Mary

Hmm yes- capping a dancer onto the stage -that's something I am ambivalent about. It can rather intrude on the performance and sometimes feels like an audience member 'showing off' that s/he knows the dancer ( think if you got it wrong!)

On the other hand it is nice to do it for special occasions such as a visiting dancer, one who is about to retire, or certainly one who is coming back from injury...I have clapped for that reason out of sympathetic joy in seeing the dancer again and I shall feel 'like clapping on' Ed Watson and Steven McRae when they return, I know.

Yes- if it becomes normal to give standing ovations, as seems to be happening in the West End,  the problem becomes- how to display the next level of appreciation? leaping onto the stage  and embracing the dancers?😄

Thanks very much for these reviews- sadly I don't feel surprised that these documentaries are lacklustre. Gone are the days of great TV arts documentaries by such as Tony Palmer.

The best art documentaries these days seem to be by people like EOS ( Exhibition on Screen) which are distributed to cinemas then go to DVD ( e.g. recent films on Canaletto, Vermeer). It would be marvellous if they or similar could make some good in-depth ballet documentaries.  After all, ballet  requires the film treatment more than painting....

I never thought it was meant to be funny, and given the context, don't think it shoud be played as comedy-: there should be a wry smile perhaps but laughter in this scene is not the right note. Lescaut is a very nasty piece of work: the audience should not be laughing warmly at his 'antics'.

Two...

Richard LH -I don't agree with you but think your points are perfectly reasonable and reasonably put. I am baffled by the idea that is somehow wrong for you to say that you preferred the other casts.

I am interested to read different views as always:  constant praise  can be very uninformative.

'Denigration' is a very strong, emotive term, and surely not the right one. 'Criticism' yes- constructive, one hopes, as it usually is on the forum.

I had noticed the 'dumbing down' of the survey too Alison- it did use to ask detailed questions about the production and the experience in the theatre...(and it used to promise entry to a draw to win some tickets  not that I ever did)

Disappointing. I was wanting to give some feedback on ushering, which I have always thought was good until recently- in the amphi far too many people are getting through the wrong door then causing a lot of delay while they stand looking around, go down the wrong row, make everyone in a row stand up only to realise they are on the wrong side, wrong  level, in the wrong theatre etc... etc-

Ushers need to catch people earlier and make sure they go in the right door to start with...

As soon as James Hay started to dance I thought 'Bruce was right all along'.

What a talent. I have liked his performances before but  he really demonstrated tremendous all round ability and also great stage presence tonight, and for me was the centre of a performance that was as bleak, and as shocking as I feel 'Manon' should be: there was hardly any of the knockabout farce that offended me in earlier perfomances. it was  really painful, -  very good indeed.

James Hay was a superb Lescaut...

Very pleased to be alerted to this, and it was most interesting to watch. It struck me as choreography of great imaginative power.

Unfortunately I agree with some others that the sound quality in the second two made it less pleasurable and the Frank Martin music for Laiderette I found frankly unendurable. Sitting in the pitch dark listening to that would surely not be good for anyone's mental health.

Wonderful to see such good dancers in a small-scale setting though and Thiago Soares I thought was excellent, with the ability to characterise these slightly sinister roles ( no disrespect to Thiago), and agree that Takada and Naghdi were superb- let's hope we get to see the whole of Dance Concertantes again soon.

Great fun, and a great Brummie song.

4 minutes ago, BeauxArts said:

 

40 minutes ago, helpop said:

 

I certainly seem to be in the minority!

 

Maybe the Lamb-Muntagirov pairing could win me round, but I'm not sure if I want to attend all 3 hours of the production again at the cinema.  Although maybe the cinema front-row seat experience will improve it - as other commentators have noted, where you sit in the auditorium can highly impact your perception.

Only in the minority in terms of those who have posted their views on this forum, don't forget..plenty of  people don't post, and they tend not to when they feel more negative..

It is great to have a divergent view. Personally I am not entirely convinced by Manon, regardless of cast, so I can understand your view, helpop.

The cinema might be even worse if you don't much like the ballet, as it is all more vivid!

Don't forget the ROH Swan Lake live screening on 12th too.................................

1 hour ago, munchkin16 said:

I’d much rather be next to a clean and quiet person in jeans than a noisy, rude person in a dress! 

Says it all.

Oh I don't know....Shkylarov's is quite nice

45 minutes ago, annamk said:

. The opening Des Grieux solo, so exposing, was decently enough delivered (I've seen many more experienced dancers RB dancers wobble horribly through all the arabesques) but with some uncharacteristically heavier landings. Shklyarov has one of the most beautiful lines in ballet and those Des Grieux solos in both Acts 1 & 2 gave him the opportunity show off them off which he did to great effect.

I love that solo ( which always reminds me of a v similar moment in Onegin)- how true that there are often many wobbles, and no wonder; I am interested to know who was the best exponent of this tricky piece of choreography: for my money probably Johann Kobborg.

I was so sorry to have missed this, so thanks for all the really interesting reviews coming in.

Thanks for the alert Alison. Hope there is a TV or DVD presentation as it has not been near enough me- such a shame.

bridiem, I really enjoyed your review - fascinating thoughts, and I do agree about Age of Anxiety, my anxiety when I saw it being restricted to whether I'd manage to get into the bar queue soon enough-

- but please don't suggest to anyone at RB the 'Sound of Music' idea-argh!

I just discovered that too; must be THE most annoying feature,  grrrrrr! and furthermore when I did find a seat and tried to put it in the basket it seemed to happen, then as I was about to fork out, it disappeared and a message jumped up to say 'There has been an error'

You bet there has.

The whole of act 1 of RDBs Manon seems to be on youtube- (there goes the spring cleaning)-and  from a quick look, the costumes seem to me pared down, sure, a bit monochrome, but I can't see what provokes the very strong negative reactions, so am interested to hear more. The poor beggars in their grey rags look actually very poor as opposed to those in the RB version.....

3 hours ago, Sim said:

Interesting....whilst some people on this thread think that Act 2 goes too far and should be pruned or calmed down, Neil Norman in his review says that the ballet has been "anaesthetised" .   Another example of how perceptions differ!

Mr Norman says 'the deviancy in the brothel scene has been anaesthetised'- (would 'sanitised' be a better word? I can imagine the audience being anesthetised but not a scene.)

 This begs the question of what you call deviancy- does it mean that chasing young girls in a brothel is normal red-blooded male fun, whereas the deviancy was the depiction of- other preferences? I can't remember what exactly used to be depicted, but seem to recall, for example, one of the girls being very young, a child in fact, and this has, perhaps been changed-?

His description of Hayward sliding out of bed 'like mercury' brilliantly evokes her quality of movement- spot on!

But also as others say above in this thread,  some of the choices may be down to modern staging and not Macmillan at all...I mean, the hamming up. I don't think we should be spared all horrible scenes, -a Macmillan speciality, which sometimes works, sometimes doesn't in my view- I do mind being expected to chuckle at some of them.

I went to look at this in the National Gallery on Thursday- and totally agree JohnS that the siitng of the small exhibition ( which is very interesting indeed) and the screen showing McGregor's work, is terrible- in a very busy corridor- so I couldn't really enjoy it- a shame- I wonder why they didn't give it a special room and a couple of benches? Especially, as you say, after a lot of resources have gone into it. I am afraid noone else stopped to even glance at it while I was there.

I don't think this is the point. My objections have always been to some aspects- some- not all-  of Macmillan's choreography- which was made not all that long ago, historically speaking. Of course it is always going to be interesting and important and valid to engage with and portray earlier times and their ways and attitudes.

But, I can't agree that it is  boring to want to move away from cruel prejudice and objectification of women.

I am sure it would not be allowed, and not sure I would want  it to be ...

But Mab raises the good point- anyway- how much of the business I especially objected to is not Macmillan at all, but later interpolations? I don't know  enough to say. Choreographic purity is always hard to establish isn't it, but I am sure many on the forum do know a lot about the difference between the first production-or the last one overseen by Macmillan- and this one.

I would be surprised though if the corps are really just improvising more and more business- would that really be allowed?