bridiem

Yes, the lighting was often far too low so that even with opera glasses it was really difficult to see what was happening at times. There's atmospheric and there's just plain DARK. Several others have mentioned the pas de deux for Romeo and Benvolio when R learns of Juliet's 'death' - I thought that was absolutely thrilling. Those backward leaps, arching through the air not caring if he would be caught or not - SO beautiful and dramatic.

I can't see why not - it would just take someone holding back one of the curtains for the dancers to come through. Or there could be solo/double calls on the main stage if necessary. (It may have been policy anyway - the same thing happened after Akram Khan's Giselle. I feel a letter to TR coming on.)

I hadn't seen this production for a long time and I'd forgotten most of it, so it was really like seeing it anew. I tried to forget that it was Nureyev's production, in order not to give it a 'halo effect' - I tried to see it as if it was by someone of whom I knew nothing. For quite a while I was a bit perplexed by it; I thought several times that it was really quite un-balletic, as if it was by someone who didn't have a strong background in classical ballet (yes, ridiculous, I know). I think that just indicates that it was actually a very fresh and imaginative approach. I also thought that at times it was a bit crude and unpoetic; but it was also consistently interesting and visually absorbing - almost cinematic - and when it did become poetic it was heartbreakingly so. I think that it told the story more effectively than the MacMillan version with which I am so familiar. I loved the marriage scene - the movements between Romeo, Juliet and Friar Laurence were so touching (and it was a delight to see Michael Coleman again). I found the transfer of the grief about Tybalt to Juliet very effective, and Romeo's dream sequence after he has fled. The final reconciliation scene was very satisfying (even if it slightly reduced the drama of the ending). The dancing was excellent all round, including James Streeter's brilliant Tybalt. Hernandez and Takahashi were technically superb but it was only towards the end of the ballet that I felt any chemistry between them and really cared about them (the finale reduced me to tears). I was thoroughly indignant about the curtain calls - instead of the required catharsis and the appropriate gratitude (mutual between audience and performers), there were two group calls where the principals just stood forward, and that was it. That is NOT right!! (I know it's a long ballet, and I know it had overrun a bit; but I don't care. There should be proper/sufficient curtain calls after a performance, especially after a big dramatic three-acter.)

I think this thread is primarily motivated by concern about ENB, not by interest in the private lives of the dancers.

I think the discussion here is primarily about dancer development and retention etc, not about wider artistic issues.

I'm all in favour of performances for those who CAN'T keep quiet; not keen on accommodating those who simply don't want to. For their sake too, in fact - if you chat etc during a live performance, you break the really powerful link that (at best) is formed between the performers and the audience so that the audience is completely drawn into what is happening on stage and for that period of time no-one and nothing else exists.

Online booking opens at 9am on the relevant date and phone booking at 10am the same day.

That would indeed explain the higher overall salary; but it doesn't explain the large rise from one year to the next.

Yes, I'm so sorry if he really is going.

Without knowing the personal motivations of the leavers I don't think anyone can say for sure that this does or doesn't indicate a problem. It just seems like a surprisingly large number, especially for a company that is currently riding high from an outside perspective.

Me too!

In fact the first airing of this is at 9am tomorrow - the evening airing is a repeat and lasts half an hour whereas the morning airing is 45 mins, so presumably better to catch the morning airing (or use iplayer later) if possible.

A programme exploring the making of Flight Pattern with the Royal Ballet is going to be on Radio 4 on Tuesday evening (24 July) at 9.30pm - part of a series called Behind the Scenes.

Wow!

She's been paired with both of them, with great success in both cases I think. I'm delighted that she and Sambé are doing Giselle together, but I would very much like to see Campbell do Albrecht too, which is my only disappointment in the casting. He has an innate stage presence and dramatic intelligence that is very rare (reminds me of David Wall, and I can give no higher compliment).

I thought all the Titanias looked wonderful, including Takada.

Well I suppose London being the capital city does have a certain national significance too... Though I suspect if she'd come from somewhere else that might also have been used as the angle. They just choose a peg to hang the story on and Londoner is as good as any.

I think the point is that this is the London Evening Standard reporting, so they're going to take a London angle.

Clearly Kevin O'Hare reads this Forum.

That reminds me of the moment in R&J when Lady Capulet and Lady Montagu are obliged to be 'reconciled' to each other - the slow, grand curtsies down and then the contemptuous sweeping away of their gowns before they stalk up to the Prince of Verona. Brilliant.

I think that publicity photos are often more stylised than the real thing, and these do show the beauty of the designs. Besides which I can't imagine that a version that was 'prettified' would be allowed to be staged.

Great topic! I agree about that last image in Baiser de la fée - magnificent. Other possibles, some already mentioned: RN production of Giselle Act II when the Wilis run on, and turn rapidly one after the other to form a diagonal like a knife The final tableau of Dowell's production of Swan Lake - Odette and Siegfried gracefully recumbent after their travails, en route to paradise the second section of MacMillan's Concerto - like the heart of the sun the endings of so many Balanchine works! He was the master of the visually dazzling finale the lights going up on the ballroom scene in MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet the opening and closing scenes of Mayerling (in the cemetery) and the opening of the first act proper (crooked banner, sumptuous costumes, thrilling music, and a seemingly endless parade of dancers/characters Cinderella coming slowly down the steps to the ballroom in Ashton's Cinderella the wall in Akram Khan's Giselle the final tableau of The Firebird - a blaze of colour, power, light, music the last moments of The Song of the Earth - the slow walk into eternity Swan Lake swans, filling the stage with such beauty MacMillan's Requiem - the lone white Pie Jesu figure the final scene of Bintley's Sons of Horus - ancient Egypt on the move the second Pigeon moment (if it behaves) Bayadère Shades Wayne Eagling's Frankenstein: I have a memory of the orchestra gradually being elevated on an onstage platform, playing away manically; I may have been hallucinating, but it brought the house down

I was at the evening performance on Thursday. I enjoyed Arcadia - it looked lovely and was upbeat and well made and well danced. I was far to the side of the auditorium though, and I'd like to see it again seated more centrally since I think some of the effects were a bit lost on me. And the ending seemed rather rushed. I also thought that it was like something David Bintley could have made; which in one way is good, but I hope that Ruth Brill has her own personal voice too (this is the only choreography I've seen by her). For me the highlight of the evening was Le Baiser de la fée; I hadn't seen it for a long time, and I thought it was terrific. Brilliant choreography and designs to beautiful, interesting music, and a haunting plot clearly related. I thought Joseph Caley was wonderful as The Young Man, both technically and dramatically, and Jenna Roberts was an excellent Fairy. I hadn't seen Pineapple Poll for many years, and although I can see it's a well-constructed work, and amusing, it was really too over-the-top for my liking (though perhaps I just wasn't in the right mood). This was also my first visit to Birmingham Hippodrome; what a beautiful theatre!

Delighted for Beryl Grey, both for her personally and for the fact that someone from the ballet world has been given such a high honour. Mystified about the continued lack of a knighthood for David Bintley. Perhaps that would have been too much ballet in one list?!! Let's hope he's in the next one if so.

I personally use it both ways. Even if I disagree with a post it may be interesting and/or thought-provoking.