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bridiem

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  1. bridiem
    I agree with this (and I would include the constant commissioning of Wayne McGregor as part of the problem). Why the RB needs 3 'house' choreographers, especially given the often poor quality of many of the resulting works, I really don't know, but it surely greatly reduces the opportunities for others.
  2. bridiem
    I do agree with Nogoat that The Unknown Soldier is unsophisticated, and also that the timing is wrong. It should have been premièred any time between late 2014 and (realistically) late 2017. My other main problem with it (which I don't think Nogoat actually shares, though I may be wrong!) is that I found some of the choreography especially in the early stages rather bland and derivative (though I think it improves quite a lot as it goes along). Oh and that scrim. But I don't object to a lack of sophistication (in fact I suspect I am largely unsophisticated - e.g., I LOVE The Sound of Music, which I understand is held in a certain amount of contempt by sophisticated people!), and I certainly didn't consider it 'tacky'. I don't normally like film projections (because the dancers inevitably look tiny and overshadowed) but I thought these were used beautifully. I also don't normally like voiceovers, but I thought these were used rhythmically and almost poetically. But I do agree that it's very unlikely to be seen again, for various reasons, which I think is rather a shame. I do agree with Vanartus - when you have Gloria, you absolutely should stage it (more than the couple of times it was shown ?last year) when WW1 is being commemorated. For all my sympathy for The Unknown Soldier, Gloria is vastly superior and totally brilliant. But, for me, the very different perspective of The US is also nevertheless welcome. I nearly sat out Infra last night, but then I realised that that would mean sitting outside for an hour and a half, which seemed a bit ridiculous. In the event, I rather wished I had sat it out since it says precisely nothing to me and I could have been reading my book.
  3. bridiem
    I'd forgotten it was on again this season! Just checked, and it's on with The Firebird and Month in the Country in June. Can't wait! Good luck with the house sale.
  4. bridiem
    There was also applause on Tuesday night when the curtain went up on S in C. Understandable!
  5. bridiem
    Maybe, but they didn't look especially like dance students to me. (And if they were, I hope they'd study Symphony in C!). Or they could be learning about WW1 and the commemorations etc I suppose.
  6. bridiem
    There were droves of teenagers in the amphi, both on Tuesday and tonight. I can't recall ever seeing that before.
  7. bridiem
    Maybe it was the prospect of another long interval followed by another comparatively short work? I can't otherwise imagine why anyone would miss Symphony in C. Infra certainly got a great reception (though not from me). (It seemed to last hours.) I enjoyed Osipova's performance in Symphony in C, though I did think that she didn't seem entirely comfortable. Bracewell was terrific, both in this and in The Unknown Soldier, as was O'Sullivan.
  8. bridiem
    I don't know. But people like Luke Jennings are influential.
  9. bridiem
    I don't know about 'no ballet', but it's clear that some commentators do wish to 'excise' works altogether (as Luke Jennings's outlines in his review, in which he gives his opinion (qualifying it as 'personal' to imply that its perfectly debatable) that La B should remain (but only in order to remind everyone of the stupidity of 19th-century Europeans, not because of its quality)). I agree that productions change to an extent over time according to current style and taste, and that's fine and inevitable. Calling them 'dangerous' and 'problematic' simply because they reflect attitudes of a different era, or even simply attitudes which one may dislike, is in itself dangerous and problematic. And if a work is no good, the likelihood is that it won't survive anyway.
  10. bridiem
    I don't think they're easy to read in parts of the auditorium (which after all is where they're quite likely to be being read). They are much less clear than the previous incarnation, and the text and headings are very closely spaced which looks amateurish. And the promotional blurb about the Linbury is difficult to read wherever you are. Light grey text against white background? Not sensible.
  11. bridiem
    Perhaps I had the advantage of not having bought a programme! I thought the telegraph boy was conveying the physical and emotional whirlwood that was about to envelop its recipient.
  12. bridiem
    You seem to be saying that the artist has to re-interpret the beliefs and reactions of witnesses like Harry Patch, rather than to use the medium of art to simply convey them as powerfully as possible in whatever art form they operate in. I don't think that's necessarily the case. If Alistair Marriott wanted to convey Harry Patch's 'message' (so urgently and eloquently delivered) in a very direct way, that is his right. We can (and clearly do!) differ about the quality of what he has thereby produced. (Though I did have reservations about some parts, especially early on.) But I found the directness of the delivery of the message unusual, moving and courageous, and a powerful accompaniment to the directness of Harry Patch's words - it was as if his words were being set to physical music.
  13. bridiem
    So that invalidates his testimony? How incredibly patronising.
  14. bridiem
    Or listen to Harry Patch.
  15. bridiem
    It doesn't seem in the least bit trite to me. "Messages" don't always have to be complex or nuanced.
  16. bridiem
    That was the whole point! At the very beginning of the ballet the interviewee kept saying 'they were so beautiful', 'they were beautiful young men' - lamenting the loss of all these young men in their physical prime. And the last scene shows them restored to their physical prime after death, with the insistent refrain that death is not the end. There is nothing gratuitous or exploitative about that.
  17. bridiem
    The Patrons' scheme is very expensive. I wonder if they'll attract many people to it. If not, they'll lose money as well as good will.
  18. bridiem
    Well I don't frequent such clubs so I wouldn't know. I'm not sure if that makes me pure of heart and mind, but maybe it helps.
  19. bridiem
    I think this would only be the case if near-naked male bodies are deemed to be automatically homo-erotic. What I saw - and what was clearly intended - was a beautiful and moving depiction of life after death. Not everything is about sex.
  20. bridiem
    But there have always been two people at each (main) doorway to direct people to seats (and that is needed, in my view, at least most of the time). People presenting their tickets as they go into the auditorium are going to expect to also be directed to their seat. This way there will just be a lot of pointless conversations where person A directs people to person B.
  21. bridiem
    It was rather ridiculous last night: no ticket check until I got to the door into the auditorium, as expected; but when the ticket was checked, and I then asked where to go (I always have a good idea, but do want to be directed to the right row), the checker directed me to someone standing a few feet further into the doorway for that function. If the check is going to be left until you're going into the auditorium, why are separate people needed to do it?
  22. bridiem
    So this seems to be a significant part of its charitable purpose that it's not fulfilling.
  23. bridiem
    I found The Unknown Soldier intensely moving; in fact I was in tears as it ended. Apart from the film projections, I found the early sections a bit bland, and EXTREMELY annoying because of that ridiculous scrim stopping half way down and obscuring the view of much of the stage for I would think quite a lot of the auditorium. To me, that was plain stupid. Did no-one watch the ballet from anywhere other than the stalls? Did no-one think of this? But when the scrim went up and I could see properly, things gradually improved as the relationship between the two leads blossomed. And it then went from strength to strength - the movement was more interesting and individual, and the words/interviews used were simple and devastating in their power. I thought Yasmine Naghdi was superb and so expressive, both with Matthew Ball and on her own. The receipt of the telegram was shattering; but it was the ending of the ballet that was both original and life-affirming. Ball running and then dancing on his own, in his new life; and then suddenly joined by all the other beautiful young men, also restored to life, their bodies glowing and their limbs flying. And the endless names running past our eyes - lost, but not lost, and never forgotten. (Why did the scrim stay down throughout the applause though??!! Absolutely daft.) Infra: I know these dancers are incredibly strong and flexible, but I really have no wish to see them used as hyperextended bendy dolls. Mainly stretching and contorting masquerading as dance, IMHO. Symphony in C: what a ballet. Magnificent. Very difficult, very exposing, but magnificent. I thought all the principals (cast as on the rehearsal list shown above) were excellent, with a particular shout for Alexander Campbell who has (when relevant) a showbizzy pizzazz (??!) that I think suits Balanchine very well. One of my desert island ballets. I didn't think the bill was very well balanced though. The first two works both used projections above the dancers on a bare stage, so although the Marriott work was much more ambitious the effect was slightly repetitious (and gave rise to the perhaps unworthy thought that they'd been paired together in order to save money on separate uses of the film equipment...). And then Symphony in C seemed to come out of nowhere; on a different planet visually and stylistically from the other works. But nevertheless, a terrific end to the evening.
  24. bridiem
    Not sure what you mean by that. I was simply challenging the idea (introduced by you) that the Telegraph is beneath contempt whereas fashion magazines are to be respected. I would have thought that every review should be judged with an open mind.
  25. bridiem
    I just assumed it was ROH hard sell for their new catering facilities.
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