MacMillan Triple bill info

[alison]

Yes, that was it, although I missed the comment underneath, so thanks for that  

[Angela]

Wow that's interesting, Roberta - I rarely read the comments under videos, thank you! Dale Brannon, who wrote this, and Marcis Lesins were both in the creation of the piece in 1976, I suppose. Brannon talks about the circle of light that moves from midstage to the column in the back. As many times as I have seen "Requiem", I never once thought of Christ when I saw that light, but of John Cranko giving guidance and leading the way for his fatherless dancers...

[Dawnstar]

The ROH have done another tweet about the MacMillan triple bill but I'm not sure it's that helpful in terms of information about the pieces given the text is fairly vague. I suppose at least it's some publicity (I'm not sure if the comments about a lack of social media posts are somewhere on this thread or the booking one).

 

 

[bridiem]

8 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

The ROH have done another tweet about the MacMillan triple bill but I'm not sure it's that helpful in terms of information about the pieces given the text is fairly vague. I suppose at least it's some publicity (I'm not sure if the comments about a lack of social media posts are somewhere on this thread or the booking one).

 

Not very helpful at all. They seem to think that as long as they show a few photos of Hayward or Sambé that's job done. Really feeble.

[alison]

That was pretty much my reaction, too.  And the choice of rehearsal photos wasn't really anything special which might actually entice people to buy a ticket.

[Blossom]

10 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

The ROH have done another tweet about the MacMillan triple bill but I'm not sure it's that helpful in terms of information about the pieces given the text is fairly vague. I suppose at least it's some publicity (I'm not sure if the comments about a lack of social media posts are somewhere on this thread or the booking one).

 

 

I saw this ad with different copy which was much better. I can’t remember how to post pictures directly so just copied and pasted the words. 

 

Three unique works: the endless invention of a British ballet titan

Experience the many moods of 20th century ballet as The Royal Ballet celebrates the breadth of Principal Choreographer Kenneth MacMillan’s one-act ballets.

Danses Concertantes is grand, geometrical and sharp; Different Drummer is complex and haunting; and Requiem, poignant and elegiac. 

Danses Concertantes / Different Drummer / Requiem open on our Main Stage from 20 March. 

Book your tickets today: https://bit.ly/4bAXRUz

📸 Marcelino Sambé and Francesca Hayward in rehearsal

[alison]

Ah - the limitations of Twitter again?

[Jane S]

I wouldn't describe Danses Concertantes as 'grand', though - the description on the MacMillan site gives a much better impression.

[alison]

No, me neither.

[Fonty]

As someone who has never tweeted or X'd, is this the sole source of publicity now for the ROH?  I haven't seen any posters in the tube, although I saw ones for Manon.  Nor have I received an email about it.  The majority of emails I do receive are about the various opera productions.  

[LinMM]

Perhaps there are no posters because there are only six performances! 
 

[Lizbie1]

Can someone please explain to me why we are worrying so much about marketing for this programme? The amount of attention we're giving it doesn't seem to tally with the number of tickets left to sell.

 

I'm not a huge fan of their work - though I think we've all seen improvements since the disastrous digital-only strategy of a few years back - but the ROH marketing department has limited capacity and is probably diverting its resources elsewhere.

[zxDaveM]

6 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

 - but the ROH marketing department has limited capacity and is probably diverting its resources elsewhere.

 

yes - Swan Lake virtually sold out, so send out the marketing forces

[Peanut68]

Off topic but relevant to discussions here about strange allocation of budgets perhaps….

Saw local arts centre jobs posted… the massive disparity between a marketeer told & technical staff really grates with me…. So much money spent on a role to presumably find out what audiences want etc (hence all the blinking surveys these folk send out ti justify their existence!) yet the tech teams who help create the actual magic of theatre that is what brings audiences back are paid paltry minimums…

World gone mad

 

[bangorballetboy]

12 hours ago, Fonty said:

As someone who has never tweeted or X'd, is this the sole source of publicity now for the ROH?  I haven't seen any posters in the tube, although I saw ones for Manon.  Nor have I received an email about it.  The majority of emails I do receive are about the various opera productions.  

I’ve seen electronic posters in a bust central London tube station, featuring Núñez in Requiem.

[JNC]

13 hours ago, alison said:

That was pretty much my reaction, too.  And the choice of rehearsal photos wasn't really anything special which might actually entice people to buy a ticket.

agree the “lift” (not a lift but hold?) photo actually looks awkward and bad. The others are not exciting. First photo could be ok but I feel the angle is a bit wrong and given they’re both wearing black they sort of blend into each other… 

 

Clearly it’s not selling well if they have only six performances and each has 100+ tickets left only a week and a bit out. It’s also being live cinema streamed (interesting given the Ashton triple I don’t believe was?) and so the advertising should be focusing on non-London for cinema audiences too. I’m invested in this selling well as I would like to see more of MacMillan’s one acts and I feel if it was better marketed it would have had more interest.  

[alison]

7 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

I’ve seen electronic posters in a bust central London tube station, featuring Núñez in Requiem.

 

I think that image (a poster, though?) is actually on the Bow Street frontage of the ROH.  But I don't remember noticing anything about the triple bill, like list of titles, dates or something.

[Roberta]

44 minutes ago, JNC said:

It’s also being live cinema streamed

 

 I had a marketing email from a cinema for the whole ROH cinema season. ballet and opera,  last December. I have no doubt I will receive another soon reminding me what's on in April (triple, Swan Lake). I am also sure other cinemas will be marketing to their email lists. 

 

Triple has a stunning photo of Requiem and it says:-

 

Danses Concertantes, commissioned by Ninette de Valois in 1955, was MacMillan’s first major work. An early sign of the incredible artistic output that would follow, the work’s critical success spurred MacMillan to abandon performing in favour of choreography.

 

It is followed by Different Drummer, MacMillan’s complex and haunting balletic interpretation of Woyzeck, Georg Büchner's play about a soldier’s descent into madness.

 

The mixed programme concludes with Requiem, his 1976 work for Stuttgart Ballet, created in memory of its late artistic director, MacMillan’s friend and former Royal Ballet dancer and choreographer John Cranko.  

 

I suspect this will be issued as a DVD eventually and streamed in a year or so on the streaming service (long after the cine relay and the encores have been seen in the UK then in other countries, there is frequently  delay with those screenings).

 

I'm not sure filling the ROH for each performance, in the long term, will matter too much.  There's life and an audience out there beyond the ROH. 

 

Given that Alex Campbell was offered Different Drummer as one of his 'last' performances I wonder if it was intended he did the relay?  

 

Edited March 8 by Roberta

[JNC]

6 hours ago, Roberta said:

 

I'm not sure filling the ROH for each performance, in the long term, will matter too much.  There's life and an audience out there beyond the ROH. 

 

I think it does matter in terms of revenue, deciding future programming (something not a “sellout” unlikely to return in this financial climate), morale for dancers (not dancing to an enthusiastic sold out venue - although given we’re in darkness and they’ll do their best regardless this probably matters less).

 

Of course cinema live streams and DVDs are important but the ROH is fundamentally about live performances. (Also if this hasn’t sold so well I imagine they’ll reconsider a DVD release as would there really be a huge market for it / enough money made on it?) 

 

ROH revenue I think I read once before means that only about 50% of their required income comes from ticket sales - the rest has to be made from philanthropy, government funding and other avenues. So if they make (even more) of a loss on a non sold out performance for an entire programme (as opposed to an odd one here or there) that all adds up and will cut into margins. 

[Mary]

Of course it matters that ballet sells well in the ROH, and in live venues generally.

 

Don't we all want to see ballet thriving as a live art in this country?

 

My impression is everyone on the forum  feels quite passionately - which is partly why we argue about  company marketing etc  sometimes.

 

[Richard LH]

11 hours ago, Peanut68 said:

Off topic but relevant to discussions here about strange allocation of budgets perhaps….

Saw local arts centre jobs posted… the massive disparity between a marketeer told & technical staff really grates with me…. So much money spent on a role to presumably find out what audiences want etc (hence all the blinking surveys these folk send out ti justify their existence!) yet the tech teams who help create the actual magic of theatre that is what brings audiences back are paid paltry minimums…

World gone mad

 

To be fair though, the first position is full a full-time, permanent  leadership role as a Senior Manager, whereas  the other is a casual contract position with presumably far fewer overall  required qualifications or relevant experience. So I don't think this particular instance is a like-for-like comparison,  but  I do agree that one does wonder at times about the smaller amount of emphasis apparently given to practical skills. And I also agree about the interminable feeble  marketing surveys we now seem to be bombarded with.....

Edited March 8 by Richard LH

[Fonty]

A slightly contentious view perhaps, but I do wonder why, if the programme has been relatively poorly publicised and there are only 6 performances anyway, they are bothering to stage it in the first place?  It doesn't matter whether it is 6 or 16, the same amount of rehearsal time will be needed for the dancers actually involved.  Is it some box ticking exercise?  "Oh, we are being criticised for not doing enough of the heritage works, so let's dig out some stuff we haven't done for a long time.  And it doesn't matter if it doesn't sell well, because we have umpteen performances of Swan Lake coming up, and that always sells like hot cakes."

[Roberta]

2 hours ago, Mary said:

Of course it matters that ballet sells well in the ROH, and in live venues generally.

 I meant for this particular programme. It has a relatively short run and and I doubt the theatre will be empty. However as I said above, I suspect the larger intended audience is cinema, DVD and eventually ROH stream. I'd certainly buy a DVD. 

 

As I said in another post above, marketing for the cine relay was sent to me last December, attractive photo, short descriptions of the ballets, and I have no doubt will be sent again nearer to April. I note that tickets have been sold already, though most people don't book cinema long in advance.   Far easier than for the ROH, click 'Book Here', choose seats, enter card details, and for less than twenty quid there is a marvellous view. 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 8 by Roberta

[alison]

But this cinema stream is restricted to the UK only, so I'm not sure it will really be a much larger audience.  With regard to a DVD release, I suppose it's possible that a "mix and match" one could be compiled from different bills if necessary - or a multi-disc compilation.

 

Your quotation from the marketing material is clearly more appropriate for selling the programme than other things I have seen. 

[Roberta]

1 hour ago, Fonty said:

"Oh, we are being criticised for not doing enough of the heritage works, so let's dig out some stuff we haven't done for a long time.  And it doesn't matter if it doesn't sell well, because we have umpteen performances of Swan Lake coming up, and that always sells like hot cakes."

 

 

Well in part I suspect so. Yet it's a programme I'd far rather see than yet another Swan Lake to be honest.  Unless these slightly more obscure ballets are performed they become simply history. They become obscure as they aren't performed, and so it goes round.  Swan Lake will help fill seats and pay for any shortfall that may occur in staging these ballets. These also give the wider company something different to work on other than endless corps work for the big bucks ballets. 

Edited March 8 by Roberta

[Roberta]

26 minutes ago, alison said:

But this cinema stream is restricted to the UK only,

 

Yes that's a great shame. Presumably rights / copyright issues.  I still suspect this is being staged with a DVD in mind, to record for posterity.  Al least if there is a relay, the ballets will be properly filmed. 

 

 I also suspect including in the triple Requiem and its glorious music will send audiences home wondering why these ballets have dropped out of the repertoire, and now they have been revived can form parts of other triples. 

 

Edited March 8 by Roberta

[Fonty]

36 minutes ago, Roberta said:

 

 

Well in part I suspect so. Yet it's a programme I'd far rather see than yet another Swan Lake to be honest.  Unless these slightly more obscure ballets are performed they become simply history. They become obscure as they aren't performed, and so it goes round.  Swan Lake will help fill seats and pay for any shortfall that may occur in staging these ballets. These also give the wider company something different to work on other than endless corps work for the big bucks ballets. 

 

I agree with you with regard to the programme.  It wouldn't have been my first choice of MacMillan one act ballet combinations, but I take the view that anything slightly different makes a refreshing change from yet another Swan Lake.

However, I do get the feeling that some of these triple bills are put together purely because they are "heritage", rather than because it is felt they will be an excellent display of the both the dancers' and the choreographer's (or choreographers')  talents.  

Edited March 8 by Fonty

[alison]

35 minutes ago, Roberta said:

 

Yes that's a great shame. Presumably rights / copyright issues. 

 

I hadn't thought about that.  I'd assumed that the ROH had decided that it simply wouldn't sell well enough - and maybe I can't blame them for that - so didn't bother making it an international broadcast as it wouldn't be enough of an ROI.

[Roberta]

2 minutes ago, Fonty said:

However, I do get the feeling that some of these triple bills are put together purely because they are "heritage", rather than because it is felt they will be an excellent display of the both the dancers' and the choreographer's (or choreographers')  talents.  

 

 

Possibly. Though I hope Danses Concertantes with the original costumes /sets and tremendous music as well as quirky choreography will be a revelation to many. It's been out of fashion and is now old enough to be back in?  Requiem is a deeply emotional piece, again with glorious music which can't fail to move an audience, especially in these dark times of world events.   Send 'em home in bits, it works with Manon!

 

Different Drummer? I have my suspicions this was intended as a vehicle for Alex Campbell's dramatic abilities, sadly for audiences if not for him events have overtaken us.

 

Let's see what the dancers make of these, who makes the most of the opportunities offered to do something different by a great choreographer. No harlots. 

 

[zxDaveM]

2 hours ago, Roberta said:

something different by a great choreographer. No harlots. 

 

 

 

thanks heavens for that!

[alison]

Oh, are they whores in different drummer, then?

[Dawnstar]

4 hours ago, Roberta said:

Different Drummer? I have my suspicions this was intended as a vehicle for Alex Campbell's dramatic abilities, sadly for audiences if not for him events have overtaken us.

 

If it was intended as a vehicle for Campbell then wouldn't he have been cast in the main role of Woyzeck rather than the subsidiary role of the Drum Major?

[Roberta]

22 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

If it was intended as a vehicle for Campbell then wouldn't he have been cast in the main role of Woyzeck rather than the subsidiary role of the Drum Major?

 

 I hadn't looked at the casting, that's probably the reason then he chose not to do that as his final performance.  Wise choice to do Manon. 

 

Some will hate it, others will love it. MacMillan was always controversial!  

 

I do think it an interesting choice of triple, I suspect many people have little idea of the range of his work beyond Manon, R & J and Mayerling.