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Mariinsky Ballet to visit London in 2014


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The cheaper tickets seem to be gone for the Marinsky, with a handful of standing tickets left for Swan Lake only but there were plenty of £38 and up tickets left late last night. There are a few little blocks (not the greatest seats) that seemed to be taken for all performances, maybe they are held back for another booking period?

 

The ROH triple bills seemed to have SC nearly completely booked, wouldn't want to have to try getting seats for those in public booking

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I think all these priority booking periods are getting a bit ridiculous now and certainly making anything at ROH very elitist - and I speak as a Friend - I could not get the seats I prefer yesterday.  I logged on at 10.10am and the best seats were already gone for the RB mixed bills (the low price having something to do with that) but I was shocked at the number of taken seats.  The Mariinksy was marginally better but not much. 

Edited by Don Q Fan
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 I logged on at 10.10am and the best seats were already gone for the RB mixed bills (the low price having something to do with that) but I was shocked at the number of taken seats.   

 

I believe that some of the seats which appear 'taken' when Friends book are held back for Public Booking.

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I started at 10am and booked 2 Mariinsky and got the seats I wanted (£48 ones, my real favourites were £60) then decided it would be better to get the RB triple bill seats, which I did and got the ones I wanted at £20/£26, when I went back to the Mariinsky I couldn't always get the ones I wanted but still loads available from £48 upwards, not surprising, I did look at the £32 ones but I think some have been kept back for Public Booking.  Couldn't help but compare the same seat, £20 for the RB triple bill and £48 for the Mariinsky including a triple bill, as usual it's the people in the mid to rear amphi who suffer the most.

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I don't know if this will apply to anyone here, but if you look at the bottom of Sarah Crompton's article on the Mariinsky which was published in the Daily Telegraph last Saturday (linked to in Today's Links of the same date), there is a Telegraph subscriber priority booking period valid until public booking starts.

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I've just realised that priority booking for members of the Victor Hochhauser mailing list started a couple of days ago. I was expecting them to send out a reminder email, but they didn't, so I thought I'd mention it just in case anyone else has forgotten!

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Apart from Vishneva, try to see Tereshkina and  Kondaurova, also Lopatkina if you've not seen her before.  Avoid Somova and Skorik.

 

I saw Somova as Odette/Odile last time round and she was beautiful. Loved every minute.

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At this year's Mariinsky Festival I thought that Alina Somova in 'The Swan' (Fokine) and La Bayadere and Oxana Skorik in Swan Lake and Symphony In C along with Diana Vishneva in Woman In A Room (Carlson) were perhaps the Absolute Highlights(!).  And definitely try to see Ulyana Lopatkina, who wasn't given much to do at this Festival, but is probably one of the all-time greats. The company is loaded with talent from 'top to bottom'. I don't think that you can go wrong seeing any of them.

Edited by Buddy
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My response was a measured one, it is impossible to know what expectations of technique any of the posters here have but I assume they are very high indeed, to assume otherwise would be to seriously mislead. 

 

A trip to see the Kirov isn't cheap and London is hardly a ballet-starved city, so please bear in mind that the two dancers I mentioned may be first rate contortionists but in the main London tastes don't run to that style.  As someone who has been watching the Kirov for forty years I have never seen the standards so low as they are today. I mentioned only the female contingent, but bear in mind that this company is actually importing male dancers now and you will search in vain for a Nureyev, a Soloviev a Baryshinikov or a Ruzimatov, though hopefully the recent changes at the school may see things picking up. When you buy a ticket for this company it is very much 'caveat emptor' and booking blind without casting becomes a version of Russian roulette.

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Well that's your opinion, MAB, and you are of course entitled to it. I have my favourites among both RB and ENB but although I might suggest that a relative newcomer should try to see a particular dancer, I certainly wouldn't tell them to avoid particular dancers just because someone does not float my boat as much as someone else. Surely, like all art, Ballet is subjective in terms of liking some dancers better than others?

 

I had never seen Somova dance and I had no expectation of the evening other than that the corps would be in synch, the costumes would be pretty, and I would be swept away by Tchaikovsky's beautiful music. I was not disappointed on any count and the fact that I thought that Somova gave a beautiful performance as Odette/Odile was a bonus.

 

Given the choice (and the money) this time round I would probably choose to see Lopatkina in Swan Lake but not because there was anything lacking in Somova's performance.

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In all fairness to Somova (who I haven't seen in ages myself), I believe people have been reporting her greatly improved over the last couple of years, haven't they? I don't think I've actually booked anything with her in for this run (my primary criterion being whether I could get *any* tickets I could afford), but I wouldn't necessarily rule her out now, even based on my past experiences, which were NOT GOOD.

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I wrote down the casting and there appear to be some changes now, i.e. Alina Somova  dances Juliet on Thursday 31st July and Olga Esina on Wednesday 30th July, they have swapped (with their partners), M and A is now TBC, and Alina Somova dances in Apollo on Saturday 9th August evening instead of Oxana Skorik. There might be others, my list wasn't complete, just the leads.

 

I presume we can swap one Mariinsky ticket for another, have been able to in previous years, I particularly wanted to see Diana Vishneva in M and A.

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Original casting is here:

 

 http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/5563-mariinsky-ballet-to-visit-london-in-2014/?p=83177

 

I've had a quick look at the current casting and have noticed that, in addition to the changes mentioned by Beryl, Matvienko and Parish are no longer doing the last Swan Lake on Thursday 14th August.  Kondaurova and Askerov are now listed for that performance.

 

 

There might well be other changes but that's all I have time for at the moment.  Maybe somebody else might like to check the rest of the casting.

Edited by Bluebird
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It seems especially rotten of the Mariinsky to change an advertised performance from Xander Parish and, indeed, for the Hochhausers to agree to that alteration. Do they not appreciate that there will be a lot of interest in him and many people will have booked specially to catch him dancing a leading role.

 

The problem with swapping tickets, which is usually possible, is that one can never get as good a seat or standing place for the substitute performance and the cast may vary from that now advertised before the actual day.

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I do have a ticket for Vishneva in M and A and Stepanova in Firebird for the 11th of August. I know I will be disappointed if Vishneva in particular doesn't dance that day as ticket was very expensive.......though of course one always knows the possibility of injuries with dancers but hope they are not changing things around for the hell of it so to speak!!

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I do have a ticket for Vishneva in M and A and Stepanova in Firebird for the 11th of August. I know I will be disappointed if Vishneva in particular doesn't dance that day as ticket was very expensive.......though of course one always knows the possibility of injuries with dancers but hope they are not changing things around for the hell of it so to speak!!

In my experience of this company under the present management,changes tend to be political.

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Back to the choice of dancers discussion for a moment.


 


Based on ten years of watching the Mariinsky rather closely, I would say that In Essence, Alina Somova and Oxana Skorik (possibly after Ulyana Lopatkina, who might be described slightly differently) are perhaps the most *Gracefully and Poetically Flowing* ballerinas on the Mariinsky stage today, at least on my current radar. 


Edited by Buddy
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If you have only seen the company for ten years then you have only seen it in decline.

 

Having looked again at the casting I can't help feeling that London is being short-changed yet again by the omission of Novikova, Osmolkina and Pavlenko.

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I don't think that Daria Pavlenko dances that much at home either. When I saw her perform a year ago she seemed artistically matured and as physically capable as I've ever seen her, but these were only quick glances. I love seeing her and hope that she gets as many significant appearances as possible.

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MAB - I found your post very interesting and helpful.  I have always liked ballet, but my passion was really aroused about twenty years ago when I saw Ruzimatov and Altynai Azimuratova in Bayadere and was spellbound.  The closest since for me has been Cojocaru and Kobborg and, latterly, Ed Watson in Mayerling.  I found the Bolshoi last year uninspiring, disappointed and over-hyped and am apprehensive as to how the Marinsky will be.  I saw Vishneva in Anna Karenina a couple of years back and loved it although the audience were a little lukewarm.  I tend to think you are right and the Marinksy are not what they used to be.

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Indeed, the Kirov has slid downhill since Vinogradov was in charge when there was so much talent throughout the ranks it could rightly be called an embarrassment of riches but sadly things are very different today.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your disappointment with the Bolshoi as I saw some terrific performances, though I will concede that there was a cast I saw that certainly didn't thrill me.  The Kirov is at a lower standard than the Bolshoi currently and their reputation won't be helped by leaving three of their best dancers at home.  I wouldn't go so far as to tell you to save money, but Kirov performances depend very much on who is dancing the leading roles and with the common practice of last minute cast changes you may be saddled with those dancers that us old hands endeavour to avoid.  Frankly these days my favourite visitors from St Petersburg are the dancers of the Mikhailovsky.

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It is strange how ballet companies seem to come and go. I first saw the Kirov in 1990 in Manchester and I was absolutely bowled over by them so much so that I persuaded my husband to come with me to see them in Birmingham the following week. They were doing Corsaire and it was just incredible; possibly the most wonderful ballet-going experience I've ever had. For someone who'd just seen the Tchaikovsky ballets performed by small touring companies to see something as incredible and exotic as Corsaire by such an amazing company was just mind-blowing and I became a ballet devotee from that moment; especially of the Russian companies. At that time the Bolshoi were going through all sorts of artistic and management crises and the Kirov were riding the crest of a wave with dancers such as Altynai Assulyuratova, Konstantin Zaklinsky (her husband), Faroukh Ruzimatov, Yelena Pankova, Larissa Lezhnina and the young Igor Zelensky. However, by the end of the decade many of these dancers had either left the company or had retired and the Kirov, ever so slowly and slightly started to lose it's lustre (in my opinion, anyway). By the time the Bolshoi became resurgent under Ratmansky with his new ballets, and discovered homegrown talents in Osipova and Vasiliev the Bolshoi were definately in the ascendent and it was the Kirov who was waning and seemed to continue to wane though I thought their last visit showed more promise than they have done for a while; at least from a dancing point of view. However, what this years visits hightlight for me is their very poor rep. They seem to have no new full length ballets worth seeing and I am disappointed they are yet again not bringing Corsaire. I won't be visiting London this summer and it is the first Russian summer season I've missed since that first visit in 1990. Here's hoping for better things next year.

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Wow, this thread is starting to sound like I'd be better off to watch my local driving school teaching the skills of parking in the supermarket carpark than the sad pathetic troupe formerly known as Kirov.

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Well perhaps they are "not as good as they used to be" but they are still a very good ballet company to watch as ballet companies go!!

 

However high prices will make some people think twice......particularly those not within easy reach of London.

 

I would have liked to see Vishneva in some of the works she does with ABT but will still be pleased to see her in M and A

 

I think with tickets you cannot "cash them in" as such but you can exchange them for another of the particular company's performances.

I only found this out recently when I discovered I couldn't make the original night booked for Winters Tale. I'd already sold it and bought another one before I realised I could have exchanged it.......but it would have to have been for the Royal Ballet.......I did ask at the time could I have exchanged for a Maryinski performance and was told then only for the same company.

 

Your post did make me laugh Coated!!

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