bridiem

If this is private information to which you somehow have access, perhaps it would be better not to refer to it in public, especially if you are not then willing to explain what you mean.

Well she acknowledges that that happened when she first joined the company, and others have said this too - the realisation of no longer being the star pupil etc. But she was then getting unusually big roles for a corps member, so she had every right to hope that she was indeed being marked for future promotion.

It was indeed confusing, capybara! I also thought the curtain calls had finished, as many others clearly did.

What a lovely, brave young woman. I imagine she would have been promoted if she'd stayed, and I understand why she was distraught about not being promoted at that stage. But as she says, she was able to spend those valuable years with her mother, and that is by far the best way of reflecting on these events. To be honest, I'm not sure that posting something so personal online is really wise, for her or anyone else. But she clearly felt the wish and the need to do so, and hopes that it may help others in some way to hear her story. So I hope that it does, and I wish her the very best in her life.

So Scarlett is choreographing a new full-length which opens on 14th April in Copenhagen and producing/part-choreographing the RB new Swan Lake opening in London on 17th May. I would have thought that either of these would be pretty well a full-time occupation in the months leading up to the première. Wow.

I did initially think that Sambé looked very young for Lescaut; but (not knowing the novel) I quickly came to see him as a scheming young fraudster willing to use his pretty (and pretty willing) sister for his/their purposes. But in the end, both were out of their depth.

Completely agree about the convent, Alison - it would have been seen by the family at least as a safe place, where a young woman would be adequately provided for in the absence of other possibilities (or a husband). But for Manon, it may not have been her favoured option. What you say about standalone dancing is interesting - maybe the ballet is a solo (for Manon) short! Where we could learn a little more about her as an individual, rather than simply through how she relates to others.

Yes, he was Des Grieux to Osipova's Manon in 2014.

Yes, Kobborg was brilliant. But Dowell's perfect imprint is always on this solo. (Not that I saw the première.)

Agree very much about Naghdi, and I can't compare to Hay (yet) but I thought (compared to anyone) that Sambé was brilliant; even made me feel some sympathy for Lescaut at his demise.

I did think that Osipova did this brilliantly, zxDaveM; my problem is with the character/behaviour! To be seduced SO quickly, in spite of 1) Des Grieux and 2) Monsieur G.M. - ?! I know an answer to this would be - she's poor, and the alternative is a convent. But (in the age old argument) not all poor women would react/behave in this way. On reflection, I think that she and Lescaut must have been on the look-out for such an opportunity for a while, and so seized it immediately (in spite of Des Grieux, who couldn't be allowed to derail their plans).

I thought it was an outstanding performance too, reaching a shattering, devastating climax. Osipova's collapse, physical and emotional, in the last act was total. No doubt I'll be in a minority of one in this, but I actually found Shklyarov took a long time to relax into the role; in the first act I thought he was quite stiff, with some heavy landings; only in the last act did he completely convince me, and by then his response to Osipova was tremendous. Sambé was terrific as Lescaut, both in terms of dancing and acting, and Naghdi an excellent and intelligently danced mistress (interesting that she doesn't get given a name). And you couldn't get a nastier pair than Gary Avis and Bennet Gartside... I do find some of Act 2 problematic, in that the tone is too jaunty for the sordidness of the setting. I don't really want to laugh at Lescaut's solo, or the pas de deux with his mistress - both brilliantly performed, but a drunken pimp (effectively) in a brothel doesn't seem that funny to me whatever he's doing. And in Act 1, I find Manon's instant acceptance of Monsieur G.M.'s advances immediately after the ecstatic bedroom scene with Des Grieux quite baffling; she doesn't hesitate for one moment! However, the ballet packs such an emotional punch in the end that all such thoughts are swept away, and Manon's complete defeat and vulnerability turn the ending into a profound tragedy. These dancers really are amazing - to switch from the Bernstein bill to Manon with such apparent effortlessness is incredible.

You don't like that idea?! Just doing some fantasy casting in my head. Maria: Anna Rose O'Sullivan; Captain von Trapp: Ryoichi Hirano; Revd Mother: Zenaida Yanowsky (back as guest); the Baroness: Tierney Heap; Liesl: Natalia Osipova... Sorry, sorry, I'll stop now.

Just to say that for me, this bill didn't improve on live viewing (as opposed to live screening) tonight. In fact without the benefit of novelty (in 2 cases) it deteriorated., which was rather disappointing. I still quite liked Yugen, but the higher viewpoint (Amphi) as opposed to the filmed eye-level viewpoint didn't, as I had hoped it might, clarify its shapes and relationships. In fact it just emphasized the fact that there was rather a lot of milling around going on. There was one lovely section towards the end, ending with the woman carried off by two men, reminiscent (as others have said) of both Requiem and Serenade. And there were some other nice moments. But not enough, and I didn't feel that there was a real response to the (sensational!) music going on. A lot of it seemed to be generic turning, twisting etc to no particular purpose and with no particular originality. But the music (and of course the quality of the dancing) did at least make it worth seeing. I have now lost patience with The Age of Anxiety. I have no idea why we are supposed to be interested in these people, since we don't know who they are or why they behave as they do or why they suddenly have great transports of emotion for no apparent reason. The choreography tells us nothing about them. The sets are spectacular, but to no purpose. There are huge dramatic musical climaxes which are in no way reflected in what is happening on stage. (Why is the appearance of the woman's apartment, and the lowering of the lamp, set to hugely dramatic music? Was it a very expensive lamp?? I suspect the answer might be the appearance of the New York skyline through her window; but actually that's not particularly visible and makes no real impact at that stage, so the whole episode just seems daftly overblown.) Even at the end: why does (tonight) James Hay suddenly burst into that ecstatic solo? They all seem to have had a thoroughly miserable and confusing evening, and he's just chucked away the card given to him by the older man so is presumably not happy to have been kissed by him; so why the sudden mood switch? Yes, it's beautifully danced and quite touching, and the NY skyline is lovely; but it doesn't mean anything! (To quote from The Sound of Music. Now THAT would be a ballet worth seeing...). As for Corybantic Games: since I was prepared for the costumes, I could notice the choreography more tonight. And I wished I hadn't. I found it slick, superficial and expressive of nothing. I also thought it was quite an achievement (back to the costumes) to make the men look both chunky (physically) and wet (metaphorically) since they are all clearly neither. Superb dancing again was no compensation. To my surprise, Yugen got a very lukewarm reception whereas the other two seemed to go down very well. No accounting for taste (including mine, no doubt!). Bridie Macmahon

Thanks Alison - tomorrow evening still no good for me. But I read that the DVD of this is coming out on 7 May, so I hope that's right since the show times have been so limited (and I suspect it's something I'd like to keep anyway if it includes lots of Curry footage!).

I don't know if that is the public perception of Princess Margaret's choice, but it's not mine. I didn't know her and that was a complicated and difficult situation so I would not presume to judge. Either way, her situation was rather different from that of a (fictional) young woman born into poverty. Although in fact Manon doesn't seem to struggle all that much with her options (until she is hit by the horror of their consequences).

I do wonder why this has been launched with what appear to be such obvious problems (I haven't looked myself yet - I hope that by the time I next need to book something, some or all of these issues will have been ironed out).

Thanks, capybara. I've just posted a short query as to why the centenary has not even been mentioned let alone marked.

Since this isn't a live screening, I don't understand why they're all on the same date everywhere. I have another engagement that evening so I can't go, and it's only showing on that one evening.

I hadn't registered that Yugen is a co-production. It's a short ballet with simple sets and costumes so that seems a bit strange.

I think it's possibly true that MacMillan doesn't get to the heart of Manon (or maybe it's just that I don't 'get' her); but given how effectively he has got to the heart of other women in other ballets, I would suggest that the problem is not necessarily due to his gender. But I do agree that some of the choices he has made (in this and other ballets) are uncomfortable. (And of course, some are brilliant.) (And just to mention that men born into poverty were also in pretty dire circumstances in the past, with perhaps different but equally limited choices.)

I'm not seeing this until next week, but the comments so far are interesting. I didn't like this ballet for a long time, precisely because it was so sleazy and unpleasant with no real compensating depth of characterisation to redeem it (as there is in Mayerling, for example, which is also obviously not a bed of roses). Manon herself seems to be greedy and manipulative and amoral, Des Grieux a bit feeble, and Lescaut just nasty and exploitative. And various other unpleasant characters. It's only in recent years that the sheer power and quality of the performances have won me over. I don't know either the novel or the opera, so I don't know how much is unique to the ballet or how faithful the representations are to the sources. But I wouldn't necessarily assume that Manon is an innocent - she may be, but I don't see much in the ballet to suggest it. However I'll be interested to see the various interpretations in the next few weeks.

Must have been one of the many interesting and illuminating diversions (or divertissements? ) that happen so often on this Forum.

Strange really. Choir members don't rush off when the soloists are singing after all, and that's sometimes for very long periods depending on the work. They just sit patiently and wait (and participate inwardly in the performance). I suppose the difference is that a choir is visible whereas the orchestra isn't (or at least thinks it isn't).

Hope you feel better soon, Sim.