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RB Sleeping Beauty - May/June 2023


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Given recent discussions,  😊 here is Enrico Cecchetti as the Bluebird. He both danced the role and mimed Carabosse in the first production. He was a noted virtuoso and mime.

 

File:Sleeping Beauty - Enrico Cecchetti & Varvara Nikitina (Bluebird &  Princess Florine). 1890.JPG - Wikimedia Commons

 

Varvara Nikitina is Princess Florine in that photo.

 

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For anyone going tomorrow night (May 6th):  my ticket says the start time is 7:30.  On the ROH website it says 7:00.  I assume, therefore, it's the latter and it was changed at some point.  They might have emailed the original purchasers about it, but just in case, I thought I would point it out here.

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Off on Thursday evening to see Akane Takada but mainly James Hay. Hopefully the train strike the following day won't leave me stranded in London until Saturday!

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39 minutes ago, Sim said:

For anyone going tomorrow night (May 6th):  my ticket says the start time is 7:30.  On the ROH website it says 7:00.  I assume, therefore, it's the latter and it was changed at some point.  They might have emailed the original purchasers about it, but just in case, I thought I would point it out here.

 

My ticket says 7 pm: you're sure you've got the right ticket?

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3 minutes ago, alison said:

 

My ticket says 7 pm: you're sure you've got the right ticket?

Yes.  I have just double checked it...about the third double check I have done!!   When did you get yours, Alison?  I got mine months ago, when they originally went on sale.

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48 minutes ago, Sim said:

For anyone going tomorrow night (May 6th):  my ticket says the start time is 7:30.  On the ROH website it says 7:00.  I assume, therefore, it's the latter and it was changed at some point.  They might have emailed the original purchasers about it, but just in case, I thought I would point it out here.

 

Have you alerted the Box Office? It sounds like they might want to push out an email to attendees.

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The local travel news has reported that a lot of roads are of course will be closed tomorrow or are  already closed due to the coronation and might take some time to be reopened, so everyone who is due to see Yasmine Naghdi’s Aurora tomorrow, do check the routes you are taking in case one is diverted, or closed, and give yourself extra time to get to ROH for 7pm. Also, your own route eg a Tube or train route, might not necessarily have closures but might be a lot more congested due to passengers, visitors and residents being diverted and having to use other transport modes they wouldn’t normally have taken. Also, be prepared for some stations to be shut if there is a risk of overcrowding.

Edited by Emeralds
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3 hours ago, RobR said:

I’m going on Monday 15 at7.30

 

2 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

Any particular reason? :)

 

Ooh, does that mean I might finally see a Lilac Fairy other than Gina Storm-Jensen on 15th? Fingers crossed.

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43 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

 

Ooh, does that mean I might finally see a Lilac Fairy other than Gina Storm-Jensen on 15th? Fingers crossed.


I'm not sure who’s Lilac ……. but if I had to guess at Crystal fairy …..

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So I can rule out Julia Roscoe. It won't be Mayara Magri, as she's in tonight's cast. It obviously won't be Claire Calvert. It probably won't be Fumi Kaneko, as I doubt she'd be put in a mid-run cast. So that leaves it between Annette Buvoli & Gina Storm-Jensen. At this rate I bet I'll be seeing Gina for the 6th time in a row!

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16 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

So I can rule out Julia Roscoe. It won't be Mayara Magri, as she's in tonight's cast. It obviously won't be Claire Calvert. It probably won't be Fumi Kaneko, as I doubt she'd be put in a mid-run cast. So that leaves it between Annette Buvoli & Gina Storm-Jensen. At this rate I bet I'll be seeing Gina for the 6th time in a row!

 

This Julia Roscoe, looking fabulous in a tutu in oooh 2012 while still at White Lodge?🙂 A foretaste of Things To Come!

 

https://cicb.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2012-NewsletterV4.pdf

 

(Page nine) 

 

 

Edited by Ondine
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I see there’s a full cast list for tonight but do we normally get some notice of who’s dancing Lilac Fairy & Carabosse? Did anyone notice if Mayara Magri and Kristen McNally were added to the principal casting information before the full cast sheet was published? I’d be very keen to know who’s dancing these parts in the Takada and Osipova casts on Thursday 11th & Friday 12th. And it would be great to know when Olivia Cowley is back on stage as she’s been rehearsing Carabosse.
The rail industrial disputes mean I’ll have to stay at least one extra night (and possibly two) so I was very pleased to pick up a Friday Rush ticket for Friday 12th.

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No, they weren't, it was just Naghdi & Ball listed until the full cast list went up. The same with all the SB casts in the January-March run. Hence I'm trying to vainly guess who I might see as the Lilac Fairy on 15th!

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Today there were two coronations for me:  one, for a king and his queen.  Two, for a queen and her prince. Yasmine Naghdi is for me the Queen of all Auroras.  A superlative performance from her tonight, beautifully matched by Matthew Ball.  Stunning.  More tomorrow…off to recover from two special events with a glass of wine!  🍷

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A stellar cast who danced at the top of their game received a well-deserved standing ovation from an appreciative audience this evening. To my eyes Yasmine Nagdhi & Matthew Ball didn’t put a foot wrong. 

The audience had been on its feet before the performance too when the National Anthem was played live. Congratulations on the Coronation were also projected onto the stage.

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41 minutes ago, Sim said:

Today there were two coronations for me:  one, for a king and his queen.  Two, for a queen and her prince. Yasmine Naghdi is for me the Queen of all Auroras.  A superlative performance from her tonight, beautifully matched by Matthew Ball.  Stunning.  

🍷

 

I have no suitable superlatives, to be honest

Fight for a ticket for one of their next performances! (Well, not fight me obviously, as I will be wanting to go myself)

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Oh good, no need for me to put my rubbish pics up tonight.

 

Naghdi was her usual impeccable self, but what really made it for me tonight was Ball's Act II - I really felt he took the audience on a journey through the Vision Scene.  Only trouble was, I was expecting him to turn up in all white, and was confused when he didn't.  Wrong ballet!

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52 minutes ago, alison said:

so not really out of place.

 

Next to the delicate filigree of Aurora 's costume to me it CLUNKS! 

 

 

Beryl Grey in the original (1946)

 

https://www.roh.org.uk/photos/24790205435

 

The first Lilac Fary 1890. The hat is divine!

 

Act 1, Aurora pricks her finger: in the centre is Carlotta Brianza as Princess Aurora, Giuseppina Cecchetti as the Queen, Felix Kschessinsky as King Florestan XIV and Marie Petipa as the Lilac Fairy (1890)

 

Carlotta Brianza as Princess Aurora, Giuseppina Cecchetti as the Queen, Felix Kschessinsky as King Florestan XIV, Marie Petipa as the Lilac Fairy

 

 

This is interesting though, about the Rose Adagio tutu.

 

 

https://www.alastairmacaulay.com/all-essays/q6re63hi4pptdsjsamjqeu1uq3x2le

 

 

Edited by Ondine
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Some of the credit for last night’s success goes to conductor Jonathan Lo for pushing the music faster, so that it began to approach tempi envisioned by Tchaikovsky and Petipa (they, as can’t be pointed out often enough, set down metronome markings during the rehearsal period of the first production so there is actually no excuse for the Royal Ballet’s unfortunate drift to the funereal over recent decades) Speed helps this magnificent ballet: it isn’t “boring” (despite what some say) when danced as intended. 

 

Although there were still a few modern music-pose-music moments (stopping to “make a picture” rather than dancing through) Naghdi was in general wonderfully lively, a spirit for example captured on film by Fonteyn. YouTube has plenty of examples of Fonteyn to choose from for those who want to explore (incidentally the colour footage has the added bonus of showing a lovely Act One tutu, two-tone with a pink underskirt, if that’s the right description).

 

Naghdi’s solo in the Vision scene was as perfect a melding of dance and music as one can hope to see: breathtaking, and again well done also to the conductor. A tiny moment to treasure in the last act was Naghdi’s start to the final PDD, slipping up en pointe exactly in time to the music, as if cheekily to say, here I am, take me! Someone near me gasped, it was so funny, so perfectly in the moment.  

 

Last night climaxed with a gold glitter drop, into the auditorium as well as on stage. Although this was presumably in honour of the coronation, I hope they keep on doing it. For me it gave something of the flavour of the (normally now omitted in modern productions) final scene, the apotheosis, when Aurora and her prince become gods.
 

All in all a really wonderful, memorable, evening. 
 

Edited by Geoff
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4 hours ago, Geoff said:

Some of the credit for last night’s success goes to conductor Jonathan Lo for pushing the music faster, so that it began to approach tempi envisioned by Tchaikovsky and Petipa (they, as can’t be pointed out often enough, set down metronome markings during the rehearsal period of the first production so there is actually no excuse for the Royal Ballet’s unfortunate drift to the funereal over recent decades) Speed helps this magnificent ballet: it isn’t “boring” (despite what some say) when danced as intended. 

 

Although there were still a few modern music-pose-music moments (stopping to “make a picture” rather than dancing through) Naghdi was in general wonderfully lively, a spirit for example captured on film by Fonteyn. YouTube has plenty of examples of Fonteyn to choose from for those who want to explore (incidentally the colour footage has the added bonus of showing a lovely Act One tutu, two-tone with a pink underskirt, if that’s the right description).

 

Naghdi’s solo in the Vision scene was as perfect a melding of dance and music as one can hope to see: breathtaking, and again well done also to the conductor. A tiny moment to treasure in the last act was Naghdi’s start to the final PDD, slipping up en pointe exactly in time to the music, as if cheekily to say, here I am, take me! Someone near me gasped, it was so funny, so perfectly in the moment.  

 

Last night climaxed with a gold glitter drop, into the auditorium as well as on stage. Although this was presumably in honour of the coronation, I hope they keep on doing it. For me it gave something of the flavour of the (normally now omitted in modern productions) final scene, the apotheosis, when Aurora and her prince become gods.
 

All in all a really wonderful, memorable, evening. 
 

 

 

It's also worth searching out (anyone who can't find it who wants the link message me) 

 

Sleeping Beauty Restored

 

A short TV documentary with literally barn find footage! Historic colour footage and yes Fonteyn in a glorious vibrantly pink tutu. Also another remonder that this was once The Sleeping Princess (known as Sleeping P).

 

Also look at the corps with the garlands, how much they move the whole body and really dance.

 

The doc was actually called Sleeping Beauty Rediscovered  but that's not the YT title.

 

 

Edited by Ondine
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