Sarasota Ballet's "Ashton" visit to the Royal Opera House, June 2024

[alison]

Sarasota Ballet's visit next year to the Royal Opera House (mainly the Linbury Theatre) has been mentioned in the ROH press release, but doesn't have its own separate thread, so I thought it might be an idea to start one.

 

 

Programming is currently as follows:

 

 

Programme 1 (Linbury):

Valses Nobles et Sentimentales

Dante Sonata

Sinfonietta

 

Gala Performance (Main Stage):

Valses Nobles et Sentimentales

Varii Capricii

 

Programme 2 (Linbury):

Valses Nobles et Sentimentales

Ashton Divertissements

Facade

[alison]

The company are running a Patron tour to London, details of which are still to be finalised, but currently include:

 

2024 PATRON TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

• 7-night hotel accommodation – Monday, June 3rd through Monday, June 10th. Breakfast included daily. Currently, the Nomad is the preferred hotel (located opposite Covent Garden), subject to availability
• Patron Welcome Dinner and Tickets to Program 1 of The Sarasota Ballet at the Linbury Theatre
• Group trip to White Lodge in Richmond Park, home of the Royal Ballet Lower School
• Additional Patron Dinner
• Opening Night Tickets to Program 2 of The Sarasota Ballet at the Linbury Theatre
• Backstage Tour of The Royal Opera House and lunch
• Tickets to attend a performance of the Royal Ballet, featuring a pas de deux by The Sarasota Ballet, on the mainstage at the Royal Opera House
• Tickets to attend The Sarasota Ballet’s Pre-Gala Dinner, Gala Performance, and Gala Reception
• Tour Closing Reception with Dancers of The Sarasota Ballet

 

Needless to say, it doesn't come cheap, and flights are not included.

[Emeralds]

I have just had some great news that the annual project deadline I normally have in June (which often makes attending any ballet in the first or second week of June impossible) has been moved to April for 2024 so that means I can see the Sarasota Ballet performances  on 4-9 June more easily! Thanking the patrons in Florida in advance for supporting the company to make this visit! 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Emeralds

[alison]

And I'm relieved that the business event which usually takes me to Birmingham around that time is only biannual - or do I mean biennial, I can never remember? - and took place this year.

[Guest oncnp]

8 minutes ago, alison said:

And I'm relieved that the business event which usually takes me to Birmingham around that time is only biannual - or do I mean biennial, I can never remember? - and took place this year.

 

biannual = twice a year

biennial = every other year

 

[Dawnstar]

3 hours ago, alison said:

Sarasota Ballet's visit next year to the Royal Opera House (mainly the Linbury Theatre) has been mentioned in the ROH press release, but doesn't have its own separate thread, so I thought it might be an idea to start one.

 

Programme 2 (Linbury):

Valses Nobles et Sentimentales

Ashton Divertissements

Facade

 

Oh, I would so like to see Facade in full. I really enjoyed the extract Bussell & Avis did at the Fonteyn Gala. I'm not expecting to be able to get a ticket though, and the Patron package mentioned above will presumably mean even fewer tickets available for public booking.

Edited September 6, 2023 by Dawnstar
Typo

[Ondine]

6 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

Patron package mentioned above will presumably mean even fewer tickets available for public booking.

 

That's what I thought, though presumably the Sarasota Ballet will want to keep its Patrons sweet so this visit is a PR exercise I think.

[bangorballetboy]

2 hours ago, Ondine said:

 

That's what I thought, though presumably the Sarasota Ballet will want to keep its Patrons sweet so this visit is a PR exercise I think.

 

I think it's a fund-raising exercise...

[Ondine]

1 minute ago, bangorballetboy said:

I think it's a fund-raising exercise...

 

Well yes, intertwined.

[Emeralds]

4 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

 

Oh, I would so like to see Facade in full. I really enjoyed the extract Bussell & Avis did at the Fonteyn Gala. I'm not expecting to be able to get a ticket though, and the Patron package mentioned above will presumably mean even fewer tickets available for public booking.

If any consolation I don’t think it will be a huge number of tickets for patrons on the Patron package, and probably not in the areas you normally book for, Dawnstar- I remember you describing specific areas you prefer (as do I, in a completely different area) and there are normally a number of tickets that would be kept as a courtesy to VIPs anyway, eg coaches, former artistic directors, eminent choreographers etc. I think without these patrons Sarasota Ballet might not be coming at all, so sounds like a fair exchange. (What I don’t know is how many eminent VIPs RB & Sarasota Ballet have who are free to attend at that time of the year......)

 

Hmm, I have seen the full Facade a few times....am wondering if it is your type of ballet. It’s definitely not a narrative work with a story like Manon, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, Mayerling, Cinderella or La Fille mal Gardee. If pushed to describe it, I would say it’s like Act 2 of Nutcracker (minus Clara waking up and Hans Peter going home) or Elite Syncopations where different people with different personalities and backstories come out to dance but no narrative happening. It’s quite period- 1930s? 1910s? - if you like that vintage vibe kind of thing, it will be up your street. But it’s absolutely classical ballet and not McGregor / Graham/ Pita/Cherkaoui/ Cunningham/ Akram Khan etc type contemporary dance.

 

If I only manage to get a ticket for one programme instead of all three, I’ll still be glad but would of course prefer to see two or three. On the plus side, it is wonderful to see such incredible support for mixed bills! 😊 And I’m sure it’s very encouraging for Iain Webb and Margaret Barbieri that so many keen fans are worried that Sarasota Ballet might sell out as quickly as (or quicker than), say, Glastonbury or Jonas Kaufmann! 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Emeralds

[Ondine]

1 hour ago, Emeralds said:

absolutely classical ballet

 

Some of it! Popular Song?  Tango?

 

Great fun though.

[Pas de Quatre]

Facade is a wonderful ballet when done with subtlety.  However it is very easy to ham it up. To get the flavour it is worth going back to Edith Sitwell's original poems which are recited to music. It use to be a staple of Touring RB's Triple Bills during the middle of 20th century.

[Dawnstar]

4 hours ago, Emeralds said:

If any consolation I don’t think it will be a huge number of tickets for patrons on the Patron package, and probably not in the areas you normally book for, Dawnstar- I remember you describing specific areas you prefer (as do I, in a completely different area) and there are normally a number of tickets that would be kept as a courtesy to VIPs anyway, eg coaches, former artistic directors, eminent choreographers etc. I think without these patrons Sarasota Ballet might not be coming at all, so sounds like a fair exchange. (What I don’t know is how many eminent VIPs RB & Sarasota Ballet have who are free to attend at that time of the year......)

 

Hmm, I have seen the full Facade a few times....am wondering if it is your type of ballet. It’s definitely not a narrative work with a story like Manon, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, Mayerling, Cinderella or La Fille mal Gardee. If pushed to describe it, I would say it’s like Act 2 of Nutcracker (minus Clara waking up and Hans Peter going home) or Elite Syncopations where different people with different personalities and backstories come out to dance but no narrative happening. It’s quite period- 1930s? 1910s? - if you like that vintage vibe kind of thing, it will be up your street. But it’s absolutely classical ballet and not McGregor / Graham/ Pita/Cherkaoui/ Cunningham/ Akram Khan etc type contemporary dance.

 

I don't have any preferred area for the Linbury, as I've only seen a couple of productions in there since it opened because most of the ones I'm interested in (which admittedly tends to not be that many) seeing sell out before I can book.

 

While the ballets I have enjoyed the most over the last few years have been narrative ones, I have also liked a number of non-narrative one act pieces. I may not find I want to see Facade lots of times to see different casts' interpretations but I definitely want to see it at least once, and the RB are showing no signs of doing it so Sarasota seems the only option. 1910s-1030s is absolutely up my street period-wise!

[Ondine]

BRB has various clips of Facade on its FB page.

 

https://www.facebook.com/bhamroyalballet/videos/façade-popular-song/727467944595588/

[Emeralds]

5 hours ago, Ondine said:

 

Some of it! Popular Song?  Tango?

 

Great fun though.

I put them in the “character dances inside a classical ballet” category. 😊 I actually prefer Popular Song to the Tango as it’s so deadpan that it’s actually funnier, and takes skill not to overdo it. But the whole thing works as a whole. Funnily enough, Facade was on the bill during the first time I ever watched the Royal Ballet - yes, Facade on the same triple bill as Different Drummer, with Firebird being the first ballet. That must seem quite crazy nowadays (three different choreographers, no obvious common “theme”, all very different to each other) but the combination worked- for me it did anyway! 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Emeralds

[Pas de Quatre]

But that was why such triple bills were popular. Very different contrasting ballets, not an artificial "theme". Also quite a substantial programme, Firebird alone is 47 mins.

[Peanut68]

Yes - and great value for money too! None of this 20 mins dance then a 25 minute interval then another perhaps 25 mins of dance followed by yet another 25 mins when they can fleece you for your money at the bar for then maybe 30 mins more in the theatre (including curtain calls I dare say!!) 

I’ve felt rather short changed at times at ROH 

[Pas de Quatre]

It used to be standard at  Covent Garden for there to be a one act ballet before Giselle! I remember how short-changed I felt when they dropped it.

[Sim]

Just now, Pas de Quatre said:

It used to be standard at  Covent Garden for there to be a one act ballet before Giselle! I remember how short-changed I felt when they dropped it.

I remember, back in the 80s, seeing Giselle preceded by Symphony in C when the Kirov visited London.  Fabulous!  

[alison]

I saw Fille preceded by the Laurentia pas de six in 1989.

[Dawnstar]

1 hour ago, Pas de Quatre said:

It used to be standard at  Covent Garden for there to be a one act ballet before Giselle! I remember how short-changed I felt when they dropped it.

 

I was extremely surprised a few years ago when reading a book written in the 1950s that the fictional ballet company in it is described as performing another ballet before Giselle. I previously had had no idea that used to be done. Since then I've seen Giselle a few times & have found it sufficient on its own. I suppose that shows how expectations change.

[Jan McNulty]

21 minutes ago, alison said:

I saw Fille preceded by the Laurentia pas de six in 1989.

 

Me too!

 

My late friend Marge often mentioned that shorter full-length ballets were preceded by a short piece.  She specifically mentioned Fille and Giselle.

[Peanut68]

Compare the actual performance length (even with intervals) to most of the longer blockbuster movies… films start to look much better value for money (even with the cost of popcorn these days!! And no - I definitely do not wish to see popcorn for ballet audiences as discussed elsewhere!!) 

And with so many excellent dancers underused IMHO in the larger salaried companies…. Surely this would be win win for audience & company moral etc etc! All dancers I’m sure wants to perform just as much as they can & we want to see them! 

Edited September 7, 2023 by Peanut68

[Bluebird]

For the 2009/10 season Wayne Eagling choreographed Men Y Men, a short work which the men of ENB performed as a ‘curtain raiser’ to Mary Skeaping’s Giselle.

 

edited to add a quote from a Judith Mackrell preview of the piece:

 

“Set to music by Rachmaninov and choreographed for eight male dancers, Men Y Men not only aims to show off the virtuosity of its cast but also to provide a shot of testosterone that contrasts with the delicately feminised world of Giselle and the warm-hearted story of redemptive love.”

Edited September 7, 2023 by Bluebird

[LinMM]

I’m sure I’ve seen L’apres Midi d’un Faune as the forerunner to Giselle on more than one occasion. 

[Emeralds]

I’ve seen curtain raiser ballets before Nutcracker performances in the past too - and that Laurencia pas de six by RB before Fille was a rare treat. But I think most (not all) companies around the world did Giselle, Fille and Nutcracker as the sole ballet in the show so this change makes nearly all companies similar in their practice (and reduces overtime costs or stressful dashes for trains). A bit of a pity that it means that the dancers have fewer opportunities to get lead or breakthrough roles in one act ballets and audiences miss the opportunity to see more repertoire though. 

Edited September 7, 2023 by Emeralds

[Jane S]

The weird thing about doing Fille and Facade in the same programme (as they did on the first night despite it having been advertised as Fille and Pineapple Poll) was that they did Fille first - I saw it a couple of days later and I thought it seemed quite wrong- a real anticlimax - and in fact I noted that lots of people went home  before Facade. (I like to think that someone was worried that Fille, with those ribbons and maypoles and things, might be a dreadful flop and they'd better follow it with a guaranteed send-'em-home-happy piece just in case.) By the end of the season they'd changed their minds and did Scenes de Ballet/Fille instead, close to cup-runneth-over territory in my book!

[Guest oncnp]

Ashton Masterclass 

 

ASHTON REDISCOVERED MASTERCLASS

The Frederick Ashton Foundation will present an Ashton Rediscovered masterclass at The Royal Ballet Upper School on Sunday 15 October at 2.30–5.30pm (doors open 2pm). Join to watch Anthony Dowell coaching dancers of The Royal Ballet in Frederick Ashton’s rarely seen Awakening pas de deux from Peter Wright’s 1968 production of The Sleeping Beauty for The Royal Ballet. The masterclass is introduced by Jane Pritchard, Curator of Dance at the V&A, and will be followed by a Q&A and drinks reception.
 
Tickets are £65. If you’d like to book, please email ashtonevents@yahoo.com or leave message on 020 7370 2520.

[capybara]

Really nice that supporters of Sarasota Ballet are being offered the opportunity to join the Company in the UK.

But the Nomad Hotel is among the most expensive in London, so the price of the tour will indeed be high.

[Guest oncnp]

55 minutes ago, capybara said:

Really nice that supporters of Sarasota Ballet are being offered the opportunity to join the Company in the UK.

But the Nomad Hotel is among the most expensive in London, so the price of the tour will indeed be high.

 

Thank you. I've been meaning to look up how much this newish hotel across from the Opera House costs

 

Rooms range from £610 to £800, mid-May, so not as bad as I though. Didn't ever look at the suites. Perhaps they get a group discount? 

[Ondine]

The various tier costs of being a Patron of the Sarasota Ballet, and the benefits at each level, are detailed here.

 

https://www.sarasotaballet.org/app/uploads/2022/10/2023-Patron-Brochure-Digital.pdf

 

I doubt those coming to London are terrifically worried about the cost TBH.

 

[Peanut68]

When I saw the hotel name I naively assumed it to be more of a hostel type of place 😂

I liked this Google search definition…

What is the modern meaning of nomad?

 

In its more modern sense, a nomad is someone who would rather wander from place to place than set down roots, like the nomad who crashes at his friends' apartments in various cities instead of renting his own place. 
 

Rather far from £600+ a night glam hotel 😂

[San Perregrino]

7 hours ago, Peanut68 said:

When I saw the hotel name I naively assumed it to be more of a hostel type of place 😂

I liked this Google search definition…

What is the modern meaning of nomad?

 

In its more modern sense, a nomad is someone who would rather wander from place to place than set down roots, like the nomad who crashes at his friends' apartments in various cities instead of renting his own place. 
 

Rather far from £600+ a night glam hotel 😂

NoMad (as opposed to nomad) refers to a district in Manhattan, the location of the first NoMad hotel, (now the Ned Nomad).

 

“The neighborhood of NoMad, an acronym for "North of Madison Square Park," is a vibrant and trendy district situated in the heart of Manhattan. Known for its mix of historic charm and contemporary flair, NoMad has become a popular destination for locals and tourists alike. The area derives its name from its location just north of the iconic Madison Square Park. NoMad is characterized by its stunning architecture, featuring beautifully restored Beaux-Arts buildings, stylish boutique hotels, and upscale residential developments. The neighborhood has experienced a revival in recent years, with a surge of new restaurants, trendy bars, and fashionable shops opening their doors. NoMad is also home to several notable landmarks, including the Flatiron Building, a triangular-shaped skyscraper that has become an iconic symbol of New York City, and the renowned Ace Hotel, a cultural hub hosting art events and live performances. With its vibrant atmosphere, upscale amenities, and convenient location, NoMad offers a dynamic and exciting experience for residents and visitors alike.”

 

”The NoMad (hotel) story began in 2012 in a turn-of-the-century, Beaux Arts building on a scrappy stretch of Broadway just north of Madison Square Park. Sydell CEO Andrew Zobler, who had just finished developing Ace New York a few blocks up the street, saw the gem beneath the weathered exterior, and embarked on the adventure that would come to define a neighborhood and the NoMad vision.