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Australian Ballet - Royal Opera House, 2-6 August 2023


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I thought a couple of the soloists in Emeralds reappeared in Diamonds so it's nice to have that confirmed.

 

By the way, I'd be interested to hear from anyone going tonight if the running time manages to be anywhere near the 2h17 given on the cast sheet. Last night it finished over 20 minutes late.

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2 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

I thought a couple of the soloists in Emeralds reappeared in Diamonds so it's nice to have that confirmed.

 

By the way, I'd be interested to hear from anyone going tonight if the running time manages to be anywhere near the 2h17 given on the cast sheet. Last night it finished over 20 minutes late.

I left the auditorium tonight at 22:02 during the Diamonds red run. So again, nowhere near the advertised 2:17 runtime

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Thanks. I'm not going again so I suppose it shouldn't matter to me but it does irk me when estimated run times are so far out. Last night I only just made my train & then had to stand because it was heaving (due to the previous one not running with the overtime ban). The stressful journey home rather spoilt what should have been a nice evening. If I'd known beforehand that it wasn't going to finish until nearly ten past ten then I could have arranged to catch a later train.

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Tonight was simply dazzling, a real treat (and I have managed to find a new convert to scs in my cousin).

I have never seen Jewels before so everything was fresh to enjoy, from music to costumes to the different schools of ballet represented, each so different that it is hard to choose a favourite. That is, it would be hard to choose a favourite if Diamonds didn’t have just that extra (literal) sparkle and the most majestic Polonaise to finish worthy of a Russian classic.

What I also enjoyed tonight was not knowing the cast and just trying to watch everything going on rather than picking out my favourites…

Looking forward to Sunday’s gala.

 

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Thought tonight overall was a much tighter performance and wanted to pay special kudos to Marcus Morelli for stellar work in the Emeralds PDT.  So lithe and clean with stunning dramatic accents to add to his overall sweep.  (Would love to see him - as noted in his rep schedule - as Stanislav Nikinsky in Neumeier's Nijinsky.  I can see him being excellent in that.)  Also, Sharni Spenser shone with asserted musicality in the off-balance aspect of her first Diamonds solo.  Happily the local musicians kept to tempi there and she more than brightly took their lead.  She deserved the spontaneous applause.  The orchestral rendering of Emeralds was - blessedly - also MUCH improved over last night's unfortunate effort.  Well done, Jonathan Lo, for clearly making that happen.  

 

 

 

Edited by Bruce Wall
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Some people might find this recent Balanchine insight from this year's Vail Dance Festival of interest (you see a very, VERY brief clip of Tiler Peck and Roman Meija rehearsing Rubies PDD in it and Roman in Prodigal Son - CAN'T WAIT FOR THAT) with dancers from NYCB, POB and NBoC as well as Robbie Fairchild - and surprise, surprise - even the truly GREAT (and long retired) Damian Woetzel in the finale of Western Symphony.  Enjoy.

 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=310504644763250&ref=sharing

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Okay, now I'm really confused.  I thought tonight's (sorry, last night's) cast was scheduled to be pretty much the same as the first night - hence partly why I gave up my ticket.  Was I misreading the casting on the TAB website?

 

Disappointed not to be able to see Spencer and Linnane in Diamonds :(

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6 hours ago, alison said:

Okay, now I'm really confused.  I thought tonight's (sorry, last night's) cast was scheduled to be pretty much the same as the first night - hence partly why I gave up my ticket.  Was I misreading the casting on the TAB website?

Hi Alison - did you use the date drop down on TAB website for the different dates’ casts? It’s not immediately obvious and always reverts to opening night’s cast when returning from looking at a dancer’s profile

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Just to add to the praise, I was there last night and it has to be one of the most enjoyable ballets.

 

Emeralds leads you in gently, Rubies is so much fun and then Diamonds is just so rich and luxurious, it was a delight.

 

Have to say, the company as a whole were in fine form, especially, when they would all come together, not a foot out of place, everything was so tight and not just that, they seemed to be dancing with sheer joy.

 

It was a real treat.

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37 minutes ago, Silke H said:

Hi Alison - did you use the date drop down on TAB website for the different dates’ casts? It’s not immediately obvious and always reverts to opening night’s cast when returning from looking at a dancer’s profile

 

I thought I did, Silke, but possibly something didn't work properly.

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A few observations from today's reviews (thanks Ian!):

 

 Joy Sable (Jewish Chronicle) refers to Jewels as a 'cornerstone' of Australian Ballet.  That stone set very quickly as the ballet has only been TAB's repertoire for three months!

 

 Macaulay once again has to have a dig at the Royal Ballet;

 

Jonathan Gray didn't like it as much as everyone else seemed to.

 

The reviews are almost universally positive, so I am very happy for Australian Ballet!  

 

 

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26 minutes ago, Sim said:

 

 Joy Sable (Jewish Chronicle) refers to Jewels as a 'cornerstone' of Australian Ballet.  That stone set very quickly as the ballet has only been TAB's repertoire for three months!

 

 

😄😄😄

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36 minutes ago, Sim said:

A few observations from today's reviews (thanks Ian!):

 

 Joy Sable (Jewish Chronicle) refers to Jewels as a 'cornerstone' of Australian Ballet.  That stone set very quickly as the ballet has only been TAB's repertoire for three months!

 

 Macaulay once again has to have a dig at the Royal Ballet;

 

Jonathan Gray didn't like it as much as everyone else seemed to.

 

The reviews are almost universally positive, so I am very happy for Australian Ballet!  

 

 

 

Very happy to see that Gerald Dowler is back reviewing again at Classical Source !

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52 minutes ago, Sim said:

A few observations from today's reviews (thanks Ian!):

 

 Joy Sable (Jewish Chronicle) refers to Jewels as a 'cornerstone' of Australian Ballet.  That stone set very quickly as the ballet has only been TAB's repertoire for three months!

 

 Macaulay once again has to have a dig at the Royal Ballet;

 

Jonathan Gray didn't like it as much as everyone else seemed to.

 

The reviews are almost universally positive, so I am very happy for Australian Ballet!  

 

Yes, very pleased to see the good reviews. And in spite of the above, I'm impressed that the Jewish Chronicle has such good and regular ballet coverage.

 

Jonathan Gray admitted near the beginning of his review that he thinks Jewels is boring, so it was always unlikely he was going to rave about the performance... 

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1 hour ago, annamk said:

 

Very happy to see that Gerald Dowler is back reviewing again at Classical Source !

He got Benedicte's name wrong, so I posted the correct spelling and suggested that they may want to amend the mis-spell.  Within an hour, the manager of Classical Source had emailed me to thank me and said he had corrected the name.  Most impressive.  I emailed Culture Whisper about a year ago correcting something, but didn't even get the politeness of an acknowledgement, let alone a response.  Thank you Classical Source!

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I noticed yesterday that the BroadwayWorld review also had "Bernet" rather than "Bemet". I wonder whether it's multiple critics misreading the cast sheet or that they're all using spelling correction software but not then checking the corrections!

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26 minutes ago, Sim said:

He got Benedicte's name wrong, so I posted the correct spelling and suggested that they may want to amend the mis-spell.  Within an hour, the manager of Classical Source had emailed me to thank me and said he had corrected the name.  Most impressive.  I emailed Culture Whisper about a year ago correcting something, but didn't even get the politeness of an acknowledgement, let alone a response.  Thank you Classical Source!

 

15 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Macaulay’s review has it once correct and once incorrectly written The second time says Bernet instead of Bemet ….but might be one of these typo type errors! 

Here it was spelled incorrectly each time, which is why I emailed.  

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Further to some of the posts above, can I just say that I'd long since given up on Classical Source for ballet/dance Links.  However, this morning I thought I'd take a look just in case and found a neat, new-look website, with a review by Gerald Dowler freshly posted!  So it's back on my daily trawl list.  And despite that possibly record-breaking list of 12 reviews this morning, there were some notable absences.  One posted about an hour later and we'll see what tomorrow brings.

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6 hours ago, Sim said:

Joy Sable (Jewish Chronicle) refers to Jewels as a 'cornerstone' of Australian Ballet.  That stone set very quickly as the ballet has only been TAB's repertoire for three months!

 

Joy Sable also says that David Hallberg took over as AD in 2019. Er...no! 2021.

 

Finally, she says Hallberg's last performances as a dancer were with the Royal Ballet. Er...no again. He danced in Kunstkamer in 2022, with this very Australian Ballet.

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36 minutes ago, Sophoife said:

 

Joy Sable also says that David Hallberg took over as AD in 2019. Er...no! 2021.

 

Finally, she says Hallberg's last performances as a dancer were with the Royal Ballet. Er...no again. He danced in Kunstkamer in 2022, with this very Australian Ballet.

Oh dear.  More research was needed here, methinks!!

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