Mary

Oh dear! I was only joking! Sorry if any offence was taken. I usually find it too hot anyway.

I really didn't need the extra cardigan and shawl tonight:  so unusual to get duff advice from ballet forum!- but in fact it was far too hot in the theatre for me and the slight breeze from the stage was a very welcome one!

Apart from that I agree  with those who found The Wind  rather a disappointment. The huge machines were irritatingly dominant, and surely completely out of keeping with the rest of the set. The dancers were often made to struggle with their costumes in a way which distracted them and the audience, unhelpfully I thought.

The scenario was entirely cliched and 2 dimensional, and some of the narrative unpleasant without the depth that would have made the nastiness acceptable or meaningful. Like other posters I am fed up with scenes of women being abused and writhing around in their underwear. Hayward deserved much, much better.

A poor choice of story and focus I thought.

The dancers, however, were great, especially Edward Watson as the spirit figure whose relation to the rest of the ballet was unclear to me, but whose characteristically brillliant performance seemed to spiral off into a strange ethereal world of its own. Memorable.

I also liked the cowpunchers silhouetted against the sunset, and their dance.

Otherwise- a miss. Such a shame as the other Pita pieces I have seen have been original and witty.

I loved Farewell. A lot of dancing to wonderful music, with no distractions. Well, apart from  the costumes for the fabulous McRae and Lamb, who were on superb form tonight, which did seem bizarre. Dirty looking hotpants? Why? -and it was all a bit grey and dreary- when music of such luminous beauty and dancing of such sensational quality seemed to call for a more harmonious design.

A rather odd evening.

Thanks very much Capybara.

It's on at my Picturehouse on Sunday...can anyone tell me how long it is? Thanks.

2 hours ago, FLOSS said:

As for World Ballet Day it was compelling as always and sad as there are so many fine dancers across the world who we shall almost certainly never see live in the theatre.

Too true.

I loved WBD once again but couldn't help feeling, also, that it was slightly odd that it did not foreground  the most important thing- the actual performance.

But maybe I missed some as I have so far only watched about 30%.

If I lived in London I wouldn't go to them much,  probably.  But for those of us who don't, a screening is likely to be a much, much cheaper night out. It costs me at least £25 to get to ROH and back, and I always end up buying a coffee, a drink, a sandwich or dinner. Yes there are some cheap tickets for the real thing but the view is often really not that good.

The screenings have made it possible for me to see more than one cast, and productions I wouldn't have booked for. Also, to see so many Bolshoi performances- I could only have dreamed of seeing before except on a very unsatisfactory small TV. 

I love them, and can only hope they can keep going as presumably they get no subsidy and price rises are because the audiences haven't been big enough. Picturehouse do offer a reduction to members and members get free tickets for films too.

Long live the live screenings.

Thanks Dave- yes, she was pure class.

I agee about the strange 'oriental dance'- it semed a bit extraneous......

Yes!

I was delaying posting until finding my cast list but meanwhile: I was very much struck by the old-fashioned air of the production. Simple painted sets, a rather quaint wooden windmill. However, that is no criticism at all but in fact I wish there was more of this on the ROH stage- the attention was all on the dancing where it belongs .

( except for two very silly moments one with a large rubber fish and one with a rag doll being thrown at the windmill- a really hopelessly ineffectual effect it would have  been better without! but funny)

 I was interested to see Kimin Kim for the first time, not what you would call a very tidy or classical dancer really, but such verve. Tereshkina seemed totally in control, and technically incredible.

The Queen of the Dryads was the highlight for me, superb technical skill, elegance and artistry- will find my cast list.

It seemed to be a packed house and the atmosphere was very pleasant.

On 23/07/2017 at 17:24, Don Q Fan said:

I have often remarked on the smell of fish in public areas at ROH, it is most off putting especially as it hits you the minute you walk in the main entrance!

Just wondering whether there's any connection with the enormous rubber fish being used to clobber people over the head in tonight's perfomance- yes I was baffled too but my seat was shaking with a fit of the giggles

Tremendous fun tonight..

Glad to see the McRae/Akada partnership continuing, as many of us hoped .

Beautiful! All the best of luck to him. He clearly has a huge amount of natural talent. Makes you think of all the kids out there who never do get discovered.

Oh no! I am away in the wilds with no TV that day.  How typical. i player to the rescue maybe.

Now that we are allowed movement, it has to be the ending of Symphony of C, which is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen or ever will see.

Reading this thread is the most wonderful antidote to reading the news, thanks everyone! It has really uplifted me with so many happy memories of visual joy.

What to choose there is so much? it's a good topic...

La Valse, - the end or the beginning;

Swan Lake cygnets;

a lot of Romeo and Juliet especially the ballroom scene- and Sleeping Beauty- those great stagefuls of action and movement so overwhelming that your eye doesn't know where to go!-also Winter's Tale Act 2

and of course...The Dream...all of it!

I disagree strongly with Luke Jennings.

The reference to academic taxidermy is clearly not accurate as a little research- and posts above- soon show. But in any case it is surely right to preserve the entire vision and modify it carefully only when really necessary.

It is not necessary to have been to a posh school ( as he implies by talking about an earlier audience having a classical education) to know a little about, and appreciate an ideal of Greek beauty. It is a reference that is just as relevant and widely understood today as ever was.

But mainly,  his sneering asides about  'camp', drag-queens, men's 'tiaras' ( they are not tiaras), Oberon's flamboyant makeup etc reads rather unpleasantly to me- I thought we had all got beyond using such terms as put-downs and I am really very  surprised at him.

Why should not men be beautifully arrayed and show off their looks?

What nonsense!

His appearance in that Rojo Swan Lake documentary, smiling so sweetly in the background, and working so hard without ever speaking while Tamara presented, first made me warm to what is obviously a very nice character, but it comes across whenever he appears in the live screenings: quite a mix isn't it,  with having the most beautiful classical technique in the country too..

Hope you're blushing Vadim!

No sooner seen than done!

We need that DVD.

19 minutes ago, simonbfisher said:

We had a wonderful evening of ballet in the cinema, and I shall not comment further on the dancing, as others have so eloquently said all I would have done.

 

However, re the  two presenters... My tuppence worth is this : one was enthusiastic, likeable, professional, male and black, which in these days of outreach and the absolute necessity of bringing ballet, and all that it can do for us, to a wide public is ticking all the right boxes. The other is enthusiastic but makes mistakes in her parsing and reading which render some of the sentences gobbledygook and others just odd. Changeling = challenging? Astaire = Ashton? New worlds of possibilities open up, but this is not how the Royal Ballet should be presenting (yes, presenting) itself to the world.

 

Rant over, until, I fear, next time.

I too would prefer a different presenter, but, Ms Bussell is dyslexic, which is why she cannot read the autocue accurately. I find it very painful to watch her struggling with it as she did last night and it must be awful for her. It would be much better if she were allowed to just speak. She knows about this stuff...after all- whereas her co presenter is just reading it off a card.

Duck,  do go if you possibly can -  it is a wonderful evening.

I am still removing sodden hankies from my handbag. Not just for Zenaida, but, it was the last evening of the season for me, and seeing so many of these fabulous dancers on stage made me think of all the pleasure and joy they have given me this year-it has really been outstanding, so crying for joy really.

A short flm of Henry Danton talking about SV-now 98 and still full of beans!- also added a few tears to the mix.

Alison and anyone who missed it,  it was a very splendid show- the biggest send-off I have seen for years- the RB know how to do this, my word! The stage was a carpet of flowers, the throwing done very cleverly to keep it going throughout, in addition to the outstandingly lovely bouquet presented to Zenaida at her first bow and then so many more- then the curtain pulling back to reveal all her ex partners and many colleagues from the RB: there was a big cheer from the audience when Carlos appeared, and each gave her another floral tribute, lining up one by one a la Sleeping Beauty - it was most beautifully and graciously choreographed- of course! culminating in Antony Dowell with a lavish bouquet of red roses who then hugged Zen throughout- and Kevin came on last with a very swagger bouquet of huge pink peonies (I think?) and gave an excellent speech, brief and to the point, ending with the hope that he might use his charm to tempt her back on stage ( here the camera moved to Zenaida's beaming tearful face and she raised eyebrows and smiled more perhaps meaning, Yes)

The camera also moved to show us her husband Simon Keenlyside and the children in a box- delightful.

Oh, and there was some ballet before all this.

Very interested in your comments Alison and pondering on what makes a good Dream. For me, Oberon has to be right.

I love A Campbell whose dancing is a delight,- and his was definitely the sexiest Oberon, but, trouble was, I found myself thinking- here is a sexy man! Not - here is the King of the Fairies!

With Sambe, I felt- here is a marvellously buoyant and exciting boy- not, here is the King of the Fairies ( but in a few years maybe....)

With McRae- I definitely think the latter: here IS the king of the fairies. (Just as I do watching film of Dowell.)

It would take a lot of minute analysis to show how these effects are produced no doubt.

(And of course one would always ignore the odd wobble but a dancer who never wobbles and has total command does have an advantage in so many ways and certainly in Oberon's key solo.)

Of course these things are all very personal.

The pairs of lovers in the Saturday matinee were perfect, in my view; perfect timing in that tricky scene where everything has to work and work fast. Searching for the cast list to get ther names right may take some time.Matthew Ball was brilliant.

..but of course 30 in the 19th century  was middle-aged for a woman, whereas now  it is young....

I believe in the novel she is not meant to be much more than 30? -but I think we are all comparing subsequent portrayals to Fonteyn, who was in her 40s I think? rather than literary inspirations for the ballet.

3 minutes ago, Sim said:

Was he in the Royal Box?  I had no idea he was there.   I guess it was a private visit!

Yes- with Camilla and some other people I didn't recognise:  they slid in quietly once the lights were down each time. I only noticed because the friend I was with was just saying we hadn't seen any royalty there for ages, and so we were looking in the direction of the royal box  and noticing a special blue velvet cushion with a crest that hadn't been there before - when lo and behold, in came the heir to the throne. He did seem very wrapped up in the performance which was rather nice to see. But weren't we  all.

I do hope there will be a dvd of tomorrow.........

On 04/06/2017 at 22:23, Legseleven said:

Indeed this behaviour isn't the fault of the ROH, but they certainly have a duty to try to ensure that no audience member is able to behave in this obnoxious, thoughtless manner which affects the enjoyment of many other audience members. 

I do entirely agree- but perhaps, in fairness, we must agree that they can only do something if a problem is brought to their attention.

I think I am right in saying Sunrise didn't report this to an usher- (and of course can hardly do so during the perfomance) - and my sympathy is entirely with her.

But, if the ushers are not given a chance to take action, it does seem a little unfair to then blame ROH, and I am not sure that funding has anything to do with it.

I have seen them intervene many times to correct poor behaviour, and I have sometimes seen them abused for so doing.