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I have the brochure for the new season. Ballets are:

 

Play (Ekman)

Le Rouge et le Noir (Lacotte)

Rhapsody (Ashton) / l'Après-midi d'un Faune (Eyal) / Rite of Spring (after Nijinsky)

Don Quixote

Body and Soul (Pite)

Uprising / In your rooms (Schechter)

La Bayadère

Carmen / Another Place / Bolero (Ek)

Midsummer Night's Dream (Balanchine)

Giselle

 

I know we haven't had the official announcement but as the news is very much out there to previous subscribers (with no caveats!) I hope it's OK to post this.

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What’s happened to their Mayerling premiere?   Costumes and sets made, rehearsals in full swing, due to premiere in May 2020?  Obviously cancelled by the pandemic.   After all that financial outlay you’d think they would need to put that on?  And that they’d want to ?  It was fully sold out.  

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Paris used the Patrick Caulfield designs, didn't they? - though I read somewhere that they wanted a new design and weren't allowed to. (A pity!) The RB dropped the Caulfield version after a few years and it's now done in the Jessica Curtis version from 2005. It will be interesting to see which one Paris uses

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My recollection is that pretty much everyone was dissatisfied with the original designs for Rhapsody but the subsequent history of the designs created for it suggests some uncertainty about what should replace them. As Ashton's nephew owns the ballet the uncertainty is all his and I have some sympathy for him. Finding designs which support the dancers rather than diverting attention from them or reducing their visibility and presence  has proved surprisingly difficult. The first replacements were the bright Bauhaus inspired Caulfield ones which got in the way of the performance by drawing far too much attention to themselves were no improvement on the original designs. Then the Curtiss  ones went to the other extreme and were far too pastel, self- effacing and apologetic. I seem to recall that the designs by Jessica  Curtiss were in turn replaced in 2012 by ones which are a little more assertive and owe a great deal to the original designs created for the ballet. In fact I think we were told at that point that although the costumes for the original production had been credited to William Chappell they were to all intents and purposes by Ashton himself as Chappell had proved incapable of producing any designs because of his age. It will be interesting to see which designs are used in Paris. I hope that we now have an authorised final version.

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  • 6 months later...

I’ve recently located to Paris and haven’t seen POB in many years. I thought I’d dip my toes in with the Ashton/Eyal/Nijinsky programme this evening - December 1st. 
 Unfortunately my 1st impression wasn’t great - hated the costumes and staging and this cast struggled with Ashton. Marc Moreau danced the male lead and it was rough going all the way through. The supporting male corps struggled as well. The female lead was danced by Sae Eun Park - lovely dancer but I didn’t get lots of Ashton. The back bends were not from the waist and a bit hunched…

Ehe Eyal version of Faunes looked much better on the dancers if POB. Now heading back to see Le Sacré du Printemps.

 

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