Richard LH Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 8 hours ago, Bluebird said: Within The Golden Hour: Cuthbertson and Hirano replaced by Hayward and Zucchetti Edmonds and Mock replaced by Dubreuil and Donnelly And it was Leo Dixon, not Calvin Richardson, as one of the opening pair with Luca Acri 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJW Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 I've read through everyone's reviews of the performances so far so I will see for myself on Saturday afternoon! Particularly looking forward to Upon the Golden Hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 21 hours ago, Lindsay said: Did he? I was near the front of the stalls and didn't get that. I had thought when he took his helmet off the first time and at several points during the pdd he was looking right at her. Maybe I need my eyes tested... For practical partnering purposes, he has to look at her, but otherwise, he is trying hard not to make eye contact, as you would in a standard pdd. At least, that’s what it looked like through my binoculars in th3 performances I have seen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 45 minutes ago, zxDaveM said: I had thought when he took his helmet off the first time and at several points during the pdd he was looking right at her. Maybe I need my eyes tested... That's what it looked like to me in the cinema- that the first time he took the helmet off he did look at her, but thereafter was turning his head and eyes away. That certainly doesn't make much sense in terms of the story. But it must be exceptionally hard to lift your partner in various imaginative ways without looking. Bit dangerous too! It is a tribute to Matthew Ball that he managed this, while wearing a weird-looking fishnet see-through jumpsuit as well- without looking totally ridiculous - I salute him. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tatiana Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 On 15/05/2019 at 16:51, RuthE said: It's not particularly loud, as opera singing goes (I say that as somebody used to hearing much louder voices and orchestrations) but as it's with two high voices both generally quite high in their respective registers, I wonder if the intensity rather than the volume of sound may make your companion wish to use ear defenders. Without knowing their specific tolerance levels I'm not sure I can be any more specific than that. Please be aware that there is also a brief passage in Flight Pattern involving an operatic soprano's voice. Thanks for this! I did end up taking my ear defenders as it's the pitch rather than the volume, and she had a great time 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tatiana Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 Golden Hour - lovely. I don't have strong feelings but would happily watch it again. Medusa - Underwhelming. Not a strong narrative at all, and the plinky plonky harpsichord music made it feel like I was watching a background scene in a film where two main characters happen to be attending a ballet. Really jarring and I didn't feel like it fit the dance at all. It was saved (mostly) by the Medusa and Poseidon pas de deux, which is really something special. I might watch it again just for that but I'd do so reluctantly. Costumes also brilliant, minus the see-through onesies. Also - I think this was my first time seeing Hirano? SUCH a powerful performance. I'm going to be sure to book casts with him in when I can to see more. Flight Pattern - have seen it before and loved it, and had an even better experience this time because I was up in the slips - I think it's much better viewed from above. Totally different perspective, and there's something very poetic about only getting the best viewing from the cheap seats. My partner was completely transfixed, just as I was the first time. I'd put up with a hundred slightly watery Medusas for Crystal Pite! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tatiana Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 (edited) Oh also, on the subject of cast changes - I was in Covent Garden last night and the cast change was only announced via loudspeaker about 10 minutes before the show started - no slips printed - so I'm not sure there was enough time to put the names on screen for the cinema. Hope Cuthbertson et al are all right, although I do love Francesca Hayward so it was sort of good news. Edited May 17, 2019 by Tatiana Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 The cast changes 'on the night' were listed in the ROH. The variations from the pre-printed cinema sheets could have been mentioned by the presenters. After all, they had time for all the usual preening they do to camera and to one another. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 59 minutes ago, Tatiana said: Oh also, on the subject of cast changes - I was in Covent Garden last night and the cast change was only announced via loudspeaker about 10 minutes before the show started - no slips printed - there were some printed actually - you have to ask for them though! (to my mind, this rather defeats the object, but there you go) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 Normally I rather like the presenters being a bit over-excited (because I am too); but it jarred last night, because for this bill (although it's excellent) you really need a calmer, more informative style of presentation than for a 'blockbuster' ballet. Their style also jarred with the tone of the contributions from those interviewed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard LH Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 Kristen McNally would have been the ideal presenter, but of course she was otherwise engaged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MargaretN7 Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 Marcelino Sambe has put on instagram that Fumi Kaneko is debuting as Medusa tomorrow, Saturday, with him as Perseus. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 1 hour ago, MargaretN7 said: Marcelino Sambe has put on instagram that Fumi Kaneko is debuting as Medusa tomorrow, Saturday, with him as Perseus. Oh, WOW! Sad for Takada but lovely for Kaneko. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nogoat Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 Triple Bill – Thursday I can think of no better way to enjoy ballet than by going along to the ROH on cinema broadcast night. You are there (and there is not, as yet, a substitute for ‘being there’ – though once immersive VR technologies mature it might become a tougher choice, especially for those of us with long journeys), you can look wherever you like on stage, and you can soak up the atmosphere (of both ROH and the buzz of London in general). You can then go to an encore screening the following Sunday to see it all again, much of it in close-up – though with your view being dictated by the director – and often with interesting background pieces and interviews during the intervals. Then, if we are lucky, the powers that be will deign to release it on DVD/Blu-Ray, which then allows us to drop ‘I was there’ into as many conversations as we can! 😊 In The Golden Hour I can’t get as worked up about this ballet as many do on both this forum and in the press. I enjoyed it more than I did on opening night of this run and, in turn, more than I did during the previous run. But I think my appreciation has plateaued – and not at a particularly lofty height. More a pleasant walk in the Cotswolds than the magnificent vistas of the Alps – or even the Lake District. I guess that’s OK, as I don’t believe Wheeldon was trying to achieve anything more than a bit of light distraction. In that sense Bosso’s music (which I do like) is appropriately light, undemanding and easy on the ear. The interjection of those ugly moves still rankles. Yes, they stamp the piece as ‘Wheeldon’ but to me it’s the balletic equivalent of a painter scrawling their signature across an otherwise pleasant canvas rather than signing it discreetly in the corner. I can even reconcile this by interpreting the piece as about beautiful people letting their hair down a bit and enjoying themselves in that ‘golden hour’ (or is that ‘happy hour’?) at the end of a long day; they are there to entertain themselves rather than others, so apart from the odd ‘look at me’ glance (which I thought Beatrix did particularly well!) they don’t care how they behave. The trouble is, I’m not that interested in their self-centred world. And talking about hair, it was nice to see that the dancer with the most hirsute legs last week was clean-shaven last night! He might also have been out catching some sun as he looked a lot less pallid. All in all a definite improvement. Medusa It’s nice to be succinct, and I’ll try not to repeat anything from my earlier post, but I will need more than the two word summary of @Darlex (and certainly not those two words 😊 ). I was fascinated by this piece last week and continue to be now. My interest and appreciation of it has grown. I don’t know how high this one will go, but at the moment it’s heading towards a base-camp somewhere (so it won’t be the Cotswolds); my problem is that I’ve only got the Sunday encore screening left – so I have my fingers crossed for a DVD. What completely by-passed me last time was the sheer amount of time Osipova spends on stage. Apart from the two costume changes, she is constantly there - and at the centre of the action as well. Was an amazing feat of sustained, intense and captivating acting and dancing – she might well be playing the role of a Gorgon, but as a dance/actor she is an absolute Titan. In the fight scenes, I couldn’t help but think of the similarity of her leg – in the way she held and used it to deadly effect – with that of the stinging tail of a scorpion. I thought the fight scenes better executed than the first night. I remember from the insight evening an emphasis on maintaining contact between her hands and the heads of the assailing soldiers, and that came across very well last night. I also didn’t notice last time how atmospheric was the lighting of the pillars; lit from the front, the soldiers’ shadows were cast in giant, menacing form upon them. Hirano was superb last time, but last night he was even better. He looked (and behaved) as if someone had chiselled a powerful and fearsome deity off an ancient frieze and inadvertently brought it to life. OK, makeup and lighting played some part, but he was an inverted triangle of sculptured sinew, muscle and irresistible power. He is incredibly strong anyway (I'm thinking back to the way he threw Hayward around in the Act 1 PDD of Mayerling), and here he moved Osipova around as if she were a shop window mannequin (the sequence where he balances her on his feet was, once again, hugely impressive – she looked as if she were held, helpless, in some sort of stasis field – thanks, @Sim, for your Star Trek comment that made me think this way!). The storyline retained its slow, even, stylised, tableaux feel - which worked for me - and I noticed even more than before how the music provided the dramatic colour to the pastel shades on stage, with the transitions between electronic and sung music demarcating the ‘chapters’ in the story. The electronic music, and in particular the use of low-frequency notes, helped provide the sense of an alien, unsettling, other-worldliness. As with many stories I find enjoyable, I was left with a bit of an enigma. What was that look she gave us right at the end, when holding the bowl/mirror and looking over her shoulder? Was she asking us to remember her, asking us to understand her tragic story, or showing us she no longer had the power to harm us? Flight Pattern I must confess to wimping out of this. I wish they had put this worthy, heavyweight piece first and finished the night with the lighter Wheeldon. It’s a measure of just how powerful and relevant this piece is that I managed to convince myself it made more sense to get home an hour or so earlier and see it at the encore screening rather than stay. A bit like the way I managed to convince myself that I’d buy a copy of The Big Issue from the seller outside of Pret next time I saw him… 😞 I’m sorry, Crystal Pite. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl H Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 I'm glad I saw this last night's performance at the cinema as I was unable to get to Thursday's, the lighting was very dim but I just made out the dancers, for me the highlight was seeing Sarah Lamb and Alexander Campbell, they lit themselves up with their beautiful dancing, the highlight of my evening! I liked Medusa, the soft arm movements and music produced an appropriate dreamlike quality, half real, half imaginary, hope I make it tomorrow to see Fumi Kaneko and Marcelino Sambe as the post above indicates, and it will be lovely to see Flight Pattern again from very high in the amphi, all those marvellous patterns and lighting effects were lost in the cinema, didn't recognise it. Very interesting to see and hear the comments by the choreographers. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard LH Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, MargaretN7 said: Marcelino Sambe has put on instagram that Fumi Kaneko is debuting as Medusa tomorrow, Saturday, with him as Perseus. With under 24 hours to go, at the time of writing this, Akane Takada is still listed as Medusa on the website. I would have thought that out of respect to the performers involved, and the customers, the ROH should have flagged up this important cast change well before now, without learning about it indirectly from social media. Actually I also think it is rather insensitive of Sambe to post this before it has been officially announced. Edited May 17, 2019 by Richard LH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xandra Newman Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 At least we have the RB dancers' IG account to relay on!!!! I had to find out via Yasmine Naghdi's IG posting that she is dancing the 3rd Pas de deux at tomorrow's Matinee. The ROH website is still showing Akane Takada dancing in WTGH. WHO is in charge of keeping the RB casting up to date on the ROH website? Is it that hard to keep up?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted May 17, 2019 Author Share Posted May 17, 2019 Well, maybe, but I guess that depends on whether the ROH is going to announce it or not. Certainly it's not clear from the website who's dancing what from the combined casting for the mixed bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xandra Newman Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 It's very clear via this link Alison https://www.roh.org.uk/events/g3mg3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 1 hour ago, Richard LH said: Actually I also think it is rather insensitive of Sambe to post this before it has been officially announced. I am sure he wasn't being insensitive; he probably just assumed that, 24 hours before the show, the official announcement had been made. It seems that we are finding out more and more about casting from the dancers themselves than from the ROH. Thank goodness for it, I say. At least they are enthusiastic and care about getting the info out there to their fans and audience. 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted May 17, 2019 Author Share Posted May 17, 2019 50 minutes ago, Xandra Newman said: It's very clear via this link Alison https://www.roh.org.uk/events/g3mg3 You mean the Performers Conductor Andrew Griffiths Medusa Akane Takada Athena Fumi Kaneko Perseus Marcelino Sambé Poseidon Ryoichi Hirano ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard LH Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 (edited) 58 minutes ago, Sim said: I am sure he wasn't being insensitive; he probably just assumed that, 24 hours before the show, the official announcement had been made. Hmm, maybe, but I am not sure it was for him to make that assumption without checking first. Although I suspect the ROH are just being dilatory, there may be some good, or sensitive, reason the ROH has yet to post the cast changes. So I still think it is preferable for all concerned that social media posts do not pre-empt official announcements in such cases. It is not even as if Sambe were himself the dancer replacing anyone. Edited May 17, 2019 by Richard LH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 Knowing dancers as I do, I am sure he does not have the time to trawl around the ROH's current website looking for cast changes. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 1 minute ago, Sim said: Knowing dancers as I do, I am sure he does not have the time to trawl around the ROH's current website looking for cast changes. or the inclination... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xandra Newman Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 (edited) No I mean this Alison Within the Golden Hour Christopher Wheeldon n's ballet to a specially written score by Ezio Bosso has been acclaimed as one of his finest works. Credits Choreography Christopher Wheeldon Music Ezio Bosso and Antonio Vivaldi Costume designer Jasper Conran Lighting designer Peter Mumford Performers Conductor Jonathan Lo Principals Yuhui Choe Francesca Hayward Akane Takada James Hay Valentino Zucchetti Tristan Dyer Concert master Vasko Vassilev Orchestra Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Edited May 17, 2019 by Xandra Newman . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xandra Newman Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 14 minutes ago, Richard LH said: Hmm, maybe, but I am not sure it was for him to make that assumption without checking first. Dancers don't have to make assumptions or check first, they are right in the middle of all the action. They are the first to know if/when they have to replace a colleague. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizbie1 Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 2 hours ago, Richard LH said: Actually I also think it is rather insensitive of Sambe to post this before it has been officially announced. So it’s insensitive for Sambe to post about a confirmed cast change involving dancers he knows well; but when people speculate on a public forum about whether a dancer recovering from injury will make it back in time and wonder who his replacement might be, that’s just part of being in the public eye? Please forgive me my confusion! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 I belleve that there are rules concerning what dancers may, or may not, post - in terms both of information and images. But, sometimes, their enthusiasm gets the better of them and regulations get overlooked. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 11 minutes ago, capybara said: I belleve that there are rules concerning what dancers may, or may not, post - in terms both of information and images. But, sometimes, their enthusiasm gets the better of them and regulations get overlooked. In which case, he'll probably get a bollocking and we'll all move on. But, when it boils down to it, that's nothing to do with us and the world will go on turning. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob S Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 1 hour ago, Richard LH said: It is not even as if Sambe were himself the dancer replacing anyone. But he is dancing with the person concerned 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard LH Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 2 hours ago, Sim said: I am sure he does not have the time to trawl around the ROH's current website looking for cast changes. Although he does seem to have time to use social media to announce it himself.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 7 minutes ago, Richard LH said: Although he does seem to have time to use social media to announce it himself.... Is this really such a big deal? Thanks to Sambe for keeping his audience informed. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob S Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 7 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said: Is this really such a big deal? Thanks to Sambe for keeping his audience informed. And laughing....the clip Beatriz Stix-Brunell did earlier of him and Giacomo Rovero had me chuckling for some time.....obviously I do hope that the 10 seconds it took them to do it doesn't affect their training 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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