerable to corona virus and complies with social distancing and limits the amount of interaction they have with others. However concerned politicians and others may be about the economic impact that the shut down is having on the economy as a whole and on individual businesses no one is going to authorise the reopening of theatres and other places of entertainment and social interaction until it is deemed safe to do so. I think that the Government will exercise considerable caution in authorising places of public entertainment to reopen because of the public health implications of doing so prematurely. The Government is likely to be very sensitive to how effectively it is perceived to have handled the easing of restrictions if only because it is vulnerable to the accusation that it failed to use the month or more it had between the Chinese announcement of the presence of a new virus in Wuhan and the first cases identified in this country. Time , it might profitably have used to buy essential equipment and plan its response to the arrival of the virus. As far as the ROH is concerned while it may be concerned about the age profile of its audience and anxious to find a new one I doubt that it is that keen on being identified as a hot spot of viral infection. Somehow I think that the powers that be at the ROH will be anxious to avoid the accusation that in their anxiety to recoup their losses they have exposed the more vulnerable members of their audience to the unnecessary risk of infection and managed to kill off a goodly proportion of them.

 

 Yesterday the Deputy Chief Medical Officer made it clear that the restrictions currently in place were unlikely to be lifted for at least thirteen weeks and that it might be necessary to keep them in place far longer. By my calculation the initial thirteen weeks takes us to early June and given the fact that dancers and orchestral musicians are unlikely to be able to able to resume their collective activities until non essential workers are able to return to work I don't see how the season can resume. I understand that Glyndebourne has abandoned the first part of its season and anticipates at best only being able to perform one or two of the operas which were scheduled towards the end of its 2020 season. Now if I am right about how the Royal Ballet's season is likely to end that means that Kevin is going to need to think very hard about the 2020- 2021 season not simply because of the loss of revenue which cancelling the rest of the 2019-20 season will entail but the number of dancers who had anticipated making their debut in a leading role in Swan Lake who will end the season without having achieved that significant milestone in their careers. I suspect that whatever he intended to stage next season  Kevin will be "advised" that in order to plug the hole in the company's finances caused by the disruption of the current season he should stage works which are guaranteed to attract an audience rather than works which require cheap tickets to get an audience into the theatre.

 

I shall be really surprised if we get much of the retrospective season celebrating the company's new found creativity that was on the cards for the 2020-2021 season at one time. The loss of revenue caused by this season's closure will be one factor influencing any revisions that are made but the decision to sever ties with Scarlett will be another. Alice and The Winter's Tale may well have been planned for the forthcoming season and no doubt they will retain their place on the season's bill of fare but I can't see much else created since 2012 being programmed. I think that the need to rewrite next year's schedule may well be one of the reasons for the terse statement about cutting ties with Scarlett. I think it more than likely that Kevin will programme  a rather more popular season for 2020-2021 than he originally intended and that it will probably include a production of Swan  Lake which will enable all those dancers who were due to make their debuts this season to do so without undue delay. Given the cost involved in staging a new production it will almost certainly use Macfarlane's designs and a far more authentic text than we have seen this season. I for one will not mourn the loss of Scarlett's ill-conceived version of the ballet with a dumb show which reduces the impact of Odettes first entrance and renders her mime sequence redundant ; contains MacMillan style filler choreography; superfluous princesses providing a floor show in acts 1 and 3; a Spanish dance that would not be out of place in a third rate night club on the Costa del Sol and a dire fourth act which sees only Odette die.

 

I think that the ballet season when announced will prove to be far more "popular" than originally intended. However that does not mean that it can't be artistically satisfying. Perhaps Kevin will come to see that if he is to restore the hole in the company's finances then he needs to programme works which people will be prepared to pay to see rather than works which require reduced prices or the occasional papered house to get anywhere near securing a decent average attendance, Perhaps a retrospective of the company's twentieth century classics rather than works created since 2012 is what is really required ? It is unlikely to be controversial given the number of major works in the company's back catalogue which have not been seen in years.  

Would just like to point out that the Deputy Chief Medical Officer is, thankfully, not running the country and her remarks were unfortunate,  Necessarily and understandably, scientists are purists and concerned only with a particular project.  She may well have been correct in her comments that it would take six months to get rid of the virus but those charged with taking a wider view know that locking down the country for six months is simply unsustainable.  We have to get the U.K. moving again and likely deaths have to be balanced against the harm that the so-called cure is doing.  It is not just CoronaVirus that results in death and deprivation - so does poverty, isolation and psychological damage.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

The official line is that Scarlett has no case to answer 

 

To clarify this, the investigation into allegations made relating to students at the Royal Ballet School found no wrongdoing; the results of the investigation into other allegations have not been made public.  That being said, I personally have no issue with the RB maintaining its current production of Swan Lake (though I still don't really like the ending).

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

Personally, I can’t think of anything more daft in these straitened times than abandoning Scarlett’s Swan Lake.  Yes, many of us have reservations about certain aspects of the production, but it has been widely acclaimed.  Most importantly, it sells fast and well and RB’s dancers have prepared for it.  Ditching it when the economy has just been trashed would seem like artistic judgement gone mad.  The official line is that Scarlett has no case to answer so why would our first rank ballet company wrinkle its hyper-sensitive nose?  This is a time for clear thinking in order to rebuild finances so my suggestion would be that they kick off the new season with Swan Lake, followed by as many Nutcrackers as they can squeeze in.

 

Personally, I was very much hoping for Woolf Works but Alice may be a better choice and Bayadere would surely sell well.  Winters Tale not so much as on its third outing it did not sell particularly quickly.

 

I understand your opinion, penelopesimpson, and I agree that any extra costs will need to kept to a minimum in all respects for the foreseeable future. It really depends on whether the RB can continue to use Scarlett's contributions to this SL without working with him at all (and whether by that they also mean him not benefitting financially from future performances). If not, as suggested above the designs could/should be retained and elements of past productions incorporated at the least possible expense.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm just repeating Sim's words about discussion of the Covid-19 - Corona Virus emergency:

 

"Hi all.  In these extraordinary times, we mods understand that everyone is worried about the current world health pandemic.  As is always the case with social media, any big news gives rise to rumour, speculation and mis-information.  For this reason, we are asking that, going forward, any discussion of the Covid-19 virus be limited to its effect on cultural closures.  Please don't discuss the medical or political aspects of this problem.  We have already had a couple of posts reported, and in order to stem anything further from snowballing we are curtailing inappropriate comments, even if they are made in good faith and with helpful intent.  We don't want to risk adding to anyone's worry or distress, or disseminating mis-information.

 

We wish you all well;  take good care of yourselves.  In the meantime, please keep sharing your thoughts about what gives us joy in this increasingly strange world:  ballet and dance.  Thank you for your understanding.

 

With best wishes,

Sim

Chair, BalletcoForum Committee" 

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

To clarify this, the investigation into allegations made relating to students at the Royal Ballet School found no wrongdoing; the results of the investigation into other allegations have not been made public.  That being said, I personally have no issue with the RB maintaining its current production of Swan Lake (though I still don't really like the ending).

Astonishingly, I agree with you wholeheartedly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...